Seth Stohs

Today is the first day that teams can sign players who have turned 16 years old from International Markets. There are new rules that mean a team can only spend $2.9 million total per year on international players. Baseball America's Ben Badler notes that the TWins signed SS Amaurys Minier, who he had ranked as the #12 international player available. Twins Daily's Parker Hageman tweeted the following YouTube video on Minier: [video=youtube;JVOzjXe8s6Y]

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The Sunday Tweet of the Day comes from yours truly (@SethTweets). Before the game started, I tweeted, “After that pregame and national anthem rendition, is there any questions that @TPlouffe24 is planning to hit a home run or two for #America?” Josh Willingham hit a big three-run home run that tied the game at five. He also tied Trevor Plouffe with 17 home runs. Plouffe came up and knocked the first Bruce Chen pitch he saw in the at bat for his second home run of the day (18th of the year) and more important, he gave the Twins a lead that they would hold for the win. The Twins now have a three-game winning streak as they head to Detroit to take on the Tigers. For all this and more, here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Sunday: ROCHESTER 5, EMPIRE STATE 3 PJ Walters made his first rehab start for the Red Wings and it didn’t start out well, but after struggling in the first inning, he did alright. In total, he went four innings and gave up three runs on five hits. He walked two and struck out two. Caleb Thielbar came in and gave up only one walk over the course of two innings. He struck out two and was credited with first AAA win. Luis Perdomo came in and struck out five over three perfect innings to record his first save with the Red Wings. He became the seventh Red Wings pitcher to record a save. Pedro Florimon went 2-4 with his eighth double. Brian Dinkelman and JR Towles were each 2-4. Wilkin Ramirez hit his sixth home run. NEW BRITAIN 6, BOWIE 2 Aaron Hicks has been very good since returning to the field after his sprained ankle. In this game, he was 2-3 with a walk, his tenth double and his 17th and 18th stolen base. Dan Rohlfing went 2-4 with his fourth double. Oswaldo Arcia went 2-4 with two RBI. Chris Herrmann hit his 20th double. He was also hit by a pitch and stole a base. Aaron Thompson started and gae up two runs on seven hits and a walk in five innings. He struck out three. Dakota Watts and then Bruce Pugh each pitched a scoreless inning in which they gave up a hit and a walk. FT. MYERS 4, ST. LUCIE 2 Madison Boer has started to pitch much better and on this day he helped the Miracle to their third straight win. The Eden Prairie right-hander gave up two runs (1 earned) on seven hits and two walks in six innings. Ricky Bowen came in and walked three in one scoreless inning. AJ Achter came in and gave the final six outs for his first save. He was not closing games in Beloit, so when asked about being in the closer role, the talented right-hander said, “I think that Jake (Mauer) and (Steve) Mintzy forgot what inning it was.” Josmil Pinto led the offense. He went 3-3 with a walk and his 13th double. Danny Santana went 2-4 with his sixth triple. Danny Ortiz went 2-4 with his 11th double. BELOIT 4, CEDAR RAPIDS 3 Could it be that Miguel Sano is breaking out of his huge slump? On Sunday, Sano was 2-3 with a walk, his 18th home run and his sixth stolen base. In ten games since the Midwest League All Star break, he is hitting .281/.425/.625 (1.050 OPS) with two doubles and three home runs. The three home runs and all come in the last four games. Steve Liddle went 1-3 with a walk, his sixth double and two RBI. Those were the Snappers only three hits in this game. Matt Summers started and gave up three runs on five hits and a walk in 5.2 innings. He struck out seven. Tyler Jones came out of the bullpen and recorded his first win thanks to 2.1 scoreless innings. He gave up three hits, walked none and struck out three. Corey Williams came in and got the final three outs for his 11th save on the season. ELIZABETHTON 4, PRINCETON 6 Romy Jimenez continues to hit well. On this day, he was 3-4 with his second and third doubles. Jhonathan Arias was 3-4. Stephen Wickens went 2-4 with a walk and his second doubles. Candido Pimentel went 2-4. Corey Kimes got the nod for the E-Twins. The lefty went five innings and gave up four runs on six hits. He walked one and struck out one. Hein Robb gave up two runs on four hits in 1.1 innings. He struck out one. DJ Baxendale finished playing in the College World Series and must have been anxious to sign with the Twins. On Sunday, he made his professional debut for Elizabethton. He struck out four in 1.2 innings. GCL TWINS There are no scheduled GCL games on Sundays. --- Players of the Day for Sunday, July 1, 2012 Pitcher of the Day – Luis Perdomo [ATTACH=CONFIG]1442[/ATTACH] Hitter of the Day – Josmil Pinto [ATTACH=CONFIG]1443[/ATTACH] --- A Look Ahead – Monday, July 2, 2012 Schedule Rochester @ Pawtucket – RHP Sam Deduno New Britain vs Bowie – RHP Shairon Martis Ft. Myers vs St. Lucie – LHP Pat Dean Beloit vs Cedar Rapids – LHP David Hurlbut Elizabethton @ Princeton – RHP Angel Mata GCL Twins @ GCL Rays – No Game Scheduled --- 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!

Miguel Sano connected for his 18th home run of the year. He was 2-3 with a walk. Stole his sixth base.

Mauer is a given based on 1.) career and 2.) 2012 stats. Easy choice. Wish there was a way to get Willingham on the roster!

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Good to see Mastroianni getting some opportunity. In this weather and middle of the season, a fourth OF can be so important, allowing Willingham to DH, and giving Span and Revere a rare day off.

This says it perfectly. I say just enjoy how good he is. The money is spent... It's guaranteed. Just enjoy having one of the greats of the game, rather than always having to put it up against something else.

Sure, but only if the Dodgers at all of Morneau's salary.

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The Twins got some great pitching on Saturday and won both games of a split double-header against the Kansas City Royals. In the first game, the Twins won 7-2 and Scott Diamond worked eight innings for the Win. In the second game, it was Cole DeVries who was promoted and who recorded his second big league win with a terrific performance. Of course, he was immediately optioned back to Rochester following the game. There was a lot going on in the Twins system on Saturday. I had the opportunity to go to Newman Outdoor Field in Fargo, ND, to watch the Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks take on the St. Paul Saints. Former Twins minor leaguer Tony Davis made his Redhawks debut with a scoreless inning in relief. Other former Twins farmhands, Kyle Carr and Matt Schuld pitch for the Saints. The night was great. The atmosphere for baseball in Fargo is incredible, and I will write more soon. But this is a report on the Twins minor leagues, so see below to see what Danny Valencia did for the second time in a week. Just how far did Miguel Sano hit one? Did the Rock Cats double their pleasure with a win against Bowie? Three players had four-hit games on Saturday, and one of them completed the cycle. For all this and more, here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Saturday: ROCHESTER 4, EMPIRE STATE 6 Things were looking good for the Red Wings through the first four innings. They held a 2-0 lead thanks to two solo home runs off the bat of Danny Valencia. Also, Jeff Manship had thrown four shutout innings. Unfortunately, Brendan Wise came in to start the fifth and the floodgates opened. Wise was charged with six runs on six hits and a walk. He struck out three. Esmerling Vasquez they struck out six in 2.2, one-hit innings. Bobby Lanigan pitched a scoreless inning. Valencia ended the game 3-4 with the two homers, his fifth and sixth on the season. They were the Red Wings first in seven days. It was Valencia’s fourth multi-homer game. His most recent was one week earlier against Charlotte. Matt Carson was 2-4 with his sixth home run. Despite the loss, the Red Wings finished June with a 15-14 record, the first time they had a winning record during a calendar month since August of 2009. NEW BRITAIN 8, BOWIE 9 New Britain scored three in the bottom of the ninth but fell one short, losing 9-8. Dan Rohlfing led the offense by going 4-5 with his third double. He drove in three runs. Evan Bigley was 2-5 with his 17th double. Chris Herrmann was 2-5 with his 19th double and first triple. In all, the Rock Cats managed six doubles. Deibinson Romero hit his 10th home run. Brett Jacobson made a start I am certain he will already be second-guess himself. The right-hander gave up eight runs (7 earned) on four hits and NINE walks (with no strike outs). Edgar Ibarra came out of the bullpen and gave up just one run on three hits and a walk in four innings. Dan Sattler went the final 2.2 innings without alloqing a run. 1B Matt Rizzotti has been released by the Twins. FT. MYERS 7, CHARLOTTE 2 Tom Stuifbergen picked up his first win of the season, and he needed it. The right-hander gave up two runs on six hits in five innings. He worked quickly, walked none and struck out two. Jose Gonzalez struck out two over the next two innings. Finally, Marty Popham came on and struck out two in two perfect innings. Jairo Perez went 2-4 with two RBI and his fourth stolen base. Danny Rams went 2-4 with his first triple. Lance Ray entered the game early and went 2-3 with a walk and his 14th double. Angel Morales went 1-3 with a walk and his fourth home run. BELOIT 3, CLINTON 6 This was not a great night for the Snappers. They managed just three hits in the game although two of them traveled well. Jairo Rodriguz hit a solo home run, his second of the season. Miguel Sano then connected for his 17th home run. An on-site report from K-Bro Baseball tells us that Sano’s home run was a moonshot and towered over the scoreboard in left center field. Jason Wheeler struggled again on this night. The lefty gave up seven runs on eight hits and a walk in three innings. Cole Johnson came in and struck out five in three scoreless innings. Bart Carter pitched two frames and gave up three runs on six hits and a walk. He struck out three. Clinton Dempster pitched the final inning without allowing a run. The loss meant that the Snappers were swept by Clinton in this three-game series. A record-high number of fans (2,564) crawled in to Pohlmann Stadium to watch the Snappers. ELIZABETHTON 6, PULASKI 4 It may be just a statistical anomaly, but hitting for the cycle is still a very cool, very rare occurrence in baseball. On this night, Niko Goodrum did just that. In five at bats, he had a single, hit his second double, his sixth triple and his second home run. He also drove in four runs. Travis Harrison continues to rake. He was 3-3 with a walk. Stephen Wickens went 2-4 with his second triple. Ricardo Arevalo started and gave up three runs (2 earned) on five hits and three walks in just 2.2 innings. Brett Lee came in and gave up a run on three hits in 2.1 innings. Tyler Herr struckout two in two scoreless innings. Mason Melotakis pitched a scoreless eighth frame. Dallas Gallant struck out two in a scoreless ninth to lock down his first save of the season. GCL TWINS 4, GCL RED SOX 3 Lefty Austin Malinowski, the lefty from Minnesota, came in after a couple of rehabbing righties and recorded his first professional win. David Bromberg started and threw the first two frames. He gave up two runs on two hits and a walk. He struck out two. Next, Adrian Salcedo struck out two in a perfect inning. Malinowski came in and gave up an unearned run on three hits and a walk in three innings. Hung-yi Chen and Gerardo Ramirez each threw a scoreless inning. Gonzalo Sanudo struck out five in two scoreless innings. Aderlin Mejia led the offense by going 4-5 with his fifth double. Dereck Rodriguez was 3-5 with two RBI. --- Players of the Day for Saturday, June 30, 2012 Hitter of the Day – Niko Goodrum [ATTACH=CONFIG]1424[/ATTACH] Pitcher of the Day – Jeff Manship [ATTACH=CONFIG]1425[/ATTACH] --- A Look Ahead – Sunday, July 1, 2012 Schedule Rochester vs Empire Island – RHP PJ Walters New Britain vs Bowie – LHP Aaron Thompson Ft. Myers vs St. Lucie – TBD Beloit vs Cedar Rapids – RHP Matt Summers Elizabethton vs Pulaski – LHP Corey Kimes GCL Twins – No Game Scheduled --- 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!

I'm a butterfly effect guy. First, you can also say that if Willingham singles to left the game is tied. And, even if he grounds out to 2B (which would annoy me to no end if he just gave himself up like that) and Mauer advances to 3B, maybe Morneau doesn't fly out... or maybe he hits a double. Who knows?

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The Twins got just one run off of Royals’ starter Luis Mendoza and found themselves down 4-1 going into the bottom of the ninth. Jonathan Broxton came in the Twins scored two off of him. They had the tying run at third base with two outs but were unable to score. The Twins lost 4-3. Saturday will be a long day as the Twins and Royals will play a double header with Game 1 at noon and Game 2 scheduled for 6 p.m. Here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Friday: ROCHESTER 5, LEHIGH VALLEY 6 (10 innings) The Red Wings had an early lead but the IronPigs scored three in the eighth to tie the game and send it to extra frames. It was just one extra frame as the IronPigs scored in the bottom of the 10th. Luke French started for the Red Wings and wen the first seven innings. He gave up two runs (1 earned) on five hits and four walks. He struckout five and left the game with a 5-2 lead. Casey Fien came in and gave up three runs (2 earned) on three hits and recorded just two outs in the 8th. Caleb Thielbar came in and walked two (one intentionally) in his scoreless frame. Luis Perdomo got the final out of the ninth and one out in the tenth. Unfortunately, he gave up the winning run on two tenth inning hits to take the loss. Sean Burroughs went 3-4 with his second stolen base. Clete Thomas was 2-4 with his 13th double and third stolen base. Brian Dinkelman went 2-5. NEW BRITAIN 8, TRENTON 4 New Britain got a big win in this game and won three out of four games from a team trying to move in front of them in the division race. The Rock Cats got five runs in the third inning to take a 7-0 lead and were able to hold on. The big blow in that big inning came off of the bat of James Beresford. The Aussie drilled a two-run double. Beresford was 2-4 in the game with three RBI. Estarlin de Los Santos was 2-4 with his fifth double. Chris Colabello went 2-4 with his first triple. Aaron Hicks went 3-5. Logan Darnell got the start and improved to 7-6. The lefty went the first six innings and gave up four runs on four hits and three walks. He struckout four. Shairon Martis came on and made his Rock Cats debut throwing a perfect inning. Daniel Turpen threw two shutout innings despite giving up a hit and three a walks. He also struckout three. FT. MYERS 5, CHARLOTTE 0 Matt Hauser made his second professional start, and he was terrific. He threw five shutout innings, and in fact, he had a no-hitter through four innings. He gave up two hits, walked one and struck out four. AJ Achter came in and struck out four in two perfect innings. Michael Tonkin gave up a hit and a walk, but no runs, in the final two innings. He struck out three. The Miracle offense helped Hauser out by giving him five first inning runs of support. Levi Michael and Kyle Knudson each went 2-4 with a double. It was Michael’s sixth double and Knudson’s fourth. Jairo Perez and Angel Morales were each 2-3. BELOIT 3, CLINTON 6 Seven Snappers batters had one hit a piece, but could not piece together enough runs to capture a win on this night. Steve Liddle was 1-3 with a walk and his first home run. Jhon Goncalves went 1-2 with two walks. Miguel Sano had an 0-fer and committed his 28th error. Steven Gruver started for the Snappers. The lefty gave up four runs (3 earned) on seven hits in five innings. He walked none and struck out just one. Tim Atherton dropped his ERA to 0.44 with three more shutout innings. He gave up just one hit, walked none and struck out four. Corey Williams gave up two runs on two hits and a walk in the ninth inning. ELIZABETHTON 1, PULASKI 9 2011 supplemental 1st round pick Hudson Boyd started for the E-Twins on Friday night. Through four innings, he had given up just one hit and no runs. In fact, he got the first two batters out in the fifth frame. However, a walk and a single were followed by fellow 2011 supplemental 1st round pick Travis Harrison’s seventh error at third base. It was followed by Jorge Polanco’s second error of the season. And the flood gates were opened. Boyd’s line score says that he gave up seven runs (ZERO earned) on four hits and two walks in 4.2 innings. He struck out three. Steve Evans came in and gave up one run on four hits and a walk in two innings. Kaleb Merck, the Twins 33rd round pick from Texas Christian made his professional debut. The right-hander faced five batters. He struck out four of them, but gave up a solo home run to the other. Zach Jones came on and struck out two in his inning. The E-Twins managed just four hits in this game. Jorge Polanco hit his third doubles. Stephen Wickens went 1-2 with a walk. GCL TWINS 2, GCL RED SOX 5 Dereck Rodriguez continues to hit well, but it wasn’t enough in this game. The outfielder went 2-4 with his third double and first home run of the short season. Jorge Fernandez went 3-4. Aderlin Mejia went 2-5 with his fourth double. Joel Licon was 2-5. Byron Buxton was 0-2, but he did walk two times. Randy Rosario got the starting nod on Friday. He gave up one run on one hit in 2.2 innings. He walked three and struck out four. Felix Jorge came on and gave up two runs (one earned) on four hits and three walks in two innings. He struck out three. J.O. Berrios gave up a run on two hits and a walk, but all three outs he recorded were strikeouts. Chris Mazza gave up only an unearned run on one hit in 2.1 innings. He struck out three. Markus Solbach pitched a 1-2-3 inning. --- Players of the Day for Friday, June 29, 2012 Pitcher of the Day – Matt Hauser [ATTACH=CONFIG]1418[/ATTACH] Hitter of the Day – Dereck Rodriguez [ATTACH=CONFIG]1419[/ATTACH] --- A Look Ahead – Saturday, June 30, 2012 Schedule Rochester vs Empire Island – Bullpen Game (with Cole De Vries starting for Twins) New Britain vs Bowie – RHP Brett Jacobson Ft. Myers @ Charlotte – RHP Tom Stuifbergen Beloit vs Clinton – LHP Jason Wheeler Elizabethton vs Pulaski – RHP Ricardo Arevalo GCL Twins @ GCL Red Sox – 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!

20 years old is not at all old for the Appalachian League.

Good thread. I don't know if E-Town stats are meaningless as much as you just have to take them for what they are. The further away from the big leagues that a minor league is, the less important the actual numbers are. It's more about development. I actually like that most of the college guys that the Twins draft go to Elizabethton. It's a terrific coaching staff and a great atmosphere to spend 2 months at the start of their careers. They can adjust to wood bats, to bus rides, to getting paid and all those things. The age factor is very important in all of this, and yet it still isn't everything. Since Morales, I've been pretty cautious about looking at the E-Town stats too much as opposed to counting on scouting reports. For instance, Sano had solid numbers last year at ET, but he showed some things like 1.) lots of power with legit HR even in a smallish ball park, 2.) a lot of strikeouts, 3.) lots of errors. As for Eddie Rosario, the reports I got were that he had really quick hands and gap power and lots of those scouting things that made me believe that although he wouldn't hit as many home runs as he moved into the bigger ball parks, he could hit for average, etc. A college hitter or pitcher, unless the scouting report shows some pretty impressive things, I won't rank a 21 year old very high even if they hit .350. For guys like that, I won't rank them too high until they get to Ft. Myers usually. Obviously there are exceptions to everything. In the Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook 2012, Roger wrote a good article on what E-Town numbers mean. I came up with a list of the Top 15 OPSs in E-Twins history. The list shows a few guys that had big league time and success, but most of them never came close.

Go Cobbers!!!