Thread: Where does the Twins Farm System Rank?

Where do the Twins now rank with the addition of two more top 100 prospects? The pitching pipeline looks mountains better and I wouldn't say it's fixed per say, but it's got to be around average. May and Meyer are both great pitchers towards the top and at the bottom there could be some great future players too. It's up to the Twins to draft pitching studs and end the "pitch to contact" notion in order to prevent this crisis from happening again.

As of now, I feel the Twins have a top 5 system in the MLB. Thoughts?

My rankings for the top 15 in our minors
1. Miguel Sano
2. Byron Buxton
3. Aaron Hicks
4. Alex Meyer
5. Oswaldo Arcia
6. Trevor May
7. Eddie Rosario
8. Kyle Gibson
9. J.O Berrios
10. Max Kepler-Rozycki
11. Joe Benson
12. Travis Harrison
13. Jason Wheeler
14. Nate Roberts
15. Daniel Santana

I would put the Twins top 10 or 15 up against anyone else's farm system. I may be proven wrong, but I think they can be i nthe discussion.

Originally Posted by Seth Stohs

I would put the Twins top 10 or 15 up against anyone else's farm system. I may be proven wrong, but I think they can be i nthe discussion.

Wow that's pretty great. I would think so too, but am unsure the bottom of it is good. It's your best players that make it or break it though, so it may be the greatest.

Originally Posted by YourHouseIsMyHouse

Where do the Twins now rank with the addition of two more top 100 prospects? The pitching pipeline looks mountains better and I wouldn't say it's fixed per say, but it's got to be around average. May and Meyer are both great pitchers towards the top and at the bottom there could be some great future players too. It's up to the Twins to draft pitching studs and end the "pitch to contact" notion in order to prevent this crisis from happening again.

As of now, I feel the Twins have a top 5 system in the MLB. Thoughts?

My rankings for the top 15 in our minors
1. Miguel Sano
2. Byron Buxton
3. Aaron Hicks
4. Alex Meyer
5. Oswaldo Arcia
6. Trevor May
7. Eddie Rosario
8. Kyle Gibson
9. J.O Berrios
10. Max Kepler-Rozycki
11. Joe Benson
12. Travis Harrison
13. Jason Wheeler
14. Nate Roberts
15. Daniel Santana

john manuel was asked this question in his b.a. twins chat about our system and i believe he said we're one of the most improved systems and that he'd guess we were somewhere in the 6-8 range. that was before the additions of meyer and may so we may be flirting with a top five ranking, especially considering that we're addressing our glaring weakness.

Originally Posted by Vervehound

Originally Posted by YourHouseIsMyHouse

Where do the Twins now rank with the addition of two more top 100 prospects? The pitching pipeline looks mountains better and I wouldn't say it's fixed per say, but it's got to be around average. May and Meyer are both great pitchers towards the top and at the bottom there could be some great future players too. It's up to the Twins to draft pitching studs and end the "pitch to contact" notion in order to prevent this crisis from happening again.

As of now, I feel the Twins have a top 5 system in the MLB. Thoughts?

My rankings for the top 15 in our minors
1. Miguel Sano
2. Byron Buxton
3. Aaron Hicks
4. Alex Meyer
5. Oswaldo Arcia
6. Trevor May
7. Eddie Rosario
8. Kyle Gibson
9. J.O Berrios
10. Max Kepler-Rozycki
11. Joe Benson
12. Travis Harrison
13. Jason Wheeler
14. Nate Roberts
15. Daniel Santana

john manuel was asked this question in his b.a. twins chat about our system and i believe he said we're one of the most improved systems and that he'd guess we were somewhere in the 6-8 range. that was before the additions of meyer and may so we may be flirting with a top five ranking, especially considering that we're addressing our glaring weakness.

Verve, what's your take on May, how much did his down year at double A damage his overall stock?

The additions of Meyer and May are certainly welcome, but overall pitching depth is still pretty bad. The Twins also aren't real strong when it comes to infielders or catchers. I'd guess #5-7 range.

Originally Posted by PseudoSABR

Originally Posted by Vervehound

Originally Posted by YourHouseIsMyHouse

Where do the Twins now rank with the addition of two more top 100 prospects? The pitching pipeline looks mountains better and I wouldn't say it's fixed per say, but it's got to be around average. May and Meyer are both great pitchers towards the top and at the bottom there could be some great future players too. It's up to the Twins to draft pitching studs and end the "pitch to contact" notion in order to prevent this crisis from happening again.

As of now, I feel the Twins have a top 5 system in the MLB. Thoughts?

My rankings for the top 15 in our minors
1. Miguel Sano
2. Byron Buxton
3. Aaron Hicks
4. Alex Meyer
5. Oswaldo Arcia
6. Trevor May
7. Eddie Rosario
8. Kyle Gibson
9. J.O Berrios
10. Max Kepler-Rozycki
11. Joe Benson
12. Travis Harrison
13. Jason Wheeler
14. Nate Roberts
15. Daniel Santana

john manuel was asked this question in his b.a. twins chat about our system and i believe he said we're one of the most improved systems and that he'd guess we were somewhere in the 6-8 range. that was before the additions of meyer and may so we may be flirting with a top five ranking, especially considering that we're addressing our glaring weakness.

Verve, what's your take on May, how much did his down year at double A damage his overall stock?

love the pickup - he was one of the guys i was hoping they'd pry loose at the deadline. he's a pure power arm that misses bats but i think he's destined for the pen.

when i'm playing gm in my downstairs basement, this is one of the moves i make. nice job by ryan, imo.

Originally Posted by Vervehound

Originally Posted by YourHouseIsMyHouse

Where do the Twins now rank with the addition of two more top 100 prospects? The pitching pipeline looks mountains better and I wouldn't say it's fixed per say, but it's got to be around average. May and Meyer are both great pitchers towards the top and at the bottom there could be some great future players too. It's up to the Twins to draft pitching studs and end the "pitch to contact" notion in order to prevent this crisis from happening again.

As of now, I feel the Twins have a top 5 system in the MLB. Thoughts?

My rankings for the top 15 in our minors
1. Miguel Sano
2. Byron Buxton
3. Aaron Hicks
4. Alex Meyer
5. Oswaldo Arcia
6. Trevor May
7. Eddie Rosario
8. Kyle Gibson
9. J.O Berrios
10. Max Kepler-Rozycki
11. Joe Benson
12. Travis Harrison
13. Jason Wheeler
14. Nate Roberts
15. Daniel Santana

john manuel was asked this question in his b.a. twins chat about our system and i believe he said we're one of the most improved systems and that he'd guess we were somewhere in the 6-8 range. that was before the additions of meyer and may so we may be flirting with a top five ranking, especially considering that we're addressing our glaring weakness.

Before the draft last year, I recall surveying various Top 100 lists. The worst ranking as I recall was 17, the best 7. Since then: a very solid 2012 draft (Buxton, Berrios, Melotakis, some injury disappointments (Wimmers, Benson, Salcedo, Stuifbergen), some nice improvements, surprises, and comebacks (Hendriks, Hicks, Gibson, Parmelee, Kepler, Vargas, Polanco), continued strong development of elite prospects (Arcia, Sano, Rosario, Herrmann, Harrison, Goodrum, and now two top 100 additions (Meyer, May).

Time to see fewer laments about how lousy the Twins are at scouting and development.

I know very little of other teams' farm systems, but this list of prospects excites me greatly.

Originally Posted by glanzer

I know very little of other teams' farm systems, but this list of prospects excites me greatly.

How many of this list of 15 do we give Bill Smith credit for?

IDK, I think it will depend greatly on who is ranking them. I think when it comes to prospect value they are up there, but if you look at positional depth, like infielders, top line pitching and AAA-AA talent its lower. There are some glaring holes from high A- AAA with pitchers,infielders and that top prospect lighting it up to say they are a top 5 farm system. But Arcia, Hicks, Benson (if healthy), Gibson, Meyer, May do have quite a bit of value, add that with the lower level value (Buxton, Rosserio, Berrios, Kepler, Wheeler) and you see the overall value of a top 10-15 farm system.

Originally Posted by ashburyjohn

Originally Posted by glanzer

I know very little of other teams' farm systems, but this list of prospects excites me greatly.

How many of this list of 15 do we give Bill Smith credit for?

Sano and 2-3 others prolly. He was only there what 2 years?

The Twins have five dozen employees in scouting and development. Isn't it a little silly to credit or blame one guy?

The Twins are missing infielders, but having the most top 100 prospects has to make you think they're in the top 5. Not a lot of large framed pitchers towards the bottom, but we do have some good rookie ballers. I think a lot of teams don't have very good catchers and I wouldn't say the Twins are terrible in that area. 4-5 range I'm feeling overall, but a lot of the top 15 are pretty much major league ready.

I would say around top 5. Part of that has to do with the fact two guys at the bottom of the top 10, Berrios and Kepler, have super high ceilings.

Also, if Benson comes back strong and Rosario shows that he can stay at second base, the Twins may have the best. I haven't checked on the 2013 Royals system in any detail.

The Mariners and D-Backs are solid. The Mariners might be trading some of that away though.

Originally Posted by birdwatcher

The Twins have five dozen employees in scouting and development. Isn't it a little silly to credit or blame one guy?

I am by NO means a Bill Smith fan/apologist; I felt he should be fired. But when I look at the list, it kind of jumped out at me that his years weren't a vast wasteland for the farm system.

Originally Posted by birdwatcher

The Twins have five dozen employees in scouting and development. Isn't it a little silly to credit or blame one guy?

I agree, you can fault him for trades and contracts but drafts I don't think so.

Systems up for top 5 consideration: Pirates, DBacks, Royals (thinned out a little), Twins, Rangers, Mariners and Cardinals. Some others that aren't far behind: Rays, Jays, Marlins, Reds, Cubs (very thin after the top 3 though) and Red Sox.

This was just a quick listing. I'm sure that I missed a deserving team or two. Overall I really liked the Twins system before the two trades regardless of pitching/hitting balance. Obviously I like the system a lot more now.