Seth Stohs

Colabello was very much considered due to OPS, but also due to some really big hits during the month, but that .236 BA is hard to ignore. I'm a big OPS guy who understands that BA is the least meaningful of the triple slash, but .236...

ScottyB, I think he was also speaking about Burnett because he was on the mound when Hunter stole second.

Let's just say that Sano winds up being a Top 10 prospect in all of baseball. Twins players that have been Top 10 in all of baseball (in the last decade) include Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer and Francisco Liriano.

I don't know what I said the Twins "chances" were. I've said 77 wins and compete for 3rd place was what I thought was realistic. Don't get me wrong, I'm not thinking that is realistic any more. They were terrible in 2011, no question about that. I think I, and many, thought that if the Twins had Mauer, Morneau and Span back and healthy there would be an improvement. But I think we all acknowledged that there were a lot of question marks in the pitching staff. As long as Scott Baker wasn't hurt, I think we had every right to think he would be back and solid. Once he was hurt and had surgery, obviously that changes. Liriano is such a crap shoot, but based on spring training BB/K rates, there was some reason for optimism. Listen, if people somehow think I owe Jack an apology, sure, I'll apologize. I don't know that I ripped him as much as I just can't defend ultra-negativity for a team that someone claims to be a fan of. I would much rather be optimistic in spring training and early in the season that be negative and rude. And if that makes me wrong at the end of the day, so be it.

According to Joe Christensen, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire will not be with the team this weekend in Seattle. He will be attending his daughter's college graduation. Congratulations to his daughter, Tara, and the family. I certainly hope that he's able to put the Angels' series out of his mind and enjoy the time with his family. Scott Ullger will manage the team.

Ha!! Thanks, but that's not at all true. IF there is on guy I'd want at the healm right now, it would be Terry Ryan. He's done it before, with a lot of the same people around him. It just won't happen over night and fans need to realize that.

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?505-Twins-Minor-League-Hitter-of-the-Month-April

Earlier this week, I handed out the “awards” for Twins minor league relief pitcher and starting pitcher of April. In each case, I was able to profile six pitchers and there were good numbers. Today, I am going to profile five Twins minor league hitters who had solid Aprils. Unlike with the pitchers, it was really tough to come up with hitters. If I’m being honest, it was a two-player race for the April Hitter of the Month. And, today, when the Twins have an off day after being shut out two straight games (and no-hit late last night by Jered Weaver), I wish I could tell you that there were several players at AAA Rochester who are hitting so well that they are pushing their way up to the big leagues. There aren’t. Here are my selections for the Top 5 Twins Minor League hitters in April: Number 5 - Ft. Myers - Danny Santana - (29-95) .305/.327/.453 with four doubles, two triples, two home runs and 11 RBI. The diminutive middle infielder got off to a very fast start before a mini-slump. However he did end the month strong again to garner a spot on this list. Although his game is speed, he is not afraid to take a big swing and will get a lot of extra base hits. To advance through the minors and eventually get to the big leagues, he will have to learn to take an occasional walk, but he does have really good tools. Number 4 – New Britain – Deibinson Romero - (25-89) .281/.337/.494 with eight doubles, a triple, 3 home runs and 17 RBI. Although he’ll play at 25 years old throughout this season, this is already his ninth season in the Twins organization. He was on the Twins 40 man roster, but quickly fell out of favor. However, last year he had a semi-revival season in New Britain in 2011 (.256/.327/.411, with 27 doubles and 11 home runs), and he has continued that success into the first month of the 2012 season. Number 3 - New Britain – Aaron Hicks - (24-88) .273/.347/.477 with four doubles, a triple, four home runs and 14 RBI. I truly thought that Hicks would really struggle in the early going at AA New Britain. To this point, he has certainly held his own. He has shown patience. He has shown power. He has struck out a lot and been a little inconsistent, but overall, a very impressive start for the ultra-talented outfielder prospect. Consistency will be the thing to watch with Hicks throughout the year. Can he limit the longevity of the slumps better? That will be important. Number 2 - Beloit – Eddie Rosario - (29-89) .326/.429/.472 with eight doubles, a triple, one home run and 16 RBI. Rosario was the Appy League Player of the Year in 2011. He has already had some ups and downs in his first month of a full-season league, but overall, the numbers are definitely there. Some may expect more home runs from Rosario after leading the league last year with 21, but that’s not the type of hitter he is. He has very quick hands and will hit for average, gap power and certainly can hit his share of homers. He has a good approach at the plate as well. He stole 7 bases in the season’s first month. His transition to 2B has been shaky at times (7 errors in April), but reports indicate that he may be able to handle the position given time. The April Minnesota Twins Minor League Hitter of the Month is... Beloit Snappers 3B Miguel Sano (24-87) .276/.422/.586 with five doubles, two triples, six home runs and 19 RBI. Sure, the batting average isn’t the highest, and he leads the Midwest League in strikeouts. He has a ton to learn about defense, plate approach and has a lot of maturing to do. But at the end of the day, Sano was the clear-cut top hitter of the month in the Twins organization. Along with the strikeouts, he is the league leader in walks which means he has a tremendous OBP. And 13 extra base hits in 87 at bats is pretty impressive. Sano is a powerful individual and when he makes contact, he does very good things. It will be a lot of fun to track his development. There were several strong performances in April, even if there weren’t many strong hitters. Earlier in the week, we named the Twins Relief Pitcher and Starting Pitcher of the month of April. Please feel free to discuss. [ATTACH=CONFIG]848[/ATTACH]

Well, to be fair/realistic, very good teams get no-hit too. The Twins getting no-hit just magnifies how bad things are right now.

The Twins have been shutout two days in a row. They have had two (or less) bats available on the bench in each of those games. The starters have been horrible. The bullpen has been better than expected but not great. And the offense has not been good. On Twitter during the game, at one point I said that I think that there will be two DFAs and two options for the Twins. That would mean that four new players would be on the Twins roster by Friday's game in Seattle. Two DFAs - I think both Clete Thomas and Matt Maloney will be DFAd. Two Options - I think that it's possible that Alex Burnett and Liam Hendriks get optioned to Rochester. Who should be called up? In my opinion, I would NOT want to bring any big prospects up to witness what's going on with the Twins right now. These moves are not about trying to win in 2012. All moves at this point should be about what's best for the Twins to be winning and competing again in 2014. In other words, I would like to see Brian Dozier, Rene Tosoni, Ben Revere, Liam Hendriks, Deolis Guerra, Scott Diamond, Joe Benson, etc., stay in Rochester at this time. I think that the Twins need to find out what they have in a few players that have options and are on the 40 man roster, and a couple of guys that are not on the 40 man roster. There is plenty of 40 man roster room. I would call up PJ Walters, Darin Mastroianni, Anthony Slama and Jeff Manship. Walters has big league time and has been alright with the Red Wings. He was a prospect a couple of years ago, so it doesn't hurt to see what he can do. Mastroianni is the OF I picked because I'd rather Revere and Benson not come up until July and Rene Tosoni just came off the DL. Anthony Slama just needs a chance, and there's no way he's worse than Jeff Gray. And Jeff Manship had a solid spring and they need to see what he can do. These pitchers all need to get an extended look. In fact, I'd like to find a way to bring up Cole DeVries as well, and maybe DFAing Jeff Gray is a way to do that. What do you think? Will the horrific series against the Angels prompt the TWins front office to make massive roster moves? Any roster moves? Or will they stand pat and tell us that they don't want to over-react?

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?504-Jered-Weaver-No-Hits-Twins

The Twins were hoping to salvage game three of their series in Anaheim against the LA Angels. Instead, the Twins got another poor start and the bats were shut down. In fact, the bats managed to do nothing. Jered Weaver, one of baseball's best starting pitchers, threw a no-hitter against the Twins. The Angels won the game 9-0, but Weaver kept Twins fans interested in the game with his efforts. In fact, he kept the national television audience on their toes. In the eighth inning, Trevor Plouffe hit a home run ball that landed just foul. In the ninth, Jamey Carroll hit a deep fly ball to left. Denard Span was called out on strikes. Alexi Casilla drove the first pitch he saw from Weaver to deep right field, but Torii Hunter tracked it down, ending Weaver's first career no-hitter. It was the ninth no-hitter in Angels history. Nolan Ryan had four of them for the team. Teammate Ervin Santana threw one just last year. It was the fifth time that the Twins have been no hit. It was the first time since 1998 when David Wells of the Yankees threw a perfect game against the Pat Meares-led Twins. Seeing the Twins bats struggle is frustrating. Being no-hit, coming off of the complete game shutout by Jerome Williams is a lot to take in. Hey, we're all Twins fans, but getting the chance to watch baseball history is pretty cool. [ATTACH=CONFIG]846[/ATTACH]

Twins Lineup: Span CF Casilla 2B Mauer DH Willingham LF Doumit C Parmelee 1B Plouffe 3B Thomas RF Carroll SS SP: Hendriks

What do you mean? Thrylos brings this up every chance he gets!! (I keed, Thrylos!! ) The sad state of sports is that often managers and coaches get the blame or are the scape goat when players don't do their job or when front offices don't give them players that can win. That's why I don't think that the manager and coaching staff should be on the hot seat, but as the season continues, I can't help but believe that they will be.

It appears that Wuertz is going to sign with the Cincinnati Reds.

What does a statement like this even mean? From all reports, he was more and more intense. They made some tough decisions. They kept people healthy and got at bats. I guess someone will have to explain this one to me.

shane - I agree with you on Hendriks, and on Parmelee. I understand wanting more wins, and that's fine, but will adding Abreu get them from 68 to 70 wins? the one reason I can think of to add any of them is to hopefully trade them in a couple of month.

Dozier has a .710 OPS in AAA right now... not sure that the "lack of rush" has anything to do with the service clock.

Just point of clarification... you want the Twins to promote minor leaguers faster, and yet you think that Chris Parmelee should be at Rochester? I like your idea of the prospects coming up on July, after a tradeoff. Unfortunately to get to that point, it should be guys like Thomas and Butera and Gray and Maloney taking roster spots rather than rushing prospects (like Parmelee, maybe Hendriks). Abreu, Vlad, Lee... why would they come here, and why would the Twins want them (unless they'd be able to trade them later in the season)?

Be sure to listen to last night's SethSpeaks Weekly Minnesota Twins Podcast. The one-hour show had several guests. Beloit Snappers RHP AJ Achter called in on their off day. Twins Daily contributor Jeremy Nygaard came on to talk about his weekend watching the Beloit Snappers. Andrew from Twins Fan from Afar also called in to talk about the Beloit Snappers. Finally, I was joined by Cody Christie (NoDak Twins Fan) to talk about several Twins topics. Check it out here and let me know what you thought, what types of topics or guests you'd like to hear from.

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?499-Tuesday-Night-Game-Notes