Seth Stohs

Guys like Pino and Bernier are terrific to have on AAA rosters. They help that team win and keep the affiliate happy. They know they're not future stars, but they're happy to keep putting on the uniform. More important, they both played well that they earned and they deserved their promotions. They are now off the 40 man roster, and like I wrote, I expect both to come back to the organization. Bernier could retire, of course, but I like having these types around. Despite Bernier having spent 1/2 of last season with the Twins, when he and Santana were on the Rochester roster this year, Santana played every day. Bernier played elsewhere. He's also such a good person and knowledgeable of the game that he is like another coach. Pino, he's been a good pitcher for his whole career. He gets his role. He earned his promotion. I hope both come back.

According to Twins PR man Dustin Morse (via Twitter), the Twins have outrighted IF Doug Bernier and Pitcher Yohan Pino. This means that they cleared waivers. They can become free agents (Bernier already has, according to Mike Berardino). Jeremy and I said these were Roster Casualty Probables in a recent Twins Hangouts podcast. We also agreed that we would expect both to re-sign with the Twins fairly quickly.

It looks like the Twins can cross one of the names off of their managerial list today. According to USA Today's Bob Nightengale (via twitter), Chip Hale will be named the next manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. The former Twins infielder/pinch hitter has served in several roles in the big leagues from third base coach to bench coach, which was his current position with the Oakland A's.

Royals Win... 6-4... take 2-0 lead over Orioles as the series switches to Kansas City.

Giants: Gregor Blanco CF Joe Panik 2B Buster Posey C Pablo Sandoval 3B Hunter Pence RF Brandon Belt 1B Brandon Crawford SS Travis Ishikawa LF Madison Bumgarner SP Cardinals: Matt Carpenter 3B Randall Grichuk RF Matt Holliday LF Jhonny Peralta SS Matt Adams 1B Yadier Molina C John Jay CF Kolten Wong 2B Adam Wainwright SP

Eric Hosmer singled in Nori Aoki and Lorenzo Cain in the top of the 1st to give the Royals a 2-0 lead.

Royals Alcides Escobar SS Nori Aoki RF Lorenzo Cain CF Eric Hosmer 1B Billy Butler DH Alex Gordon LF Salvador Perez C Omar Infante 2B Mike Moustakus 3B Yordano Ventura SP Orioles Nick Markakis RF Alejandro de Aza LF Adam Jones CF Nelson Cruz DH Steve Pearce 1B JJ Hardy SS Ryan Flaherty 3B Caleb Joseph C Jonathan Schoop 2B Bud Norris SP

Awesome 10th inning!! Gordon with a solo homer, and Moustakus with a two-run homer!! Gotta be Holland Time!

Crazy ninth inning. Bonus Baseball in Game 1!

Well, the Royals were ahead 5-1, but here we are in the 6th inning and the O's just tied it up on a 75 foot bloop between the pitcher and 2nd base. Finnegan walked the leadoff man, but then gave up two weak hits to tie the game. 5-5 heading to the 7th.

Over who? I would say no.

Here are the lineups for Game 1: Royals Alcides Escobar SS Nori Aoki RF Lorenzo Cain CF Eric Hosmer 1B Billy Butler DH Alex Gordon LF Salvador Perez C Omar Infante 2B Mike Moustakus 3B James Shields SP Orioles Nick Markakis RF Alejandro De Aza LF Adam Jones CF Nelson Cruz DH Steve Pearce 1B JJ Hardy SS John Flaherty 3B Nick Hundley C Jonathan Schoop 2B Chris Tillman SP

Yeah, I know. I know. I try not to go there either, but I was intrigued and I thought it was interesting.

There is no value in them doing that. They talked to Parker and they talk about shifts and stuff like this when asked, but they shouldn't get into the details. I do agree that the alignment would/will be nice. Parker showed the number of shifts that were used year-to-year. There is work being done, and that's what I want to see. Jack is good. He's really smart and I know he takes this stuff very seriously. Terry Ryan is very smart as well, and he knows that this information is important. As long as Jack is talking to Terry, and coaches and stuff, and the information is being translated, that's all we can ask. I have no doubt in my mind. That stuff happens.

This is awesome!!! I wonder how frequent these types of sessions are, and if we can promote them for TD readers and such.

Bleacher Report predicted who baseball's Top 10 relief pitchers will be in five years. These are all minor leaguers, so it's an imperfect post, but it is fun to think of who in the Twins system people believe could be elite (though, of course, I believe there are several more). This list of 10 includes two Twins.

Baseball America named its All Rookie Team for 2014 and two members of the Minnesota Twins made the team. The team is pretty impressive, and the Twins players certainly played well enough to earn their spots.

Niko Goodrum played 3B this year. I definitely say keep Plouffe, and keep Sano at 3B as well. If it starts looking like Plouffe is a star at 3B, then get Sano some time in LF and RF in the minors at that point, but definitely keep him playing 3B.

Sano's thighs are much bigger than this guy's!

Wait! What?! Is this real??? I would totally watch this.. My daughter's favorite show!

Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal tweeted this morning that the Twins will be interviewing Sandy Alomar, Jr. for their managerial vacancy. He has been a long time coach in the big leagues, since ending his very long career as a big league catcher. His name has surfaced for several years already as a potential manager.

This is the point I always try to make, and part of the reason that I do think that he can stick at third base. First and foremost, none of us saw him throughout 2014, so we don't know where he's at. At spring training, he was 6-4, 258 pounds. Sounds big, and it is, but he isn't the plodding type that I think many envision. He's not Kennys Vargas out there. I've seen him score from first on a double, and he really gets going. I'd compare him to Michael Cuddyer, who wasn't fast, and it took him a while to get going, but once he started, he could move pretty well. I also will say this, I think that he is athletic enough to play the outfield. As you mention though, it's some of the non-routine types of plays that he hasn't seen often that would be the concern. But, Plouffe took a major step forward defensively in 2014, and some with the bat. He can play the position as well. He just doesn't have Sano's arm.

Sometimes that comes back to haunt you though... For instance, in one league, we were to about the 22nd round, and I needed a 2nd Baseman. The options, in my mind, were Brian Dozier and Jedd Gyorko. Even though I'm a big Dozier guy, I figured I would take the other guy so that I wouldn't be a homer... Should have gone with Dozier... and all those homers!

Millions of people play fantasy baseball each year. In recent years, few Minnesota Twins players have been high draft picks in fantasy drafts. Today, I thought it would be fun to see how several Twins players ranked at their respective positions. (Looking for help with your Fantasy Football Lineup? Let Vikings Journal's Bo Mitchell help you with his Fantasy Football Week 6 rankings.)There are many types of fantasy leagues and each league can alter its rules, so the below won’t be an exact representation of every type of league. These are the rankings by position according to the rules of one of my leagues. The league is a weekly points league. Hitters score points for total bases, runs and RBI, and half-points for walks and hit by pitches, and two points for stolen bases. For pitchers, it’s ten points for wins and five points for saves. Pitchers receive points per inning pitched and for strikeouts. Pitchers also lose points for runs, hits and walks allowed. That’s more than you wanted to know, but it gives a basis for the numbers and rankings below. For those that don’t participate in fantasy sports, it’s just a different look at how some of the Twins players compared to others. Sure, you can look at OPS+ or ERA+ or WAR or other such statistics, but it is fun to look at it from a fantasy perspective. CATCHERS Kurt Suzuki was an All-Star and had a fantastic first four months of the season. For the season, he ranked 14th among players eligible at the catcher position. One of the players who ranked ahead of Suzuki among catchers in 2014 was Joe Mauer. No, he didn’t play the position during the season, but he remained eligible to play there throughout the year. Mauer ranked 10th among catchers. MLB’s Top Four: Carlos Santana, Jonathan Lucroy, Buster Posey, Devin Mesoraco FIRST BASE Though Mauer was still valuable in fantasy leagues as a catcher, his frustrating season ranked 34th among first basemen in 2014. It was two spots behind the Royals Eric Hosmer and three behind Mark Teixeira. In 2015, Mauer will only be eligible as a first baseman. Kennys Vargas, playing just the final two months, ranked 63rd and Chris Parmelee came in at 64. MLB’s Top Four: Jose Bautista, Miguel Cabrera, Victor Martinez, Jose Abreu SECOND BASE Brian Dozier had a terrific season. Despite hitting .243, he took walks, crushed home runs, and scored a lot of runs. Just two players who qualified at second base ranked higher. The Astros Jose Altuve ranked first and Nationals 3B/2B Anthony Rendon came in second. Dozier ranked third, but well above the fourth-ranked second baseman. Check out the next group of second basemen behind Dozier; Ian Kinsler, Dee Gordon, Robinson Cano, Matt Carpenter, Howie Kendrick and Chase Utley. MLB’s Top Four: Jose Altuve, Anthony Rendon, Brian Dozier, Ian Kinsler THIRD BASE Trevor Plouffe had a much-improved showing in his defense, and his offense also took another step forward in 2014. Among all qualifying third basemen, he ranked 12th. He was just behind Adrian Beltre, Josh Harrison and Daniel Murphy. He ranked just ahead of Pablo Sandoval. MLB’s Top Four: Miguel Cabrera, Anthony Rendon, Josh Donaldson, Todd Frazier SHORTSTOP Though he primarily played centerfield, Danny Santana qualified at shortstop as well. Despite missing time at the beginning of the season in the minor leagues and a stint on the disabled list, he comes in at #16 among all shortstops. Eduardo Escobar, who played good defense and hit a ton of doubles, ranked 26th. MLB’s Top Four: Dee Gordon, Ian Desmond, Jose Reyes, Alexei Ramirez OUTFIELDER Santana was the Twins top performing outfielder in 2014. He was #16 among shortstops, but that same point total came in 59th among outfielders. Oswaldo Arcia ranked #75. MLB’s Top Four: Mike Trout, Jose Bautista, Giancarlo Stanton, Michael Brantley STARTING PITCHERS Phil Hughes had a remarkable season. In this league’s scoring, he ranked 14th among all starting pitchers. Kyle Gibson finished #86 in baseball. MLB’s Top Four: Johnny Cueto, Clayton Kershaw, Corey Kluber, David Price RELIEF PITCHERS Glen Perkins was the closer in the All-Star game at Target Field in July. Despite his struggles due to injury in the final month, he still ranked 14th among relief pitchers in baseball. MLB’s Top Four: Craig Kimbrel, Greg Holland, Francisco Rodriguez, Kenley Jansen Click here to view the article