goulik

Hopefully he can kill it early, get some management love and get moved up to New Britain by mid season but I am betting he spends most if not all of next season in Fort Meyers.

No matter how you look at it, Mastroianni and Ramirez are only short term place holders for next year. Both are AAAA outfielders but Ramirez would make a better pinch hitter, fill in bat. A strong argument can be made for Mastro as a defensive sub and/or pinch runner. I had to choose one to cut, maybe I chose wrong...

As AA Twins become AAA Twins, Room for AAAA players is becoming more scarce. With many 30 plus "prospects" called up this year, and several more failing to get called from Rochester, there will be many players released into oblivion this off season. Before even considering Free Agents (Please Ryan, Sign some Free Agents) If I was General Manager, I would have to make the following decisions: Part One: OUTFIELD Currently the Twins have Clete Thomas, Wilkin Ramirez, Alex Presley, Oswaldo Arcia, Chris Parmelee, Josh Willingham, Chris Colabello, Aaron Hicks and Darin Mastroanni listed as Outfielders on the 40 man roster. Currently Rochester has Antoan Richardson, Dan Rohlfing, Brian Dinkelman, and Jermaine Mitchell. Outside of Evan Bigley, there are no strong arguements demanding someone else moves up to Rochester but even without promotions to Rochester, we're looking at 13 outfielders for two teams. With no-one to replace Morneau, Parmelee and/or Colobello are back to 1B if they are still with the Twins. Neither has shown MLB level need to make room for them in a crowded outfield so I am listing one as MLB 1st baseman and sending the other to Rochester. I am done with the outfield experiment for both of them though. LF- Josh Willingham's value is too low to trade this off season and he will be taking a roster spot next spring. I doubt he is around the whole season. RF- Oswaldo Arcia has shown he belongs as a long time fixture in the Twins Right Field future and he will also have a Roster spot. This Leaves Center Field. The Dream is that Aaron Hicks is next years Brian Dozier. This would be ideal but I am not holding my breath. I predict he will be Rochester bound for at least the start of next season. Alex Presley was just acquired in the Morneau trade and has shown over 700MLB at bats an average BA and can be at a minimum a decent place holder while we await our future. On the other hand Clete Thomas has 700 at bats and is not average. With his age, He is the first off season cut I make with a thank you for helping out in a time of need. I rooted for him but he is gone. Wilkin Ramirez has similar stats to Pressley but with a smaller sample size. I think he should be given a chance to compete with Pressley. My prediction is that he joins Pressley in the OF until Hicks pushes one of the two out. Darin Mastroianni also has a smaller sample size but his stats are more along the lines of Clete Thomas. I do not think there is room for him any more and I think he will be the second off season cut. Why not back to Rochester? Antoan Richardson, Brian Dinkelman, Dan Rohlfing, and Jermaine Mitchell are already there and with Hicks probably also going there and Buxton (or even Bigley) pushing up from below, there is no room left for AAAA players. In fact, Someone else will need to get cut. If Richardson was not called up this year, I don't think he will be back next year. He will be my AAA OF release of the fall with Dinkelman pushed out early next year when Buxton, Bigley or someone else just makes the outfield too crowded. Twins: Arcia, Ramirez, Pressley, Willingham RedWings: Hicks, Mitchell, Rohlfing, Dinkelman

1 Sano (only because he is closer/proven at AA) 2 Buxton 3 Meyer 4 Rosario 5 Stewart 6 Gibson 7 Pinto 8 Tonkin 9 May 10 Gonsalves 11 Lee 12 Sulbaran 13 Santana 14 Berrios 15 Eades 16 Melotkis 17 DJ Hicks 18 Walker 19 Polanco 20 Z Jones 21 Kepler 22 Archter 23 Turner 24 Harrison 25 Goodrum All under belief Colabello, A. Hicks, Arcia, and Herman are no longer prospects but major leaguers

Season final stats, 9-4 w/l in 27 games, 20 started. He finished with a 2.96 ERA, 2.70 with the Twins/Kernels for the last 4 games all starts. He had a 2.6 walk/9 ratio and a 8.1 SO ratio. In 112.2 innings he allowed only 3 Hrs, 4 hit batsmen and 2 wild pitches. (Control) in his 7 relief appearances he recorded 1 save but no holds. His ground out to fly out was .84

Miguel Sulbaran is 2-0 for Cedar Rapids with a 2.40 ERA in three starts so far. He has struck out 15 in 15 innings with only 4 walks. Opponents batting average is a little high at .279. His MiLB stats page has some interesting splits but these are such a small sample size that they are insignificant alone. (only showing current team) I would love for someone to share the full season splits (opposing BA's rightys/leftys/runners on etc...) if you have that. I am wondering if what we see with the Kernels is trend or mirage...

MLB stats for the year... 34.1 innings in 38 appearances allowing 6 runs, 4 earned for a 1.05 ERA. Concerning stat in all this is only credited with one hold which had seemed to be aAAA strength of his

That is if Dozier can cut down on SS errors... He had a real rough go at SS and that's why he's at 2nd...

Wednesday was an example of a bad day that started with defensive mistakes which in this case included a failure by Mr. Thielbar to cover home allowing a run. I love that he took ownership of it, recognized how egregious the mistake was and pledged to not repeat that error. I am loving having this young man in our uniform and see him as part of a promising future to replace a bad present day team.

Well now our top 20 prospects is updated and guess who has bumped into the lucky13 spot... Ah come on, how did you guess? (I actually was really wondering who was bumped off the list)

Dozier Vs Rosario A decent offensive middle infielder who can show excellent defense is a rare commodity. That makes what Dozier has done special and a rare bright spot on this team. Rosario may turn out better than Dozier but as a AA prospect, that is only a projection, not a guarantee. I do not want to trade something that works for something that we hope will work (prospect pitcher) based on what we believe Rosario will be.

I always hate how obviously misplayed flies don't show up in box scores as errors when they obviously are. Unfair to the pitcher. Thanks for the info SD.

Not a great Twins/Kernels debut as he gave up 5 runs (4earned) in 4 innings. Overall ERA still at 3.26. Just a bad night....

Love the post especially the point of view that makes you feel like your reading a professional scout who happened to bring his family along. Any insights on Reynaldo Rodriguez who's put up good HR numbers or Baxendale who has put up decent numbers before the promotion to AA? Would love to read about CR prospects especially Kepler, Walker, Goodrum, and Harrison.

Thanks Boone, great info. Not expecting much for Carroll but after this one, who knows?

Great write up on the trade from Puckets Pond Unexpected Return: Miguel Sulbaran Traded to the Minnesota Twins - Puckett's Pond - A Minnesota Twins Fan Site - News, Blogs, Opinion and More

Thanks for the input guys!! So we traded a defensive catcher who spent most of the year in AAA for a single A guy with back of the rotation stuff who is still just 19. This is a good deal for us. Even if he doesn't pan out, I think the Twins FO has exceeded expectations. Good job TR and company.

Acquired for Drew Butera, the Twins appear to have a steal in this trade for a 19 yr old LHP. Here is his MiLB page: http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?pos=P&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=606246 I have not found much of a scouting report on him yet but will add that when it is found... Feel free to post one if YOU find one.

I call Miguel Sulbaran as my new prospect...

Mr. Thielbar (as he has earned that level of respect) has established himself as a major league reliever but since he was adopted as a prospect at the beginning of this year his page begs for occasional attention. He has spent more time in the majors this year than in Rochester and he's posted a 0.89 ERA in 31 MLB appearances over 30.1 innings. He has made a total of 48 appearances between AAA and the Majors pitching 56.2 total innings. That makes his season ERA 2.54 which seems more human but is excellent on its own merit. Looking a little deeper, he has 61 Strike Outs to 19 walks. My personal favorite stat is opponents BA. Mr Thielbar has an MLB Opponents BA Of .120. NICE!!!

It's already been reported in numerous places that not only has this been an issue for Sano before, he did a little extra here against a former team mate that he had an infamous confrontation with just two weeks before the ex team mate was cut, he then told the manager he would do what he wanted and did not respond well when Ryan tried to talk to him about it... Yeah he earned a sit down. I just hope he's learning

Grand Slam in the 10th inning while Joe is away receiving baby's instead of baseballs. It seems with the catchers we have coming and our current state of the team, Doumit and Butera both need new homes in new organizations. Nothing against them... Thank you for your time, but its time for the Twins to move on!

I like (correction Love) the BA but when looking merely at stats, I would hope to see a higher OBP especially with that slugging line... Love a SS that can hit 300 though

I think Brett has made his case to remain a starter... Whats the change? What has his fastball been doing? You discussed it early while questioning the radar gun; has his fastball picked up some steam, has he added pitches? What is he doing to make this improvement? Love the idea of starting pitching prospect developing like this for the Twins. That doesn't seem to occur for us.

The new stadium has meant we held on to expensive players (Morneau and Mauer) and we did increase payroll which is still higher than pre Target Field. Unfortunately the wheels came off the rotation. Liriano went South, Baker injured, Blackburn Holy Crap, Slowey was framed, Perkins and Duensing failed as starters, etc and we did not draft a pitcher during the Bill Smith era. Now we Throw in Morneaus issues and we have 2011-2012. Bring on the rebuild and Span and Revere are gone because we have 20 CFs drafted and Sano signed by Smith, and not much else in the minors. What is the point of spending big last off season? Ryan built a team once and he just may do it again or he may fail. I guess my point is, it is way too soon to judge Ryan's job performance.