Seth Stohs

Yeah, there was no 'sell high' moment for Slama. We (people who love K/9 and dominance in the minor leagues) loved him, but the Twins and apparently all other organizations never believed he had enough stuff. That was pretty clear, so there was no time in which they could have received anything in return for him.

That's my point, that there shouldn't be some sort of hierarchy of fandom. And just because some like that doesn't make them more intelligent of more of a fan.

I just am a crowd-follower and since Mr. Bremer and several others did, I went with it. Also, it's in all-caps. I mean, if you start talking about xFIP, you have to hit the shift key and stuff.

Thank you for saying that... My sense (and this is just a guess) is that they may lose more viewers by going "too deep" than they would add by adding this content. Not every fan wants this stuff, and that is just fine. It doesn't make them less of a Twins fan. The way I watch a game and what I want is different than you which is different from someone else. We all can be diehard Twins fans.

I'd be happy with just seeing the BA/OBP/SLG (OPS)... that can help put context to the player's season. The trouble with throwing out WAR or BABIP or anything like that is that it has to be explained to probably 85% of the viewers (5 years ago, it would have been 98%, so it's changing). Putting that he has a 0.8 WAR tells the fan nothing unless they know what that means... Even if you say, Mike Trout has a 10+ WAR last year and Miguel Cabrera's was 6.5 or whatever, people that aren't currently aware don't know that that means. Putting Trout's WAR up compared to league leaders or historically gives perspective. I'd love to hear some, but I definitely understand why they choose not to.

...With 5 games to go... So, not sure Berrios is carrying the world on his shoulders... More important is recovering from that last start. There's no question CR is going to the playoffs. Would be great for them if they can win the division title though. That said, CR's schedule is much more difficult than Beloit's.

Maybe, but I don't think that's true. But right now, the situation is that Doumit's crushing the ball at DH and C, with Mauer likely the other DH. Morneau could DH sometimes, but also plays colabello's position of 1B. When he doesn't play, they're committed to Parmelee, so he'll get the ABs. And, sure Colabello has played maybe 8-10 games in RF, but that would probably be a last resort type of thing.

Yeah, Morales has been in the organization for a long time... he becomes a minor league free agent at the end of the season, so the Twins needed to push him. He'll play very good defense in CF. He's a great athlete. He's thin, but he has good power. HE will strike out a lot!! He actually play for the Rock Cats in the playoffs several years ago (maybe 2009?). I think Florimon will still be a possibility in 2016. I'd be surprised, but i he plays great defense and is OK offensively, he might be worthwhile. Beresford doesn't have Hardy's arm, but he's just a very good glove. Santana has actually played quite a bit of 2B in the last couple of years.

Learned from a couple of Twins sources today that the Twins have released three players from Extended Spring Training: Catchers Brian Compton and Kelly Cross, and RHP Travis Huber.

Why? It's likely very short term, until Michael Gonzales comes back and/or Dalton Hicks is promoted. I have to assume that Vargas will move up as well soon.

Maybe Arcia, who I rank third... I don't think that Alex Meyer, Kyle Gibson, JO Berrios and Eddie Rosario are overlooked. I rank Kennys Vargas higher than every, so I think he is overlooked. My other two top ten are Jorge Polanco and Travis Harrison. But the guy that I have overlooked for far too long is Josmil (Hose-meal) Pinto, who continues to rake and play solid enough defense.

He's no Beresford there... but he has a very strong arm and tremendous range... he also has a bunch of errors. He's got a ways to go.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=1877-Twins-Minor-League-Report-(6-11)-More-Woes-for-Worley

Rain was the winner of the day for two Twins affiliates. The much-anticipated AA debut of Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario will have to wait another day. Things continued to get much tighter atop the Midwest Leagues Western Division standings as Beloit won for the eighth straight game. Were the Cedar Rapids Kernels able to keep up? We are starting to hear about the Twins signing some of their draft picks and likely several more will sign by the end of the week. The short-season teams are soon starting. Within a week, several players will be making the drive to Elizabethton. The unfortunate side of all of the new players in the organization is that room needs to be made for them. On Tuesday, three Twins minor leaguers were given there releases. According to a Twins source, the Twins released catchers Brian Compton and Kelly Cross, along with pitcher Travis Huber. With that, check out what happened in the Twins minor league system on Tuesday: Rochester Red Wings 5, Toledo Mudhens 9 Box Score In his first start for the Red Wings, Vance Worley threw a complete game shutout. In three starts since then, he is now 0-3 with a 7.47 ERA. On Tuesday, Worley gave up seven earned runs on nine hits and a walk in 5.2 innings. He struck out two. Michael Tonkin came on and gave up two unearned runs on three hits in 1.1 innings. Blake Martin struck out three (And walked two) in two hitless, scoreless innings. Trevor Plouffe was back in the lineup for the Red Wings. After going 0-3 in his first game, he went 2-4 with his first Red Wings home run of the year and three RBI. According to Red Wings play-by-play man Josh Whetzel, it was his 47th career home run with the Red Wings. Chris Colabello was also 2-4 with his 19th double. The team was unable to capitalize one nine walks. Ray Olmedo walked three times. Antoan Richardson and Eric Farris each walked twice. [ATTACH=CONFIG]4404[/ATTACH] New Britain Rock Cats, Altoona Curve Postponed by Rain. Ft. Myers Miracle, Daytona Cubs Postponed by Rain. Cedar Rapids Kernels 4, Quad Cities River Bandits 8 Box Score This was a game full of top prospects. Byron Buxton for the Kernels. Carlos Correa, Rio Ruiz and Lance McCullers for the River Bandits. McCullers was throwing his 98 mph fastball, but he went just four innings. He gave up our runs, all in the third inning. JD Williams singled in a run, and Jorge Polanco followed by clearing the bases with his eighth triple. Unfortunately, that was the only offense for the Kernels. Candido Pimentel went 2-3 with a walk. Hein Robb started and gave up three runs (2 earned) on three hits and four walks in just 4.1 innings. He struck out five. Caleb Brewer gave up two unearned run on three hits and two walks in 1.2 innings. Josue Montanez gave up three runs on four hits and two walks in two innings to take the loss. Here are the standings on top of the Midwest League's Western Division. Remember that the top two teams will make the playoffs. The Kernels have five games to play in the first half. [TABLE=class: grid, width: 500, align: center] Team Wins Losses Games Back Win % Cedar Rapids 39 24 --- .619 Beloit 40 25 --- .615 Quad Cities 35 28 4.0 .556 [/TABLE] Please feel free to comment or ask questions below.

Seriously? The Twins brass doesn't know what they have in Byron Buxton... OK.

Agreed! I am just baffled by these comments... Buxton is flying through the system so far (assuming he moves up next week). And, even if he doesn't, he's still ahead of the scale.

Yeah, in my mind, the "givens" are Buxton, Hicks and Gruver... I think Melotakis moves up at some point, and probably Walker. I'd like to see JD move up too. I also would ahve no problem with Harrison, Goodrum, and Polanco spending the full year there. I think that's the right level or them.

Got an update from him yesterday. He's doing some running and feeling pretty good. The hope is that he can play one game before the All-Star game and then play in the All-Star game. That's a good goal.

And, there's nothing wrong with him spending one more week in Cedar Rapids. One week makes pretty much zero difference. However, those guys have been together for 2 1/2 months, and they're on the cusp of winning the first half title. It's a speck on the radar in the big picture of Buxton's career. It likely means omething to him and his teammates though.

Like I said, let him get to Ft. Myers and see how that goes. If he's Trout-like, he'll hit like he in Cedar Rapids. IF he's like 99% of really good prospects, he'll need a little bit of time to adjust. I'd love to see him get to AA for a couple of weeks in August. I just try not to get ahead of myself. Harper and Trout and Machado are incredibly rare. I hope Buxton fits into that category! But, I expect him to struggle at some point.

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I liked Polanco a lot. Defensively, it was just three games at 2B, but I thought he looked very good with the glove most of the time. Some question if he has the arm strength to make all the throws from SS, but he can catch it.

Also, just let him move up at his pace... let's see what he does in Ft. Myers. If he dominates there for 2 months, start him in New Britain next year. It shouldn't be a race to get him to AA.