Seth Stohs

Yup, I think patience is important, and yet they've really pushed him. He's been OK at the levels he's pitched at but not dominating. If it was me, I'd start him back at Ft. Myers for a half season. No harm in that. He's still young. See if he can dominate a little bit for a month or two. It wouldn't set him back, and he can continue to progress.

We don't know anything except whatever happened. Rumors are just rumors. We know they likely talked to lots of teams, and there were several names thrown around.

That's not to say Hu shouldn't be ranked, but yeah, he's not the prospect that Stewart and Gonsalves are. That said, I think that he's likely thought of as a trick-pitch guy by many scouts because of his palm ball. In reality, he has three good pitches and probably is underrated as a prospect. No questioning Stewart's talent, and I would agree with those who say that he has more raw stuff than Gonsalves. He's also much more raw. Gonsalves is very advanced mentally/baseball IQ/pitch knowledge wise that he has put up better numbers. I also think that in saying that, it might minimize how good his stuff is too.

When they broke it into super-slow motion, I thought it was pretty clear that he was out. I also believe that if you have to go to super-slow motion to review a call, the umpire shouldn't be penalized (if they even are) in any way for missing it.

Thank you! It's been a fun season! Hopefully it continues a bit longer!

Baseball America released its Top 20 Florida State League Prospect List today. Three members of the Ft. Myers Miracle were on the list: #15: Kohl Stewart #16: Stephen Gonsalves #19: Engelb Vielma I think those three all make complete sense. Anyone missing?

Another point... if the Twins get to a Game 163, I don't care who is scheduled to start. And then if they get to a playoff series, I don't care who is lined up for Game 1. If it's Pelfrey or Milone, I don't care. I'll be so happy. I'm happy already with this season. Anything more at this point will be bonus! There are 6 games to go and they are not eliminated. This is fun!

I love this stuff... I think for individual games, WPA is fascinating. I'm not as convinced of its value for longer lengths of time because there are so many big moments throughout the course of a season and players are going to have good ones and bad ones. But, finding those key moments in any individual game are great. To mickeymental's point, if Mauer doesn't get on base, particularly double, nothing happens after that. Maybe he should get some of the WPA for Sano and Plouffe because they don't get their points if Mauer doesn't get his.

On Monday night, the Twins began their final week of the 2015 regular season with the first of four games in Cleveland. It won't be an easy task and it started with a game against reigning Cy Young Corey Kluber. Hours before the game, Tommy Milone was told that he would make the start in place of an ill Phil Hughes. He gave the Twins all they could have hoped for. The bullpen finished the job. The Twins pulled out a 4-2 win. It was the team's 81st game of the season, guaranteeing them a .500 record for the first time since 2010. Image courtesy of Ken Blaze, USA Today On Monday night, the Twins began their final week of the 2015 regular season with the first of four games in Cleveland. It won't be an easy task and it started with a game against reigning Cy Young Corey Kluber. Hours before the game, Tommy Milone was told that he would make the start in place of an ill Phil Hughes. He gave the Twins all they could have hoped for. The bullpen finished the job. The Twins pulled out a 4-2 win. It was the team's 81st game of the season, guaranteeing them a .500 record for the first time since 2010. Last Wednesday, Corey Kluber was making his return from a hamstring injury. He had a pitch limit in the game, but through three innings, he did not allow a run. However, the Twins were able to knock him out in the fourth inning with a four-spot against him. The Twins hitters clearly used the same game plan against Kluber on Monday night. They were aggressive early in the game. Kluber retired the first two batters. However, Joe Mauer hit the first pitch he saw off the wall in left-center field for a double. Miguel Sano came up and hit nearly the same spot with a double of his own, driving in Mauer. Trevor Plouffe came to bat, having missed Sunday's game at Target Field due to illness, and he launched his 22nd home of the season to give the Twins a 3-0 lead in the first inning. Kluber settled down and finished six innings, giving up four runs on seven hits. Mauer had two hits. Eddie Rosario, celebrating his 24th birthday, had three hits on the night. Chris Herrmann didn't have a hit, but he walked in his first plate appearances and was hit by a pitch his second time up.Probably even more important, Herrmann contributed while giving Kurt Suzuki a game off. Well, most of a game off. Herrmann was pinch hit for late in the game, so Suzuki still caught two innings, but he didn't have to catch nine. That is important. But, as we have learned time and time again, it all comes down to pitching. Tommy Milone was not scheduled to start again this year. He found out hours before the game that he would be making the start in place of Phil Hughes who was sick and had an IV earlier in the day. Milone had not pitched since September 17th when he gave up five earned runs in just 1.1 innings. Noting that he walked three batters in that time, he was shut down with a shoulder injury. He struggled a little bit the first two innings. In the first, he served up a long home run to Francisco Lindor but over time, he settled down. He had quick innings in the third and fourth. He gave up a leadoff triple to Jason Kipnis in the sixth, and he scored on a ground out one batter later. Milone gave up just the two runs in 5.2 innings. It was quite impressive, all things considered. Then came the bullpen. Blaine Boyer got the final out of the sixth inning. Casey Fien came in for the seventh frame. On Friday night, he really struggled and gave up three runs in that meltdown in Detroit. However, on this night, he gave up a hit in a scoreless inning. Glen Perkins was given the eighth inning. It's no secret that he has been struggling of late. In a great interview with Mackey and Judd on 1500ESPN, he was fully accountable and upfront regarding his struggles. Fans were on edge when he gave up a leadoff single to Mike Aviles on an 0-2 pitch to lead off the inning. However, he responded by striking out Jason Kipnis and Francisco Lindor. Michael Brantley grounded to first base for the third out. Kevin Jepsen came in for the ninth inning, trying to protect a two-run lead. He got three pop-ups to end a 1-2-3 inning for his 14th save of the season. A fast start by the offense. A solid outing from the starting pitcher. Timely hitting Bullpen getting their job done. These are the things that a team would like to get every night, but as the team is now down to just six games remaining, these will be even more magnified. As this article is written, the Astros' and Angels' games were just beginning on the West Coast. The Twins hope to make up some ground in the wild card race. On Tuesday night in Cleveland, the Twins will send Kyle Gibson to the mound. Gibson is coming off a bad start and is 10-11 with a 3.96 ERA. The Twins will face Cody Anderson who is 6-3 with a 3.31 ERA this season. View full article

For Kepler, Berrios and Hildenberger, as minor league player of the year choices, we'll do extended stories on them for the Prospect Handbook which hopefully will be available in mid-December again this year. Keep the questions coming. This is good. Also, who are some of your favorite lesser-known or publicized minor leaguers?

Harper and Papelbon both have bad reputations in the game, so the fact it was them magnifies this. Of course players should run things out, but I thought Harper did enough on that one. I have no problem with a player getting upset at another and being willing to say something. I have no problem with Harper standing up for himself. When Papelbon attacked Harper is when it went over the line. And, of course, that it was in the dugout instead of the clubhouse also magnifies it. We have a few different angles of it.

Throughout the offseason, I'll be doing Q&As with many Twins minor leaguers. I'd like to leave an open thread where people can let me know who you would like to learn more about. Leave a list of 4-6 players you'd like to see interviewed, and feel free to let me know a couple of questions you'd like to know for each, if you want. I'll see what I can do.

Hey ya'll, As you know, I was a big fan of former Twins minor league infielder Steve Singleton. The #FreeSteveSingleton thing was always fun. He reached AAA before being let go by the Twins. He recently was named the hitting coach of a college in Ft. Myers. He and his wife have two boys (4 and 2). Recently, the two-year-old was diagnosed with Leukemia. He will be going through chemotherapy and more for quite some time. Friends of the family started a Go Fund Me page for Matt and the hashtag #TeamMattMan is out there. Read more about the family and if you have any interest, feel free to donate. Thanks for reading.

I was going to write up some of my game thoughts from the Twins 6-4 loss last night to the Detroit Tigers. I had some ideas. I jotted them down. But, I thought it might be wise to just wait until morning to actually write them up. After sleeping on it, I arrive at the same conclusion. That was a tough one! Giving up a 4-0 lead in the late innings is certainly not ideal. Image courtesy of Bruce Kluckhohn, USA Today I was going to write up some of my game thoughts from the Twins 6-4 loss last night to the Detroit Tigers. I had some ideas. I jotted them down. But, I thought it might be wise to just wait until morning to actually write them up. After sleeping on it, I arrive at the same conclusion. That was a tough one! Giving up a 4-0 lead in the late innings is certainly not ideal. That might be an understatement. After the last four season in which the Twins lost 90 or more games each year, 2015 has been fun. And, because of that fun, and the fact that the Twins are in contention on September 25th with just nine more games to play makes such a loss even more difficult on fans. Of course, as difficult as the loss was on the fans, it is likely ten-times more difficult on the players in that clubhouse, and particularly on Glen Perkins whose second-half slide may have reached a low point. THREE UP Some questioned the decision to have Mike Pelfrey make the Friday night start because of his road struggles throughout the 2015 season. At Target Field this year, Pelfrey is 4-4 with a 2.61 ERA and a 1.15 WHIP in 13 starts. Opponents hit just .248/.305/.323 (.628) off of him. On the road, he is 2-6 with a 5.60 ERA and a 1.74 WHIP. Opponents have hit .347/.397/.484 (.881). And yet, Pelfrey came through when his team needed him. The righ-hander threw five innings and gave up just one run on six hits. He walked none and struck out seven. He was at just 85 pitches when Paul Molitor ended his night and went to the bullpen. The game was scoreless through the first four innings. In the top of the fifth, Tigers starter Matt Boyd began with walking the first two batters, Miguel Sano and Trevor Plouffe. After a Nick Castellanos throwing error, the bases were loaded for Eddie Rosario. The rookie has had many great moments in his rookie season, but when he launched a bases-clearing triple, it may have been the biggest moment of his year. It gave the Twins a 3-0 lead. Eduardo Escobar later hit a sacrifice fly, to second baseman Ian Kinsler, for the fourth run. Escobar leads MLB in triples with 15. He also added his 16th outfield assist in the game. THREE DOWN Things started out well for the bullpen as Blaine Boyer worked a scoreless sixth inning. Casey Fien got the seventh inning and it started with a strikeout. Dixon Machado hit a single, but Fien got a flyout from Rajai Davis for the second out. One out from getting out of the inning, he proceeded to walk Anthony Gose, the nine hitter. Ian Kinsler then hit a ground-rule double, a lucky break as Gose may have scored from first base. The Twins still had a 4-2 lead, and Glen Perkins came in. Glen Perkins was amazing in the first half. He was 28-28 in his save opportunities and recorded the final out of the All-Star Game for the second straight season. As Nick wrote yesterday, the second-half has been a huge struggle for the left-hander. With runners on second and third, Miguel Cabrera walked. That brought up Victor Martinez who has not been good against right-handers (.214) while hitting very well against southpaws (.348). Martinez came through with a two-run double to tie the game. Perkins was able to strike out JD Martinez to keep the game tied. Perkins stayed in for the 8th inning. Nick Castellanos led off the inning with a double. However, he struck out the next two batters. That brought up Rajai Davis, and we all know what happened then. On a full-count pitch, Davis launched an opposite field home run to give the Tigers a 6-4 lead. Perkins was going for the backdoor slider to get Davis, but as he said after the game, he just hung the pitch and Davis took advantage. It’s easy to first- or second-guess Molitor’s decisions in the seventh and eighth innings. Bringing in the left-hander to face Cabrera, Martinez and Martinez makes sense with Perkins going well, but how about when he’s struggling? Having Perkins, coming off of injuries, stay in for a second inning can be questioned as well. However, he got the two strikeouts and then just made a really bad pitch to Davis. If he throws the slider the way he throws it 95% of the time, he gets a strikeout or weak contact. If he takes out Perkins and brings in Tonkin at that point, then fans could wonder why he didn’t stick with Perkins. The Twins bullpen woes on Friday night certainly are magnified in a playoff race. Through the course a 162-game season teams are going to cough up leads, even four-run leads, several times. Likewise, teams are going to have tough nights with the bat. Last night, it was a combination. The bullpen melted down, but the offense had just two hits. Matt Boyd, the southpaw rookie, gave up just one hit. That was as big of an issue as the bullpen. Rosario gave the team the big hit after a couple of walks, but aside from that the offense did nothing. WILD CARD WATCH The Twins lost, but the Astros also lost, so the Twins are still just 1.5 games back for the second Wild Card spot. However, the Angels got a win, so they are just 0.5 games behind the Astros. Before the Cleveland series, I thought that the Twins would need to go 10-3 over their final 13 games to make the playoffs. They’ve gone 2-2 in the last four games, so now my thought is that they will need to go 8-1 down the stretch to make the playoffs. Tonight, the Twins will send rookie Tyler Duffey to the mound against Detroit. Along with Ervin Santana, he's been the team's best starter in the last four to five weeks. The Twins are now 78-75. And yes, I only came up with Two Up for the Three Up section. You’ll have to let me know if you can find a third from last night’s game. A good night's sleep didn't make that loss any less tough. View full article

That's fun to read. Votto's career would be great, but if he has anything near the career of the rest of those guys mentioned and we'll be pretty happy!

OK, he effectively got the Twins out of a 1st and 2nd, nobody out situation without a run scoring. Tells me he's fine. I don't care who he was pitching against.

I can't justify them... it doesn't make sense. They're the exact same player regardless of league, so consistency would make sense. My assumption is that different people were in charge of the league Top 20s and maybe didn't consult each other or something.

I talked to Lewis Thorpe a little about Lachlan Wells. He's 6-0, 185 now. They roomed together at the Twins academy all season.

But then he wouldn't be on the list at all... Also, prospect rankings have pretty much nothing to do with stats on the field, especially at the lowest levels of the minors.

This morning, Baseball America posted its GCL Top 20 Prospects. Just one Twins minor leaguer made the list, Jermaine Palacios at #17. What I find interesting is that yesterday in their Appy League rankings, they had Palacios at #3 with Daz Cameron at #5. In the GCL, Palacios is #17 while Cameron is #4.

Video from Baseball Tonight where Keith Law discussed the promotion of Max Kepler.

The night before, he came into a one-run game with runners on 1st and 2nd and nobody out and got out of it without allowing a run. He was pretty dominant. I don't have a problem with him venting a bit last night, but he definitely deserved the ejection. Obviously it was after the game was complete, so it didn't hurt the Twins,and he'll only have to pay a fine. So, it's kind of much ado about nothing. As for some of the other stuff, I don't want to read into it more than necessary. We don't know what was said or thought or anything like that.