Seth Stohs

Article updated to note that Madison Boer will start Game 2 for Chattanooga tonight.

I think it has more to do with his approach at the plate, his ability to lay off touch pitches and make more contact. I don't think it'll be about any sort of statistic as much as observation of those things. But the K-Rate must go down and the BB-rate must go up. And, he continues to learn in the outfield. He's in LF this year whereas he was in RF in previous years and a lot of 1B in college. He's exciting to me as a prospect, but he's got work to do.

I said that was an option. I don't think that would happen until Arcia comes back. I think it's more likely to be Schafer to the DL. But, since you asked... In his 5 games with the Twins, Rosario is hitting .263/.250/.421 (.671) and has two errors. If you take away the first pitch that he saw in the big leagues, he's hitting .222/.211/.222 (.422). Obviously I won't make too much either way about 20 plate appearances, but it is an option.

If they can DL him, it makes more sense. Anything can happen in those 15 days.

Berrios is set to start on Wednesday, sol I'm guessing they're hoping that Duffey can go 7 in Game 1 and they can go bullpen game in Game 2.

I'd be a little surprised if they were to promote Buxton to AAA. I think he's where he needs to be right now. It'd be good for him to sustain some extended success there and play with those teammates for awhile longer. Rosario will likely be back there soon. Eric Farris was the Red Wings CF most of last year.

Following Rochester’s 4-0 win against Toledo on Monday night, Democrat and Chronicle Red Wings beat writer Kevin Oklobzija tweeted, “Aaron Hicks is headed to the #MNTwins.” His manager Mike Quade called it “a no-brainer, really.” Although there isn’t a consensus among Twins fans about Hicks’ readiness, his time and opportunity are upon us. On Monday, Hicks went 2-4 with a double to raise his batting average to .336 on the season. He will likely be in Detroit on Tuesday night and make his 2015 debut with the Twins. No corresponding move has been announced by the Twins at this time.There are certainly some options. The easiest might be optioning Eddie Rosario back to Rochester. The other potential moves would likely involve a player being designated for assignment. The Twins could choose to DFA Jordan Schafer who has struggled mightily until the last ten games of the season. They could DFA Shane Robinson who they signed on a minor league free agent deal before the season, though he has played well and is terrific defensively. They could option or DFA Doug Bernier as well in hopes he returns to Rochester unclaimed. Of course, there could also be an “injury” that we are not currently aware of.The Twins will announce that move sometime before the Twins and Tigers start their series. However there are other players in Rochester who are playing very well and could be candidates for promotion to the big league club if they continue to play well and the Twins have a need. As we are now in the middle of May, we could also see some promotions throughout the minor league system. Below are some candidates for promotion: Rochester Red Wings C – JOSMIL PINTO With his 0-4 on Monday night, the 26-year-old Pinto’s batting average has dropped to .290. He has been struggling the last few games, with just one hit in his last four games, 14 at-bats. His overall numbers are .290/.383/.419 (.803). He has three doubles and three home runs as well. Defensively, at 26, he is what he is. That is, a DH or pinch hitter, who can be an emergency catcher. Best case, he can be an offensive backup catcher. RH RP – AJ ACHTER He has been pushed into the closer’s role for the Red Wings since Michael Tonkin’s promotion. Achter is currently 3-2 with two saves. He’s got a 2.40 ERA and an impressive WHIP of just 0.67. In 15 innings, he has given up just five hits, walked five and struck out 13 batters. Though he may not profile as an eighth or ninth inning guy, the 26-year-old could certainly fill a role in a big league bullpen. RH RP – LESTER OLIVEROS Oliveros has been talked about already this year due to his impressive strikeout rate. Though it has regressed toward the mean, his K-rate is now at 14.1 per nine innings. In ten appearances, he is 1-0 with a 2.57 ERA and a 1.07 WHIP. In his 14 innings pitched, he has just four walks and 22 strikeouts. The 27-year-old is not on the 40-man roster. Other Notes: Beyond those three, obviously lefties Tommy Milone and Caleb Thielbar would be ready to contribute at any time. James Beresford is still hitting nearly .350, but he likely would need an injury to Brian Dozier to get a promotion. Eric Fryer has an OPS over 1.000, but he has not played a lot. Chattanooga Lookouts There are several others who may not be pushing for a big league promotion, but they could be ready to move up a level. RH SP – TYLER DUFFEY Duffey ended the 2014 season with three starts in Rochester, but he begins the 2015 season back in AA with the Lookouts. The 24-year-old started the season with three strong starts. He had a couple of rough starts, but even in them he was able to eat innings by keeping his pitch count down. In 38.2 innings, he has eight walks and 37 strikeouts. RH RP – ZACK JONES The issue for Jones through his career has been lack of control. Through ten games and ten innings, he has issued just one walk to go with 17 strikeouts. He is 2-0 with six saves. He has posted a 0.90 ERA and a 0.70 WHIP. 2014 was a tough year for the hard-thrower due to an aneurysm and a blood clot, but he has come back strong. Other notes: DJ Baxendale is 3-0 with a 1.24 ERA in 36.1 innings through his first six starts. After being hurt most of the last two seasons, I think he just needs to keep working and getting innings under his belt with the Lookouts. JO Berrios is 3-1 with a 3.25 ERA in his six starts. In 36 innings, he has 45 strikeouts. He also has a WHIP of 1.33. His biggest trouble to this point has been that he has struggled in the fifth and sixth innings of games. He went eight innings in his most recent start, so he may not be far off. Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano have started to shake the rust and turn things around in the last couple of weeks, but they still need more time and more at-bats. Another month from now, we could be writing about promotions for each of them. Ft. Myers Miracle Tim Shibuya was our Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Month for April. He was promoted to AA Chattanooga on May 1. Soon after, Madison Boer was also promoted. Here are others deserving for promotion. RH RP – BRANDON PETERSON A year ago at this time, Minnesotan Brandon Peterson earned his promotion from Cedar Rapids to Ft. Myers. He returned to the Miracle to start this season. In 11 appearances this year, he has a 1.62 ERA. In his 16.2 innings, he has 12 walks and 23 strikeouts. RH RP – TODD VAN STEENSEL Todd Van Steensel was still in extended spring training at this time last year. He moved up to Cedar Rapids and quickly moved up to the Miracle. He has posted a 1.89 ERA in 19 innings. He has 11 walks and 29 strikeouts. The Australian is in his second tour of duty in the Twins organization after they released him three years ago. He came back last year and was a different pitcher. Others: Chih-Wei Hu is 4-0 with a 1.24 ERA in five starts. In 26 innings, he has walked four and struck out 30. In another month, if he’s putting up numbers even close to what he has so far, he is a candidate for a promotion. Lefty Brett Lee missed the first three or four weeks of the season, but he’s posted a 2.95 ERA since his return. He could move up to Chattanooga after a few more starts. Cedar Rapids Kernels RH RP – TREVOR HILDENBERGER After four years at the University of California (Berkley), Trevor Hildenberger was the Twins second round pick a year ago. He’s already 24 and dominating the Midwest League. In 18 innings over nine games, he has posted a 0.50 ERA, a 0.50 WHIP and a two walk to 23 strikeout ratio. The side-winding right-hander throws pretty hard, and he’s ready to move up a level. LH RP – CAMERON BOOSER Booser is a great story, one we’ve written about here at Twins Daily. He just turned 23 and is healthy for the first time since his high school days. Blessed with a fastball that reaches into the upper-90s, the southpaw is intimidating and has been dominant. He has pitched 14 innings over nine games. He is 1-0 with three saves. He has a 0.64 ERA, a 0.86 WHIP and a strikeout to walk ratio of 25 to 6. LH SP – STEPHEN GONSALVES Gonsalves was the Starting Pitcher of the Month in April. He is now 3-1 with a 1.41 ERA and a 0.81 WHIP for the Kernels. The lefty’s only loss on the season came when the Kernels were no-hit in a game. In 32 innings, he has walked seven and struck out 43. Gonsalves is advanced on the mound considering his age. He made eight starts for the Kernels a year ago. He should be well-equipped to advance. LH SP – MAT BATTS Yes, he writes for Twins Daily on occasion, but he has always been really good at his full-time job too. The 23-year-old lefty has started the season 3-1 with a 2.04 ERA. In 30.2 innings, he has given up 21 hits, walked six and struck out 28 batters. He made six appearances for the Kernels a season ago. Others: Jared Wilson is 25-years-old and being given an opportunity to start for the Kernels. He is 4-0 with a 1.98 ERA. If he were to move up, it could be out of the bullpen. Zach Tillery is 3-0 with a 1.86 ERA and more than a strikeout per inning, but he would likely be given an opportunity to start first. Aaron Hicks has been promoted. We don’t know the other half of that move yet but in the near future we will find out. It will be interesting to see if others throughout the organization start moving as well. Click here to view the article

I wouldn't do that yet. Too much can happen to make deals too early. Polanco is probably close offensively, and defensively, he's no worse than Santana, just without the big range or arm.

Updated the article to show that Kohl Stewart is coming off the Miracle DL tonight to make a start. Hopefully he's fully recovered from that elbow inflammation.

I like Polanco more than Santana, but Nick Gordon is also in the equation, though he's a ways out.

Hicks - They said all day that it was just a scheduled day off. Berardino tweeted tonight that he did foul a ball off his foot on Saturday, but he could have played if needed today. Burdi gave up no runs in two innings, but he did give up two hits and a walk. Good for what he has been this year, but definitely not what we envision from him yet.

I tweeted the following from the Twins Daily twitter account this morning. Since Hicks didn't play on Sunday, the numbers are still accurate. Short-term success: Extended success: Summary: It's Time!

On Sunday late morning, I posted a bunch of stats of streaks for various minor leaguers on twitter, both at @twinsda I'll and @sethtweets. Poland has had a very good stretch.

Of course they care about attendance because that increases concessions and merchandising. However, the teams don'the make the schedule. Comes down to travel schedules and required days off.

He's just fine.

...and if he goes back to the bullpen at some point, he could really be something there too!

For those that follow @TwinsDaily or @SethTweets on Twitter, we posted a whole bunch of streaks by hitters in the Twins system, major league and minor league. Check those out here: www.Twitter.com/TwinsDaily and www.Twitter.com/SethTweets.

Aaron Hicks is a really good defensive centerfielder. Good range, great arm.

I don't know how to answer that with any certainty, but he didn't have a very strong spring training either.

There are things that can be done. Lee could move up to AA, or Westphal could move to the bullpen. I won't predict who will be released. That's possible, but there are always injuries and the "fake DL" and stuff like that to make things happen.

Fastball yesterday was hitting 97 consistently and one of the strikeouts came on 99. The slider looked good too. Just a lot of fastballs right down the middle in the bad inning.

Corrected. Thanks!

He's certainly put up very good ERA numbers the last couple of years. He did start this year with 3-4 weeks on the DL, so he'll get a few starts and I'd expect for him to be promoted.

In the comments, you’ll need to help pick the Minor League Hitter of the Day Award. We’d love your feedback. It was a good day for several hitters, including a big man from the Dominican Republic who is showing signs of turning things around a little bit. There were some really strong pitching performances as well on Saturday, and one that didn’t go so well.Here are the scores and highlights from the Twins minor league system on Saturday. By the way, the Twins have now won 17 of their last 24 games since starting the season 1-6. Just seven teams in Major League Baseball have a better record than that Twins’ 18-13 record. RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 5, Louisville 10 Box Score It was another rough outing for starter Alex Meyer. The right-hander gave up one run in the first inning. He pitched a perfect second inning. Then came the third inning. The first batter hit a double down the right field line. He tried to stretch it into a triple but was thrown out. The next six batters got hits. After a strikeout, Meyer gave up a three-run homer to Yorman Rodriguez, and his day was over. He went 2.2 innings and gave up eight runs on nine hits and a walk. He struck out two. He threw a total of 63 pitches and 42 of them were strikes (67%). Meyer was replaced by fellow Kentucky Wildcat Logan Darnell. He gave up two runs on two hits and two walks in 1.1 innings. He struck out three. Stephen Pryor threw two scoreless innings before Caleb Thielbar and Ryan O’Rourke each threw a scoreless frame. Danny Ortiz went 2-5 and hit a ninth inning grand slam. It was his fifth home run of the year. Aaron Hicks had another strong game. He went 2-3 with two walks and his ninth double. Reynaldo Rodriguez went 2-4 with a walk. With the loss, the Red Wings are now 16-12 this season. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 7, Jackson 4 Box Score The Lookouts continued to put up some big offensive numbers and won for the fourth straight game to improve to 16-12 on the year. Greg Peavey gave his best performance of the season. He gave up one run on five hits and a walk in five innings. Dallas Gallant gave up three runs (on a homer) on three hits and a walk over two innings. Madison Boer pitched a scoreless eighth inning. DJ Johnson got the call for the ninth inning. He gave up a single and a double, but didn’t allow either to score. It was Johnson’s first save of the year. Miguel Sano might be turning things around. In this game, he went 2-3 with a walk. He hit his fourth double and his sixth home run. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 3, Jupiter 2 (10 innings) Box Score I’m sure you’re shocked to learn that the Miracle played another extra-inning game. This time, they were able to finish it with a walk-off win. In the tenth, singles by Alex Swim, Niko Goodrum and Chad Christensen loaded the bases. Marcus Knecht hit a fly ball deep enough to score Swim and give the Miracle the victory. Knecht led the Miracle offense. Aside from the sacrifice fly, he went 3-4 in the game with his first triple. Alex Swim is now hitting .347 after a 2-5 game. Brett Lee made the start for the Miracle. Through seven innings, he did not allow a run. He went out for the eighth inning but after one out, he had gave up a run. Brian Gilbert came on and allowed the runner to score and tie the game. Of the two runs Lee gave up, just one was earned. Luke Westphal pitched scoreless frames in the ninth and tenth innings to record his first win in affiliated baseball. The Miracle won for the fifth straight game to improve to 14-16. Of their first 30 games, 11 of them have gone to extra frames. KERNELS NUGGETS Because of rain on Friday night, the Kernels got to play two games on Saturday. Cedar Rapids 5, Beloit 2 Game 1 - Box Score Michael Cederoth started the first game and went six innings. He recorded his first win of the season. He was charged with two runs on three hits. He walked three and struck out five. Cameron Booser came on and continued his dominance. He recorded his third save with two strikeouts in a perfect inning. The Kernels scored five runs on just six hits. Zack Larson went 3-3 with an RBI. Max Murphy went 2-3 with his third double. He also stole his third base. Brett Doe had the big hit in the game, a two-run homer in the second inning. Pat Kelly drove in two runs for the Kernels as well. Cedar Rapids 3, Beloit 2 (9 innings) Game 2 - Box Score The Kernels needed nine innings to win the second game of the day. Of course, in the minor leagues, doubleheader games are seven innings, so this was an extra-innings game. Felix Jorge made the start and was very good through the first six innings. He gave up one run on three hits. He didn’t walk any batters and struck out five. Max Murphy got the team a lead when he hit a two-run homer, his first long ball of the season. He was 2-4 in this game as well. Trey Vavra went 1-2 with two walks. Larson added a hit in this game (4-7 on the day). Pat Kelly provided the game-winning RBI in the ninth inning. Jorge left the game with a 2-1 lead. Zach Tillery came on to try to get the save. He gave up a run in the seventh to send the game to extra innings. He pitched a scoreless eighth inning. With another one-run lead, Jake Mauer went to Trevor Hildenberger who slammed the door. He struck out two batters in a scoreless inning, dropping his ERA to 0.56 and giving him his third save. With the doubleheader sweep, the Kernels are now 19-11 on the season. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Brett Lee, Ft. Myers Miracle Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Max Murphy, Cedar Rapids Kernels SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Louisville (1:05 CST) – LHP Jason Wheeler Jackson @ Chattanooga (1:15 CST) – RHP DJ Baxendale Ft. Myers – No Game Scheduled Cedar Rapids – No Game Scheduled Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Saturday games. Click here to view the article