jokin

Thanks for clarifying Nick

Whatever the actual case may be, Mauer just completed his second 9 inning stint in CR, with 2 more singles tonight in 4 ABs. That's 6 singles in 15 trips (.400 BA) on his rehab stint....he appears well back on his way to his pre-injury form (parse my words at your pleasure).

Correct. I was in Louisville on Sunday night. I often forget that the International League has a strange concept of "weekend series".

Or Professor Reusse?

Where's the paranoia? The Twins are in the midst of a series of potential trades, AAA tryouts and pitchers/players returning from injury, including May. May's last start in Indy didn't go all that well, if there are lingering issues with his injury, the world won't come to an end if he struggles tonight and goes back down to Rochester to get his health or form back to 100% for another turn or two.

Gardy giving Joe a little needle?

There's little doubt that Mauer will be back on Monday in Houston, so it has to be a pitcher going down (or out) after tomorrow...supposedly Nolasco's return was going to be further stretched out. There are no Twins starters projected after Wednesday. If Correia is traded/DFAd, after Monday's start, Nolasco would fit nicely into KC's next scheduled turn, or because of the day off Thursday, on Friday, in the "May slot" if things don't go well tonight.

Depending on how tonight goes, it could be May.

"OK...Yeah"..... but how many were 100 MPH?

Not just you, Jeremy. (Actually, I cringe on any ball hit to Arcia).

You mean for this series,...or for good? (What Oakland is doing overall is good for baseball, just not good for the Twins when they get beaten)

If ZJ can come back at 100%, watch out...what a potential pen just a year from now. I am thinking Hicks is traded once the Twins are certain Buxton is settled in. Will the Twins keep Ortiz around taking a 40-man spot until this occurs?

As is often the case, every team playing today has their lineup posted except one...

Ouch! Apparently getting scooped smarts a little bit, jovial jocularity maybe, but Seth did strike a Minnesota-type passive-aggressive nerve::

Take that issue up with Dave, not me. And since you asked about the BB% from each of the M & M boys in their last start, here you go: May BB% 14.3% BB/9 6.00 Meyer BB% 13.6% BB/9 4.76 Tobi's stats over the last 15 starts answer a broader, more definitive question, but reach the same conclusion. Most importantly, when it comes to BB%-BB/9, the ratio of strikeouts, ground balls and weakly hit balls must be properly taken into account.

Nope. I'm metaphysically certain that Meyer has outpitched May since the deadline, which was Dave's qualifier, that Meyer had failed to grab the opportunity to get this start. Meyer: ERA/FIP 3.18/2.13 IP 5.2 H 2 ER 2 K 8 BB 3 K/9 12.71 K% 36.4% WHIP 0.88 AVG .105 May: ERA/FIP 6.00/4.70 IP 6 ER 4 K 2 BB 4 K/9 6.00 K% 7.1 % WHIP 2.00 AVG .333

Baseball America just published their top performers in each category per league, Alex Meyer was mentioned as having the best FB and Breaker in the International League (after witnessing him throw on Sunday, I concur!), here are Twins-related results in the FSL: Best Power Prospect Adam Brett Walker, Fort Myers (Twins) Best Pitching Prospect Jose Berrios, Fort Myers (Twins) Best Breaking Pitch Jose Berrios, Fort Myers (Twins) Best Changeup Jose Berrios, Fort Myers (Twins) Best Control Tim Shibuya, Fort Myers (Twins) Best Defensive Shortstop Jorge Polanco, Fort Myers (Twins) Best Infield Arm Niko Goodrum, Fort Myers (Twins) Best Manager Prospect Doug Mietnkiewicz, Fort Myers (Twins) Seems to bode well for Jose Berrios, it's quite interesting, and telling, that he now touches 98 on his FB, but apparently it's only his 3rd best pitch? Wow. Lots of love for Polanco, despite not making the FSL All Star team, plus all the errors he committed. Goodrum is seemingly the forgotten man in the Miracle middle infield and is currently playing in the shadow of Levi Michael, who himself appears to be on the verge of his own promotion. Stuart Turner lost out on the Best Defensive Catcher award to Rays prospect, Justin O’Conner (can't win 'em all, I guess). Is Shibuya now forcing some of the national scribes to sit up and take notice that he might be for real as a legit back-end SP prospect? It appears that some of the national media is picking up on Dougie-Fresh's success in Ft Myers, the Twins better be proactive in moving him up or likely stand to lose him sooner rather than later.

His for the taking? Meyer has clearly outpitched May since the deadline.

Nearly 2.5 hours later, the (excellent) Twins beat guy confirms: Well done, Seth.

Excellent analysis about the war of attrition behind the plate. It might be important to point out, Pinto's professional career is now in its 9th year, will he use up all of his 9 lives behind the plate before the Twins deem him "ready" to be the full-time guy? For every guy like AJ, Suzuki or McCann, who appear to be indestructible out there, how many guys wash out during their minor league years or are eventually forced from the position like Mauer, V-Mart, Donaldson, Napoli? It seems like Pinto is right about 50-50 odds to be in the latter groups. Now I have a couple of "What If?" questions for you and Tobi.... 1a and 1b) One year...and also again for the sake of argument, two years from now,,,to the day, who will be the Twins #1 and #2 catchers? 2a and 2b) Let's say that one year from now....and also again for the sake of argument, two years from now...to the day, let's say that Kurt Suzuki breaks a hamate bone and is out for the season, just after, and on the same day that Eric Fryer is traded to the Dodgers for Miguel Sulbaran's younger brother. Let's also assume that the Twins are 3.5 games out, behind the AL Central-leading Detroit Tigers. Who would/should be the Twins #1 and #2 catchers from among this group......Pinto, Hermann, Rohlfing, Koch, Knudson, Turner, Garver?

I'd much rather watch a struggling May or Gibson than an Andrew Albers/Yohan Pino tease debut (which tends to make certain Twins fans go back into just-as-unfounded, "manic mode").

Yep. All the suits were there on Monday in Lousiville, and somehow despite the bad results, May finally passed the test. Nothing like throwing the kid right into the fire. Congrats to someone who put in a lot of hard work to get to this point. Now hopefully the suits can get back to work on finding a way to get Correia off the roster before the end of the month.

Great list, Shane. Do your students do their homework as well as you do yours? 1a) What? Where's the love for Stephen Pryor? /jk 1b) What? How is Brandon Paulson not in your Top 20? /smh, but while also- /jk 2) On Danny Ortiz, he really stood out at the plate on my visit to Louisville, so much so that I looked up his numbers and discovered after a slow start upon promotion, he's really coming on in AAA.....310 BA/.879 OPS over the last month or so. He looks fine in LF, do you have a feel enough for his defense to hazard a guess if he can make it to the Twins as a 4th OF? It looks like they have to make a decision on keeping him or not by November, what's your verdict? 3) Some are writing off Zach Jones after his aneurysm (based on their drafting of a boatload of RPs of late, maybe even the Twins management, as well?), anything you've seen or heard tell you different? The prospects of a healthy Jones and Burdi together in a Twins pen in a year or so is mouth-watering. 4) Any Dominican/International under the radar types that are poised to jump onto your list? (ie,19 year old SS, Manuel Guzman, takes more BBs than Ks, glove?...is in the Aderlin Mejia- or Engelb Vielma- type player-mode or something else?.....And what about Diaz and Tapia in DSL?- I fear that the Twins kept missing the boat on all of the Cubans, and now the money is really coming in to outbid the Twins on the best young Caribbeans)

Kind of curious why Hicks didn't play tonight vs. Indianapolis.

Yep. As Gardy so eloquently said in a press conference in 2011. "Come on guys, this is simple stuff."