Article: Twins Minor League Report (5/30): Walker Powers Miracle

[Seth Stohs]

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php/3038-Twins-Minor-League-Report-(5-30)-Walker-Powers-Miracle

[Dantes929]

Did Eddie Rosario play? Any word at all on Buxton?

[jokin]

Did Eddie Rosario play? Any word at all on Buxton?

 

Yes on Rosario, he was 1-5 and still playing CF.

 

And what about Mark Hamburger?

[lightfoot789]

Walker had a great evening as he almost had 3 home runs. He just missed a homerun (inches / a double) during his opening at bat (against MLB Vet Adam Loewen). He lined out against Loewen in his next AB. Walker had 3 HRs three games this series and 2 were against MLB Vets (Shawn Camp & Loewen). He hit in the 4th hole for the first time in over a month.

[Tibs]

So, what are the Twins going to do about Kris Johnson?

[Seth Stohs]

So, what are the Twins going to do about Kris Johnson?

 

Keep pitching him and when they have a need, call him up. He can pitch in the big leagues. It's always good having a guy in AAA who can come up when needed. The Twins have several guys in Rochester who could come up and do alright.

[Twinsoholic]

Any word on top draft choices Bard and Chargois? Didn't Chargois have his Tommy John over a year ago?

[lightfoot789]

Any word on the OBP machine (Nate Roberts) in Extended? Does he look healthy and where will he end up (A+ / AA)?

 

Same with Lance Ray in Extended?

When does J.D. Williams get his much deserved promotion?

[Dantes929]

Keep pitching him and when they have a need, call him up. He can pitch in the big leagues. It's always good having a guy in AAA who can come up when needed. The Twins have several guys in Rochester who could come up and do alright.

Yes, pretty exciting that there are 4 guys with at least 8 starts that deserve a call up and the one with the highest ERA is Alex Meyer. Guessing all 4 could outperform Correia right now. Wonder how short his leash is. Guessing if he does well today it will earn him another 2 starts but what if he gets shelled today? Nolasco stepped up last night. Maybe Correia will as well. I would not root against the Twins and I know the best result would be for him to throw 4 great games in a row in order to build trade value but I just don't think it likely. Likely is that he throws just well enough to avoid being sent down but poorly enough that we want him sent down. What a difference from the last three years when it really didn't matter cuz we had nothing in Rochester that was any better. Now we have 4 of them.

[TCisNotaBear]

Keep pitching him and when they have a need, call him up. He can pitch in the big leagues. It's always good having a guy in AAA who can come up when needed. The Twins have several guys in Rochester who could come up and do alright.

 

Pino, Johnson, Achter, Darnell, Pressly and Meyers could all help at the Major League level. I say call three of these guys up... if for no other reason than to give the others more opportunity to prove they are ready too. The hard thing is what to do with Correia, Burton and Swarzak?! Or anyone else you send down.

 

But, I totally agree we have a lot of good pitchers at AAA right now. I would love to see some of them before the end of the year.

[TKGuy]

Tonkin and Achter in place of Burton and Guerrier. Is Meyer the guaranteed first call up for a DL stint or DFA in the current rotation

[Seth Stohs]

Tonkin and Achter in place of Burton and Guerrier. Is Meyer the guaranteed first call up for a DL stint or DFA in the current rotation

 

Meyer is definitely not the 'guaranteed' first call up if something like that happens. Johnson is pitching the best of the group, and he's on the 40 man roster. May had a very strong May (and starts today), and he's on the 40 man roster. Meyer scuffled in May at times and isn't on the 40 man roster. So, I would say that Meyer is at least third in line. Logan Darnell is probably ahead of him too right now. Of course, some depends on the other situation, is it a one-start thing, or is it 2-3 starts with a DL stint, or is it a long-term thing?

[oldguy10]

Pino, Johnson, Achter, Darnell, Pressly and Meyers could all help at the Major League level. I say call three of these guys up... if for no other reason than to give the others more opportunity to prove they are ready too. The hard thing is what to do with Correia, Burton and Swarzak?! Or anyone else you send down.

 

But, I totally agree we have a lot of good pitchers at AAA right now. I would love to see some of them before the end of the year.

 

"Good" at AAA is a lot different than the same term in the American League and besides the MLB salaries will never be eaten by ownership, the Pohlads simply do not operate that way.

[jokin]

Meyer is definitely not the 'guaranteed' first call up if something like that happens. Johnson is pitching the best of the group, and he's on the 40 man roster. May had a very strong May (and starts today), and he's on the 40 man roster. Meyer scuffled in May at times and isn't on the 40 man roster. So, I would say that Meyer is at least third in line. Logan Darnell is probably ahead of him too right now. Of course, some depends on the other situation, is it a one-start thing, or is it 2-3 starts with a DL stint, or is it a long-term thing?

 

Yup, SOP for the Twins, go through the 2 fringe/non-prospects first, and find out what we already know about them and why they are fringe/non-prospects (and we got a preview of what Johnson is likely to do already). And then maybe throw in Pino for a meaningless cup of coffee. And then find out if May is a major league starter or reliever. At this rate, expect Meyer in June of 2015, at the earliest.

[diehardtwinsfan]

Not sure I'd call May and Darnell a fringe prospect. Johnson most definitely given his age, but comparing these guys to guys like Albers and PJ Walters is blatantly unfair.

[jokin]

Not sure I'd call May and Darnell a fringe prospect. Johnson most definitely given his age, but comparing these guys to guys like Albers and PJ Walters is blatantly unfair.

 

Just to be clear, I purposely separated out May from the rest of the guys- he definitely has a chance to be a good #3 level major league starter, but he's not a Meyer- and there's still a chance he ends up in the pen. Darnell to me is still a fringe prospect, until he proves differently. And the other two guys are at or above 30, I don't see how there's any other way to classify them than non-prospects- hopefully they both make a contribution to the Twins, but I'm not holding my breath on them having any meaningful impact- not the kind of guys a rebuilding team should be wasting a lot of time on.

[clutterheart]

May had a very strong May (and starts today)

 

I think you enjoyed typing that

 

Correia probably gets traded before end of July, so that will open 1 spot

Otherwise the club has:

Nolasco

Gibson

Sammy D

Hughes

 

Not sure who from AAA should supplant any of those guys

[diehardtwinsfan]

Just to be clear, I purposely separated out May from the rest of the guys- he definitely has a chance to be a good #3 level major league starter, but he's not a Meyer- and there's still a chance he ends up in the pen. Darnell to me is still a fringe prospect, until he proves differently. And the other two guys are at or above 30, I don't see how there's any other way to classify them than non-prospects- hopefully they both make a contribution to the Twins, but I'm not holding my breath on them having any meaningful impact- not the kind of guys a rebuilding team should be wasting a lot of time on.

 

I'm probably higher on May than you, and I misunderstood you on him as I though were calling him fringe. May is a good prospect. I'll have to respectfully disagree on Darnell, who has slowly gotten better each time he jumps a level. He's 25, not old. He wasn't a big prospect to begin with, but he's putting things together and looks like he can be a pretty solid mid-rotation arm. Given the 40 man situation, I'd think both are ahead of Meyer... They have both out-pitched him, so I'm not sure SOP for the Twins is in play. These guys deserve shots. These are precisely the types of guys the Twins should be using their time on.

 

I don't have a problem with either of them being ahead of Meyer right now. Even Johnson might be worth a shot b/c if he succeeds he'll have value to some time this offseason in a trade. Major league ready pitching with service time tends to be valuable. The real problem is that there are 4 guys in the rotation under contract right now (with one on the DL), and only one will come off the books next year.