Seth Stohs

Correct... Signed in 2010, he can be a 6-year- minor league free agent. Fair point on Wheeler.

He works hard, and he's not slow, but as of now he's not a real great athlete and not real quick.

I don't know if they really have a closer designated. I think they have certain guys that are available on certain days, and maybe more save opportunities have come to him. Chargois still gets plenty of late inning time too.

Like Wheeler, I would call up Wimmers in August or September and just give him an opportunity to show something. If it looks like they can be big league help going forward, keep them on the 40 man. If not, take them back off. Yorman Landa isn't going anywhere (in terms of the 40 man roster)... He throws 100. He should be safe.

Based on some more conversations, tweets and more: Daniel Palka to Rochester. David Martinez released. Edgar Corcino, Tyler Jay and Felix Jorge promoted to Chattanooga. Omar Bencomo to the Disabled List. Sam Clay, Miles Nordgren and Daniel Kihle promoted to Ft. Myers. Max Cordy, Andrew Vasquez, Casey Scoggins and Christian Cavaness promoted to Cedar Rapids. Christian Ibarra to DL at CR.

Tyler Jay on his way to AA as well.

Hearing that a big prospect is moving from Ft. Myers to Chattanooga. There are just a ton of moves and we'll try to keep them updated here as they become known.

He did spend 2+ weeks in A ball. Was just promoted to AA.

Possible, but i don't know yet. He's pitched great in 4 games and 5.1 innings. Not bad for a 36th round pick.

They get one extra year, but you're right, probably should get one more if they sign at 16. I would be in favor of that. The current cut-off is at 19, but maybe there should be a second cutoff at 17 too.

hearing that the Felix Jorge move was one of many transactions following last night's games. may affect every affiliate. Jeff Johnson (The Gazette, Cedar Rapids) tweeted that Sam Clay and Daniel Kihle are heading to Ft. Myers. Christian Cavaness tweeted that he's headed back to Cedar Rapids. I'm sure we'll hear more throughout the day.

Fun chat, and obviously we'd have to look at who is traded and then comes off the 40-man roster to see how many roster spots might be available. Givens: Jorge, Palka, Romero, Garver. (I'll add Garver because catching is so hard to find). Probables: Stuart Turner (see above regarding catching), Engelb Vielma (he's hit fairly well in AA and the defense is great), Tough Decisions: Wheeler, Eades, Slegers, Granite, Thorpe. I think I'd call up Wheeler at some point in the next two months and give him some starts and just decide whether to keep him on the 40-man roster or to DFA him at the end of the season. Would be nice to see him get some big league innings before deciding what to do in the offseason.

The Kernels needed extra innings to pick up a big win on Wednesday night. It may not have been the most exciting way to win, but it works. The winning run was scored by a young man who reached base five times on the evening. A top prospect threw six shutout innings. Another starter put together a quality start. One pitcher, in his second professional start, threw five shutout innings. And there was much more throughout the system. And hey, within a period of 14 hours, the Twins earned two wins! With that, let’s get to the scores and highlights of the day in the Twins minor league system. But first, at around 11:00 p.m., Mike Berardino posted the following: Well earned, I think we can all agree.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 0, Lehigh Valley 2 Box Score Jason Wheeler put together yet another quality start for the Red Wings. The left-hander went six innings and gave up two runs on nine hits. He walked two and struck out six. Buddy Boshers came on and got the first two outs of the seventh inning. Marcus Walden got the final four outs without allowing a run. He gave up a hit and walked a batter. The Red Wings were just not able to muster any offense. They had just four hits. Adam Brett Walker went 1-3 with a walk and his 13th double. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 6, Birmingham 0 Box Score The Lookouts had a morning game on Wednesday, and they came ready to play. Stephen Gonsalves was a little wild, but he was able to avoid allowing runs and recorded his second AA win. The left-hander went the first six innings. He gave up no runs on just three hits. He walked five and struck out five. Jake Reed came on and was perfect for two innings. He struck out two. Trevor Hildenberger worked an uneventful ninth to drop his AA ERA to just 0.92. The Lookouts were able get a couple of runs off White Sox 2015 top pick Carson Fulmer. The scored two runs off of him despite his ten strikeouts. Fulmer falls to 4-9 with a 4.76 ERA. Zack Burdi, the White Sox #1 pick this June and younger brother of Twins prospect Nick Burdi, made his AA debut in the 6th inning. It didn’t go well. He faced five batters. He gave up one hit and walked four before being removed. He was charged with four runs. He walked Leonardo Reginnato and Stuart Turner to start the inning. He then gave up a single to Engelb Vielma. Zach Granite and Ryan Walker both walked to each drive in a run. After a pitching change and a Daniel Palka strikeout, Mitch Garver singled in Vielma and Dalton Hicks scored Granite on a sacrifice fly. Zach Granite went 2-4 with a walk in the game to push his season average to .301. Mitch Garver went 2-5. Stuart Turner added his 12th double. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 3, St. Lucie 4 Box Score Keaton Steele gave the Miracle six innings, but there was not enough offense. Steele fell to 4-7. He was charged with four runs on six hits. He walked one and struck out three. Yorman Landa threw two perfect inning of relief. The Miracle offense only managed five hits. Edgar Corcino hit his 13th double. AJ Murray drove one in with his fifth double. Joe Maloney hit a two-run homer, his first, with the Miracle. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 9, Wisconsin 8 (12 innings) Box Score In the 12th inning, Luis Arraez led off with a walk. It was the fifth time he had reached base in the game. Zander Wiel moved him to second base on a bunt. It was followed by an intentional walk of Nelson Molina. JJ Fernandez grounded out which brought up Jaylin Davis with the opportunity to play hero in his first game with the Kernels. On the second pitch, the ball went to the backstop. Arraez scored and the Kernels won. Arraez led the way. He went 4-5 with a walk and four RBI. Sean Miller went 3-6 with his 14th double and third home run, a three-run blast that gave the Kernels a 7-5 lead in the 8th inning. Rainis Silva went 2-4 with a walk and three runs scored. Daniel Kihle and Jermaine Palacios were both 2-5. Eduardo Del Rosario went the first 5.2 innings. He gave up three runs on eight hits. He walked one and struck out two. Anthony McIver came on and before getting the final out of the sixth, he gave up two more runs. He did strike out three in 1.1 innings. Michael Cederoth threw a scoreless inning. He walked one and gave up one hit. Kuo Hua Lo gave up a three-run homer that put the Kernels behind in the 9th inning. However, he worked three innings and gave up the three runs on two hits and four walks. Williams Ramirez pitched a scoreless 12th inning to pick up the win. E-TWINS E-NOTES Elizabethton, Bristol Box Score This game was postponed by rain. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Twins 4, GCL Rays 2 Box Score This game was scoreless through the first five innings. Both starters tossed five shutout innings before the game was handed to the bullpens. For the Twins, it was right-hander Tyler Fox, an undrafted free agent from Nebraska-Omaha. He gave up just two hits and didn’t issue a walk in his five scoreless innings. He struck out four. The Twins manufactured a couple of runs in the sixth inning. Lean Marrero led off with a single and stole second base. He advanced to third base on a ground out. Dane Hutcheon walked and stole second. With runners now on second and third, Jorge Munoz singled to left to score both runners. The team added two more runs in the seventh inning. With one out, Tyree Davis hit his first home run of the season. After Juan Gamez and Lean Marrero walked, Jean Carlos Arias walked to load the bases. A Hutcheon ground out to the pitcher allowed Gamez to score the Twins fourth run of the game. Matz Schutte threw scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh. He gave up just an unearned run in the eighth inning. He struck out three. Callan Pearce recorded the save. He gave up an unearned run on two hits in the ninth. He struck out two. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Tyler Fox, GCL Twins Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Luis Arraez, Cedar Rapids Kernels THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Lehigh Valley (6:05 CST) - LHP Pat Dean Birmingham @ Chattanooga (6:15 CST) - RHP Aaron Slegers Bradenton @ Ft. Myers (6:05 CST) - LHP Randy Rosario (completion of a suspended game in the 4th inning from earlier this season first though) Wisconsin @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 CST) – RHP Cody Stashak Elizabethton @ Bristol (DH @ 5:00 CST) - RHP Domenick Carlini, TBD GCL Rays @ GCL Twins (11:00am CST) - LHP Bo Hellquist Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Wednesday's games. Click here to view the article

After posting out Twins Daily Minor League Hitter and Starting Pitcher of the Month of June over the past few days, today we will look at the relief pitchers who got their jobs done during the month. There were a bunch and like the starters, you could make arguments for several of these guys to claim the title. But who won? In case you missed them here are the previous June winners: Hitter of the Month: Daniel Palka, Chattanooga Lookouts. Starting Pitcher of the Month: Felix Jorge, Ft. Myers Miracle. So, who will join them in the June Twins Minor League Awards? Continue reading to find out.First, a couple of relievers worthy of mention: RHP Todd Van Steensel (Ft. Myers Miracle) – 6 G, 1-1, 2 saves, 0.00 ERA, 1.08 WHIP, 8.1 IP, 2 H, 7 BB, 11 KRHP Marcus Walden (Rochester) - 12 G, 0-0, 1 save, 2.57 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 13.0 IP, 11 H, 2 BB, 12 KTHE TOP FIVE RELIEF PITCHERS Number 5 - Cedar Rapids/Ft. Myers – LHP Michael Theofanopoulos - 10 G, 0.84 ERA, 1.03 WHIP, 10.2 IP, 6 H, 5 BB, 11 K Theofanopoulos was the recipient of this award last month when he put together a really strong May. He was very good again in June despite the fact that he was promoted around the middle of the month. In fact, he went five outings in the FSL before allowing a run to score. The 23-year-old lefty was the Twins 30th round pick in the 2014 draft out of Cal-Berkeley. Overall this season, he is 3-1 with three saves, a 1.91 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP. He has struck out 11.5 per nine overall on the season. Number 4 – Cedar Rapids – RHP Kuo Hua Lo - 7 G, 0.82 ERA, 0.64 WHIP, 11.0 IP, 4 H, 3 BB, 8 K Lo has been a bit under the radar as a prospect signing signing with the Twins in 2011 from Taiwan. After a year in the GCL, he spent three seasons in Elizabethton. Last year, he finished with a 1.44 ERA and was the top relief pitcher in the league. Overall this year, he is 0-0 with a 1.10 ERA and a 1.26 WHIP for the Kernels in 32.2 innings. He has 30 strikeouts, but he also has 22 walks. He can be tough to hit. His fastball will touch 92-93 mph, but he throws a variety of pitches, some barely registering 70 on the radar gun. Number 3 – Chattanooga – RHP JT Chargois - 10 G, 1.38 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 13.0 IP, 11 H, 2 BB, 12 K Yes, I admit, I took out his disastrous MLB debut in which he struggled to throw strikes and when he did, it got hit hard. I included only his Rochester numbers since this is a minor league award. Chargois continued to be very good. He hasn’t allowed runs. He hasn’t hurt himself with a lot of walks. The 25-year-old has generally been dominant all season. In 30 total minor league game this year, he has a 1.57 ERA, a 1.05 WHIP, just 2.6 BB/9 and 11.5 K/9. The 2012 second round pick is finally healthy and really there is no reason that he shouldn’t spend the entire second half of the season in the Twins bullpen. Number 2 – Ft. Myers – RHP Yorman Landa - 7 G, 0.00 ERA, 0.67 WHIP, 9.0 IP, 3 H, 3 BB, 12 K The Twins signed Landa from Venezuela in 2010. Following a successful return to action in Cedar Rapids last year, he was added to the Twins 40-man roster. Though he didn’t pitch much in June, he was tremendous when he was on the hill. In fact, he was a late add to the FSL All-Star Game roster and pitched in the game at Hammond Stadium. He pitched a scoreless inning, but as notable, he hit 100 mph on the radar gun on four pitches. The last time he gave up a run was May 26th, ten outings ago. He has given up just one hit over his past nine innings (six outings). Overall this season, Landa is 2-1 with seven saves. He has a 2.39 ERA, a 1.38 WHIP, 4.8 BB/9 and 9.0 K/9. And the Twins Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Month is: Chattanooga Lookouts – RHP Trevor Hildenberger - 9 G, 0.87 ERA, 0.58 WHIP, 12.2 IP, 5 H, 1 BB, 14 K For the second straight month, a Cal-Berkeley alum is our choice for Twins Daily Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Month. It’s an award that Trevor Hildenberger has won several times. Hildenberger was the Twins Daily Relief Pitcher of the Year in 2015. Some may have thought that he was just successful in the low minor leagues due to his age. However, he pitched well in the Arizona Fall League last year against (and with) guys his own age. This year, he quickly moved from Ft. Myers up to AA Chattanooga and his success has just continued. He made just six appearances and needed 9.1 innings of 0.96 ERA to convince the powers-that-be to move him up to Chattanooga. He has now pitched 28.1 innings over 23 games with the Lookouts. He has a 0.95 ERA and an incredible 0.67 WHIP in the Southern League. He has walked just four batters and struck out 31. He has to have the Twins brass thinking about him as a possible option for Rochester at this point. Who knows? We may see him at Target Field yet this year. As you can see from his June stats, he was tremendous. He worked a lot of innings and allowed very few base runners. He walked just one and struck out 14 in 12.2 innings. He also represented the Twins and the Lookouts at the Southern League All-Star Game and, as you’d expect, didn’t give up a run. The former 22nd round pick from Cal-Berkeley had a win or a save in all nine of his outings during the month. He may fit into that mold of Pat Neshek or Darren O’Day in that he throws from the side, and from multiple angles. He gets good movement on his breaking pitches, but also a lot of run on his fastball. He is the rare side arm pitcher who often can touch 93 on the radar gun. While he may not show up on Top 10 prospect lists, Trevor Hildenberger is a guy who has a chance to be a big-time contributor to the Minnesota Twins in the not-too-distant future. There were several very strong relief pitcher performances in June. Feel free to agree or disagree with the order, if you like, but congratulations to each of these individuals on an excellent month of may. Congratulations to the Twins Daily Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Month for June 2016, Trevor Hildenberger. Click here to view the article

Sure, bad luck is part of it, but as has been mentioned, my intent was just to say that things have gone bad. Some of it is bad luck maybe. Some of it is bad planning. Some of it is players just not developing. Some of it is poor front office decisions. I always try to be fair. So, I would say that for every move, there has been a reasonable and logical reasoning for it. Some might take more time to consider and come up with that logical reasoning, but there is some. For instance, I think the Hicks/Murphy trade was quite justifiable. It may still prove to be a just-fine deal. To this point, not so good. There could be that same reasoning for all of them. For pretty much none of them to work out, that does have some bad luck - (however, when I wrote this, it wasn't my intent to involve luck). And to continue being fair... The Front office looks pretty good in deciding to offer arbitration to Eduardo Nunez, when many fans thought that made little sense. Signing Fernando Abad for his deal proved (at least so far) to be just as good if not much better than had they made people happy by signing Tony Sipp or Antonio Bastardo to 3 or 4 years and more than the $6 million they got. It's just much more difficult and more thought needs to be put into finding the positives.

And in both cases, the Twins got very good performances from the player they received during the year of the trade. Ramos was the Twins #3 prospect at the time of the trade, a catcher who had already done well in some time in MLB. Hu was a solid pitching prospect, a potential mid-rotation guy who was behind the five MLB starters, plus the current group of top pitching prospects in FM and Chat (Stewart, Gonsalves, Jorge) and also Romero and Thorpe (And now Jay). That's what happens when you trade for a veteran piece in July. There is a chance that the prospect becomes a good MLB player. The Twins have reversed that many times over the years too. The problem was that the Twins do something they have done to a fault, and that's keep the guy they acquired for too long. They brought back Capps a couple of times.They brought back Jepsen for the second year too... Although it would have been crazy not to offer him arbitration after what he did last year.

Good one...

Agreed. His stuff, in my opinion, is still good enough to keep starting. Rough one last night, but I'd certainly keep him starting.

Agreed... you'd add Jorge to a package including Nolasco to maybe get a prospect as good as Jorge.

I was honestly a little surprised when he was pushed to AA to start this season, but after a short adjustment, he has been terrific. It's fun to see. He has such a professional approach at the plate, perfect for a leadoff type of hitter.

from what I've heard, he may not pitch much at all this year. Just started a throwing program recently after his month bout with mono.

No way I'd trade Felix Jorge.

Over the weekend, we posted our choice for Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Month. Today we are posting the Twins Daily Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month for June. While there are several real strong candidates, but in the end, the choice was fairly easy. Continue reading to find out who had strong months and who our starting pitcher of the month is.So before to our Top 5 starting pitchers for the month of June, here are a few others who deserve to be recognized for a strong month. LHP Andrew Albers (Rochester) - 6 GS, 3-1, 2.63 ERA, 1.22 WHIP, 37.2 IP, 42 H, 4 BB, 25 KLHP Logan Darnell (Rochester) - 6 GS, 3-2, 2.84 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 38.0 IP, 37 H, 12 BB, 24 KRHP DJ Baxendale (Chattanooga/Rochester) - 5 G/3GS, 1-2, 2.60 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 17.1 IP, 17 H, 5 BB, 12 KTHE TOP FIVE STARTING PITCHERS Number 5 – Chattanooga – RHP Ryan Eades - 5 GS, 3-1, 2.89 ERA, 0.96 WHIP, 28.0 IP, 20 H, 7 BB, 19 K If not for his fourth start of the month of June, Eades would likely be much higher on this list. The right-hander gave up seven earned runs in his June 24th start and yet still is in this top five. In his first three starts of the month (coming back from the DL), he worked 17 innings and gave up just one run. He ended the month with a quality start in which he gave up just one run over six innings in his final start. The former 2nd-round pick has been inconsistent at times this year, but he is also often able to be more consistent with his pitches from inning to inning. He won’t turn 25 until December, so he has plenty of time to keep working on these things. Number 4 - Chattanooga – RHP Aaron Slegers - 5 GS, 4-0, 2.16 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 33.1 IP, 22 H, 12 BB, 25 K Aaron Slegers rarely gets placed on prospect lists, but he just quietly has been very productive throughout his pro career. He throws a lot of strikes and generally doesn’t walk many. In fact his June walk rate is as high as you will see it. But Slegers had a strong month, not only with that perfect record but with a low ERA and a low WHIP. He doesn’t strike out a ton, but he can get one when he needs one. He should spend the rest of the season in Chattanooga before jumping up to Rochester in 2017. Number 3 – Cedar Rapids/Ft. Myers – RHP Fernando Romero - 5 GS, 3-1, 2.70 ERA, 0.97 WHIP, 30.0 IP, 25 H, 4 BB, 26 K Romero missed two seasons after having Tommy John surgery in 2014 and then knee surgery in 2015. Seeing him this spring, his arm sure looked strong, but the team wisely kept him in extended spring training for about a month. He made just five starts in Cedar Rapids before a mid-month promotion to Ft. Myers where he has continued to pitch well. Still just 21, Romero is a flame-thrower. He often hits 98 mph with his fastball. He has a good breaking ball too and an improving change-up. His prospect status nationally should rise quickly this offseason. He came in at #7 in Seth’s Midseason Prospect Rankings. Number 2 - Rochester – RHP Jose Berrios - 5 GS, 4-1, 2.02 ERA, 0.73 WHIP, 35.2 IP, 16 H, 10 BB, 38 K It took him awhile, but at this point, JO Berrios is ready for the big leagues, or at least he is ready for another opportunity in the big leagues. While he still doesn’t quite have his control, he has shown much better command. In reality, his stuff is also very good as shown by the miniscule number of hits he has allowed. Berrios gave up five earned runs in his second start of the month. Since then, he has put together four straight terrific starts. He should spend the second half of the season with the big league club. And the Twins Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month is: Ft. Myers – RHP Felix Jorge - 5 GS, 5-0, 1.59 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 34.0 IP, 29 H, 2 BB, 31 K For the third straight month, a starting pitcher from the Ft. Myers Miracle is the winner of the monthly starting pitching award. In April, it was Stephen Gonsalves, and Tyler Jay was our choice for the award in May. Meanwhile, Felix Jorge has arguably been the best and most consistent starter the Miracle have had all year. Following his seven shutout innings on Tuesday night he is now 9-3 with a remarkable 1.55 ERA. He has wins in each of his last seven starts during which he has given up six runs in 48 innings. Only once in his 14 starts this season has he failed to complete six innings. He has completed five or more innings in all 14 starts. That continues a trend that he started last year in Cedar Rapids when he completed six innings in 20 of his 22 starts and completed five innings in each of his starts. The 6-2, 170 pound right-hander sits in the low-90s, hitting 94 at times. He has three good pitches and mixes speeds well. He attacks the strike zone, always keeping his walk rate very low. He works fast and gets ground balls. He controls the game. While he may not strike out a lot, there are people who believe that as he continues to grow, he could add more missed bats as well. Jorge has been terrific all year, but he has been at his best the last seven starts. In June, he also started the Florida State League All-Star Game and worked a scoreless inning. Jorge’s stock as a prospect has risen significantly over the past year-and-a-half. I had him in my top ten Twins prospects at mid season and he is likely to continue to rise. Will he get that call to Chattanooga soon? He should. He was not added to the 40-man roster last offseason. There is no way he isn’t added this coming offseason. While we chose Felix Jorge as our starting pitcher of the month for June, there were some other strong candidates. Discuss below. Feel free to agree or disagree with the order, if you like, but congratulations these individuals on a terrific month. Congratulations to the June Twins Daily Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month for 2016, Felix Jorge. Click here to view the article