Shane Wahl

AH, there are a bunch of pitchers who throw 90+ in the system. Is this a serious question? Alphabetically, here are a bunch: Madison Boer, Ricky Bowen, Hudson Boyd, Josh Burris, Jhon Garcia, Kyle Gibson, Deolis Guerra, Matt Hauser, Liam Hendriks, Brett Jacobson, Cole Nelson, Lester Oliveros, Ryan O'Rourke, Marty Popham, Bruce Pugh, Adrian Salcedo, Manuel Soliman . . . . and the alphabet keeps going.

Another thought: I would prefer that Rochester were a place where the vast majority of the roster was serious, meaning either legitimate prospects or older veterans who the big club wouldn't hesitate at all to call up to fill in here and there. Of course you need some other guys too, like one or two catchers who are planted at AAA for stability's sake and working with pitchers, and super utility guys who provide flexibility. You know, like Drew Butera and Brian Dinkelman, guys one would never dream of calling up . . . wait (I realize that isn't fair to Dinkelman and I like that he got to play some for the Twins last year). Without looking back past last year, I am thinking of Jeff Bailey, Chase Lambin, and Matt Brown. What on earth? Bailey was actually pretty good too, but apparently they weren't serious about him. I know that people are going to talk about making Rochester competitive with solid AAA veteran players, but that doesn't necessarily make the team more competitive. Sometimes prospects and smarter minor league free agent signings will do that. (I originally started this as a forum post, but then it got longish and bloggish--that decision is probably detrimental for discussion perhaps)

Seth, thanks for the response. I did neglect to mention that I would imagine at some point, say, Maloney gets DFAed and the Twins add a position player . . . probably either Mastroianni or Carson, so that would open it up somewhat. You were right to note the congestion that would be there otherwise. How much of a signing bonus did Romero get. I wouldn't think that sweet minor league monthly money would allow for laziness! This year's reduced K rate and increased slugging might deserve a reward though. I don't want to see Sano and Rosario struggle, but I am going to want to see them challenged in a month or so. Sano, in particular, facing better pitching will be good for him. Right now I have to wonder if he isn't just swinging as hard as he can at everything and since the pitching is fairly weaker at low-A, it doesn't really matter because they groove enough pitches. And if they do struggle a bit, that might tell us more about Arcia, and to a lesser extent Morales, than Sano and Rosario. Fair enough about AAA. But there is a difference between Matt Carson and Joe Thurston . . . Notice that I didn't touch pitching. That is a stranger animal when trying to figure out promotions and probably requires more "eye" scouting.

Blackburn's contract was a huge, inexcusable mistake. Without it, he would be playing for another team at this point or would be in the bullpen in long relief. That money isn't going anywhere. He will be a Twin in 2013. Liriano should be sent packing either at the trade deadline or in the offseason. His delivery is a mess. I assume that Casilla will be on your list eventually too. And then Valencia and Plouffe.

2006 also featured Francisco Liriano and Pat Neshek is pretty dominant form. Dennys Reyes and Juan Rincon also struck out a lot of guys. Slama is getting the shaft and I don't understand it.

Yes, on two fronts, from tonight's game (didn't see much of Monday's game): one, he made a ballsy sliding play and popped up quickly with a strong throw to first, and two, not ballsy, but fundamentally sound . . . he charges the damn ball. Charging the ball makes up for any average arm (which it may be, but average is still, well, good enough).

The Twins will start making their second round of minor league moves in the next few weeks leading up to the draft and the beginning of the short season. Here are some moves that should be made sooner than later: ROCHESTER Release: Joe Thurston and Clete Thomas (neither one is worth keeping around, stealing plate appearances from players who are either prospects or who could be fill-ins for the Twins in a pinch). I am tired of keeping around such players for no good reason. Why don't they sign Jeff Bailey and Chase Lambin to mess around for a year again? NEW BRITAIN to ROCHESTER Filling in for those two departures should be Deibinson Romero and Wilkin Ramirez (Ramirez belongs in AAA in the first place, and Romero is off to a strong start in a bounce-back year for him). When I complain about the general slowness of Twins minor league promotions, Romero is the kind of player that comes to mind. 592 plate appearances at AA is enough for someone turning 26 in less than four months. He has 2200+ minors plate appearances right now, which is above average for about 3/4 of all systems for total plate appearances before promotion to MLB. In the era of Danny Valencia's struggles, it is time to see what someone like Romero can do when promoted to AAA. Ramirez is someone who still has upside. His major problem is his BB/K ratio, but he has some speed and some pop and can play everywhere in the OF. FORT MYERS to NEW BRITAIN Jairo Perez (and later, hopefully, Oswaldo Arcia). The Twins should probably hold off on Arcia and let him develop, but after 2011, I am curious how Perez would do when pushed, and he can fill in for Romero's vacant spot. Perez is still slugging and drawing walks this year, and that is a very good sign. Since Perez's defense has it's issues, the Twins may look to sign some younger available player, even from an independent league to join the squad in Chris Colabello fashion. This would allow Anderson Hidalgo to see if he can still hack it by playing 3B/DH more as well. He struggled early, but has hit well in the past few games, including a 6 rbi performance. And soon: BELOIT to FORT MYERS Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario, and Matthew Koch. Not much needs to said here, but I really want to see if what happened to Oswaldo Arcia at Fort Myers happens to Sano and Rosario. Koch is a legitimate catching prospect and is 23 1/2 years old. I am also curious to see if he can hold his own in Fort Myers.

The Twins will start making their second round of minor league moves in the next few weeks leading up to the draft and the beginning of the short season. Here are some moves that should be made sooner than later: ROCHESTER Release: Joe Thurston and Clete Thomas (neither one is worth keeping around, stealing plate appearances from players who are either prospects or who could be fill-ins for the Twins in a pinch). I am tired of keeping around such players for no good reason. Why don't they sign Jeff Bailey and Chase Lambin to mess around for a year again? NEW BRITAIN to ROCHESTER Filling in for those two departures should be Deibinson Romero and Wilkin Ramirez (Ramirez belongs in AAA in the first place, and Romero is off to a strong start in a bounce-back year for him). When I complain about the general slowness of Twins minor league promotions, Romero is the kind of player that comes to mind. 592 plate appearances at AA is enough for someone turning 26 in less than four months. He has 2200+ minors plate appearances right now, which is above average for about 3/4 of all systems for total plate appearances before promotion to MLB. In the era of Danny Valencia's struggles, it is time to see what someone like Romero can do when promoted to AAA. Ramirez is someone who still has upside. His major problem is his BB/K ratio, but he has some speed and some pop and can play everywhere in the OF. FORT MYERS to NEW BRITAIN Jairo Perez (and later, hopefully, Oswaldo Arcia). The Twins should probably hold off on Arcia and let him develop, but after 2011, I am curious how Perez would do when pushed, and he can fill in for Romero's vacant spot. Perez is still slugging and drawing walks this year, and that is a very good sign. Since Perez's defense has it's issues, the Twins may look to sign some younger available player, even from an independent league to join the squad in Chris Colabello fashion. This would allow Anderson Hidalgo to see if he can still hack it by playing 3B/DH more as well. He struggled early, but has hit well in the past few games, including a 6 rbi performance. And soon: BELOIT to FORT MYERS Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario, and Matthew Koch. Not much needs to said here, but I really want to see if what happened to Oswaldo Arcia at Fort Myers happens to Sano and Rosario. Koch is a legitimate catching prospect and is 23 1/2 years old. I am also curious to see if he can hold his own in Fort Myers.

Fluke or not, I enjoy seeing actual prospects playing who look confident and perform. Hendriks looked confident but didn't perform, but I would still lump him in with Dozier and Diamond. I have been calling for Diamond since Liriano's bad start almost 3 weeks ago. One thing to think about is that playing prospects full-time and winning more games are not mutually exclusive. Now Parmelee has been both unlucky and preyed upon (see Parker's excellent article) and probably needs to head back down, but I am starting to like what Rochester is giving the Twins. Now . . . will they (Rochester) stop wasting time playing joke players like Joe Thurston?

By all means give him a chance to fix this. He's been at Rochester enough so there is no point in trying to send him down. He has to put up or go away.

I agree about Sano and Rosario if they continue this for another 100 plate appearances or so. It is OK to wait until the short season is here and some of the EST or quick signing draftees go to Beloit. That said, FTM needs somebody besides poor Andy Leer manning third base!

But he can't be sitting for that reason. That's crazy.

Ulgh. "Thanks" for pointing that out. That is egregious. And plenty of the positions worse than RF for the Twins are not going to stay that way with Byrd, Alexei Ramirez, Morel, Rayburn, Bartlett, and Barajas all underperforming. What an embarrassment. Komatsu will help, true, but I still have to wonder what the Twins would be like if the OF was Revere, Span, Willingham regularly.

I have to doubt that . . . right? I mean Perkins fooled both the runner and Parmelee with either a great move or a balk . . .

For Wimmers' sake, but for yours as well (!), I hope Alex is fine in a month or so. Gibson, Wimmers, Solimon, Bromberg have or are faced/facing health issues now. That's four out of the teams top 6-8 pitching prospects.

Strike that . . . Parmelee, not Willingam. So . . . the actual prospect sits while DREW BUTERA plays . . .

Is Butera seriously playing? Good god. They didn't even wait for Pavano to pitch again before getting this non-player into the lineup. THIS is why many people did not like the idea of calling him back up. This is precisely what happens with Gardenhire. Casilla and Willingham are so out of commission that they can't even DH? AND . . . is Casilla a few days from now headed to the DL? At the very least, Maloney should have been DFAed and Chang or Carson or Bates should have been promoted when Morneau (finally) went to the DL. That player could have been easily sent back down when Morneau was "healthy" enough to play again.

Well that coupled with Willingham's inability to move to RF (I know he has been dynamite at the plate, but still). I cannot imagine that the Twins collective RF numbers have been better than Revere would have been as the primary LF.

"Good to see the average age in the Twins' minor league teams (esp. in Rochester where that was not true recently) is right about League Average. Here are the numbers. Rochester: Hitters: 27.1, Pitchers: 26.5 (International League: Hitters: 27.4 Pitchers: 27.5) New Britain: Hitters: Pitchers: 25.3 (Eastern League: 24.5 Hitters: Pitchers: 25) Fort Myers: Hitters: 22.5 Pitchers: 23.2 (Florida State League: Hitters:22.7 Pitchers: 22.9) Beloit: Hitters: 21.7 Pitchers: 22.3 (Midwest League: Hitters: 21.5 Pitchers: 21.9)" Yes that is good to see, especially with Rochester. Now if Joe Thurston could just go away . . .

Yeah, I would have expected Valencia to split the difference between 2010 and 2011. That would have been fine. But this is looking like it may be hard for him to repeat last year's performance. That is not fine at all.

By 2014/2015 it will probably be Sano. Parmelee might end up being a 1B/RF part-timer, LH pinch-hitter. Let's hope that is the case.

Matt Carson and Darin Mastroianni can both play all three OF positions, so maybe Plouffe better diversify further and play some first base. That also helps Parmelee get the hell out of over-his-head land.

If they both keep at it like this, I would not be surprised if they are promoted to FTM when the short seasons start.

Valencia needs Rochester time. Liriano needs bullpen time. Parmelee was done an injustice and should be done in Rochester. Gray, Maloney, and Swarzak need DFAing.

Again there he is sucking. He needs to move to the bullpen.