And we’re back! Every so often Twinkie Talk will be running down our list for the best 15 prospects in the Twins minor league system. Today’s prospect is #13 Max Kepler
Who: Max Kepler
Position: OF
How Acquired: International free agent
Highest Level Reached in 2009: N/A
Kepler was given 800,000 last July, and in doing so received the largest bonus ever given to a European prospect. One scout, speaking anonymously to Baseball America’s Ben Badler, said that Kepler is probably the toolsiest player ever from Europe.
Kepler is a player who has a lefty swing that has drawn comps to former Dodger OF Shawn Green. [...]

Tomahawk Take reports that the Braves have signed Troy Glaus to a one year deal to play first base.
A few Twins fans I’ve talked to had mentioned Glaus as a potential third baseman for 2010. Glaus had a great year in 2008, putting up a .371 wOBA, but had tons of injury problems in 2009. Also, given the priority the Twins place on defense (or at least say they place on defense) Glaus’s glove isn’t good enough. He had a good year in 2008 (+5.2 runs) but he’s had more years in the negative than in the positive.
Glaus’s best role [...]

In an effort to give you guys an idea of the blogs I like to read, and the ones you should be reading as well, I am going to start doing a Site of the Day here at Twinkie Talk. Now, knowing me it won’t really be a new site every day, but I figure this is a catchier title than Site of the Whenever I Feel Like It.
Today we start off with one of our FanSided Blogs. Today’s site of the day is our Royals blog, Kings of Kauffman. Wally Fish is our Royals blogger, and also doubles as [...]

Every so often Twinkie Talk will be counting down our top 15 prospects (Hey, two days in a row!) Today’s prospect is #14 BJ Hermsen
Who: BJ Hermsen
Position: RHP
How Acquired: 6th round, 2008 draft
Highest level in 2009: Rookie Ball
Hermsen was a surprise signing by the Twins in 2008, given that he was committed to Oregon State to play baseball. Hermsen is a good combination of athleticism and, surprise surprise, pitchability. He got good marks for his maturity and command coming out of high school, and he has continued that professionally. This year he threw 53.1 innings in rookie ball, and walked [...]

Over the next however long it takes I am going to be rolling out my Twins Top 15 prospects list here at Twinkie Talk. When that’s all said and done I will have a special top 100 prospects list for you all. Today’s prospect is #15 Matt Bashore
Who: Matt Bashore
Position: LHP
How Acquired: 2009 Draft (Sandwich Round)
Highest Level in 2009: NCAA
Matt Bashore enjoyed a pretty good career at Indiana University, who last year had one of the best weekend rotations in all of college baseball (Bashore’s teammate Eric Arnett was an 09 1st rounder). Bashore struck out over a batter an [...]

I am slightly unpopular in Twins Territory right now. Why? Because I have explored, perhaps even touted, the notion that Justin Morneau isn’t the player that most Twins fans think he is. He’s certainly not a bad hitter, with a career .358 wOBA, and being worth 86.7 runs above average since the start of his career.
However, Morneau has his drawbacks. For one, he’s not a great defender. Other than one outlier season, he’s been worth anywhere from -1.3 to 2.1 runs above average. Secondly, while Morneau is a very good hitter, he’s not great for a first baseman. He had [...]

The PTBNL in the Boof Bonser trade has been named, and it is 25 year old Chris Province. The 2007 4th rounder has actually posted some pretty impressive numbers. The real outlier appears to be 2008, when Province posted a 5.18 FIP. He has consistently gotten good ground ball rates in the Sox minor leagues, but a lack of strikeouts means he probably won’t ever be able to be an impact reliever.
The popular Red Sox prospects site SoxProspects.com says Province’s ability to make it to the show “rests on his ability to hone his command.” They also have this to [...]

Excellent. Given the fact that the market was basically bereft of good starting pitching, I thought Carl Pavano would either get overpaid by the Twins, or he would get signed to a big deal by some team and net the Twins a draft pick.
Neither happened.
Instead, Pavano will end up being dramatically underpaid. Thankfully for all of us Twins fans, Pavano’s numbers that he will be evaluated on (14-12 record, 5.10 ERA) don’t tell the story of how good he was last year. His 2nd highest k/9 of his career, 3.77 k/BB and 4.00 FIP point to him being a very [...]

So, in case you hadn’t noticed, Twinkie Talk was down for a couple of days. Thankfully everything is back and normal, so to ease back into it it’s time for a links post.
Some potential future Marlins Hall Of Famers. The current Marlin that he’s going to be talking about must be Matt Treanor right? (Marlin Maniac)
Go vote. And pick the choice at the bottom (Plunking Gomez)
The best CBB coach in the Big 10 besides Tom Izzo? You’ll have to go look. (Beadlemaniacs)
Some Rule 5 targets for the Royals. Kudos to Wally for referring to it correctly as the Rule 5 [...]

Praise the Lord. The Twins offered arbitration to Type B pitcher Carl Pavano. Pavano made just over 5 million last year. The Twins are discussing whether or not to bring Pavano back, but if they do it seems like a good idea. The righty had a 4.00 FIP last year, which was his best mark since 2003. If another team signs him in free agency, the Twins would get their 2nd round pick. Given the Twins recent success drafting, this would be a great thing.
If Pavano does accept arbitration, the Twins will get him for probably a slight increase in [...]