Seth Stohs

Like you said, relief prospects typically don't get ranked as high as others, whether they should or not. As for last night, he was 94-96 with the fastball (per FSN)... He hung one slider that landed foul, fortunately, and he got a strikeout on a really nasty slider. He looked fine. He could be good.

He's made 4 starts in AAA. 3 of them have been at least 'solid,' one was a clunker. I think we need to give him a little more time there before we make any huge comments about his future or anything. It's not a bad thing if he spends another couple months in AAA next year, if that's what he needs. Maybe he won't. But the sample at AAA is far too small to make any final decisions on a guy.

Love this tweet from Trevor Hildenberger this morning!

He tweeted video of his first swing this morning...

No one is real sure... MILB.com has him listed in their transactions too, but no one seems to know why.

My guess is Rooker starts next season in Chattanooga. If he's playing great there (maybe as judged by strikeout rate, or not necessarily some obvious line), and there would be a need in MLB, it could happen by June, but they also need to be smart with him.

I mean, I'd be surprised if he's in anyone's Top 10 lists, but I wouldn't be shocked if he's in some Top 20s. He'll likely be right around there for me. He's got serious strength. He's got very good speed. He's got a good approach, strong swing. I think it's too early to label him anything yet... Most don't become future stars, but I don't think I'd limit his upside yet.

Was actually announced mid-game... my guess is that they knew he was coming, but they typically don't send out press releases until the player arrives. They probably had him on the lineup card for just in case.

I agree that the World Series stuff matters. Let's be honest, that's a large part of why Kirby Puckett is a Hall of Famer. And, like Koufax, Puckett's career came to an abrupt end, though he was already 34, so he didn't have a downturn in his performance. Johan Santana was great right up until his injury, then missed a year, then came back for a year (and threw a no-hitter, I believe) but wasn't the same, and then that's been it due to more injuries. So, if not for the return season, his career would have ended abruptly and on top. The case for Mauer is that up until the concussion, there has only been maybe a handful of catchers in history to do what he'd done. Had his career just ended right then, he's probably a first-ballot guy (though he may not have had the 10 years). Instead, he's come back, clearly not the same, and that's hurt him. It's a similar argument with Dale Murphy, who was very good, won two MVPs, and then fell completely. The difference is OF versus C.

I mentioned that in the article too, well, the mound part, not the DH part (which is another great point).

Yeah, I don't know what they'll do. I assume both will start the season in Cedar Rapids, and I think it makes sense for them to alternate between SS and 2B. It's possible Jermaine Palacios bumps up to AA at mid-season, so Lewis could move up then, opening up full-time SS for both throughout the second half.

There have been a ton of transactions this year. Yeah, he moved down a couple of weeks ago.

Over the weekend, the Minnesota Twins celebrated their Hall of Fame weekend. On Saturday, Michael Cuddyer was inducted, and then Sunda it was Andy MacPhail’s turn. The fun part about the Hall of Fame (baseball’s or the Twins) is the conversation that it can create. While watching Bartolo Colon on Sunday, the name of Johan Santana was mentioned. Of course, I mentioned about how Colon ‘stole’ the 2005 Cy Young from Santana. As baseball conversations tend to do, it shifted again, this time to a comparison between Johan Santana and Sandy Koufax. Koufax, of course, was a Hall of Famer. He was one of baseball’s greatest pitchers ever for a six year period in the early 1960s. His full career went 12 years, but his final six seasons were incredible. He retired while at the top of his game. He was just 30 years old and coming off a great season in which he won his third Cy Young Award. However, he had chronic arthritis in his left arm. He feared it would become increasingly worse until he eventually couldn’t use his left hand. Santana was a Rule 5 pick for the Twins. He spent a couple of seasons in the early ‘90s working primarily out of the Twins bullpen. But he had an eight year stretch where no one in baseball was as good.His final five seasons with the Twins, and his first year as a member of the Mets were six incredible seasons. So, how do the careers, and those “peak seasons” of Johan Santana and Sandy Koufax match up? Let’s find out.It’s interesting to note that both Johan Santana and Sandy Koufax pitched in 12 major league seasons. For Koufax, his career spanned 1955 through 1966. For Santana, he pitched in the big leagues from 2000 until 2012. He missed all of 2011 which is why he pitched 12 seasons. Let’s just put some of the numbers out there between the two and see how they line up. Santana had a stretch of five seasons during which he did not pitch less than 219 innings. During Koufax’s career, he had a stretch where he threw over 300 innings in four out of six seasons. The times were different, of course, as Bert Blyleven informs us, frequently. Santana had 15 complete games during his career. Koufax went the distance 15 or more times in five seasons. That’s why Koufax had more wins and more losses. He rarely had to rely on his bullpen finishing what he started. Their WHIPs are pretty much identical. Koufax gave up fewer hits, but Santana had much better control. They both struck out about a batter an inning. It’s interesting to note that while Koufax gave up nearly a half run less per nine innings over his career, Santana’s ERA+ is actually 5% better than Koufax’s. Why? In the late 1950s, offense was down. In 1961, baseball raised the mound in an attempt to help hitters. It worked, and yet run scoring was still not high. Santana was pitching during an era when offense was prevalent, for whatever reasons you want to credit. Looking at the totality of their careers, one would have to say that they are very much equivalent, particularly when adjusting for era. Koufax was very much an average big league pitcher over his first six seasons, and then he became one of the best pitchers ever over a six year stretch to close out his career. Santana had two years of adjusting to the big leagues after being forced to be in the big leagues because of the Rule 5 status. His second year also wasn’t great. However, from 2002 through 2010, he never had an ERA+ under 129 (29% better than average). Santana’s stretch of success was a couple of years longer than Koufax’s. Unfortunately, once Santana got hurt in 2011, his career was basically over. He tried multiple comebacks but was not successful. Both great left-handers had careers that ended far too soon. Koufax made that decision as a 30-year-old. Santana’s great stretch ended as a 31-year-old. Koufax benefited - in terms of long-term status - because he didn’t end his career with injury. He quit too early, rather than too late. Santana, for many, may have hurt his stock by pitching hurt and trying to come back for so long. One of those things that people like to look at is a player’s peak. How good was a player, or a pitcher, when he was at his best. As it relates to the Hall of Fame, the minimum peak seems to be five or six years. While I noted above that Koufax's peak was a six-year period, Santana's was an eight-year period. But to be equal, I just looked at Santana's best six-year stretch. As you recall from the 12-year comparison, Koufax has a better ERA during his peak years than Santana did. In this case, Koufax also was better relative to the league. He was 56% better than league average while Santana was still very impressive at 50% better than the league. They both gave up right around one base runner per inning. Koufax's control was significantly better during the great half of his career, with a walk rate of nearly one less per nine innings. They both recorded a lot of strikeouts. While hitters a decade ago didn't strike out quite as much as they do now, they struck out a lot more than they did in the '60s. In other words, 9.4 K/9 in the '60s is more impressive than 9.4 K/9 in the '00s because fifty years ago, batters took a lot of pride in not striking out. LEAGUE LEADERSHIP/AWARDS Sandy Koufax - Led the league in strikeouts four times. Led in innings pitched twice. Led in ERA five times and ERA+ twice. He led the league in WHIP four times. He led the league in K/9 six times. He won three Cy Young awards and finished in the top three four times. Johan Santana - Led the league in strikeouts three times. He led in innings pitched twice. He led the league in ERA and ERA+ three times. He also led the league in WHIP three times. He led the league in K/9 three times. He won two Cy Young Awards and finished in the top three four times. SUMMARY While this is a very quick analysis and comparison of the two pitchers, I think the high-level data does show that Sandy Koufax was a little better statistically in his era during his peak than Santana was. Looking at their full careers, the argument could certainly be made that Santana had the better career. Wins Above Replacement - bWAR, Koufax led 53.1 to 50.7. Koufax has a bigger advantage in fWAR (54.5 to 45.3). And again, 46.5 of Koufax's fWAR was in those six peak years. So yes, Sandy Koufax was the better of the two pitchers. But it does seem that even us, Twins fans, may not realize how great Johan Santana was. I watched him pitch. I knew he was good, but to look at the numbers, and realize just how similar Santana's career was to Koufax's, it surprised me. Obviously Johan Santana will be a member of the Twins Hall of Fame, likely the first time he appears on the ballot. But maybe the Twins fan base should also start pushing the candidacy of Johan Santana for the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown too. Click here to view the article

A tough loss on the South Side of Chicago for the Twins on Wednesday, but plenty of excitement in the minor league system. A couple of very young prospects had near-cycles. A newly acquired starter had his best appearance as a Twins prospect. Although he’s made two big league starts, Felix Jorge made his AAA debut on Wednesday. The game ended in walk-off fashion. The Kernels found an interesting way to win in extra innings. And one of the organization’s great names, Leonardo Reginnato, got a chance to play hero. All that and much more in today’s minor league report.Let’s start with the transactions of the day. It’s incredible how many transactions there have been this season, particularly this late in the season. And, there’s more to come... The Twins announced following the Tuesday night game that RHP Tim Melville had been DFAd.On Wednesday morning, the subsequent move became official. RHP John Curtiss has been promoted and will join the Twins bullpen.As noted last night, Felix Jorge was promoted to Rochester (and started on Wednesday). Nik Turley also arrived and is back on the Red Wings roster.Chattanooga added a couple of pitchers to their mix. RHP Keaton Steele and LHP Anthony McIver were promoted to the Lookouts.RED WINGS REPORTRochester 5, Scranton/Wilkes Barre 4 (Completion of suspended game) Box Score Before the rains fell in Rochester, these teams played to a 4-4 game through just three innings. Aaron Slegers went 3.1 innings and was charged with four runs on eight hits (including two homers) and a walk. He struck out two. Offensively, Byungho Park had driven in all four runs. One came on an RBI single in the first inning. In the third frame, he hit his 12th homer, a three-run shot. When play began on Wednesday, Drew Rucinski took over on the mound. He threw 3.1 scoreless innings, striking out five and giving up a hit and a walk. Buddy Boshers came on, gave up a hit and a walk and got just one out. Alex Wimmers struck out two over the final two innings to improve to 7-3 on the season. Leonardo Reginnato led the offense. He went 3-4 with his 11th double. Park was 2-4 with his 13th homer and four RBI. JB Shuck was 2-4 with his 25th double. Matt Hague was 1-3 with a walk and his 27th double. Daniel Palka was 1-3 with a walk and his 11th double. Rochester 1, Scranton/Wilkes Barre 0 (Regularly-Scheduled game) Box Score Game 2 of the night was just what the teams wanted, a fast-paced, quick, seven inning game. It was Felix Jorge’s AAA debut, and he gave the Red Wings exactly what they needed. The right-hander threw six shutout innings. He gave up five hits, walked one and struck out seven. Unfortunately, when he left, the score was still tied at zero, so he got a no-decision. Michael Tonkin pitched the seventh, and he struck out all three batters he faced. As you would expect from a game that had no runs scored through six and a half innings, there was little offense. Zack Granite went 2-3 with his 16th double, and Leonard Reginnato played hero. He stepped to the plate with two outs in the bottom of the seventh and delivered his third home run to end the game. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 7, Mississippi 2 Box Score Felix Jorge was supposed to start for the Lookouts on Wednesday, but instead he was up in Rochester. So this was a bullpen game for the Lookouts. DJ Baxendale started and worked through four innings. He gave up one run on two hits. He walked two and struck out three. Anthony McIver picked up his first AA win with two shutout innings. He walked one and struck out one. Next, Keaton Steele made his AA debut and gave up one run on three hits in two innings. He struck out two. Gabriel Moya came on and gave up a hit and struck one out in a scoreless inning. TJ White led the offense again. He went 3-3. Max Murphy’s ninth double drove in two runs. LaMonte Wade was 1-3 with a walk and two RBI. Ryan Walker and Levi Michael were both 1-3 with a walk. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 6, Clearwater 4 Box Score It was a long night for the Miracle. Sean Poppen made the start. He got two outs, gave up a hit, and then threw a wild pitch. And then the rains came and there was a delay. That was the end of Poppen’s night. Andrew Vasquez came on and went 2.1 innings. He gave up one run on one hit. He walked three and struck out four. Alex Robinson then gave up three runs on five hits and two walks in his two innings. He struck out three. Sam Clay struck out two over his two scoreless innings. He gave up one hit and hit a batter. Michael Kohn worked a 1-2-3 eighth inning. Tom Hackimer picked up his fifth save with the Miracle. He struck out one, and hit one, in a scoreless ninth inning. Jaylin Davis led the offense. He went 3-4 in the game. Tanner English and Brent Rooker each had an RBI double. Zander Wiel had a big homer, his 12th of the year. The Miracle’s top two hitters, Brandon Lopez and Jermaine Palacios, went 0-5 but they combined for five walks as well. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 5, Kane County 3 Box Score The game was tied going into the 10th inning. With one out, Shane Carrier was hit by a pitch and then Shane Kennedy was hit by a pitch. Aaron Whitefield pinch ran for Carrier at that point, and the move worked. He scored right away when Trey Cabbage singled him in. Joe Cronin was then hit by a pitch to load the bases. Royce Lewis and Travis Blankenhorn each walked in another run to add a couple of insurance runs. Tyler Watson put together easily the best start of his short Twins career. The southpaw gave up just one run in six innings. He gave up four hits, walked none, and struck out four. Ryan Mason gave up the tying run on four hits and a walk in 1.1 innings. He struck out one. Max Cordy came on and kept the game tied through the ninth. He did give up a run in the 10th inning, but that one didn’t hurt. Cabbage led the offense. He went 3-5 with that game-winning RBI. Along with his RBI walk in the 10th, Blankenhorn hit his 10th home run. Shane Carrier went 2-5. Lewis went 0-4, but he had a sacrifice earlier in the game to go with the 10th inning walk. Joe Cronin and Jimmy Kerrigan each doubled. E-TWINS E-NOTES Elizabethton 10, Bristol 2 Box Score The E-Twins bats certainly showed up again in this game. They were led by Wander Javier who went 4-5 with his 13th double and third home run. Akil Baddoo was also a triple shy of the cycle. He went 3-4 with his 13th double and second home run. JJ Robinson went 2-4 with his third double and eighth home run. Ariel Montesino went 2-4 with a triple. Andrew Bechtold went 2-4 with a walk. Colton Waltner went 1-3 with two walks. Matt Albanese went 2-5. Randy Dobnak improved to 2-0. He was the recipient of all the run support, but he still pitched well too. He gave up one run on seven hits in six innings. He walked two and struck out four. Blair Lakso worked the final three innings to record his first save. He gave up one run on two hits. He walked three and struck out three. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Twins 9, GCL Orioles 6 Box Score This was a back-and -forth game until the bottom of the eighth when the Twins scored five runs to take the lead. Things started well in the first inning. Ben Rodriguez knocked in three runs with his fourth home run of the season. In the eighth inning, Jean Carlos Arias added a three-run homer to give the Twins the lead. It’s his fifth homer of the year. Soon after, Twins manager Ramon Borrego was ejected for arguing a third strike. Immediately after that, Victor Tademo provided some insurance with a two-run single. Landon Leach made the start. The right-hander was charged with three unearned runs over 2.2 innings. He gave up just one hit, walked three and struck out two. In the second, a run scored due to a passed ball. Leach got the first two outs of the third inning, but then issued a walk followed by a single. Pedro Garcia came on and got a grounder, but an error kept the inning alive. Those inherited runners (and one more) scored. Garcia went four innings. He was charged with three runs (2 earned) on four hits. He walked three and struck out two. Austin Bizzle came on got the final seven outs to record his first pro win. He struck out one. Jean Carlos Arias went 2-3 with a walk, his sixth double and his fifth homer. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day - Felix Jorge, Rochester Red Wings Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Leonardo Reginnato, Rochester Red Wings THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Scranton/Wilkes Barre @ Rochester (12:35 CST) - TBD Mississippi @ Chattanooga (6:15 CST) - RHP Fernando Romero Ft. Myers @ Clearwater (6:00 CST) - RHP Clark Beeker Cedar Rapids @ Kane County (6:30 CST) - LHP Anthony Marzi Bristol @ Elizabethton (6:00 CST) - RHP Bailey Ober GCL Twins @ GCL O’s (11:00 CST) - TBD Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Wednesday’s games. Click here to view the article

Gold Glove Selection Criteria, direct from Rawlings' web site: https://www.rawlings.com/site-content/gold-glove-selection-criteria.html The Managers and their coaches vote... I would say that the old saying about a player's offense factoring into the choice hasn't really been the case for several years. It used to be, but I don't think that's the case anymore. My guess is that a lot of the managers/coaches reach out to their analytics group now.

No message-sending, I'm sure... The Twins needed Slegers for a spot start. The Red Wings then needed Stewart for a spot start (for Slegers), and the Lookouts needed a spot start (for Stewart). Slegers now back with the Red Wings. We'll see what happens with Melville now to see what the Red Wings will need to do.

I'm not terribly sure this supports any sense that SDI is a good defensive metric... ha!

The Twins played two games on Monday, and all of the Twins affiliates except Ft. Myers had games as well. The Red Wings and Lookouts played one-run games. Cedar Rapids got a big blast from a top prospect, though things got interesting and also ended in a one-run final score. The E-Twins didn’t have many hits and still won easily… How? The GCL Twins won by the same score… It was a busy day of transactions and game stories, and we have several quotes from Cedar Rapids, so check it out.Let’s start with the transactions of the day: The Twins made a couple of moves official on Monday before their first game in Chicago. Miguel Sano was placed on the disabled list, and Kenny Vargas was called back up. Tim Melville was added to the 40- and 25-man rosters. Nik Turley was optioned. He pitched for the Twins on Monday as their 26th man before returning to the Red Wings following the game. .Yohan Pino was again transferred from Chattanooga to Rochester. Buddy Boshers arrived and is now on the Red Wings roster.It seemed strange when Kohl Stewart was demoted from Rochester to Ft. Myers after picking up a win in his one start for the Red Wings. The next day, Lewis Thorpe picked up a win in his first start in Chattanooga. On Monday, it all made much more sense as Stewart was promoted back to the Lookouts with Thorpe returning to the Miracle.Tyler Wells was called back up to the Cedar Rapids Kernels. To make room, Evan Sanders was placed on the DL.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 3, Scranton/Wilkes Barre 4 Box Score David Hurlbut started and gave up two runs over the first five innings. He gave up eight hits, walked four and struck out four. Yohan Pino came in and gave up two runs on four hits and a walk over the next three innings; both runs scored four batters into his outing before he settled in. John Curtiss walked one and struck out two over a scoreless inning. Byungho Park provided much of the offense. He went 2-4 with his 12th home run. Daniel Palka went 1-3 with a walk, and Leonardo Reginnato walked twice. Blankenhorn went 2-4. Joe Cronin went 2-3 and scored two of the team’s runs. E-TWINS E-NOTES Elizabethton 8, Johnson City 1 Box Score I don’t know if the E-Twins bats really showed up, but their batter’s eyes sure did. The Twins scored eight runs on just four hits, but they were helped out with 12 walks on their way to an easy win. Nick Brown was the recipient of the run support, but he also put together his best start. He gave up one run on four hits over six innings. He walked two and struck out six. Jared Finkel picked up his second save with three shutout innings with just one hit allowed. He struck out two. Andrew Bechtold went 2-2 with a walk and a sacrifice fly. Wander Javier had a single and walked three times. Colton Waltner walked three times, and Jose Miranda walked twice. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Twins 8, GCL Orioles 1 Box Score Down 1-0 going into the bottom of the sixth inning, the Twins scored four, then two and then two more to take a commanding lead and win in this game. Jean Carlos Arias went 2-3 with two walks. Alex Robles went 2-4. Shane Kennedy went 1-2 with a walk and a double. Emmanuel Morel was 1-3 with two walks. He added his 12th stolen base. Victor Tademo walked twice. He stole his fifth bag. Lefty Matt Jones made the start and gave up on run over 3.1 innings. He gave up three hits, walked three and struck out two. Jose Rosenstein gave up two hits and walked three but did not give up a run in his three innings of work. Zach Featherstone got the final two outs of the seventh inning. Derek Molina struck out three over the final two innings. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day - Nick Brown, Elizabethton Twins Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Byungho Park, Rochester Red Wings TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Scranton/Wilkes Barre @ Rochester (6:05 CST) - RHP Aaron Slegers Mississippi @ Chattanooga (6:15 CST) - RHP Dereck Rodriguez Ft. Myers @ Clearwater (6:00 CST) - LHP Anthony McIver Cedar Rapids @ Kane County (6:30 CST) - LHP Bryant Sammons Johnson City @ Elizabethton (6:00 CST) - RHP Edwar Colina GCL Twins @ GCL O’s (11:00 CST) - TBD Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Monday’s games. Click here to view the article

It's really, really rare for a college pick to play in High-A right away these days. Happened more 15+ years ago. Consider Brendan McKay is still playing in the NYPL. None of the other college picks are playing in High A yet. It's also incredibly rare for a high school pick, even one drafted 1.1 or so, to get to Low A that first year. Been a couple, like Courtney Hawkins, but not much. Didn't happen with Mauer, Correa, Buxton, etc. And I apologize if your message was ironic, as I know I've written that in many threads on Twins Daily.... I don't mind writing about it. There are three other college picks from this year already playing in Cedar Rapids too.

Cesar Tovar

I don't know that Heston or Pino would be considered starters. Also, Slegers will be back down after tonight's Twins game, so he'll jump back there. Possible that Stewart starts and goes back down. Also possible that Gonsalves starts in the DH for the Twins on Monday and Stewart takes his spot.

Updated to show that Dereck Rodriguez is starting in place of Stewart tonight for the Lookouts.