jokin

It really becomes a game-changer if Santana proves to be more than just a flash in the pan and continues his hitting prowess, even at a more sustainable level in 2015, and just as importantly, proves acceptably competent at SS- which is why I think it behooves the Twins to give him the bulk of the starts at the position in September and finally get some consistent big league reps.

You're work is much appreciated, JC, no matter the venue.

I'm not sure about that. He's demonstrated an .895 OPS/150 OPS+ in AA/AAA, with outstanding plate discipline. And of course, .813 OPS/126 OPS+ with the Twins. His D may always hold him back as a full-time catcher, but surely there would be teams lining up for a guy who projects as a part-time C/DH/LF with a potentially potent bat.

None other than Rob Antony himself- in his May, 2014, dismissal of AAA versus the major leagues in the case of a prospective Alex Meyer promotion- put a major quash on any notion of the beneficiality of an I-League playoff series or two versus actual major league PAs and catching reps, particularly for a major-league-ready guy like Pinto. I've said it before, I'll say it again, come September, Pinto should be playing 3 out of every 4 games, either to inform the Twins on whether or not he's a keeper- and if they've already decided to move on at some point- to showcase him for an offseason trade, someone is going to bite, and hitting catchers are always in demand.

And it will help to have a big brother just a phone call away.

Dee Gordon has 33 bunts attempted for hits this year, with 15 hits and a .455 BA, which leads the majors. His bunts for hits make up 6.4% of his PAs, which has added about 12 points to his overall averages, and he's only attempted bunts in 27.5% of games played. Not sure what the exact optimal bunt rate should be for speedsters, but forcing the corner IF guys to play in on the infield grass to "take away" the bunt could prove to be an advantage for a primarily singles/GB/LD-type hitter, and negate some of the superior fielding advantage. For the record, Nick Gordon has zero bunt attempts so far at E-Town, but I'm quite sure he has hitting priorities elsewhere at this point in his career.

Based on his inept bunting performance with the Twins thus far, I was somewhat surprised that Shafer. going into this season, had a bunting BA of .426 (23 of 54). This year his bunting BA is .067 (1 of 15), and he looks as if he's never attempted it before. Time to go back to some basic fundamental bunt training, as given his horrendous overall hitting against LHP, bunting for average and a higher OBP are really the only way he can hope to stay on a major league roster.

To you and me, maybe, but the coaching staff went out of their way to convince management and ownership at the trading deadline to pony up at least $12M and maybe more over the next 2-3 years. For better or worse, with Gardy in charge, I think Suzuki will be the every day guy unless and until he hits consistently below the Mendoza line.

Burdi and Zack Jones first time together to shut things down in Florida in the 8th and 9th. Hopefully a prelude of things to come in Minnesota in the near future.

Promotion missing in report: Jorge Polanco from Ft Myers to New Britain. Also, you mentioned 6 pitchers promoted from Cedar Rapids to Ft Myers, I only saw 5 listed. Other than that, excellent report.

Affiliates!

Based on this interview, Arteaga's obvious depth of understanding of the pitching aspects of the game, his successes- both developmentally and on-the-field results- with the club, his strong bilingual communication skills, plus his relationship to Jake Mauer the last couple of seasons doesn't hurt... taken as a whole, it seems to bode well for his Twins future.

Thanks Seth. You and SD are very helpful in learning about the man being more than just a name on the program. He's still relatively young (44), would you consider Ivan a comer for the Twins? Obviously, the need for good bilingual communicators in the organization is only going to continue to increase. Here's a link to Arteaga's splendid interview with "Jim Crikket": http://knuckleballsblog.com/2014/08/12/ivan-arteaga-on-change-ups-sliders-and-curves/

Good stuff, JC. Out of curiosity, in reading your interview (and BTW, great interview on your blog) with Arteaga, the man was incredibly insightful on the subject of the history of pitch selection and the effect of specific pitches on young arms. How would you grade his job with all of the great pitching coming through Cedar Rapids the last couple years, and how good is his English?.... the interview gives the impression that he's also a great communicator, as does the Hu-dini pun, very clever. (On the English matter, how is Hu's grasp of the language?).

Yeah, I groaned over a few of the picks in 2013. When in doubt, always upside HS arms...! The White Sox got it right in the 2nd round that year, picking @ # 16 (Eades was #4), Tyler Danish. He is 19 years old, and is already looking at Eades in his rearview mirror, dominating in High A ball. For the 2014 season, including mostly Carolina League stats where Danish is 3.8 years below average age.... ERA of 1.97 in 114 innings, WHIP of 1.14 and K/9 of 7.1. Watch for that name in a couple more years.

12 game hitting streak, even better #s: .319/.385/.511/.895

ISWYDT and I approve..

You may not want that, but I think it's a bit presumptuous to assume the "we" part of your statement... and it comes down to your presumption of a "pretty stark line", it seems the facts argue against how "stark" that line in the sand actually is. (just off the top of my head, Kirk Gibson HR in the '88 World Series, Michael Jordan's playoff flu game in '97... Brett Favre started 297 consecutive games, most of which he played with multiple injuries, and who can forget the beating he took against the, with-criminal-intent-to- harm, New Orleans Saints, in the NFC title game). The fact is, some guys have much higher pain thresholds than others. Re: Kurt Suzuki has continued to perform at a high level, despite taking a beating behind and at the plate this season, that other players are unable to tolerate, and thus, play with effectively.

Giancarlo Stanton is the gold standard. I don't think that Arcia will ever match Stanton's bat, and obviously, his glove, but it's an extreme overreaction to characterize him as "not good at all". Given his rapid rise through the Twins system, his ML numbers at such a young age show the promise of potential multiple 35 HR, 130-140 OPS+ seasons as he reaches his peak years in his late 20s.

To take this one step further, Ortiz got his first 615 PAs over his first four seasons, along with trips to the minors, 1997-2000 (All Star break), ages 21-24: Here are his numbers in that time frame vs. Arcia (with 649 PAs over two seasons), ages 22-23: Ortiz: BA- .263 SLG- .425 OPS- .784 ISO- .162 HR- 10 XBH- 54 Arcia: BA- .240 SLG- .427 OPS- .730 ISO- .187 HR- 25 XBH- 57

The only video I saw in the story was of the Rodriguez HR.

Thanks so much for all of these vids, JC. I really like Reed's swagger. Here's a video that won't embed, but is definitely worth a viewing click, Rosario's No-hitter-saving catch last night against the CF wall: http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=35429195&sid=milb

I'd say he's more than earned his cup of coffee.

Ask and you shall receive...Here's his No-hitter-saving-catch against the wall in CF last night: http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=35429195&sid=milb Counting today's stats (Rosario has a HR and single through the 6th inning), Rosario is on a 12-game hitting streak, and he's producing vintage Rosario-like numbers during this stretch: .333/.392/.522/.914 Perhaps this is a prelude to finishing the AA season strong, and maybe earns him an AFL assignment this fall to make up for those lost 50 games to suspension.

Excellent analysis, and really, your last 3 paragraphs sums up perceptions of Mauer's career in a nutshell- the guy is really a human Rorschach test for how a baseball superstar is perceived by the broad public. The way he effortlessly crushed the HR to RF in the KC series comes to mind, and leaves one wondering if he would be willing to adjust his approach more often.... he even acknowledged in the postgame that he made a simple adjustment to look to do just that. Analysis of Mauer within the context of "doing more" will no doubt occupy baseball statheads for years to come, but for now, have a look at 2 spraycharts of Mauer and another Twin during their very best 17-game stretch of that particular season: http://pitchfx.texasleaguers.com/charts/gen/4080452014061720140815AAAAAspray-chart.png http://pitchfx.texasleaguers.com/charts/gen/4657532013050820130528AAAAAspray-chart.png Yes. Mauer's is Image #1, and the 2 most-pulled hits on the chart came this week (hope for a change afoot?), but though it doesn't rsemble, pulled-ball-wise, Image #2, it bears much too close a resemblance, outfield-distance-wise, to the Twins' former #9-hole punch-and-Judy-on-his-very-best-day hitter, one Pedro Florimon, who as the chart illustrates, somehow managed to pull two homeruns in May, 2013, on the way to a 9 HR season. Image #1 also clearly illustrates your point about the OF and IF shifts against Mauer, LFers have been hugging the line on him all season, with the CF shading heavily to left. Even DicknBert have occasionally talked about the yawning gap between the CFer and RFer. Meanwhile, one IF is almost always positioned to take away Joe's patented GB single back through the box.