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Who IS This Guy?

At six-foot-six and just 175 pounds, 18-year-old Trey Ball from New Castle High School in Indiana has an extremely projectable frame, one that experts agree will fill out nicely as he matures. The consensus, however, appears split between where he should play: Pitcher or outfield.

Who Could He Be?

The majors have few left-handed power arms that average mid-90s fastballs. Tampa’s David Price, Texas’ Derek Holland and Los Angeles’ Clayton Kershaw are a rare breed who can dial up that kind of velocity from the port-side. Because of that, Ball’s immediate future may be as a pitcher. In ...

One of the top ranked high school power hitters at the time, Travis Harrison was drafted by the Twins with a supplemental first round pick (the 50^th overall pick) in 2011. He signed a $1.05 million bonus to join the Twins organization and bypassed a scholarship offer to play baseball for USC. There's never been much doubt about Harrison's ability to hit a baseball. The question in many minds is what his ultimate defensive position will be. Right now, the Twins are working with Harrison to develop his skills at third base for the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Harrison is one of the top third base prospects in the Twins minor league organization, along with super-prospect Miguel Sano, who is currently playing for high Class A Fort Myers.
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Just like their parent club, the New Britain Rock Cats have hit a tough spell. In fact, their last victory was May 11 vs. Portland and since that 5-4 win the Cats have lost 8 consecutive games. In those 8 games, the Rock Cats have combined to score a grand total of 18 runs while allowing 52. It's not tough to see the problems: they aren't scoring enough and are allowing too many runs. (How's that for analysis?).

But let's dig a little deeper. There are other things -- some good -- at play. First, infielder James Beresford, who had been on the disabled list with a pulled groin, just returned to action this past weekend. Beresford had been off to a hot start before missing 2 weeks. In his first 4 games back, he has 6 hits (in 17 at-bats) and is batting .340 on the season. ...

The Minnesota Twins PR director, Dustin Morse, tweeted out on Tuesday that manager Ron Gardenhire said that the team will go with Samuel Deduno on Friday in Detroit rather than the prospect Kyle Gibson, who was coming off a complete game shutout in his most recent start.

Deduno spent time with the Twins last year, displaying an odd combination of a low hit rate and a lack of control. This resulted in some dominating outings but also several short ones. In 15 starts he pitched 79 innings, or less than 5.1 IP per start. Overall he posted a ...

Welp. The Minnesota Twins weren't really supposed to be good or even decent this season, so a 2-7 homestand isn't crazy. It's more disappointing after what seemed like a such a positive start. Regardless, this franchise is clearly trending upward, even if this past week doesn't reflect that.

The thing that struck me the most from the weekend was another shaky Scott Diamond start. I looked at Diamond's stats from the first half of 2012 (when Diamond was a borderline Ace), the second half of 2012 (when Diamond was good, but not great), and the start of this season (when Diamond looks like he might be regressing). What is different? ...

Who IS This Guy?

He might have the highest ceiling of any pitching prospect in this year's draft class. A few years ago Sean Manaea was a raw high school kid with bad grades and no first-round aspirations, but now at age 21 he's in the conversation to become the first lefty pitcher drafted No. 1 overall since David Price in 2007.

At 6'5" and 230 lbs, Manaea has the ability to reach the mid-90s from the left side, making him a rare specimen. ...