jokin

This is why he's an intriguing prospect, but leaves some confusion and cause for concern about his ceiling. Here's a capsule summary after his rookie league debut: "Baseball America's pre-draft scouting report noted that he 'entered the spring as a potential first-round pick, but his stock has fallen as scouts have been disappointed with his inconsistent velocity and command.' Gonsalves signed for $700,000--which is $150,000 more than third-rounder Stuart Turner and $320,000 more than fifth-rounder Aaron Slegers--and had a very impressive pro debut, posting a 0.95 ERA and 39 strikeouts in 28 innings split between two levels of rookie-ball. Gonsalves is 6-foot-5 with a low-90s fastball and developing curveball, which along with the strong debut suggests plenty of long-term upside." So he appears to definitely be a better prospect than Milone, but "How much Better? is the question. He certainly needs a promotion ASAP to start answering that question. He's making a mockery of the Midwest League.

And don't they have the major league rule about adding a pitcher for a DH? (I see on the Red Wings twitter that this was the corresponding transaction they made, I'm not sure why Vargas couldn't have been activated in the second game, if he had been interested in playing in it.)

I hope they also come to the realization that Neal Allen might be just the guy to work with Meyer.

I'm assuming he would be a FA after 2017. I'm also surprised that there has been no push by the media boys to do something more drastic about this situation. I go back to Gardy's proposal in 2014 ST to bring him north in the pen, and have him working on his mechanical issues with the best the organization has to offer. And just this last weekend, we had a big article interviewing all of the Tampa Bay stud pitchers amidst heaping all of their highest praise for Neal Allen's innovative approach that has led to countless success stories with young, aspiring high-potential, arms. With all that is invested by this organization in Meyer's success, it's somewhat stunning that Meyer is not working with Allen on a daily basis. I mean, Meyer's already demonstrated mastery of AAA in 2014, something has obviously gone horribly wrong with him in 2015

Yeah, the folks who were thinking it might only be a week or two appear to be way off... I thought he at least would have played in the night game last night, plus as Seth noted, Rodriguez went down early in Game 1. If he isn't immediately mashing, we may not see him by the end of June, the Twins will then have service time incentives to keep him down for 2.5 months.

May I ask that you do a weekly scan of guys who aren't performing, your words appear to have magical qualities. (Maybe start with Joe Mauer, and work your way down?)

Spot on, I've been wondering the exact same thing. So, since apparently Time is not of the Essence, it's NOT going to be a quick turnaround thing to make a quick fix on his swing?

Liam Hendriks, like many other current and past ex-Twins is currently a Canadian refugee, and has revitalized his career as a RP for the Blue Jays: 13 G 17.1 IP ERA 3.63 xFIP 2.92 SIERA 2.41 K/9 8.83 BB/9 1.56 H/9 5.7 BA .180 Maybe there's hope for Milone, yet?

I'd like to think TR, Paul Molitor and Jack Goin read my blog, even though it was all in good fun: Shane Robinson, lifetime in PNC is .323 BA .758 OPS 144 OPS+ He's worked 2 BB in 6 PAs vs. Liriano, seting Nolasco up for the big bop to follow. (And with Escobar and Rosario ready to PH for them).

He beat my forecast, too. He became a little wild in his last couple innings, but still came up with big pitches to get out of trouble. I like eyewitness reports about hitting 94 on the gun, and especially missing so many veteran bats. My Hu skepticism dropped quite a bit today, as I pondered below, this shakes up the whole prospect leaderboard, and puts everyone on notice.

Yep, and add in a low K, heavy flyball guy who might find exaggerated success in O.co, AT&T or Petco (his HR/FB rate is 50% higher with the Twins than previously).

Uhh, I get downplaying this to a great extent- it's safe to say we don't have a revitalized wunderkind knocking on the door, but there aren't many pitchers at any level who could give "more" than the 23 straight scoreless innings, with all the Ks and good control. What he's accomplished since his demotion is a good example for everyone put into this situation- he's let his performances do his talking about wanting to get back where he belongs. Let's give the guy the props he deserves, even on the smaller stage.

The Durham club is going to be pretty prickly after getting sliced and diced by crafty Tommy Milone yesterday evening. Provided they didn't drink away their sorrows and are severely hung over this morning, I have a feeling they will be in the mood for hunting bear. If Hu can make a minimum qualifying quality start- 6 IP 3 ER with decent control- or a little better, that would be a huge shot in the arm for his confidence, as well as his chances going forward (as well as a shot across the bow of all the other pitching prospects currently ranked ahead of him). One thing's for sure, the Twins felt confident enough to throw him in the deep end of the pool, life is full of opportunities, I hope Hu grabs it and starts to make believers out of the rest of us.

Spot on. Geez Chief, you're already on your game, at what? 5:28 AM?

All Hail the new King of AAAA pitchers... Hail to thee O Tommy Mi-Lone-E!.. (At least until thee Fail in MLBee)

He's coming off of a lost year, and hadn't played in over a year and half. Revisit the error issue in September, my guess is he will have improved dramatically on that still-rather-insignificant statistic.

This post isn't approved for general viewing, but since I did spend some time and thought composing it and trying to impart serious intent, I feel it does relate some more pretty cogent facts to the debate on the "Nunez back/Vargas optioned to AAA" thread. I thought that a blog-piece might be just the place for it. This post was made in response to a poster that felt that those opposed to the Vargas demotion were "shading" the truth of what the Twins brass was thinking on the matter, that Bernier occupying a spot and not playing, benefited the club, and the poster also went on to say that what Vargas currently has to offer in helping the Twins in their current situation for the week upcoming was "minimal, at best". Here's my response: That's pretty dismissive of a guy who has been one of the Twins top 3 producers since April 29. In truth, since Vargas had his time off, here's his slash- .347/.373/.510/(.883) OPS+ 148 In the spirit of the humorous vein intended..... I'm thinking that how the Twins FO got to the "shade that they're throwing" went something like this in Sunday's pregame personnel pow-wow- Jack Goin- "Hi TR. Hi Mr Molitor. Hey, I really have to give out big props to you and Bruno. Since you gave Kennys that time off, he's just a shade lower in production than our top of the order guys, Dozier and Hunter. He's making a ton more hard contact, he's cut his strikeout rate by over 20%... and I know you won't believe this, he's flipped his base-running numbers from negative to positive. And I don't want to shade this, but the timing couldn't be better, we go to PIttsburgh on Tuesday, and many of our other bats are either hurt, scuffling, or in the cases of Hicks and Rosario, still adjusting to major league pitching. And the best thing is, due to your recent playing patterns, Vargas is well-rested and ready.... perhaps Mauer has become a little fatigued and needs to clear his head, my back-tested numbers suggest that he could use a day off on this road trip---" Unnamed Twins Manager- "We leave tomorrow morning, gotta get Nunie back on the 25-man and make the corresponding move. Robinson is already back as the back-up OF, we certainly have plenty of depth in the OF.... Jack Goin- And may I suggest, great timing on this move, this morning, Sir...! SugaShane is a lifetime .323 BA/.758 OPS hitter in PNC Park! Of course, he's only hit .206/.570 as a PH, so it's sure a good thing that we can use Vargas in that role when he can't DH, having that power bat on the bench increases our chances of winning a close game by nearly 11%--- Unnamed Twins General Manager- --- I wasn't aware of Robbie's history at PNC, make a note, Rob... cc'd to Paul.... let's mark him down for some late inning PH duty. Now about that depth situation, 5 OF, adding Nunie into the mix makes it possibly 6 out there, plus we now have not one, not two, but THREE utility infielders! Well this is coming together quite nicely, and best of all, since Bernier "provides the benefit of not playing him", I think we have our 25-man roster set for the roadtrip. Jack Goin- Uhh, Skip, my current numbers indicate that the roster is still at 26.. or were you thinking about DLing Duensing.... my numbers indicate that currently, Duece can't get his own Grandmother ou-.....? Unnamed Twins General Manager- Thanks for your input Jack, I truly value your clear and honest background light-sabre analysis, and especially without the green eyeshade. Uhh, Rob, why don't you go ahead and make the travel arrangements for Vargas? And be sure to let Quade know that we take care of the affiliates in this organization... (Geez Louise! did we really give him both Vargas and Hu in the same week?)

Are you envisioning another spot for Mauer before then?

That'll be a long wait to 2019, though.

I too heard that interview and commented on it here. Since we've become accustomed to the level of spin in the "message", it's always interesting trying to read the tea leaves amidst that spin. Clearly, the club is enamored with Rosario and his developmental arc, especially since the AFL experience. Somewhat uncharacteristically, they showed no hesitation in slotting him at AAA coming out of ST, despite him not demonstrating mastery at the AA level, and have now taken the next step in his fast track, by promoting him to the big club and piled on votes of confidence, before he'd demonstrated mastery of AAA pitching. I give them kudos for pushing and challenging a prospect, but as I mentioned in my post, the praise heaped on Rosario in the radio interview, came at the expense of Buxton and Sano... and for all intents and purposes, Antony slated Sano for an OF job with the Twins. Obviously, the Twins OF situation is extremely over-crowded at this point in time. Antony's comments seemed to imply that we won't be seeing Buxton and Sano any time soon- and those are the guys with more talent than Rosario- and who should be pushed at least as fast as Eddie.

And 4 Ks to only one BB is nice, too.

Chalk it up to a bad BABIP-related week, with a BABIP of .048 during this slump- his K% actually was 14%, lower than his season average around 18%.. And it looks like he's already begun to solve this mini-slump this evening, going 3-5 with a triple, double and single.

And Buxton finishes the evening with a league-leading 7th triple, double and single (plus a stolen base- 10th on the season), in 5 ABs.... as I said, I think he'll be just fine.

Exactly, he's pretty much in a 5-day (6 games) slump, during which, his BABIP is .048. And his K% is at 14%, well down from his season average. His contact rate is way up this month, as Kab21 states, this appears to be pretty much an ordinary slump, my guess is:he will be just fine.

Couldn't disagree with this conclusion more. Most of these guys have just been promoted to a new, and often significant jump in competitive level and are playing in situations where they may be as many as 3 years younger than the average age in their new leagues. At least two of the top prospects had completely lost seasons in 2014. Today is May 15, just about halfway through the month, certainly 14 games or so of significantly improved production is a good (but by no means, perfect) indicator that proper adjustments are being made, and that the top prospects are likely resuming their expected/hoped-for minor league development arcs. I think it's especially worthwhile to pay close attention at AA level in particular, as sustained superior production there can offer a quick ticket to the major leagues.