Seth Stohs

Service Time isn't a factor at this point. Another thing to remember is the whole Option situation too. If they call him up and send him down, that's an option year. He doesn't "need to" be added to the 40-man roster until after the 2020 season (though he'll almost certainly be up before then. Also, I would always contend that service time is less important during a Winning cycle.

Just in case anyone is worried about this... He's had 11 at bats in AA so far...

Edited to "No Game Scheduled." He's in the lineup tonight.

He was signed as a minor league free agent. We have never included those signings in the handbook... often they happen after we publish.

Looks like you may have been correct... knowingly or not...

Sorry... I don't have verification and I'd rather not. Sorry.

Ha! I'm not getting into this trap again! :-)

Sadly, it took me a while to understand the reference when I first saw pictures of them at their welcome to Pensacola stuff... now I think it's fantastic!

Announced this morning: Tom Hackimer promoted to AA Pensacola. Edwar Colina activated from the Miracle IL. (Presumably he will start tonight, though I haven't confirmed that)

If a team turns a third-round pick into a 5th starter that's pretty good... I don't get terribly worked up about the strikeouts like most do but obviously it's a factor. The reality is that there are so few top of the rotation guys that emerge that I'm always happy if teams can find 4-5 starters. I'm sure they're working on stuff with him too, but his pitch mix leans to weak contact, sinkers and sliders more than swing-and-miss.

I have heard that it was not back flip related. As LaVelle blogged yesterday, Knight was released... and from what I have heard, it was well deserved...

They are both Top 20 Twins Daily prospects... they are both pretty good...

Most days, the pitching lines from Cedar Rapids RHP Cole Sands or Pensacola RHP Griffin would garner Pitcher of the Day consideration. And based on the previous sentence, it was given some thought. But what Jordan Balazovic did in his Miracle debut on Sunday afternoon was really impressive. Three Twins affiliates played and all three won on a great day for the Twins' minor league affiliates.Find out everything that happened happened in the Twins system on Sunday, starting with the awards and transactions of the day. AWARDS Every Sunday, the Twins announce their Minor League Hitter and Pitcher of the Week. Here are this week’s winners. Hitter of the Week: Chris Williams, C/1B, Cedar Rapids Kernels. The Twins eighth-round pick in 2018 out of Clemson, Williams his .333 (6-for-18) with three homers. He also walked six times.Pitcher of the Week: Jorge Alcala, RHP, Pensacola Blue Wahoos. Acquired last July from the Astros, Alcala made one start last week. He threw five shutout innings. He gave up five hits, no walks and struck out eight.In case you missed any of them, Twins Daily named it’s Award winners for April.Hitter of the Month - Trey CabbageStarting Pitcher of the Month - Devin SmeltzerRelief Pitcher of the Month - Ryan MasonTRANSACTIONSRHP Ryan Mason was activated from the injured list.RED WINGS REPORTRochester, Pawtucket Box Score It was raining which caused this game to be postponed. It will be made up as part of a doubleheader on June 7th. BLUE WAHOO BITES Pensacola 9, Biloxi 2 Box Score Things started out really well for the Wahoos on Sunday. The team’s first two hitters, Luis Arraez and Alex Kirilloff, each singled. Then Miguel Sano followed with a long, three-run home run. The team added a fourth, first-inning run on Jaylin Davis’s fourth home run of the year. Griffin Jax started the game. He gave up two unearned runs on five hits. He walked one and struck out five in 6 2/3 innings of work. Ryan Mason, fresh off the IL, worked the final 2 1/3 innings without allowing a run. He struck out three. Jax improved to 2-0 with a 0.53 ERA while Mason recorded his fifth save and kept his ERA at 0.00. Jaylin Davis went 2-for-3 with a walk and his fourth home urn of the year. Caleb Hamilton gave some extra cushion in the eighth inning when he hit a bases-clearing double, his sixth double of the year. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 4, Palm Beach 0 Box Score Jordan Balazovic was promoted to the Miracle over the weekend, and on Sunday, he made his Florida State League debut. It is hard to imagine that it could have possibly gone any better. Balazovic, the Twins fifth-round pick in 2016 out of high school near Toronto, threw seven perfect innings. Not just scoreless. Not even just hitless. Perfect. He needed 97 pitches to complete seven innings. No hits. No walks. And he struck out ten batters. His catcher, 2018 second-round pick Ryan Jeffers, was impressed. “He (Balazovic) did amazing. He was in complete control from the beginning and he didn’t even really have his offspeed for the first couple of innings.” Jeffers continued, “He definitely settled in after one or two innings. He had his curveball, his changeup. He had it all working. We were able to throw any pitch in any count, and he was executing all day. It was something special for me to watch as a catcher. I’m putting down the signs, and he’s the one executing all the pitches. All credit to him for putting on such a great performance today.” Because of the pitch count, he was removed after seven innings and replaced by RHP Anthony Vizcaya. After getting the first out in the eighth frame, Vizcaya gave up a double off of the wall in left field to end the perfect game and no-hitter. He issued a walk after that, but he finished that inning with two strikeouts to end the threat. He worked a perfect ninth inning to complete the shutout. It was Vizcaya’s second save of the season. Jeffers was instrumental in the near-perfecto, but he also led the offense on Sunday afternoon. Jeffers started the season by going 1-for-17 (.059), but after going 4-for-4 on Sunday, he is now hitting .295. He added his second homer of the season as well. His approach throughout the early slump is part of what helped him start to take off since those early struggles. “Team-wide, we started out a little slow, but we are all starting to settle in, put good at-bats together and string them together. We’re putting up a lot of runs and hits consistently.” Of course, hitting in the Florida State League is never an easy thing. Big ballparks and high humidity have a tendency to subdue offensive production. Jeffers noted, “You just try to eliminate it from your mind. There’s nothing you can do about how big the parks are and how the ball doesn’t fly. You just continue to do what you do. You find consistent barrels and it will eventually drop. You’re going to find holes, and you’re going to find gaps.” Jeffers’ homer gave the Miracle a 1-0 lead. In the seventh inning, the Miracle added on. Royce Lewis doubled in Jeffers and Malique Ziegler to give them a 3-0 lead. In the top of the ninth, they added another on an RBI double off the bat of Jose Miranda. Lewis and Trevor Larnach each went 2-for-5 with a double. Aaron Whitefield went 2-for-4 with a double. The Miracle are now 20-10 on the season, and Jeffers is excited to be a part of this talented young team. “We feel really good right now as a team. We trust everyone on this team, everybody and the plate and everybody that we roll out on the mound. We’re just playing well and we want to keep it rolling.” KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 4, Dayton 0 Box Score Most days, the pitching line from Cole Sands’ Sunday start would easily make him the Pitcher of the Day. Instead, he’ll have to settle for a terrific line. The right-hander from Florida State used 99 pitches to complete seven shutout innings. He gave up three hits, walked none and struck out six batters. Before today, Sands' previous career high for innings pitched in a game was five. His catcher today, David Banuelos, noted that the only other time that the two had worked together this season was Sands' first start of the year, his first pro start. In that game, Sands threw five no-hit innings with eight strikeouts. Banuelos could tell early that Sands had his good stuff. "From the bullpen, I could see everything was working well. From when the first inning started, it was going to be a good day. He was throwing strikes, getting guys out with every single pitch. He was just attacking guys, getting ahead early and stuck with it through the whole game. Both our guys did well, him and Schulfer pitched well today. Our staff has done pretty well this entire year." Austin Schulfer worked the final two innings to complete the shutout. The Kernels got things going right away in the first inning. Chris Williams knocked in the first run with his first of two doubles on that day. He then scored on a Gilberto Celestino single. The next inning, Gabriel Maciel singled in Banuelos to give the team an early 3-0 lead. Banuelos added some insurance in the seventh inning when he hit a solo home run. It was his second long ball of the year. Banuelos said he's feeling good at the plate too. "I feel confident, trying to take it one day at a time and not press, and try to build off of it." TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day - Jordan Balazovic, Ft. Myers Miracle Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Ryan Jeffers, Ft. Myers Miracle PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed: #1 - Royce Lewis (Ft. Myers) - 2-5, 2B(3), 2 RBI, K #2 - Alex Kirilloff (Pensacola) - 1-4, R #3 - Brusdar Graterol (Pensacola) - Did Not Pitch #4 - Trevor Larnach (Ft. Myers) - 2-5, 2B(10), K #5 - Wander Javier (EST) - Injured, early May return #6 - Brent Rooker (Rochester) - Rained Out #7 - Jhoan Duran (Ft. Myers) - Did Not Pitch #8 - Lewis Thorpe (Rochester) - Did Not Pitch #9 - Blayne Enlow (Cedar Rapids) - Did Not Pitch #10 - Akil Baddoo (Ft. Myers) - Did Not Play #11 - Nick Gordon (Rochester) - Rained Out #12 - Stephen Gonsalves (Rochester) - Injured List, late-May return possible #13 - Ryan Jeffers (Ft. Myers) - 4-4, HR(2), 2 R, RBI #14 - Ben Rortvedt (Ft. Myers) - Did Not Play #15 - Yunior Severino (Cedar Rapids) - Injured List #16 - Gilberto Celestino (Cedar Rapids) - 1-3, RBI #17 - Zack Littell (Rochester) - Did Not Pitch #18 - LaMonte Wade (Rochester) - Rained Out #19 - Jorge Alcala (Pensacola) - Did Not Pitch #20 - Jose Miranda (Ft. Myers) - 1-4, BB, 2B(6), RBI, K MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester - No Game Scheduled. Pensacola @ Mississippi (6:35 CST) - RHP Sean Poppen (2-1, 2.57 ERA) Ft. Myers @ Charlotte (5:30 CST) - TBD Cedar Rapids @ South Bend (6:05 CST) - RHP Josh Winder (1-0, 2.53 ERA) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Sunday’s games. Click here to view the article

Through 29 games: Catcher Starts: Rortvedt 15, Jeffers 14 Total games played: Rortvedt 20, Jeffers 21. (I don't know if we can say that Rortvedt has 5 DH starts and Jeffers had 7... but I know both have several starts at DH this year, so they're both getting plenty of time behind the plate and plenty of extra at bats at the DH spot. From what I have seen, Rortvedt is incredible behind the plate with things like blocking and throwing, but I've heard that his pitch framing numbers are not good. Jeffers is about Garver's size, so he isn't quite as quick and athletic as Rortvedt, but he does have a strong arm. He has had really good pitch framing numbers. So yes, they are both getting equal time catching and hitting.

Thorpe will be fine. I think he's pretty mentally strong and has shown the ability to come back from rough stretches. AAA is hard, and remember they're using the MLB ball, less high seams. He's got to adjust to that as well. Regarding Javier: Will be a very easy decision for the Twins as it relates to the 40-man roster. He will certainly be added. Too much talent. And also ,hopefully they will have about 80 games of Low A ball to see even more.

Simply, catchers are not going to catch every day. They just aren't. The Twins (and other teams) are not going to have minor league catchers catch more than about 50% (maybe 55-58% at most) of the time. So, even if Rortvedt moves up, he'll split time in AA with Caleb Hamilton and Brian Navarreto and Mitchell Kranson. He's off to a nice start, and that's a good thing, but playing time, or time behind the plate in games isn't going to be it. Same for Jeffers. If Rortvedt moves up, they'll bring a catcher like Banuelos or Rodriguez up and they'll split time behind the plate. Jeffers will continue to get extra ABs at DH.

Good report. As for Palm, he has been working out of the bullpen in long relief to this point. He ended last night at 56 pitches. His previous high for the year was 51 pitches a few weeks ago. I'm sure they had a number of pitches that he couldn't pass. Maybe the pitch limit was 50 or 55 and he couldn't start a new hitter after that number. They're going to take care of arms, for sure. Banuelos is a good kid. I hate hearing about fans being rude and disrespectful. It's just not good. His family is from southern California. That said, the Mariners Low A affiliate last year was in the Midwest League (Clinton) and this year it's in West Virginia. Their High-A affiliate is in Modesto though. And yes, the umpires move up the ranks similarly to the players.

Everything he is doing is intentional. I'm sure there are moments, but as he continues to get used to his new mechanics and catches more pitches, it'll continue to become more natural.

Yeah, I was thinking winning 3 out of 7 in this stretch would have been nice. 4 out of 7 was probably wishful thinking... They've won 4 of 6 with one to go. Obviously there will be some rough stretches, losses to teams they could beat, etc. But it's official that this team is a legit contender... and I'll stand by this from the other day: https://twitter.com/SethTweets/status/1124038668006699008

So far this week, we have handed out theoretical hardware to our choice for Twins Daily Twins Minor League Hitter of the Month and Starting Pitcher of the Month. Today, we will discuss the relief pitchers. Which bullpen arms had strong Aprils and got their season off to a fast start?Normally, we write up a Top 4 or Top 5 and then highlight several honorable mentions. This month, there were six relievers that really stood out. We will profile all six of them. THE TOP SIX RELIEF PITCHERS #6 - Joe Record - Cedar Rapids Kernels - 6 G, 0.00 ERA, 0.27 WHIP, 7.1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 15 K I thought about putting Record in an Honorable Mention section only because of the innings, but his numbers when he did pitch were so incredible, so dominant, I wanted to write a bit about him. It is important to remember that after the Twins took Record in the 28th round in 2017 out of UC-Santa Barbara, he soon had Tommy John surgery. So April was his professional debut after missing two years. Obviously the Twins were going to be cautious with him, especially in the cold of the Midwest League, which explains the lack of innings. But in that limited time, batters hit just .040 (.151) against him. He struck out more than two batters per innings. And, after one more scoreless inning, and his fifth save, on May 1st, the 24-year-old was promoted to Ft. Myers. #5 - Cody Stashak - Pensacola Blue Wahoos - 7 G, 2.53 ERA, 0.75 WHIP, 10.2 IP, 7 H, 1 BB, 16 K Stashak was the Twins 13th-round pick in 2015 out of St. Johns. He signed and spent his first three pro seasons as a starter. In 2018, he was moved to the bullpen and named to the Twins Daily 2018 Minor League All Star team after a terrific season in Chattanooga. He returns to AA this year with Pensacola and got off to a very good start. As he has done through his career, Stashak throws a lot of strikes, but out of the bullpen, he has been able to increase his velocity some and miss more bats. He limits hard contact. Definitely ready to move up to Rochester. #4 - Dusten Knight - Pensacola Blue Wahoos - 7 G, 1.59 ERA, 0.62 WHIP, 11.1 IP, 4 H, 3 BB,14 K Knight came to the Twins last December in the minor league portion of the Rule 5 draft after spending the first six seasons of his pro career in the Giants organization. The righty was San Francisco’s 28th-round pick in 2013 out of college. He had a great April in the Twins organization. He limited base runners, threw strikes and when he did give up base runners, he limited damage. He pitched in seven games, finished six of them, went 1-0 and completed five saves. At this stage, he is probably best known for his post-saves back flip in front of the mound. Unfortunately, on May 1st, he was placed on the restricted list which typically means that he will be out for the next two months or more. #3 - Tom Hackimer - Ft. Myers Miracle - 8 G, 0.68 ERA, 0.68 WHIP, 13.1 IP, 2 H, 7 BB, 23 K Hackimer returned to the mound early in the 2019 season after missing most of the 2018 with an injury. In early October, he had a bicep tendon transfer surgery. He got a late start in spring training but he’s back and he’s been really good. The side-winding right-hander was completely dominant. Not only is he not allowing base runners (other than a few too many walks), but he is missing a lot of bats. Again, Hackimer is a guy who should move up to Double-A quickly. #2 - Alex Phillips - Ft. Myers Miracle - 9 G, 0.00 ERA, 0.66 WHIP, 13.2 IP, 6 H, 3 BB, 20 K Alex Phillips is an interesting case. Out of high school in Texas, he went to Arkansas and was good. He went to a junior college the next year (2015). Unfortunately, he had Tommy John surgery so he didn’t pitch again until 2017 when he attended Baylor. In 2018, he went 7-1 with a 2.40 ERA for Baylor but didn’t get drafted. He went to Evansville in the Frontier League. However, after 16 games there the Twins called and sent him to Ft. Myers. He pitched in two games for the Miracle before pitching more and pitching well in the Miracle’s run to the Florida State League championship. The 24-year-old started this year with the Miracle but as the calendar changed to May, Phillips was promoted to Pensacola. Phillips is blessed with a mid-90s fastball and an ability to throw strikes and miss bats. Most months, this resume and those results would win the top honors. And the Twins Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Month is: Pensacola Blue Wahoos – RHP Ryan Mason - 8 G, 0.00 ERA, 0.60 WHIP, 11.2 IP, 6 H, 1 BB, 16 K Ryan Mason was the Twins 13th-round pick in 2016 out of California where he was a starter. Since his first full season of pro ball, he has worked out of the bullpen, and been very good. In 2017, he posted a 2.01 ERA in Cedar Rapids. That’s where he began 2018 but after three games he moved up to Ft. Myers. There he went 9-3 with five saves and a 2.84 ERA over 36 games and 69 2/3 innings. In April alone, Mason had four saves, splitting late-inning duties with Dusten Knight. Mason throws a lot of strikes and he gets a lot of movement. In the month, his 16 strikeouts to one walk ratio was remarkable. He worked high-leverage situations, threw a lot of strikes, missed a lot of bats and didn’t give up runs. Mason can be an intimidating opponent on the mound. He stands 6-6 and is lean and strong. He has a grizzly beard and an animated delivery that makes his low-to-mid 90s fastball appear a little quicker than it is. He is able to keep hitters off balance with solid secondary pitches. He is able to work the eighth or ninth inning, and he is able to eat two or three innings when needed. That is important because when the Twins have a need in the big leagues, it could be for one inning, or three innings, at a time. There were some really strong relief pitcher performances in April throughout the Twins minor league system. I mean, how do you pick between 0.00 ERAs? It was a good month for each of these pitchers mentioned today. Congratulations to Ryan Mason, the Twins Daily Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Month for April 2019. Click here to view the article

Jorge Alcala has a 4.71 ERA and a 2.41 FIP with 11.6 K/9 and 1.9 BB/9... Graterol's been really good, even before factoring in his age to level of competition. Thorpe had two really bad starts but he was really good the last three. Enlow has had two rough ones. Balazovic has been really good. Gonsalves has been hurt.

Insider stuff... ha! Both Smeltzer and Dobnak promoted. Hopefully the Ober injury isn't serious.

It was a really good month for Twins minor league pitchers. And even a guy like Jorge Alcala who is 4-1 with a 4.71 ERA after last night. His FIP is 2.41. Lots of talent and more are prospects than we think. I am so curious to see how it plays out under the new processes of this new front office and all the coaches and coordinators.