stringer bell

All minor league teams' regular season are over. Kernels are in the MWL playoffs.

Maybe for the Kernels? It's a shorter trip and Nolasco rehabbed there previously.

He's only pitched 112 innings, so he won't qualify for the ERA championship, but in the end Tommy Milone might grade out to be one of the Twins' best starters. His 8-4 record shouldn't count for too much, but he's allowed only 106 hits and 29 walks in those 112 innings. Milone doesn't throw hard, but strike out between 6 an 7 per nine innings. Milone is only 28 (less than a year older than Gibson) and he will remain under team control through 2018. Most have speculated that the Twins should move him out of the rotation or trade him. I think his contribution has been shortchanged and that he will continue to be a solid rotation guy for someone. Even with his disastrous stint with the Twins in 2014, Milone is 8-5 with a 4.03 ERA in his season plus with the Twins. I think Milone and Gibson deserve to be penciled in the rotation for the 2016 Twins.

I thought so, but I guess the Twins decided otherwise. I'm glad he finished strong in Rochester. Perhaps he will be another hand-throwing weapon in the Twins bullpen in 2016.

I see what you did there!

I would like to second what Chief wrote and add that there is a lot of talent among the TD community and game thread intros have given many a chance to bring out that talent.

I don't agree with everything written above. I will agree that the roster is flawed. Their power is almost exclusively right handed, their best position players are above average power, below average batting average guys. They don't have catching depth and the incumbent catcher has a history of being a poor thrower and pitch framer. There is a crying need to get more high-percentage (and high OBP) guys on the roster, hopefully left handed hitters, like Joe Mauer, prior to last year or perhaps like Max Kepler next year or the year after, hitting before or after Miguel Sano. As far as the pitching goes, I don't know that it is predictable. Except for the elite of the elite, pitchers are really unpredictable. The Twins have a lot of middle-of-the-rotation arms and maybe one or two will be better than that going forward, but if that happens they are beating the odds. The bullpen didn't get help this year from the ballyhooed power arms that started in Chattanooga this year, maybe next year. Also, they added Jepsen and moved Alex Meyer to the bullpen, so perhaps the Twins will join the hard-thrower movement for their bullpen next year. What has changed is defense. Going from Arcia, Schafer, Hunter to Rosario, Buxton, Hicks is huge. Outfield defense might go from biggest weakness to biggest strength. The infield defense is fine, but not particularly rangy and Suzuki is regarded as a good game caller, despite his poor marks throwing out runners and framing pitches. As far as the bench, the Eduardos are pretty good bench players, although Escobar seems to have become a regular. Robinson filled his role very well this year, but he can't be overexposed. The thing is that most of the season, they only had three bench guys and one of them was the backup catcher. They didn't have room for a bat-first guy with power potential. I'm pretty confident that will change over the off-season.

I like Dougie Baseball, but he did have Polanco, Buxton, Sano, Walker, and Kepler and more in his lineup to start the year. If I got them all to the park on time, I'm pretty sure they'd win a lot of games for me. None of those players were disappointments and a couple took steps forward, but they were viewed as top talents coming in.

Another good outing for Meyer today. I'd like to see him back. He could really make the bullpen dynamic next year and I haven't quite given up on him getting in the rotation.

To my knowledge, Berrios has never pitched in relief with the exception of the WBC (which is in March). I don't know if he's suited for relief. Does his velo go up, can he get loose quickly, how is he pitching out of the stretch, can he hold runners? I'm pretty confident that the Twins know better than the Twins Daily posters. They have converted May to to a late-inning role. It took what, a month? To many questions for me to say it was a slam dunk to promote him. I still think they should have, but I realize there are reasons why he didn't get called up.

Not the same thing. It's also not the same thing to compare a college pitcher versus Berrios. However, reading through this thread, different posters seem to visualize different roles for Berrios if he would be promoted. In my mind, the Twins should have saved innings for JO and put him in the rotation with postseason on the line. They didn't and really then the die was cast. Using Berrios in the 'pen presents some problems. Add to that the consequences for service time, possible arm wear on a 21-year-old and 40-man issues.

I don't think that Hicks has an overall throwing advantage over Rosario. Granted, Hicks has played almost exclusively in center, while Rosario has played the corners with few exceptions, but Rosario charges the ball quicker and his arm is so accurate. Hicks may have more arm strength, but charging the ball and accuracy matter as well. Buxton is a special athlete. I've seen balls just elude Hicks that I am confident that Buxton catches, especially going back. Maybe Hicks catches the last out, but he might not catch the ball to left-center that Buxton almost overran. What a change from Arcia, Schafer, Hunter to Rosario, Buxton, Hicks!

Well, the Twins are 1-0 with my new Miguel Sano screen saver.

Win-Santana. "Save"-Jepsen, really Buxton.

Had 'em all the way!

Exciting yes!

Springer with a chance for redemption.

Add a second big-time outing against Houston.

Good at-bat for Buxton. Three fairly hard hit balls tonight.

Too bad there wasn't more.

TT. Gotta be Tim Teufel.

1-0 Astros. Game over.

By my count this is Santanas fifth chance to come up big and earn some of his contract. He failed in Toronto and New York and was successful against the Angels and the Astros.

Yeah, yeah, but regression to the mean!

Is Dean another Anthony Albers or Logan Darnell? I know he's not a hard thrower, but he was very successful at the highest level of the minors. Or is he another Tommy Milone, a lefty without a big fastball that knows how to pitch. On that point, can a rotation afford to have a Milone and another "soft tossing lefty"?