Seth Stohs

I don't think I even want to think about that. Yikes!

The Twins are still playing meaningful games in late August, and they’re being led by a trio of players who began this season in the minor leagues. Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton and Eddie Rosario are all performing very well. On Wednesday, they will send a fourth,Tyler Duffey, to the mound. Image courtesy of Reinhold Matay, USA Today The Twins are still playing meaningful games in late August, and they’re being led by a trio of players who began this season in the minor leagues. Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton and Eddie Rosario are all performing very well. On Wednesday, they will send a fourth,Tyler Duffey, to the mound. Three of those players began this season in AA Chattanooga. The exciting thing is knowing that there is a lot more talent coming through the pipeline. Check out everything that happened in the Twins minor league system on Tuesday. The Midwest League announced its end-of-season awards and all-star team and no Kernels were named. The Appalachian League also named its all-stars as well. LaMonte Wade was an all- star outfielder. Kuo Hua Lo was named the league’s top reliever. Dereck Rodriguez was named the league’s Pitcher of the Year. RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 1, Syracuse 4 Box Score A night after collecting 20 hits, the Red Wings were only able to muster six hits in this game. Kennys Vargas had a single and a walk, the only player getting on base more than once. Pat Dean’s scoreless inning streak ended at 18 in the second inning when he gave up a run. The southpaw’s night ended after five innings. He gave up four runs on seven hits. He walked two and struck out three. Alex Meyer came on and needed just 20 pitches to strike out three over two perfect innings. Aaron Thompson struck out two in his inning of work. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 4, Tennessee 3 Box Score Shannon Wilkerson has done a nice job for the Lookouts since signing out of the Can-Am League last month. He helped the Lookouts win this game. He had an RBI early, but in the bottom of the seventh, he tripled in Stuart Turner with the go-ahead run. He then scored on a throwing error to give the team the lead. Wilkerson led the offense. He went 2-3 with his third triple and two RBI. Turner went 1-2 with a walk and scored two runs. Heinker Meneses added his tenth double. Brett Lee started for the Lookouts. He gave up three runs (two earned) on eight hits over six innings. He walked one and struck out three. Alex Wimmers came on and threw three shutout innings for the win. He gave up three hits, walked none and struck out three. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 2, Jupiter 4 Box Score The Miracle got a quality start from lefty Luke Westphal. He gave up three runs (two earned) on six hits in six innings. He walked three and struck out two. Matt Summers came on and gave up one run on three hits in 1.2 innings before getting ejected. He struck out four. Jake Reed came on and got the final four outs. Logan Wade went 2-4 with his 18th double. He has hit in eight of his last nine games and has multiple hits in five of his last seven games. Jason Kanzler cut the Miracle deficit to one with his eighth homer of the season. Mitch Garver doubled for the 23rd time this year. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 4, Peoria 7 Box Score The odds of the Kernels coming back on this night and matching their 23-run, 27-hit night against Clinton the night before were not good. They did have eight hits and scored four runs, but it wasn’t enough against Peoria. Felix Jorge went six innings again. He was charged with four unearned runs in one inning which included two errors. In total, he gave up those four runs on nine hits and a walk. He struck out five. It is his 19th time in 21 starts this season that he has completed six innings. Luke Bard came on and gave up three runs on seven hits in three innings. He struck out three. Seven Kernels hitters had at least one hit. Edgar Corcino was the lone player with more than one hit. He was 2-4 with his 14th double. TJ White added his 19th double, and Max Murphy hit his 13th. E-TOWN E-NOTES Elizabethton 4, Greeneville 8 Box Score Cody Stashak has been very good, but he struggled on this night. In just 1.2 innings, he gave up seven runs on six hits. He walked three and struck out two. CK Irby came on and gave up one run on one hits and one walk in 3.1 innings. He struck out five. Jose Abreu gave up only a walk over three scoreless innings. It’s been a struggle for big Lewin Diaz since being promoted to E-Town. On this night, he hit his second home run. Manuel Guzman and Nelson Molina each went 2-4. Brad Hartong added his seventh double. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Twins 1, GCL Rays 2 Box Score Rain has been, and always is, a force to be reckoned with in Southwest Florida. It was definitely the case on Tuesday afternoon. The Twins and Rays were set to finish a game from mid-July that was suspended after the fourth inning. They planned to finish that as a seven-inning game and then play another seven-inning game. They finished the first game. Brandon Poulson came in and began where he left off a month ago. He finished with 2.2 total innings. He gave up no runs on no hits. He walked two and struck out five. Johan Quezada came in for the eighth inning and gave up a run on three hits. The Twins were unable to come back in the bottom of the inning. In total, Luis Arraez went 2-3 with a walk. Roberto Gonzalez went 2-3 and stole his seventh base. They started game two, but again, it was suspended after four innings with the Twins leading 4-2. The plan is for the teams to finish this game and play another on Wednesday. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Alex Meyer, Rochester Red Wings Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Shannon Wilkerson, Chattanooga Lookouts WEDNESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Syracuse (6:05 CST) – RHP JO Berrios Tennessee @ Chattanooga (6:15 CST) – RHP Aaron Slegers Ft. Myers – No Game Scheduled Peoria @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 CST) – RHP Ethan Mildren Elizabethton @ Johnson City (6:00 CST) – LHP Sam Clay GCL Twins @ GCL Rays (DH @ 11:00) – TBD, TBD Feel free to leave any questions or comments below View full article

Per the Elizabethton Twins, RHP Dereck Rodriguez was named the Appalachian League's Pitcher of the Year. Rodriguez transitioned two years ago to full-time pitcher after struggling with the bat for a couple of years. He began this season at Extended Spring Training, but he had brief times with both the Cedar Rapids Kernels and the Ft. Myers Miracle. With the E-Twins, he has made ten starts. He is 5-2 with a 2.65 ERA and a 1.14 WHIP. In 54.1 innings, he gave up 52 hits, walked ten and struck out 45. In addition, Kuo Hua Lo was named the Relief Pitcher of the Year for E-Twins. LaMonte Wade was named an Appy League Utility/Outfield All Star.

I definitely encourage people to look into the box scores for more details. See all those Kernels and Red Wings with three hit games... Check out how AB Walker did on the night.

The Washington Post this morning has an interesting article on the analytics of keeping players healthy... This will be an interesting trend. The article speaks to more than just baseball, but it will be interesting to see where this goes. IT's really still in its infancy.

I can't remember a night like this. 7 Kernels hitters with at least 3 hits. I think 5-6 Red Wings hitters with 3+ hits. AB Walker ties the Lookouts HR record. Logan Darnell had a perfect game until an error in the 6th, and a no-hitter into the 7th.

I tweeted this earlier today because White has been terrific:

Sam Gibbons was named the Midwest League Pitcher of the Week.

Because 90% of viewing audiences just don't care about the advanced stuff. And as others have said, it's easy. Most fans don't go to Baseball-Reference, much less any of those sites like FanGraphs (that I don't even go to). They can give some basics and if people want more, they can go to those sites or even come here to find some of it.

It's good for Joe Vavra. It's a good opportunity for Trey and Tanner. It's good for the Twins organization in getting more name recognition in Australia. In a country in which there is no draft and players and their families get to determine which team they sign with. There are so many positives about this.

Pat Dean was also named the International League Pitcher of the Week this week.

We learned late last night that Joe Vavra will become the first active Major League coach to be a manager in the Australian Baseball League this winter (or, summer in Australia). Reports from Australia are saying that he will manage the Melbourne Aces. He had managed in Australia in a previous version of the ABL 20 years ago. There have been other reports saying that both Tanner Vavra (Ft. Myers Miracle) and Trey Vavra (Cedar Rapids Kernels) will play on the Melbourne team, though there is nothing official about that yet. The Australian Baseball League has grown in popularity in recent years with the help of MLB. As we know, the Twins have a strong position in Australia. Here is an article with more information from the Australia Baseball League.

Jeremy Nygaard has tons on him and the rest of the 40 Twins draft picks in his Draft Book. A great purchase option... Jeremy spent time with many scouts, etc., learning about these players and it's incredible.

Following a sweep in New York against the dreaded Yankees, many Twins fans - admittedly myself included - were ready to write off the 2015 season. It was the start of a ten-game road stretch against three teams with playoff hopes remaining. However, after an unlikely four-game sweep in Baltimore, the Twins remain in contention for a wild card berth. Image courtesy of Tommy Gilligan, USA Today Following a sweep in New York against the dreaded Yankees, many Twins fans - admittedly myself included - were ready to write off the 2015 season. It was the start of a ten-game road stretch against three teams with playoff hopes remaining. However, after an unlikely four-game sweep in Baltimore, the Twins remain in contention for a wild card berth. It was something that happened frequently in the Ron Gardenhire-led era. When the Twins had a shot at making the playoffs, they played some of their best baseball. Maybe it was that "One-Day-At-A-Time" mantra that Tom Kelly preached. Maybe it was the fire of Gardenhire. Maybe it was having some of the right players on the field for the season's final months. Like many Twins fans, I often get excited and hopeful when things are going well, but when things start to go awry, I'm ready to play the realist. This year, that meant talking about how the Twins weren't really expected to compete yet. They were expected to finish dead last in the American League. 2016 was when this team was supposed to start playing competitive games in August. And then that rough stretch of games out of the All-Star break that moved them from 10 games above .500 to a game below .500. That culminated with that dreadful performance in the Bronx. And yet, baseball is a funny game, and funny things happen. An offense that struggled to score runs began the series in Baltimore with a 15-run performance. After that, they showed a great toughness winning three close games. In fact, instead of being the team whose bullpen was giving up leads late in the game, the Twins were the team overcoming a deficit in the late innings. In fact, the Twins bullpen was terrific in Baltimore. Glen Perkins wasn't available for the first three games of the series, but he pitched on Sunday. Kevin Jepsen was remarkable in that closer's role. Trevor May pitched three straight games for the first time and was absolutely dominant. Even Casey Fien was terrific, returning to the 2013 and 2014 form that made him so good. Adding Neal Cotts to the equation makes the bullpen deeper. The bullpen was a strength in that series and now they get a day off before starting a three-game series with the Rays in St. Petersburg. After that, they head home to play the Houston Astros, another playoff team. It doesn't get easier. What else? This team is being led by some young fellas. Tyler Duffey set the tone for the series with a tremendous performance in Thursday's blowout. He showed Twins fans what he is capable of doing. Miguel Sano continued to bash American League pitching by delivering a couple of home runs in the series and driving in runs. Eddie Rosario continues to impress in left field and came up with some big hits and a big sacrifice fly on Friday. Byron Buxton played great defense. His bat still hasn't come on strong, but he came up with the big, game-winning hit in Saturday's game. Remember the year that the Twins were in contention and Justin Morneau got hurt about as the calendar turned to September? Michael Cuddyer moved onto first base and put up crazy numbers for the final three or four weeks of the season. Maybe this year it will be Miguel Sano who leads the charge? There's no way to know what will happen. Maybe unlikely veterans like Joe Mauer and Torii Hunter will be hot for the final five or six weeks. Will the Twins make the playoffs? I don't know. I don't claim to know. The odds still aren't in their favor. But if there's one thing that I've learned in the last dozen years or so, when the Twins have had a chance, they have stayed resilient. And as we've said many times, with baseball, you just never know what could happen. Might as well enjoy the ride! View full article

AJ Achter back to Rochester. Adrian Salcedo back to Chattanooga.

Though not likely, I wouldn't put it past him. Once he cuts down on the strikeouts somewhat, the average can come up. He gets to stay at this level now and make adjustments. I think he's got the talent to do just about anything in this game. Nothing he would do would shock me. Also, part of "superstar", right or wrong, is personality, and Sano definitely has that. He will be beloved.

Is there a reason why this anti-Joe Mauer thread isn't just included in one of the 59 others in the forums? Did it need it's own for some reason? To answer the original poster, TK and Joe work a ton together in spring training. He also puts in time during the season and has become a solid guy at first base.

I'd now say two really good starts after one really bad start... That curveball is legit!

Yup, he's back in the lineup today as well.

I agree.. It was his first full season back from Tommy John, so I'm glad they gave him another shot to start. But if he has a big league future, it'd likely be in long relief. He certainly had a couple of stretches that showed he could fill that kind of role.

Minnesota Twins Minor League Player of the Week: Week 1: Tyler Duffey, Chattanooga Lookouts Week 2: Stephen Gonsalves, Cedar Rapids Kernels Week 3: Byron Buxton, Chattanooga Lookouts Week 4: Trey Vavra, Cedar Rapids Lookouts Week 5: Miguel Sano, Chattanooga Lookouts Week 6: Max Kepler, Chattanooga Lookouts Week 7: Aaron Slegers, Ft. Myers Miracle Week 8: Brandon Peterson, Ft. Myers Miracle Week 9: David Hurlbut, Chattanooga Lookouts Week 10: Alex Wimmers, Chattanooga Lookouts Week 11: Engelb Vielma, Ft. Myers Miracle Week 12: AJ Achter, Rochester Red Wings Week 13: Oswaldo Arcia, Rochester Red Wings Week 14: Mat Batts, Ft. Myers Miracle Week 15: Felix Jorge, Cedar Rapids Kernels Week 16: Chris Paul, Elizabethton Twins Week 17: Kennys Vargas, Rochester Red Wings Week 18: Pat Dean, Rochester Red Wings Triple-A Rochester right-handed pitcher Pat Dean is the Twins minor league Player of the Week...Dean, 26, tossed a complete game shutout allowing just six hits while striking out six in his only start last week vs. Buffalo... he has tossed 15.1 consecutive scoreless innings for the Red Wings and has recorded four complete games on the season...the Twins drafted Dean in the third round of the 2010 First-Year Player Draft out of Boston College.

Your response to today is fair, but the initial question of this thread was "who was" and that wasn't even close.

I think Escobar should be starting. Have most of the year, if not all year. He's playing 2 out of 3 at this point, and I"m fine with that because Nunez has played well too.