Dman

OK so I am finally getting on the Kody Funderburk train. Can anyone tell me how hard he throws and or what he is throwing to get all these K's? He wasn't really that great in 2019 but has been dominant to start the year. He looks like one of the best pitchers in the system right now. His K9 is 14.4 and he is a starter not a reliever. He has only walked 9 in 28 innings of work so control does not seem to be an issue. What changed to take him from Ho hum to essentially elite?

Yeah that game had some dominant pitching. 21 of the 27 outs came via K. 12 of 15 for Funderburk, 8 of 9 for Gore and 1 of 3 for Featherstone. Not sure I have ever seen that many K's in a game before. Only 6 outs recorded in the field the entire game. less than one per inning. Pretty crazy when you think about it. Just 6 guys a way from every out being a strike out.

Yeah I was wondering if they wanted to send Hackimer back to AA and if he in turn asked to be released. They are grabbing guys from all over place it is not like they have a good replacement for a guy with the good K9 he has. He had a 0.00 ERA and sub 1 WHIP in AA with 11 K's in 7 innings. Hard to believe you just give up on a guy like that given their options at AAA. I mean if they are willing to keep throwing Gibault out there why not Hackimer. Have to believe there is something behind this as it doesn't make sense on the surface to me. For the record I am not a big Hackimer fan I just don't think he profiles well, but I do think given time he could make MLB. Maybe it was just time to move on as I don't think I would want him on the Twins 40 man but still I was surprised by the release after his great start to the year.

Enlow made the right choice. Waiting typically doesn't help much it at all. Totally sucks that needs TJ and I feel bad for him but with any luck he comes back stronger than ever. We need his arm we need him to be healthy and to work out and I think unfortunately TJ is the best way to get there. I will miss watching him pitch this year. I still think he is going to be monster once he gets healthy. It has been a tough year but better times are ahead.

The Twins will do everything they can to unload Happ and Colome. Depending on where they are at in the standings at the deadline they both could end up DFA's as well. Shoemaker is one of the worst pitchers in MLB there is no trade value left. He will be DFA'd when the Twins are ready to bring another young arm up. I think it is going to be hard to find a taker for Simmons unless his bat heats up. He just is not a difference maker for most teams. It is Pineda and Cruz that have the most value and Cruz only fits for a few teams. Honestly they could look to trade Polanco, or Arraez as they have 2nd base depth in the system and one of those guys could get us something we need. Maybe Berrios but i doubt they find a deal that makes them willing to trade him. Hopefully the farm can produce players that can help us in 2022.

I know he had a rough game the other night but is this something where Hackimer asked for his release or the Twins just giving up on him? He started the year off in AA with 0.00 ERA, .85 WHIP and 11 K's in 7 innings pitched which looks pretty elite in a SSS. I know that all blew up in AAA with a 16.2 ERA and 4.20 WHIP but pitchers have bad games all the time. Didn't mean he was cooked necessarily. Just seems odd with the Twins grabbing guys from almost anywhere to give up on a guy who looked so good just a couple of Weeks ago. Doesn't make much sense to me.

I still have my doubts he sticks as a starter but I guess we will see. The control is good but will he be bale to keep the ball in the park and not give up up runs? He was saved by a triple play and gave up some hard hit balls. I think he is going need to miss more bats to make it IMO.

Yeah I agree with you. He has the most sustainable numbers of any player in the system with a low K rate, sustainable BABIP and while his walk rate could be better guys that make really good contact generally just have lower walk rates and if the K rate is low that is not a problem. Slugging is also not an issue. He is ready they just have to decide when they want to move Miranda to AAA, Steer to AA and Julien to High A. It will be a cascading affect once they make that move. Steer has been struggling with contact so he might be the hold up. Still his eye has been been good with more walks than K's so still seems like he could handle AA to me. Julien has that high BABIP so will see some regression in his numbers but with 23% walk rate he will be OK moving up early. If could cut his K rate by 10% (not easy to do) even if his BABIP normalizes his number would likely be similar. Anyway I digress. There is nothing really holding those three back other than letting them qualify for All Star status. Their numbers speak for themselves IMO. While I know the Twins have a glut of 2nd base options right now in Polanco, Arraez and Gordon I still would like to see Miranda get some time at the MLB level this year. His slugging is going to better than all three of those guys so he could be a difference maker. I don't know what his defense is like at 3rd base but if it is solid he would be nice Donaldson insurance as well and possibly the first legit third baseman the Twins have produced in a long time.

regarding the bullpen it seems like they felt they had an ample supply of arms that they could turn into something. They had already done it with Harper and Wisler and they doubled\tripled down on it this year and the results have been horrible. While they managed to get some of those guys to throw harder they also couldn't find the plate and walked way too many batters. Even the guys they squeezed stuff out of in Harper and Wisler aren't doing well anymore so some of that was luck IMO. I do think they were over confident that they could identify things that could make pitchers better and it didn't work out this year. Still bullpens are fickle and they needed more than they have gotten out of the one they built this year. Like many have said I didn't mind the Shoemaker signing. I didn't expect him to be great but also didn't expect him to be one of the worst pitcher's in baseball either. I sure hope some of the guys we have coming up are going to be good or we are going to be a bad team for a long time.

Julien and Schmidt could easily move up but odds are they give them a few more weeks so that they can get a chance to be nominated and or play in the All-Star game before moving to High A. Pitching should be tightening in A ball as the pitchers gain more experience so they should be challenged but was hoping if moved early that they both might have a shot at AA if they kept hitting in High A. Still two levels a year puts them on track so probably no hurry. Like Roger I was happily surprised to see Javier in this list. He has had contact issues for so long I never could have imagined a 4 hit game coming from him ever. Hopefully this is the beginning of big things to come but he needs to sustain it to make me a believer. I like Palacios better right now and he has been very solid all year. Hoping he can be seem as viable solution for SS in near future.

I tend to agree with you but they are just an injury away from Cruz being a fit. It would be tricky to work a deal with Tampa as the Twins would have to eat salary and I don't know what their appetite for that is going to be after the losses during COVID and them spending higher than normal this year. Personally I think they will want to dump salary if they can at the deadline. Still if Tampa wanted Cruz they have a lot of middle infield talent and we need infield talent. One Guy that I think might work for Cruz would be Greg Jones. He has the Speed and arm for the position and some decent power. The hit tool is suspect but it looks like he has a decent eye at the plate. Twins might need to take on most all of Cruz's salary or add a non top 30 pitcher\player to be named later that Tampa likes to make it all work but could be a possibility. Another guy might be Carlos Colmenarez. It would be risky for the Twins because he was a top 4 international signing and those don't always work out but it might work as a way for Tampa to offset Cruz's salary since they already dumped 3M into signing Colmenarez they could offer the cost of acquiring him to offset Cruz's salary. It is a much bigger risk for the Twins since international signings don't generally pan out but Tampa has been pretty darn good at identifying international talent so might be worth the risk. At any rate Tampa has players further down that are still interesting for Cruz and they should be in go for it mode since they are leading their division right now. Like you said though they don't have an immediate need for Cruz and they might find options with more versatility more to their liking than just a DH only player. Will have to wait and see but the Twins would match up well with Tampa's excess of middle infield prospects if they like Cruz.

Congrats to Jax for making it to MLB. It is not easy to get there. Jax likes to go right at guys with strikes and walks very few. His main issues have been giving up too many hits which is probably a by product of being in the zone too much and a low K rate which can run his pitch count up because he can't get the K and guys foul stuff off until they get a hit or make an out. Despite all that he has always kept his ERA and WHIP in reasonable area's year in and year out. The thing is when you hit the majors and don't have an out pitch things generally don't go that well. He got 10 K's his last time out so maybe, just maybe he is on to something and can make it as a 5th starter. Otherwise like the OP said he should have a good chance to do well in the pen. That is where I have had him pegged for a few years now. I guess we will see where he ends up this year as he is on the 40 man now and would hate to lose him on waivers as I think he can be a good MLB pitcher given time. He has good command he just needs to be able to get guys out at the highest level.

The Twins spent big this year, at least for them, thinking they had a good team. I suspect they will do what they can to move salaries for Happ, Simmons and Cruz. That would allow them to recoup some of the money invested. Most of the players on this team are so bad though they have little to no trade value (i.e. Colome, Robles, Shoemaker) so I don't see them getting any prospects that help that much back unless they are willing to trade guys that have more years left. They probably don't want to trade Jose thinking they can try and fix the rotation in the offseason and they have to hope one or two of their young pitchers will look ready to start next year they just won't want starting pithing to be too bare heading into the offseason. I don't think they will get a return for Buxton that they like enough to move him either so I doubt we get much out of this season other than heart ache. If they can't work the trade angle then they are pretty much stuck with what they have on the farm. Their two top rated pitchers Duran and Balazovich don't look ready now maybe by the end of the season. Their two best hitters Larnach and Kirilloff are already essentially a part of the MLB team but the only potential elite hitter behind them is Miranda. If you squint you can say Rooker, Celestino and Palacios but they all seem more like they might be replacement level players than elite players. Anyone else looks years away and honestly it doesn't feel like they have elite hitters in the system anymore, more like guys that hit the ball hard and K a lot, they are mostly slow players as well. Unless guys suddenly perform at extremely high levels the system doesn't look all that great to me unless some of those international signings come through for them. On the Pitching side there seems like lot's of options as there are several prospects who are performing well. Most all the guys they have coming up are hard throwers and have good K rates. With all the pitching coming up they might be OK in that area but to this point no one they have picked has made it other than Dobnak and he hasn't been that great this year. So we have no idea if any of those guys will have what it takes to make it. They have had several guys try (i.e. Thorpe, Smeltzer, Dobnak etc) but they all have faltered and barely can be called 5th starters. This way this team is constructed right now reminds me of the old White Sox. A team who generally managed to be average to slightly below average every year despite having some elite players just not enough to make a difference. Unless the Twins can make some moves to move the needle I think the mediocrity is likely here to stay.

Appreciate the heads up. If you look closer though he only had 2 K's so everyone was hitting his stuff which when it goes right to the defense is not a big deal but when it doesn't I'd say he gives up a big inning. For comparison sake at AAA this year he and Barnes have about the same number of K's and Barnes has a ERA is better. Mainly due to the fact that Kohl gave up 3 HR's (good contact). My guess is his good game is short lived but nice to see him doing well. He was under the microscope in MN because we needed pitching so badly, maybe time and little less pressure can help him stay in MLB.

If his arm would have held up I believe Alex Meyer would have made the jump. How good he would have been is hard to say but I think mid rotation would have been likely but in the end his arm couldn't take it so it didn't matter as he didn't make it. Stewart's peripherals were never good. It was always hope that he would develop. His K rate pretty poor through most of the system but he did keep his ERA in check so there was always hope but again he did not work out. Romero looked like a sure thing. Floor was supposed to be elite reliever. The K rate and everything looked good even a couple of games in MLB and then the wheels fell off. He was never the same again and another one bites the dust. Thorpe and Gonslaves had great numbers through the minors but they were never hard throwers. K rates were good to great but I don't think the stuff is going to translate well for either of them. They were two guys I think a lot of us were banking on as sure things for at least a solid 5th starter role but they never worked out. Jorge was another guy who was borderline as his peripherals showed issues but I believe he made the top 10 Twins prospects list and his floor appeared to be reliever but he never made it either. I never liked May much as a prospect as his control was bad IMO but lots of other people liked him. He made it to elite reliever so better than most on this list. Duffy and Rogers have been pretty good as relievers but yeah we were hoping for starters but at least a level of success. Chargios Burdi and Tonkin made it but wouldn't say they were difference makers. Berrios stands alone as the only one to make a difference out of that group. Ynoa might make it as well but will have to wait and see yet. You are right there were a lot of guys to hope and dream on that didn't didn't hit their ceiling, some guys hit their floors and lots of them didn't make it or make a difference at all. I agree with you that the jump from AAA to MLB is a tough one. Playing against the best of the best leaves little room for error. Call it blind hope or optimism but I do like the guys we have coming up better than your list above as the K rates are there. The velocity is there. The pitch mix is there. I think this is the best group of quality pitchers we have had in the system in maybe ever. I have to believe at least a couple of those guys work out. If not then this team is in real trouble.

This team is just so bad in all phases. Defense, Offense, relief pitching, Starting pitching. I mean usually a team can hang their hat on a couple of those areas I just can't remember seeing a team this bad before in all 4 phases before Honestly any players they have in the minors that they think are a part of the future they should bring up ASAP so they can get them acclimated to the MLB game because this team is so bad there really is no redemption for them this year. Honestly there is no trade value for Shoemaker so cutting him and getting someone like WInder or Canterino up makes more sense to me. Winder has to be added by the end of this year anyway to avoid Rule V as does Sands. Might as well see what they have ASAP as Winder is already 24 and will be 25 in October. I guess we might have to wait for the deadline to see who we can trade to make more room but this year is lost and with all phases of the game bad the vets are not going to turn this thing around.

Louie did not have his typical strike two guys out per inning game but he was much more efficient walking no one and only allowing three hits for a 0.5 WHIP. That is crazy dominant and pretty efficient too. Speaking of efficient Winder almost made it 7 innings last night too but ran out of gas in that last inning and gave up some runs. He didn't K as many guys as normal either but making it six and almost seven is probably a better outcome anyway. They both pitched really well and Louie gives hope that they have another good hard throwing pitcher on the way up. Palacios was having a tough night until his hit just barely made it past the centerfielder. Had to feel great to get that the game winning run after not having a hit all night. His bat has been a solid presence in that lineup so far this year and if he keeps it going another month I have to believe they will move him up. Also nice to see Helman move back over the Mendoza line with his three hit night. He has been a steaky hitter to start the year but if he takes off could be a good one. The top of the order in High A have been in a big funk and it is affecting their ability to get rally's started and generate wins. Hopefully they turn things around soon. I too was bummed by Duran's night but he just started pitching this year and his body is getting used to the routine so his arm might not have been quite the same. Let's give him a month and see if he settles in or if control is going to be a legitimate concern. He still needs to master that third pitch to be truly effective at the MLB level so the Twins are likely more interested in getting him innings and refining that pitch than other outcomes anyway.

I think this might be the best stretch I have seen Barnes pitch in quite some time. He and Jax have really been good at AAA to start the year. He seems to be getting back to the Barnes of 2018. Have to see if that holds or not though. I have to say I am losing hope that Thorpe will ever be more than a marginal pitcher. Too often he gets hit hard and gives up tons of runs. He just isn't getting the K's he needs to be a professional pitcher. IMO relief is the best he can do and he needs to find a K pitch. I really like what Schulfer did in 2019 and was interested to see how his stuff would play at the higher levels. He has not been as good at AA. I know the layoff might have affected him but I still him as more of a reliever than starter. He has the stuff to get K's but I think it plays better in shorter stints. We'll see if he improves in June as a starter but he has not looked that good so far. I am really hoping Palacios's swing is back. We need more guys that can make a difference at SS in the system. He is off to a great start this year hoping he keeps it up. Funderburk is having a dominant start to the season his 32 K's in 23 innings is a vast improvement over his prior years. I don't know what it is but when an error is made he seems to go into meltdown mode. I saw it happen in 2019 and it happened again last night. Something to work on I guess but a dominant night for him non the less. Man the bats at High A have fallen off a cliff. No one has been hitting much all week. Ever since they had those games where they were no hit and close to no hit the bats have been very cold. Sawyer Gipson Long is a guy I kind of pinned my hopes on would be perhaps an elite pitcher. The K rate is there and he throws tons of strikes it is just his penchant for giving up runs that is disconcerting. I don't know why but even with a dominant line he gives up more runs than you would like to see. Granted he got off to rough start to start the year and has been much better the past few times out but if he fixes that he seems to have what he needs to move up. To be honest the more dominant pitcher in this one was German. 8 out of the 10 guys he faced he K'd. Doesn't get much more dominant than that. I knew the kid had some stuff but not that kind of stuff. The bats looked OK and Julien finally climbed out of his slump with a three hit night. Some good pitching but lot's of hitters need to get back on track.

I agree they will go with Celestino if needed. He is on the 40 man, is solid defensively and while the bat will likely be a liability at least he is someone they can move up and down as needed. He can play in AAA as well as AA the competition isn't all that much different. Getting some MLB at bats isn't going to hurt him either and he can't be much worse than most of the rest of the team. Broxton is just so bad at the plate it seems like it would be better to give those at bats to Celestino. He honestly can't do worse than what Broxton is doing right now at AAA. They will need to be careful with who they put on the 40 man unless they are willing to lose them because they have a lot of rule V pitchers coming up as well as Miranda and possibly Palacios if he continues to hit. Maybe they don't care if they lose Kerigan or Broxton hard to say but I don't see one of the other options having much of a chance unless of coarse they think Buxton is coming back even later than expected or not at all this year. That might change the decision making. Still I think Celestino is next in line. His bat was starting to warm up so maybe they feel he is ready for another shot.

I will echo your thoughts. If the deal is too good to pass up trade him. If you don't think you can extend him, trade him. If you can extend and there is no great trade deal to be had hang onto him it is not like we have tons of starter that can give us the good innings he does.

This is a good article to bring things in better perspective. For myself as a fan while I try to be objective sometimes frustration pushes you to extremes and you just want to blame this or blame that because your favorite team and its players just can't be this bad. Blame the umpire, blame the coach, blame the weather, blame injuries, blame the baseball gods, things are not going right so something is to blame. I don't always know exactly what it is but can usually think of several things I think, i think are problem areas. Is it rational or logical probably not but sometimes expressing my disgust does help me feel better. I might not be proud of what I said later but at least expressing it moves it from inside my brain to outside so I can stop thinking about it for a while. Self imposed misery is irrational but most sports fans cling to it because we care too much about the outcome of games that in the end mean nothing but bragging rights for a day or if a championship a year. Riding the roller coaster emotions of sports will take you up and down all year. This site has always been good about not allowing posters to go too far with personal attacks especially derogatory language. I know I have been called out a time or two and deleted a post that others didn't think appropriate. Emotions push us to extremes but it helps to have boundaries to bring us back. That is why I like this site so much. We can discuss things we feel and leave out a lot of unnecessary language. We can find numbers and facts to prove points of view. We can ignore number and facts and just state our opinion. Is Baldelli perfect? I doubt it, so there will always be things to criticize and as long as people have solid reasons I am OK with that after all it comes with the job. Do we need to degrade him to feel better about ourselves? That is where the line needs to be drawn IMO. There is no real benefit to that kind of behavior other than sinking into the gutter ourselves. Baldelli needs to work on perfecting his craft just like the players do. He will learn more about himself and the manager job this year than the previous two years combined. Sometimes having things go wrong is the best teacher. Plenty of things have gone wrong so he should learn a lot this year and be better prepared for next year.

Reggi Grace got lucky in the 2nd as he had the bases loaded with no outs on two walks and a single. Somehow, someway they got the runner at home twice and a groundout to end it with no damage done. While he didn't give up many hits he kept the bases busy with hbp's and walks. There is a lot work to do for him to gain control and command. Bats were quiet for the Fort last night. Beck did not have the juice last night and got lucky to only give up two runs. Personally I wonder since he has never been a starter if his arm isn't responding to starting quite as well as hoped but we will see. Shreve has the uncanny ability to give up runs and yet K almost two of every three batters he faces. Guy has some good stuff looks like someone who will move up soon but needs to be more careful giving up runs.. Gore keeps hanging in there but seems to run into issue with control at times. He looks like he might have good stuff just probably needs more time to get the hang of pitching. Cabbage was the story in this one with the big blast, but Camargo also had a big HR to keep his OPS from tanking. I don't know how magic man Vallimont got away giving up only one run with a WHIP of 2 for four his 4 innings pitched. He was not good Vallimont tonight but he didn't hurt himself or the team that much so there is that. The guys behind him pitched great and they needed to because the Surge only scored two runs. The one guy that is crazy hot right now is Boyd who is hitting 700 right now. It has only been a few games but this guy seems like he could be something. We will see what happens once he cools down but his bat has really helped this lineup. No real stand out starters last night and not many runs scored except in High A with the two big HR's. Hopefully lots of lessons learned though.

The answer to the question is Duran. Just very interested to see how his stuff would play right now at the MLB level. He very well may not be ready but he holds the hope of being a mid to top of the rotation starter depending on the third pitch. I know, I know don't get your hopes up but if Palacios can turn into a starting MLB shortstop that would be just what the Twins need right now. It is only one month and only AA but if he just keep that OPS better than 750 and not K too much he could really, really help this team. That last start was Jax at his best. He likes to attack hitters but he also generally gives up too many hits. Nice to see him mixing things up and striking guys out. If he can keep that up I have to believe the Twins give him shot because because he has really good command. His only issue has been a fairly high WHIP and ultimately ERA because he gives up so much contact. Missing bats make him much more dangerous. The lineup at AAA doesn't look like much but they have found ways to score runs and the pitching has been good except for Andrew Albers who has 7.11 and 1.75 WHIP ick. He has been horrible for St. Paul but when his country comes calling apparently lights out with no hits allowed in 7 innings. Anyway pretty awesome to see St Paul Saints Sweep a 6 game series that is really hard to do. Hope they keep it going and keep the hometown fans happy. I don't know how Ober does it but he sure gets a lot of K's and he has kept his AAA ERA down as well. Just needs to refine things a bit more and he should be a reliable MLB 5th starter or long man. I am still a believer. I am still a big fan of Sands as well. Love how aggressive he can be challenging hitters and yet he get's his K's and keeps runs to minimum as well. We need productive guys from this system here's hoping that several prospects continue to excel.

Dang that is a sad list. No Cruz, no Buxton, no Kepler, no 23 million dollar man Donaldson. You can see why this club has fallen so far this year just based on the lack of elite bats on the team. Sano's 2 good games and a couple other dingers won Honorable mention at #3 for the month that is just laugh out loud stuff or a crying shame not sure which. I think we need some more young blood to get this team moving. The older players don't look capable.

In general I agree with you. Lot's of teams that were good the year before falter because of injuries or slumps that just lasted to long or a leaky bullpen or poor defense. There are lot's of things that can happen to take you first to last and last to first. Even this season for the Twins if the bullpen would have held for 4 of those games instead of given them up we might be close enough to 500 to keep battling. If they don't throw the game away on error's in that A's game add another win. Little things like that add up and the season gets away from a team. I think the majority of the board agrees the bullpen just doesn't have the kind of lights out arms they would like to see. Still it is hard to argue against the FO when their bullpens finished in the top 5 to 10 each year. I think their goal is to develop enough pitching that they have excess talent leak into the bullpen but that looks years away at this point. They have been focusing on elite hitting in the draft for awhile now even taking hitters with their supplemental picks but to me it looks like their strategy is failing as all those guys seem to have the same flaws they don't have good contact rates and K too much (i.e. Rooker, Sabato, Wallner). Maybe those guys will come around yet I don't know but they don't look like they are going to live up to the Prospects the WhiteSox have already so that is a problem IMO. They have done better at finding good pitchers later on in the draft (i.e. Enlow, Canterino, Sands, Winder) but none of them have made it to MLB yet so can't say for sure what that success rate might be. What this FO needs is for teams to bid against each other at the deadline for our players and get some prospects to fill in the gaps in the system. They also need another really good draft as they have a supplemental 1st rounder again and need to make that pick count. They are going to need some prospect luck to get out the rut of mediocrity they are in.