Seth Stohs

I'm all for the rebuilding mode that others have indicated... but it's because of that that I actually send those future building blocks down... let them get their final AAA at bats in until guys get traded/released in July/August. The rebuilding with the young guys is likely to take all of 2013 as well so no need to rush the young guys... especially those advocating Benson coming up right now... when he's hitting about .170. I keep guys like Thomas and Gray and Maloney because they are stop gaps who can just get you to the time when the prospects are ready.

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You are walking down the street on this Friday afternoon when you bump into something. You look down and notice that you just kicked a lamp of some sorts. You reach down and notice that it's quite dirty, so you start to rub it and notice that it is quite shiny. Suddenly, smoke starts coming out of the lamps opening and POOF! A magic genie is kind of floating in front of you. At least you hope it is a magic genie because otherwise the guy standing in front of you is a little scary. But anyway, it is a magic genie and he says to you, "Your wish is my command. I can give you three wishes." Because you are such a big Twins fan, your first wish is to become the GM AND Manager of the Minnesota Twins for one day. Voila! Suddenly, you're sitting in the GMs office at Target Field, wearing your Twins uniform with a lineup card in front of you and a cell phone, ready to make transaction. Wow!! This is really happening (for this blog's purpose only. Again, we reiterate that TwinsCentric and Twins Daily are in no way associated with the Twins and can not actually give you that kind of power). Suddenly the genie is back in front of you and says, "Congratulations! You have two more wishes." Real quickly, you make your two additional wishes. There is suddenly world peace and your bank accounts each have ten figure balances. All is right in the world, yet, you still are the Twins GM and Manager for the next 23-and-a-half hours. You have just a couple of rules. 1.) You can't fire the current Twins GM or the current Twins manager. It was agreed that they would return to their individual posts at the end of the 24 hour period. 2.) You can only make three transactions. (Granted, one transaction can be "option Players, X, Y and Z, and recall Players A, B and C.) 3.) The genie is no longer helping you out, so if you were to make trades, they have to be realistic. In other words, you can't trade Jeff Gray and Matt Maloney to the Tigers for Miguel Cabrera and Justin Verlander. What do you do? What would I do? Decision #1 - Option Chris Parmelee to Rochester, Promote Drew Butera. I'm sure I'll take heat for this one, but I really believe that Parmelee needs to play most every day. Although he's keeping his head above water in the big leagues, I believe he needs at least a couple more months. Sending down Parmelee would create a situation in which Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Ryan Doumit would be able to play most every day. Morneau would need to play some 1B and DH. Doumit and Mauer would catch, play 1B and DH. Butera would allow Gardy to feel comfortable with those three players playing every day. Butera should get no more than about 2 plate appearances a week. Decision #2 - Keep Francisco Liriano in the rotation, Option Liam Hendriks, Add Anthony Slama to the 40 man roster and promote him, and put Anthony Swarzak in the rotation. As you can see, since I am believing that this is a rebuilding year, I want the young players to get time in Rochester to work on a few more final things. I would have all of them (Hendriks, Parmelee, Revere, Benson, Tosoni, Diamond, Guerra, Dozier, up by July). This transaction gives Liriano his last attempts as a starter. It allows us to see if Swarzak can be a starting pitcher. It gets Anthony Slama back on the roster (hey, if his lone problem has been throwing strikes, he is no worse than Jeff Gray and Slama actually gets strikeouts). Decision #3 - Do NOT sign Brandon Inge. Enough said? Now it's your turn. What would you do? [ATTACH=CONFIG]796[/ATTACH]

Over at Puckett's Pond, Shawn Berg asked if it was too soon to bump Miguel Sano to Ft. Myers? http://puckettspond.com/2012/04/26/is-it-too-soon-to-bump-miguel-sano-up-to-fort-myers/

They announced this morning that the Twins have released Tony Davis. Tony posted a series of 4 tweets this morning about it as well. I have to say, I'm pretty disappointed by this one. He's a left-hander who touched 95 with a fastball prior to his surgery last year. he was still working his way back this spring. He's only pitched in 5 games so far this spring and he has admittedly struggled to a 15 ERA. But if he is left-handed, throws hard and is coming off of surgery, why not DL him again. he's not a big guy, can't cost all that much. Then let him try again in a month or so. Then again, I'm biased. I've talked to Tony several times. I had the opportunity to meet him down in Ft. Myers last spring training. he's as nice and as classy as it gets. I certainly wish him the best with whatever is next in his career.

Someone asked me in recent days if it is hard to find things to write about the Twins. I said, of course not. That's why I write about the minor leaguers. There are four (and in June six) teams and plenty of positive things to write about from day to day. Thank you for the kind words. Baseball's minor league system is unlike basketball and football, for sure. The process can be long, but that's what makes the game so great. You never know who's going to make it or not.

I think he had like 4 errors in the first 6 games, so it's only been about 2 in the last 14 (all approximate). I would definitely say it's part of the transition. But we'll obviously see as time goes on.

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?479-Thursday-Night-Minor-League-Lights

The Twins had a much-needed day off on Thursday. Players were able to stay at home (or in their hotel room, or wherever they’re staying), and get some things done… hopefully that included getting some rest. The team will start a series against the Royals at home on Friday night. Hopefully the Twins bats can tee off against lefty Everett Teaford! Here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Thursday: GAME 1 - ROCHESTER 4, SYRACUSE 5 (8 innings) The Red Wings spent a full afternoon playing ball on Wednesday to make up for their rainout on Monday. In the first game, Cole DeVries was on the mound and he was very good. The righty went six innings and gave up two runs on eight hits and a walk. He struck out eight. Casey Fien came in and after a scoreless seventh, he gave up three runs in the top of the 8th. Joe Benson hit a two-run homer in the bottom of the 8th to cut the lead to one, but it wasn’t quite enough for the Red Wings. Darin Mastroianni went 2-3 with a walk and his fourth stolen base. His triple tied the game in regulation. Joe Thurston was 2-3 in his Red Wings debut. Ray Chang was 2-4. GAME 2 - ROCHESTER 2, SYRACUSE 3 Jeff Manship was given a spot start for the Wings and pitched quite well. Through three innings, he gave up no hits and just one walk. In the fourth, he did give up a run on two hits and a walk, but he gave the Red Wings a solid four innings. Esmerling Vasquez came in and gave up two runs on three hits and two walks in two innings. Anthony Slama struck out one in a scoreless inning. Unfortunately, the Red Wings had little offense. Matt Carson was 2-3 with his first home run of the year. Drew Butera was 2-3 with his third double. A quick note, Butera is hitting .316 now. NEW BRITAIN – No Game Scheduled The Rock Cats had a day off on Wednesday. Were they able to enjoy it? No. They got to make a nine-to-hour hour trek south to Richmond, Virginia. FT. MYERS MIRACLE 2, PALM BEACH 0 In the bottom of the second innings, Michael Gonzales knocked a single that scored Dan Rohlfing and Jairo Perez. That was about it for the offense for the Miracle. (Rohfling had singled and Perez walked). Danny Santana also hit his fourth double. Fortunately, it was enough for the Miracle pitchers. Marty Popham threw 5.2 scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked three and struck out four. Ricky Bowen struck out three in 2.1 scoreless innings. Caleb Thielbar pitched 1-2-3 ninth innings to pick up his first save. BELOIT 8, BOWLING GREEN 3 The Snappers bats were off and running right from the start. All eight runs were scored within the first four innings of the game. Wang-Wei Lin led the way. He was 3-5 with his fourth and fifth doubles. Eddie Rosario was 3-5 with his seventh double. (He also committed his sixth error at 2B) Jhonathan Goncalves was 3-4 with his seventh double, four RBI and stole his fourth base. Jairo Rodriguez was 2-4 with his fourth double. Miguel Sano was 1-2 with two walks and was also hit by a pitch. Matt Summers was the recipient of all the run support as he picked up his first win of the season. The right-hander went 5.2 innings and gave up three runs on five hits. He walked one and struck out five. Matt Tomshaw came in and got out of the sixth inning. He went two more innings and struck out a total of three batters. Ryan O’Rourke pitched a scoreless ninth inning. --- Players of the Day for Thursday, April 26, 2012 Hitter of the Day – Wang-Wei Lin [ATTACH=CONFIG]760[/ATTACH] Pitcher of the Day – Marty Popham [ATTACH=CONFIG]759[/ATTACH] --- A Look Ahead – Friday, April 27, 2012 Schedule Rochester @ Buffalo – RHP PJ Walters New Britain @ Richmond – LHP Andrew Albers Ft. Myers vs Palm Beach – LHP Pat Dean Beloit vs Bowling Green – RHP Madison Boer --- 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!

Vikings get their guy in Matt Kalil with the 4th pick (as they flipped the 3rd pick for the 4th pick, and 4th, 5th and 7th rounders). What do you think?

Because were don't have a way of bringing them over. The "Blog" Comments and the "Article" comments are in separate places and can't be consolidated. I apologize.

Although this is not really "Twins Talk" and is "Vikings Talk", I moved this thread to the Twins Talk forum so that more Twins fans who also follow the Vikings can discuss the draft throughout the weekend.

Obviously we all prefer a hit, but at some point, scoring runs becomes more important than worrying about Batting Average. I get that RBI is a by product of what others do... but at the end of the day, someone needs to drive in that run, and that's what situational hitting is all about.

Good post, and I think you're right in that it isn't just about the RISP slash line. In my opinion, there are a lot of times that not getting a hit is OK in those crucial situations. Hits are always good, like the one that he had (literall) off of Atchinson last night... Sometime, a fly out to deep enough in the outfield to score a runner from 3B with less than two outs is all that you need. Does nothing for the slash line (in face, reduces the SLG), but vital to a team's win. Sometimes the weak GB to second base gets a run in and that can be important. I definitely get frustration when there are less than two outs, a runner on third and we get a pop up to SS or short LF, or a GB to 1B. That said, I never will understand people booing or being upset when someone doesn't get a hit with two outs. In those scenarios, a hitter literally has to get a hit to drive in the run. With less than two outs, the run can be driven in without the luxory of a hit, but with two outs, even if he hits .333 in that situation, he'll get out 2 out of 3 times.

Exactly this!! That was my point. The percent is likely a little better for a #2 pick, but even there, not a given.

I would say it depends on how much they think attendance will drop again. I think they anticipated this drop-off this year and adjusted payroll accordingly. They'll do the same, as appropriate, next year. That said, it will also likely make sense to have a lower payroll because, if they trade players off, they'll have a lot of league minimum players.

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C - Rohlfing 1B - Colabello 2B - Rosario 3B - Sano SS - Dozier OF - Morales, Carson, Bigley

I appreciate that! Thank you!

It's all we can do. I'm not even going to pretend to know how to rank Buxton vs Zunino, much less Appel vs Zimmer vs Gausman. My point would be that whoever the Twins have at the top of their list when it's their turn to pick, that's who they should pick.

Believe me, I'm NOT saying DON'T take a college pitcher with the #2 pick... but like any pick (but particularly college pitchers) there is no such thing as a sure thing. As many before us have said, there is no such thing as a pitching prospect. I think of the 5 picks in the top 72, I'd like to see at least two and probably 3 pitchers taken.