Normally, journalists greatly preferred named sources to anonymous ones. In this case, however, Sports Illustrated opted to let scouts express their thoughts freely by asking them to offer what it calls "their honest -- and anonymous -- assessment" of all 30 major league teams for its baseball preview edition.
The Twins did not fare well. The comments in the fat paragraphs about each team are filled with ellipses, which we'll assume means that they came from an assortment of scouts.
We'll use bullet points to highlight five of their most damning Twins assessments:
*They gave Jason Castro a lot of money to be their front-line (catcher). They had a good defensive catcher in Kurt Suzuki and let him walk. I would rather have Suzuki than Castro.
*The Twins used to have success developing guys who didn't throw hard but could command the fastball. Now they don't throw hard and they have no command,
*Jose Berrios still hasn't turned the corner. I'm unimpressed by his ability to command the fastball.
*Joe Mauer's health is in question, like always. He's an opposite-field hitter now. If there's a man on third, he'll get him home. Period.
*This team has a good chance to be the worst in the league.
Here's the full report, as well as thoughts on the other 29 MLB teams, who generally fare better.
