he's old... 26 years old..  no power.... decent OBP...  above average speed..

anyone actually see him in person?

saw him in rochester. For the brief time he was there, he was sensational....which is why he got a promotion over a few of the Twins 'top prospects'. biggest asset was his speed. Clearly could steal bases pretty much whenever he wanted to. Fans loved him...specially when guys like Dinkelman and Benson couldn't get out of their own way.

Not sure though if he is a regular everyday major leaguer...guess we're about to find out.

Not so sure about no power,

Mastroianni
in 163 AB's, 3 HR, 21 SB, 3 CS, OBP .328, SLG .350, OPS .678

Revere
in 511 AB's, 0 HR, 40 SB, 8 CS, OBP .333, SLG .342, OPS .675

Span
in 516 AB's, 4 HR, 17 SB, 6 CS, OBP .342, SLG .395, OPS .738


Also, something I noticed, the guy has a much better arm than either Revere or Span.

I really think everyone is selling this guy short.

Read his bio,

Graduated from Southern Indiana University, hit .409 that year, and was and All-American Div II.  One stint at AAA with Toronto in 2011 for 79 games.  Played one game with Toronto that year.  Made lots of All Star teams in the minors 2009 and 2010.

Only been a professional ball player since 2007.  Hasn't really gotten stuck at any level and seems to be on the right track to get a shot to 2013.  One particular highlight to his minor league career, he stole 70 bases in 2009 split between high A and AA in 131 games.

AS I have said, his speed was what impressed us all the most. He could turn out to be a sleeper. And I'm sure the Twins will give him a full shot.

He isn't afraid to steal bases when he gets on, either. *cough, cough Denard Span* 

absolutely one of the reasons I didn't mind trading HIM. He was reluctant to use his speed, both in Rochester and Minnesota. Revere OTOH liked to steal bases. How many 40 steal men are there in MLB? Answer: not many.
That is just ONE of the reasons I detested that trade to Philly. Twins need arms, yes. But they didn't need to get rid of one of their home grown rising stars.
Mastroianni basically attempted a steal every time he reached first base in Rochester. His aggressiveness, plus his innate ability to steal bases successfully could earn him the CF spot. He's not Ben Revere and I will remain grumpy about the trade, but I'm willing to at least give Mastro a chance.

26 years old is old? Yeah whatever.

"Internet Reporting" by Jeff Passan...

You know, a lot of folks judge a player by his "bio" or accolades or reputation or a blog or a newspaper clipping or what he did in high school or college (anyone remember this fella by the name of Nishioka?) and small sample sizes and judge either too harshly or too hopefully...

There is good reason why the Toronto Blue Jays basically handed us Darin Mastroianni... and that is he has limitations.  He struggled at the AAA level for them and it was deemed he would never help them at the major league level.  So yeah, they said 'adios Darin and bueno suerta'.

to be fair---when the Twins picked him up...he had an excellent time at AAA Rochester...and thats what earned his promotion. The only reason I'm not pimping him more is that I am still way too angry at the Twins for giving Revere away.

Yeah, understood... but the Blue Jays gave up on him when they saw him have so much difficulty hitting AAA pitching.  I honestly don't see him as an everyday major league player and yes, extremely disappointing given what a special talent Revere is and was for us.

In the 'Did you know?' department, I bet you would not have guessed Nishioki hit 43 home runs in high school as a "power-hitting" middle infielder.  Guy hit with a toothpick, was slower than molasses in January and no idea in the field whatsoever.  We wasted 11 million bucks on the guy(?) and could have been more, had he not done the honorable thing and walked away w/o that guaranteed 3rd year.

One of the biggest mistakes in talent evaluation in Twins history! Only reason I am not dumping all over him was his play in Rochester last season. He started terrible but had a very good second half (relatively speaking); he was a great teammate according to all I heard; and yes, he recognized he didn't belong here and walked away from the rest of his contract. I don't know of too many American players who would have done that. So he gets some slack from me, overall.
But it was so clear...so early on, the big leagues here put him way over his head. He never could make the adjustment.

viperdk wrote: 26 years old is old? Yeah whatever.

26 years old and still considered a "rookie"   yeah you're old.

insagt1 wrote:  Only reason I am not dumping all over him was his play in Rochester last season.

Oh, I'm not at all critical of Nishi - he seemed like an polite, hard-working, popular and honorable man.  He definitely isn't to blame by our organization's 14.5 million dollar mistake and not doing enough homework.

I think Nishi was an excellent example of what a professional baseball player should be, outside the white lines anyways. He humbly took his demotion to triple A and (if I remember correctly) gave some money back to the Twins because he did not play up to the amount of money he was paid. I wish Nishi the best in Japan. I will also give this Mastroianni guy the benefit of the doubt for a while. Who else are we going to run out there? 

brian450 wrote:

insagt1 wrote:  Only reason I am not dumping all over him was his play in Rochester last season.

Oh, I'm not at all critical of Nishi - he seemed like an polite, hard-working, popular and honorable man.  He definitely isn't to blame by our organization's 14.5 million dollar mistake and not doing enough homework.

slyde--correct on all counts. Too bad his talent didn't equal his integrity. but like I said, he was pretty popular in rochester in the second half of the season, when he sort of found his bat, at least at the AAA level...which may be more or less the level of expertise in the Japan big leagues.

Good words Slydel9.  Agreed. 

Failing at AAA in Toronto?

Hit .276, 6 triples, 18 doubles, 2 HR in 319 AB's.  20 SB, 40 walks, OBP .358

Rochester AAA he hit .346, 2 triples, 2 doubles, in 78 AB's, 10 SB, 5 walks, OBP .393.

Did you read that in a Toronto paper?  Just wondering how you came up with that rationale.

ETCDelawareTwinsFan wrote:
Failing at AAA in Toronto?

Hit .276, 6 triples, 18 doubles, 2 HR in 319 AB's.  20 SB, 40 walks, OBP .358

Rochester AAA he hit .346, 2 triples, 2 doubles, in 78 AB's, 10 SB, 5 walks, OBP .393.

Did you read that in a Toronto paper?  Just wondering how you came up with that rationale.

My 9th grade Humanities teacher at Bloomington Lincoln High School was Mr. Sheffer and his favorite saying was 'Statistics don't lie, but liars use statistics.'

Your quoting what he did in Rochester is irrelevant to support your argument, right?  So, we'll put that in red and set it aside.  

Yes, he hit .276 for Toronto's AAA affiliate.  You can also look at it like this:  In 2011, he split time in AA and AAA, where he totaled a "whopping" .268.  At each place, he struck out more times at each stop than he took walks.  Yes, I must have read it somewhere, definitely not off the top of my head and I'll find it if require it. 

Now, that said, I hope he turns into a perennial All-Star for us, ripping the cover off the ball, stealing a bunch of bases a year and playing a great center field for us...

I hope I'm wrong, but I just don't see it from what I've seen from the young man (and definitely think we're vastly weaker in CF going into 2013 than had we been retaining Ben Revere's services).