Seth Stohs

Numbers from 5 starts rarely indicate anything. Also, there are so few aces that I really try not to use that term too much. Smeltzer was moved to the bullpen by the Dodgers last year, and he went to the AFL as a reliever. The Twins decided to move him back to the rotation. His upside is probably #4 starter or a Taylor Rogers like reliever if things go well. NOTE - this isn't a knock. If he becomes Taylor Rogers, I think we should all be thrilled.

I've heard that on Kirilloff as well. End of this week is "early May." Sano, Kirilloff, Gordon and Javier have been playing in Extended Spring Training games. I saw Smeltzer in a couple of bullpens and once (maybe twice?) in spring games. Skinny. Wiry. Full of energy. Doesn't throw real hard, low 90s. Good secondary and good control.

No relation... or, if so, it's very distant.

Corrected... thanks!

Gonsalves isn't the only pitcher with some elbow issues from velocity efforts... (well from something this spring... Severino had a fractured thumb. I didn't get any timeline on him, but I assume that could be a lengthy one.

It was a busy Sunday in the Twins minor league system. The Twins named their weekly hitter and pitcher of the week. There were a bunch of transactions. And with the Kernels playing a doubleheader, the organization’s four affiliates played five games. Devin Smeltzer and Randy Dobnak continued their remarkable starts on the mound.Find out everything that happened in the Twins system on Sunday, starting with the transactions of the day TRANSACTIONS With Willians Astudillo going on the Injured List, Jake Cave was recalled from Rochester.Infielder Drew Maggi was promoted back up to Rochester.Infielder Joe Cronin was promoted from Cedar Rapids to Pensacola.Infielder Trey Cabbage was promoted from Cedar Rapids to Ft. Myers, with RHP Tanner Howell being sent back to extended spring training.Outfielder DaShawn Keirsey Jr was activated from the Kernels injured list. Infielder Estamy Urena was promoted to Cedar Rapids from extended spring training.AWARDS The Twins announced their Minor League Players of the Week on Sunday morning. Hitter of the Week - Pensacola OF Jaylin DavisPitcher of the Week - Rochester LHP Lewis ThorpeIn six games, Davis hit .407 (1.148 OPS) with three doubles, two homers and six RBIs. In one start, Thorpe gave up one run on three hits over eight innings. He struck out 12 batters for the second straight start. RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 2, Pawtucket 5 Box Score An #OldFriend came back to haunt the Red Wings on Sunday afternoon. Justin Nicolino started for the Red Wings and gave up two runs in the first inning, but that was it. In 6 1/3 innings, he gave up the two runs on five hits. He walked four and struck out two. Mike Morin came on and finished out the seventh. He finished the eighth inning as well, but not before giving up an two-out, three-run homer to Juan Centeno. Morin pitched a scoreless ninth inning as well. Down 2-0, the Red Wings clawed back to tie the game. In the sixth inning, Luke Raley hit a solo homer to put the Wings on the board. Zander Wiel followed with his second triple of the year and later scored on a sacrifice fly from Adam Rosales. Raley went 2-for-3 with a walk and the home run was his third. Jordany Valdespin went 2-for-4 BLUE WAHOO BITES Pensacola 8, Jackson 3 Box Score Devin Smeltzer has been fantastic in April for the Blue Wahoos. That continued on Sunday. The left-hander threw five more shutout innings. He gave up four hits, walked none and struck out three. In doing so, he is now 3-1 with a 0.60 ERA (2 ER in 30 IP). He was replaced by Minnesotan Adam Bray in his return from the injured list. He gave up two runs on two hits and a walk over three innings. He struck out three. Cody Stashak gave up a solo home run in the ninth inning. The Wahoos scored two runs in the fifth inning to take the lead. Then in the sixth inning, Caleb Hamilton drove in two runs with his fifth double of the season. He scored on a single off the bat of Jordan Gore. Daulton Varsho hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the sixth to cut the Wahoos lead to 3-2. But Taylor Grzelakowski added a two-run homer in the eighth inning. They also scored a run on a passed ball and on a wild pitch. Grzelakowski went 2-for-5 with his first homer of the season. Travis Blankenhorn went 2-for-4 with a walk. Luis Arraez walked three times. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 2, Palm Beach 1 Box Score The Miracle defended the Cardinals, and won three out of four games in this series against the division leaders. Randy Dobnak came into this game having thrown 17 innings without giving up an earned run. He kept that streak going until allowing a run with two outs in the fifth inning, ending the streak at 21 2/3 innings. He gave up the one run on five hits over 5 1/3 innings. He walked two and struck out six batters. He exited with a season ERA of 0.40. Hector Lujan came in and got eight outs without allowing the tying run. He gave up just two hits and struck one batter out. Alex Phillips came on for the ninth inning and struck out two. It was his fourth save of the year. Jose Miranda led the offense. He went 3-for-4 and drove in the team’s first run. His single drove in Trevor Larnach who had reached on his seventh double of the season. The other run came on a sacrifice fly by Aaron Whitefield. KERNELS NUGGETS Doubleheader after a snow-out on Saturday. The Kane County field was snow-covered on Sunday morning. The double-header was postponed a bit as they waited for more snow to melt, which it did. Game 1 - Cedar Rapids 2, Kane County 3 Box Score The Kernels scored two runs in the top of the sixth inning to tie the game, but the Cougars scored a run with two outs in the bottom of the seventh to get the walk-off win. Cole Sands started the game for the Kernels. The 2018 pick gave up two runs on five hits, two walks and a hit batter over the first five innings. He struck out four. Down 2-0, the Kernels rallied in the top of the sixth inning. Ben Rodriguez hit his first double of the season to drive in Chris Williams. Rodriguez later scored on a sacrifice fly from Jacob Pearson. Jose Martinez pitched a scoreless sixth inning but he gave up the walk-off hit to end the game in the seventh. He gave up two walks and the single. Chris Williams led the Kernels offense. He went 2-for-3 with a walk. Game 2 - Cedar Rapids 3, Kane County 2 Box Score This section is brought to you by the letter W. Winder and Williams lead Kernels to a Win. Josh Winder started for the Kernels and was fantastic. He gave up just four hits and walked one over the first 6 1/3 innings. He left with one out in the seventh with 84 pitches thrown and a runner on first base. Derek Molina came on and walked a batter. Then a single scored the inherited runner from Winder. Molina gave up another run as well, but was able to keep the tying run from scoring The Kernels didn't get a lot of offense, but Chris Williams provided a big, timely hit. In the fifth inning, Williams, who walked twice in Game 2, came up with two runners on and two outs. He responded with his fourth homer of the year and gave the Kernels a 3-0 lead. Gabriel Maciel went 1-for-3 with a walk. Estamy Urena walked twice. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day - Josh Winder, Cedar Rapids Kernels Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Chris Williams, Cedar Rapids Kernels PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed: #1 - Royce Lewis (Ft. Myers) - 0-4, K #2 - Alex Kirilloff (Pensacola) - Injured List, early May return #3 - Brusdar Graterol (Pensacola) - Did Not Pitch #4 - Trevor Larnach (Ft. Myers) - 1-3, BB, 2B(7), R #5 - Wander Javier (EST) - Injured, early May return #6 - Brent Rooker (Rochester) - Did Not Play, hamstring #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) - 0-3, BB #11 - Nick Gordon (Rochester) - Injured List, early May return #12 - Stephen Gonsalves (Rochester) - Injured List, late-May return possible #13 - Ryan Jeffers (Ft. Myers) - 1-3, K #14 - Ben Rortvedt (Ft. Myers) - 1-3, R #15 - Yunior Severino (Cedar Rapids) - Injured List #16 - Gilberto Celestino (Cedar Rapids) - Game 1 (1-4, K), Game 2 (1-4, K) #17 - Zack Littell (Rochester) - Did Not Pitch #18 - LaMonte Wade (Rochester) - 0-5 #19 - Jorge Alcala (Pensacola) - Did Not Pitch #20 - Jose Miranda (Ft. Myers) - 3-4, RBI MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Scranton/Wilkes Barre (5:35 CST) - LHP Lewis Thorpe (1-2, 7.25 ERA) Pensacola @ Jackson (11:05 a.m. CST) - RHP Griffin Jax (1-0, 0.41 ERA) Ft. Myers - No Game Scheduled Cedar Rapids - No Game Scheduled Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Sunday’s games. Click here to view the article

There is no way that they want any catchers to be behind the plate 2/3 of the time... Catcher is a position of attrition... they need to keep them healthy. Keep the legs strong. They're doing work even on the days they aren't bending down to receive 250 pitches.

He's played in 17 of 24 games... as a catch and they've even had him DH...

Alcala had a bad game after four good games... nothing to see here. Balazovic is the one with the higher ceiling. But Ober was the freshman of the year his first year of college. Unfortunately since then he hasn't been healthy. But we saw last year before the elbow scare late last year what he is capable of, and he's taking that to a new level this year. He's got the size... Again, probably not a future ace, but he can be a big leaguer. Helman is definitely one of those guys that isn't going to excite you much when you watch him but then you watch him over and over and realize just how good he is. He doesn't have any elite tools, but he does everything pretty well.

Oh my.... well done...

"Brent Rooker was out in left field for the first two innings of this came, but when his spot in the lineup came up in the bottom of the second he was removed from the game. I’ll try to circle back and see if I can find more details as to why once the Twins game is over/recap is all done." May have re-aggravated his hamstring injury playing in the outfield in the first inning. Not official, but told that's likely what happened.

Not sure what that would have done... It probably would have pushed Berrios back another day, to Sunday ,to pitch against the O's and then he wouldn't have pitched against the Astros this week or next week.

I don't necessarily disagree with this... but what would they have done different? They knew that the move was happening the day before. They got Stewart there on time. Not sure what the alternative was? Thorpe to make his MLB debut in Houston? Littell a day before he was scheduled to start? Stewart was the one that lined up ,and again ,he has shown some promise at times and pitched well in Houston last year. The other option was a bullpen game.

I get that and yet, again, it's 20 games. Sometimes you have to just keep going out there to get out of a slump. He has been making much better contact the last week. I'm sure if he is struggling still in two months he won't play more than 2-3 days sa week.

Enlow last pitched on the 16th, ,so it''s been about 7-8 days. Six man rotation and a rain out probably is the big thing. I have seen Kirilloff is playing in EST. Hoping he will be back soon. I would think he''ll play a couple of games for the Miracle before moving up to Pensacola too. It is his bobblehead night on Saturday in Ft. Myers, so maybe he'll play that day. And my vote would absolutely go to Jax. 0.41 ERA. One earned run over 22 innings to start the season. Much more than I would have guessed.

They didn't pay Gonzalez to play him 2-3 times per week. By season's end, he'll play 135-145 games and post an OPS between .690 and .760, like he has in four of the last five years. Won't make much out of 19 games.

I have no problem with Buxton and Verlander getting scheduled days off against the slider of Verlander. None whatsoever. Adrianza got a hit off Verlander. And the bench guys need to play. Castro came into the game with a .414 On-Base Percentage and an .830ish OPS. That's better than "Not Bad" plus maybe there was hope his work behind the plate could help Stewart. Stewart had to start because of the rain day. No much can be done about that. To get six innings out of him was very encouraging, especially considering he had no command. I think that's pretty much what they could have asked. But to think that they didn't try is silly, if not offensive. They could have played Buxton, Schoop, Garver, Mauer, Mays, Mantle and still potentially lost to Verlander.

Cabbage... Diaz...

Neither would be promoted for another 6 weeks at least... but I'm curious about the "Jax is more physically mature" comment. Than Graterol?

I don't see any correlation between a starter moving to the bullpen and Sano moving to RF. Sano moving from the left side of the infield to the right side of the outfield is completely different. Pitching is pitching. And, throughout the history of the game, most of the best relief pitchers have been "failed" starters or at least starters moved to the bullpen for whatever reason.

Side-winder, throws a lot like Hildenberger, relies on movement in and out. When healthy he can be a fast mover.

I'm working on an injury update... hopefully I can have it in Thursday night's Minor league report... maybe sooner?

Berrios was supposed to pitch last Friday but there was the rain out, so he pitched Game 1 on Saturday. He would be pitching on three days rest if he went on Wednesday. No way they would do that to him. So he's pitching Friday. Martin Perez then pitches on Saturday. If things had gone differently tonight, they may have done more of a bullpen game of sorts on Wednesday.