Seth Stohs

The goal is to get back prospects in trades for veterans (along with ridding themselves of bad contracts, I guess)... But to me, it makes little sense to add a prospect that you think has a chance to ever being a regular position player or a starting pitcher or a high-end relief pitcher to a package just to get a guy you also hope will be one of those things.

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: https://twitter.com/MikeBerardino/status/750902946309804032 Well earned, I think we can all agree. Image courtesy of Seth Stohs (photo of Luis Arraez) 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: https://twitter.com/MikeBerardino/status/750902946309804032 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. View full 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. Image courtesy of Seth Stohs (photo of Trevor Hildenberger) 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 K RHP Marcus Walden (Rochester) - 12 G, 0-0, 1 save, 2.57 ERA, 1.00 WHIP, 13.0 IP, 11 H, 2 BB, 12 K THE 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. View full 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.

Daniel Palka - Southern League Player of the Month - June Felix Jorge - Florida State League Pitcher of the Month - June.

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. Image courtesy of Linwood Ferguson (photo of 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 K LHP Logan Darnell (Rochester) - 6 GS, 3-2, 2.84 ERA, 1.29 WHIP, 38.0 IP, 37 H, 12 BB, 24 K RHP DJ Baxendale (Chattanooga/Rochester) - 5 G/3GS, 1-2, 2.60 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 17.1 IP, 17 H, 5 BB, 12 K THE 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. View full article

I don't think I wrote or implied that in any way in the article.

On Tuesday, many returned to work after celebrating Independence Day on Monday. Of course, the Twins and their minor league affiliates all had to work. They were all back in action again on Tuesday. Continue reading below for an update on everything that happened throughout the organization. Image courtesy of Linwood Ferguson (photos of Felix Jorge and Alex Perez) On Tuesday, many returned to work after celebrating Independence Day on Monday. Of course, the Twins and their minor league affiliates all had to work. They were all back in action again on Tuesday. Continue reading below for an update on everything that happened throughout the organization. Let’s start with a couple of pieces of news and transactions: Brad Hartong was promoted from Cedar Rapids to Ft. Myers. Luis Martinez was returned to the GCL from Ft. Myers. Jaylin Davis was promoted from Elizabethton to Cedar Rapids. The Kernels also activated catcher Kevin Garcia. OF Austin Diemer was placed on the disabled list. Wander Javier re-aggravated his hamstring and will miss more time. RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 2, Buffalo 8 Box Score It was a rough night for the Red Wings. Andrew Albers started and recorded just six outs. He faced six batters in the third inning without recording an out. In all, he gave up four runs on five hits and four walks. He struck out three. Nick Greenwood came in and gave up two runs on five hits over the next 3.1 innings. He walked two and struck out one. Sean Burnett gave up just a hit over 1.1 innings. JT Chargois gave up two runs on three hits over 1.1 innings. He struck out two. Alex Wimmers pitched a scoreless ninth. Darin Mastroianni went 3-4. Adam Brett Walker went 2-4 with his 12th double. Buck Britton added his 12th double. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 1, Birmingham 9 Box Score Ryan Eades was terrific in June, but his first start in July didn’t go well. He gave up six runs on eight hits over four innings. He walked three and struck out three. Corey Williams came on and threw three shutout innings. He walked two and struck out two.Luke Westphal then gave up three runs on five hits and a walk over the final two innings. He struck out four. Mitch Garver went 1-1 with two walks and his 16th double. Dalton Hicks went 2-4. Levi Michael went 1-2 with a walk. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 14, St. Lucie 0 Box Score The Miracle had Felix Jorge on the mound, so they probably didn’t need too much run support. However, the offense came through big time in this 20-hit effort. Trey Vavra went hitless, but all of the other eight spots in the lineup had at least two hits. Nick Gordon and LaMonte Wade were each 3-6 in the game. Alex Perez was 3-4 with a walk and his third and fourth doubles since his promotion to the MIracle. TJ White went 2-6. Brian Navarreto went 2-5 with his third double. Tanner Witt went 2-4 with his sixth double. Edgar Corcino played half the game and went 2-3. Joe Maloney hit his third double and drove in two runs. He was replaced by the newest member of the Miracle, Brad Hartong, who went 2-2. Then again, Felix Jorge was on the mound. The right-hander improved to 9-3 with a 1.55 ERA with seven shutout innings. He gave up six hits, walked none and struck out three. Nick Anderson struck out three over the final two innings. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 2, Wisconsin 6 Box Score Miles Nordgren was back on the mound for the Kernels. He gave up five runs (three earned) on seven hits over seven innings. He struck out six without issuing a walk. Tom Hackimer came on and gave up a run on one hit over two innings. He walked two and struck out two. Nelson Molina led the offense. He went 3-3 with a walk. Zander Wiel connected for his fifth home run. Jermaine Palacios was 2-4. Luis Arraez played left field in this game as the team awaits Jaylin Davis’s arrival. He hit his 18th double. E-TWINS E-NOTES Elizabethton 6, Johnson City 4 Box Score Tyler Beardsley made his first start as a pro. He went the first 5.1 innings and gave up two runs on four hits. He walked one and struck out two. Andrew Vasquez came on and was charged with two runs (one earned) on four hits. He walked one and struck out two. Johan Quezada picked up his first save for Elizabethton. He threw two perfect innings and struck out three. Travis Blankenhorn led the offense. He went 3-5 with his second double. Mitchell Kranson went 3-4. He was hit by a pitch and added his fourth double. Ariel Montesino went 2-5 with his first double. Brandon Lopez went 2-3 with a walk, his second double and his first stolen base. Caleb Hamilton went 1-3 with a walk and his second double. Alex Kirilloff went 1-4 with his second double and two RBI. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Twins 4, GCL Rays 3 Box Score Jean Carlos Arias went 2-5 with his second double and first triple. Jose Miranda went 2-3. Zach Featherstone was 1-3 with a walk and his first triple. Manuel Guzman, still on rehab, went 1-4 and stole two bases. Taylor Clemensia started and gave up three runs (one earned) on two hits over 4.1 innings. He walked four and struck out two. Clark Beeker came on and threw 3.2 scoreless innings. He gave up just one hit, walked one and struck out seven. Onas Farfan picked up his first save with a perfect ninth inning. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Felix Jorge, Ft. Myers Miracle Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Alex Perez, Ft. Myers Miracle WEDNESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Lehigh Valley (6:05 CST) - LHP Jason Wheeler Birmingham @ Chattanooga (10:15 am CST) - LHP Stephen Gonsalves (vs Carson Fulmer) Ft. Myers @ St. Lucie (5:30 CST) - RHP Keaton Steele Wisconsin @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 CST) – RHP Eduardo Del Rosario Elizabethton @ Bristol (6:00 CST) - RHP Domenick Carlini GCL Rays @ GCL Twins (11:00am CST) - TBD Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Tuesday's games. View full article

With a loss on Monday, the Twins second half began in the same way the first half began, with a loss. When the Twins hit the halfway point of their season, they had a record of 27-54. Simple math tells us that they are on pace to end the season with a 54-108 record. Maybe Murphy’s Law is the best explanation or summary of the Minnesota Twins 2016 season so far. If anything can go wrong, it will, and it has. Image courtesy of Jerome Miron, USA Today With a loss on Monday, the Twins second half began in the same way the first half began, with a loss. When the Twins hit the halfway point of their season, they had a record of 27-54. Simple math tells us that they are on pace to end the season with a 54-108 record. Maybe Murphy’s Law is the best explanation or summary of the Minnesota Twins 2016 season so far. If anything can go wrong, it will, and it has. Let’s start at the end of last year. The Twins were not officially eliminated from the playoffs until after their 161st game. Hope was high as the offseason began. And that’s why 2016 has been so incredibly disappointing for the fans, and likely even more so for the players and the front office. If anything can go wrong… I believe that the Twins were very surprised when they learned that Torii Hunter had decided to retire. As much as we know that his skills had fallen, he really did have a major influence in the clubhouse. To what degree, there is no way to measure, but Hunter’s influence is unquestionably missed. The Twins traded Aaron Hicks to the Yankees for John Ryan Murphy. On the surface, the trade made a lot of sense for both teams. The Yankees have an aging outfield that consists of Brett Gardner, Jacoby Ellsbury and Carlos Beltran. Hicks was brought in to be the fourth outfielder and play most of the time. The Twins have some outfield depth and needed to address an organizational need behind the plate. In acquiring Murphy, the Twins had a catcher with solid MLB experience as a backup to Brian McCann over the past few years. He is still just 24 and under team control for four more years. However, Murphy struggled mightily in spring training and at the start of the season and was sent to Rochester by early May. He’s hitting better, and he still has a future with the Twins, but the first half did not go well at all. It was announced that the Twins won the bid on 1B Byung Ho Park for a reasonable $12 million bid. Weeks later, Park arrived in Minneapolis to sign a very reasonable contract of four years and $12 million, with an option. There was a lot of excitement around the signing of the top player in Korea. The man had hit 105 home runs and driven in 270 runs over the previous two seasons, but he also struck out a ton. He showed up to spring training and acclimated himself well to his new teammates. He has shown some of the great power that we all hoped for, but his inability to make consistent contact and declining confidence got him shipped to Rochester last week. While the decision to offer arbitration to Eduardo Nunez has certainly looked wise in the season’s first half, the other three decisions have not been so beneficial for the Twins. Casey Fien got off to a bad start (7.90 ERA in 14 games) and was placed on waivers and claimed by the Dodgers the first week in May. After a brief stint in the minors, he was called up and has posted a 2.33 ERA in 16 games in LA. Tommy Milone was placed on waivers at the same time, though he went unclaimed. He went and dominated the International League for a month before being called up recently. He has been bad in two starts since his return and may not be long for the roster… again. Kevin Jepsen was the final play who was offered arbitration. Like Milone, it was an easy choice to offer it to him. He had come to the Twins in a July 31 trade last year and was tremendous for the team through the final two months. With Glen Perkins unable to pitch, Jepsen was a very reliable closer. Though no one thought he would be that great again, no one could have imagined that he would be completely unable to get anyone out. He was DFA'd over the weekend. Days earlier, it was announced that the primary pitcher the Twins traded for Jepsen, Chih-Wei Hu, was named to the Futures Game roster. Of course, that’s how July deadline trades work out. The Twins got what they wanted for 2015. The Rays got a nice pitching prospect who may be part of their future. It’s the kind of trade that the Twins will hopefully be able to make before July 31. While Glen Perkins has been hurt the past two second halves, he put in the work in the offseason and got in much better shape. The hope was that he would be able to maintain his shoulder strength throughout the season. Instead, he struggled in two appearances and went on the DL. He had shoulder surgery last week which revealed that the labrum had been separated from his shoulder. Phil Hughes was elite in 2014. He struggled in 2015. The hope was that he could be something in between in 2016. Instead, he really struggled and got demoted to the bullpen. He got hit by a line drive that fractured his leg. Last week, he had surgery for thoracic outlet syndrome which will likely affect his 2017 season as well. There was an assumption that Eddie Rosario’s production might drop a bit in 2016 after a strong rookie season. We had seen similar fall-offs in production with guys like Oswaldo Arcia, Danny Santana and Kennys Vargas, but there are exceptions to the rule that plate approach was pretty important in sustaining success. Instead, Rosario made no adjustments and kept swinging at nearly everything and found himself optioned to Rochester by mid-May. He raked in Rochester and has now returned to the Twins. Hopefully we’ll see some improvement. Eddie Rosario is just one example of a young player taking a step backwards (or not taking a step forward) this year. Miguel Sano had a monster first half-season in the big leagues in 2015. He was all right in the first half of this season, when healthy, but certainly not performing to the level we had hoped. Byron Buxton has been great in the field, but he has really struggled with the bat. In fact, he was sent down to Rochester for about a month, and he again dominated the minor leagues. Jose Berrios finally got an opportunity, but he posted an ERA over 10 in four starts and really struggled with his control. He was sent back to Rochester where he appears to have turned things around again. He should be back in the big leagues soon. Finally, Alex Meyer was terrific through his first three starts in Rochester. In fact, he was called up to the Twins. He was to work long relief, but when Milone was removed from the rotation, he was put into the rotation. He made one start, and the Twins wisely sent him back to Rochester after the game to bring up a reliever for a few days before Ervin Santana took back his rotation spot. Unfortunately, in Meyer’s first bullpen session upon his return to the Red Wings, he felt something in his shoulder. That was the first week in May, and he has not pitched in a game since, nearly two months. These four players are a big part of the plans that Terry Ryan and company had. These elite prospects need to become solid (or better) big leaguers for the organization to regain some status. Fortunately, Max Kepler has played very well the last two or three weeks and fits into the same category now as the four listed above. Similarly, Tyler Duffey struggled early in the season but hopefully has made the adjustments to turn things around. As much as the young players struggled early, and they did, in my mind that wasn’t the big issue. I expect some struggles from young players. What really hurt, in my mind, were the struggles of some of the veterans early in the year. Brian Dozier has been on fire since the beginning of June, but through the first two months of the season, he was hitting .202/.294/.329 (.624) with just twelve extra-base hits. Similarly, Trevor Plouffe hit just .246/.273/.369 (.642) with nine extra-base hits through May. Kurt Suzuki was hitting .212/.266/.293 (.559) with five extra-base hits through May. Joe Mauer was terrific in April and has struggled since, other than a power streak in late May. Hughes. Nolasco. Milone. Jepsen. Fien. Ervin Santana. Even Kyle Gibson, who was the team’s pitcher of the year last year, struggled early and then missed about six weeks with injury. The veterans that we were hoping to gett quality play from have struggled as much as the young players. Eduardo Escobar finally went into spring training being handed a starting shortstop job. He earned it. He had tremendous second halves in 2014 and 2015. Unfortunately after a quick start, he struggled mightily and then got hurt and went on the DL. Eduardo Nunez took his spot and he took off and hasn’t slowed down since. I mean, those are just my thoughts from the top of my head. If I spent more time thinking about it, there would certainly be more issues. It was a disastrous first half of the season, and we will see what happens in the second half. There are some reasons to believe they will be better in the second half, and there are plenty of story lines to follow over the final 80 games. But the Twins first half has been dreadful and can be summarized by quoting Murphy’s Law: If anything could go wrong, it probably already has gone wrong for the Twins in the 2016 season. View full article

That's kind of been my thought all along, that they would likely have him start until they think he's far enough and then move him up to Chattanooga to pitch out of the bullpen. That could still happen. Or, they could have him skip another start or something, or limit his pitches, stuff like that.