Seth Stohs

Each step up the ladder gets a little more difficult and weeds some guys out. Hu is pretty young and inexperienced for the Florida State League. The same question would/could have been asked a year ago about Berrios in the FSL, though he is 6 months younger. I personally think that Hu has the stuff and the confidence and ability to move all the way up, but so much can happen.

For me, it's Berrios. That ninth inning, for a starter, is impressive to me. But Milone, and Hu, were both very, very good.

Mildren and Westphal are out of the rotation in Ft. Myers. Their rotation is: Eades, Lee, Hurlbut, Stewart, Slegers and Hu. (in no particular order)

Haven't heard anything yet.

I've said it before, but Max Kepler reminds me so much of Justin Morneau. Height/Weight wise, but even just looks. Left-handed bats. Sweet, but powerful swings. Kepler is much more athletic. He can really run at his size. It is nice to see some numbers show up and kind of validate that it's not just tools but he's really talented. As for Max Murphy, he's a borderline top 30 Twins prospect for me. I know there are some (I'm looking at you Jeremy!) who have him ranked much higher. He's definitely a sleeper and one to watch.

If fully healthy, he'll be fine as a middle of the rotation type. I'm wavering a little, but he's got too much of a track record of solid, mid-rotation success to think he's just done at 31.

I think if they can get to that 11-12 range this year, that would be huge. I mean, not only were they the worst in ERA the last few seasons, but by a significant margin. If they take nearly a run off of their SP ERA, that's very encouraging. And, with an offense that is capable of scoring runs, averaging a run less given up leads to several more wins (in theory, at least). I'm not expecting a sub-3 ERA from Gibson, though I do agree that sometimes Ks are a bit overrated. I think Pelfrey can be around 4. I think Nick wrote up a great synopsis of why Hughes should be better. I'm excited for getting Ervin Santana back. he should jump right into that 2/3 spot and more people back a spot. And, as Nick mentioned, I think guys like Rogers, Berrios and Duffey can contribute if or when needed.

It's also OK to have 'favorites' who aren't the top prospects.

Murphy was just drafted last year and spent a month in Cedar Rapids. That's not'repeating' in my opinion. It'a like saying Berrios was 'demoted' to AA this year after finishing last year in AAA. Murphy has all the tools. There is a LOT to like about hom.

In a first here this season in the Twins Minor League Reports, we are going to have a Vote for Hitter of the Day. Max Kepler and Max Murphy both had big days for their respective teams. Read today’s articles, the contributions of each and then please vote for your hitter of the day in the comments section below. One team’s winning streak ended. One batter’s hitting streak was extended. There were two extra innings games; one of them ended on a walk-off home run.Continue reading for all of the news and notes from a full, five-game night in the Twins minor league system. And then, be sure to vote in the comments for your hitter of the day. RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 0, Toledo 8 Box Score Taylor Rogers has been terrific all season. He started this game with four shutout innings. However, in the fifth inning, he had his first really rough inning of the season. He gave up five runs in the inning, the big hit being a grand slam. Overall, he went five innings and gave up five runs on eight hits and three walks. He struck out seven. Lester Oliveros struck out two in a perfect sixth inning. Caleb Thielbar had a one, two, three inning. Tim Stauffer made his first rehab appearance and got two groundouts and a fly out. Ryan O’Rourke gave up three runs on five hits and a walk in the ninth inning. He struck out two. There wasn’t much offense for the Red Wings on this night. They had just four hits. Argenis Diaz had two hits. James Beresford had the lone extra-base hit, a double. The Red Wings fall to 17-14 on the season. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 2, Birmingham 3 (8 innings) Game 1 – Box Score Knowing that the team would be going with a bullpen game in the second game, Tyler Duffey needed to pitch deep into game one of the double header. He did just that. He pitched seven innings. He was charged with two runs on five hits and a walk. He struck out five. However, the game was tied after seven innings, so Zack Jones came in to start the eighth inning. On a 1-1 pitch to the first batter he faced, he gave up a game-ending home run to Joey DiMichele. The Lookouts had just six hits in the game. Max Kepler went 2-3 with his fifth double. Miguel Sano doubled for the sixth two-base hit of the season. Chattanooga 4, Birmingham 0 Game 2 – Box Score When a minor league team goes with a bullpen game, you never know what you’re going to get. In this game, manager Doug MIentkiewicz got everything he could have hoped for. Madison Boer made the start and worked the first three innings without allowing a run. He gave up just one hit and struck out five. Cole Johnson came on to pitch the next two innings. He gave up a hit, walked one and struck out two. D.J .Johnson came on and got his second save of the week. He worked the final two innings. He gave up a hit and a walk and struck out two. The Lookouts had seven hits in the second game. Max Kepler again led the way. He went 3-3 and added two stolen bases. Jorge Polanco went 2-3 with his sixth double and his sixth stolen base. In the two games, Sano went 1-6. Byron Buxton was 0-8 on the day. His streak of consecutive games with an RBI ended at ten. In his first seven games with the Lookouts, Max Kepler hit just .185. In his ten games since, he is hitting .432 (16-37). Overall, he is now hitting .328. With the split, the Lookouts record now stands at 19-13. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 4, Dunedin 2 Box Score The Miracle had a winning streak end on Monday but put another one in the win column on Tuesday. Alex Swim extended his hitting streak to 16 games with another 2-4 game. He is hitting .411 (30-73) in that stretch. It was his fifth multi-hit game in his last six games. He is now hitting .349 on the season. Swim wasn’t the only hitter to contribute to the Miracle win. Zach Granite was 0-1, but he walked twice, was hit by a pitch and stole two bases. Chad Christensen went 2-4 with a steal. Michael Quesada went 2-3 and was hit by a pitch. Mitch Garver went 2-3 with a walk and his first stolen base of the season. Michael Quesada went 2-3 and was hit by a pitch. Aaron Slegers started for the Miracle and worked the first five innings. He gave up two runs on seven hits and two walks. He struck out six batters and got seven groundouts. Brandon Peterson struck out two over two scoreless innings. J.T. Chargois struck out two in the eighth inning. Todd Van Steensel recorded his fourth save, striking out two in the ninth frame. The Miracle are now 15-17 on the season. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 3, Peoria 5 (11 innings) Box Score It took 11 innings, but the Kernels seven-game winning streak came to an end on Tuesday night. Mat Batts started for the Kernels. He started with three scoreless innings. However, uncharacteristically, he lost his control starting in the fourth inning. He gave up just one run in the fourth despite giving up a single and walking three. He came out for the fifth inning, but after giving up a single, throwing a wild pitch and walking a batter, he was replaced by C.K. Irby who got out of the inning allowing only one run (one of Batts’ runners). Irby went two innings and gave up no runs on three hits. He walked none and struck out three. Mike Theofanopoulos worked a scoreless seventh inning. In the eighth inning, he got two outs, but there were two runners on when Cameron Booser was summoned from the bullpen. The power-lefty got a strikeout to end the threat and hold the Kernels lead. Holding a 2-1 lead in the top of the ninth, Booser gave up a single, a walk and a single to tie the game at two. He walked another but was able to get a strikeout and a groundout to get out of the inning with the game still tied. He came back to strike out the side in the 10th inning. Sam Clay pitched the 11th inning and gave up two runs on three hits and a walk to take the loss. Max Murphy was the hitting hero for the Kernels again. He hit a two-run homer (second of the year) in the fourth inning that temporarily gave the Kernels a lead. He added two doubles in the game as well and has five on the season. In his last nine games, Murphy has hit .474 (18-38) with four doubles, a triple and two home runs. Through the first 19 games of the season, he was hitting just .173 (13-75). After Tuesday, he is hitting .274 overall. Zack Larson went 2-5 with his fourth double. Rainis Silva hit his second double. The Kernels had ten hits, but they also struck out 19 times in the 11-inning game. The seven-game winning streak came to an end, but the Kernels are still 20-12 on the season. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Madison Boer, Chattanooga Lookouts Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Twins Daily Vote (Please vote in the Forum below. Here are the candidates): Max Kepler – Chattanooga Lookouts (5-6, 2B, 2 SB) Max Murphy – Cedar Rapids Kernels (3-5, 2-2B, HR) WEDNESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Toledo @ Rochester (12:35 CST) – LHP Tommy Milone Chattanooga @ Birmingham (11:00 am CST) – RHP JO Berrios Dunedin @ Ft. Myers (9:35 am CST) – RHP Chih-Wei Hu Peoria @ Cedar Rapids (12:05 CST) – RHP John Curtiss Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Tuesday games. Click here to view the article

Though 4 games... a little perspective on Rosario is good at this point.

Vavra has just been so consistent this season. His average hasn't really been below about .280 all year and it's been up to about .340, with good approach at the plate and some doubles/homers. Larson and Murphy have been good for a week. I think they need another month, which puts us to that mid-June timeline when we start seeing some changes.

They've both been better of late, which is good to see. I think both will be fine, but we need to be more patient... obviously.

As of sometime last night, my laptop suddenly wouldn't let me type a key twice in a row. In other words, I probably types 22nd and all that came out was 2nd. Imagine how frustrating that is! There are a lot of words that have consecutive letters (like letters). That includes the delete button, so I have to get creative if I type something wrong. I'm thinking a restart would be good.

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.