Doctor Gast

Great AB by Kepler!

Good AB for Vaz! Maybe he's ready to do something offensively

We got this guy on the ropes let's take him to town.

Kiriloff honers! I love it!

That's how you do it! Good job Vazquez! Let's keep it going!

With 2 runners in scoring position, Buxton has to find a way to at least get a single.

Castro has been over-stretched mentally as well as physically with the injuries of Lewis, Correa & Buxton at those key positions. Keirsey was more needed in their absence but still, he deserves to get his feet wet. It seems like he has trended up as he is promoted. The problem is there are some on the 40 man that are occupying space that Keirsey needs. Management is hesitant to make that space. As I said before I'd rather have our guys with the opportunities than bringing others in. And Keirsey is one of them.

I've had & presently suffering from plantar fasciitis. I can tell you it's very painful. It's difficult to walk much less constantly putting pressure on it playing SS. It's difficult for me to fathom how he did it. He normally starts slow & his current production is very welcome & has been a rock in the absence of Lewis. Besides his hitting, his defense has been even more solid. I enjoy watching good defense over HRs any day. IMO he's worth his $30MM price tag. A line drive clutch hitter that has power with elite defense. His greatest value cannot be measured by stats. He's great mentor, great feel for the game, great leader on & off the field & he kicks it into another gear when we need it down the stretch & into the postseason. A player that's needed if you want to advance.

There are trade ideas floating around & Emma is in a few of them. Personally, I wouldn't trade any of them. If there was an absolute elite SP for sale, the only one I'd consider is Jenkins, Because all we see in Jenkins is upside & value is based on that, his floor is unknown. Again I wouldn't want to trade any of them unless we were given an offer we can't refuse.

I'm high on Martin too, IMO he'll make an impact on the Twins but 4th? Interesting.

You get a few extra votes through hype

Timely article Cody, I was thinking the same thing. Emma has risen in the national polls. He has answered the question marks of can he stick in CF & can he hit high Milb? He has shown that he do all that & then some. These guys are very close. I agree, when you look at ceiling I'd rank Jenkins, Emma & Lee. Floor it'd be Lee, Emma & Jenkins, Lee & Emma have very little to prove now while Jenkins still have a lot to prove. IMO the early prolonged injuries to Lee & Jenkins has taken some shine from them. I maybe alone in my rankings but I'd place them Emma, Jenkins, Lee.

Great night on the farm! Hats off to Culpepper for 6 perfect innings. I think there's some deserving promotions out there. Let's see them.

A good point Seth. Keirsey isn't on the 40 man, so they are more hesitant to bring him up until they have a clear player to drop from the 40 man or Keirsey makes it too hard to keep him down.

Thanks 1985. Everybody looked downed on the Central Division. Most picked MN, some picked DET to take the division & gave credence to KC because they were the most active in the off-season, CLE was ignored because they did nothing. The Central especially CLE surprised everyone & now teams have to respect us. IMO being busy in the off-season doesn't make you a better team if you don't address your weakness. We didn't. We added where we were adequately covered & we gave up more than what we gained. IMO FO felt they needed to do something to have a successful off-season that bad transactions are better than no transactions. IMO we had a great team. Great clutch hitters in Lewis & Polanco. Great veterans in Correa, Buxton & Kepler offensively & defensively. Pretty darn good rotation, a very balanced catching tandem & a very good young supportive group that needed playing time. We lacked nothing to win the division but lacked a high-end postseason SP that could be picked up at the trade deadline along with maybe some rental player to cover a need due to injury or ineffectiveness. Right now we need Royce Lewis to return, Buxton to be more productive to help Correa lead the rest of the team to be more productive, Varland & Alcala be brought up to the BP. Return of Steward & Canterino. We'd be very competitive then & when the deadline come we can assess our needs.

Miranda should be playing if not for us then for someone else. Preferably for us, unless we get a fair offer & Baldelli won't play him enough.

Lewis back for the NYY game would be wonderful. You share my sentiments, It'd be nice to see what Prielipp has, finally

Thank you so much for the work you guys put into this! I'm even excited about players that didn't make the list, like Mercedes, Keirsey, Cespedes & Cardenas. These guys have really improved & my hope is that they can sustain it until they reach MLB. It's exciting to see some of our low draft SPs like Matthews doing well. Emma responding well to AA & excelling. Injuries to Jenkins, Lee & some of our pitchers has cooled us off a little (still haven't seen much from Prielipp yet). But once they're back & excelling, the excitement will return. But IMO as I've stated before, Gonzales is very overrated. He has a great arm & contact skills which excels in the lower minors but how will that play out in the upper minors? He has shown some raw power potential for his age but he has already filled out & I doubt his HRs will increase that much. The Twins will try to convert him like Astudillo but I doubt they will & most likely goof up his feel for the bat. He'll have to hit a lot of HRs to make up for his lack of speed & defensive prowess for him to stick at RF at the MLB level. My advice is to trade him as soon as possible for a decent SP before his rating bottom out. I like to point out that our highest ranking catching prospect is at #20 Olivar. I've been very high on him but now I doubt he has the arm to stick at catcher. Another higher ranking catcher prospect Cossetti can hit but doesn't have the defensive chops to stick at catcher on the MLB level. The only defensive catcher I like that can handle MLB is Noah Cardenas. He is still a ways from reaching MLB. These prospects we need to back-up Jeffers very soon. Catching is a premium defensive position, we need to wake up to see how poor we are in depth here.

I saw SWR pitched the 1st inning, he looked pretty good. Why wasn't he allowed to complete the 5th?

This has been discussed before & my answer is still. I was against adding anyone to 1B & having Miranda platoon against LHPs. I knew he would hit, that's where he should be. IMO it could be a good idea to have Miranda sub Lewis whenever he needs it even though Castro is a better 3B. But that situation will become less & less. He could pull some DH away from Jeffers & Buxton but the main focus again is 1B if Baldelli can pull Santana away from 1B.

Absolutely they shouldn't

With all the OF talent we have, it easy to see how he got squeezed out & the demotion didn't sit well with him I guess.

Let's keep up the momentum & win the series!

Consistency is the trick, not too high, not too low. Like in the past, the Twins tend to hang unto their mistakes too long. Resulting in too many losses & not enough wins.

It was a great effort from Varland, Alcala, Keirsey & Martin in AAA. Hope that all 4 will be brought up soon & that Wallner is getting proper help there. I was surprised that Willie Jo Garry Jr. was released, I thought he had some promise.