goulik

Listed as an infielder, played Primarily SS in Junior College (Rio Hondo College, Cal) and 3b at LSU. Drafted in 32nd Round in 2013 but returned for senior season and went undrafted after his senior year. All SEC 3B and All SEC defensive team in Junior year. Born 9/10/92 (23 years old) in La Puenta Cal. Christian (Chris) Ibarra was recently signed as a free agent and assigned to Cedar Rapids. Ibarra played for LSU graduating in 2014. Last year he worked as a graduate assistant coach for the LSU baseball team. Here's a link to the LSU page http://www.lsusports.net/ViewArticle.dbml?ATCLID=205587022 Interesting Stat on his LSU page... 17 HBP (ouch) Welcome aboard young man!! Good luck and hope to see you play up here some day!

With 13 fewer at bats, his numbers at CR are very similar to last year. 214/281/333. Im still not excited.

With a slash of 218/295/462, all he does is slug. His issues have been discussed and it doesn't look like things are improving over previous seasons. Unless he figures things out and gains some discipline at the plate, I don't think the Home Run potential will get him past AAA. He may have topped out his potential folks! Time will tell but I am less optimistic as this year wears on.

Here is a link to Seths story http://twinsdaily.com/topic/22901-article-get-to-know-kernels-infielder-nelson-molina/

Seth wrote an article about Sean in the Minor League Forum. http://twinsdaily.com/topic/22868-article-get-to-know-kernels-infielder-sean-miller/ He is currently hitting 284/293/386 at Cedar Rapids so his numbers have really coming around with making better contact. The biggest issue I see is that he has a whopping two walks on the season. Defensively, Sean has split his time between 2nd base and SS pretty evenly (104/107 innings respectively at CR) He has 4 errors, all at short. 1 of those errors came during his four games in Fort Meyers.

Yes, good luck and God Bless. It is so hard to reach the majors and so many put in so much work only to fizz out at some point in the minors. Unfortunately, there will have to be more soon with mid season promotions and those will be even tougher.

Great to see him back from the concussion performing at a high level. Hopefully he can avoid any more head injuries...

Steals don't show up in OPS but if you took away 4 hits and turned 29 singles into doubles, his OPS would be astronomical.... Quick, someone do the math! I'm out of my league on that one. In any case, he should be shooting up prospect charts with those numbers.

I am convinced that there is a disconnect between Ryan and Molitor. Arcia is one of several players caught in between them in this problem. Ryan values Arcia and wants Molitor to play him but Molitor makes the line up and keeps him on the bench. We saw this with Meyer and Kepler his first time up, and a few others. One or both of them need to be fired so there can be a plan that the GM and Manager are both working on together. With the Pohlad interviews posted I doubt he's firing Ryan mid season... That would be just too much work. GAHHHHH!! I'm getting frustrated and disillusioned again so I am signing off for a bit. *sigh*

Molina is coming around raising his season slash line to 292/389/321 for a 710 OPS. His only power has come in the form of 3 doubles in 106 at bats. He has added 2 innings at first to his time away from 3b but he is almost exclusively spending his time at third. He committed his only error of the season at third. As a light bat he will need to not only keep his average up, but also his OBP. If he can keep that around 400, you can make a run scoring prospect out of him. With only 13 runs scored on the season, that is not how things are panning out So far though. It would help if he could add base stealing to his repertoire but he has only attempted to steal once this year. He has 18 walks to 21 strike outs so those are not the out of whack numbers were used to from our recent strike out prone Twins prospects.

Buxtons BA, OBP, and slugging (236/283/364 last 15 games) are all up over his season averages. It's not when you should be sending him down. (His OPS over the last 15 is 70 points higher than his season average) I don't think he should be sent down for a bad series against a very good team. Kepler is also doing better recently and I think he had a good series especially considering the competition. (733 OPS, last 7 games) Sending either of these guys down now is a bad message, and a bad plan for the future. They need to develop here now I believe. Park is hitting 185/279/352 over the last 15 games (very similar to his last 30 games btw) and sending him down would give Arcia chances at DH. Maybe he could even build a little trade value. Send Park down until the next injury, or a trade of one of these guys that just don't fit in long term.

While his numbers are similar to before, they are slipping in the slugging department. His slash of 281/348/364 in 121 at bats his slugging has slipped 80 points dropping his OPS 90 points. He has not homered since our last update. Daniel has struck out 37 times to 10 walks. Killed has spent 2/3 of his time in LF splitting the rest of his time fairly evenly between center and Right. His lone error was in Left and both of his double play assists in right field. He has already matched last seasons total with 5 stolen bases off set by two caught stealing.

I have not posted an update here because Kepler has been in the big leagues and most everyone here knows that. Max is obviously still adjusting to MLB pitchers and looks like he was rushed but I want him to stay and learn at this level. It's a lost season and the sooner he is a permanent fixture out there the better. 209/306/302 can be hard to watch at times but welcome to your 2016 Minnesota Twins. I would rather watch Kepler put up those numbers than Dozier. (230/318/380) SMH. OK, now I'm depressed again and will move on to something non twins related... Sheesh, this year is tough to watch.

Stephen Wickens has only had 69 at bats so far this year with most of those as a third baseman. He did spend a week on the DL but it looks like he is also spending more than his share of time on the bench as well. His bat has not looked very good. I don't know it's because of the inconsistent playing time, injury, or he's riding the pine because he's just not hitting at AAA. In any case, his Avg is 203, with a 657 OPS. He has struck out 31 times and has 9 walks.

If only it had been Patrick McGruff...

Nunez and Vargas will be gone from your list. Also one or two of Santana, Arcia, and Grossman will also be gone.

Gonsalves and Jay are both at high A and will not start the year with us next year and Kohl Stewart has 7 whopping innings at AA.... Why are these names even coming up for next year? Hopefully we see one or two of them in 2018 or at best 2017 cups of coffee in Sept. Then we will have to watch them struggle as they acclimate to MLB... If this is our hope for next few years, the Major league team rotation will remain depressing for a while...

Hawkins was also our closer in 2000 so there's that as well...

As shown by the same web site which also showed the Twins only having 4 starters that year...

BaseballAlmanac.com lists Mike Lincoln and LaToy Hawkins as starters for the Minnesota Twins in 1999 and they are replaced by Mark Redmond In 2000, the same year one Johan Santana became a part of our favourite squad. In this case you could argue Hawkins was pushed out of the rotation or you could say he just belonged in the Bullpen, I lean towards the latter.

The past two seasons we have been waiting for the trade of Plouffe to allow Sano to take his rightful place on the field as a future super star. I hate to need to trade him, but he does need to make room for Sano. This reminds me of a couple other such scenarios in the Twins recent past and I wonder about other players in the prime of their careers who were decent but were pushed out by greatness. I also wonder what the rest of Plouffes career will be like. When Morneau was called up we already had a first baseman that a lot of fans loved Mientkeiwiidkksks (I never could spell that name right but my daughter could rattle it off like she was spelling "cat") At games you will still find fans wearing his Jersey proudly but Morneau was the real deal and room had to be made for the prospect. Dougie baseball wasn't a great player and he did not light up things after leaving the Twins, but he was good enough to play first base for a World Series team and he even got to catch the last out on a throw to first to seal the deal. I'm also enjoying seeing his name as a minor league manager for our Twins. AJ Pierzynski was a good catcher but we also had this prospect named Mauer. It didn't matter what you had done before, you coulda been a two time all star, you were going to move aside for Mauer. AJ was one of my favorites. A lightening rod for sure, but I think he makes it easier for some of his team mates knowing AJ is going to take that type of attention. He also put up decent numbers. Since being traded, AJ did nothing but continue to but up decent numbers behind the dish, agitate all his opponents, and prove himself as one of the most durable catchers of the past few decades. I will continue to follow Plouffes career if and when he's traded or gone but the time to trade is as soon as Sano is off the DL or sooner. So who else can you think of that the Twins have had to move aside in our history to make room for a future star?

I too have moved on to Palka though I have not given up on Walker. If he can be more capable of taking a walk than Walker (ironic name in that situation), then it becomes Palka > Walker.

Tovar has been at SS for all 444 innings he has played so far for Rochester committing 9 errors. He has a decent BA at 272 but with only 12 walks and 9 extra base hits his OPS sits at 652. What he has done that does not show up in OPS is swipe 18 bases so far getting caught only 3 times. He trails only Zachary Granite in stolen bases (25) in the Twins minors this season

Buck is a career 274 hitter in nine minor league seasons but is struggling with a 224 average, 590 OPS. He is played 2B,3B,RF, and LF so there is some versatility there but he is just filler at this point

Paulino has all of 50 at bats in Rochester this year and has a 584 OPS to go with it. I would guess his only chance of not being a cut sometime this year is if Suzuki is traded or either Murphy or Centeno get injured. Otherwise he is not going to survive a promotion of any Chatanooga catchers.