Seth Stohs

The Minnesota Twins didn't play on Wednesday and won't play on Thursday. They will begin a ten-game homestand on Friday night with a three-game set against the Tampa Bay Rays. The Rochester Red Wings and New Britain Rock Cats both had players participating in their leagues' All-Star games on Wednesday. On Thursday, all the Twins affiliates will return to action. One to watch will be the return of Trevor May to the Rochester Red Wings rotation. Is it possible that if he pitches well enough in his return from a calf injury, he could be up with the big league club by next week? And one of the Kerenls hitters is on a very impressive streak of late. Continue reading to check out what happened on Wednesday in the Minnesota Twins minor leagues. RED WINGS REPORT On Wednesday, the AAA All Star Game was played in Durham, North Carolina. The lone representative of the Red Wings for the International League team was reliever AJ Achter. He got into the game and didn't pitch as well as he has throughout this season. He gave up a home run to Dodgers outfield prospect Joc Pederson. He also gave up a single before coming out of the game. ROCK CATS REVIEW Wednesday was also the Eastern League All-Star Game. Five members of the New Britain Rock Cats participated in the game. Taylor Rogers pitched a scoreless second inning. He gave up one hit, walked none and struck out one. Cole Johnson came in later in the game and got out both of the batters that he faced. Kennys Vargas didn't have a great game. He went 0-4 with three strikeouts. He also had an error in the field. Reynaldo Rodriguez went 1-4. Tony Thomas came on late and went 0-1 in the game. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 5, Daytona 1 Box Score Matt Tomshaw has been terrific all season for the Miracle and was in fine form on Wednesday night. The lefty gave up one run on seven hits over the first eight innings. He walked two and struck out four. Madison Boer worked a perfect ninth. Danny Santana made his second rehab appearance, batting third and playing shortstop. He went 0-4. Byron Buxton was in centerfield. He went 3-4 with a walk and a triple. Adam Walker went 3-5 with his 10th double and his league-leading 20th home run. The men in second place have twelve homers. Jorge Polanco was 2-5 with his 16th double. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 10, Lake County 4 Box Score Chih Wei-Hu made his second start and again, he was terrific. Through six innings, he had given up just one run. However, he faced three batters in the seventh inning and each of them came around to score. So, his final line was four runs allowed on six hits and a walk over six innings. He struck out four. Alex Muren came on and gave up a hit and a walk over two innings. He struck out three. Jake Reed pitched a perfect ninth inning. Alex Swim has been on fire. He extended his hitting streak to 12 games by going 3-4 with a walk. In those 12 games, he has gone 22-48 (.458). Chad Christensen went 2-4 with a walk and his 14th and 15th doubles. Mitch Garver was 2-5 with his 20th double. Jason Kanzler went 2-4 with his ninth home run. JD Williams went 2-3 with a walk. E-TWINS E-NOTES Elizabethton 1, Princeton 3 Box Score Sam Gibbons started and gave up one run on six hits and two walks in 5.1 innings. He struck out six and reduced his season ERA to 2.30. Randy LeBlanc came on and gave up two runs on three hits. He recorded five outs, all of them via strikeout. John Curtiss came in and struck out two in the final inning. The E-Twins managed just six hits. Will Hurt led the way, going 2-3. Max Murphy went 1-3 with a walk. GCL TWINS TAKES Game 1 - GCL Twins 2, GCL Rays 0 Box Score In his most recent start, lefty Brandon Easton gave up no runs on one hit and two walks over five innings. On Wednesday, he went four shutout innings and gave up just one hit. This time, he walked none while striking out one. Eduardo del Rosario gave up one hit and a walk in 1.1 innings. Trevor Hildenberger got the final five outs and gave up only one hit. Zach Larson, continuing his rehab from a hamstring injury, went 1-2 with a walk. The team had just six hits in the game. Joel Polanco hit his fourth double. Game 2 - GCL Twins 4, GCL Rays 11 Box Score Miguel Gonzalez started and gave up three runs (one earned) on three hits and a walk in three innings. He struck out five. Jhon Silva came on and was charged with six runs (2 earned) on three hits. Two of the hits were homers. He struck out three. Onas Farfan pitched a scoreless fifth inning. In his two innings, he gave up two runs on three hits and two walks. Zach Hayden struck out two in a scoreless inning. Rafael Valera went 2-2 with his fourth double. Roberto Gonzalez added a double, his third of the year. Amaurys Minier his his second homer (a two-run blast) and added a third RBI. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Matt Tomshaw, Ft. Myers Miracle Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Adam Walker, Ft. Myers Miracle THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Norfolk (6:05 CST) – Trevor May New Britain @ Reading (6:05 CST) – Virgil Vasquez Ft. Myers @ Daytona (6:05 CST) – Ethan Mildren Lake County @ Cedar Rapids (6:35 CST) - Kohl Stewart Elizabethton @ Princeton (6:05 CST) – Mat Batts GCL Rays @ GCL Twins (11:00am CST) – TBD Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Wednesday games.

The All-Star Game is behind us. The Minnesota Twins and Major League Baseball put together an extraordinary event. It may have jumped up on us, but we are just two weeks away from the July 31 trade deadline. There were a couple trades made before the All-Star break, and I think that teams could start making deals quickly. The Twins come out of the All-Star break on Friday with a series at home against the Tampa Bay Rays. That will be followed by three games against Cleveland and four games against the White Sox, all at home. If things don't go exceedingly well through that ten game stretch, the Twins could decide to be sellers. If that's the case, the Twins have several trade candidates and over the next couple of weeks we will take a look at them. That said, today we will begin our Trade Candidate Series by looking at arguably the Twins Most Valuable Player through the All-Star break, Kurt Suzuki. Photo by Bruce Kluckhohn Suzuki was named to his first All-Star Game this season, his first with the Minnesota Twins after spending most of his career with the Oakland A's, as well as 122 games with the Nationals. After posting OPS over .700 his first three seasons (2007-09), he has really struggled the last couple of years. The Twins took a shot on him in the offseason at a reasonable $2.75 million. The assumption from many outside the organization was that he would be a part-time player, a mentor for Josmil Pinto. Instead, he earned the starting job and has held on to it. WHY TRADE HIM If you believe in the philosophy of Buy Low and Sell High, this could be the perfect baseball example. The Twins were able to get Suzuki for a fair rate because of his struggles the last few years. It only makes sense to sell high. His value will likely never be higher, and the Twins should capitalize on that. The Twins are still a team in transition, and as strong as the minor league system is, it never hurts to add more talent. The Twins, and Terry Ryan, did a great job of this in the late-90s. In 1996, the Twins signed Dave Hollins to play third base. In 121 games for the Twins, he hit .242/.364/.396 (.760) with 26 doubles and 13 home runs. They were able to trade him in late August for a young David Ortiz. Also, before the 1996 season, the Twins signed Roberto Kelly. He played as a part-timer in 1996 and hit .287/.336/.441 with 19 doubles and five home runs before being traded to the Mariners for Joe Mays. These players were not performing to the level that Suzuki has this year, while playing a premium position, so the Twins could get a nice package. WHY KEEP HIM I don't know that anyone has given up, per se, on the idea of Josmil Pinto being an adequate catcher at some point, but the reality is that he is enough of a liability behind the plate that it's hard to envision him being the top catcher. (But yes, he can hit.) The next catcher in the minor league ladder that is potentially a starting catcher is Stuart Turner, the team's 3rd round pick in 2013 out of Ole Miss who is spending this season with the Ft. Myers Miracle. He is at least two years away from being ready for that. Though the controversial pitch framing statistics do not shine a positive light on Suzuki, the Twins pitchers have generally been incredibly complimentary of him. He is well-respected around the game and considered a strong leader. The Twins can negotiate right now and through free agency with Suzuki in an attempt to shore up their starting catching position for the next two years. Would Suzuki consider re-upping for 2 years and $12 million? WHO NEEDS HIM There are a couple teams that are in need, at least to some degree, of a catcher. The St. Louis Cardinals lost their all-star catcher, Yadier Molina, to season-ending (most likely) injury. The Baltimore Orioles catcher, Matt Wieters, had Tommy John surgery recently and will miss the remainder of the season. Suzuki is not elite, but he is a respected (and now an All-Star) player/leader at a premium position. Twins fans should not expect a team to offer up one of their Top 5 prospects. However, I would think that the Twins could get one prospect around #10 from an organization, plus a prospect who ranks in the team's 20s. SUMMARY I'm an economics major, so you know I believe in the concept of Buy Low/Sell High. Suzuki's value will likely never be higher. He is putting up career-best numbers at age 30, so to expect him to maintain this value through the rest of the 2014 season (much less for 2-3 more years) is not realistic. That said, the Twins don't really have a quality catcher who will be ready to be the team's regular catcher for at least a couple of years. There is one best-of-both-worlds scenario that would keep a lot of people happy. They can trade him and sign him. How? Well, the Twins can add a couple of prospects in the next couple of weeks when they trade Suzuki. At the end of the year, he becomes a free agent and can sign with any team, including the Minnesota Twins. How do they do this? Terry Ryan and Rob Antony should sit down with Kurt Suzuki and make it very clear to him that they want to keep him around for a couple more years. However, they are not going to the playoffs this year and are still in a position to accumulate as much talent and depth as they can. Talk through trade scenarios with Suzuki and let him know they want to put him in a position to win in 2014. However, make it clear that the Twins plan to pursue him again in November and December when he hits the market again. Obviously no formal promises can be made or details worked out, but the conversation is good to have. PROBABILITY Honestly, I would put the odds of trading Suzuki at about 60/40 (60% likelihood that he is traded). I would say that there is about a 40% chance that Suzuki stays with the Twins through the remainder of 2014. If he does stay through the end of the season, I would predict that there is a 50/50 chance that the Twins and Suzuki will agree on a multi-year extension before season's end. YOUR TURN What should the Twins do with Kurt Suzuki? Sign him? Let him play out his contract and see what happens? Trade him? Or, trade him and bring him back? What do you think?

It was a busy, long weekend, but it was a tremendous opportunity. I traveled from the tip-top of Minnesota, down to the Twin Cities on Saturday. I then spent all day Monday driving back home. One has a lot of opportunity to think while driving more than seven hours each direction, so I thought I would put together a quick Stream of Consciousness blog for today. I encourage you to leave your thoughts on All-Star festivities below. So bear with me. I’ll cover a lot of topics, and hopefully you enjoy this potentially chaotic format. I’ll start with my thoughts on being down at the All-Star Sunday festivities and go from there. But to wake up on Sunday morning and see my name in a byline in the Pioneer Press was pretty cool! I was asked to write an article on the Three Twins Prospects in the Futures Game, so that was pretty neat! My daughter, along with my brother and sister, and I went to the Minneapolis Convention Center on Sunday morning for All-Star Fan Fest. As I mentioned on the podcast portion of the Gleeman and the Geek podcast, it reminded me a lot of going to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. There were about 400,000 square feet of baseball events and displays. It was as if you just needed to walk around and see everything, and then take a step back to think about what you wanted to do, what you wanted to look at. Sure, it would have been great to spend more time in several of the areas, but with an 8-year-old girl, being in one place for terribly long isn’t always possible. The highlight was certainly being included in the Baseball Round Table discussion with Jack Morris, Lindsay Guentzel and Rod Simon on their Sunday morning “This is Twins Territory” show. It was a bit surreal to be having a conversation with a guy with Jack Morris’ baseball history. (May be able to get audio for this up later. Will be posted here if we can.) A close second would be getting to watch Jennie Finch run a clinic on a small field at Fan Fest. That was good times! (She'll come up in this stream of consciousness a bit later as well.) I was then dropped off at Target Field around 12:30 and stood outside waiting for the gates to open at 2. Honestly, it was such a cool atmosphere outside the stadium that 90 minutes didn’t seem all that long. My Twins Hangouts co-host Jeremy Nygaard, who had run in the Color Run earlier that morning, got there with the tickets. The Futures Game itself was great. It was so much fun to watch players whose names we have heard, but it’s always a different experience to see them in person. That’s why I always talk about people trying to get down to Cedar Rapids to watch the Kernels play in person if you’re able. In my mind, it enhances your knowledge about players when you can say you’ve actually seen them play rather than just reading the box scores and stat lines. Jeremy spent more time talking about the three Twins players’ performances. For me, it was pretty encouraging to see. Consider that the Twins top two prospects, Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano, did not play because of injuries in the first half, and Trevor May was supposed to pitch but he was on the DL, the Twins were represented by three terrific prospects. Kennys Vargas made an impression in batting practice, but people also wrote about his personality. He is a jovial young man, and why not? I mean, he became a first-time father last week and got to play in a very prestigious prospect event. He struck out a couple of times, but he did short-hop the fence in right field for a double. JO Berrios got the starting nod for the World Team and was impressive in his one-inning stint. He showed a fastball that sat 94-95 with a slider at 85-86 and a changeup at 81-82. A three-pitch mix like that certainly bodes well. Add in that people rave about his maturity and make-up and we can understand why he is such a highly-touted prospect. Alex Meyer had a very short outing, but it was good. He hit 97, 98, 97, 97 and 97 with the five pitches that he threw. The first batter lined out to left. The second lined a single to left, and the third grounded into a 4-6-3 double play to end his inning. You can say that he got hit hard if you want, but the fastball is legit. If you also remember that he’s got four good pitches and he didn’t even show the other three, you can be quite excited about his future. You can also understand after this why it is so important to have more than just a big fastball. Joey Gallo (3B, Rangers) put on an incredible display in batting practice, and he got hold of one in the game too that went a long way. He was impressive. Javier Baez (SS, Cubs) hit a bomb to right center field (he bats right handed) against Lucas Giolito (RHP, Nationals). Not many are able to do that! Between games, John Bonnes found Jeremy and I, and we went high up in the top deck of Target Field and podcast the second half of the Gleeman and the Geek podcast. It was fun to talk about what happened in the first half of the minor league season. I almost lost my voice because it was rather difficult talking over cheers for the pyrotechnics of the Panic! At the Disco two-song performance and the huge cheers as Adrian Peterson, Zach Parise and Jim Thome were introduced for the Celebrity Softball game. We made an assumption that the Futures Game crowd would exit after that game and that there would be fewer people there for the Celebrity Softball game. Nope! Many people came in just for that game and it was even more packed. The highlight of that game was the fast pitches that Jennie Finch threw to Adrian Peterson. It was awesome! Parise looks like he could play still. And, I’ve always been a huge Nelly fan, and he hit two home runs. There were fireworks after the game, and that was it for a long, exhausting, wonderful day! I’m glad I had the opportunity to be there that day. I wish I could have been at the Twins Daily/Fangraphs get-together at Mason’s before the Home Run Derby. It sounds like it would have been a great time! Unfortunately, I had about 370 miles to drive home on Monday instead. I was lucky too because after about 9 hours in the car, I got home just in time for the start of the Home Run Derby. It was great to see Brian Dozier hit two home runs. The last thing anyone wants is to get shutout (like Yasiel Puig was). I’d say his brother Clay did a good job too. Before the game, Jeremy Nygaard tweeted the following, “They just asked Clay Dozier when he realized little brother, Brian, was better than he was. His response, ‘He is?!’” I’m not a big fan of the new format. I like the urgency of the 7 swings. There will obviously be fewer home runs with fewer outs, but it would make the event go more quickly. In theory, the concept of winning the first round and getting the bye to the second round should be a good thing. When you don’t hit for more than 90 minutes after the first round, it definitely appeared (from the results last night) that it wasn’t much of an advantage. Also, fans, if you’re in the first row of one of the upper deck sections, quit reaching so far over the fence to try to catch home runs or foul balls. Is it worth it? Man, I have to turn my head whenever I see guys hanging that far over walls. Tonight is the All-Star game. Let’s hope we get to see Jeremy and his dad’s mugs holding the huge flag for the National Anthem before the game. Let’s hope Kurt Suzuki gets a chance to play in his first All-Star game. And, it would be really neat if Glen Perkins could come jogging in with a two-run lead for the top of the 9th inning! I know a lot of Twins fans were able to get to parts (if not all) of the All-Star festivities. I’d love to hear your thoughts on the various events. What did you like? What didn’t you like? What would you do? Obviously if you get to the parade or the All-Star game tonight, feel free to add your thoughts on that as well.