Seth Stohs

Twins Lineup: Denard Span CF Ben Revere RF Joe Mauer C Josh Willingham LF Justin Morneau 1B Ryan Doumit DH Trevor Plouffe 3B Brian Dozier SS Jamey Carroll 2B SP: Scott Diamond

Be sure to update this thread following the game or tomorrow or something with your thoughts on everything! I look forward to it!

According to his Twitter account, Jonathan Murphy signed and will report to Ft. Myers (where they all report) for camp before they figure out whether they go to Beloit, E-Town or GCL.

Here is the list of Twins Draft picks. I'll try to keep it updated based on comments made below: #40 (1210) - Brad Schreiber - RHP - COL - Purdue #39 (1180) - Steven Liquori - OF - HS - Georgia #38 (1150) - Austin Rei - C - HS - California (37/38, same HS) #37 (1120) - James Marvel - RHP - HS - California #36 (1090) - Brandon Bayardi - OF - COL - UNLV #35 (1060) - Jared Wilson - RHP - COL - UC-Santa Barbara #34 (1030) - Bryan Haar - OF - COL - U of San Diego - SIGNED #33 (1000) - Kaleb Merck - RHP - COL - Texas Christian U - SIGNED #32 (970) - Andrew Ferreira - LHP - COL - Harvard #31 (940) - Tim Robinson - LF - HS - California #30 (910) - Bryan Santy - C - COL - U of Washington - SIGNED #29 (880) - Sean Hagan - LHP - COL - St. John's U #28 (850) - Carson Goldsmith - RHP - COL - Northwestern State - SIGNED #27 (820) - Jared Grundy - LHP - COL - U of Kentucky #26 (790) - Justin Jones - LHP - COL - U of California #25 (760) - Joel Licon - SS - COL - Orange Coast College - SIGNED #24 (730) - Jose Favela - C - HS - Texas #23 (700) - Travis Huber - RHP - COL - Nebraska - SIGNED #22 (670) - Josh Graham - C - HS - Oregon #21 (640) - Bo Altobelli - C - COL - Texas Tech - SIGNED #20 (610) - Zach Larson - CF - HS - Florida #19 (580) - Jonathan Murphy - LF - COL - Jacksonville U. - SIGNED #18 (550) - William LaMarche - RHP - COL - Chabot College #17 (520) - Dalton Hicks - 1B - COL - Central Florida - SIGNED #16 (490) - Will Hurt - SS - HS - Kentucky (Ben Revere's HS) - SIGNED #15 (460) - Jarret Leverett - LHP - COL - Georgia Southern #14 (430) - Jake Proctor - CF - COL - Cincinnati - SIGNED #13 (400) - Erich Knabb - RHP - HS - South Carolina #12 (370) - Alex Muren - RHP - COL - Cal St. Northridge - SIGNED #11 (340) - Taylor Rogers - LHP - COL - Kentucky - SIGNED #10 (310) - Doug (DJ) Baxendale - RHP - COL - Arkansas-Fayetteville - SIGNED #9 (280) - LJ Mazzilli - 2B - COL - U Connecticut (Lee Mazzilli's son) #8 (250) - Christian Powell - COL - RHP - College of Charleston - SIGNED #7 (220) - Jorge Fernandez - C - HS - Puerto Rico - SIGNED #6 (190) - Andre Martinez - LHP - HS - Florida #5 (160) - Tyler Duffey - RHP - COL - Rice U - SIGNED #4 (130) - Zach Jones - RHP - COL - San Jose State - SIGNED - $376,000 (slot) #3 (97) - Adam Walker - RF - COL - Jacksonville U - SIGNED - $490,000 (slot) #2 (72) - JT Chargois - RHP - COL - Rice U - SIGNED #2 (63) - Mason Melotakis - LHP - COL - Northwestern State (LA) - SIGNED - $750K, (Slot - $818,500) #1S (42) - Luke Bard - RHP - COL - Georgia Tech - SIGNED #1S (32) - Jose Orlando Berrios - RHP - HS - Puerto Rico - SIGNED - $1.55M (slot) #1 (2) - Byron Buxton - OF - HS - Georgia - SIGNED - $6.0M (slot - $6.2M)

Great idea... thank you for starting this thread!

wouldn't have been swarzak, but yeah, they gave up on Doyle really, really quickly.

The hamate bone isn't the wrist...

I wrote about that earlier this week, saying that it was a myth that the Twins had a lot of OF depth.

Law has Sano as a Top 12 prospect in baseball right now. That makes Buxton a Top 10 prospect type. Imagine afte the season if the Twins have Buxton in the Top 10, Sano in the Top 15, Rosario likely in the Top 50, and Arcia in the 70s or 80s. That's four legit Top 100 players, with Kyle Gibson coming back. The Twins will be a little top heavy, but Berrios and Gibson are probably in that 100-150 range if Gibson comes back. Hicks is borderline Top 100 is he can have a decent second half. It's a start, for sure, toward respectability.

In my opinion, it's like comparing Baeabll America's Top 30 Twins prospect to my Top 50 Twins Prospects to Kevin Goldstein's Top 11 Twins prospects, to whoever's Top XX Twins Prospects. Most likely, we all have sources within the organization. WE all look at the same stats and hear things on various players, good and bad. Then we come up with a list. The tops of the lists will likely look pretty familiar, but I'm pretty sure if we were all asked to rank players 1-150, things would start looking a little different starting about #15. As for the whole "Moneyball" draft versus the Traditional Scouting, I noted a couple times during hte draft that it has definitely returned more and more to the scouting of talent as opposed to numbers. Obviously many times they're the same (guys with immense talent/athleticism also have pretty impressive numbers). Maybe I'm wrong, but it definitely seems like the "scouting" area is back in the forefront, and I think that is a very good thing.

I would whole-heartedly disagree with that comment. With Benson, I'm sure his confidence was low by the time he was sent down, but he is very much coachable. Tosoni is coachable and remained confident. Valencia is no lacking in confidence. The reality is that one coach can find success with 5-6 guys on a roster and not find success with 5-6 others on the same roster. The others most likely will perform how they typically perform, with or without coaching. Nothing against Bruno, but that's the same with all coaches. They get too much credit for players' successes, and take too much heat for players' failures.

I can normally understand why certain players are kept at a lower level, but for the life of me, I don't understand why Michael Tonkin is still in Beloit. Makes no sense to me.

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?638-Territory-Train-Day-2-Log-(In-Beloit)

It’s been a busy week here at Twins Daily with a lot of draft coverage. Last Sunday, I posted my blog on Day 1 of my Territory Train trip. It included a bus ride through Iowa, and a ball game at the beautiful Modern Woodmen Park and a Snappers win. It’s a few days later, but here I will continue my log of events of the trip with the second day’s events. Day 2 began earlier than a typical Territory Train day does. We were on the bus outside our hotel in Moline, Illinois, and on the road by about 8:30 a.m. However, there were no complaints because the day was going to be full of some very fun events. We drove through northwest Illinois and found ourselves in Beloit, Wisconsin, which is just north of the Illinois/Wisconsin border, before 11:00 a.m. We were scheduled to eat lunch at a sports bar called Jerseys at 11:45 with several Snappers. Scott Povolny (Territory Train owner) had worked with Snappers’ AJ Pettersen to set up the event, and it was very much successful. AJ and fellow former Gopher Kyle Knudson were there. Pitchers Tim Shibuya and Ryan O’Rourke showed up soon after. Outfielder Wang-Wei Lin arrived. Infielder/Outfielder Drew Leachman, who came to the Snappers in early May from Extended Spring Training, was there as well. Then hitting coach Tommy Watkins arrived. [ATTACH=CONFIG]1172[/ATTACH] It was fun though because the players were all very nice and willing to answer questions, take pictures and sign autographs. The group filled up the outside patio at Jerseys, but it was such a nice day and such a nice, relaxed event. We were under the impression that the players may only have about 45 minutes to meet with us before they would need to leave to go to the ball park. Instead, the players and Watkins hung out with us for over two hours. What was really nice about that events was it made all of the players more real to the group. Obviously I have had several of them on my podcasts before, but to be in that interactive of an event allowed those on the trip to see the size, to ask questions, to see the people instead of just the players. Around 2:45, we left Jerseys and went to our hotel. Arrangements were made so that those who wanted to go to the ball park early for batting practice could. Normally, fans are not allowed into the stadium until one hour before game time. We were able to get in at about 4:15. I love watching batting practice and seeing infield/outfield work being done. Right when we got there, Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario were batting. Both hit a ton of line drives, and Sano blasted a couple that went over the scoreboard in left center field. Watkins was throwing BP and at the end of his last few rounds, he told Sano to bunt for a hit. Sano laid down two very good bunts and Watkins fielded them and tried to throw him out at first base. Clearly the group was having a lot of fun. Chrissy Scaffidi is the Snappers director of media and public relations. She let us in and then spent 15 minutes or so talking to us, and answering questions about the ballpark, about attendance and about the increased media requests that they are fielding due to Sano and Rosario. She even provided the group with a couple of media packets, information that media who covers the team gets to help with their stories. She was great and very much helpful to our group. On a personal level, she even helped me get a couple of copies of my Minnesota Twins prospect handbook signed by Sano and Rosario, who are both on the cover. Snappers manager Nelson Prada saw the book and asked for a copy and got one. Later, Chrissy introduced us to Matt Bosen. For several years, he had been part of the Snappers front office, most recently in charge of Merchandising. When long-time Snappers GM Jeff Vohs took another job in Beloit, Bosen took over as the team’s GM. He was kind enough to spend about 10-15 minutes talking to me and the group as well. It’s amazing how much responsibility he has making things run so smoothly for the Snappers and their games, but they also are in charge of running other events in the park (such as American Legion tournaments, high school games, etc.). They do an amazing job with a front office staff of six. About an hour before game time, I was walking around behind the stadium, jotting down the lineup. Watkins walked by and came over and asked if everything was going well, having a good time, talked about the lineup briefly. Minutes later, I heard a voice say my name from a bit away. I turned and saw a husband and wife that I had met a year ago there. They had spent time introducing themselves and their family to us last summer, and it was good to see them again. They are just a great family who this year decided that they would be a host family for a couple of players. We talked a little about how that was going and what went into their decision to offer their home like that. That night, we had Hog Heaven tickets. That is a great promotion by the Snappers in which fans can sit down the right-field line in a big picnic area. It is all-you-can eat and includes hamburgers, hot dogs, brats, chips, peanuts and more. It includes all-you-can drink pop or beer, and it goes all the way through the game. I believe the cost is just $25. I went out there and ate a bit before the game started, but we also were able to sit in the bleachers behind home plate, so I was there some. Early in the game, I stood behind the fence and took pictures and video of the players the first time through the lineup. [ATTACH=CONFIG]1173[/ATTACH] (Rosario batting, Sano on deck) The game was another good one for the Snappers. The first three innings went quite quickly. Matt Summers was on the mound for the Snappers. AJ Pettersen informed us that Matt Miller would be on the mound for Wisconsin. Pettersen had faced the former Michigan Wolverine in Big 10 play during his career with the Gophers. [ATTACH=CONFIG]1174[/ATTACH] (Knudson batting, Pettersen on deck) Wisconsin got a 2-0 lead in the top of the 4th, but the Snappers came back with five runs in the bottom of the fourth. Wisconsin (the Timber Rattlers) came back with two unearned runs (thanks, in part, to a dropped pop up with two outs by Miguel Sano) in the top of the 5th. However, the Snappers came back with four runs in the bottom of the fifth inning. Wisconsin added a run in the top of the 6th off of Tim Atherton, but that was it for the scoring and the Snappers came away with a 9-5 win that put them into a tie with the Timber Rattlers at the top of the Midwest League Western Division. (Wisconsin would win the final two games of the series to regain a two-game lead in the division, which is the separation in the teams today.) I even got to spend an inning with Chrissy in the press box overlooking the park. Along with all of her other duties, she also is the public address announcer for the Snappers home games. [ATTACH=CONFIG]1175[/ATTACH] (photo courtesy George Damian) Also, besides the normal mid-inning fun activities that the Snappers (and most minor league teams) do, the Inflatamaniacs made an appearance at Pohlman Stadium that night. It’s impossible to explain what they are in words, so here are a couple of pictures. Following the game, I talked a bit with Ryan O’Rourke and Wang-Wei Lin. AJ Achter talked briefly as he walked by toward the clubhouse. Also spent a couple of minutes talking to Pettersen. [ATTACH=CONFIG]1176[/ATTACH] [ATTACH=CONFIG]1177[/ATTACH] I’m sure it won’t surprise you that I was the last one to the bus, but no one seemed too upset. Ha! On Sunday morning, things were much more casual. A little continental breakfast at the hotel. Listened to the Ron Gardenhire Show. The bus rolled out of our hotel in Jayneville, WI, which is about 15 miles north of Beloit, around 11 a.m. From there, it’s just a 5 hour drive on highway 94 back to the cities. We did stop in Thoma for some lunch. We got back to the Walmart in Woodbury at about 4:05 and said our good byes. The best part about the two Territory Train trips that I have been on is the relationships you develop. As I mentioned after the Detroit trip two years ago, people enter the bus on Friday in small groups, but when you leave the bus on Sunday afternoon, the group is really a group. So, I do want to take a moment to thank Scott Povolny for a great trip and for putting together a minor league trip this season. It was a great time. I want to remind those reading that he does have just a couple of openings remaining on his final trip of the year, to Kansas City in mid-July. If you’re interested, go to www.TerritoryTrain.com for more details. [ATTACH=CONFIG]1178[/ATTACH] Finally, I do want people to consider a weekend trip to Beloit. I talked to two or three people at the game on Saturday night who had driven down to Beloit from the Twin Cities that morning and were planning to drive back after the game. It is about five hours each way, so I recommend looking at the Snappers schedule on their great website and find a weekend where they have a night game followed by a day game. Drive down early on the morning of the night game, check out that game, stay in a hotel in Beloit or Jaynesville, and then go to the afternoon game and drive back. For me, it gives an appreciation of how good many of these players are while at the same time seeing players in the very early stages of their development. I'm still planning another trip to Beloit at the end of June! [ATTACH=CONFIG]1179[/ATTACH] I do plan to post one more short ‘report’ with some scouting reports on players I saw play for Beloit. Until then, let me know if you have any questions or comments.

I don't get this... Why? Who cares? The players have been drafted now. Why shouldn't they try to get them for as little as possible? Especially when this one year, if any of the money is not spent, some can carry forward to next year. The Astros got the guy generally believed to be the best hitter in the draft and signed him for like $2.2M below slot. THey should be applauded.

I'll agree with you... It would be good for the team's to have evaluated each player a ton more than BA or others have.

Now on to what NIck actually wrote in this article... This is Nick at his best, by the way. I really enjoyed the article, and he's such a talented writer. I found it interesting that the Twins actually signed him to a minor league contract a year earlier, but because they signed him so quickly to a minor league deal, he was able to be selected in the Rule 5 draft by Seattle, and when Seattle wanted to send him down, the M's sent Jair Fernandez to the Twins. The next year, the Twins and Dickey waited until afte the Rule 5 draft to sign a minor league contract. As for the question at hand, I can't blame the Twins for letting Dickey go. I don't think there were any (many) Twins fans that were disappointed when the TWins let him go. Hindsight is a beautiful thing, and the Twins sure could use Dickey! But I can't blame the Twins for not seeing this. And again, it's in the NL.

Wow, Thrylos... I'm not Rick Anderson fan and think he is vastly overrated, I don't think that this is completely fair. I mean, Anderson's greatest work was helping Hawkins to figure things out. In reality, he deserves a ton of credit for helping Jesse Crain figure things out the year before he became a free agent. Grant Balfour was clearly talented but he was hurt, Tommy John and shoulder surgery. It took him awhile to come back to full strength. Similarly, I find it hard to compare a guy like Mike Lincoln, who came up too quickly to make spot starts for the Twins out of necessity to a guy who, years later was a decent bullpen guy for a year or two. Mijares showed plenty of good in his years with the Twins... Let's see how he's doing in a few months. JC Romero started with the Twins as a stater. Once Andersen moved him to teh bullpen, he became dominant. I could go on and on stating ways in whch it's not at all looking at apples to apples, including several 1.) switching to he NL, and 2.) simply having more experience thanks to the years of learning the big leagues with the TWins. And I'm not even a Rick Andersen fan.

Absolutely this... hopefully it helps people realize how good a baseball player is who "just" gets to AAA or AA.

"Right Shoulder Tendonitus"

"Right Leg Contusion" - He was hit in the leg by a line drive.

Daryl Thompson was released. Bromberg was put on the DL earlier in the week. Slama was put on the DL today.

Other Moves Cole De Vries optioned to Rochester - when he was called up, I figured that he would just be DFAd when he was sent down. Good for him to just be optioned. Brian Dinkelman and Sam Deduno activated from the AAA DL, should play for Rochester soon. Steve Hirschfeld, who made one start for the Red Wings on Wednesday. He was sent back to AA following the game.