Seth Stohs

Is he an All Star? In my mind, yes. But as you point out, the numbers game often dictates that there are snubs. He could be if they don't want the Twins to have two.

Hopefully. No surprise at all that he's striking out a ton... His BA is low, but even in the "poor" hitting, he's taking a few walks and getting extra base hits. No questioning his power, the question for him as he moves up is how much contact he'll make, and obviously the more contact he makes, the better, more dominant he'll become.

Ft. Myers

Thanks for the note... I just think it's a great story. Always fun to root for the local guys, especially those that go to the smaller schools.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=1970-Nate-Wolters-NBA-Draft-Prospect-and-HUGE-Twins-Fan

Tonight in New York, the NBA will hold its annual player draft. In Minnesota, the talk is of Flip Saunders and which direction he will choose to lead the Wolves in his first draft. For St. Cloud native Nate Wolters, it will be one of the most important nights of his life. The 6-5 point guard, who played his prep hoops at St. Cloud Tech and college ball for the Jackrabbits of South Dakota State, is expected to be drafted sometime between the late first round and the middle of the second round. Nate Wolters is also a huge fan of the Minnesota Twins. Recently, I had the chance to chat with Wolters about the draft, his collegiate career, and his Twins fandom! Wolters said, “I went to a couple of Twins games every year growing up. Torii Hunter was my favorite player as a kid. I’ve always been a big Twins fan, but the last couple of years, I started watching just about every game even though it has been tough to watch at times!” So, what is it about baseball and the Twins that Wolters really enjoys? “I love following the Twins because they play every day. They lose one game and don’t have to wait long to see them play again! (It’s) not like the Vikings’ losses where you’ve got to think about it for the whole week!” He added, “The Twins just seem like a good group of guys and are easy to root for. Even though they were supposed to really struggle this year, they are only six or seven back and anything can happen in baseball.” We’ll put him on the spot with some more baseball questions later in this article, but Wolters is about to become a member of the National Basketball Association tonight, so let’s talk some hoops. He was an all-state basketball performer at St. Cloud Tech where he didn’t play baseball. “I actually played tennis as a spring sport. I played baseball until, like, 6th grade, but I was terrible at it so I thought I should stick to basketball.” I think it’s fair to say that he made the right choice for himself. “Basketball has always been my favorite sport and something I spent most of my time doing.” The always-humble Wolters continued, “I was always a good player for my grade. I knew I could possibly have a chance to play in college if I worked hard enough.” He got that opportunity and became a Jackrabbit. “I picked South Dakota State because I wanted to have the opportunity to play Division I basketball. I loved the coaching staff! Coach Nagy gave me a ton of freedom and had a lot of confidence in me, so I knew I would have the chance to play right away.” As a freshman, he averaged 24 minutes and scored 10.5 points. He scored 19.5 per game as a sophomore, 21.2 points per game as a junior, and as a senior, he averaged 22.3. In those three years, the point guard averaged 6.1, 5.8, and 5.7 assists per game (which led the Summit League each year). He shot 46% overall as a senior and 38% from three point range. He shot over 81% from the free throw line. “I had a great experience there, and making the NCAA tourney the last two years was really special for the whole state of South Dakota and the program.” [ATTACH=CONFIG]4580[/ATTACH] As well as he and his Jackrabbit teams played, there are always questions about the level of competition. “Coming from a mid-major like South Dakota State, I really never thought I would be in the position I am in today. Our team success has given me a lot of recognition that I otherwise would not get.” Since the end of the college season, he has been very busy. “I have had twelve team workouts with NBA teams. It’s been a ton of travel, but it has been an amazing experience. I’m hoping it will all payoff on Thursday.” I had put Wolters’ Twins knowledge to the test, and he passed! I asked him about the Twins farm system and future. He said, “I don’t know all the minor league guys like you, but heard great things about the farm system. I can’t wait for Buxton and Sano to come up. The future looks really bright with Arcia, Hicks, Buxton and Sano. It will be interesting to see how Gibson does the rest of the season and how Meyer, Berrios and May develop.” Wolters brought up another point that I really appreciate. “I definitely have a ton of respect for baseball players. They go through so many years in the minors to finally make it to the majors. It has to be very satisfying.” A friend of his understands well how long and full of ups and downs that process can be. “I’m so happy for Caleb Thielber, who is a friend of mine. (It took) Lots of hard work and dedication by him to get to where he is. He is making the most of it.” The hope from Wolters would be not to have to endure that! “My goal is to go in the first round. But, whatever happens, I just want to go to a team that is a good fit and somewhere that I can grow as a basketball player.” I am a guy who enjoys watching drafts. Obviously here at Twins Daily, we put a lot of time and effort into the MLB draft. Although basketball and football don’t peak my interest in the same way as baseball, I can still watch their drafts start to finish. Getting to know an NBA draft prospect from the area who happens to be a huge Twins fan gives us another reason to watch. When will Nate Wolters be drafted? In looking at several mock drafts and rankings, I have seen him taken anywhere from 21st overall to 46th. There seems to be little question that he will be drafted, and his goal of being a first rounder if certainly very possible. Regardless, it is great to see a guy get an opportunity to live out his dream. Hopefully he’ll be drafted in the first round and go to a place where he’ll get a great opportunity. Twins Daily would like to wish him the best on Thursday night. And who knows? Maybe we’ll be able to see him at some Twins games the rest of this summer!

I would say he'll stay there all year as well, just my opinion. He's got plenty of developing to do, which is excited because he does have very good upside.

Earlier today, Mike Berardino tweeted that Stewart and Gonsalves would likely not pitch for a couple of weeks, maybe July 10th range. They haven't pitched for awhile, so they'll get them through some bullpens and such first.

I woudln't say that at all... The Twins typically have not had a player in their first full season play in the game. Sano didn't last year. Gibson didn't in 2010. it's not a formal thing, but it has been pretty typical in the past. But, when it comes to star-power, this is a nice group.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=1967-Sano-and-Buxton-will-represent-Twins-at-Futures-Game

This afternoon, MLB announced the rosters of the Futures Game, which will be played on June 14th, two days before the All Star Game in New York. The Twins will have one player on the World team and one player on the USA team. It likely would come as no surprise that Miguel Sano (Dominican Republic) will be playing on the World team and Byron Buxton (Georgia, USA) will play for the US team. Last year, Oswaldo Arcia was the lone Twins representative. He hit a double in the game against Pirates pitching prospect Jameson Taillon. Buxton, the Twins #1 pick in 2012 out of high school, was promoted to Ft. Myers on Sunday after hitting .341/.431/.559 (.990) with 15 doubles, ten triples and eight homers. He drove in 55 runs from the leadoff spot and scored 68 runs. He also stole 32 bases. [ATTACH=CONFIG]4570[/ATTACH] photo by Jim Crikket Sano, the highly-touted Dominican third baseman, hit .330/.424/.655 (1.079) with 15 doubles, two triples, 16 home runs and 48 RBI with the Miracle before being promoted to New Britain two weeks ago. He has now hit three home runs (and has three triples) in seven games with the Rock Cats. Buxton and Sano are consensus #1 prospects in all of baseball and good representatives of the organization. In other All Star news today, the Eastern League announced its all stars that will play in New Britain in mid-July. Catcher Josmil Pinto, outfielder Danny Ortiz, shortstop Danny Santana, reliever AJ Achter and starting pitcher Trevor May were named to the roster. This comes after the Cedar Rapids Kernels and Ft. Myers Miracle each nearly sent double-figure players to the Midwest League and Florida State League All-Star games. The Future sure looks bright!

As BJB said well, it has nothing to do with Thomas vs Hicks, it should be whatever is best for the long-term future of Hicks. I don't think he'll be down long. I personally would like to see it be 3 weeks after the rehab stint to keep him an extra year... but they probably will let him rehab and get him back.

Wonderful point. I don't think I wrote anywhere that Darnell would be a top of rotation guy, but he can be a big leaguer. There's no shame in having 4 and 5 and 6 and 7 starters. And, you mention the reason that I never get upset when the Twins don't go out and spend spend money on 5th starter guys like Blanton or Marcum or Saunders or those types. Why give those guys $4, 5, 8 million when you can have internal guys who are 24 and 25 and 26 do an equivalent job for $0.5 million? As I've said before, there are probably only about a 8-12 true aces in baseball, in the world.There are maybe 20 that might fit into that second tier of good #2/3s. Then there are probably 30 more that are in that next tier. So, there are 60 pitchers... That's each team, in theory, having two really good pitchers on average. There are another 90 spots in rotations. That's why #3 starters are getting 3 year, $24 million deals and #4 starters are getting 1 year, $8 million deals. I guess. I'll take my chances on guys in pre-arbitration years over spending on those guys. Now, at this point, we can all agree, the Twins don't have any that fit into those top two categories. We hope that Gibson will eventually be in that #2 category and certainly in the #3 category. Alex Meyer is the one that could potentially fit into that #1/2 range, and that's Stewarts' upside, though he (and Berrios) have a long ways to go. That's why I like guys like Darnell. Scott Diamond was supposed to be the Twins #1 starter, but everyone knows he's a #4/5 starter. Darnell is a good guy and has really improved himself. He's the type of guy that we should be getting to know.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=1965-Lefty-Logan-Darnell-is-making-his-pitch

One of the pitchers in the Minnesota Twins farm system that has begun to garner more attention is Logan Darnell. The 24-year-old left-hander was 6-6 with a 2.61 ERA and a 1.23 WHIP in 15 starts at New Britain this year. Last Thursday, he threw a complete game, four-hit shutout against the Erie SeaWolves. I have been occasionally getting questions about Darnell from readers, but following that start, there were a lot more questions. What does he throw? When will he get promoted? What is different than last year? Looking back, there probably should be more excitement about Darnell than there has been. He was the team’s 6th round pick in 2010 out of the University of Kentucky. In his first full season, 2011, he pitched in Beloit and Ft. Myers before ending the year with five starts in New Britain. Guys that have pitched at three levels in a season, and the Twins have had many, typically get an opportunity in the big leagues. Last year, he made 28 starts for the Rock Cats. He went just 11-12 with a 5.08 ERA, but as he was developing pitches, he also was able to throw 156 innings. He then went to the Arizona Fall League and did well. This year, he has been very good, but he was also on a pace to throw nearly 180 innings. In nine of his last 11 starts with the Rock Cats, he threw at least six innings. The two times that he didn’t go six innings, he went 5.2 innings. While he has been more efficient with his pitches, his strikeout rate increased from 5.7 to 7.2 per nine innings. More people were beginning to take notice. So, I started asking some questions. For instance, late last week, I asked Twins minor league director Brad Steil when Darnell could be promoted to AAA. He responded by saying, “he just needs to continue to be consistent and be ready when there’s an opportunity.” On Sunday, a spot in the Rochester rotation opened up. Kyle Gibson was promoted to the big leagues, and Darnell was given (and had earned) a spot and an opportunity in the Rochester rotation. Last night, he made his Rochester debut. Now, as you read in today’s minor league report, it didn’t go as planned. He gave up just one run, but he was only able to go 2.2 innings before leaving the game due to a blister. [ATTACH=CONFIG]4566[/ATTACH] What has made him so successful this season? Steil has noticed a couple of things. “I think Logan is locating all of his pitches better and getting ahead. There’s also some confidence that comes with being in a league a second year. He uses all four of his pitches effectively, with the change probably being his best off-speed pitch.” Darnell agreed on that pitch. The lefty said the biggest improvement he’s made since last year is “probably my changeup. I’ve had confidence to throw it in hitter’s counts, and it got better this year. I believe that consistency is a big thing. Always work on something to improve and not be satisfied because baseball can humble you fast.” He also spoke of his Arizona Fall League experience. “The Fall League was great. I made a lot of good friends that are having success. But if I learned anything from it, it was to make it more about me and what I throw, more than about who is hitting. I spent a lot of time there working on my curveball, trying to throw a good one early in counts.” Darnell throws a fastball that reaches into the low 90s. He has always had good breaking pitches, both a curveball and a slider. Darnell said when asked if he had an out pitch, “If I had to choose, it would be the slider. I definitely consider myself groundball pitcher, but with my changeup this year, it’s helped me be more diverse in how I throw.” Hopefully Logan Darnell can quickly get back on the mound for Rochester and continue to make strides in the right direction. He is a guy who could be added to the 40 man roster at season’s end if he continues to pitch well. He is left-handed and projects as a back of the rotation type of starter. There’s value in a guy like the either as a starter or as a long reliever.

The report is the Ramirez tried to make a diving catch on Saturday night in a Miracle game and suffered more concussion symptoms.

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