Seth Stohs

No update. He had an injury in spring training, not sure the injury, so he's working back from that. He mentioned after the draft that he hoped to play 2B, but when the scouts were asked about it, they said maybe but they think he'll be an outfielder. He may play around the field a bit.

Maybe we'll have a story at some point... I'll see what we can do.

One month of games are under the minor league belts as the calendar turns from May to June. It’s time to start our first round of monthly Twins minor league awards. Tonight, we talk about the starting pitchers who have started the 2021 season strong. Before we share our choices for the Twins Minor League Top Four Starters for May, there were some other strong starting performers that just missed the cut. Let’s discuss the top starting pitchers in the organization in the season’s first month. It's great that there were several deserving choice this month. HONORABLE MENTION RHP Andrew Cabezas - Cedar Rapids Kernels - 6 G, 5 GS, 27.2 IP, 2.93 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 18 H, 11 BB, 21 K RHP Blayne Enlow - Cedar Rapids Kernels - 3 GS, 14.2 IP, 1.84 ERA, 1.30 WHIP, 13 H, 6 BB, 23 K RHP Cole Sands - 5 GS, 22.0 IP, 2.45 ERA, 1.14 WHIP, 13 H, 12 BB, 28 K RHP Bailey Ober - St. Paul Saints - 4 GS, 16.0 IP, 2.81 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 13 H, 5 BB, 21 K THE TOP FOUR STARTING PITCHERS #4 - RHP Tyler Beck - Cedar Rapids Kernels - 4 G, 2 GS, 16.0 IP, 2.25 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 8 H, 4 BB, 19 K That Tyler Beck is on the list of starters is part of the story. He was the Twins 30th round draft pick in 2019 after being the closer for the Division II champion U of Tampa. He had a circuitous route to pro ball that went through D2, the Big 10, junior college, and he was a reliever all the way. He worked in long relief for the Kernels his first two games this year, but he ended the month with two starts, the first of which was his first start since high school. He has been fantastic. Matt Wallner was his roommate when the players were staying at a hotel earlier this month. He said, “His curveball doesn’t look fun to face. He spots his fastball too. He gets some stupid-looking swings. It’s been fun to watch. He’s going to keep doing it because he fills up the zone. It’s been impressive.” #3 - LHP Kody Funderburk - Cedar Rapids Kernels - 5 G, 4 GS, 18.1 IP, 1.13 ERA, 0.67 WHIP, 12 H, 4 BB, 34 K Funderburk was the Twins 15th round draft pick in 2018 out of Dallas Baptist where he was a pitcher and a power hitter. Since joining the Twins organization, he has solely been used on the mound. He made 12 appearances for the Kernels in 2019. After a lost 2020 season, Funderburk is back with the Kernels, though of course they are now the High-A affiliate. He was the team’s Opening Night starter and has been very good and efficient too. In a recent start, he threw 55 pitches over 5 2/3 innings. His manager said, “He was really efficient. He got a ton of ground balls. Didn’t strike out many guys, but he had that cutter working in on their hands and got a lot of weak contact to the left side of the infield. Keeps the infield on their toes when he works that quick and gets a lot of action.” #2 - RHP Josh Winder - Wichita Wind Surge - 5 GS, 24.1 IP, 1.48 ERA, 0.90 WHIP, 16 H, 6 BB, 30 K Winder is the prospect with the most helium over the past six to nine months, and his performance on the mound in the season’s first month has justified it. He was the Twins seventh round draft pick in 2018 out of Virginia Military Institute. He spent the full 2019 season in Cedar Rapids and did well. At instructional league last fall, his fastball bumped up to 97 mph from 92 mph and he opened eyes. He went to big-league spring training, and this year he skipped High-A and jumped right to Double-A. He was the Wind Surge Opening Day starter, and he has been terrific. He went 4 2/3 innings in his first start and has completed five innings in three of his past four starts. The only game he didn’t pitch five? Well, he had four no-hit innings at Tulsa before a rain delay. Wichita manager Ramon Borrego said he noticed Winder at Instructional League. “We had reports that Winder threw a good slider and his fastball was 90, 93 mph. When I saw that guy throwing on the mound at 97-98, I was like, ‘Oh my gawd!’ He’s a big, strong guy, a really hard worker. I remember meeting with (minor league director) Alex Hassan and saying ‘I think this guy can be really good.’” Winder is continually trying to improve. He recently said, “I didn’t feel quite satisfied with my first two outings and made some adjustments between the second and third start, took more control of the game. This last start I was a little more aggressive. So I’m slowly getting back into facing other teams and getting back into season form. Just polishing some finer points of my game and figuring out how to best use my stuff. It’s been fun. Definitely been getting into a groove, so hopefully I can keep that going.” And the Twins Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month is: Cedar Rapids Kernels - RHP Matt Canterino - 4 GS, 18.0 IP, 1.00 ERA, 0.72 WHIP, 10 H, 3 BB, 35 K Matt Canterino was the Twins second-round pick in the 2019 draft out of Rice University. He ended that year with a handful of starts with Low-A Cedar Rapids. During the lost 2020 season, Canterino did get to spend time at the Twins alternate site in St. Paul and at Fall Instructional League. Before the start of spring training, video surfaced on Twitter of him hitting 99 mph on the radar gun. Canterino was invited to Twins spring training in the development camp and began his season at High-A Cedar Rapids where he has dominated. In his four starts, he has six strikeouts in three innings, nine strikeouts in five innings, 10 strikeouts in six innings and 10 strikeouts in four innings. He has just three walks on the season and two of them came in his first start. After his most recent outing, manager Brian Dinkelman said, “Another good night for Matt. Had all his pitches working tonight. He had ten strikeouts. He’s just throwing the ball really well for us right now, and giving us good starts. We’re excited about the way he’s throwing the ball and keeps progressing and hopefully he will get himself to the big leagues hopefully one of these days.” Canterino said of his early season success and strategy. “The main focus is getting ahead early, and staying ahead throughout the at bat. Trying to play to my strengths. You just want to make good pitches early in the count in the zone and force them to do something with it. There are so many swings-and-misses and so many easy outs to be had if you’re in the strike zone early on. It’s important to do that. Hitting is so tough, so if you’re in the zone early with a couple of different pitches, you often times find yourself in those counts where you can get a strikeout.” Congratulations to our Twins Daily Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month of May, Cedar Rapids RHP Matt Canterino, and all of the starting pitchers who got off to a strong start after their long layoffs. Feel free to discuss and ask questions. Follow Twins Daily on Twitter and participate in this Twitter Poll. View full article

I think it's fair to say that Shoemaker was not as bad as his final stat line would indicate. 1.) Innings 1-4 were good. 2-4 very good. 2.) He got BABIP'd (seeing eye singles) in the fifth, and 3.) The runners he left on base scored. It's also impossible to say that his performance on the game was anything better than Not Good.

That would sure make a lot of sense to me...

Yup, they could move on from their best reliever in May to a soft-tossing lefty. HA! This was a good one though... I also feel bad putting in the pronunciation of Coo-Lum here. ?

I've addressed it in the comments section the last couple of days... He hurt his shoulder on a swing last Sunday. They're obviously being extra cautious. The hope was for him to play sometime this weekend, but they might as well wait until Tuesday at this point, give him Sunday, day off Monday...

Not Matt, but... Yes, Vasquez has had a few bouts of wildness like this. He literally throws like 90% sliders, so it's probably not too surprising when it happens. He's been really good to that point this year though. Minaya's been around a long time. he's pitched in a ton of big league games and in all kinds of situations. I've always said, Kirilloff is probably a little higher ranked prospect than Larnach, but Larnach is so good and should not be far behind at all. He's very good, very professional.

I don't know the full story, but I know he had some stuff going on in his personal life. He also was coming off a tough year and had moved around quite a bit... I'm sure there were several reasons.

That's a good question... In general, I think a guy should be at a level for two months. We've seen it many times before. A guy can have a great month and then struggle in month two as they get into the season and as teams get some sort of scouting on them. They will also have seen a team 2-3 times rather than just once.

With all the injuries around baseball, position players and pitchers, it is wise to be cautious... Definitely seems low, but I'm sure they're trying to map it out as much as they can.

Now it's about opportunity and a 40-man roster decision.

Heading into Friday, Ft. Myers Mighty Mussels infielder Edouard Julien has a .505 on-base percentage, which ranks fifth among all minor leaguers (any level) with more than 35 plate appearances. His first 21 games have been great. Get to know more about the 2019 Twins draft pick from Canada, via Auburn. Edouard Julien grew up in Quebec, Canada. He went to Cardinal Roy Secondary School in L’Acienne-Lorette, a suburb just west of Quebec City. He starred on the Canadian national teams as he grew up. He played with current Twins prospects Jordan Balazovic and Landon Leach and former Twins minor leaguer Matt Jones. Julien said, “I played on the junior national team at 16-years-old. I was pretty lucky to be a part of it. I don’t think I would be where I am today without being on that team.” In 2017, he was selected in the 37th round of the MLB draft by the Phillies. Instead of signing, he chose to attend Auburn University. “I had different opportunities, but Auburn was a pretty good spot for me because Coach Bohanan at the time was a recruiter there and he usually recruits a lot of Canadians. He’s got a pretty good connection with the Team Canada coach, so it made me pretty comfortable to go with him because I knew he had a lot of Canadians before. And I liked the place. Auburn was a good fit. It’s a good conference, and I wanted to go play college and get my game a little bit better for the next level.” As a freshman in 2018, he hit .275/.398/.556 (.954) with seven doubles and 17 homers. He broke Frank Thomas’s freshman record with 69 RBI. He didn’t have quite as strong a season in 2019. He hit .258/.388/.453 (.841) with 14 doubles and ten homers. Individually, he was disappointed, but his team played in the College World Series. “It’s one of the coolest experiences that I’ve had. To play in front of a lot of people. To play for your school and compete for the NCAA championship, that was pretty cool. I enjoyed it a lot.” One of his teammates is a current teammate and fellow 2019 Twins draft pick Will Holland. “I played two years with him. He’s a very, very good shortstop. He’s a five-tool player. He can run. He can hit. He can throw. He’s very, very good.” The Twins drafted Julien in the 18th round as a draft-eligible sophomore. He didn’t think he would sign. He wanted to go back to Auburn and have a better season. However, the Twins came to him late in the process and gave him 4th round money. He signed. “In my head, I was going to go back to college and have a better year because my sophomore year wasn’t very good. Just before the signing date, they offered me and I decided to sign. It was kind of crazy, but I’m happy I did, and I’m happy I’m here now.” Soon after, he went to Lima, Peru, to represent Canada in the Pan-Am Games. Unfortunately, he didn’t even get to play. “First practice there, we were doing cuts-and-relays. I cut a ball from right field and tried to throw it to home plate. It just flew to the right, and I heard a pop in my elbow. I knew something happened to my arm. I was scared and stressing a lot because there were no doctors in Peru that could tell me what I had. It was pretty stressful. When I came back to Florida, I had an MRI and it told me I had a tear in my UCL. As a position player, it is likely he would have been ready to play sometime in the middle of the 2020 season. Instead, there was no 2020 season, so he went back to Quebec. “I went back home. It was cool. I’d never really had a summer with my family, my friends. I enjoyed it. I hung out with my friends.” So as you can imagine, Julien was very excited to get the 2021 season started. The 22-year-old made his professional debut with the Ft. Myers Mighty Mussels. “It was special. I had goosebumps. I was stressed. I wasn’t sure what to expect. But I was ready to go and attack and play the best baseball I can. I play 100% every time I go out there and that’s what I’m trying to do every day.” After missing so much time, you might think that his approach or plate discipline might take some time to come back. According to his Mighty Mussels Manager Brian Meyer, he’s maintained that all along. “He’s shown that plate discipline even going back to spring training games. You can always tell when Eddie’s up, especially having this automated strike zone system, if there’s a ball that’s off the plate and it’s called a ball, it’s probably a ball. You’re not really guessing or questioning the human umpire, because he does have such a good eye at the plate.” He has an On-Base Percentage over .500 as he is approaching 100 plate appearances on the season (and in his career). However, Meyer added, “He’s a multifaceted hitter and defender. He puts together really quality at bats every time out there. He takes his fair share of walks, but when he gets a pitch in the zone, he gets his swing off and he’s trying to do damage on it.” Julien has walked 22 times and has 23 hits including seven doubles, a triple and on Tuesday, he hit his first professional home run. Julien notes that he’s just trying to keep it simple. “I’m not trying to do too much. Trying to put the ball in play and be locked in and not throw many at bats away as I did in college, and to be more concentrated.” He continued, “I try to take my walks. Essentially I try to make the pitcher beat me, and if he throws it over the plate and it’s something I think I can handle, I’m going to try to put a barrel on it. I think that’s the type of player I am, a little bit of power and I’m going to try to get on base.” The goal is just to try to maintain it over the course of a 120-game season. “Of course I’m trying to cut down on my strikeouts and put the ball in play more. I’m pretty happy with what I’m doing right now, and I’m just trying to have good at bats and being focused, and that’s my main thing, to be 100% locked in on every at bat and not throw any at bats away. It’s a long season. I know it’s going to be hard, but I’ve got to take care of every at bat.” He began the season hitting third or fourth in the Mussels lineup. Recently, he has been hitting at the top of the lineup and continues to thrive. “There’s a lot of college hitters, and we’ve been helping each other. We have a lot of good hitters on this team. I have protection in the lineup. I go up there. I just try to get on base because I know somebody’s going to drive me in.” He’s also continuing to adapt his game, to add elements. For instance, in his two seasons at Auburn, he had ten stolen bases in 127 games. In his 21 games with Ft. Myers, he already has nine stolen bases without being caught. His manager admits, “I didn’t really know about his speed or base running ability coming into the season, and watching him over the first 10-12 games, it was evident, he’s a really good baserunner, very instinctive. I wouldn’t say he’s the fastest, if you put him on a watch, but he does get really good jumps at first base, pays attention to what the pitchers are doing, tries to pick up little tendencies to where he can steal a base and that’s why he’s been so successful with it so far.” For Julien, it’s not necessarily something new, it’s just something that wasn’t a focus in college. “When I was younger, I was more of a slap hitter who could run a lot and I stole a lot of bases. Then I went to college and they changed my swing and made me a power hitter. I think the speed of the game was taken away from me. I feel free here. They’re letting me go and I have the green light. I just like to be aggressive and take everything I can.” And where will he play defensively? Following Tommy John surgery, that’s certainly a question to ask, but like many in the system, his goal is to be versatile enough to keep his bat in the lineup. According to Meyer, “I think more on the defensive side, with the throwing part, he does look very comfortable at second base, and he played third base in college, and we ran him out in the outfield and he held his own out there. He’s played a little bit of first base too. So just a versatile guy, so if he keeps hitting and he keeps that versatility defensively, he could be a very valuable asset to the organization.”” Julien acknowledges, “I’d say I’m more comfortable at second base, but I’m aware that I can be more of a utility guy and my bat is what’s going to keep me in the lineup. I’m comfortable at second. I played left field the other day and I liked it too. I’m ready to play outfield, second base, third, first, wherever the coach wants me to play, I’ll be ready.” And after nearly two years away from baseball, Julien appears ready to take on anything. He hasn’t played since Auburn was eliminated from the 2019 College World Series because of injury and then a pandemic, but he hasn’t missed a beat. Coming into Friday’s game, Julien is hitting .338/.505/.515 (1.020) with seven doubles, a triple, a homer, 18 runs scored and 14 driven in and is nine for nine in stolen base attempts through the first 21 games. View full article

I talked to him a couple of weeks ago. Said things were going well. He's a very driven guy. I would say he'll be active in the instructional league. I'll have to see if I can do a story on what he's up to, what milestones he has passed and things coming up.

Yeah, he hurt his shoulder on a swing on Sunday. Was described as minor but being cautious. I talked to FM Manager Brian Meyer yesterday and he said he expects him to be in the lineup this weekend.

Well, it isn't what it could have been, but it could have gotten there and probably still could. So shutting him down is the right thing.

It's not minor, but it's not yet major. It's likely that they caught it on time. He had a great start most recently with his 10 K game. But this weekend, he was doing a bullpen and his velo was down and he noted that he just didn't quite feel right. So, they checked it out. From what I'm hearing, he'll go to Ft. Myers to rehab, and there is hope that he could be back in 6-8 weeks. That might be optimistic.

That was kind of the point of the article. We talk about the guys who are deemed prospects, but Bieber, Civale and Plesac weren't big-time prospects. Civale and Bieber were 3rd and 4th round picks. Barnes and Sands were 4th and 5th round picks. Plesac a 12th round pick. The Twins have been pretty aggressive with both Sands and Barnes, so they're definitely worth watching.

Encarnacion isn't going to get overwhelmed by the level. He's got a smooth, level swing. And yeah, he plays a really good second base. He has played for Toby Gardenhire in the past and there is a trust factor there. The more harsh reality. I was in Cedar Rapids for their first four games this season. He didn't play in the first two games and then started at second base in the other two games... and he was a guy they brought in to pitch once. Spencer Steer or Michael Helman are better middle infield prospects, but they (organization) want those guys playing most every day. Encarnacion can go up to AAA, not be overwhelmed, and they don't mind him sitting for a few days in a row.

And of course, not he has homered... @Steve Lein, find some more guys who haven't homered yet this year and mention that here too!!

They obviously did it for COVID reasons and distance and less people at the complex. That's a one-year thing. The other thing is there are no minor league playoffs. They're just playing longer, so they'll get the at bats. Miranda and Canterino got time at spring training and kept busy through spring training, so I'm sure they're fine, though neither is an MLB option in the next 2-3 months, if at all in 2021. I don't know who "Wisler" is that you're referring to. If they needed to, they'd be fine going to Celestino. And again, he was at big-league spring training and then in camp. Or they'd be fine dropping Refsnyder and adding Broxton or Contreras or Whitefield or whoever. There were zero plans on Refsnyder playing in the big leagues this year, and if he did, it likely meant that several things went wrong, which they have. When you get to this point on the depth chart, you've just got to do what you've got to do.

It's 3 weeks of sample size... that's all. I'm sure they're disappointed, but knowing both, they aren't going to let that factor into their play on the field. Minor slumps.

Correct. Very understandable decision on not 40-man-ing them. It was a calculated risk, especially because of the missed time. As Rule 5 guys who haven't played in nearly two years, they're going to have their ups and downs. But you could see, even last night in that inning, Wells sits 94-95 with the fastball. That slider at 89 looked pretty sharp, and he's got a changeup too. Now he just needs some innings.