Aaron Hicks

[SledNeck]

This guy can ball

[B. Amish]

denard who? ben who?

terry ryan is good at what he does. in 1 year, he took one of the worst farm systems in baseball and now has one of the 5 best.

[SledNeck]

Keep an eye on what Sano does this year.

[Juan Grande]

Yeah, I've seen the Twins farm system ranked as high as #2 in the majors. Does Hicks have speed?

[B. Amish]

he's a legit 5 tool guy. the question has been will he be able to hit at the major league level.

[Rick G]

Someone better be able to play center, the Twinks kinda traded the oter two cf they had. Only time will tell if he is the man for the job or not....

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

denard who? ben who?

terry ryan is good at what he does. in 1 year, he took one of the worst farm systems in baseball and now has one of the 5 best.

Thats nice and all, but most of them will be traded or let go if their any good anyways. The Pohlads wont pay them. Better hope they win a world series before their all arbitration eligible!

They must have figured they had something in Hicks or they wouldnt have traded Span and Revere. Ryan is very good, i agree with that. Hicks is a top 5 pick, maybe #1 overall if i rember right- he better be good. But they have ZERO proven players up the middle- SS, 2B and CF, and they have a bunch of unproven pitching too. This could backfire and be even worse of a disaster. Lets not get too excited about Hicks from a couple good grapefruit league games against a bunch of rubes that will be lucky to play single A ball. Lets see how he does against the big boys

[kapp]

Great to Hicks doing well this spring, he has to win the starting job to make the team, right now he is in drivers seat. The question is can he keep it up over a full season?

[B. Amish]

mastroani is playing well too, so i wonder if he'll be the opening day center fielder and they'll let hicks start the season in AAA.

[thatoneguy]

Yeah, I've seen the Twins farm system ranked as high as #2 in the majors. Does Hicks have speed?

The Twins farm system is absolutely LOADED right now, but most of the top prospects are still two years away.

If Hicks and maybe Gibson can learn the ropes this year, maybe another one or two will be ready next year, and hopefully the top gun prospects will be ready in 2015.

This year will almost certainly be ugly, but there is light at the end of the tunnel.

[popriveter]

"Lets not get too excited about Hicks from a couple good grapefruit league games against a bunch of rubes that will be lucky to play single A ball. Lets see how he does against the big boys"

Let's see, his homers this spring are off Cliff Lee (Cy Young Winner,) Jason Motte (Led the NL in saves last year,) Jeremy Horst (2 years MLB, 1.74 ERA), Raul Valdes (3 years MLB, 4.07 ERA), and Edward Mujica (7 years MLB, 3.92 ERA.)

Hicks is starting games and playing against other teams' MLB starters. His success has not been playing in the 8th and 9th innings against low-level minor league reinforcement players. It is just spring training, but you can't argue that Cliff Lee (or any of the pitchers above)are rubes that will be lucky to play above single-A.

[YiGGiN4SLoBS]

yeah, you got me there... but still, its spring training- If you think those guys are throwing their arms out trying to strike guys out and coming with their A stuff, thats just not whats happening. Lets see what he does in the regular season against the big boys

[popriveter]

yeah, you got me there... but still, its spring training- If you think those guys are throwing their arms out trying to strike guys out and coming with their A stuff, thats just not whats happening. Lets see what he does in the regular season against the big boys

You're dead on there. Spring training success doesn't always mean much. The established players aren't fighting to make a team, so they are focused on building arm strength and getting a feel for their pitches, not necessarily pulling out all the stops to get a guy out. Still, he's strong and fast and patient. Having success in these games is a whole lot better than not.

[B. Amish]

hicks is the starting CF'er.

[Musky Buck]

Why not Hicks, let him learn on the job and give him days off when he needs them. We have really no other option really. lol, if he doesn't try to be great he'll be good meaning he needs to be really patient and not try to do too much to prove his worth.

[Coach1310]

I'd much rather roll with Hicks and see what he has, than Mastrionni- he is a perfect 4th outfielder anyway. They have been very process oriented and patient with Hicks, so hopefully it pays off. I just hope some of the young arms work out.

[luckydog25]

The problem is if they sent him down for a month (4 or 5 weeks) they keep control of him for another whole year. Part of me wishes they would send him down for a month, we aren't going to win this year anyway. I am excited to see what he can do though!

[Coach1310]

He's earned it. Lets do it the right way and give him a shot. Say you are a saleman who is one big month away from a big bonus and your boss pulls you off the biggest account you have, to keep you from it... may help the company, but isn't he right thing to do. Eventually you have to see what you got. The longer you delay it, the more behind you may find yourself in the long run. I am not expecting WOW, Mike Trout type stuff, but am excited to see the flashes that will hopefully be the norm.

[Musky Buck]

Well he got his shot and before he's shot we got to get him out of there .054 and just lost at the plate. On the bright side Ben Revere had a web gem !

[johnsd16]

denard who? ben who?

Those were the names of two legitimate major league outfielders that the twins had. They let them go and replaced them with some kid that looks like he couldn't hit water if he fell off an aircraft carrier.

I don't care to hear about his spring or what he will be like in 3-5 yrs. the core of this team is past it's prime. Making moves to unload viable talent to replace it with more junk pitching is right on par for the twins. There was a window when M&M were good but the pitching was never there at the same time. Those same stiffs were run out there for years: Blackburn, Slowy, Baker, Liriano. No attempts to make things better. What do we have now? A bunch of unwanted pitchers for other teams and some guys that belong in AAA or AA (Diamond, Hendricks, Devries).

Big pink will get his hits. Morneau will get hurt. They won't have a 12 win starter. Hicks will be at AAA or worse most of the year. They will have less than 75 wins.

Did Smith make a mess of the team? Sure, but Ryan is still par for the twins course. All the pieces will never be in place at the same time running things this way. The twins starting pitching has been in the toilet for over a decade. It does not take that long to acquire, develop and bring up talent.

[Huskie]

How long can you hang with Hicks?

[mrklean]

was at the game today it was pretty rough watching him strikeout 3 times

[knoppers]

why is he still hitting lead off!

[Rick G]

Someone in the front office must have a whole lot of faith in him I think he will be a good player in the near future, just not right now.

[zepman]

They should have kept Revere...he just brought so many intangibles to the team.

Hicks better show some signs of life soon or he'll be back riding buses pretty quick. He's not even putting the ball in play right now and that's not a good trait to have as a lead-off hitter.