Seth Stohs

Hitters can rehab for 20 days (or games... I'm not certain which)... today is game 5.

The guy just missed a full season with an issue near his elbow... I think caution, at least early in the year, is warranted.

The Twins were working in Arlington, Texas, on Wednesday night. Chattanooga had a morning start while Rochester began in the early afternoon. Ft. Myers had a game to forget, and the Kernels stayed over .500 with an all-around strong game. The pitching wasn’t as good in the system as it was a day earlier, but there was one very strong start, and another starter gave up his first earned run of the season and gave a quality start. Ehire Adrianza is looking to earn a big league roster spot with his strong rehab performance.And… so much more. It was a full day of baseball in the Minnesota Twins minor league system. So, grab a cup of coffee, or a big glass of water and enjoy… RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 2, Gwinnett 3 Box Score Lefty David Hurlbut came into his third start having given up zero earned runs through 11 innings pitched. In the first inning, an unearned run was charged to him due to a passed ball. However, his streak of unearned runs came to an end when he gave up two runs in the third inning. Nevertheless, he put together a quality start on Wednesday afternoon. He gave up those three runs (two earned) on seven hits and a walk in 6.1 innings. He struck out three. His season ERA, now through 17.1 innings, is at 1.04. Drew Rucinski got the final two outs of the seventh and pitched a scoreless eighth frame as well. Alex Wimmers struck out one in a perfect ninth. Ehire Adrianza had two hits for the second straight game. He is now 4-9 in his two-game rehab stint. John Ryan Murphy added his second and third doubles in four at-bats. Tommy Field hit his fourth double. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 4, Tennessee 8 Box Score It just wasn’t Felix Jorge’s day on Wednesday afternoon. The talented right-hander gave up six runs on ten hits and a walk in his five innings. He struck out four. Ryan Eades came on and gave up two runs on two hits and two walks… in two innings. He struck out… two. Mason Melotakis pitched another scoreless inning in relief ,and Nick Burdi struck out two batters in a scoreless ninth inning. Both keep their ERAs of 0.00 intact. Melotakis has thrown 8.2 innings, and Burdi has tossed 7.1 innings so far. Travis Harrison led the offense. He went 2-2 with two walks in the game. Down 4-1 in the fourth, Jonathan Rodriguez hit a two-run homer to cut the deficit to 4-3. However, this was the Jason Vosler story. The Cubs’ 16th round pick in 2014 out of Northeastern came into the game hitting .180 with one home runs. He went 3-5 and hit three, two-run homers. The first gave the Smokies a 4-1 lead in the third. In his next at bat, he hit a two-run homer to give the Smokies another three-run lead after Rodriguez’s homer. Then in the seventh inning, he hit his third of the game to give the final 8-4 margin. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 1, Bradenton 16 Box Score This is a game to forget. Doug Mientkiewicz, his coaching staff, and the players would all like to just completely forget about their game on Wednesday night. Sure, the box score will be there, but the goal will be to try to forget it ever happened, though they’ll want to learn from it still. Cody Stashak started and gave up seven runs (five earned) on five hits and a walk. He struck out four. Mike Theofanopoulos came on and recorded just two outs. He was charged with six runs on five hits and a walk. Brady Anderson came on and gave up three runs on six hits, but he was able to get the game to the ninth inning. Jonny Drozd came on and pitched a scoreless ninth. The Miracle, who have been scoring a lot of runs of late, were held to just four hits and two runs in the game. Zander Wiel had an RBI double in the game. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 6, Burlington 1 Box Score The Kernels used a five-run second inning to grab an early lead and got a strong pitching performance to improve to 11-9. In that second inning, Shane Carrier drove in the first run with an RBI double. Then the red-hot Jermaine Palacios came up with the bases loaded and cleared them with a triple. The next batter, Mitchell Kranson, bounced a single to the outfield to score Palacios. Lewin Diaz led the way with a 3-4 game. He added his seventh double. Kranson went 2-4. Travis Blankenhorn went 1-2 and walked twice in the game. Tyler Wells pitched well on improved to 2-0 on the season. The right-hander gave up one run on five hits over seven innings. He walked one and struck out seven, dropping his season ERA to 1.88. Max Cordy and Colton Davis worked the eighth and ninth innings, respectively, without giving up a run. Palacios tripled for the third straight game, and it was his fifth triple of this young season. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Tyler Wells, Cedar Rapids Kernels Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Travis Harrison, Chattanooga Lookouts SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Gwinnett @ Rochester (10:05 a.m. CST) - LHP Jason Wheeler Chattanooga @ Jackson - (6:05 CST) - RH Paul Clemens Bradenton @ Ft. Myers (5:35 CST) - RHP David Fischer Cedar Rapids @ Peoria (6:30 CST) - RHP Sean Poppen Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Wednesday night’s games. Click here to view the article

I think the Twins might do it. I don't think Sano's side would do it. And, many of these deals, like Tim Anderson's and others, have a couple more option years at really big numbers too so I would think they'd have a couple of option years that could add another $40 million if they're picked up.

Nobody is looking at Turley as a "prospect." But that's a very nice signing. If he can do as well as Boshers did last year, it's a terrific signing. Sometimes guys figure out something later and can fill a nice role in the big leagues. We need to stop worrying about ages to level when it comes to org guys who hopefully or could potentially fill a small role in the big leagues. He's 27, not 37... what if he was a diamond in the rough that the Twins found and he's able to be a solid lefty reliever in the big leagues for 2-3 years?

I tweeted this last night: It's really a remarkable stat... The Lookouts have some guys that just aren't hitting that I think will be average types of hitters... so hopefully they get it going here. Tanner English is a good ball player. He should be hitting .250, and he's hitting .115 (or so) right now. He'll be fine, I think, but tough start. A lot of guys are hitting 50 points lower than you'd expect. Of course, no way to know what will happen, but i think there is more there than is currently being shown. Right now, it's pretty much Gordon and Vielma hitting, with Corcino and Ryan Walker contributing well too.

He was 19 in the MWL, playing against mostly 22-23 year olds. He'd never played in the cold. Got off to a cold start and wasn't able to get out of it. Similar thing happened to Felix Jorge in 2014. Terrible for the first 5-6 weeks in CR, went back down. Went back in 2015 and was terrific and has stayed terrific. From what I've seen, I think he can stay at SS.

I mean to be fair the high upside guys have moved up quicker. Several at AA are as young/younger than the Kernels starters. And, we'll see what happens. Hopefully one or two of these guys (all late-round college guys) take a good step forward. I don't think you'll see younger pitchers move up to Cedar Rapids. They have some more of last year's draft picks just working and waiting in EST still. Thorpe will likely get to an affiliate sometime in the near future. Lachlan Wells is 20 at High-A.

Regardless of which guy they take, I think it would be fun to see they play this summer in some strategic way so that they could DH when they aren't pitching. Something like, Start Day 1. Day 2 don't play. Day 3 and Day 4 - DH, Day 5 - don't play, Day 6 - pitch. (in a 6-man rotation, maybe they DH day 5 too.) I think that'd be fun for E-Town (for Greene) and Cedar Rapids (or Ft. Myers) for McKay. Also, I wonder how much they'll have them pitch this year anyway.

Not sure if you saw John Manuel's tweet earlier today explaining his article on Greene - where a lot of people said he wanted to play in San Diego (which I also don't blame him)

Kirilloff - Tommy John Arraez - knee

In reality, Stewart's troubles at the start of this season have had little (or nothing) to do with his low strikeout numbers in the past. It's clear from his starts that he just isn't throwing strikes and isn't commanding his pitches as he has in the past. Hopefully he can regain his control soon because the stuff is still really good.

Shortstop is a pretty solid position for the Twins. Polanco has definitely shown that he can do it, and he looks much more confident than last year, or even four or five weeks ago. Gordon's off to a fast start. Vielma is also playing really well. Palacios is absolutely on fire. And Wander Javier is sitting in Extended Spring Training.

In case you haven’t been following the Minnesota Twins to this point in the season, Byron Buxton has started the season really slowly. On Monday night in Texas, he went 0-2 with two walks and is now hitting just .105/.177/.140 (.318). There is really no way to sugarcoat those numbers. Nick wrote a bit about his struggles yesterday. While few have struggled to the level that Buxton has to start this season, there are a lot of hitters who are just not hitting to this point. Heading into play on Monday, 27 qualifying players (have 3.1 at bats per game their team plays for) had a batting average below .200. The average batting average in MLB was .241.There are six players in the big leagues who are 22 to 24 years old and hitting under .220 heading into Monday’s games. I thought it would be interesting to see if their teams have done anything about those players. Have they been demoted? Will they be demoted? Have they been moved in the lineup at all? I think I found some consistencies in the research. Dansby Swanson - 23 - SS - Atlanta Braves 2017 Stats*: .139/.162/.194 (.357) in 74 plate appearances over 18 games. Swanson was the first overall draft pick in the 2015 draft out of Vanderbilt. Inexplicably, Dave Stewart decided to trade the Georgia native to Atlanta (with two others) for Shelby Miller. The Braves called him up late last year. He played in 38 big league games, he hit .302/.361/.442 (.803) in 145 plate appearances. He had 34 strikeouts, but he also walked 13 times. Part of his struggles this season can be tied to his strikeout-to-walk rate. He has 19 strikeouts to go with just two walks. He began the 2017 season as Atlanta’s second-place hitter. He stayed in that spot for the first 14 games. He then got a day off. At that point he was in a 3-33 slump which dropped his average to .131. When he returned to the lineup this past weekend, he had been moved to the eighth spot. Swanson seems to be taking the struggles in stride. When he was given his one game off, he told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: “When you’re going like this each at-bat is kind of a battle,” Swanson said. “I was just talking to some people about how, it’s like, they throw those perfect breaking balls on certain counts and they make certain pitches, and then when you do hit balls hard people seem to be standing right there and stuff. But you’ve got to do your best to not let that affect you — just because you’re not getting the result doesn’t mean you’re not doing the right thing. “This game, it’s hard. It’s just a weird concept because you can execute everything perfectly and not be successful, whereas in football if you run a play perfectly you’re going to be successful, or in basketball if you shoot the perfect shot it’s going in. It’s just funny how, in this (sport), you can take the perfect swing and it doesn’t matter. Nothing’s really in your control except your immediate action.” Tim Anderson - 24 - SS - Chicago White Sox 2017 Stats*: .179/.203/.254 (.457) in 69 plate appearances Anderson was the White Sox first-round pick in 2013 out of Community College. He was called up in mid-June and played in 99 games. He hit .283/.306/.432 (.738). Those that have watched the White Sox since his call up know what his issue can be. Throw him a breaking ball outside of the strike zone, and he’ll probably still swing at it. Last year, he saw just 3.7 pitches per plate appearance. This year, that number is down to just 3.3. But the White Sox obviously see him as a future star and leader on the team. . This spring, they locked him up to a six year, $25 million contract. With a couple of option years, the value of the contract could exceed $51 million. So, he’s probably got some leeway. He began the season by batting second the first seven games, and then he moved up to the leadoff spot for three games. After a day off, he has hit second four times and led off twice. Through 16 games, Rich Renteria has chosen to keep Anderson near the top of the order. Orlando Arcia - 22 - SS - Milwaukee Brewers 2017 Stats*: .210/.234/.306 (.541) in 64 plate appearances over the first 18 games Arcia was signed out of Venezuela. He is the younger brother of former Twins outfielder Oswaldo Arcia. He is known for his premiere defense at shortstop, which may surprise those of us who watched Oswaldo out in the outfield in Target Field. He was called up late last year and played in 55 games for the Brewers last year. He hit .219/.273/.358 (.631). The Brewers have him up primarily for his defense and are letting him grow into the offensive side of the game. That is shown, in part, by the fact that they have had him hitting eighth or even ninth in their lineup in each game he’s played. Brewers manager Craig Counsell recently told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Development is not a straight line," Counsell said. "Failure is part of it. You don’t know for who and when, but you know that there’s going to be struggles, and you have to get through those times. That’s when most of the learning happens and the biggest adjustments are going to happen." "Look, I don’t want to see guys struggle. It’s hard seeing guys struggle. But I know also a lot of good can come from the struggle, and that’s what I always remain hopeful about." Jose Peraza - 22 - 2B/SS - Cincinnati Reds 2017 Stats*: .216/.256/.257 (.513) in 78 plate appearances over 18 games Peraza actually made his MLB debut in 2015 when he played in seven games for the Dodgers before being involved in his second, three-team trade in his young career. It sent him to Cincinnati. In 2016, he hit .324/.352/.411 (.762) in 72 games and 256 plate appearances. He played around the infield, but mostly in the two middle spots. This year, he is off to a slow start. However, in all 18 games he has played, he has hit first or second. Chad Dotson from Redleg Nation doesn’t think that Peraza is in any danger of a demotion: As far as I know, there has been no public discussion about either sending Peraza down or dropping him in the lineup. In my opinion, it is highly unlikely that Peraza will be demoted. He’s still just 22 years old, and current management has reason to be patient with the young guys at the heart of the rebuild. This is a season for the Reds to see who they have and what they can do. Peraza will get a much longer leash than 3 weeks. (Plus, his defense has been good.) Trevor Story - 24 - SS - Colorado Rockies 2017 Stats*: .169/.270/.415 (.686) in 74 plate appearances over 19 games Story was the big story early last season. In his MLB debut last year, he hit two home runs. He had six home runs in his first four games. Unfortunately, his season ended after just 97 games due to injury, but he finished by hitting 21 doubles and 27 home runs. He hit .272/.341/.567 (.909). So, it’s clear that he isn’t off to the same kind of start as he was last year. However, he has continued to show the home run power. Rockies fans are surprised when Story hits a single so far this year. He started the season hitting fifth, and batted fourth or fifth each of the first seven games. Since then, he has hit primarily sixth, but also has three games where he’s batted seventh as well. So for now, he has been dropped a little in the lineup. Carlos Correa - 23 - SS - Houston Astros 2017 Stats*: .197/.286/.295 (.581) with 70 plate appearances in 16 games. Correa was the top pick in the 2012 MLB draft, one pick ahead of Byron Buxton. Correa was called up halfway through the 2015 season and hit 22 homers on his way to the AL Rookie of the Year. In 2016, he hit .274/.361/.451 (.811) with 36 doubles, 20 homers and 96 RBI. 2017 hasn’t started out real well for Correa. However, he has been the Astros cleanup hitter each game that he’s played this season, and that probably won’t change anytime soon. SUMMARY So what have we noticed from reviewing the six players above? Maybe you’ll think through some more, but here are a few things I noticed. If you go on Twitter or read comments sections, there are two distinct groups of fans for each of these players. There are the ones who want a guy demoted (or even just given up on), and there are those that will support said player as long as it takes. Here’s a good example from Twitter regarding Dansby Swanson: 2.) Defense - you’ll notice that each of these players plays an up-the-middle position, and plays it well. While Buxton is the only outfielder, most of them are shortstops. Each is known for being a plus defender. 3.) Byron Buxton was the Twins #3 hitter on Opening Day. Having watched him play this spring, it was an aggressive, but understandable plan. Not because of any numbers he put up in spring training, but because of the quality of the at-bats that he was having. After struggling for five games, Paul Molitor moved him down the lineup and he’s primarily been batting ninth since. He’s been pinch-hit for three times and sat out a couple of games too. Swanson stayed in the second spot for 14 games before being moved down this weekend. Story has dropped from five to seven. But the rest have stayed in their spots. 4.) Online searching tells me that none of the other players are in any danger of being demoted, at least not in the near future. 5.) Patience is what is being preached. That’s not new. Player development is not linear. Not everyone develops at the same time. Sometimes being optioned helps. Sometimes a player needs to figure things out in the big leagues. 6.) Walk and strikeout rates are pretty consistently telling in seeing player struggles. I don’t think that surprises anyone. Players that have a better control of the strike zone have a tendency to avoid longer slumps, and they don’t get themselves out by swinging at pitches outside the strike zone. Now, we don’t watch these other teams play as often as we watch the Twins. It’s also pretty certain from the stats and the strikeout rates that Buxton’s struggles have exceeded even those mentioned above. Personally, I would like to see the Twins continue to play Buxton most every day and let him try to work through this. Finally, here is a list of the 27 players who entered Monday’s game with a sub-.200 batting average. Jose Reyes - .104 Ryan Schimpf - .109 Jose Bautista - .132 Devon Travis - .136 Dansby Swanson - .139 Danny Valencia - .145 Curtis Granderson - .149 Travis Jankowski - .160 Mike Napoli - .162 Erick Aybar - .164 Trevor Story - .169 Alex Gordon - .169 Dexter Fowler - .169 Maikel Franco - .171 Scott Schebler - .175 Austin Hedges - .175 Tim Anderson - .179 Brett Gardner - .182 Jonathan Villar - .185 Rougned Odor - .187 Alcides Escobar - .190 Danny Espinosa - .191 Domingo Santana - .193 Adonis Garcia - .194 Justin Bour - .194 Carlos Gonzalez - .197 Carlos Correa - .197 It’s an interesting mix, isn’t it? There are young players and there are old players. There are some former All-Stars, and there are guys you had to look up to see what team they even play for. It’s easy to jump to conclusions early in a season even though we all know it’s a very small sample. But with Buxton, the question that Derek Falvey and Thad Levine have to be asking themselves is: What is best for Byron Buxton’s long-term future? Learn in the big leagues or learn in AAA Rochester. The problem is, there is no way to know which answer is more correct than the other. Share your thoughts. Click here to view the article

Yes, a lot of those guys will have a certain $ value in mind to sign, so unless they have a deal in place for that number, once they fall past the 2nd or 3rd round, they're going to college for 3 years. Someone may take a flyer on them in the last 10-15 rounds, like the Twins did with Logan Shore out of high school, but they might as well go to school.

Catcher is the position he's probably played the least, even in college, but it's the position that he wants to play. In college, he played 3B, 1B, RF, and a little catcher. He's got work to do, as you would expect, but he'll work. He proved that this past offseason, so I think he's got a chance.

Yup, and they're all (except Del Rosario) in their first full professional season).

You might have forgotten that he started back in Cedar Rapids because he was moving to starting. A And, you also forgot to not that he posted a 4.7 ERA and a 1.46 WHIP in his 1/2 of a season with the Miracle. And I think the Twins and scouts and opponents' scouts would say that the Twins promote their "prospects" at a pretty good rate.

Yeah, I agree... video doesn't show it clearly, but Rortvedt's reaction tells me that there was no foul ball and he missed it.

He wasn't... He pitched - not too well - today.

This was the first time I remember it. This is what made it take off... I think it's hilarious... http://m.mlb.com/video/topic/6479266/v31157945/nlcs-gm6-van-slyke-kelly-start-game-with-standoff

Pretty sure he won't be sent down. In fact, I would be surprised if he isn't brought up to AAA very soon.