Seth Stohs

The Twins have 41 games to go which seems like a lot. However, there are just ten days before we reach September when rosters can expand. With the Twins moves yesterday, outrighting Nick Blackburn and Tsuyoshi Nishioka, the Twins 40 man roster now sits at 38. This is great because that means that the Twins can add two players to the 40 man roster without dropping anyone else. Then again, there are a few players that could be removed without much heartache in Twins Nation. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Starting Pitching has been the Twins biggest concern all season. Really, it has been for several seasons, and it will be again throughout the offseason. That said, the Twins have to find out what they have on the 40 man roster for starters. As of right now, the Twins starting rotation is Scott Diamond, Sam Deduno, Brian Duensing and Cole De Vries. We might be able to assume that Liam Hendriks will take Blackburn’s rotation spot, but at this point, we don’t know that for certain. Below, I will outline what I would like to see the Twins do with their starting rotation in September, if not sooner: THE GOAL Again, I think it’s important to understand the logic in what is trying to be accomplished. In my opinion, the Twins front office has to make some tough decisions for next year. Can they count on Liam Hendriks? Which of the starters should stay on the 40 man roster, much less go to spring training attempting to win a 5th starter job or a long-relief job. THE PLAN To be able to see more pitchers, I would recommend a six-man starting rotation. I’d be against it under normal circumstances, but I think it’s important to see what several of these guys can do when asked to throw five to seven innings. WHO IS OUT (OF THE ROTATION)? Well, one of my recommendations was going to be to get Nick Blackburn out of the starting rotation. Whether it was to the bullpen of released, I think we have all seen enough of his starts. Cole De Vries has shown me enough to likely stay on the 40 man roster and be able to compete for a 5th starter/long reliever/#6-7 starter job. Brian Duensing should be in the bullpen, regardless of how well he pitched last night. He has shown that he can start when needed. His roster spot is very safe as he is a tremendous left-handed reliever. WHO STARTS? #1 – Scott Diamond – He has made himself into the one given for the Twins Opening Day starting rotation. He has thrown 162.2 innings so far in 2012 after pitching 162 innings last year. If you subscribe to the belief that a pitcher should pitch no more than 20% more innings than the previous season, that means Diamond should throw about 195 innings. Going to six starters will likely mean one less start and they can still monitor his innings because of extra relievers. #2 – Sam Deduno – Yes, I know he’s got 36 walks and 30 strikeouts in 46 innings. But he also has a 4-1 record and a 3.33 ERA. I know that there’s like a 99.8% likelihood that his success is not sustainable, but let me live in that other 0.2% for another month. What if he can find a way to relax a little bit and reduce is BB/9 from 7.0 to 4.2 or so? What if? I am so intrigued by how nasty his stuff is and how much movement his pitches get. The Twins have nothing to lose in September, so why not give his ‘stuff’ an opportunity?! #3 – Liam Hendriks – Yes, he has struggled with the Twins in a couple of stints this year. He was the Twins minor league pitcher of the year last year when he split time between AA and AAA and then was pushed too quickly to the big leagues in September. This year, he was with the Twins quickly and probably wasn’t quite ready. However, in 16 starts with AAA Rochester this season, he is now 9-3 with a 2.20 ERA. In 106.1 innings, he has given up 76 hits, walked 28 and struck out 82. He’s just 23 years old and has the background of success and the mix of pitches necessary to believe that he will figure it out at some point. #4 – Esmerling Vasquez – The Twins claimed Vasquez on the final weekend of the 2011 season. Just before spring training, he was DFAd to make room for Darin Mastroianni. He has been, arguably, the most consistent pitcher in Rochester this season. As a reliever, he is 5-4 with a 2.67 ERA. In 57.1 innings, he has given up 41 hits, walked 25 and struckout 50. However, he was recently moved to the starting staff, and in seven starts, he is 4-1 with a 3.16 ERA. In 37 innings, he has given up 27 hits, walked 11 and struck out 41. That doesn’t count a game that he came into with two outs in the 1st inning and pitched into the 9th inning. That K/rate of more than one per inning is certainly intriguing in an organization where that is a rarity. #5 – Jeff Manship – Next spring, Manship will be out of options. Since making five starts for the Twins in 2009 (including his first big league win in a must-win, last weekend start against the Royals), Manship has made just one start for the Twins, and that was in 2010. However, as a starter in Rochester this season, he has gone 4-2 with a 2.29 ERA in 10 starts. In 51 innings he’s given up 47 hits, walked 19 and struck out 32. I would give him a five to six start opportunity in September before making a decision, either way. #6 – PJ Walters – Although his overall numbers in seven starts for the Twins from mid-May through mid-June were not great, he certainly showed some glimpses. In his first four starts, he went at least six innings and pitched a complete game against the White Sox. But when the calendar turned to June, his struggles began. He didn’t go more than five in his first two starts, and then he didn’t get out of the first inning in a June 13 start against the Phillies. He hasn’t pitched in the big league since. He’s now working in his second rehab stint in Rochester, and went three innings and threw 59 pitches. Another start or two for the Red Wings and he should be able to make five more starts with the Twins. SUMMARY Terry Ryan and his front office staff have some difficult decisions to make on many players as they plan for 2012. I think a good way to get a look at a few of them would be to go to a six man starting rotation. Guys like Cole De Vries, Brian Duensing and Anthony Swarzak will become very important as well because there will be short starts and innings to eat, in all likelihood. Five or six extra starts is probably too small of a sample size to make final decisions, but coupled with AAA reports, it’s something more. What do you think of this plan? What do you think will or should happen, in your opinion? Photo by StarTribune.com

The Twins got big offense from their nine through four hitters and came away with a nice 7-1 win over the Oakland A’s, one of baseball’s hottest teams. Of course, the biggest story was the performance of Brian Duensing. The lefty gave up two runs (1 earned) in six innings. He gave up five hits, walked one and struck out seven. Quite the improvement over his mid-July start against the A’s when he gave up six runs on seven hits (3 HR) in just two innings. Casey Fien pitched two scoreless innings in relief, followed by a scoreless ninth by Alex Burnett. As for the offense, #9 hitter Pedro Florimon went 3-3 with a walk, a stolen base and three runs scored. Leadoff man Ben Revere went 2-5. 2-hitter Darin Mastroianni was 2-3 with a sacrifice bunt and a sacrifice fly, two runs and two RBI. He also stole his 15th base. Joe Mauer went 3-5 with two RBI. Josh Willingham went 3-5 with a double and two RBI. Before the game was over, the team’s learned that the A’s had traded for Diamondbacks’ shortstop Stephen Drew who will improve the A’s. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Denard Span missed another game and incredibly had his first MRI on Monday despite missing the last nine days. With Nick Blackburn taken off of the 40 and 25 man rosters, the Twins will need to make a move before Wednesday’s game. That is when Blackburn was supposed to start for the Twins. The assumption here is that Liam Hendriks would get the start for the Twins in that spot since he last started on Friday night. The other option, Esmerling Vasquez, pitched for Rochester on Monday night. Here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Monday night: ROCHESTER 9, PAWTUCKET 6 The Red Wings had a big seven-run second inning, and it proved to be enough on this night. Wilkin Ramirez has been one of the hottest hitters in the International League the past week. In the second, he hit a grand slam, his 11th homer of the season. Brian Dinkelman added his fourth homer of the year, a two-run blast in the same inning. Tsuyoshi Nishioka was 2-5. Brian Dozier doubled for the tenth time with the Red Wings. Esmerling Vasquez put together another quality start for the team. He went the first six innings and gave up two runs on three hits. Both runs scored on solo homers. Vasquez walked three and struck out four to improve to 9-5 with a 2.86 ERA. Daniel Turpen pitched the 7th inning and gave up three runs (2 earned) on two hits and two walks. Luis Perdomo gave up one run on three hits and a walk in his inning. Anthony Slama recorded his 11th save and dropped his season ERA to 0.68 with a scoreless ninth. NEW BRITAIN 3, PORTLAND 4 (10 innings) The first four Rock Cats of the game reached on singles. Before they had an out, they had scored two runs. Unfortunately, that was about it for the offense. Over the next 27 outs, the bats managed just two more hits. Oswaldo Arcia went 2-4 with his 17th double. He was also hit by a pitch. BJ Hermsen started for New Britain. He gave up three runs on 11 hits and a walk spread over 6.1 innings. He struck out five. Blake Martin came in and struck out two in 1.1 scoreless innings. Matt Hauser got the next three outs. Aaron Thompson got the final out of the ninth inning. He started the tenth frame by giving up a run on three hits and only getting one out. Bruce Pugh got the final two outs without any additional runs scoring. FT. MYERS MIRACLE No games scheduled in the Florida State League on Monday. BELOIT 8, QUAD CITIES 2 Cole Johnson continues to impress in his time with the Snappers. He started this game and threw five shutout innings. He gave up two hits, walked one and struckout seven. Steven Gruver gave up two runs on five hits over the next 2.2 innings. He struckout two. Mason Melotakis came on and got the final four outs, all of them on strikeouts. The Snappers bats showed up. Kennys Vargas was 3-5. Drew Leachman went 2-5 with his tenth double. Nate Roberts went 2-3 with a walk, was hit by a pitch and hit his 13th and 14th doubles. Matt Koch hit his 19th double. AJ Pettersen was hit by a pitch and hit his 11th double. ELIZABETHTON 5, GREENEVILLE 6 The E-Twins had plenty of offense in this game, plenty of base runners, but it wasn’t enough. Al nine E-Twins starters had at least one hit by the sixth inning. Byron Buxton was 2-4 with a walk and his third stolen base. Adam Walker was 2-5 with his seventh double. Jorge Polanco was 2-5 with his second triple. Candido Pimentel was 2-6. Max Kepler was 1-3 with two walks. DJ Hicks was 1-3 with two walks and his sixth double. Travis Harrison hit his fourth home run. Ricardo Arevalo started for the E-Twins. He gave up four runs on four hits in four innings. He walked one and struckout two. Luis Nunez came on and gave up two runs on two hits and two walks over two innings. He struck out… one. Kaleb Merck pitched the final three innings. He gave up no runs on one hit. He walked one, although it was intentional, and struck out three. GCL TWINS 4, GCL RAYS 1 Kuo Hua Lo improved to 2-0 with six strong innings. The right-hander from Taiwan did not allow a run. HE gave up just three hits, walked one and struckout five to reduce his ERA to 1.19. Melciades de la Cruz gave up on erun on three hits and a walk in two innings. Alex Muren recorded his fourth save with a perfect ninth. The Twins had six hits in this game. Aderlin Mejia hit his 11th double. Dereck Rodriguez hit his 7th double. Bryan Santy was 1-2 with a walk and his fifth double. --- Players of the Day for Monday, August 20, 2012 Hitter of the Day – Nate Roberts Pitcher of the Day – Kuo Hua Lo --- A Look Ahead – Sunday, August 21, 2012 Schedule Rochester @ Pawtucket – LHP Pedro Hernandez (vs Daisuke Matsuzaka) New Britain vs Portland – LHP Andrew Albers Ft. Myers vs Bradenton – LHP Cole Nelson Beloit @ Quad Cities – LHP Jason Wheeler Elizabethton vs Greeneville – RHP Hudson Boyd GCL Twins @ GCL Rays – TBD --- If you have any questions or comments on the Twins minor league system, players, teams, etc., leave them in the Comments and I’ll try to answer them!

The Twins fell to 50-70 on the season after a weekend sweep at the hands of the Seattle Mariners. On Sunday, Sam Deduno gave the Twins another Quality Start despite doing his best Deduno impersonation. The effectively wild righty gave up just two runs despite allowing five hits and walking six batters. He walked in the tying run and the go-ahead run scored on a double play. Jeff Gray pitched in the seventh inning and gave up three runs to put the game out of reach. Glen Perkins came in and struck out the side in the 8th inning. Ryan Doumit was the only played with two hits. Josh Willingham and Pedro Florimon each hit doubles. Here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Sunday: [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]ROCHESTER 0, EMPIRE STATE 6 PJ Walters made his second rehab start (this rehab stint). He threw three shutout innings. He gave up three hits, walked two and struck out six. He threw 59 pitches, and 36 of them were strikes. Jeff Manship came in and had a rough one. He gave up six runs on four hits and an uncharacteristic five walks in 2.1 innings. Luis Perdomo struck out two in 1.2 scoreless innings. Anthony Slama pitched a scoreless inning. He gave up a hit and an intentional walk, but he struck out three. Kyle Waldrop struckout two in a scoreless inning. Wilkin Ramirez remained hot. He went 4-4 in this game and has hits in his last seven at bats. He has 13 hits in his last 23 at bats (.565). Chris Parmelee went 2-3 with a walk, his 17th double and sixth stolen base. NEW BRITAIN 4, PORTLAND 7 The Rock Cats had a rough one in Portland. Logan Darnell started and gave up five runs on five hits in five innings. He walked three and struck out one. Aaron Thompson and Blake Martin each threw a scoreless inning. Dakota Watts pitched the 8th inning and gave up two runs on three hits and a walk. Rene Tosoni went 2-4 with his third Rock Cats home run. Chris Herrmann and Nate Hanson were each 2-4 in the game. James Beresford hit his 11th double. FT. MYERS 4, PALM BEACH 6 Kyle Gibson made his second Miracle start. He gave up one run on three hits and a hit batter in four innings. He walked none and struckout six. The lone run he gave up was on a solo home run to Alan Ahmady. Miguel Munoz came in to start the fifth inning. One runner got on by an error and he walked three batters. With the bases loaded (and still no one out), Madison Boer came into the game and immediately gave up a grand slam. Fortunately, Boer settled down. He went four more innings without giving up another run. He walked none and struckout three. Anderson Hidalgo went 2-3. Josmil Pinto doubled for the 22nd time this season. Andy Leer was 1-2 with a walk. BELOIT 3, QUAD CITIES 5 Miguel Sano had a big day at the plate, but it wasn’t enough on this day. Sano gave the Snappers a 1-0 lead in the second inning with his 26th home run. For the game, he was 3-4 with his 26th double as well. Kennys Vargas went 2-4 with his 10th home run and two RBI. Wang-Wei Lin went 2-4. David Hurlbut started for the Snappers. The lefty gave up four runs on seven hits in five innings. He walked none and struck out six. Corey Williams went the next two innings. He gave up one run on two hits and a walk. Zach Jones struckout two in a scoreless inning. ELIZABETHTON 3, KINGSPORT 2 Tied 2-2 going to the bottom of the 9th inning, Jorge Polanco led off with a walk. A second batter walked. The next batter hit a ground ball and on an error, Polanco scored the game-winning run. Polanco was 1-2 with the walk. He also drove in the Twins two other runs. Kelvin Mention went 2-4. Max Kepler hit his 13th double. Brett Lee started for the E-Twins and gave up two runs (1 earned) in 5.2 innings. He gave up three hits, walked two and struck out eight. Tyler Duffey came in and gave up just one hit over 2.1 innings. He walked none and struck out five. Chris Mazza struck out two in the final inning. GCL TWINS No Game Scheduled. --- Players of the Day for Sunday, August 19, 2012 Hitter of the Day – Miguel Sano Pitcher of the Day – Tyler Duffey --- A Look Ahead – Monday, August 20, 2012 Schedule Rochester @ Pawtucket – RHP Esmerling Vasquez New Britain vs Portland – LHP Logan Darnell Ft. Myers – No Game Scheduled Beloit @ Quad Cities – RHP Cole Johnson Elizabethton vs Greeneville – TBD GCL Twins vs GCL Rays – TBD --- If you have any questions or comments on the Twins minor league system, players, teams, etc., leave them in the Comments and I’ll try to answer them!