Thrylos

They dispersed pretty much after he left as well. Teams send advance scouts sometimes, but the Cubs and Padres do not have many games with the Twins...

Chargois and Reed were cut before this decision was made. May was not their competition, Tonkin (who has been horrid) is

Thanks! That must have been quick. I was looking at Hughes on the other side and when I turned around when the A+ Twins were hitting Jepsen was tossing, so I assumed that he threw the first inning. No wonder I missed May.

I'd definitely add 26 year old Carlos Paulino whom the Twins acquired as a MiLB FA before last season and spent last season between Chattanooga and Rochester to the equation. Really like the way he has been handling pitchers and he can do ok with the stick.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---- Today, for the second start in a row, the Twins chose not to pitch Phil Hughes against the Orioles (a team they open the season with 3 games in Baltimore.) Instead Hughes pitched 5 innings in the back fields with the Twins' A+ team against the Rays' A+ squad. Curt Suzuki was there to catch him. Next door with the A squad, Kevin Jepsen pitched the first inning and Oswaldo Arcia had 3 plate appearances as a DH against the Rays' A team. Phil Hughes labored for 5 innings with 78 pitches, including a 28 pitch second inning, in which the defense behind him failed to convert 3 straight forward double play opportunities. He thew 55 of those pitches in strikes and commanded the ball pretty well, inducing mostly weak ground balls, a couple of fly balls and a couple of strikeouts. His fastball was at 89-91, with one at 92, his cutter 86-91, changeup 81-84 and curve 77-79 mph. These numbers were close to his 2015 velocity averages (90.7 for the FB, and 87.8 for the cutter.) All in all it was a "getting his work in" type of session for Hughes, who by no means cruised against high A competition. Across the field, Kevin Jepsen had a better game, of what I could catch with my peripheral vision, but Oswaldo Arcia stole the show there, hitting a home run close to the major league practice field, under the watching eyes of scouts from the Cubs, Padres, Athletics and another team. The same Rangers' scout who was there yesterday was the single scout scouting Hughes and the Twins' A+ team. Additional impressions from the A team field: Amaurys Minier, the Twins' number 15 prospect for 2016, played First Base, coming off an injury plague season in Elizabethton. His swing seems more compact that it did last season and he legged out a single in a not very hard hit ball at the SS and had another opposite field single at an outside corner ball with full count. Also went from first to third with ease on a ball hit to Right Field. His speed and running has been improved, since Minier has been pretty much a non-factor in the base paths his whole career. He made a couple of good fielding plays at first base, moving easily both to his left and to his right and made secure and on the spot underhand throws to the pitcher to get the outs. Jermaine Palacios, the Twins' number 8 prospect for 2016, played Short Stop at that game. He seems not to have gained a pound last off-season, but his fielding, which has been for a good reason, was fine. He made several routine plays at shortstop and did not look tentative making them, but he was not really challenged. In the couple of plate appearances I followed, he showed quick wrists and good contact capabilities. I saw a single plate appearance by Travis Blackenhorn, the Twins' number 38 prospect for 2016. He has the capability of making contact since he saw several balls and fouled a lot of them. He went with the ball and was able to move it to the opposite field. Would need work to start making productive contact, but the basics are there. He did not look tentative at all and went around his business like he owned the box. Reminded me a bit of a young(er) Max Kepler. 22 year old lefty Sam Clay, pitched 4 innings in that contest. He featured an 89-91 mph fastball with good movement in both planes and a low 80s slider and change up. The slider is above average at this point and has the potential of being a plus pitch, but his control with all of his pitches is all over the place. If he learns how to command and control them, the former 4th round draft pick of 2014, will be someone to watch for. But he is still a work in progress. He looks like a good defender, defending a tough bunt towards his throwing arm side flawlessly. 25 year old Tyler Stirewalt, a righty who was drafted by the Twins in the 21st round of the 2013 draft and lost all of 2014 and part of 2015 to injuries, also pitched in that game. He threw a 90-92 mph fastball and a 77-79 slurve. Many command and control issues as well, but there is potential there. However being 25 and never pitching above Rookie ball, might mean that there might not be time to realize that potential. A couple of snippets from the other field: Max Murphy, the Twins 9th Round pick in 2014, a Minnesotan from Robbinsdale looked like a man on a mission. This is his age 23 season and he really looks bulked up and much stronger. He legged out a triple in a long hit at the CF over the defenders' heads and scored in the subsequent play by tagging up after a shallow ball at the RF. After an excellent 2014, he did not do much last season in Cedar Rapids, but definitely someone to pay attention to this season. Felix Jorge, the Twins' number 20 prospect for 2016 pitched 2 innings for the high A team. I had a chance to watch one of them. His sinker was from 91-93 with good heavy action and his changeup was in the low 70s and it was pretty much lethal as usual. Seemed to have good control with the fastball, which has been questionable in spots. The big question mark around Jorge is weather he will have the stamina to be a started, which will likely take more than a season to answer. Regretted not seeing Nick Gordon and Lamond Wade who were injured as well as Trevor May who threw after I departed. Tomorrow Ricky Nolasco will be starting in the back fields, while the Twins will be playing the Red Sox at the Jet Blue Stadium and I will be there to give you the action on the field by him, as well as by the scouts on the bleachers.

Here. His fastball averaged 92 mph last spring. 3 mph more than his average yesterday. Was in the 94 mph range the Spring before. Any way you cut it, he lost velocity. And that spells trouble.

Hughes today in the back fields (handheld radar gun) : FB: 89-91 one at 92 Cutter: 87-89 Change: 81-84 Curve: 76-79 (charted his pitched the first 3 innings, then moved to the other field.) Jorge Felix: 91-93 2-seamer 77-79 change did not see him throw his curveball.

The Radar in the Hammond Stadium scoreboard is notoriously fast. I have seen Duensing hit 97 there once. My readings in the back fields are from a handheld gun.

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch ---------- Today the Twins had a 7:05 PM game hosting the Boston Red Sox. At 1PM the Twins' AAA and AA teams hosted the equivalent of the Orioles'. I spent the afternoon watching the Twins AA team, before moved to Hammond Stadium in the evening for the nightcap. I was delighted to see that Tyler Jay was the starter for the AA game. Jay was ranked as the Twins' number 2 prospect in my off-season 2016 rankings and I have to say that he proved me happy with that ranking. He pitched for a full 4 innings and featured 4 pitches: a 93-94 mph FB that topped at 96, an 85-86 mph slider, an 81-83 mph change up and a 77-80 mph curve. This is a very effective pitch mix for him. He has a short arm delivery and hides the ball well. He commands all pitches well and his fastball is definitely his out pitch; sets it up beautifully with the slider and the change up. He throws his curve low and outside the strike zone to make hitters chase it; and they do. At this level. One of the questions about Jay has been the ability to be a started as far as endurance goes. Today he was not frugal with his pitches, which is something that he would have to learn as he matures as a professional. His Catcher was 25 year old Joe Maloney who the Twins signed as a minor league free agent after an MVP season in the Canadian-American Association Independent League Rockland Boulders. Maloney's problem is that he is not a very good catcher and he showed that today, having a throw sail over the head of the second baseman on a steal attempt and two passed balls. The second passed ball bounced off Maloney's glove to the home plate umpire's hand to his cup, incapacitating the umpire. Twins' legend Tom Kelly had to call balls and strikes behind the pitcher for the next half inning before a replacement umpire relieved him: Another new minor league free agent on display today was Keury De La Cruz. The 24 year old outfielder has one of the longest swings I have seen with an extremely violent back swing. After his first PA, I mumbled that someone will get hurt here, and in the 5th inning, it happened to get the Baltimore catcher's head with that backswing. Some serious coaching needs to happen here. De La Cruz provided a bit of a comic relief sliding feet first about 2 feet to the left of where a routine fly ball fell in the second inning. Will not be surprised in the Twins bite the bullet and cut him soon. The Twins signed 27 year old RHP Omar Belcomo from the American Association Independent League where he last played for the Wichita Lugnuts, to make 3 starts for the Fort Myers Miracle at the end of their season. Belcomo last played affiliated ball in 2011 for the Tampa Bay Rays single A team at Bowling Green. He is an interesting player to keep an eye on, as he is a poor man's Sam Deduno. He has two pitches: A fastball that goes from 86 to 91, which he can absolutely not command and goes all over the place, including the head of a Baltimore hitter in his second inning of work. His second pitch is a 77-81 mph change up that actually is an above average to a plus pitch, and a pitch that he seems to be able to control. Raul Fernandez was another of the minor league free agents the Twins signed last off-season. The 25 year old RHP Dominican was converted from Catcher to Pitcher by the Rockies after his first DSL season and spent last season in the White Sox' AA team. Long arm motion with 92-93 mph FB with late pop, an 88 mph cutter/2-seamer and a low 80s change up. Very good ability to mix them and throw them all for strikes and good command. He seemed to confuse batters. Brian Gilbert seems to get his fastball up a couple ticks, consistently hitting 94 and 95 with a couple of 96 mph. He complemented that with an 85-86 mph slider. Seemed to be effectively wild, but it is the start of the Spring Training. Just 23, drafted by the Twins in the 7th round in 2013; keep your eye open for him. Yorman Landa was the last pitcher for the AA Twins, fresh from the MLB side of Spring Training. I last saw him pitch a couple seasons ago and he is a different pitcher. He supplemented his excellent high 80s low 90s 2-seamer with a 4-seamer that sit at 93-95 and popped up to 96, but is straight with inconsistent command and control. Straight FBs at 95 and 96 will get hit hard by good AA hitters and that is what happened to him today. His 78-81 mph curve was good. He did not throw a change up today. Definite potential there, but he needs work. Something to keep in mind: Today watching the Twins' AA pitchers was a Texas Rangers' (who train in AZ) scout. Not sure that anything is going on, but he was there. Fast forward a few hrs to the Twins' MLB game at Hammond Stadium against the Red Sox. Kyle Gibson was the starter, and he had things really working for him, including his best pitch, a slider, purely made of filth, dancing at 84-86 mph and striking out Red Sox who were either looking at it with open eyes or swinging and missing wildly. That today was a FranKKKKKKKKKKKKKie Liriano slider in his prime, Ladies and Gentlemen. Four seamer 92-95, two seamer high 80s, and a changeup at 79-81 was the rest of Gibson's repertoire tonight. Gibson was in mid-season form. Another player who was in mid-season form was Miguel Sano, who punished a Bucholtz breaking ball deeply off the Centerfield wall for a double, and even more importantly made a solid catch in RF and threw a pea that would had thrown the tagging runner out at third if Trevor Plouffe did not bobble the ball. Back to pitching. One of the greatest mysteries this spring has been Glen Perkins' velocity, so I charted all of his pitches. Here they are: FB 90, FB 89, FB 91, FB 86, FB 89, SL 78, FB 91, FB 88, SL 78, SL 79, SL 81, FL 89, FB 89, FB 90, SL 81, FB 89. 86-91 mph FB and 78-81 mph SL. This is a good 5-6 mph off where Perkins need to be to be effective. Nevertheless this should be raising more Red Flags to the Twins' brass than there are outside the Kremlin... Have a few more notes from today, but for the sake of brevity, I will include them in one of the future writeups

Perkins tonight: FB 90, FB 89, FB 91, FB 86, FB 89, SL 78, FB 91, FB 88, SL 78, SL 79, SL 81, FL 89, FB 89, FB 90, SL 81, FB 89. Gibson: FB 92-95, 2seamer 89-90, SL 84-86, CH 79-81 Fien FB 90-91, one pitch at 75 likely CB Boshiers: FB 91-92, SL 83-85. one CH at 79 Got minor leaguers here, including Jay, if interested

Nah. He faced one other competitive team. Houston He was not "pretty good". Really

That's my point. And he was awful against Toronto.

a. Small Sample Size b. His better games were after the rosters expanded in September, thus not exactly totally MLB competition c. Opponents OPS: Innings 1-3: .446, 4-6 .810, 7-9: 1.320 Not all of us are convinced that Duffey is a MLB starter...

That would matter if: a. the sport in discussion was dash and not baseball b. the Twins had a choice between Buxton and Hamilton

Yeah, but you really need to get on base to steal it I wonder why they just don't have him try to bunt his way on base more. That might be a way of getting out of the funk

For how much minor league records matter, I would suggest that you have a look at the minor league records of: Scott Stahoviak and Dave McCarty among others'. Lots of similarities with McCarty. He was a third overall pick and BA's number 16 overall at some point. Career .306/.395/.517 in the minors and .242/.305/.371 in the majors. We don't know what Buxton will do. But he has a fatal flaw right now: pitch recognition. And it does not look fixed. And until it is fixed he will not be a good hitter. Good possibility he might have another subButerean year at the plate in the majors.

The reason that Kepler has been backing him up is that Santana is out with a wrist issue. Rosario played at CF yesterday. Not sure what the Twins will do, but Buxton has twice as many strikeouts as hits and four times as many as walks this spring, which tells me that his problem is not fixed. Unless they feel that he is improved because his OBP is .261 this Spring instead of .250 last season, they are blowing hot air

I liked what I saw from Chargois. I think that he pitched better than a lot of the other pitchers who are still in camp. I was hoping that he might actually get North. Surprised by that choice there

I think the more interesting aspect here is who will be the first to get off the 40-man roster: Dean Rogers Strong, or Tonkin? (alphabetically)

Surprised that there were only 5 cuts. Guys like AWII, for example need to get more PAs and field reps in the game that he can get now at the MLB camp with people actually fighting for jobs...

Measured by?

Parmelee has signed a minor league contract. Morneau has no incentives to do so, I suspect. If he is asking $3-4M, he will not be signed...

True, but it is easier to scrap a pitch than develop it, and especially knowing that if you don't throw it you will be better off...

"Die Religion ... ist das Opium des Volkes" was the last time I heard something close to that expression, and that was written in the 1840s. Appreciate the analogy, really But these days, yeah, one can measure luck and abstain from both Religion and Opiates...

So, better player based on what? I gave an objective metric. I'd love to see your objective metric, other than your subjective opinion... Let me know if you have one... (fWAR has Plouffe at 2.5 and Freese and 2.2, and bWAR at 2.5 vs 2.3, which is a wash...)