Seth Stohs

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Rain wiped out two of the four Twins minor league affiliates. It rained much of the day in Boston, but the Twins and the Red Sox were able to get the rubber game of their series in. Rain also caused a delay in Jupiter, Florida, but the Hammerheads and the Miracle were able to finish their game. Miguel Sano returned to the Miracle lineup on Thursday night, but he was helped out by three players who were working in Extended Spring Training just a week ago. Somehow, the Miracle just keep winning! On Friday, The New Britain Rock Cats and the Cedar Rapids Kernels will each play a double header, so tomorrow night’s report will be a little longer. Rochester Red Wings 2, Toledo Mud Hens 12 Box Score It’s been a tough go for Liam Hendriks in his time with the Red Wings this year. On Thursday, he gave up six runs on 11 hits in five innings. He walked one and struck out three. He was replaced by Daniel Turpen who did not record an out. He gave up four runs (3 earned) on three hits. He was replaced by Michael O’Connor who gave up two runs on two hits and two walks in… one inning. Virgil Vasquez came on and threw two perfect innings. Nate Hanson got the start in right field. He went 2-3 with a walk and his second double. Jeff Clement was 2-4. Chris Colabello hit his ninth double. [ATTACH=CONFIG]4028[/ATTACH] Hanson was in right field, with Joe Benson in center and Chris Herrmann in left. Clete Thomas may miss a couple of games with a groin injury. Evan Bigley was put on the Disabled List earlier in the day with a sprained wrist. Danny Lehmann was promoted to Rochester where he will serve as a backup catcher. This will allow Herrmann to play out in the outfield. New Britain Rock Cats, Portland Sea Dogs This game was postponed by rain. A makeup date has not yet been determined. These two teams are already playing a doubleheader on Friday from a previous weather postponement. Cole De Vries will be making his second rehab start, his first with the Rock Cats. Ft. Myers Miracle 8, Jupiter Hammerheads 0 Box Score The Miracle improved to 26-7 on this night, and how the team is doing it is beyond me. Miguel Sano returned to the lineup on Thursday night after missing. He had a good day at the plate, but he was helped by a group of players who have been added to the Miracle roster from across the parking lot, at Extended Spring Training. Sano was 2-4 with a walk in his return. However, Jonathan Murphy went 3-5 with his second double. Joel Licon, in his first game with the Miracle, also went 3-5 with a double. Aderlin Mejia was 2-3 with a walk, his third double and his second stolen base. A week ago, those three were toiling in anonymity on the back fields in Ft. Myers. This week, they’re helping one of the best minor league teams continue to win. Tom Stuifbergen started for the Miracle. He gave up two hits in two shutout innings. Then the rains came, and delayed the game long enough that Stuifbergen was replaced. Cole Johnson was brought into the game and he continued what he’s done all year. He threw three shutout innings and gave up just two hits. He struckout four (and walked none) to reduce his ERA to 1.06. Dakota Watts went two scoreless innings and gave up just one hit. Corey Williams gave up two hits and a walk, but he provided two scoreless innings as well. Cedar Rapids Kernels, Quad Cities Bandits The game was rained out. It will be made up as part of a doubleheader starting at 5:00 on Friday. Outfielder JD Williams has not played since Saturday. In a text message with Kernels manager Jake Mauer, he said, “JD tweaked his groin, should be good tomorrow.” Please feel free to comment or ask questions below.

I definitely agree with that. Herrmann was intriguing because he had enough offense for a #2/3 catcher with position flexibility. Pinto has enough bat to be a good #2 catcher and some DH.

He wasn't ready in April. That's the bigger thing. His long term development is most important.

I'm sure they had to make a phone call to see if they could have him pitch the 9th.

Can't imagine Mastroianni coming off the DL and being thrust into everyday duty. I hope Garcia is sent down for a week to get him over 20 days in the minors to hold his free agency back a year. Then bring him back and send Hicks down.

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It was a very good night for the Twins on Wednesday. Expectations coming into the season were that the Twins offense could be very good. To this point in the season, the Twins offense has been pretty non-good. A 15-run game can really help get things going for individuals, but hopefully also for the offense and the team as a whole. There were a lot of highlights in the game, but amazingly, there were even a couple of important highlights for pitchers as well. The one negative from this game was the performance of lefty Pedro Hernandez. The soft-tosser certainly has had his moments this season, but he was only able to get through two innings and gave up six runs. It was especially disappointing, certainly, because the Twins offense gave him plenty of support. However, in a night fully of hitting, the player of the game, in my mind, was Ryan Pressly. However, just to be thorough, we have to explain the back story. As you know, the Twins made Pressly their Rule 5 selection, taking him from the Boston Red Sox organization. He likely came to spring training with an outside shot at making the Twins bullpen. As some injuries and poor performance crept in, Pressly continued to get outs. Thinking long-term, the Twins kept him on their Opening Day, and he has pitched pretty well in limited duty so far this season. So, for him to come into a crazy game in the third inning in Fenway Park, a place he likely wanted to call home for the past several years, you can only imagine the thoughts and nerves running through his mind and body. However, he showed up and he performed. He gave the Twins exactly what they needed. That is, he pitched effectively. Even the most optimistic of Twins fans could not have hoped for four shutout innings from the rookie. That’s exactly what he did. And, he gave up just two hits and two walks. In the end, Pressly was rewarded with the first win of his big league career. The other pitching performance of note on Wednesday for the Twins happened in Toledo, Ohio, where the Rochester Red Wings got a 3-0 win over the Toledo Mudhens. Why is this important? A night after these two teams went 16 innings and the Red Wings used nine pitchers, Kyle Gibson gave the team a complete game shutout. He gave up just four hits, walked two and struck out eight. He threw 114 pitches. Why is this this important? The fact that Gibson is pitching on the same day as Hernandez, who has struggled his last couple of outings, may not be completely coincidental. Could it be possible that Gibson’s next start will be on Monday, not in the International League, but at Target Field against the White Sox? It is certainly not a given, but it is possible. He has had two poor starts in Rochester this year. He has had one OK start. He has had three good starts, and Wednesday’s start would likely be classified as great. He will continue to need to gain consistency, but his pitch count and that he recorded a strikeout for the final out tells us that his arm is where it needs to be. Whether he debuts with the Twins next Monday or next month, it is very encouraging. Red Wings play-by-play man Josh Whetzel tweeted some interesting details about Gibson’s complete game shutout. “He induced 11 ground outs (2 for DPs), 2 infield pop ups, 1 infield line out, and 3 outfield fly ball outs.” It’s encouraging for Gibson for another reason. First, Sam Deduno has now made his first Red Wings start. Cole De Vries pitched on Sunday in a rehab start for Ft. Myers. He is scheduled to start for New Britain on Friday. Along with Liam Hendriks and PJ Walters, options are lining up to take a spot in the Twins rotation. (Do the Twins have too much pitching?) [ATTACH=CONFIG]4023[/ATTACH] Now to the hitting. Oswaldo Arcia enjoyed his final day as a 21-year-old by becoming the first Twins rookie to get four hits in a game since Joe Benson did in September of 2011 against Ubaldo Jimenez, Chris Perez and Cleveland. Arcia came into the game hitting .255 and ended the night at .300. The first hit came off of Red Sox starting Allan Webster. The next three hits came off of southpaw Felix Doubrant. He had two very solid singles to left field and a big double off the wall. The scouting reports on his offense have been accurate to this point in his career. He is quite aggressive, and he wants to go up to bat swinging. I love watching that. That said, he doesn’t go outside the strike zone a lot either. As we saw in his 2-0 green light swing, he is not afraid to take a mammoth cut. We have already seen him launch two homers. I had always heard about his power to all fields. I watched him take a couple of rounds of batting practice two years ago and watched him hit long balls to left, center and right. But to see him stay down on pitches and hit them hard the other way is very encouraging long term. To see Arcia hitting left-handed pitching is also important. Just a year ago at this time, he was playing in Ft. Myers and struggling against southpaws. He moved up to AA New Britain in mid-June, and at that point, he suddenly was able to hit lefties. Was that a short-term, small sample? Or, was it a sign of notable improvement? It’s something to watch, but thusfar, the results have been quite positive. Two days ago, Ryan Doumit was hitting .158. After five hits in the last two games, he is now hitting .239 and looking like the hitter he was in 2012. Trevor Plouffe had three hits on Wednesday and is now 8-21 (.381) over his last six games starting with a couple of home runs in Cleveland. One year ago today, Plouffe was hitting .103, the low point of his season. Maybe it should be encouraging that he’s hitting .244 so far this year. Getting Plouffe and Doumit going will be very important in helping the Twins extend their lineup. Likewise, it was good to see Justin Morneau take some quality at bats. He has kept his batting average in the .250 to .267, which is where it is after a 2-3 night. However, he has shown very little power in the middle of the lineup. I think the patience that we have seen in recent games bodes well looking forward. Pedro Florimon had a home run and a double in the second inning. His home run was a line shot to right field batting left handed. Later in the inning, he came up right-handed and hit a double off of The Monster. Any offense from Florimon is welcomed. I almost forgot… Joe Mauer had three hits in the game including two doubles. Sure, he had his little slump and saw his batting average drop to “just” .282. However, now over the past four games, he is 8-16 (.500) and has raised his average to .311 again. Of those eight hits, six of them were doubles. He has also walked five times in those four games. In other words, yes, he is pretty good. It was a big night for the Twins, their offense, their bullpen and for one of their future pitchers. It is important to remember that it is just one night. Consistency is often one of the most difficult things to find in baseball. However, there were some nice performances from hitters that will hopefully find a way to continue forward. There are also some nice trends to provide optimism. The veterans are known commodities. The second-tier veterans are hopefully starting to take a step toward being more productive. Hopefully the young players can continue to improve and contribute.

People forget that for two years, Nick Blackburn was pretty solid.

I knew the story, but Gladden really got into a lot of the background and the details. It was fun to listen to, for sure.

I think he can be a right-handed version of what Ryan Doumit was last year... except just DH and catching.

Roger, I've made those corrections. Thanks for pointing those out. I'm getting pretty old now, so I generally fall asleep before finishing them. I guess there was some tendonitus with Benson's wrist early in the season, and I'm sure the cold would not be good for that. He wasn't getting very consistent playing time at that time. Since playing more often, he's been pretty good. Pinto can hit. We'll see if he can sustain this, but I would expect him to stay in New Britain all year, and if he's still hitting like this at the end of the minor league season, he could be up in September.

Wood could also be put on the 60 Day DL. There are guys that could be DFAd. Also, Joe Benson has been playing pretty well the last 2 weeks or so. I definitely wouldn't make any big comments on "Parmelee having a couple of bad games in Fenway" or "Dozier striking out a bunch in one game."

Yes.

What Gardy got upset about tonight was as slight as it gets. It was nothing. By itself, there was absolutely nothing that Hicks did wrong with the flip. The bigger story is that Hicks has struggled defensively. The biggest issue was what made his catch last night so tough. There has been many times where his first step after contact is back and then he really has to race in to make a catch. Last night, he covered a lot of ground to make a very nice catch after one false step. In previous games, that one false step has meant the ball has dropped in for a hit. Missing the cutoff man is another strange one. Obviously you coach to hit the cutoff man... just like you coach the infielders to make good throws to first base. Once in awhile, one is going to get away from you. No one wants that. No one goes into a throw saying I'm going to throw this once 20 feet over the first baseman, or try to make him scoop it. Likewise, Hicks missed the cutoff the other night, it was clear he wasn't trying to throw home or all the way to third. He just missed the throw. Just like the shortstop gets an error on a bad throw, if Hicks (or whoever) misses a cut, he can get an error. Sometimes the first baseman saves the shortstop/3B/2B an error by making a great scoop. Sometimes the throw goes to the 2nd cut off and an out still gets made. I'm at the point where I think the best thing for Hicks long-term (which should be the #1 objective anyway) is to get to AAA and keep working on his offense and his defense. It has little to do with individual plays (Because mistakes and errors happen, they'e part of the game!), but the overall body of work for Hicks this season has been pretty poor. He needs the time in AAA. What annoys me more than anything is words like lackadaisical, lack of effort, lazy, etc. Mr. Bremer used those kinds of words. Hicks is none of those things, and that play shown shows none of that. He made one mis-step and then hustled like crazy to wind up making a nice catch.

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On Tuesday, the Cedar Rapids Kernels had a day off. So did Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario, though for different reasons. Sano and Rosario got their first days off for minor injuries. The Red Wings played the longest game in the Twins organization so far this year, 16 innings. The Rock Cats bats definitely got going. And, the Miracle got a nice pitching performance to make up for the loss of their top two hitters. Jairo Rodriguez was promoted from Cedar Rapids to Fr. Myers. Bryan Santy was sent back to Extended Spring Training. Here is what happened on Tuesday. Rochester Red Wings 8, Toledo Mud Hens 7 (16 innings) Box Score Let’s jump right to the 16th inning. With the score knotted at five apiece and one out, Ray Olmedo doubled and scored the go-ahead run on a Doug Bernier single. Soon after, Chris Colabello, who was previously 0-7 with three strikeouts and two errors in the field, hit a two-run homer, his eighth of the year, to give the team an 8-5 lead. In the bottom half of the inning, Virgil Vasquez made just his second career relief appearance. He got the first two outs quickly before issuing a walk to Quinton Berry. Following the ever-annoying “Defensive Indifference,” Nick Castellanos singled him in to cut the lead to two runs. The next batter, Jordan Lennerton, singled as well. Avisail Garcia singled in Castellanos to cut the lead to just one. With the tying run at third base, Vasquez got a strikeout to end the game. [ATTACH=CONFIG]4019[/ATTACH] Ray Olmedo led the offense. He had three doubles in seven at bats. Doug Bernier was 3-6 with three RBI. Joe Benson was 2-6 with a walk and two doubles. Evan Bigley and Eric Farris were each 2-7. The Red Wings used nine pitchers in the game. PJ Walters put together a quality start. He gave up two runs on six hits and two walks in six innings. He struck out eight. Rafael Perez threw another 1, 2, 3 inning. Luis Perdomo gave up a run in the eighth inning on two hits. He struck out two. Tyler Robertson got two outs, one via strikeout. Dan Turpen got three outs, one on a strikeout. Michael O’Connor got just one out and gave up two runs (1 earned) on two hits. Shairon Martis came on and gave 3.2 innings of just one-hit ball. He struck out four. Caleb Thielbar got four outs, three on strikeouts (Though he walked two and gave up a hit). Virgil Vasquez came on and did record the save despite giving up two runs on three hits and a walk in the 16th. Kyle Gibson returns to the mound to face Toledo on Wednesday night. New Britain Rock Cats 6, Portland Sea Dogs 5 Box Score The Rock Cats bats definitely were working in this game. Danny Santana went 3-5 with his fourth and fifth doubles. Josmil Pinto was 3-5 with his seventh double. Antoan Richardson was 2-5 with his sixth double. Jhon Goncalves was 2-5 with his fifth double. Dan Rohlfing went 1-2 with two walks. Mark Sobolewski hit his first home run. AJ Pettersen was hit by a pitch and walked. In four games with the Rock Cats, he has been hit by a pitch four times. BJ Hermsen was the recipient of the great run support. He gave up four runs on eight hits and two walks in five innings. Edgar Ibarra gave up one run on one hit and one walk in one inning. He struck out two. Bruce Pugh gave up just one hit over two scoreless innings. Aaron Thompson recorded his second save with a 1, 2, 3 inning. New Britain plays a morning game on Wednesday (9:35 a.m. central time) and will send Pat Dean to the mound. Ft. Myers Miracle 2, Tampa Yankees 8 Box Score No Miguel Sano? No Eddie Rosario? No problem on this night as the Miracle topped the Yankees 4-2. Sano thinks that he will miss two games after being hit by a pitch a night earlier in the elbow. Rosario was also out with a minor injury and is expected to return to the lineup quickly. It was the first game the either of them had not played in this season. Jason Wheeler put together the best start of his season. The lefty worked seven strong innings. He gave up one run on four hits. He struck out five and walked none. Chad Rodgers came on for the eighth inning. He gave up one run on two hits and a walk while striking out two. Zack Jones struck out the side in the ninth inning to record his sixth save. Aderlin Mejia had a nice game. He went 1-2 with two walks, his second double and his first stolen base. Kennys Vargas went 2-4. Also at 9:35 a.m., the Miracle will send Matt Summers to the mound to face Tampa again. Cedar Rapids Kernels No Game Scheduled. On Wednesday night, the Kernels will begin a series in Quad Cities. Brett Lee will take the mound. Please feel free to comment or ask questions below.

Yeah, I think it's time to get Grimes more time behind the plate. They could use another hitter, or since they're sticking with the 6-man rotation, never have enough pitching.

It's because it's only 11 days before the end of the first half that it makes no sense... unless they've rapped up a playoff spot... they'll let him play nithe All Star game.