Seth Stohs

Francisco Liriano did a tremendous job on Friday night of building his trade value. The lefty gave up just one run in 6.2 innings against baseball’s best offense. Jared Burton got four outs quickly. The Twins got enough offense, as well as some help from the Rangers defense, to put up five runs. Joe Mauer drove in two runs, and Justin Morneau homered. The two teams play again on Saturday as Sam Deduno makes his first Twins start. With that, here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Friday:[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] ROCHESTER 3, PAWTUCKET 1 PJ Walters started and appears to be close to a return to the Twins. The right-hander threw five shutout innings. He gave up five hits, walked none and struck out two. Bobby Lanigan went the next 2.1 innings and gave up one run on three hits and two walks. Dan Sattler debuted with the Red Wings and got four outs. He gave up no runs despite allowing a hit and walking two. Luis Perdomo came in to record the final out. Danny Valencia went 2-4 with his seventh home run. Pedro Florimon hit his 10th and 11th doubles. Clete Thomas was 2-3 with his eighth home run. The Red Wings are now 41-47 on the season. NEW BRITAIN 1, TRENTON 7 Aaron Thompson made the start for the Rock Cats. In six innings, he gave up four runs on 11 hits. He walked none and struck out five. Brett Jacobson came in and continued his walking ways. He recorded just one out and was charged with two runs on one hit and three walks. Daniel Turpen gave up one run on three hits in 1.2 innings. He walked none and struck out three. The Rock Cats’ bats managed just five hits in the game. Aaron Hicks had two of them, including his eighth home run. With the loss, the Rock Cats fall to 47-38, 1.5 games behind Trenton (49-37). FT. MYERS 3, CHARLOTTE 5 Madison Boer continues to find ways to last longer into games. On this night, he gave up five runs (3 earned) on nine hits. He walked none and struck out two. Ricky Bowen pitched a scoreless eighth inning. The Miracle managed just six hits in the game. Danny Ortiz remains hot at the plate. He went 2-4 with his fifth home run, a three-run shot that provided all of the Miracle offense. Earlier in the day, the Miracle announced that infielder Jairo Perez had been released. The Miracle are currently 37-46 on the season. However, they are 9-7 in the early stages of the season’s second half, just one game back of Bradenton for a playoff spot. BELOIT 5, CLINTON 4 Jason Wheeler went six innings and recorded his ninth win of the season. The tall, left-hander gave up three runs on six hits. He walked four and struck out three. Cole Johnson came in and gave up an unearned run on one walk over the next 2.1 innings. He struck out three. Clinton Dempster recorded the final two outs, both via the strikeout, to record his fourth save. Matt Koch led the offense. He was 2-5. AJ Pettersen hit his sixth home run. Nate Roberts and Wang-Wei Lin each walked twice. The Snappers are 46-39 on the season. They clinched a playoff berth in the first half and are currently 7-8 in the second half, three games back of the division leader. GAME 1 - ELIZABETHTON 6, KINGSPORT 2 After being postponed on Thursday, the E-Twins and Kingsport played two seven inning games on Friday night. Ricardo Arevalo got the nod in Game 1. He went the first four innings and gave up two runs on five hits. He walked two and struck out five. Josh Burris improved to 4-0 with two more shutout innings, dropping his ERA to 0.69. He gave up a hit and walked a batter while striking out one. Mason Melotakis pitched a perfect frame. Candido Pimentel went 2-3 with his fourth and fifth stolen bases. Travis Harrison went 1-2 with a walk and his second home run. He’s now batting .368. Adam Walker was 1-3 with his third home run. Michael Quesada went 1-3 with his fifth double. He is hitting .370. Max Kepler walked twice and stole his first two bases of the season. GAME 2 - ELIZABETHTON 5, KINGSPORT 4 Corey Kimes started the second game. The lefty from Illinois gave up only an unearned run on three hits and no walks. In five innings, he struck out eight. Tyler Herr gave up three runs on five hits and recorded just two outs. Kaleb Merck got the final four outs for his first pro save. He struck out two. Candido Pimentel was 1-2 with a walk in the second game. He also stole his sixth base. Niko Goodrum walked twice. Romy Jimenez went 1-2 with a walk and is hitting .426 now. The E-Twins are 13-5 and find themselves in a familiar spot a top their division by 2.5 games. GCL TWINS 4, GCL RED SOX 9 Adrian Salcedo made a rehab start for the GCL Twins. The right-hander went 2.1 innings and gave up four runs (2 earned) on five hits and a walk. The earned runs were thanks to two errors of his own. Randy Rosario came in and gave up five runs (4 earned) on three hits and three walks in three innings. He struck out two. Trent Higginbotham got the final two outs. He was not charged with a run despite allowing two hits and a walk. Joe Benson was back in the lineup and went 1-3 with a double. John Murphy and Jorge Fernandez each went 2-3. Kelvin Ortiz was 2-2 with his first home run of the season. The GCL Twins are now 8-8. (Note – you’ll be excited to read about how Byron Buxton and Austin Malinowski did on Saturday morning!) --- Players of the Day for Friday, July 6, 2012 Pitcher of the Day – PJ Walters Download attachment: PJ Walters2.jpg Hitter of the Day – Candido Pimentel Download attachment: Candido Pimentel.jpg --- A Look Ahead – Saturday, July 7, 2012 Schedule Rochester vs Lehigh Valley – RHP Liam Hendriks New Britain @ New Hampshire – RHP Shairon Martis Ft. Myers vs Jupiter – LHP Pat Dean Beloit vs Burlington – RHP Matt Summers Elizabethton @ Johnson City – RHP Angel Mata GCL Twins vs GCL Red Sox – LHP Austin Malinowski --- If you have any questions or comments on the Twins minor league system, players, teams, etc., leave them in the Comments and I’ll try to answer them! Click here to view the article

The Twins return from a day off. However, they are still in the Pacific time zone, so that means some late games!! For those that didn’t stay up… shame on you (just kidding!), but you missed a good game. With Scott Ullger at the helm, Carl Pavano was caught by Drew Butera, and Pavano responded with six shutout innings. Mariners’ lefty Jason Vargas also held the Twins scoreless through six. The Twins got to the M’s bullpen for three runs in the top of the 7th, thanks to a couple of walks, an error and an infield single by Joe Mauer that gave the Twins the lead. Because the top of the 7th went over 30 minutes, Ullger went to his bullpen despite the fact that Pavano had thrown just 69 pitches. Brian Duensing was perfect in the 7th. Glen Perkins dominated the 8th, and Matt Capps looked better than ever with two strikeouts in a 1-2-3 ninth. The Twins played with a one-man bench on Friday night because of the 13 man pitching staff, Justin Morneau’s wrist, and Erik Komatsu not getting to Seattle until Saturday. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] The Twins got a big win and there was a lot of excitement in minor league affiliate’s games too. Here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Thursday: ROCHESTER 3, EMPIRE STATE 0 The Red Wings won for back-to-back games for the first time in over two weeks, and yet the story of the game, for the organization, was again Scott Diamond. The left-hander went the first three innings. He gave up no runs on three hits and two walks while striking out two. With GM Terry Ryan in attendance, speculation is quite heavy that Diamond will be promoted to the Twins and likely start next week. Esmerling Vasquez came in and threw three innings of one-hit baseball. He struck out three. Tyler Robertson started the seventh inning and got two outs. He walked one and was replaced by Casey Fien. Fien loaded the bases but was able to get Steve Pearce, who has come up with many big hits against the Red Wings already this season, to pop out to end the inning. Fien pitched the eighth inning as well. Anthony Slama recorded his sixth save. He gave up two hits and walked one but did maintain the shutout. Matt Rizzotti went 2-4 with his second and third doubles. The first broke an 0-12 streak. JR Towles hit his fourth double of the season in the game. That hit broke an 0-21 streak which went back to April 10. All four of his hits this season are doubles. Aaron Bates was 1-3 with a walk and his third double. Rene Tosoni added his second double. Five of the team’s nine hits were doubles, which is a season high for the team. NEW BRITAIN 3, PORTLAND 4 The Rock Cats came up just one run short. Logan Darnell started and gave up four runs (3 earned) on five hits. In six innings, he walked one and struck out three. The bullpen was terrific. Lester Oliveros gave up no runs and no hits and walked none in two innings. He struck out five batters. Daniel Turpen continued his great work. He struck out two (And walked none) in a perfect inning. Deibinson Romero provided the much of the offense. He was 3-3 with a walk. Wilkin Ramirez was 2-4 with his first triple. FT. MYERS 1, LAKELAND 6 The Miracle fell behind early and weren’t able to come back. No surprise since the Miracle hitters were hitting a combined .197 over their previous 16 games, according to play-by-play man Brice Zimmerman. The team did manage eight hits in this game (.296 in the game). Oswaldo Arcia went 2-4 with his fourth double. Josmil Pinto knocked his seventh double and drove in the team’s lone run. Jhon Garcia made the start and gave up five runs (3 earned) in just 3.2 innings. He gave up seven hits, walked four and struck out just two. Miguel Munoz had another nice performance in his comeback from elbow problems. He went 2.1 scoreless innings, allowing just one hit. Matt Hauser threw two scoreless innings. Ricky Bowen pitched the final inning and gave up a run on a hit and two walks. GAME 1 - BELOIT 6, CEDAR RAPIDS 9 – Completion of suspended game These two teams sored managed to get into the third inning on Thursday night before rains came and the game was suspended. So they completed the game before the regularly scheduled game. Matthew Tomshaw had started on Thursday and went 2.2 innings before the rains came. He gave up one run on two hits and a walk. When the game resumed on Friday, AJ Achter took the mound. In three innings, he gave up five runs (3 earned) on five hits. David Hurlbut made his Midwest League debut and gave up three runs on five hits in 1.1 innings. Bart Carter threw a scoreless inning. Miguel Sano went 2-4 with his seventh home run and three RBI. Adam Bryant and Jairo Rodriguez were each 2-4. AJ Pettersen (4th) and Tyler Grimes (6th) each hit a double. Meanwhile, Drew Leachman made his MWL debut and hit his first home run in the game. GAME 2 - BELOIT 5, CEDAR RAPIDS 3 Things got a little interesting in the regularly scheduled game. With the score tied in the top of the 9th, Miguel Sano hit a two-run homer to put the Snappers ahead. Although details are sketchy, benches cleared as Sano rounded the bases. Calm was restored and the Snappers pulled out the win. Steven Gruver has been struggling in his last couple of outings, but on this night, he was pretty good. The lefty gave up one run on five hits and a walk in five innings. He struck out four. Michael Tonkin gave up a solo home run, but of the four outs he got, three of them came on strikeouts. Clinton Dempter went the final 2.2 innings, striking out two, to be credited with the win. Sano again led the offense. He was 2-4 with his eighth home run and his seventh double. Eddie Rosario was 2-4 with his ninth and tenth doubles. Wang-Wei Lin was 2-4 with his sixth double. Tyler Grimes (7th) and JD Williams (4th) each had a double. Matt Koch was also 2-4. Sano Update - He is 9-16 in his last four games with 2 doubles, 2 HR and 9 RBI. He was hitting .262, and four games later, he's at .310. --- Players of the Day for Friday, May 4, 2012 Hitter of the Day – Miguel Sano Download attachment: Miguel Sano 2.jpg Pitcher of the Day – Lester Oliveros Download attachment: Lester Oliveros.jpg --- A Look Ahead – Saturday, May 5, 2012 Schedule Rochester @ Empire State (2) – RHP PJ Walters and TBD New Britain vs Portland – RHP David Bromberg Ft. Myers vs Lakeland – RHP Adrian Salcedo Beloit vs Kane County – RHP Tim Shibuya --- If you have any questions or comments on the Twins minor league system, players, teams, etc., leave them in the Comments and I’ll try to answer them! Click here to view the article

The Minnesota Twins had the day off. So did the Cedar Rapids Kernels and the Ft. Myers Miracle. New Britain and Rochester’s games were affected by weather, nothing new during this season. So, today’s Minor League Report may not be long, but hey, there is still baseball to write about so we’re going to do just that. There have been several transactions throughout the organization in the past week. On Wednesday, it was Drew Leachman who was promoted from Cedar Rapids to Ft. Myers. He started for the Kernels on Opening Night, but he jarred his left shoulder on a stolen base that night and didn’t play for two weeks. He went 9-21 in five games since his return, including seven hits in back-to-back games. Rochester Red Wings 6, Syracuse Chiefs 5 (Suspended – 11th) Box Score This game went to the 11th inning. Evan Bigley singled to lead off the inning. It was followed by a walk to Eric Fryer. Doug Bernier bunted the runners up a base. After Ray Olmedo was intentionally walked, Chris Herrmann came through with an RBI single to give the Red Wings a lead. At that point, the Chiefs went to change the pitcher and just then game was suspended due to rain. It will be completed on Thursday before the two teams will play their regularly scheduled nine inning game. Andrew Albers started for the Red Wings. The Canadian left-hander gave up five runs on nine hits (including 2 home runs) and two walks in six innings. He struck out six. Tyler Roberson came on and threw three shutout innings. He gave up just two hits, walked two and struck out four. Tim Wood pitched a scoreless tenth inning. So, who will come in for the save opportunity in the bottom of the 11th? Chris Herrmann photo by Brace Hemmelgarn Herrmann led the offense on this night. He went 4-6 with three RBI and his second stolen base. Chris Colabello went 2-4 with a walk. Evan Bigley was 2-4 with his first AAA homer of the year. Doug Bernier went 2-4. Ray Olmedo was 1-2 with a walk and his second double. A Joe Benson double tied the game at five. Game 1 - New Britain Rock Cats 5, New Hampshire Fisher Cats 0 Box Score Trevor May put together his best start of the season for the Rock Cats. The hard-throwing righty threw all seven innings and did not give up a run. He gave up three hits, walked three and struck out four. Antoan Richardson went 3-4. Mark Sobolewski returned to the Eastern League and went 2-4 with his first double. Reynaldo Rodriguez went 1-3 with a triple. Jhon Goncalves hit his first AA home run. Game 2 - New Britain Rock Cats 0, New Hampshire Fisher Cats 3 Box Score Lefty Pat Dean was good on this night, but not good enough, as his offense did nothing to support him. Dean went six innings in this second game of a doubleheader, scheduled for only seven innings. He gave up three runs on seven hits. He walked none and struck out three. Jhon Goncalves had a triple and was hit by a pitch. Jason Christian had the only other Rock Cats hit, a single. Alex Meyer will take the mound for the Rock Cats on Thursday when they play at 9:35 A.M.(!) central time. Ft. Myers Miracle – No Game Scheduled Cedar Rapids Kernels – No Game Scheduled Please feel free to comment or ask questions below. View full article

Late on Monday night, rumors began circulating (originating from friend of Twins Daily, Darren Wolfson) that the Minnesota Twins are interested in outfielder Rajai Davis, maybe even willing to go to two years with him. Immediately I had some thoughts on the idea of Davis with the Twins and what he might be able to do for the organization. My first thought is always: What does it mean for the Twins' outfield depth? (Note - Ben Nicholson-Smith says "industry sources" indicate the Detroit Tigers may be the favorite for Davis at this time.) [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] So, I thought I'd take a look at the Twins outfield situation. Download attachment: Rajai Davis.jpg First though, let's take a look at Rajai Davis. He is a player I have always liked because of his speed. His yearly stolen base totals in the big leagues going back to 2008 are: 29, 41, 50, 34, 46, 45. He has spent the last three seasons with the Blue Jays and has hit .252/.299/.369 with 61 doubles, 11 triples and 15 home runs. He was their regular centerfielder in 2011, but the last two years, since Colby Rasmus came over to the Jays, he has played the two corner outfield spots. With the Twins, he could potentially start in center or left field. Before Toronto, Davis played for Oakland, Pittsburgh and San Francisco. He will be 33 years old through the 2014 season, and his game is about speed. I like him as a fourth outfielder and as a guy who can compete with Alex Presley and Aaron Hicks for the starting centerfield job. Ideally, he is a fourth outfielder on a good team, but he can also be a placeholder for Byron Buxton. With that said, here is a brief look at the Twins outfield situation: Josh Willingham - He is likely to begin the season as the team's left fielder. Though his best defensive position is designated hitter, he has more trade value if he proves healthy and can play defense; it would make him a possible trade target for National League teams. He had a down year last season, likely largely due to injuries, but we know he's got the ability to hit the ball out of the park. Alex Presley - Acquired last August in the Justin Morneau deal, Presley played adequately over the final month. He will compete for the starting centerfield job in spring training and if he isn't starting he is a solid fourth or fifth outfield option. Aaron Hicks - Handed the starting centerfield job out of spring training a year ago, he had a very difficult transition in his jump from AA to the big leagues. But the potential is still there, and he likely learned a ton from 2013. Hopefully he can make some adjustments and at some point in 2014, he could come up for good. Oswaldo Arcia - Having played center field and right field in the minors, the Twins called up Arcia and had him play a lot of left field. His defense was in Willingham's category out there. My belief is he can be an adequate, maybe average, defensive right fielder. The man can flat-out hit and has a ton of power. I wouldn't trade him, but in a trade he could bring back something big! Chris Parmelee - Started a lot of games in right field a year ago and impressed with his glove and a generally accurate arm. The bat didn't come around with any consistency in 2013, but he does still have potential. He is also out of options. With Joe Mauer moving to first base, left or right field will become important to Parmelee's playing time. Chris Colabello - See Chris Parmelee. Colabello dominated AAA a year ago, but he struggled with the Twins. He had played very little outfield in his career before playing some right field with the Twins. Darin Mastroianni - He was hurt throughout the 2013 season. Even when he came back, he struggled and clearly was not at 100%, Speed is his game. He can play all three outfield spots. He is a candidate to be DFA'ed if the Twins sign Davis. Byron Buxton - Baseball's #1 prospect will likely be invited to big league spring training. It is possible he surfaces with the Twins in the season's second half and never looks back. Eddie Rosario - He has played second base most of the last two years, but with the emergence of Brian Dozier at second base, it appears the Twins are looking to move Rosario back to the outfield. Honestly, that's where he should be. He is a natural, gifted outfielder with a very strong arm. His bat may not have huge home run power, but he can hit, uses the whole field and hits a lot of doubles. That potential/rumored 50 game suspension certainly hurts his chances of debuting in 2014. I would not be against the signing of Rajai Davis by the Twins. Of course, that depends on the years and the money. A one year, $2-3 million deal makes sense. A two year, $4-5 million deal makes sense. Anything beyond that doesn't make sense. It's all part of the picture. The beauty of the week of Winter Meetings is that rumors are abundant. How many are true? Some. With each rumor it's nice to be able to go through an exercise like this, looking at those currently on the roster and those in the near-future plans, to see what makes sense. To me, a 2015 outfield of Eddie Rosario, Byron Buxton and Aaron Hicks, with Oswaldo Arcia as the DH and Rajai Davis or Alex Presley as the fourth outfielder looks and sounds pretty good. So, what are your thoughts? Should the Twins be interested in or sign Rajai Davis? What does it mean for the future? Click here to view the article

Three days after MLB’s Opening Day, I wish you all a very Happy Minor League Opening Day! I may be in the minority, but I think I get as excited, if not more so, about minor league opening day as the big league version. For me, instead of just watching the Minnesota Twins games, I can now follow as many as five box scores each day. All four Twins minor league affiliates are scheduled to play their opening day games on Thursday. Hopefully weather will cooperate so they can get their games in. On Tuesday, I posted the Twins minor league opening day rosters. Today, I’ll provide a primer on the four affiliates. Please feel free to ask questions.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] ROCHESTER RED WINGS The Red Wings are scheduled to open their season at Buffalo. Scott Diamond decided to stay with the Twins organization. He will make the opening night start for the Red Wings opposite Blue Jays pitching prospect Marcus Stroman. The schedule has them playing their first two games in Buffalo before the teams move to Frontier Field in Rochester for two games to open up the Red Wings home schedule. Top Pitching Prospect – Alex Meyer Top Hitting Prospect – Danny Santana First Pitcher Promoted – Kris Johnson First Hitter Promoted – Chris Herrmann Most Underrated Pitcher – Deolis Guerra Most Underrated Hitter – James Beresford Radio Voice – Josh Whetzel (Listen Live here) NEW BRITAIN ROCK CATS The Rock Cats will open their season at home against Richmond. Pat Dean returns to the team to start this season after getting a handful of starts in Rochester a year ago. The Rock Cats will play their first seven games at home at New Britain Stadium, four against Richmond followed by three against Harrisburg. Top Pitching Prospect – Flip a Coin (DJ Baxendale, Sean Gilmartin or Taylor Rogers) Top Hitting Prospect – Kennys Vargas (since Miguel Sano is on the DL and Eddie Rosario on the Restricted List) First Pitcher Promoted – AJ Achter First Hitter Promoted – Danny Ortiz Most Underrated Pitcher – Adrian Salcedo Most Underrated Hitter – Mike Kvasnicka Radio Voice – Jeff Dooley (Listen Live here) FT. MYERS MIRACLE Ft. Myers starts out on the road in Jupiter for two games before returning to Hammond Stadium for two games against the Hammerheads. Jason Wheeler returns to the Miracle despite a solid season with the team a year ago. The Miracle made it to the playoffs a year ago and this year will have a mix of guys who played with the Miracle or with that offensive juggernaut from Cedar Rapids last year. Top Pitching Prospect – JO Berrios Top Hitting Prospect – Jorge Polanco (or some might say Adam Walker, Travis Harrison, or Max Kepler… with Byron Buxton on the DL) First Pitcher Promoted – Jason Wheeler First Hitter Promoted – Lance Ray (if/when healthy) Most Underrated Pitcher – Mason Melotakis Most Underrated Hitter – Travis Harrison Radio Voice – Brice Zimmerman (Listen Live here) CEDAR RAPIDS KERNELS The Kernels had a hugely successful inaugural season as an affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. The offense was remarkable. This season’s team will not hit anywhere near those prolific numbers, but the pitching staff certainly has a lot of talent. 2014 fifth round pick Aaron Slegers will make the Opening Day start for the Kernels when they host Clinton at Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium. Top Pitching Prospect – Kohl Stewart Top Hitting Prospect – Zach Larson or Engelb Vielma First Pitcher Promoted – Miguel Sulbaran First Hitter Promoted – Michael Quesada Most Underrated Pitcher – Brandon Peterson Most Underrated Hitter – Zach Granite Radio Voice – Morgan Hawk (Listen Live here) PLANNING A TRIP TO CEDAR RAPIDS Last season, I had the opportunity to go to Cedar Rapids on two separate occasions. I was there for their opening weekend and then again around the Fourth of July. For me, it is about 11-12 hours each direction. If you live in the Twin Cities, the drive to Cedar Rapids is about four-and-a-half hours. Just check mapquest and you’ll see you only have to know about three or four road names/numbers to get there. On the way home, consider going up to Decorah and then to Rochester. There are a couple of places to stop and some incredible scenery. Driving that way and seeing all of the corn is actually a pretty incredible site. As you get further north and are driving along the Mississippi River, there are some breathtaking views. Of course, along that path is Dyersville, IA, which of course is the home of the Field of Dreams movie site. My brother and I made a stop there on our way home and although we were only there for about an hour, maybe 90 minutes, it was a pretty neat experience. It is incredible in its simplicity. Walk in the corn, play catch, take some pictures in front of the house, or sit on the bleachers where James Earl Jones gave the memorable "They Will Come, Ray" speech. For any baseball fan, Dyersville should be on your bucket list. And, it is about one hour north and east of Cedar Rapids. Download attachment: Field of Dreams.jpg Also along that way, if you’re as cool as me (and I wouldn’t wish that on many people), Burr Oak, Iowa is on the way. Of course, that is one of the many places where author Laura Ingalls Wilder lived. Maybe you’ve got a goal to visit many midwestern-type, small town museums. You can cross this one off the list! Download attachment: LauraIngalls.jpg The Amana Colonies are about 15 to 20 miles southwest of Cedar Rapids. There are several cultural options as well such as the NewBo City Market, the Czech and Slovak Museum, the Cedar Rapids Museum of Arts and around the Fourth of July is the Freedom Festival. Depending upon your interests, Cedar Rapids has many options so you (and your family) have something to do between Kernels ball games! That’s right, back to the Kernels… They play at Perfect Game Field. Another interesting thing is that the Perfect Game facilities are basically right across the street from the ballpark. Each of the six Kernels games that I went to I had at least one (and usually two or three) people come up and tell me they had driven down from the Twin Cities. Generally speaking they would leave work at noon on Friday or Saturday, spend a night and go to a second game the next day before driving back. I had one or two people say they drove down that afternoon and were driving back after the game. I couldn’t do that, but it is an option. The atmosphere at the stadium is tremendous, especially after school lets out and the weather warms. You will most likely see GM Doug Nelson roaming the huge concourse, talking with fans and making sure they’re enjoying the experience. The Kernels players do a ton in the community and before each game two players are up in the concourse signing autographs. Download attachment: Berrios Signing.jpg The field is really terrific and they continue to make improvements each year. This offseason, the put in new grass on the field which was a huge undertaking. The year before, they put in a huge 30x48 LED scoreboard in the outfield that shows replays and provides a ton of statistical information. They also have a pregame show before each game on the board that includes the daily Minnesota Twins Organizational Report which is sponsored by Twins Daily. Download attachment: Cedar Rapids Stadium.jpg You'll also want to check out their Hall of Fame. Cedar Rapids has a long, rich history of minor league baseball going back over 100 years. There is a ton of information on that history. There are also a lot of plaques on the wall of contributors, but also of a lot of players you will recognize from the Reds and the Angels organizations. Download attachment: CedarRapidsHistory.jpg They also have a really neat feature, a Walk of Fame with players getting stars around the concourse. It was a very neat thing to see all those big league stars who spent time with the Kernels, such as the new $144.5 million man, Mike Trout. Download attachment: Mike Trout Star.jpg And after the games, be sure to head over to Bushwood Sports Bar & Grill for lots of sports on big screen TVs, beverages and great food. Most likely, you will also find Steve Buhr (aka Jim Crikket) sitting at a table top. You can thank him for all his great writing and reporting of the Kernels by buying him a beer and some corn nuggets (which are actually not too bad!). I can’t emphasize enough that if you enjoy reading about the minor leaguers, and Twins Daily is certainly the best place online to do that every day, it’s so satisfying to get to a couple games and see for yourself. The Twins have an affiliate within reasonable travel distance. Take advantage. Check out their schedule and their promotions and book some tickets if you’re interested. And, if you do make a trip to Cedar Rapids to see the Kernels (or see the Miracle, Rock Cats or Red Wings as well), be sure to report for us what your observations were about the facilities, the experience, the players and anything else you found interesting in the forums of Twins Daily. Again, Happy Minor League Opening Day to everyone! It’s great to be able to talk about five teams, especially when the big league club struggles. Good luck to each of the teams and all the players. Click here to view the article

The Twins attempted to come from way behind on Saturday but fell to the Tigers 12-9. Injuries were the story. Trevor Plouffe hurt his oblique. He was replaced at third base by Eduardo Nunez, who later pulled his hamstring. Because of these injuries, the Twins will have Pedro Florimon in Detroit on Sunday, ready to play if either Plouffe or Nunez needs to go on the disabled list. In the minor leagues, there were some impressive performances by hitters. One hitter put himself in the spotlight and showcased his skills at an All-Star game. At least eight players had three hits or got on base four times. Even better, all three affiliates that played got a win. Below you’ll find what happened in the Twins farm system on Saturday: RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 11, Lehigh Valley 1 Box Score The Red Wings got off to a fast start and never really looked back in this blowout of the IronPigs. The team scored two runs in the first inning and a Josmil Pinto grand slam in the second frame further got things going on the right note. Wilkin Ramirez went 3-5 with his 12th and 13th doubles. Deibinson Romero went 3-5 with his 16th double. Chris Colabello went 2-2 with two walks. Pinto added a single to his grand slam. Chris Rahl hit his third home run and drove in three runs. Logan Darnell was uncharacteristically wild, and yet he pitched out of some jams. The lefty went five innings. He gave up only an unearned run on three hits. He walked five batters and struck out four. AJ Achter came on and continued his dominance. He struck out three in three shutout innings. That puts him at 13.2 consecutive scoreless innings. He did give up one hit which ended a stretch of ten innings without yielding a hit. Aaron Thompson pitched a scoreless ninth. ROCK CATS REVIEW Game 1 – New Britain 3, Trenton 2 Box Score This game began on Friday night but was suspended due to weather late in the game. It finished on Saturday in walk-off fashion. Down 2-1 going into the bottom of the 9th inning, Nate Hanson and Kennys Vargas walked. Reynaldo Rodriguez singled to load the bases. That brought Brandon Waring to the plate. The veteran singled to left which scored Hanson with the tying run and Vargas with the winning run. Waring finished 2-4 with his 14th double. Rodriguez was 2-4 and gave the Rock Cats their first run of the game with his ninth home run. Virgil Vasquez started the game and went six innings. He gave up one run on four hits. He walked three and struck out six. Adrian Salcedo gave up a hit and walked two but didn’t allow a run in the 7th inning. Matt Summers got the eighth frame. He gave up a run on two hits. Cole Johnson pitched the ninth and struck out two in a perfect inning. Game 2 – New Britain 4, Trenton 3 Box Score It has been a season of ups and downs for lefty Pat Dean, but on Saturday night, it was definitely a good day. Dean gave up just one run on five hits in seven innings. He walked one and struck out three. Mark Hamburger gave up a run on two hits in his two innings. Lester Oliveros recorded his ninth save. He gave up one run in the ninth but held on. It was surprising to see Jairo Rodriguez start this game as the team’s designated hitter. It was even more surprising to see that he went 3-4 with the bat. It is most surprising that he stole a base. Mike Kvasnicka went 2-4 with his ninth and tenth doubles. Kennys Vargas went 2-4 with his 11th home run. MIRACLE MATTERS Florida State League All Star Game Box Score Download attachment: Adam Walker.jpg Most of the Miracle team was able to take a second straight day off. Four members of the team were named to the Florida State League All Star game. David Hurlbut and Brett Lee didn’t play in the game. JO Berrios and Adam Walker both did, and both performed like stars. JO Berrios was the starter for the South team. He gave up one hit and one walk, but he struck out two in the first inning. Adam Walker put on a show before the game and then during the game. He participated in the annual Home Run Derby and demolished baseball after baseball to win the competition. In the game, he batted fifth and played right field. He went 3-5 with a double and a solo home run. He was named the game’s Most Valuable Player. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 7, Burlington 6 Box Score This game went back and forth, right up to the final batter of the game, but the Kernels came through with the win. Kohl Stewart was pushed ahead a day, likely to allow him to be able to pitch an inning in the Midwest League All-Star game on Tuesday. The young right-hander threw four shutout innings. He gave up six hits, walked three and struck out three. Josue Montanez gave up three runs on three hits, a walk and a hit batter in three innings. Brandon Bixler gave up one run on one hit and a walk in his inning. That brings us to the ninth inning. Hudson Boyd came in to protect a 6-4 lead, but he gave up home runs to the first two batters he faced to tie the game. He managed to keep the game tied. So, the game went to the bottom of the ninth. The first two batters got on which brought Jason Kanzler to the plate. Kanzler laid down a perfect bunt in an attempt to advance the runners. However, a poor throw got by the first baseman and allowed the winning run to score. Ryan Walker led the offense. He went 3-4 with his third and fourth triples. Engelb Vielma went 3-5. Jon Murphy went 3-4. Chad Christensen went 2-5 with his sixth home run. Jason Kanzler was 2-5. Jake Mauer missed the final inning as he was ejected earlier in the game. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Pat Dean, New Britain Rock Cats Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Adam Walker, Ft. Myers Miracle SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Lehigh Valley @ Rochester (12:05 CST) – Kris Johnson (Listen) Trenton @ New Britain (12:35 CST) – Taylor Rogers (Listen) Ft. Myers– All Star break (Listen) Burlington @ Cedar Rapids (2:05 CST) – Ethan Mildren (Listen) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Saturday games. Click here to view the article

The Twins fell behind the Mariners early thanks to some more bad pitching by Nick Blackburn. John Jaso hit a two-run homer in the first inning, and Miguel Olivo hit a hanging curveball. The Twins’ bats didn’t do much early either. After Felix Hernandez’s perfect game on Thursday, Mariners starter Hisashi Iwakuma was perfect through the first four innings. In the fifth frame, Justin Morneau led off with a double. A couple of batters later, Matt Carson came up and singled in Morneau to put the Twins on the board. Unfortunately, the Twins went behind 5-1 behind Blackburn which put the game out of reach. In the 8th inning, they still tried. Joe Mauer hit his eighth homer of the year to dead center. Josh Willingham came up next and drilled his 31st homer of the year to cut the lead to 5-3. However, that was it for the scoring and the Mariners picked up the win. The Twins played without the services of outfielders Denard Span (Shoulder) and Ben Revere (ankle). Carson was 1-4 in his first game with the Twins with that RBI single. Pedro Florimon made his first Twins start. He went 0-3 batting ninth, but he did make a couple of very nice plays in the field, including a diving catch in shallow left field that should be a Web Gem. Here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Friday night: ROCHESTER 3, INDIANAPOLIS 4 The big news in Rochester on Friday was that the Twins and Red Wings agreed to extend their player development relationship for another two years. Obviously negotiations were likely tenuous when they were talking in June and the Red Wings were terrible again. However, the team now has the best record in the International League since July 1st and have an outside shot at a wild card berth. The team also had a game and their best pitcher was throwing. Liam Hendriks entered the game having thrown 14 straight scoreless innings. He extended that with a scoreless first inning, but he would really struggle in the second inning. He gave up four runs in the inning on a couple of hits and an unusual two walks. Then he settled down and completed seven innings, giving up only those four runs. He gave up seven hits, walked three and struck out six. He recorded that sixth strikeouts in the 7th inning on his 97th pitch with a 94 mph fastball. Caleb Thielbar gave up a hit and a walk in the 8th inning, but did not allow a run. In the ninth, Kyle Waldrop walked one but gave up no runs to give the Red Wings a chance at the comeback. Tsuyoshi Nishioka led the Red Wings bats with a 4-5 day at the plate. He stole his seventh base. Eduardo Escobar went 3-4 with his second double. In his 18th game with the Red Wings, it was already his fourth three-hit game. Chris Parmelee was 1-3 with a walk and his 16th home run, a blast off the scoreboard at Frontier Field. His 16 home runs is the most by a Red Wings hitter since 2010 when 1B Brock Peterson hit 19 homers. (You may have seen, Peterson has spent the past two seasons playing independent league baseball. Earlier this week, he signed a minor league contract with the St. Louis Cardinals and will report to AAA Memphis.) NEW BRITAIN 0, PORTLAND 0 (suspended) The Rock Cats were in Portland. The two teams completed three-and-a-half innings before the rains came. The game was suspended. The Rock Cats still did not have a hit, and the lone base runner was a Chris Herrmann walk. Luke French made his first start since his return to the Rock Cats. The lefty gave up two hits in three scoreless innings. He walked none and struck out one. Of the 28 pitches he threw, 20 of them were strikes. The game will resume on Saturday. FT. MYERS 9, PALM BEACH 4 Josmil Pinto came to the plate in the 9th inning with three hits, a single, a double and a home run. Needing a triple for the cycle, Pinto hit a ball to the gap. He rounded second, looking for that triple, and was thrown out easily. But it was a great try, and a great game for Pinto. The powerful catcher was 4-5 with his 20th and 21st doubles and his 12th home run. Jhon Goncalves went 2-3 with two doubles and three RBI. Danny Ortiz went 1-3 with two walks and stole in fourth base. Tom Stuifbergen made the start for the Miracle and provided another quality start. In seven innings, he gave up three runs on nine hits and a walk. He struck out four. AJ Achter pitched the final two innings. He gave up one run on two hits. BELOIT 2, WISCONSIN 5 Tyler Jones started for the Snappers. The right-hander gave up four runs (3 earned) on six hits in five innings. He walked three and struck out ten. Taylor Rogers moved into the bullpen. He gave up one run on four hits over three innings. He struckout three. Corey Kimes pitched the ninth inning. He gave up two hits and walked a batter but did not give up a run. Matt Koch went 2-4 with his 18th double. Nate Roberts went 2-4 with a walk. Miguel Sano was hit by a pitch and later hit his 26th home run. ESPN.com’s Keith Law tweeted that it went over the batter’s eye in center field. ELIZABETHTON 5, KINGSPORT 1 Supplemental first round pick J.O. Berrios is making the Appalachian League look easy. After throwing four shutout innings in his first E-Town start, he threw five shutout innings on this night. He gave up just two hits, walked none and struck out 11 batters. Travis Huber struck out three in two perfect innings. Andrew Ferriera struck out three batters in the eighth inning. JT Chargois pitched the ninth frame and gave up an unearned run on three hits. He struckout two. Rory Rhodes went 2-4 with his eighth double and fifth home run. Adam Walker was 1-3 with a walk and his 14th home run. He also stole his third base. GCL TWINS 1, GCL RED SOX 5 Aderlin Mejia played with the GCL Twins a year ago. He started out really fast, but then struggled for most of the season. This time around, he has been able to sustain his offensive success. On Friday, he was 3-4 to raise his season average to .348. He also stole his 11th base. Bryan Haar hit his seventh double. Logan Wade tripled for the fourth time. Randy Rosario started and threw five shutout innings. He gave up three hits, walked two and struck out three. Trent Higginbotham pitched a scoreless sixth inning. However, he got just one out in the 7th. He was charged with four runs on one hit and three walks. Markus Solbach came in and got the final out of the 7th but not before allowing a fifth run. He pitched a scoreless eighth. --- Players of the Day for Friday, August 17, 2012 Pitcher of the Day – J.O. Berrios Download attachment: Jose_BerriosCard.jpg Hitter of the Day – Josmil Pinto Download attachment: JosmilPinto4.jpg --- A Look Ahead – Saturday, August 18, 2012 Schedule Rochester vs Empire State – RHP Shairon Martis New Britain @ Portland - TBD Ft. Myers @ Palm Beach – LHP Pat Dean Beloit @ Quad Cities – LHP Matt Tomshaw Elizabethton vs Kinsport – LHP Hein Robb GCL Twins vs GCL Red Sox – TBD --- If you have any questions or comments on the Twins minor league system, players, teams, etc., leave them in the Comments and I’ll try to answer them! Click here to view the article

On Saturday, MLB held its third day of the draft. It covered rounds 11 through 40 and lasted over six hours to complete. However, at the end of the day, the Minnesota Twins had made 40 picks this year. Day 3 was filled with a pitching-led theme again. The Twins drafted a bunch of power arms, looking to accumulate pitchers with velocity that they can work with on command and control. They took a couple of high-potential pitchers in Florida prep Taylor Blatch and Logan Shore [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]although both are likely to go to college instead of signing. The Twins also accumulated plenty of talent to help fill their GCL and Elizabethton rosters. Below, you will find each of the Twins draft picks, and on many of them, Twins Daily's draft expert Jeremy Nygaard added some brief comments. It's taken two days to get through ten rounds of the MLB Draft. On Saturday, a conference call of 30 teams, each making 30 picks, will complete the 2013 draft. It'll be rapid fire throughout the day. As soon as one team makes a selection, the next will get about 5 seconds to make their pick. It's actually quite something to listen to. As Twins picks are made, we will continue to update the Twins selections below. Please comment throughout the day with your thoughts. The Twins have made ten picks through the first ten rounds. They have chosen six pitchers (4 college, 2 high school), three catchers (2 college, 1 high school) and a college third baseman. What will they do with their final 30 picks? Well, we can be assured that they will continue to find more pitching, but will they be able to find any hidden gems in the late rounds? Of course, only time will tell. Day 3 40th Round (1190) - Kelly Starnes - OF - Los Medanos College (CA) 39th Round (1160) - Seth Wagner - LHP - Mifflin County HS (PA) 38th Round (1130) - Javier Salas - RHP - U of Miami 37th Round (1100) - Julien Service - OF - Northeast Texas CC 36th Round (1070) - Joe Greenfield - RHP - Eastern Illinois U 35th Round (1040) - Nick Lemoncelli - LHP - Lower Columbia College (WA) 34th Round (1010) - Ivory Thomas - CF - Cal St. Dominguez Hills 33rd Round (980) - Stephen Stensley - OF - University HS (Louisiana) 32nd Round (950) - Carlos Avila - SS - Cal St. Dominguez Hills 31st Round (920) - AJ Bogucki - RHP - Boyertown HS (PA) 30th Round (890) - Tanner Vavra - 2B - Valporaiso (3B Coach Joe's son) 29th Round (860) - Logan Shore - RHP - Coon Rapids HS (MN) 28th Round (830) - Chris Erwin - LHP - Grayson HS (GA) 27th Round (800) - Tyler Blatch - RHP - Jensen Beach HS (FL) Blatch, who doesn't even check in at six feet, is going to tough to sign with his 95 mph fastball and two solid off-speed offerings. 26th Round (770) - Ryan Halstead - P - Indiana 25th Round (740) - Chad Christianson - OF - Nebraska Christianson started at SS for two years before moving to the outfield for his last two years. Showed more strength as a junior than he did as a senior. 24th Round (710) - Brandon Easton - LHP - Lakeland CC Easton is also a high-K pitcher (78 in 59.2 IP) and big (6-6). Easton was the OCCAC Pitcher of the Year. (Easton is in MLB's database as a 1B, but he's a pitcher.) 23rd Round (680) - Zach Hayden - RHP - South Carolina - Aiken Hayden struck out 41 in 21 innings for the Pacers this year. He also walked 23. 22nd Round (650) - Alex Swim - C - Elon University Swim is a senior who stole 15-of-18 bases and started all 64 games. 21st Round (620) - Tyler Stirewalt - RHP - Fresno State Stirewalt is a project. He walked-on the Fresno State football team for three years before switching over to baseball in 2012. Obviously athletic, Stirewalt can hit 94. 20th Round (590) - Jason Kanzler - CF - Buffalo Fifth-year senior, batting .330 with some power (12 HRs) and speed (21 SBs). 19th Round (560) - Jared Wilson - RHP - UC Santa Barbara A fifth-year senior with big arm strength and a lack of control. Good fastball and curve, but any success will depend on figuring out how to make it goes where he wants it to. 18th Round (530) - Ryan Walker - SS - Texas-Arlington Walker will be a solid shortstop for the E-town Twins, batted .304 in 58 games for the Mavericks. 17th Round (500) - Tanner Mendonca - RHP - Sacremento State Good body with a fastball up to 94 and a decent breaking ball. 16th Round (470) - Brandon Bixler - LHP - Florida Gulf Coast Bixler offers two pretty significant pieces: first, his ability to miss bats - a good fastball with two solid secondary pitches (curveball and change-up). Secondly, he doesn't always throw it in - or near - the strike zone. Bixler is also about 5-10, 160. 15th Round (440) - Derrick Penilla - LHP - Mt San Antonio College Not a lot of info out there on Penilla, a lefty. Started for MSAC and averaged over a strikeout per inning. 14th Round (410) - Zack Granite - CF - Seton Hall Three-year starter and leadoff centerfielder for the Pirates. Granite is small, but gets on base and has good speed. 13th Round (380) - Brandon Peterson - PHP - Wichita State Stop me if you've heard this: A college reliever who should get a shot to start in pro ball. Features a low-90s fastball and a slider. Was successful as Wichita State's closer with a ceiling as a set-up man if the starter thing doesn't work. 12th Round (350) - Ethan Mildren - RHP - Pittsburgh A tall, groundball pitcher who throws four pitches, including a low-90s fastball. 11th Round (320) – Nelson Molina - SS - Puerto Rico HS 6-3, 170, skinny and weak but very projectable. A scout's dream that could stick at shortstop with soft hands, quick release, but lacks the cannon arm. Day 2 10th Round (290) - C.K. Irby - RHP - Samford University 9th Round (260) - Mitchell Garver - C - U of New Mexico 8th Round (230) - Dustin DeMuth - 3B - U of Indiana 7th Round (200) - Brian Gilbert - RHP - Seton Hall University 6th Round (170) - Brian Navarretto - C - Florida (High School) 5th Round (140) - Aaron Slegers - RHP - U of Indiana 4th Round (110) - Stephen Gonsalves - LHP - California (High School) 3rd Round (78) - Stuart Turner - C - U. of Mississippi Day 1 2nd Round (43) - Ryan Eades - RHP - LSU (College) 1st Round (4) - Kohl Stewart - RHP - Texas (High School) View full article

Earlier this week, I handed out the “awards” for Twins minor league relief pitcher and starting pitcher of April. In each case, I was able to profile six pitchers and there were good numbers. Today, I am going to profile five Twins minor league hitters who had solid Aprils. Unlike with the pitchers, it was really tough to come up with hitters. If I’m being honest, it was a two-player race for the April Hitter of the Month. And, today, when the Twins have an off day after being shut out two straight games (and no-hit late last night by Jered Weaver), I wish I could tell you that there were several players at AAA Rochester who are hitting so well that they are pushing their way up to the big leagues. There aren’t. Here are my selections for the Top 5 Twins Minor League hitters in April: [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Number 5 - Ft. Myers - Danny Santana - (29-95) .305/.327/.453 with four doubles, two triples, two home runs and 11 RBI. The diminutive middle infielder got off to a very fast start before a mini-slump. However he did end the month strong again to garner a spot on this list. Although his game is speed, he is not afraid to take a big swing and will get a lot of extra base hits. To advance through the minors and eventually get to the big leagues, he will have to learn to take an occasional walk, but he does have really good tools. Number 4 – New Britain – Deibinson Romero - (25-89) .281/.337/.494 with eight doubles, a triple, 3 home runs and 17 RBI. Although he’ll play at 25 years old throughout this season, this is already his ninth season in the Twins organization. He was on the Twins 40 man roster, but quickly fell out of favor. However, last year he had a semi-revival season in New Britain in 2011 (.256/.327/.411, with 27 doubles and 11 home runs), and he has continued that success into the first month of the 2012 season. Number 3 - New Britain – Aaron Hicks - (24-88) .273/.347/.477 with four doubles, a triple, four home runs and 14 RBI. I truly thought that Hicks would really struggle in the early going at AA New Britain. To this point, he has certainly held his own. He has shown patience. He has shown power. He has struck out a lot and been a little inconsistent, but overall, a very impressive start for the ultra-talented outfielder prospect. Consistency will be the thing to watch with Hicks throughout the year. Can he limit the longevity of the slumps better? That will be important. Number 2 - Beloit – Eddie Rosario - (29-89) .326/.429/.472 with eight doubles, a triple, one home run and 16 RBI. Rosario was the Appy League Player of the Year in 2011. He has already had some ups and downs in his first month of a full-season league, but overall, the numbers are definitely there. Some may expect more home runs from Rosario after leading the league last year with 21, but that’s not the type of hitter he is. He has very quick hands and will hit for average, gap power and certainly can hit his share of homers. He has a good approach at the plate as well. He stole 7 bases in the season’s first month. His transition to 2B has been shaky at times (7 errors in April), but reports indicate that he may be able to handle the position given time. The April Minnesota Twins Minor League Hitter of the Month is... Beloit Snappers 3B Miguel Sano (24-87) .276/.422/.586 with five doubles, two triples, six home runs and 19 RBI. Sure, the batting average isn’t the highest, and he leads the Midwest League in strikeouts. He has a ton to learn about defense, plate approach and has a lot of maturing to do. But at the end of the day, Sano was the clear-cut top hitter of the month in the Twins organization. Along with the strikeouts, he is the league leader in walks which means he has a tremendous OBP. And 13 extra base hits in 87 at bats is pretty impressive. Sano is a powerful individual and when he makes contact, he does very good things. It will be a lot of fun to track his development. There were several strong performances in April, even if there weren’t many strong hitters. Earlier in the week, we named the Twins Relief Pitcher and Starting Pitcher of the month of April. Please feel free to discuss. Download attachment: Miguel Sano.jpg Click here to view the article

When last night’s minor league report was completed around midnight, there was seemingly nothing on the horizon. Eight hours later, we learned that Pedro Hernandez had made a six hour drive from Louisville, Kentucky to Cleveland to make a spot start because Mike Pelfrey was put on the disabled list with back spasms. He got the win despite walking six in five innings and was immediately demoted following the game. Soon after, we learned the Kyle Gibson was promoted and will start on Saturday. Less than an hour later, Twins Daily became aware Byron Buxton was going to be promoted and soon after that, Jim Crikket got verification from Jake Mauer. Two big moves in one day![PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Gibson tweeted the following late on Sunday evening (OK, early on Monday morning): "As much as I would love to personally thank each and every one of you who have helped me along the way, as well as thank each and every person for the kind words on here, it would be impossible!! So a broad "Thank You" will have to do for now!! God has blessed my wife & I with great family and friends, and we are excited for this new journey and opportunity He has put in front of us! Thank you all for your support and I am looking forward to living out my dream as long as God has it in His plans! Thank you all very much!!!" In all my time covering the Twins minor league system, so many Twins players have been just tremendous people. Kyle Gibson may be at the top of the list when it comes to class. He is as genuine as it gets, so it is great to see him finally get this opportunity, likely two years after he had hoped. There were more than just transactions. There were five games on the Twins' minor league docket. The Kernels offense kept things going. The E-Twins offense hasn’t clicked yet. Chris Colabello has yet to slow down. Check out what happened in the Twins' farm system Sunday: Rochester Red Wings 8, Louisville Bats 5 Box Score Chris Colabello was at it again Sunday. After hitting his 16th home run Saturday, he went 2-4 with a walk and his 17th home run on Sunday. Drew Butera was 2-4 in the game. All nine Red Wings starters had at least one hit. Andrew Albers continued to pitch well. He improved to 7-2, going five innings and giving up one run on five hits and two walks. He struck out six. Cody Eppley came on and gave up two runs on three hits in two innings; he walked none and struck out two. Blake Martin came on to start the eighth and got one out, was charged with two runs on two hits and one walk. Michael Tonkin recorded the final five outs for his fifth save. New Britain Rock Cats 3, Akron Aeros 4 Box Score There was talk of Trevor May making the 45 minute drive north from Akron to Cleveland to make the spot start on Sunday for the Twins, but rightfully, the Twins nixed that. It certainly would not have been the ideal situation for a big league debut. Instead, he made his scheduled start for the Rock Cats in Akron. He gave up three runs on six hits and a walk in 5.2 innings. He struck out five. Dakota Watts came on and was perfect for 1.1 innings. Bobby Lanigan entered and gave up a run on two hits and a walk in his inning. He struck out one. Josmil Pinto led the offense, going 2-4 with his 16th double. Eddie Rosario added his second double while Curt Smith doubled for the eighth time. Ft. Myers Miracle 7, Jupiter Hammerheads 5 Box Score Manuel Soliman made his first start in Ft. Myers in over a year. He missed most of the 2012 season after having had shoulder surgery. He rehabbed throughout he offseason and began this season in the Cedar Rapids bullpen. Recently, he was promoted to Ft. Myers. He gave up two runs on eight hits and two walks in 5.2 innings. He struck out three. Nelvin Fuentes came on and gave up one hit and walked a batter, but didn't allow a run in 1.1 innings. Corey Williams gave up three runs (2 earned) on two hits and four walks in one inning. Zach Jones came on and got the final three outs, two of them on strikeouts, to record his ninth save. Mike Kvasnicka kept his hot streak going. He went 2-4 with his second homer (in as many days) and drove in three runs. His home run came right after Matt Koch’s fifth homer. Aderlin Mejia and Jhon Goncalves each went 2-5. Cedar Rapids Kernels 13, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers 9 Box Score The Kernels had 18 base knocks on Saturday night. On Sunday, they had 20. Interestiingly, Wisconsin’s starter was Marco Estrada, the Brewers starter who was making a rehab appearance. Jorge Polanco went 4-6 with his 20th double. JD Williams was 3-4 with a walk, his sixth home run and his 13th stolen base. Max Kepler went 3-6 with his second and third doubles and three RBI. Adam Walker went 2-5 with his 11th home run. Travis Harrison was 2-5 with a walk and his 22nd double. Dalton Hicks was 2-4 with a walk. In his final Kernels game, Byron Buxton went 2-5 with a walk and his 10th triple. The chief beneficiary of the run support was Hudson Boyd, who really needed it. He was able to get through five innings with Terry Ryan in the stands. However, he gave up five runs on eight hits and six walks. He struck out just one, but he gets credit for the win. Caleb Brewer came on and gave up four runs on four hits in two innings. Steven Gruver struck out two over the final two scoreless innings. Photo by Tim Gale Elizabethton Twins 5, Bristol White Sox 3 (10 innings) Box Score The offense of the E-Twins has not yet been able to get it going. Through seven innings, they had just two hits. Down 3-0, the team scored three in the 8th. A Bryan Haar RBI single was followed by a two-run double from Rory Rhodes. The game went to the tenth and it was Mitchell Garver who came up with the two-run single that put the team ahead for good. Garver was 2-5 with a double. Rhodes was 2-4 with a walk. The double was his second. Tanner Vavra hit his first double. Hein Robb made his first start for the E-Twins. He gave up three runs on four hits and a walk in five innings. He struck out one. Andrew Ferreira worked two perfect innings. Dallas Gallant gave up one hit in two scoreless innings. Luis Nunez gave up two hits, but no runs, in one inning. He struck out two. GCL Twins No Games on Sundays. Please feel free to comment or ask questions below. View full article

First things first... Happy 2014 Minnesota Twins Opening Day to the Twins Daily community! As the 2013 season came to yet-another frustrating end, many Twins fans found baseball difficult to watch. Many Septembers, prospects are called up and fans can catch a glimpse of the future. Last September, Twins fans got to see catcher Josmil Pinto make a strong first impression.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] However, other September call-ups were journeymen. I recall telling anyone who would listen that it was a tough to watch, but we knew there would be many more reasons to watch in 2014. Yet, as this season opens, there is a lot of negativity surrounding the Twins, even more than the last couple of seasons. So, what happened? Where did all this negativity come from? In my opinion, the day the attitude for the 2014 season changed is the day Miguel Sano fielded a slow roller and made an off-balance throw to first base. Since then, we found out he needed Tommy John surgery, had the surgery and will miss most of the season. After Sano hit 35 home runs between Ft. Myers and New Britain in 2014 and showed enough improvement defensively at third base that many, myself included, thought he would be up with the Twins no later than July. Who knows? With the Twins offense this spring, maybe it would have been as early as May! He was generally ranked among the Top 10 prospects in all baseball. The concern really started after playing just two games in the Dominican Winter League. He was shut down with a strained UCL. Many, myself included (and apparently Dr. James Andrews), chose to believe that because he was a position player the elbow could be rested, and he could come back and play at 100% in 2014. And then came that slow roller. And surgery. And the big cast over his arm. Download attachment: Miguel Sano Cast.jpg Photo by Nick Nelson (found on Twins Daily Facebook page) Sure, he'll pick up a bat in early August and could get a couple at-bats in GCL games before the end of the year, but he will (without something crazy happening) not make his big league debut until early in the 2015 season. I truly believe when fans found out that Miguel Sano would not be promoted this season, optimism for 2014 dropped. Of course, at the same time we heard about Miguel Sano being shut down in the Dominican, reports came out of Puerto Rico that Eddie Rosario would likely face a 50-game suspension. The second baseman had a very strong 2013 season. He began the year in Ft. Myers and he was promoted to New Britain the same day as Sano. Rosario more than held his own at AA. Before spring training began, news came out that he officially had been suspended, but not for a PED. Instead, he was suspended for a drug of abuse. This meant he had previously failed a drug test and got caught again. My personal thought was that his season would begin in late May, possibly with a handful of games in Ft. Myers. He would quickly move up to New Britain and could still be called up in August or September. However, when minor league spring training started in early March, we learned that Rosario had been given permission by the club to report late. Rumors were rampant as to what the drug of abuse was and where he was during this time. Well, as minor league spring training is now complete (and his suspension begins), he has still not reported. Of course, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything, but the level of concern is certainly higher at this point. Again though, we most likely will not see him until 2015. Byron Buxton dominated as a 19 year old at Cedar Rapids and in Ft. Myers. In the offseason, he was the consensus #1 prospect in all baseball and was invited to big league camp. Although he didn’t hit much in big league camp, there was no question about his talent and his future. Again, Jeremy Nygaard and I talked (on the Twins Hangouts podcast) about how we felt there was a chance Buxton could play in the Futures Game at Target Field and stick with the team. To be fair, that was probably a little over-aggressive. However, the thought was not completely out of the realm of possibility. Unfortunately, in mid-March, on a back field in minor league camp, he made a diving catch in a game and hurt his wrist. After further evaluation, it was decided he will start the season on the disabled list and likely miss at least two weeks at the start of the season. My assumption is he will get at least a handful of games with the Ft. Myers Miracle to start his season before moving up to New Britain (where he would otherwise have started his season). The delayed start (and hopefully it is only two to three weeks) changes my thinking. I thought he could make a July/August debut. Now, I think he’ll spend the entire season at New Britain (again, after those initial games with the Miracle). That is not a bad thing at all, far from it. It’s just that instead of debuting as a 20 year old in 2014, he will likely debut in the middle of the 2015 season. As those three situations were happening with three of the Top Five Minnesota Twins prospects, top pitching prospect Alex Meyer is pitching after missing two months last season. Of course, it didn’t help much that the Twins offense did pretty much nothing during spring training games. Over time, more and more concern about the Twins offense (or lack thereof) was voiced publicly. So again, I am of the opinion that optimism for 2014 was not about the major league team suddenly winning 80 games or competing for a division title. The cause of optimism was that some key building blocks for the future would get their first glimpse of big league ball and go through their rookie season ups and downs so that in 2015 they could improve even more and maybe the Twins would start competing. I don’t think the upside and potential of the prospects is any less now than it was two months ago, but I do think the timeline has unfortunately been pushed back a year. In my opinion, these minor leaguer situations have affected the enthusiasm of the Minnesota Twins fans. The Twins went out and added a couple of pitchers in Ricky Nolasco and Phil Hughes. However, they did little to improve the offense. I believe a big reason for that is because of the belief that with Sano and Rosario (along with Aaron Hicks and Josmil Pinto, and eventually Danny Santana and Byron Buxton), the changing of the guard would be taking place. The lack of offense in spring training certainly didn’t help the enthusiasm and hope of Twins fans. One can’t help but wonder what ticket sales would look like this year if not for hosting the All-Star Game in July. Click here to view the article

According to Jon Heyman, The Minnesota Twins have reached an agreement with RHP Mike Pelfrey. He says that it is a two year deal at $11 million. It also includes incentives up to another $3.5 million. Download attachment: Mike Pelfrey.JPG There have been reports for a month that the two sides were very close, and that the Twins had made an offer. On Saturday night, there was finally an agreement. Pelfrey went 5-13 with a 5.19 ERA and a 1.55 WHIP with the Twins in 2013. He had undergone Tommy John surgery in April of 2012 and returned quickly. He struggled early with the Twins, but he did show good velocity on his fastball. Last month, Parker wrote about why the Twins might have interest in bringing back the right-hander. The Twins have been busy in the free agent pitching market. Last month, they inked Ricky Nolasco to a four year, $49 million contract with an option for a fifth year. Days later, they agreed with Phil Hughes on a three year, $24 million deal. The Twins have Kevin Correia under contract for 2014 at $5.5 million. If the Twins do not sign any other starting pitchers or make any trades, Sam Deduno, Kyle Gibson, Andrew Albers, Kris Johnson, Scott Diamond, Vance Worley and Alex Meyer will be competing for the fifth starter job. (Deduno, Diamond and Worley will be out of options) There is no word yet on whether the Twins would still consider adding another starting pitcher as rumors surrounding Bronson Arroyo and Matt Garza have not subsided. Click here to view the article

It was a quiet Mother’s Day in the minor leagues as both Ft. Myers and Cedar Rapids had days off. However, the Twins finished their series in Detroit, the Red Wings were in Toledo and New Britain was in Bowie, and there was still plenty to write about. The Twins fell behind early in Detroit on Sunday, but they didn’t give up and walked away with a 4-3 win and a series win against the Tigers. They will get Monday off before hosting the Boston Red Sox in a three game series starting Tuesday. Here are the game updates from the Twins minor league system from Saturday. TRANSACTIONS The Ft. Myers Miracle placed Byron Buxton (wrist) and Levi Michael (foot) on the 7-Day Disabled List. As most know by now, Buxton re-injured his wrist on a slide into third base on Thursday. That same night, Michael fouled a ball off of his foot and hasn’t played since. In Cedar Rapids, Zack Larson was put on the Disabled List (on Saturday). Download attachment: Tony Thomas.jpg Tony Thomas RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 0, Toledo 7 Box Score Things got off to a bad start and the bats just were not able to make up for it with their offense. In fact, the offense had just three hits in the game. Logan Darnell made his first Rochester start in two weeks. He had a nice stint with the Twins in between. In the first inning, he gave up five runs, though just two were earned due to a Pedro Florimon error. He gave up one more run over the next three innings. In his four innings, he gave up four hits, walked two and struck out four. Aaron Thompson gave up a run on two hits in the eighth inning. In between, set up man AJ Achter threw three perfect innings and had a lot of cheers from the Toledo crowd. The Toledo native had a lot of family and friends in attendance. In the three games in Rochester, Florimon went 0-8 (with three walks) at the plate. He also committed one error each game. Mike Hessman, the 36 year old for Toledo, his a third inning home run off of Darnell. It was the 399th home run of his minor league career. Since 2003, he has hit 14 major league home runs as well. ROCK CATS REVIEW New Britain 11, Bowie 1 Box Score The Rock Cat bats were back on Sunday afternoon. They scored 11 runs while accumulating 13 hits and six walks. The first five batters in the lineup each had two hits. Corey Wimberly led off and went 2-4 with two walks and his fifth double. Tony Thomas was 2-4 with a walk, his fourth home run and three RBI. Danny Ortiz drove in three runs and went 2-5. Kennys Vargas was 2-5 and drove in two runs. Reynaldo Rodriguez went 2-4 with a walk and his sixth home run. Coming into the game, Kennys Vargas was on fire. In his last 19 games (since April 21), he had gone 26-70 and is hitting .371/.450/.671 (1.121) with six doubles, five homers and 13 RBI. Matt Summers put in a terrific start. He gave up one run on four hits in six innings. He walked three and struck out seven. Ryan O’Rourke gave up one hit and walked one in a scoreless inning. Dan Turpen pitched a 1-2-3 inning. Lester Oliveros struck out one in a perfect inning as well to end the game. MIRACLE MATTERS No Game Scheduled. KERNELS NUGGETS No Game Scheduled. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – AJ Achter, Rochester Red Wings Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Tony Thomas, New Britain Rock Cats SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Toledo (9:30 a.m. CST) – Kris Johnson (Listen) New Britain – No Game Scheduled Ft. Myers @ Brevard Country (5:35 CST) – Matt Tomshaw (Listen) Peoria @ Cedar Rapids (DH at 5:05 CST) – Josue Montanez, Ethan Mildren (Listen) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Sunday games. [/hr]The Twins took the series against the Tigers with a 4-3 win on Sunday, so on Monday you can take 50% off a large or extra-large pizza from PapaJohns.com by using the promo code 'twinswin'. Click here to view the article

In the last two weeks, we’ve reviewed the catchers, the first basemen and third basemen so far, and today we will be looking at the middle infielders in the Minnesota Twins organization. As much as I would like to separate the shortstops and the second basemen, so many of them can (or will or have) played both positions that I will consider them as one group of players. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] As it sits today, it appears that the Twins may start the same middle infield combination for the first time in a decade, when Cristian Guzman and Luis Rivas were roaming the center of the diamond together. Download attachment: Florimon Magic.jpg Pedro Florimon is magic with his glove, and maybe more. Photo by Betsy Bissen The Big Leaguers Unless something happens over the next month or so, Pedro Florimon and Brian Dozier will be the Twins keystone combo to start the season. Both spent time as the Twins starting shortstop during the 2012 season and didn’t perform very well. In 2013, Dozier made the transition to second base, and at least defensively, the Twins were strong up the middle. Offensively, you all know that Dozier got off to a slow start, but at the end of May, he made an adjustment and started producing with the bat. Dozier provided the Twins with 33 doubles and 18 home runs while committing just six errors. Can he keep up his second-half success, maybe even hit for more power? As expected, Florimon struggled with the bat. He hit just .221/.281/.330 (.611), though he had 17 doubles and nine home runs. Florimon makes his money with his glove. Defensively, his reputation of having great range and a strong arm both proved true. Can the defense overcome the offensive struggles? Can he make some adjustments with the bat? Eduardo Escobar is out of options, so he is all but assured of being on the Twins roster to start the season. As in 2012, he will most likely be the Twins utility infielder as he can play all three spots pretty well. The Twins have typically preferred having a second utility infielder. Doug Bernier surfaced last year after last playing in the big leagues in 2008. The Twins also brought back Jason Bartlett, who has not played since May 14, 2012. At 34, he is attempting a comeback. For defensive purposed, James Beresford may be the best option. He just turned 25 and between AA and AAA in 2013 he hit .306/.363/.346 while primarily playing 2B. If I had to pick a favorite of that group to start the season, I would lean toward Beresford, though Bartlett at 100% could make things interesting. 2013 Draft Picks The Twins drafted four middle infielders in the 2013 draft. Three of those players came from the college ranks. Their first middle infielder they took was in the 11th round, and he came from the prep ranks. Nelson Molina was the Twins 11th round pick, coming from high school in Puerto Rico. He played for the GCL Twins and it would be fair to say he struggled to start the season. In his first 19 games, he had just one hit in 52 at bats (.019 BA). He hit .193 over the final 17 games. At 6-3 and 175 pounds, there is some confidence his offense will come around. There is more confidence about his glove, and they believe he will be able to stay at shortstop. In the 18th round, the Twins took Ryan Walker out of UT-Arlington. He hit .267 in 42 games with Elizabethton; he also played in six games with Cedar Rapids. He is a speed player who plays very solid defense, with good range and a strong arm. In the 30th round, the Twins went with a player they know well. They drafted second baseman Tanner Vavra. The son of Twins 3B coach, Joe, Tanner went to Valparaiso where he hit very well. No surprise with a coach’s kid, but he is a grinder. He hit just .246 in E-Town, but got on base about 36% of the time. Two rounds later, the Twins went to Cal State-Dominguez Hills shortstop Carlos Avila. He hit just .206 in Elizabethton, and is known more for his glove than his bat. Prospect Rankings The Twins top middle infield prospect certainly affects the opening day roster. Eddie Rosario (My Twins Prospect #5) will begin the season with a 50-game suspension. That said, Rosario remains a top prospect because he can hit. After hitting .329/.377/.527 (.903) in 57 games with the Miracle, he hit .284/.330/.412 (.742) in 70 games in New Britain. Brian Dozier’s level of success with the Twins in 2014 may determine whether the Twins keep Rosario at second base or move him back to the outfield. Jorge Polanco (#6) struggled his first two years of pro ball, but in 2013 in Cedar Rapids, he showed that his 2012 stats an Elizabethton weren’t a fluke. In fact, in a loaded Kernels lineup, he hit third most of the season. Overall, he hit .308/.362/.452 (.813) with 32 doubles, ten triples and five home runs. Polanco split his time between shortstop and second base, though he really only played shortstop when Niko Goodrum was hurt. Goodrum (#20) had a solid first full season with the Kernels. He plays a very solid shortstop with good range, soft hands and a strong, accurate arm. Offensively, he hit .260/.364/.369 with 30 extra base hits. He has never hit for average, but his career IsoD is .096. He is long and lanky and still growing. He has a nice swing from both sides of the plate and could add some power. Danny Santana (#15) has shown the ability to hit for average (.297) and steal a lot of bases (30). He is allergic to walking, but he’s got the pop to hit a lot of doubles and triples. Defensively, he has the tools (great range, rocket arm) to be a great shortstop but to this point he has been very inconsistent on the routine plays. Levi Michael was not in my Top 30 prospects and barely makes the Top 50 after the former first-round pick has struggled two straight years in Fort Myers. In two seasons with the Miracle, he has hit .239/.336/.323. The Rosario suspension could mean he gets pushed to New Britain to start the season. He will be 23 throughout the season. Aderlin Mejia is another guy who isn’t a Top 30 prospect, but he came out of nowhere to be a likely Top 50 guy. He was supposed to go to Elizabethton, but while at Extended Spring Training, the Miracle had a need. It was supposed to be short-term, but he hit so well (.308 in 75 games), they couldn’t take his bat out of the lineup until a late-season injury. Roster Projections In each installment, I’ll make my roster projections. Obviously additional signings or injuries will affect all this, and that’s why it is important to have more than just two or even three at each level. There are also always players put on the disabled lists. So again, most likely there won’t be four catchers at Cedar Rapids, but this gives an idea of who could be at each affiliate at the start of the season. Minnesota: Pedro Florimon (SS), Brian Dozier (2B), Eduardo Escobar (UT) Rochester: Doug Bernier (SS), James Beresford (2B), Eric Farris (UT), Jason Bartlett (UT), Nate Hanson (UT) New Britain: Danny Santana (SS), Levi Michael (2B), Eddie Rosario (2B-SUSP), AJ Pettersen (UT), Brad Boyer (UT), Corey Wimberly (UT) Fort Myers: Niko Goodrum (SS), Jorge Polanco (2B), Aderlin Mejia (UT),Stephen Wickens (UT) Cedar Rapids: Ryan Walker (SS), Logan Wade (2B), Carlos Avila (UT), Joel Licon (UT), Tanner Vavra (UT) Extended Spring Training: Jonatan Hinojosa, Engelb Vielma, Nelson Molina, Will HurtFeel free to discuss the players and the roster. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: Gibson Red Wings2.JPG UPDATED at 1:30 CST for Official announcement! For fans of the minor leagues, this time of year is pretty fun. The Elizabethton Twins will be starting their playoff run tonight. September call-ups can start happening on Friday. The minor league regular seasons come to an end on Labor Day and then more players get called up while those playoff runs start.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] As you know, Beloit will be in the Midwest League playoffs, and most likely, they will be the lone Twins full-season playoff team. Today, it is expected that the Arizona Fall League teams will be announced. So, who will represent the Twins in Arizona when the AFL begins on October 9? According to the Star-Tribune’s LaVelle E. Neal, the Twins will send six players to the AFL and also save one more spot for another player. Here is the list, which should become official today. Chris Herrmann – It isn’t usual for the Twins to send a player to the Arizona Fall League two consecutive years, but Herrmann will do just that. Last year, Herrmann made a name for himself on a more national scene with a strong showing in the AFL. He hit .380/.456/.620 in just 57 at bats. He returned to AA New Britain this season and has hit .268/.342/.385 with 23 doubles, a triple, 10 home runs and 55 RBI. The 24 year old has been the team’s primary catcher, but this year, he has returned to playing quite a bit of outfield. Evan Bigley – The 25 year old outfielder began the 2012 season back in New Britain where he had spent parts of the two previous seasons. In 88 games, he hit .268/.311/.444 with 19 doubles, three triples and 12 home runs. He was promoted to Rochester where, in 35 games, he is hitting .211/.241/.328 with six doubles and three homers. The Right Fielder has a good arm. Kyle Gibson – Of course, Gibson is the headliner on this roster. Gibson, the Twins 1st round pick in 2009 rocketed through the Twins farm system in 2010. He began 2011 in Rochester where he pitched well until arm issues derailed his season. He had Tommy John surgery last September, and his comeback this season has been going well to this point. He made his first start for the Red Wings in 2011 on Saturday. The goal is to get him as many innings as they can this fall so that he can go to spring training 2013 with a chance to impress. Logan Darnell – He was the Twins sixth round pick in 2010 out of Kentucky. In 2011, he pitched for Beloit, Ft. Myers and New Britain (5 starts, 5.58 ERA). This season, he has pitched exclusively for the Rock Cats. He has made 26 starts and thrown 145 innings already after throwing a combined 150.1 innings in 2011. He is 9-12 with a 5.21 ERA. He’s given up 181 hits (21 home runs), walked 44 and struckout just 94. Despite the pedestrian stats and the low strikeout numbers, he is said to have some really good stuff. Michael Tonkin – The Twins can have up to two players from the Ft. Myers roster compete in the AFL. Michael Tonkin will do that this year. He began the season by completely dominating the Midwest League. For Beloit, he went 3-0 with a 1.38 ERA in 22 games. He had six saves. In 39 innings, he walked just nine (gave up just one home run) and struckout 53. Opponents hit just .206 off of him. He was promoted to Ft. Myers where opponents are hitting just .202 off of him. He’s 1-1 with a 3.18 ERA in 20 games. In 28.1 innings, he has walked 11 and struck out 40. He has three good pitches, generally gets a lot of ground balls. Caleb Thielbar – Thielbar is a lefty from Randolph, MN, who signed with the Twins late last season, the first player the Twins had signed from the St. Paul Saints. Since then, he has been terrific and progressed swiftly up the Twins farm system. He started the season with seven games in Ft. Myers. In 12.1 innings, he gave up four hits, walked two and struck out 16. He moved up to New Britain and pitched in 16 games. In 25 innings ,he gave up 18 hits, walked three and struck out 26. Now, he’s pitched in 24 games for Rochester. In 37 innings, he has given up 40 hits, walked 15 and struckout 29. The Arizona Fall League will be a good challenge for him. Joe Benson – It’s been a lost season for the Twins talented outfield prospect. He struggled early, but he has had one injury after the next ever since. He had surgery on his hamate bone, he’s had some other minor injuries, and his season came to an end two weeks ago with a knee injury. He will have surgery on Monday. The rehab will likely take at least one month, so the Twins are holding a spot for him in the AFL. He just needs to find some at bats so that he can go into the 2013 season strong and hopefully ready to take that final step. Nate Roberts - the 23 year old has been an on-base machine for the Beloit Snappers the past two seasons. He missed a lot of time in 2011 with knee injuries, but he has been relatively healthy. It is possible he will be on the roster until Benson is ready to play. The Twins players will play for the Peoria Javelinas with prospects from the Reds, Phillies, Mariners and Padres. They will be managed by Dusty Wathan. Be sure to check in with Twins Daily for updates on Twins minor leaguers in the Arizona Fall League, but also Twins minor leaguers playing Winter League ball anywhere. Several players will play in the Caribbean, be it in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico or Mexico. Several will also be playing in the Australian Baseball League. Click here to view the article

Download attachment: ETwins Logo.jpg It was another very successful season for the Elizabethton Twins. In the regular season, they had a league-best 43-22 record. The second best record came from the East Division and was the 41-25 record of the Burlington Royals. The two teams rightfully met in the Appalachian League championship series. Burlington won a one-run, extra-inning Game 1. Elizabethton won Game 2 in one-run, extra inning style as well. So, it all came down to Game 3 in Elizabethton. To find out who won this a remarkable game, a thriller … you’ll have to keep reading… Seriously, you will want to. What a dramatic game!![PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] These two teams were clearly the top two teams in the league all year. Elizabethton led the league with 6.17 runs per game. Third on that list was Burlington at 5.1 runs per game. The E-Twins gave up a league-fewest 3.75 runs per game. Burlington was second in that category at 4.14 runs allowed per game. Let's start in the bottom of the ninth. The E-Twins made things interesting in the bottom of the 9th inning, but they could not come up with the big hit. Wait!! Yes, they did!! Down 6-1 heading into the bottom of the 9th, Royals closer John Walter came in. He walked Jhonatan Arias and Romy Jimenez to start the inning, but he got the next two batters out. On a full count, he walked Max Kepler to load the bases. He hit DJ Hicks with the first pitch he threw to him to cut the lead to 6-2. Appy League Home Run Champ Adam Walker came to the plate as the potential tying run. A wild pitch cut the lead to 6-3 and moved the other runners to second and third. On the very next pitch, Walker connected on a long home run to tie the game at six. Walter’s night was over and Freddy Rodriguez came in to get the final out of the inning. The damage had been done. Download attachment: Adam Walker.jpg However, the score was now tied at 6-6 and for the third time in this three game series, extra innings were necessary. Let's go back to the beginning. Max Kepler started the scoring in the first inning. Following a Niko Goodrum double, Kepler singled him in to give the E-Twins a 1-0 lead. However, the Royals would score the next six runs. Jose (JO) Berrios started for the E-Twins. He began with three scoreless innings. Unfortunately in the fourth frame, he gave up four unearned runs on a hit and three walks. He also threw two wild pitches. (Berrios struck out seven in his four innings.) Josh Burris came in and threw two scoreless innings. Chris Mazza pitched a quick 7th inning. However, he gave up two solo home runs in the 8th inning. Travis Huber pitched a scoreless ninth inning which set up the unlikely E-Twins comeback in the bottom of the 9th. That brings us to extra innings. Did I mention that it is for the third straight game in this three-game series? Ricardo Arevalo came on for the top of the 10th inning. He gave up a single to lead off the inning. A sacrifice bunt advanced the runner to second. The next batter was intentionally walked for one purpose. Thankfully, the next batter obliged, grounding back to Arevalo who started a 1-6-3, inning-ending double play. In the bottom of the 11th, the E-Twins had a chance. With one out, catcher Jhonathan Arias, who had been 0-21 in the playoffs, singled. Romy Jimenez singled over the second baseman’s head to advance Arias to second base with one out. Jorge Polanco came in to pinch run for Arias, but Candido Pimentel struckout and Niko Goodrum flew out to deep center field to end the threat. Arevalo started the 12th, but he got just one out and had runners on 1st and 2nd. Lefty Brett Lee came on and got a ground out and a strikeout to end the inning. In the bottom of the 12th, Bo Altobelli grounded out. Romy Jimenez walked. Candido Pimentel struckout for the fourth time in the game. Niko Goodrum worked a walk. Then after a wild pitch, Max Kepler was walked to load the bases. That brought up DJ Hicks. With two outs and a full count, Hicks drilled an opposite field home run, a walk-off grand slam to win the game, to win the Appalachian League Championship. Download attachment: DJ Hicks Mug.jpg It was the E-Twins 10th title since the Twins moved to Elizabethton in 1974. It is their fifth title in the last ten years, but it is their first since 2009. Congratulations to long-time E-Town manager and former Twins catcher Ray Smith and his coaching staff on the title and another tremendous season. Congratulations to the whole roster for the E-Twins. What a game!! E-Twins 7, Burlington 6. (Note - since Hicks never got to round the bases, the final score is officially 7-6, not 10-6, not sure anyone really cares.) Click here to view the article

Download attachment: Aaron Hicks MT.jpg In recent weeks, several more Twins prospect rankings came out. In the past two weeks, Baseball America and Baseball Prospectus added their Top 10 Twins rankings. Here is a compilation of Twins prospect rankings. Feel free to discuss and compare. If you know of other lists we should add to this, please link to them in the Comments. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] SethBaseballBaseballJohn Cody ProspectStohsAmericaProspectusSickelsChristie Miguel Sano11211 Byron Buxton22132 Aaron Hicks35343 Oswaldo Arcia43424 Eddie Rosario57655 Kyle Gibson64566 JO Berrios76777 Max Kepler88889 Kennys Vargas9 15 Joe Benson10 1210 Travis Harrison11 998 Adrian Salcedo12 18 Daniel Santana139 11 Chris Herrmann14 19 BJ Hermsen15 Alex Wimmers16 17 Adam Walker17 1820 Mason Melotakis18 1013 Jorge Polanco19 101312 Pedro Hernandez20 Daniel Ortiz21 Matt Summers22 Luke Bard2310 1114 Levi Michael24 Nate Roberts25 20 Niko Goodrum 1416 JT Chargois 15 Zach Jones 16 Michael Tonkin 17 DJ Baxendale 19 Corey Williams 21 Click here to view the article

For the third straight game, the Minnesota Twins got a quality start, and for the third straight game, they got a win. Still, it took some late-inning dramatics, but the team goes into a Monday off-day with a .500 record (6-6). Raise your hand if you saw that coming. Just 150 games to go! The four minor league affiliates played afternoon games. They also went .500 on the day. Two affiliates won, two lost. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] So, why follow the Twins Minor League affiliates? Well, there are many reasons, however, here is a big one. Two weeks into the season and we have already seen the Twins make a half-dozen transactions. The Twins are not afraid to call people up, so get to know them early! Monday, the Twins have a day off but all four Twins affiliates will be in action. RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 2, Lehigh Valley 3 Box Score Kris Johnson gave up two runs in the first inning and another in the second before settling down. Those would be the only runs the IronPigs scored, but on this day it was enough for a win. Johnson went five innings. He gave up the three runs on five hits and a walk while striking out two. Deolis Guerra gave up just one hit over the next two innings. AJ Achter made his first appearance with the Red Wings this year. He had a walk and a strikeout in a scoreless inning. Eric Farris went 2-3 in the game. Wilkin Ramirez went 2-4. Dan Rohlfing added a double and an RBI. Clete Thomas went 2-2 with two walks and a double for Lehigh Valley. The loss ended a six game winning streak for the Red Wings. Deibinson Romero extended his hitting streak to eight games. ROCK CATS REVIEW New Britain 6, Portland 3 Box Score Download attachment: Nate Hanson 2.jpg This was just a good game for the Rock Cats. They didn’t have a big inning. Instead, they scored in five of the nine innings. They got good pitching as well and came away with their fourth win of the year. Nate Hanson led the way. He went 3-5 with two doubles (5 on season) and two RBI. Danny Ortiz was also 2-5 with his third double and he also stole two bases. Reynaldo Rodriguez hit his third and fourth doubles in five at-bats. Corey Wimberly had two hits. He added a stolen base. Sean Gilmartin recorded his first win in the Twins organization. The lefty gave up two runs (1 earned) on four hits in six innings. He walked two and struck out three. Cole Johnson came in and gave up one run on one hit and a walk in 1.2 innings. He struck out two. Ryan O’Rourke struck out the one batter he was asked to face. Lester Oliveros got his second save with another 1-2-3 ninth inning. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 4, St. Lucie 5 Box Score The Miracle drove across the state of Florida on Friday with a 6-1 record. After falling to the Mets for the third straight game on Sunday, they are now 6-4. Things just started out on the wrong foot for Mason Melotakis. He gave up three runs in the first, two in the third and another in the fourth. In all, he gave up six runs (4 earned) on eight hits in four innings. He walked three and struck out four. Two more Jorge Polanco errors created the two unearned runs. He now has six errors in the team’s ten games. David Hurlbut came on in the fifth inning and gave up two hits and a walk in three shutout innings. Madison Boer gave up one hit in his inning. Like last Sunday, it took some time for the Miracle bats to get a hit. In the sixth inning, Jorge Polanco singled to left for the team’s first hit. Later in the same inning, Michael Gonzales drove him in with a single of his own. Those were the team’s lone hits in the game. The second run scored that inning on an error. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 6, Lansing 2 Box Score Felix Jorge made the start for the Kernels on Sunday. He gave up two runs on three hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out three. Yorman Landa came in and gave up one hit in a scoreless inning. Alex Muren then gave up one hit in two shutout innings. Christian Powell ended the game with a perfect inning. Zack Larson got things going in the first inning with an RBI double, his sixth double of the year. He later added an RBI single and also stole a base. Chad Christensen was also 2-4 with his first triple. Bryan Haar went 1-3 with a walk and his third home run. It was a series sweep for the Kernels on the road. They return home for a six-game series in which they will play games Monday through Saturday. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Sean Gilmartin, New Britain Rock Cats Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Nate Hanson, New Britain Rock Cats MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Pawtucket @ Rochester (6:05 CST) – Trevor May (Listen) New Britain @ New Hampshire (5:35 CST) – Pat Dean (Listen) Ft. Myers @ Charlotte (5:30 CST) – Alex Wimmers (Listen) South Bend @ Cedar Rapids (1:05 CST) – Aaron Slegers (Listen) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Sunday games. A quick reminder: Thanks to the Twins win over the Royals on Sunday, it means that on Monday you can get 50% off a Large or Extra Large pizza when you use the “TWINSWIN” promotion code at PapaJohns.com. Click here to view the article

As most of you know, I have now been blogging about the Minnesota Twins for past 11 years (in May). Until we started TwinsDaily.com just over two years ago, I was at SethSpeaks.net. Tonight, I was looking through the Archivesof SethSpeaks.net and back in late 2005, I had a series I called Why Baseball? Several readers of the site submitted essays on what it is about baseball that captures them. In fact, I know that a couple of Twins Daily readers sent in their submissions. As I read some of the articles and the forums here at Twins Daily and see so much negativity, I thought it was time to go back and ask Twins Daily readers to submit their thoughts on what it is about baseball that draws you in. Did you play baseball? To what level? Is it the stats? The history?[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Download attachment: Twins Pitchers.jpg The follow-up question on this Twins-related site is what is it that keeps you being a Twins fan despite the struggles? What are your early memories? Like I said, I tire of the same old discussions about the same negative topics day after day. And yes, I’m not naïve. I understand that things haven’t been good and one of the beauties of watching baseball is that it looks so easy. Most everyone has played Little League baseball, and many get the opportunity to play in high school. So, it’s easy to second-guess every move on the field and in the front office. It’s fun to play Monday Morning Quarterback 162 games each season. So, what was it for me? My dad played amateur baseball when I was very young. We have pictures of myself wearing a diaper and a glove at my dad’s games. (No, I will not post them here.) But, my dad – and my mom – played catch in the front yard almost every day from the day the snow was (almost) gone until the snow started again. We watched baseball games on TBS (hence my Claudell Washington fandom). We saw Cubs games on WGN. I loved when they had double-headers. I played games that I wonder if I would let my kid play. At the house, there were four steps in front of the front door. I would take a baseball, from 30 feet away, and throw the ball toward the steps. Usually it would hit the cement steps and bounce back to me as a ground ball. If I hit the cement at a corner, it would come back to me as a line drive or even a pop up. Often, I hit the front door. There were so many dents in that door. I played a game against myself. I would pretend to be the Atlanta Braves. I knew the lineup. Brett Butler. Bruce Benedict. Dale Murphy. Biff Pocaroba. Basically, I would throw popups to myself, as high as I could. For most players, I would catch the popup and it would be an out. Of course, when Claudell Washington “came to bat,” popups were often dropped, or I would try to make the catch behind my back. My brother and I played catch in the back yard. One would be the pitcher, and the other would be the catcher. The catcher would stand up, and if the pitch was caught within an inch or so of our body, from the knees to the letters, it was a strike. We would play six or seven inning games, throwing fastballs, changeups, and curve balls, taking turns pitching and catching. I remember when Kirby Puckett got called up. I was eight years old, and truth be told I can’t imagine I liked him for any reason other than his cool name. I remember waking up the next year and my mom excitedly telling me that Puckett had hit his first major league home run. I was in 7th grade during the 1987 playoffs. For Game 7, I watched the game all by myself in the basement on a snowy, black-and-white TV, because I couldn’t handle the pressure of watching with anyone else. In 1991, I was a junior and it was just as exciting. I remember “And we’ll see you tomorrow night.” I went to college and played a couple of years of baseball. For the first time in my life, I was on the bench. That was hard, but it allowed me to watch the game from an entirely different perspective. I learned a new way to keep the scorebook. I learned to look at each situation and scenario in a game from a different angle. I could see it from a player perspective, but gained a respect and understanding for the work that coaches and a managers do. But, for a while, I stepped back from the game. But once college was done, and I had an 8-5 job and didn’t have college homework anymore, I dove back into baseball and the Twins headfirst and haven’t looked back. Through writing at SethSpeaks.net and now at Twins Daily, it’s been an incredible perspective. To get the feedback, positive and negative, from readers is what it’s all about for me. Trust me when I say I learn more from the readers and commenters than I can give to them. It has also provided me with the opportunity to meet so many players, coaches, front office types that I normally wouldn’t have. I enjoy following the Twins organization for so many reasons and getting to know so many of the people gives me a better perspective yet. To watch a player go from being drafted, through the levels of the minor leagues and reach that dream is really quite something. When I hear or read people say something like “Player is is a terrible baseball player,” I shake my head. Even the guys that get a cup of coffee in the big leagues are amazing baseball players. As I’ve written in past Prospect Handbooks, I was your typical high school player who hit .420 for four years and played shortstop and pitched. Blah, Blah, Blah. I went to a Division III school and couldn’t hack it. Those players are very good. So, how good are the guys who get to play on Division I teams. Now consider that most Division I players don’t get drafted. How good are the players in Low A, or High A? You have to be remarkable, elite, to just get to AA. The respect I have for all of the guys I write about is immense, and I love to tell their stories. Sure, it’s fun to see a guy like Byron Buxton who has a chance to debut in 2014 as a 20 year old after being a top first round pick and getting a huge signing bonus. However, what makes me want to do this from day to day are the stories like Tommy Watkins', who spent 10 or 11 years in the minor leagues before getting his cup of coffee. I enjoy telling the stories of Eric Fryer and James Beresford as much as I enjoy writing about Kohl Stewart. Getting to know a guy like Chris Colabello and the perspective he has on the game of baseball is really something that makes you want to see him succeed. Talk to Andrew Albers about the opportunity that the Twins gave him and learn what it is to love the game of baseball and have a strong passion for the game. So there you have it… a small piece of what I love about baseball, the Minnesota Twins and now writing about the organization. Before I turn it over to you, I asked three guys what it is about baseball and a career playing the game. First, I talked to Trevor Plouffe. He is one of the more charismatic personalities that I’ve had the opportunity to meet. His response may surprise you some. Next, I talked to Jermaine Mitchell who had a strong showing in big league camp. Of course, earlier this week, the Twins released him and he will get another opportunity elsewhere. Finally, I had a chance to ask Tommy Watkins about what it is about baseball for him. He is one of the best ambassadors of the Minnesota Twins and especially the Cedar Rapids Kernels. Yes, the Twins have had some rough seasons of late, but you’re all still coming to Twins Daily. Yet you’re still here, frequenting this Twins-related site, and we appreciate that. But now it’s your turn. I’d love to hear and ready YOUR stories. So, what is it about baseball? What is it about the Minnesota Twins? Click here to view the article

The Rochester Red Wings and the Cedar Rapids Kernels each had the day off on Tuesday. The Red Wings made the long trek back up north from Virginia. The Kernels didn’t play, but they were still in the news. The Twins found out that they received LHP Miguel Sulbaran from the Dodgers as the Player to be Named Later in the Drew Butera trade.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] He has pitched for Great Lakes in the Midwest League throughout this year and will report to the Kernels. Sulbaran pitched in 23 games for Great Lakes, making 16 starts. In total, he was 6-4 with a 3.01 ERA and a 1.25 WHIP. In 92.2 innings, he allowed 89 hits, walked 27 and struck out 85. He is just two months older than JO Berrios. Download attachment: MiguelSulbaranDODGERS.jpg Speaking of Berrios, he was put on the Disabled List with a right elbow contusion. I talked with three people familiar with the situation. In his most recent start, he was hit by a line drive in the elbow. However, by the next day, he appeared to be much better. The Twins decided to be cautious, as they should with such a talent, and put him on the Disabled List. One other person told me that the plan was actually to shut him down for a week or two in an attempt to manage his innings and help him be strong for the Midwest League playoffs. In other transactions, lefty David Hurlbut was promoted to Ft. Myers to take the spot of righty Cole De Vries, who was promoted to New Britain. There were actually several games to talk about, and the Twins now have their first 30 home run hitter of the season. See what else happened in the Twins farm system on Tuesday. Rochester Red Wings No Game Scheduled. Game 1 - New Britain Rock Cats 4, New Hampshire 5 Box Score Miguel Sano homered for the 30th time this year (14th with the Rock Cats), but it wasn’t enough in Game 1. Danny Santana went 2-4. Reynaldo Rodriguez added his 19th home run and drove in two runs. DJ Baxendale went all seven innings. Unfortunately, he was charge with five runs and just one was earned. He gave up eight hits (and three of those went for home runs). He walked one and struck out six. Game 2 - New Britain Rock Cats 6, New Hampshire 5 Box Score In the second game, the Rock Cats found themselves down 5-3 going into the bottom of the ninth. Kyle Knudson led off with a double. He scored when the next batter, Angel Morales, doubled. After a sacrifice bunt, Eddie Rosario doubled in the tying run. Understandably, Miguel Sano was intentionally walked. However, a wild pitch advanced Rosario to third, and Sano stole second. New Hampshire decided to walk powerful Reynaldo Rodriguez. However, the fourth pitch was wild and Rosario scored the winning run. Knudson was the one Rock Cats hitter with more than one hit. He was 2-3 and the double was his third. Rosario was 1-3 with a walk and his 14th double. Reynaldo Rodriguez added his 26th double. Matt Hauser made his first start of the year in this bullpen game. He was able to go four innings. He gave up three runs (1 earned) on four hits and a walk. He struck out four. Daniel Turpen came on and gave up three runs on three hits and a walk in two innings. Dakota Watts gave up one hit over two innings to get the Win. Ft. Myers Miracle 4, St. Lucie 5 Box Score Lefty David Hurlbut was promoted from Cedar Rapids and made his Miracle debut. He made less than a handful of starts this season, pitching primarily out of the Kernels bullpen. But, he made the start tonight for Ft. Myers. He began with three scoreless innings. However, he gave up three runs in the fourth. He gave up eight hits, didn’t walk anyone, and struck out four. Nelvin Fuentes came on and struck out three in two scoreless innings. He walked one. Corey Williams got the final two innings. He gave up a big two-run homer in the seventh that proved to be the game’s decider. He gave up the two runs on three hits, no walks and struck out two. Byron Buxton is back to .300 for the Miracle after a 3-4 night. He drove in two runs. Dalton Hicks went 2-4 with his third home run. It was a solo shot. The RBI gives him a combined 97 RBI on the season between Cedar Rapids and Ft. Myers. Cedar Rapids Kernels No Game Scheduled. Elizabethton Twins 6, Danville Braves 3 Box Score It was a good all-around game for the E-Twins. They got a good start from lefty Hein Robb. He gave up one run on five hits in five innings. He did walk four while striking out five. Andre Martinez came on and threw two scoreless innings. He gave up one hit, walked three and struck out two. Ryan Eades came on and pitched the final two innings. He gave up two runs on two hits and two walks. He struck out three. Javier Pimentel was the offensive hero. He was 3-4 with his 11th double and three RBI. Tanner Vavra was 1-2 with a walk and two RBI. Zach Granite extended his hitting streak to eight games. GCL Twins 3, GCL Orioles 1 Box Score Righty Alex Meyer returned to the mound for his second rehab appearance. This time, he was able to go three shutout innings. He gave up two hits, walked two and struck out two. He was replaced by Jared Wilson who was charged with one run on three hits in three innings. He walked three and struck out two. Chih-Wei Hu came on and struck out one over two scoreless innings. He gave up just one hit. Tyler Stirewalt got the save. He didn’t give up a run despite allowing two hits and walking one. Alex Swim went 2-4 with an RBI. Adonis Pacheco was 1-2 with two walks. If you have any questions or comments, please leave them below. Click here to view the article

On the previous, it showed the lats 8-10 forums that had been posted in. In this current one, all 5-6 of the last entries could be from the same forum. I think that giving visibility to more forums encourages discussion on more topics.

Eddie Rosario's path through the Minnesota Twins farm system has directly mirrored that of Miguel Sano. When Rosario was the Twins 4th round pick in 2010 out of Puerto Rico, he spent the summer as Sano’s teammate in the GCL. The next summer, the two put up incredible numbers at Elizabethton. Rosario led the league in most categories including home runs and was named the league’s Most Valuable Player. They were together in Beloit in 2012. In 2013, the two started in Ft. Myers before being promoted to [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]New Britain on the same day. No wonder that a player who has hit .307/.358/.510 (.867) over his four-year minor league career is often overlooked and overshadowed. Of course, as spring training is soon to begin, there is another, darker shadow Rosario will need to overcome. The Good Download attachment: top-prospects-05-eddie-rosario.jpg Eddie Rosario is an offensive talent. Listed at just 6-0 and 175 pounds, Rosario has incredible quick and strong hands and can generate a lot of bat speed. Though he has never approached the 21 home runs he hit in the small parks of the Appalachian League, he is capable of 12 to 15 home runs a year. He profiles as a guy whose line drive swing will turn into a lot of doubles. He has very good speed and can turn doubles into triples. Because he has such quick hands, he is able to allow the ball to travel a little deeper over the plate. At his best, he is drilling line drives to the opposite field. However, he has the ability to turn on a good fastball and pull it a long way. Rosario has very good speed. He also is a terrific defensive outfielder,including the ability to play centerfield, with good range and a very strong arm. The Bad Rosario is a very good defensive outfielder but for the last two years he has been primarily playing second base. You see, two years ago at this time, the Twins lacked any second base prospects, so they took the athletic outfielder and moved him to second base. The transition has not affected Rosario's offensive output. To be fair, there have been mixed reports on Rosario’s defense. Playing on the major league caliber infield of Hammond Stadium in Ft. Myers, most reports called Rosario’s defense adequate. Other reports indicate that Rosario is unlikely to ever be anywhere near an adequate defensive second baseman. Of course, his perceived value (relative to his position) would be much higher as a second baseman than as a corner outfielder. Rosario tends to put together some quality at-bats, though he is not one who wants to walk. In MLB in 2013, the average Isolated Discipline (IsoD, on base percentage minus batting average) was 0.065. Rosario’s was 0.060 at Elizabethton, but at every other level his IsoD was between 0.046 and 0.049. As mentioned, Rosario has good speed. In his two rookie league stops, he stole 38 bases in 50 attempts (78%). However, the last two seasons, in full-season leagues, he is just 21 of 42 in steal attempts, a rate of just 50%. The Ugly Obviously there is one topic that has to be addressed when talking about Eddie Rosario. Last month, he was given a 50-game suspension for testing positive for a drug of abuse. The 50 game suspension means it was his second positive test. The bigger concern is not so much the suspension. In my mind, the concern is that he had the first test, knew what a second failed test would mean, and still did it. A 50 game suspension is a slowing down of his development. Sure, he played another 70 or so games this past offseason between the Arizona Fall League and the Puerto Rican Winter League. His winter team finished second in the Caribbean Series this past weekend. The frustration is simply be that it was unnecessary. The suspension is obviously not ideal. Hopefully losing game time will make him think and realize the opportunity he has. His prospect status, as a 22-year-old who has put up tremendous numbers, should not be altered by the suspension. His future remains as bright as ever. Rosario also missed a few games in 2013 at Ft. Myers after being benched by Manager Doug Mientkiewicz. Rosario is incredibly talented, especially as a hitter. He has been included in some national Top 100 lists this offseason and is likely right on the border of those in which he didn’t make the list. As a second baseman, his offense has the potential to stand out a little. On the field, 2013 was a good year for Rosario. He began with 52 games in Ft. Myers. He hit .329/.377/.527 (.903) with 13 doubles, five triples and six home runs. Like Sano, the day after the Miracle clinched the first-half title, Rosario was promoted to New Britain. In 70 games with the Rock Cats, he hit .284/.330/.412 with 19 doubles, three triples and four home runs. That all came after being named to the Puerto Rican WBC team in which he started half the games in left field. 2014 is going to be an interesting year for Rosario and the Twins second base depth. Brian Dozier is looking to show that his performance starting in late May is something he can sustain. Rosario will miss 50 games before likely heading back to New Britain, probably after a handful of games in Ft. Myers. On his heels is Jorge Polanco, another Top 10 Twins middle infield prospect. Previous 2014 Twins Daily Top Twins Prospects: #10 – Trevor May #9 – Lewis Thorpe #8 – Jorge Polanco #7 – Josmil Pinto #6 – Jose Berrios #5 – Eddie Rosario Click here to view the article

Late Saturday night, players and coaches assigned to play for the Elizabethon Twins left Ft. Myers on a bus destined for Tennessee. It would mean a 13 hour drive, but for all of the players, they are more than happy to make the trip. Most of the players reported to Twins minor league spring training in early March and remained at Extended Spring Training. Hopping on that bus means they will be playing in the Appalachian League instead of staying in Ft. Myers and playing in the Gulf Coast League. They are excited to play in games that matter. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Ray Smith is back for his 18th year as manager of the E-Twins and 26th year with the team in Elizabethton (not coaching his time there as a player. He has a record of 748-464 as manager. Jeff Reed is back for his 11th season as the E-Twins hitting coach. Ivan Arteaga takes over for long-time pitching coach Jim Shellenback. Arteaga has served in that role with the GCL Twins the past six seasons. The 2011 team boasted Appalachian League Pitcher of the Year Tim Shibuya and Hitter of the Year Eddie Rosario. Rosario’s 21 home runs was one more than teammate and Twins top prospect Miguel Sano. Those three, and most of the 2011 team, have moved their way up to the Beloit Snappers roster. However, there is some very good talent on the 2012 Elizabethton Twins roster and they will most likely again compete for an Appalachian League title. THE PITCHERS Ricardo Arevalo (SP-21), Hudson Boyd (SP-19), Josh Burris (20), Steve Evans (22), Dallas Gallant (23), Tyler Herr (21), Garrett Jewell (21), Zach Jones (21), Corey Kimes (SP-22), Brett Lee (SP-21), Angel Mata (SP-19), Mason Melotakis (21), Luis Nunez (20), Hein Robb (SP-20), Taylor Rogers (21). DL – Tyler Duffey (21) and JT Chargois (21). As you can see, this group is a combination of young guys who spent time in the GCL last year and college guys drafted earlier this month. There are a few college guys from last year’s draft as well. 2012 Draft – Mason Melotakis was the team’s first second round pick this year out of Northwestern State. Chargois was the team’s second second round pick this June from Rice. Duffey was the Twins second pick from Rice this year, and the team’s fifth round pick. Zach Jones was the fourth round pick out of San Jose State. Taylor Rogers is left-handed. He was the 11th round pick out of Kentucky. The Twins clearly made a concerted effort to add some power arms. They did that, particularly with Melotakis, Chargois and Duffey. It will be fun to see how that plays out. I also can’t help but wonder how quickly some of these college guys move up to Beloit. 2011 Draft – Hudson Boyd was the Twins second supplemental first round pick a year ago out of high school. There was a lot of speculation about whether he was go to the GCL or E-Town. The hard thrower will make his debut in the Appy League. If you’re looking for a guy and wondering why he is still in Elizabethton, look to 2011 13th round pick Steve Evans. He pitched for Elizabethton last year, very well, and returns in 2012. How well? He was 2-1 with a 1.54 ERA in 21 games out of the bullpen. In 23.1 innings, he walked 11 and struck out 24. Garrett Jewell pitched just eight games last year for the E-Twins before coming down with mono. Corey Kimes got into a game or two before he fought injury the rest of the year. Brett Lee was a last day signing last year as well. The left-hander was the team’s 10th round pick a year ago. Josh Burris has a huge upside thanks to a big fastball and a devastating curveball. If he throws strikes, he will be very good. The GCL Guys – Ricardo Arevalo has made 25 appearances and 20 starts for the GCL Twins over the past two seasons. He is 0-11 with a 4.37 ERA. Tyler Herr was the Twins 44th round pick in 2009 out of high school. He didn’t pitch in the GCL until 2010. He stayed there in 2011 and was much improved out of the team’s bullpen. He looks to continue that trend with the E-Twins. Hein Robb has been a mainstay on the South African team in international competitions since he was 15 years old. The Twins signed him, and he came to the States as an 18 year old. He struggled in the GCL in 2010 and was much better in 2011, although inconsistent. In 2010 in the GCL, Luis Nunez struck out 30 batters in 29 innings, but he also walked 15. Last year, he returned and was incredible. He went 5-0 with 5 saves, and in 32.1 innings, he struck out 37 and walked just six. He’s skinny and throws really hard. Angel Mata is the youngest guy on the pitching staff. Last year in the GCL, he went 0-1 with a 1.46 ERA. In 37 innings, he walked 19 and struck out 30. Dallas Gallant has tremendous upside. He was drafted in 2010, but he missed all of 2011 with Tommy John surgery. He has a fastball that touches 95 and he could be one to watch late in games. CATCHERS Bo Altobelli (21), Jhonathan Arias (23), Michael Quesada (22) Arias returns to Elizabethton after spending most of 2011 in Beloit. Following the 2011 season, he went to Instructs and became a pitcher. However, he is back to catching. Quesada was the team’s 24th round pick in 2010 out of Sierra College. He signed late and played in just three games that year. Last year, he was a constant in the GCL lineup. He hit .211, but got on base 31% of the time. He also had seven doubles, two triples and three home runs. Bo Altobelli was drafted the team’s 21st round pick this month of Texas Tech. INFIELDERS Niko Goodrum (20), Travis Harrison (19), Josh Hendricks (20), DJ Hicks (22), Candido Pimentel (21), Jorge Polanco (18), Stephen Wickens (23) This is a group of immensely talented, young players. These guys have very high ceilings, but there are still many questions with each of them, as you would expect from guys this young. Goodrum was the Twins 2nd round pick in 2010 out of high school. A tremendous athlete, he hit just .161 in 128 Pas in 2010 in the GCL. However, last year in Elizabethton, he hit .275/.352/.382 with 10 doubles, three triples and two home runs. He was also 8 of 9 in stolen base attempts. More important, he got better every month, offensively and defensively at shortstop. Josh Hendricks is 20 years old and hit .275/.316/.350 in the GCL a year ago with eight doubles and two triples. The Australian first baseman is 6-3 and 220 pounds. He had great power potential. His problem in his first two seasons in the States has been consistency. He has had several very good and several very bad streaks. DJ Hicks was the Twins 17th round pick this year out of Central Florida. He has a lot of power potential as well, and should play a lot of 1B, although he also can play in the outfield. Jorge Polanco was a highly-ranked Dominican prospect. He was signed as a shortstop, for about $700,000. In his second turn in the GCL last year, Polanco hit .250/.319/.349 with eight doubles, three triples and a home run. Polanco played 19 games at shortstop, 14 games at third base and 10 games at second base. He also spent some time at all three outfield positions. Polanco will turn 19 in July. Candido Pimentel has been an outfielder through his minor league time, but this year, he is listed with the infielders. He is a lanky, speedy, Otis Nixon type bat, and maybe the better Nixon comparison would be his speed on the base paths. OUTFIELDERS Romy Jimenez (21), Max Kepler (19), Kelvin Mention (20), Rory Rhodes (20), Adam Walker (20). Jimenez (who you may remember as Romy Trinidad in the DSL) hit .321/.367/.429 with three doubles in 28 at bats before his season came to an end with injury. The 21-year-old has terrific speed. Kepler played in Elizabethton last year. He hit .262/.347/.366 with 11 doubles, three triples and a home run. Those are solid, but unspectacular numbers, so the 19 year old gets to go back. Hopefully, like Goodrum, he will dominate the league this year. Kelvin Mention went to high school with Beloit’s JD Williams. Unfortunately, he missed all of last season with injury. He is big and strong and if he can stay healthy, he could hit some home runs. Rory Rhodes started this season at Beloit but hit just .189/.262/.289 before moving back to Extended Spring Training. Instead of playing at first base, he is now listed with the outfielders. Finally, the Twins used their 3rd round pick (97th overall) on Adam Walker. Although he played 1B and Jacksonville U, the Twins wanted to list him as a right fielder. Although he’ll likely strike out a lot, there is a good chance that he will hit a lot of home runs. NEW RULE - Previously, a player could spend no more than three years combined between the GCL and Elizabethton. A new rule this year allows three players with more than three years of experience. This is important in the case of Rory Rhodes. The 6-7, 20 year old from Australia played in the GCL in 2009 and 2010. He played in Elizabethton last year. That's three years. However, he is allowed to play in Elizabethton again in 2012 because of this rule. It would appear that this is a rule designed for players signed as 16 or 17 year olds from other countries. The players from Central America can play in the Dominican Summer League before coming up to the short-season leagues. However, players from Australia (Rhodes, Hendricks), or South Africa (Robb) or Germany (Kepler) or other places that don't have a pre-short season place to play. I think this is a good rule. SUMMARY This roster for Elizabethton has another chance to compete for another Appalachian League title. There are some good veterans in the rotation and in the bullpen which always helps. However, there are also some high-end pitching prospects worth watching to see how they adjust to a little better competition. On the offensive side, it is also a good mix. It is a good mix of college guys and young players. There is a good combination of power guys (Walker, Kepler, Hendricks, Rhodes, Quesada, Harrison, Hicks) and speed (Goodrum, Polanco, Kepler and Jimenez). Tomorrow, we will take a look at the GCL roster. It includes several players drafted this year and last year out of high school as well as several players who have come up from the Twins Dominican Summer League team. If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to ask. Download attachment: ETwins Logo.jpg Click here to view the article

As happens every three years, Major League Baseball's Spring Training gets interrupted by the World Baseball Classic. Some teams had to qualify in the fall of 2012 but by March, 2013 teams comprised of players from 16 countries participated. In 2013, the Minnesota Twins were very well represented in the WBC. Several players contributed with very impressive performances, and several helped unexpected teams advance in the tournament. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Let's start with the teams that advanced to the final, championship round of the WBC. The Dominican Republic beat Netherlands in one semi-final game while Puerto Rico beat two-time WBC defending champion, Japan. In the championship game, the Dominican Republic was victorious. One of the heroes of that Dominican Republic team was none other than the Twins' Sam Deduno. He went 2-0 in his three starts in the tournament. He was the winning pitcher in the championship game. In 13 WBC innings, he gave up 11 hits, walked five and struck out 17, working his curveball as his strikeout pitch and showing exuberance that was fun to watch. Download attachment: Samuel Deduno DRWBC.jpg Two young Twins' prospects competed for the Puerto Rico team. In an outfield that had Angel Pagan in center and Alex Rios in right, Eddie Rosario split time in left field with veteran Jesus Feliciano. Rosario played very well last winter in the Puerto Rican Winter League, then went 3-14 in the tournament with a double. Also on the roster was youngster JO Berrios, working out of the bullpen. He did strike out Robinson Cano, but he did give up four runs in his two innings over two games. Netherlands was the surprise WBC team in the 2009 Classic. This time around, they didn't surprise teams, but they still got to the finals. Tom Stuifbergen had been a hero for the team in '09, but he struggled in 2013: in three games, he gave up eight earned runs in 6.1 innings. Shairon Martis gave up four earned runs in seven innings over two games. Team USA created a lot of discussion and controversy. While the top players from many other countries were playing for their homeland, many of the top players from the US said "No". However, two Twins' All-Stars represented the Twins and the Stars and Stripes. Joe Mauer, the teams cleanup hitter, caught a couple games and was the team's DH in the other games. He came through by going 9-21, hitting .429/.538/.619 (1.158) with two doubles and a triple. Glen Perkins was named to the bullpen by manager Joe Torre. He pitched in just two games and two innings. He gave up two earned runs on two walks and three hits while striking out two. The surprise team of the 2013 WBC was the from Italy. Most of the players on the roster were qualified due to distant, generational relations. The Twins' Chris Colabello and his parents had lived in Italy for several years. Colabello had played for Team Italy in youth tournaments. In this Classic, he went 6-18 with two homers and seven RBI, hitting .333/.368/.667 (1.035). Drew Butera went just 3-16, but each of his hits was big, including an RBI double and a big home run. Former Twins player Nick Punto hit .421 and posted a 1.003 OPS in the tournament. Australia didn't get out of the first round. Shortstop James Beresford went 2-11 in the round. Finally, the team from Canada also had a first-round exit though Justin Morneau did all he could, though. Morneau went 7-11. He hit .636/.692/.909 (1.601) with three doubles. The only hitter in the tournament who put up more impressive numbers was his teammate, outfielder Michael Saunders. Andrew Albers pitched three innings in one game for the Canadian team and gave up two runs on six hits. He walked none and struck out five. Albers and former Twins outfielder Rene Tosoni were involved in an event that may be the most memorable play of the 2013 WBC. Tosoni was the batter hit by a Jose Leon pitch after third baseman Luis Cruz essentially told him to (following a Chris Robinson bunt). A brawl ensued and there were several ejections, including Tosoni and Albers. The WBC is an interesting topic of discussion for baseball fans. Is there a good time for it? Should the best players play? If you were an owner, would you want your top players playing for their country and risking injury (see the Mark Teixeira situation). It is a good opportunity for some players and teams to get extra recognition. It is fun. It is what it is in terms of importance. And it was a part of 2013 for many players in the Twins' system. Click here to view the article

The Twins and Tigers were rained out on Sunday, so the Twins were able to avoid Justin Verlander. Monday is a scheduled off day before a three-game series at Target Field against the Dodgers where they will see former AL Central nemesis Zach Greinke in Game 1. In the minors, there were a couple of very strong starts. One of the affiliates won on a walk-off, and another used some big extra base hits to mount a huge comeback. On the other hand, one affiliate gave up a late-inning lead. But, one affiliate scored a dozen runs. So, mix and match. Which affiliate did each of these? Read below to find out. Download attachment: Aaron Slegers.jpg RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 3, Pawtucket 2 (10 innings) Box Score Chris Parmelee went 0-3 with three strikeouts. It threatened to end his 11-game hitting streak. However, he singled in the 8th inning to help the Red Wings tie the game and send it to extra innings. In the bottom of the tenth, Parmelee hit a walk-off home run to get the Wings back in the win column after two losses. Logan Darnell was on the mound and again very good. He was charged with two runs (1 earned) on five hits and a walk in 6.1 innings. He struck out six. As he walked to the mound for the seventh inning, he had not yet allowed a run. Yohan Pino came in to replace Darnell. He got the final two outs of the seventh inning and then worked three more scoreless innings. It wasn’t until the 10th inning he even gave up a base runner. He was helped by right fielder Doug Bernier who threw out a runner at the plate that inning. Pino struck out six in this outing. He is now 4-0 with a 1.17 ERA. Parmelee was 2-5 in the game with the big hits. James Beresford was 2-4. ROCK CATS REVIEW New Britain 5, Richmond 7 Box Score The Rock Cats got a great start and got some big hits. Until the bottom of the 8th inning, this was a terrific game in Richmond for the Rock Cats. And then came the eighth inning. Virgil Vasquez started and threw six shutout innings. He gave up three hits, walked one and struck out four. Not bad coming off his previous start when he threw seven three-hit, shutout innings. Ryan O’Rourke came in for the seventh inning and gave up a run while striking out two. The Rock Cats grabbed the lead early. Brandon Waring, who had a nice showing in big league camp this spring but was hitting under .180 coming into this game, hit a first inning double that scored Nate Hanson and Kennys Vargas. The Rock Cats added two more in the fourth inning. Former Gophers Kyle Knudson and AJ Pettersen each had an RBI double. With two outs in the seventh inning, Nate Hanson was hit by a pitch and Vargas singled. Then Waring drove in his third run of the game with a single. The Rock Cats had a 5-1 lead heading into the bottom of the 8th inning. Dan Turpen came in. He gave up a single, a walk, a single and a bases-loaded walk before striking out a batter. He was replaced by Jim Fuller who hit the one batter he faced to make the score 5-3. Cole Johnson came on. He hit the next two batters he faced to tie the score at five. A single then scored two more runs before Johnson got the final two outs. Kennys Vargas was 3-4 with his fourth double. Brandon Waring was 2-5 with his sixth double and three RBI. AJ Pettersen went 2-4 with his first double. Reynaldo Rodriguez hit his seventh double, and Kyle Knudson hit his second double. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 10, Palm Beach 7 Box Score The Miracle had a bit of a miracle on Sunday afternoon. Down 5-0 after just two innings, the team fought back and came away with a great team victory. Alex Wimmers made the start. He went five innings and was charged with seven runs, though just four were earned. He gave up seven hits (2 homers) and walked three. He struck out two. Mason Melotakis came on and gave up two hits (and a hit batter) over two scoreless innings. Madison Boer earned his third save with two perfect innings. Down 7-2 going into the sixth inning, the Miracle put six on the board to take the lead. The inning started with walks to Adam Walker and Mike Gonzales before Niko Goodrum’s single loaded the bases. Max Kepler came to the plate and picked the perfect time for his first home run of the season, a grand slam that cut the lead to 7-6. After a pitching change, Tyler Grimes doubles. Following a Levi Michael walk, Travis Harrison doubled to score Grimes and tie the game. Jorge Polanco came up and hit a sacrifice fly to give the Miracle an 8-7 lead. The Miracle added some insurance in the bottom of the 8th inning when Travis Harrison doubled in Levi Michael and scored on a Jorge Polanco single Harrison was 3-5 with the two doubles, his fifth and sixth on the season. Polanco was 2-4. Levi Michael was 1-2 with three walks. Adam Walker was 0-2 but walked three times. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 12, Clinton 1 Box Score When a team scores 12 runs in a game, you’d think we’d start with a note on the offense. Not in this game. Aaron Slegers started and was terrific. He went seven innings and gave up just one run on six hits. He walked none and struck out eight batters. Todd Van Steensel made his Kernels debut and had a one, two, three inning with two strikeouts. Christian Powell came in for the ninth. He gave up a hit, but he struck out two in a scoreless inning. Chad Christensen went 3-5 with a walk. He stole his sixth base. Zack Larson went 3-5 with his league-leading tenth double and his third stolen base. Ivory Thomas was 2-3 with two walks and his first stolen base and Midwest League home run. Mitch Garver was 2-4 with a walk. Tanner Vavra was 2-5 with his sixth double. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Aaron Slegers, Cedar Rapids Kernels Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Chris Parmelee, Rochester Red Wings MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Charlotte @ Rochester (6:05 CST) – Alex Meyer (Listen) New Britain @ Harrisburg (6:00 CST) – Matt Summers (Listen) Bradenton @ Ft. Myers (6:05 CST) – Jason Wheeler (Listen) Kane County @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 CST) – Ryan Eades (Listen) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Sunday games. Click here to view the article