Farm system rebuilds after disastrous year

FORT MYERS, FLA. - For an organization that prides itself on player development, the 2010 minor league season was an embarrassment for the Twins.

Class AAA Rochester (49-95) and Class AA New Britain (44-98) finished with two of the worst records in professional baseball. For the players, it was like living through the movie "Bull Durham," without the happy ending.

New Britain's record was the worst for an Eastern League franchise since 1943. And in Rochester, N.Y., a proud International League city, fans suffered through the team's worst season since 1920.

The primary purpose of a farm system is to develop prospects, and the Twins liked the way Danny Valencia, Kyle Gibson and several others progressed. But the won-loss totals at their two highest levels forced the organization to take a good, hard look at itself.

"Are we going to make changes? Yes, we looked at it from every angle," said Mike Radcliff, the Twins' vice president of player personnel. "But we're not going to discount or compromise the end objective, which is to get players up the pyramid, to the big leagues."

To bolster their system, the Twins signed 13 minor-league free agents, more than twice as many as most years. This will give them more players at Rochester with big-league experience, which should have a trickle-down effect, keeping prospects knocking on the door at lower levels.

Beyond that, the Twins didn't exactly clean house. In fact, they kept all six of their minor-league managers in the same spots for 2011, along with most of the coaches.

The only notable change was moving hitting coach Tom Brunansky from the rookie-level Gulf Coast League affiliate to New Britain.

"We've never [made wholesale staff changes] on the business side or the baseball operations side," General Manager Bill Smith said. "We have good people; we know that. We just have to step back, rebalance our system, get players in the right spots and move forward."

Failures on -- and off -- field

The Twins thought they'd have competitive teams at Rochester and New Britain last spring, but they knew both squads were young, by each league's standards.

Tom Nieto, a backup catcher on the Twins' 1987 World Series championship team, took over as Rochester's manager after leading New Britain to the playoffs in 2009. Jeff Smith, a former Twins minor-league catcher, had just become New Britain's manager after leading Class A Fort Myers to an 80-58 finish in 2009.

"Everybody's looking at the manager to see how he reacts," Nieto said. "You really can't look behind, and you can't look forward. I made it a point, with the staff and kids, that whatever happens on a certain night, when you walk out the door, it's over."

Rochester and New Britain both ranked at or near the bottom of their respective leagues in pitching, hitting and defense. Some of the struggles made no sense. Catching prospect Wilson Ramos was batting .179 at Rochester before getting promoted to the Twins and getting seven hits in his first two games.

Valencia played 49 games for Rochester and didn't hit any home runs. The Twins promoted him to the majors in June and watched him bat .311 with seven homers and 40 RBI in 85 games.

The low point for Rochester came July 27. On a sweltering day in Gwinnett, Ga., the players arrived at the ballpark ready to play the Braves' top affiliate.

The Red Wings were there, but their equipment wasn't. After playing the day before in Rochester, the team traveled on a commercial flight, sending the equipment in a truck, as usual.

Well, the truck had some mechanical issues. Then, the driver got lost. By 6:30 p.m., the equipment still hadn't arrived, and none of the players' uniforms had been washed.

"This truck is driving through 100-degree weather, with all of our dirty, sweaty clothes in one big bag," shortstop Trevor Plouffe said. "The truck gets there, they throw the bag out there [in the clubhouse], and we wore our dirty undergarments, socks and [sliding shorts] to play that game."

The Red Wings went hitless until the seventh inning. Plouffe finished 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. "That was my worst day," Plouffe said.

Or maybe not. The next day, he arrived at the ballpark with a 102-degree fever.

Partnership remains healthy

Rochester has a proud tradition going back to its time as a Cardinals and Orioles affiliate. Stan Musial, Bob Gibson and Cal Ripken Jr. are among the Hall of Famers who passed through Rochester en route to the big leagues.

But the Red Wings became dissatisfied with the Orioles and severed ties after a last-place, 55-89 finish in 2002. After latching on with the Twins, Rochester played for the International League title in 2006.

Last July, in the middle of all this losing, Rochester extended its agreement with the Twins through the end of 2012.

"They've been a remarkable partner, and you don't give up on a partnership because you've had one bad season," Red Wings CEO Naomi Silver said. "There were no cries of, 'Dump the Twins' from our fans."

Blessed with good weather last summer, the Red Wings actually drew more fans than in 2009, when they went 70-74. Their season attendance of 462,004 was the eighth- highest total in franchise history. Meanwhile, New Britain set an attendance record for the seventh consecutive year, drawing 368,523 fans, further proof that a good minor-league promotions department can make up for a bad on-field product.

Of course, at any level, it's easier to draw when you're winning.

"When it came time for us to sign an extension to our working agreement, [Twins farm director] Jim Rantz said, 'I promise you we will do something about this,'" Silver said. "And the Twins really put their money where their mouths are."

Some of that money was spent on the minor-league free agent market. Among the newcomers are catchers Rene Rivera and Steve Holm. Rivera spent parts of three seasons with the Mariners, and Holm spent parts of two seasons with the Giants.

Rantz said those moves not only provide big-league depth, but should help Rochester. Last July, when the Twins traded Ramos to Washington for Matt Capps, Rochester's other catcher, Jose Morales, already had been promoted to the big leagues.

This forced the Twins to promote Jair Fernandez and Danny Lehmann from New Britain to Rochester, even though neither had proven he could hit Class AA pitching.

The Twins are usually slow to push prospects through their system, but as Bill Smith said, sometimes it happens by necessity when teams draft several players from high school.

Chris Parmalee and Joe Benson are two examples. The Twins drafted both of them out of high school in 2006 and started them at Class AA last year. But in mid-May, Parmalee was batting .186 and Benson was batting .219, so the Twins shipped them back to Class A. By season's end, both had returned to Class AA and fared well, earning places on the Twins' 40-man roster.

"In a year like that, you probably learn twice as much, or 10 times as much, as you do when you win," said Jeff Smith, the New Britain manager. "But do we like seasons like that? Absolutely not."

The recently published Baseball America Prospect Handbook ranks the Twins' farm system as the 13th-best in the majors, down from sixth the previous year. The book says, "Despite the poor win-loss records at their two top affiliates, they have plenty of prospects down below."

The Twins opened their minor league camp this past week, and they're confident 2011 will bring better results system-wide. "We believe in our farm system and we believe in development," Rantz said. "That philosophy hasn't changed since the Twins became the Twins in 1961."