Seth Stohs

Isn't the assumption, at this point, that the Twins will trade Span, move Revere to CF and they'll play Parmelee in RF most days next year?

Absolutely yes. First, he's not as athletic as Plouffe, but he's also left-handed!!

Jim Kaat's Open Letter to Stephen Strasburg: http://washington.nationals.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?content_id=24563497&c_id=was

I don't think anybody who wrote this article made any mention of the two being the same pitcher. Strasburg threw 99 before surgery and he's throwing 99-100 after surgery. Gibson threw 92 before surgery and he's throwing 92-94 after surgery. The point isn't to say they're the same pitcher or that the TWins will be in the same situation next year that the Nats are this year. However, how the Twins handle Gibson in 2013 (or Wimmers in 2014, or Baker in 2013) is very important to the Twins organization. Will they limit innings or pitches, and how will they choose to do that?

I think he's definitely a HOF guy.

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?1020-Comparing-Strasburg-and-Gibson-What-to-Do

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2300[/ATTACH] This morning, Nationals manager Davey Johnson told hard-throwing All Star right-hander Stephen Strasburg that he is being shut down. He then blamed his struggles on the media attention that the team's decision has drawn. Strasburg had his Tommy John surgery almost exactly one year to the day before Twins prospect Kyle Gibson had his Tommy John surgery. There have been many similarities between their recoveries. So, how should the Twins handle Kyle Gibson and his workload in 2013? Strasburg had his surgery the first week of September 2010. Gibson had his surgery the first week of September 2011. Gibson threw his first bullpen off of a mound in early June 2012. He spent 30 days rehabbing with the GCL Twins before pitching briefly with the Ft Myers Miracle and the Rochester Red Wings. In total, he worked 28.1 minor league innings. In 2011, Strasburg made four minor league starts. He thew 20.1 innings four four different Nationals affiliates. He ended the season by making five starts for the Nationals. In total, he threw 44.1 innings. Gibson is going to represent the Twins in the Arizona Fall League in October and November where he could pitch as many as 25-30 more innings. Last year, Cole De Vries was second on the Mesa Solar Sox with 26.0 innings pitched. Terry Doyle led the team with 27.1 innings. Each of them made eight starts. In other words, Gibson could throw as many as 55 innings in 2012. The Nationals very publicly announced that they would be limiting Strasburg's innings in 2012 to 180 or less. That meant he would be shut down in September and he would miss the playoffs. The Nationals have a solid starting rotation including Gio Gonzalez, Jordan Zimmerman, Edwin Jackson and Ross Detwiler. They can place veteran John Lannan in his place. But to lose on of baseball's best pitchers for the playoffs, when he is still healthy, understandably has created a firestorm of controversy the last couple of months. Everyone has an opinion. So, what do you think? More importantly for Twins fans, what does it mean for Kyle Gibson and his 2013 season? Again, everyone has an opinion, but here are some of the options (in no particularly order): No Innings Limit - Gibson will go to spring training with the Twins, compete for a big league rotation spot, and regardless of where he goes, he will pitch with no discussion of innings. 160-180 Inning Limit - Same as the Nationals Same as Strasburg - Just work his innings until he hits the limit. Will the Twins be competing in September? If not, shut him down then. Miss Starts early - Gibson can go to spring training, but don't let him pitch in a game until May. In April, he could get 4-5 starts and pitch 20-28 innings. Put him on the DL or Skip Starts - once or twice a year he could be put on the 15 day DL to miss 4-6 starts through the year. Obviously, there are other options or less innings. What do you think? How should the Twins handle next season with Kyle Gibson? One thing that I hope does happen is that the Twins and Gibson and his agents (and, GULP, the Twins medical staff!) and all involved talk it through and everyone is on the same page. Feel free to discuss.

I don't think it is fair to make personal judgments on any of the players, or their efforts. He's had to work to earn his playing time for the last 3 years. He is a smart guy. He works hard. He's just struggling.

I don' disagree with Gardy's comments. I would say this though. I thought last night that Hendriks hit the knees and even an inch or two above the knee, and nothing was called a strike in that range. He hit the spots consistently, and if you ask Bert (or anyone) that is where a pitcher has to pitch to be successful. If you throw the ball thigh high to waist high, you're going to get hit. I don't know what to do about that because if he would have been throwing the ball in those areas and been destroyed by the hitters, Gardy would have been disappointed in that too. Hendriks has not thrown enough strikes in most of his starts. He's nibbling. But I thought that last night was more about the bad luck than anything that Hendriks should do to adjust. I want him to hit the knees, and he did it with his fastball and his breaking pitches last night.

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?1019-Beloit-Season-Comes-to-an-End

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2298[/ATTACH] Hopes were high late on Friday night when the Beloit Snappers beat the Clinton LumberKings in Game 1 of the Midwest League playoffs. They would be coming home with two chances to beat the top team in the league. The Snappers lost Game 2 on Thursday night in extra innings. On Friday night, in the decisive Game 3, the Snappers again lost in extra innings to end the series and their 2012 season. Would it also be the final time the Beloit Snappers would be affiliated with the Twins? In the top of the 1st inning, the LumberKings got on the board first thanks to an error by Tyler Grimes and later a wild pitch by starter David Hurlbut. In the bottom of the second, Eddie Rosario got on with a two-out single. Miguel Sano hit a double off the wall in right center to score Rosario and tie the game. After the two teams combined for 26 runs scored in the first two game, and each team scored in the first inning, a fair assumption would be that this would be another hitter's dual. Instead, it was quite the opposite. Snappers starter, lefty David Hurlbut, went the first six innings and gave up only that unearned first inning run. He gave up just two hits and walked just one while striking out five. LumberKings starter Mayckol Guaipe gave up the first inning run and that was it as well. He went seven innings and gave up just two hits (both in the 1st inning). He walked two and struck out five. Mason Melotakis came in to start the seventh inning. He gave up just two hits and no runs while striking out five in 2.1 innings. DJ Baxendale got the final two outs of the top of the 9th. Stephen Landazuri came in to the 8th inning. He pitched a scoreless inning. In the bottom of the 9th frame, he got Eddie Rosario and Miguel Sano out and two batters later got out of that inning. That brings us to the top of the 10th. Baxendale remained on the mound for the Snappers. Guillermo Pimentel led off with a long home run over the fence in dead center field, just beyond the reach of a leaping Eddie Rosario. Later in the inning, Dan Paolini came through with a solid two-run single up the middle to stretch the score to 4-1. That's what the score was as the Snappers entered the bottom of the 10th. Three batters later, the game and the Snappers season was over. But what a season it was for the Snappers. Knowing they had top prospects Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario, expectations were high. The Snappers played very consistent baseball all year long. They won 38 games in the first half and 39 games in the second half of the season. Sano was every bit as good as expected. So was Rosario even though he missed over a month with a broken, well, face. The starting pitchers were solid all year, especially the three left-handers, Jason Wheeler, David Hurlbut and Matt Tomshaw. The bullpen was strong in the first half because of the likes of AJ Achter and Michael Tonkin, but they were just as good after those guys were promoted because they were replaced by hard-throwers like Mason Melotakis, Zack Jones, DJ Baxendale, Taylor Rogers and Tyler Duffey for the playoffs. Of course, that open-ended question remains; will the Twins and the Snappers be able to agree to extend their player development agreement? We won't know for about 10 days. what will happen. But I, for one, think that the Beloit Snappers front office is terrific. Having been there four times in the past three seasons, I have seen first-hand how hard their front office of six works. They deserve a ton of credit. And, I know that the Snappers don't draw very many fans, but there are some very loyal fans who are at every game at home and even some on the road. Those people have loved the Snappers affiliation with the Twins, touting the good people that the Twins bring in. It will be an interesting next ten days to two weeks. For now, I think it important just to think about a very good 2012 Beloit Snappers season that ended with a very good three-game series against the Clinton LumberKings, a team that has now won 19 of their last 21 games.

I know they may not all be consistent, but I think there is enough offense to be competitive. If the Twins don't spend most of their funds on pitching, they aren't going to compete. That's why my point is that if they can get a good deal on a SS, great. But the focus has to be on the pitching. Like others have said, give these other guys a chance to step up!

+1. He had to go through so many more tests than anyone. The Twins couldn't have asked him to do more, and he couldn't have done any more tests. He's the big name, but he's certainly not the only minor leaguer, only Twins minor leaguer, or even the only person on this Top 10 list whose age has been questioned for years. It's an unfortunate thing that every Dominican or Venezuelan player deals with in the same way that every player who played in the big leagues from the late '80s to the mid-'00s is questioned about the Steroid era.

I'm not against it, but in my mind, it should be all about pitching. Unless you can get Andrus for a reasonable price, I'd be OK with going to spring training with Plouffe, Florimon, Carroll, Escobar and Dozier for three positions and a utility spot or two. We generally agree that next year is not a competitive year for the Twins most likely anyway, right? Get them all some at bats and see if you can get a slightly above average player out of them. I'm not willing to give up on Dozier yet. I wish he had not been called up for a few more weeks, and I wish he would have been sent down a month earlier so that he could actually work on all these things. Carroll is solid. Florimon and Escobar have good gloves. Get them some time rather than wasting $ that should go to pitching.

Benson, Wimmers and Salcedo's down years are very much injury-related. Hopefully they can all work through their rehabs/recovery and come back next year. I think Buxton and Berrios start next season in Beloit. I think it would be good for Buxton to go play in Elizabethton some more for his development. I could certainly see a scenario where both went to Extended Spring Training, but both moved up to Beloit before the short-seasons start. For Berrios, it would be to control his innings. And, if they're in Beloit, they may not want him throwing in 30 degree weather. I can't put Buxton ahead of Sano at this time either.

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?1015-LumberKings-Beat-Snappers-Force-Game-3

[ATTACH=CONFIG]2285[/ATTACH] There will be a decisive Game 3 played in Beloit on Friday night at 6:30. The Snappers took Game 1 in Clinton on Wednesday night. On Thursday night, the LumberKings returned the favor, topping the Snappers 7-5 in ten innings. Cole Johnson started for the Snappers and had a real up-and-down start. In the top of the first, his nerves seemed to show. He gave up back-to-back hits to lead off the game and a walk to load the bases. However, he got a strikeout and a double play to get out of the inning unscathed. The Snappers got on the board first in the bottom of the 2nd frame. Miguel Sano led off with a double and advanced to third base on a ground out by Kennys Vargas. Drew Leachman flew out to deep-enough right field to score Sano with the game’s first run. In the top of the 4th inning, the LumberKings got on the board. Ramon Morla doubled and scored on a Guillermo Pimentel home run that put them ahead 2-1. The Snappers answered in style in the bottom half of the inning. Wang-Wei Lin singled. Eddie Rosario hit a ground ball that could have been a double play. Instead, a throwing error meant that the Snappers had runners on second and third. Miguel Sano came to bat and hit a long blast for a three-run homer. The Snappers held a 4-2 lead. [ATTACH=CONFIG]2286[/ATTACH] Again, the lead was short-lived. In the top of the fifth, Clinton’s Ji-Man Choi hit a two-run homer to tie the game at four. The Snappers answered right away again in the bottom of the fifth. Matt Koch doubled and was advanced to third base by an AJ Pettersen sacrifice bunt. Nate Roberts grounded out to second base to score Koch with the Snappers fifth run and a one-run lead. Cole Johnson settled down at that point. He had 1-2-3 innings in the top of the 6th and the top of the 7th. He went back out for the top of the 8th frame, but he walked the first hitter and was replaced by Corey Williams. The left-hander led the Twins minor leagues this season with 17 saves, but he certainly wsa no dominant. On this night, he really struggled. After getting a fielder’s choice, he gave up a long double to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with just one out. An intentional walk loaded the bases to set up a potential inning-ending double play. Unfortunately, it also set up a potential RBI walk, which is exactly what happened when Williams could not throw strikes to Guillermo Pimentel. Hard-throwing Zack Jones was brought in to a 5-5 game, but the bases were still loaded and there was just one out. He struckout the next two batters to end the inning. The Snappers went scoreless in the bottom of the 8th. Jones came out for the top of the 9th and struck out the side. Yes, he faced five batters and struckout all five of them. The Snappers nearly won in the bottom of the 9th. With one out, Kennys Vargas walked. After a strkeout, Stephen Wickens blooped a single to right field and Vargas advanced to third base. Inexplicably, Nelson Prada then had JD Williams pinch-run for Vargas. Matt Koch struck out on three pitches to end the inning. In the end, the move didn’t hurt the Snappers on the surface, but once Vargas was at third base with two outs, it would have taken a hit to score anyone from third, and either would have scored. It would have made sense to have Williams pinch run for Vargas at 1st base. They could have tried to steal second and then a single would have scored him with the winning run. I guess the one reason to put Williams in at third base would have been if a ball got past the catcher. Like I said, in the end, the decision didn’t hurt. Taylor Rogers came in for the top of the 10th inning. The lefty 2012 draft pick has been very good since signing, but this was a rough night for him. Ji-Man Choi hit a leadoff single and advanced to second on a fly ball caught by Eddie Rosario at the wall in right centerfield. Jabari Flash singled to center. Rosario came up with a perfect throw, but it hit something in the infield and bounced over the catcher’s head. One pitch later, Guillermo Pimentel drove an RBI single to center, giving the LumberKings a 7-5 lead. After another single put runners on 1st and 3rd, Rogers was able to coax an inning-ending double play. Needing to score two runs to keep the game going, AJ Pettersen led off the bottom of the 10th inning by being hit by a pitch. Nate Roberts took his spot at first base with a fielder’s choice. Wang-Wei Lin walked to set up a scenario that Twins fans would hope for. #3 hitter Eddie Rosario batted with the game-tying run on base and representing the game-winning run himself. Hope was strong in the air until Rosario hit a hard ground ball to the shortstop who converted it into a game-ending double play. After ending Clinton’s 10-game winning streak on Wednesday night on the road, the LumberKings evened the series with a win at Pohlman Field. That is where Game 3 will take place tonight at 6:30. The winner will advance to the semi-finals of the Midwest League. The Snappers will start lefty David Hurlbut who went 6-6 with a 2.76 ERA in 111 innings during the regular season. He walked just 25 batters and struckout 85 (6.9 per nine).Fellow left-hander Matt Tomshaw will also be ready to go if necessary as will right-hander Tyler Jones. It is also likely that Game 1 bullpen arms, DJ Baxendale, Tyler Duffey and Mason Melotakis may be available. [ATTACH=CONFIG]2287[/ATTACH] --- Cole Johnson 7.0 IP, 7 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 6 K Corey Williams 0.1 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 2 BB, 0 K Zack Jones 1.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 5 K Taylor Rogers 1.0 IP, 4 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 0 K Miguel Sano 2-4, 2B, HR, 3 RBI Matthew Koch 2-4, 2B Wang-Wei Lin 2-4, HBP

Hope this doesn't sound weird, but Puckett was the best. He was a clear Hall of Famer, and unfortunately, part of the reason for that was because his career was cut short due to injury. He didn't have to go through the imminent career slow-down like Murphy did. Koufax's career was short. You can't compare his stats to guys like Seaver and Palmer and Blyleven that had extended careers. Puckett was a great player. Puckett's numbers are most like Don Mattingly, who unfortunately for him, kept playing through back injuries.

http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120905&content_id=37953352&vkey=news_min&c_id=min MiLB.com ranked its Top 100 prospects. Miguel Sano (21), Byron Buxton (30), Aaron Hicks (67) and Eddie Rosario (88) were the four in the top 100. They also ranked their Top 20 Twins prospects: 1.) Sano 2.) Buxton 3.) Hicks 4.) Rosario 5.) Arcia Again, check out the link to see some of the crazy rankings!