Seth Stohs

His reward is hie gets his offseason... And, his bigger reward may come in November with a 40-man roster spot... maybe.

Fun take... but... 21 of the 30 teams have at least one player from their organization who was born in 1991 (or before) - sorry, I didn't feel like doing math, so instead of calculating 25 years old, just went with 1991. Minnesota, Cleveland, San Diego and Seattle each have two players born in 1991 or earlier. The Rockies and White Sox have 3 players who were born in 1991 or before. The Marlins and Reds each have four players born in 1991 or before... So... no, the Twins aren't sending older players than other teams... Also, my quick scan of the rosters shows that most players were born in 1992 and 1993, which makes sense since most players are in Hi-A, AA and some AAA, so the average age of the prospects is 22-24. Just for more fun... The White Sox have two guys that were born in 1990. The Cardinals, Rockies, Orioles, and Blue Jays have a guy born in 1990. The Marlins have a guy who was born in 1989. The Giants are sending a guy born in 1986.

In order to use an option year, a player has to be optioned. If they added Palka or Garver to the 40 man roster on September 6th (day after AAA season ends), they would be added to the 40 and recalled to the Twins. They wouldn't be optioned this year, so no option year would be used. I used those two as examples because they need to be added to the 40 man roster in November, so there's less reason to not call them up. For Gonsalves, he doesn't have to be added until after the 2017 season, so it makes the world of sense not to call him up. Not because of the options, but because he isn't going to make the OPening Day roster, and then he'd be taking a 40 man spot at the expense of someone who they could lose in the Rule 5 this offseason.

Nope... He can do both.

Why would a September call require "burning an option year?" By September, they've either already burned the option year or they aren't going to get optioned. Nothing to worry about there.

It used to be one player from below AA. A few years ago, they changed that to two players... And now it must have changed to three, I guess.

They change the rules from time to time but it was changed a few years ago to something like "less than one year of service time."

Murphy.

Yup, those ideas would work and I'd be fine with them... I just try to be realistic too. Ha!

I would think in the next few days, maybe this weekend. Basically it's a bunch of guys from Cedar Rapids down.

I'm sure if they had found any way of trading Kurt Suzuki, they would have and Garver would have been a September call up. They want three catchers, but not four, which makes sense.

On Wednesday afternoon, MLB announced the rosters for the 2016 Arizona Fall League. Six players in the Twins organization will join Chattanooga pitching coach Ivan Arteaga as members of the Surprise Saguaros.The Twins are sending three position players and three pitchers to the Fall League this year. Maybe the biggest surprise is that catcher Mitch Garver will be returning to Arizona. The Albuquerque, NM, resident caught there last year along with teammate Stuart Turner. Garver moved up to AA Chattanooga to start this season and has now done well since being promoted to Rochester last month. This does not necessarily mean that Garver will not be a September call-up following the Red Wings final game on September 5th as the Fall League doesn't start until October. (the ability to trade Kurt Suzuki is a much bigger factor). Garver was the Twins ninth-round pick in 2013 out of the University of New Mexico. Shortstop Nick Gordon will get another 70-80 plate appearances this fall after a successful season in the Florida State League. The Twins top pick from the 2014 draft has struggled some in August, though he had a five-hit game on Monday night. He is one of the Twins top position player prospects. It was an injury-plagued 2016 for outfielder Tanner English. The terrific defensive centerfielder started the season with the Miracle. He had Lasik eye surgery and on his final day of rehabbing before he would return to the Miracle, he injured his ankle in an extended spring training game. He finally returned to the Miracle lineup earlier this month and will now make up some lost at-bats. English was the Twins 11th- round pick in 2014 out of the University of South Carolina. Lefty Mason Melotakis returned this season from Tommy John surgery. The Twins and Lookouts were cautious in his recovery and he has pitched just 32.1 innings this year. He's spent a couple of DL stints as well. This will give him an opportunity against good competition and should prepare him to compete for a Twins bullpen spot sometime in 2017. He was the Twins second-round pick in 2012 out of Northwestern State University of Louisiana. Right-hander John Curtiss began 2016 in Cedar Rapids, but after being named our Relief Pitcher of the Month in April, he moved up to Ft. Myers where he has been a solid contributor. He was the Twins sixth-round pick in 2014 out of the University of Texas where he was a closer for the College World Series bound team. Like Melotakis, Randy Rosario is a left-hander who was returning from Tommy John surgery. He pitched half of the 2015 season in Cedar Rapids before being added to the 40-man roster. He started this season in the vaunted Ft. Myers rotation. In the last two or three weeks, he has moved up to the bullpen in Chatanooga. The 22-year-old signed with the Twins in 2010 out of the Dominican Republic. Click here to view the article

AAA is pretty good too. And, he's walking a ton. It's like 6 games, so not worth worrying about.

I'd still be a buyer Sano, Buxton, Kepler, Polanco, Berrios and others.

Sometimes it's OK to admit when you're wrong... But hey, I stood in there, took my shot, and like so many Twins at-bats this year, most of my predictions ended up as swings and misses. We are about to enter the month of September. The Twins 2016 season story was written way back in April, and they’ve had the final nails pounded in the last two weeks. An 11-game losing streak is never a positive for a team. So, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at my player predictions from mid-March. I think the theme of today’s story is, “It’s good to admit your mistakes.” There are a few where you’ll look at my prediction and wonder what I was thinking. I did also add the national projections from Zips, Steamer, PECOTA and Marcels and we can mock them too. It’s hard to think of now, but heading into the season, expectations were pretty high. I was hoping for 82-84 wins. Well, they’ve already hit 82 losses and have been trying for their 50th win for 11 games now. Below, you will find each player I did a prediction for. You’ll see my predictions with a link to that article. For each player, I added a few more things I was looking for this season and found a couple of key stats for each player. Click the links and re-read those. Again, I do think to remind us that projections are just that… they’re educated (or at least semi-educated) guesses. Obviously injury factors into some of these seasons as well. And hey, I may have even been fairly close on some.So enjoy this look back. Byung Ho Park 2016 Seth’s Preseason Prediction: .247/.318/.423 (.741) with 23-2B, 20-HR ZIPS: .266/.333/.463 (.796) Steamer: .256/.329/.487 (.816) PECOTA: .255/.326/.442 (.768) 2016 Actual (to date): .191/.275/.409 (.684) with 9-2B, 1-3B, 12-HR. SUMMARY: No one was real sure how to project Park. He was a big-time power hitter coming from Korea where he also struck out a tremendous amount. He certainly showed some power potential at times, but a sore wrist really affected his play (even if the team and player insist it didn’t). He was optioned to AAA Rochester after 62 games and struggled there (except for a one-week stretch). His season ended officially earlier this week when he had hand surgery. I guess of the four projections listed above, mine would have been the closest, which isn’t something to be proud or happy about. Miguel Sano 2016 Seth’s Preseason Prediction: .287/.398/.538 (.936) with 37-2B, 1-3B, 35-HR ZIPS: .249/.337/.491 (.828) Marcels: .272/.368/.497 (.865) Steamer: .257/.345/.510 (.855) PECOTA: .245/.339/.496 (.835) 2016 Actual (to date): .244/.329/.465 (.794) with 18-2B, 20-HR SUMMARY: Apparently, I just wanted to believe that the Twins could have really nice things. Now Sano is having a bad year. A look at his OPS says that he’s doing OK. But he did set the bar way too high in his debut second half. The hope was that he could take off from there and keep hitting. We knew that he would strike out a lot. I predicted 220 or so. He missed nearly six weeks due to his hamstring injury, or he might be there. He will pass Brian Dozier’s one year old Twins strikeout record, likely this week, so he’s got that. So yeah, the national rankings were also too high on him just not as much. I believe that Sano can reach the numbers I projected for him in 2016… it’ll just be later. Byron Buxton 2016 Seth’s Preseason Prediction: .247/.302/.424 (.726) with 18-2B, 1-3B, 11-HR ZIPS: .266/.310/.405 (.715) Marcel: .244/.300/.386 (.686) Steamer: .259/.309/.400 (709) PECOTA: .253/.309/.401 (.710) 2016 Actual (to date): .193/.247/.315 (.561) with 13-2B, 4-3B, 1-HR SUMMARY: Even the most pessimistic of projections was .125 too high. Buxton started slow and just wasn’t able to find success at the plate in 2016. Well he has - to some degree in AAA. The reality is that he just swings and misses too much to be successful right now. He was named the International League’s Hitter of the Week last week. He hit about .310 with homers in four straight games, and yet, he struck out about 42% of his plate appearances. I still believe that Buxton can be a star in the league. His defense alone in center field makes a pitching staff better, but 2016 just wasn’t his year. Eddie Rosario 2016 Seth’s Preseason Prediction: .282/.316/.457 (.773) with 28-2B, 9-3B, 17-HR ZIPS: .256/.287/.415 (.702) Marcels: .269/.304/.457 (.761) Steamer: .257/.291/.411 (.702) PECOTA: .250/.280/.402 (.682) 2016 Actual (to date): .266/.291/.418 (.709) with 15-2B, 2-3B, 8-HR SUMMARY: The assumption in the offseason was that Rosario would regress. I stayed optimistic that things would break well for the Twins and Rosario. Things were bad enough that he was demoted to Rochester for most of May. Since his return he’s been better. The issue remains his inability to control the strike zone. Now that doesn’t have to mean walks, though that is often a byproduct of a better approach. It just means that he has to know which pitches are strikes and which pitches he can drive, and swing at those, and not swing at things well off the plate. He’s been a little better with that since his return, but still will look silly at times. Eduardo Escobar 2016 Seth’s Preseason Prediction: .246/.295/.389 (.684) with 33-2B, 3-3B, 13-HR ZIPS: .256/.302/.409 (.711) Marcels: .250/.270/.444 (.715) Steamer: .261/.310/.393 (.703) PECOTA: .253/.294/.375 (.659) 2016 Actual (to date): .269/.299/.389 (.688) with 14-2B, 2-3B, 5-HR SUMMARY: Escobar was finally going to get his opportunity to be an everyday player this year after putting up terrific second halves the last two seasons. Unfortunately, he struggled early and then got hurt. Then Eduardo Nunez put together an allsStar rest of the half and Escobar found himself back on the bench. Now Jorge Polanco is getting most of the starts at shortstop. My projection, at least if you take away the batting average, looks pretty good with the rate numbers. However, the counting numbers just aren’t there because of the lack of playing time. Trevor Plouffe 2016 Seth’s Preseason Prediction: .252/.314/.442 (.756) with 38-2B, 1-3B, 25-HR ZIPS: .252/.315/.427 (.742) Marcels: .251/.313/.423 (.736) Steamer: .250/.315/.422 (.737) PECOTA: .246/.310/.418 (.728) 2016 Actual (to date): .260/.299/.409 (.708) with 13-2B, 1-3B, 9-HR. SUMMARY: It’s been a really tough year for Plouffe. He’s had several stints on the disabled list, and he has had some long slumps.He just isn’t getting on base the way you would hope, the way he has in the past. He’s shown some power, but didn’t take a step forward. The Twins have an interesting decision to make with him. Do they give him $8 million to keep him around and play 3B, or do they trust Miguel Sano to be adequate defensively at the hot corner. Comes down to if you think he can play more and play better than he has in 2016. Brian Dozier 2016 Seth’s Preseason Prediction: .255/.342/.457 (.799) with 35-2B, 2-3B, 26-HR ZIPS: .244/.318/.437 (.756) Marcels: Steamer: .241/.319/.405 (.724) PECOTA: 2016 Actual (to date): .270/.342/.538 (.880) with 31-2B, 5-3B, 30-HR SUMMARY: Our projections for Dozier would have looked silly had we looked a them in late May. Why were we all so optimistic? And then he took off and hasn’t stopped hitting and hitting for power since then. I projected an optimistic .015 increase in batting average which would help propel him toward an .800 OPS. Now that just looks incredibly low, but the national rankings expected even less. Dozier already has 30 homers and more triples than I projected, and he’s just four doubles shy. It’s been a phenomenal three month run for Dozier. And Twins fans can just imagine the numbers he could put up if he put it all together for a full season. Joe Mauer 2016 Preseason Prediction: .294/.363/.426 (.789) with 33-2B, 1-3B, 13-HR ZIPS: ..276/.356/.387 (.742) Marcels: .274/.349/.400 (.749) Steamer: .274/.355/.390 (.745) PECOTA: .279/.360/.387 (.747) 2016 Actual (to date): .275/.375/.401 (.777) with 17-2B, 4-3B, 10-HR SUMMARY: As we approach September, Mauer’s season has been full of mini-hot and mini-cold streaks, but overall, it has been a very solid season for the 33-year-old. After two really rough seasons, Mauer has looked a little more like the Mauer of old. No, the batting average hasn’t come all the way back, but he is again taking a lot of walk, and striking out less. The lack of doubles early in the season were inexplicable, though they’ve come back up a little bit. For the most part, he has remained healthy, played well defensively, and been a good top of the lineup hitter for the Twins. Kurt Suzuki 2016 Seth’s Preseason Prediction: .271/.320/.334 (.654) with 15-2B, 2-HR ZIPS: .253/.305/.334 (.639) Steamer: .253/.308/.354 (.662) PECOTA: .247/.299/.349 (.648) 2016 Actual (to date): .277/.318/.421 (.740) with 22-2B, 1-3B, 6-HR SUMMARY: Suzuki has played like 2014 first-half Suzuki most of the last few months. I thought that the Twins would start the season with Suzuki playing two out of three games but that it would transition to a 50/50 split in the second and third months. I figured by this time that the Twins would still be competing and John Ryan Murphy would be catching two out of three. Suzuki has hit well. Maybe it’s the Axe Bat, or maybe the fact that he is playing less overall has kept him fresh. As you can see, my .654 OPS prediction was right in line with the other projections, and he has been much better than that, even displaying some pop. John Ryan Murphy 2016 Seth’s Preseason Prediction: .280/.337/.407 (.744) with 19-2B, 1-3B, 8-HR ZIPS: .245/.295/.379 (.674) Steamer: .253/.306/.394 (.700) Marcels: .269/.323/.396 (.719) PECOTA: .254/.305/.390 (.695) 2016 Actual (to date): .075/.119/.100 (.219) with 1-2B (11 G, 40 PA) SUMMARY: Yeah, I was bullish on Murphy coming into the season. I figured he’s been solid as Brian McCann’s backup the last few years. He’s displayed some pop in his bat in limited time. And, defensively, he was said to be ‘average’ which was a significant improvement over what we’ve seen the last couple of years. Well, the defense is fine, but Murphy just hasn’t hit all year. He had like three hits in spring training. And he hit .075 in the season’s first month (admittedly a very small sample size). Unfortunately, his trip to Rochester hasn’t helped much. In his last 27 games, he’s hit .302/.337/.360 (.697) but his hot streaks have been overwhelmed by some long cold streaks. OVERALL SUMMARY: As with all of the preseason projections, I had a few that I was close on, and a few that I was way off on. As you might expect, I was a bit too optimistic on several players. Brian Dozier has significantly exceeded his projections. So have Kurt Suzuki and Joe Mauer. But for the most part, the Twins hitters have been as hoped, or worse (specifically Byungho Park, Byron Buxton and John Ryan Murphy). I recommend clicking into my preseason projection articles for more detailed keys to success and predictions. Some of them are now funny to read. Others are fairly spot on. And go into the Comments and see how your preseason predictions look now. Again, I also predicted the Twins would win about 82-84 games, so in general, my prediction game wasn’t too good this year. And, the Twins hitting has actually not been too terrible overall, especially the last two months or so when they’ve been one of the highest-scoring teams in baseball. Click here to view the article

I mean, he's a part-timer at AA this year. He becomes a free agent after the 2017 season, so I'd keep him around, unless there is just no playing time.

That's a fair question... I may have to be more willing to edit titles.

I have predicted he would, but I'd also given up on there being a whole lot of rhyme or reason with who goes to the AFL. It's not just top prospects. It's generally guys who need some extra time for whatever reason (play them against good competition, make up time lost for injury, etc.).

Updated.

It's ten games at the end of the year... Could be wearing down some, playing in the heat of Florida every day for 6 months. Could just be a slump. It's been a positive year for the shortstop.

I'm pretty sure that they all have an opinion, and Brad Steil has an opinion... And they know where Blankenhorn is defensively, and I'm certain they are just fine with how much playing time he's getting in the field. In game is one place to work on things, but he's getting plenty of grounders before games... Arraez isn't a great 2B either, and he's getting some time there. Blankenhorn will also get a ton of work there (or somewhere) in Instructional League. His bat is what has him up in Cedar Rapids.

Maybe... Ballots are out right now... It'll be interesting. Maybe more interesting will be which pitcher will be the #1 prospect in the system.

It was another interesting day for the Minnesota Twins minor league affiliates. One starter carried a no-hitter into the late innings. Two other starters worked into the sixth inning with shutouts. The Kernels inched closer to a playoff berth thanks to a quality start and three, three-hit games. Byron Buxton kept a streak going. Hey, when the big league club can’t find wins, there are always multiple positives in the farm system! The two Twins short-season affiliates are less than a week from the end of their regular seasons. As of now, Elizabethton would be in the playoffs. The GCL Twins are one game behind the Red Sox. Continue reading for all the details for a Saturday in the minor league parks.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 5, Scranton/Wilkes Barre 4 (11 innings) Box Score The story of this game through six-plus innings was left-hander Nick Greenwood. He didn’t give up a hit until there were two outs in the seventh inning. Former Twins and Red Wings player Chris Parmelee hit a double to break up the no-no. The next batter homered to end the shutout. So, in total, Greenwood gave up two runs on two hits and two walks in seven innings. He struck out four. Alan Busenitz came on for the eighth inning. He gave two runs on three hits which tied the score at four. The game went to extra innings. Jake Reed threw two scoreless innings, striking out one. The Wings took the lead on the top of the 11th inning. Edward Mujica came on and recorded his 24th save of the International League season, but it was his first save for the Red Wings. He gave up two hits, but he struck out three. For the fourth straight game, Byron Buxton homered. He went 2-6 and the homer was his 11th of the season for the Red Wings. Mitch Garver drove in two runs with his first International League home run. Adam Brett Walker went 2-4 and drove in a run. Wilfredo Tovar hit his 23rd double. In the 11th, he walked to bring in the winning run. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 3, Mississippi 1 Box Score Saturday was Stephen Gonsalves’s turn to start for the Lookouts. He improved to 8-1 and dropped his ERA to 1.64. The southpaw gave up five hits and walked two over 5.2 shutout innings. He struck out six. Todd Van Steensel came on and got the next four outs. He needed just ten pitches to do it. Mason Melotakis returned from the disabled list to pitch the eighth inning. He gave up two hits and issued a walk but he struck out three batters to get through the inning without allowing a run. Raul Fernandez got the ninth inning. He gave up a run but recorded his fifth save. The Lookouts had just five hits in the game, but they were big ones. Edgar Corcino got the team on the board with a two-run triple. It was his fifth triple for the team. Travis Harrison provided some insurance with his seventh home run. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 0, Jupiter 3 Box Score Sam Clay was on the mound for the Miracle. The left-hander gave up three runs on seven hits and two walks over five innings. He struck out six batters. Luke Westphal, Michael Theofanopoulos and Confesor Lara each threw a scoreless inning. “Theo” struck out three, and Lara struck out two. The Miracle had just five hits on the game. Their top four hitters combined to go 0-15. Brad Hartong went 2-3 in the game. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 7, Clinton 2 Box Score The Kernels are fast-approaching clinching a playoff spot in the Midwest League. On Saturday night in Clinton, they inched closer thanks to a strong start from Sam Gibbons. The Australian right-hander gave up just two runs on nine hits over six innings to record his seventh win. He struck out two without issuing a walk. Michael Cederoth walked two and struck out two in two scoreless innings. Anthony McIver gave up a hit, but he got the final three outs to preserve the win. Brandon Lopez went 3-4 with his first two MWL doubles. He was also hit by a pitch. Luis Arraez went 3-4 with a walk. He hit his 29th and 30th doubles, drove in two runs and stole his third bag and raised his average to .351. Travis Blankenhorn also had three hits in five at-bats. He had a triple and two RBI. Zander Wiel went 2-5 with two RBI. E-TWINS E-NOTES Elizabethton 1, Greeneville 0 Box Score The two teams combined for just seven hits in this game. Caleb Hamilton, who walked twice, scored on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Ariel Montesino.The E-Twins had just four hits overall. Tyler Wells, who struck out 14 in seven shutout innings his last outing, threw six shutout innings in this game. He gave up two hits, walked two, hit one and struck out three. He improved to 5-2 on the season. Colton Davis returned to the mound after not pitching for nearly a month. He struck out two in two scoreless innings. He gave up one hit and walked one. Patrick McGuff came on for the ninth and recorded his ninth save. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Twins 1, GCL Red Sox 4 Box Score Taylor Clemensia started for the Twins and went just 1.2 innings. He gave up three unearned runs on four hits and two walks. He struck out one. He really struggled to find the strike zone. Moises Gomez came on in relief and worked the final 6.1 innings. He gave up just one run on four hits. He struck out two without issuing a walk. His season ERA actually went up to 0.83 in 32.2 innings. Aaron Whitefield again led the way. He went 2-2 and stole his 29th and 30th bases of the season. He also threw two runners out from the outfield. In the second, he left the game with a sore non-throwing neck/shoulder (per Bob Sacamento). The Twins had just five hits in the game. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Stephen Gonsalves, Chattanooga Lookouts Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Luis Arraez, Cedar Rapids Kernels SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Scranton/Wilkes Barre (3:05 CST) - LHP Jason Wheeler Mississippi @ Chattanooga (1:15 CST) - RHP Aaron Slegers Ft. Myers @ Jupiter (12:00 CST) - RHP Keaton Steele Cedar Rapids @ Clinton (2:00 CST) – RHP Brady Anderson Elizabethton @ Greeneville (5:00 CST) - RHP Ryan Mason GCL Twins - No Game Scheduled Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Saturday's games. Click here to view the article