Shane Wahl

Oops, I can't read a calendar apparently. I thought there was a game Monday. Well sending DeVries down is fine. I just wonder how Parmelee would have fared given 60 plate appearances at Rochester last year and 190 or whatever there this year. If he is playing in a semi-limited role for the Twins for the rest of June and hits .230 in that time, what good is that? Sean Burroughs could have been an option. Oh well.

I would never put a player at the top of a prospect list without seeing how said player does beyond high school.

Diamond. To a lesser extent P.J. Walters. To a lesser-than-that extent Cole DeVries. This team with average starting pitching would probably be ahead of the Tigers in the division right now. (Given that, if a coach matters, Cuellar deserves credit . . . . but if Anderson is correcting Liriano than he gets credit for that too). And now a Span-Revere-Mauer-Willingham-Morneau-Doumit 1-6 looks pretty formidable too (IF THEY ALL GET HEALTHY AT THE SAME TIME).

I agree that having a LH bat on the bench would be helpful, but I disagree about AAA at bats, especially after struggling that much this year with the Twins.

Pretty fast recall. Does he start every day now? Is Morneau more hurt than perhaps has been let on? I know Parmelee was hitting very well in AAA, his FIRST time there. But only 58 plate appearances? Why not seeing how he does in his first stint in AAA over 158 plate appearances before bringing him up to not play every day? I hope we don't see Anthony Swarzak in the rotation again.

His OPS has increased slightly from last year while moving up a level.

Casilla is fine defensively. But he is not going to be on the 2013 Twins.

Well, I wouldn't mind seeing him at 2B, perhaps. This would hurt Casilla (who at the very least, aside from a few games' mental errors, has been great defensively) since Gardenhire, for whatever reason, doesn't think Casilla can play SS. I would not send Dozier down to Rochester.

Herrmann continues to underwhelm, posting a .582 OPS in his last 10 games. In that time he has drawn some more walks, but he is not getting many hits. He definitely is still a possibility for promotion to Rochester this year, but he must start hitting and turn this regression around. He was 2 for 5 Wednesday night.

Yeah, Oliveros and Nelson may make that Delmon trade good.

Yes, he had surgery. He would have made a huge difference this year. He strikes people out. He was drafted in the 42 round out of high school . . .

Thanks for posting the video. Good to see.

So . . . I haven't read much . . . how is Mauer? Good to see Plouffe at first.

Haha! Purdue pitcher Brad Schrieber selected as the last Twins pick.

I did not actually know that. I did not read the book, obviously. I had just assumed that it was orignally setup to be a book about the exact way the A's maximized on their payroll issues, by relying on statistics (OBP, mainly) instead of "the sound of the bat" kind of scouting. Interesting. They would have had to cast Ed Harris as Terry Ryan.

Might be hard to tell this year. I would expect 20. Might be 25+ though.

Well, he hits well from the right side against lefties. And is bad from the left side against righties. It isn't necessarily about "giving up" on the switch-hitting, but about experimenting with him batting from the right side against righties. If he isn't better from the right side, somehow, I would be surprised though.

While I cannot really think of anyone at the moment who was a reliever in college and who became a starter in the bigs (not just for the Twins . . . . but in baseball . . . . someone needs to research this!), I think there might be a bit of a misunderstanding about why certain pitchers are relievers in college. First, often times college teams don't specialize their relievers nearly as much (or as stupidly, in my view) as teams have done in the majors. Relievers often come in for multiple innings at a time. Second, sometimes relievers are relievers in college simply because they are better as relievers than other pitchers on the team, but that says nothing about how they compare as starters. Purdue's best pitcher this year, by far, was Nick Wittgren. He is, by far, the only one likely to make the majors on the staff, and there is a 50/50 chance that it will be as a starter if he does make it. He was the team's closer (though that sometimes meant three innings). I am not defending the strategy, but there may be something to the idea that the Twins don't want overused arms. They have obviously had some injury issues with starting college pitchers lately. They can sign these college relievers and give them a bunch of innings this year without too much worry. And they aren't generally taking any old reliever . . . they are taking hard throwers.

How on earth were the Twins considered to featured in Moneyball? This organization is notorious for ignoring statistics in favor of "seeing-eye" scouting.

I wasn't thinking about the fact that 35 or so go to the GCL. That actually works out to about right. That's strange about Lockwood. I guess they have so many infielders from low-A down. On a side note: not that Lockwood is that phenomenal or anything, but he is the kind of guy that I look toward signing as opposed to signing the Shawn Roofs of the world. Not that a Lockwood-esque player goes to AA, but I would prefer to sign younger guys and put in the lower levels and promote (promoting either prospects or guys who are getting playing time instead of top prospects, but who could get a jump-start by moving up themselves). I know that the upper levels need some veterans, but I would prefer adding youth as opposed to Joe Thurston and co. (and Thyrlos probably concurs). I mean there have to be a few guys cut at this level (not making it past short season) that could produce if given the chance. Just seems better to plant as many seeds as possible (young guys) and not have so many weeds (Clete Thomas, Joe Thurston, Shawn Roof, etc.) (I don't mean that to be dehumanizing, but I like the analogy).

No I don't think it is worth a try. One cannot just start pitching again after several seasons not doing it. A whole bunch of stuff has to change, including workouts and training. An injury is the most likely result from that kind of an experiment. He's 22 at AA. His defense is excellent and there is no reason to think that the offense won't improve given two more minor league seasons.

Arcia is not a switch hitter. He just struggles mightily against lefties (though he makes up for it).

The top 16 signed last year and 20 out of the top 21 signed. Today's picks are much more doubtful. That said, I think last year was a bit unusually high in the number of people actually signing. I would expect a pretty similar result this year as last now with the rule changes.

Can teams just add GCL teams!? I mean, if everyone did it I understand, but could an organization really just add another whole team? Reminds me of high school teams playing each other a few years after one of the districts adds a second middle school (and thus another team with more players getting better). I forgot about the signing deadline being moved up. I still don't understand why some wait until the end to sign. I mean maybe it is a few hundred thousand bucks they are haggling over (with the big signees) . . . but losing out on 100+ at bats or 30+ innings or whatever seems more of an unsound economic decision by 18-22-year-old players (Michael, Harrison, Boyd . . . ), Finally, I am obviously all about some promotions and sending oldster non-prospects, non performers packing. I am interested in seeing how that plays out over the next two weeks.

I am wondering where in the hell everyone from EST and whatever relatively quick draft signees are going to go when things start for the GCL Twins (June 18) and Elizabethon (June 19). EXTENDED SPRING TRAINING ROSTER Pitchers: Ricardo Arevalo, Tim Atherton*, Hudson Boyd, Josh Burris, Hung Yi Chen, Steven Evans, Dallas Gallant (missed last year with Tommy John surgery), Tyler Herr, Trent Higginbotham, David Hurlbut*, Garrett Jewell, Cole Johnson, Tyler Jones*, Corey Kimes, Brett Lee, Kuo Hua Lo, Austin Malinowski, Angel Mata, Chris Mazza, Josue Montanez, Luis Nunez, Gerardo Ramirez, Hein Robb, Gonzalo Sanudo, Tobias Streich (moved to Pitcher from Catcher) Catchers: Jonathan Arias, Kelly Cross, Matt Parker, Michael Quesada, Jacob Younis Infielders: Josh Hendricks, Kennys Vargas, Nick Lockwood, Candido Pimentel, Julio Torres, Stephen Wickens, Niko Goodrum, Aderling Mejia, Javier Pimentel, Jorge Polanco, Wander Guillen, Travis Harrison Outfielders: Romy Jimenez, Max Kepler, Drew Leachman*, Kelvin Mention, Kelvin Ortiz, Dereck Rodriguez * denotes players already with Beloit (they may be a couple more I am forgetting). Draft picks so far: #15 (440) - Jarret Leverett - LHP - COL - Georgia Southern #14 (410) - Jake Proctor - CF - COL - Cincinnati #13 (380) - Erich Knab - RHP - HS - South Carolina #12 (350) - Alex Muren - RHP - COL - Cal St. Northridge #11 (340) - Taylor Rogers - LHP - COL - Kentucky #10 (310) - Doug (DJ) Baxendale - RHP - COL - Arkansas-Fayetteville #9 (280) - LJ Mazzilli - 2B - COL - U Connecticut (Lee Mazzilli's son) #8 (250) - Christian Powell - COL - RHP - College of Charleston #7 (220) - Jorge Fernandez - C - HS - Puerto Rico #6 (190) - Andre Martinez - LHP - HS - Florida #5 (160) - Tyler Duffey - RHP - COL - Rice U #4 (130) - Zach Jones - RHP - COL - San Jose State #3 (97) - Adam Walker - RF - COL - Jacksonville U #2 (72) - JT Chargois - RHP - COL - Rice U #2 (63) - Mason Melotakis - LHP - COL - Northwestern State (LA) #1S (42) - Luke Bard - RHP - COL - Georgia Tech #1S (32) - Jose Orlando Berrios - RHP - HS - Puerto Rico# #1 (2) - Byron Buxton - OF - HS - Georgia That's something like 34 pitchers and 13 infielders. Are there going to be a bunch of cuts? And who goes where?