Shane Wahl

Some possible formulations, part 1: (complexity of trades and other moves left out for simplicity and discussion's sake--assume all trades return back non-40 man mid-tier prospects) Youth, youth, and More Youth: Pinto Turner Mauer Vargas Dozier Polanco Santana Plouffe Sano Arcia Hicks Rosario Buxton Hughes Santana Gibson May Berrios Meyer Graham O'Rourke Tonkin Z. Jones Burdi Perkins (some interchangeability in bullpen with Oliveros (!), Reed, Achter, etc.) (more formulations later)

Pick 40 of those 62, I guess!

A master list: Pitchers: Phil Hughes Ervin Santana Ricky Nolasco Kyle Gibson Trevor May Tommy Milone Alex Meyer Taylor Rogers Jose Berrios Tyler Duffey Mike Pelfrey Jason Wheeler Glen Perkins Logan Darnell Tim Stauffer Ryan Pressly J.R. Graham Aaron Thompson Brian Duensing Caleb Thielbar Ryan O'Rourke Blaine Boyer Michael Tonkin Lester Oliveros Casey Fien A.J. Achter Pat Dean Zach Jones Nick Burdi Jake Reed J.T. Chargois Brandon Peterson Adrian Salcedo Batters: Kurt Suzuki Chris Herrmann Josmil Pinto Eric Fryer Stuart Turner Joe Mauer Kennys Vargas D.J. Hicks Reynaldo Rodriguez Brian Dozier Eduardo Escobar Trevor Plouffe Jorge Polanco James Beresford Levi Michael Doug Bernier Eduardo Nunez Miguel Sano Eddie Rosario Oswaldo Arcia Byron Buxton Aaron Hicks Torii Hunter Danny Ortiz Shane Robinson Jordan Schafer Max Kepler Adam Brett Walker Travis Harrison I think I covered pretty much everyone. It hurt my fingers to type some of these for 2016.

Both Tanner English and Greg Peavey are particularly interesting.

Vargas back with still 13 thousand pitchers, so I imagine there is a Schafer-Arcia war for the last spot soon. I would give it to Arcia. That should be self-explanatory.

Correa still put up a 1.007 OPS for the year so far after a bit of an issue at AAA.

Booser was roughed up in his last outing, but the numbers are still very impressive: 24.2 IP, 1.46 ERA, 37 strikeouts, 17 walks, 1.135 WHIP. It will be interesting to see how he does bouncing back from one outing. After 30 innings, I have to imagine he will be moving to Fort Myers.

Good question, lightfoot. I highly doubt it! .891 OPS at Chattanooga. 15 homers, 13 doubles, and 2 triples. He might get to 110 RBI this year.

Ortiz is 25 and a half years old and is posting an .825 OPS and a much improved BB/K rate. He is well on his way to topping his 46 extra base hits from last season. Speaking of EBH, his totals in his career by season: 2008 (short): 18 2010 (short): 31 2011: 47 2012: 43 2013: 43 2014: 46 2015 (so far) 23 Again, what to do here with Ortiz?

His offensive production has now leveled off and he is posting a .664 OPS right now. The slugging hasn't come at all with the move to Fort Myers, so I think it will just take a bit of time.

The bat hasn't come back at all. It is undoubtedly the case that Navarreto will be playing for E-Town when that season starts after the draft. The defense is there, the offense is nowhere close.

Rogers went eight innings in his June 4 start. He gave up just one run on six hits, striking out three and walking one. He has failed to go six innings only twice this year.

Batts just wrote another piece for Twins Daily: http://twinsdaily.com/_/minnesota-twins-news/minnesota-twins-minor-leagues/players-perspective-the-mlb-draft-r3755 Stats at Fort Myers: 12.2 IP, 2.13 ERA, 10 strikeouts, one walk, 1.184 WHIP. Batts is putting together a strong season so far overall.

Yes, exactly what I would do, but I bet they would favor Thielbar over potentially both Tonkin and Achter at this point. They made Oliveros start again yesterday. Good grief.

Good move, obviously. Work out that bullpen and then get Waldo back up within a week now.

Vargas should have never been sent down, and Arcia should be back up already (I could not care less about Arcia's 2015 AAA numbers). It's possible to have a full OF contingent of Rosario-Buxton-Hicks-Arcia-Ortiz in September. Ortiz is a nice doubles power guy who is starting to slowly learn that taking a walk is a good thing.

How on earth is Eduardo Escobar a quality hitter? Pinto has been hitting well for most of the year at AAA and is currently in a slump. Still at a .730 OPS. Vargas had been smacking the ball around when they demoted him.

If the Twins aren't going to do the right things and call up Vargas, Arcia, and Pinto (one reliever, Santana, Herrmann/Nunez), then I would consider Dozier-Mauer-Plouffe-Hunter-Rosario-Hicks-Suzuki-Nunez (see how the bat holds up for a bit)-Santana/Escobar. Mauer's OBP is still ok for now and I cannot imagine any way that it remains below .350 as the season goes on. I think .320 is the low point right now. But his lack of slugging forces him either at the 2 or 6 spot.

Weather: 60 degrees and partly cloudy Lineups: Twins: 1. Brian Dozier, 2B 2. Torii Hunter, DH 3. Joe Mauer, 1B 4. Trevor Plouffe, 3B 5. Eddie Rosario, RF 6. Eduardo Escobar, SS 7. Kurt Suzuki, C 8. Shane Robinson, LF 9. Aaron Hicks, CF vs. Steven Wright, RH Red Sox: 1. Dustin Pedroia, 2B 2. Hanley Ramirez, LF 3. David Ortiz, DH 4. Mike Napoli,1B 5. Xander Bogaerts, SS 6. Pablo Sandoval, 3B 7. Mookie Betts, CF 8. Blake Swihart, C 9. Rusney Castillo, RF vs. Tommy Milone, LH Things to think about: 1. Guess who's back? Tommy Milone went and dominated AAA hitters, essentially start after start. He probably has enough stuff to be an adequate fifth starter for the Twins. Or somebody else. Yeah, hopefully somebody else by August 1st. Anyway, I think Milone will be ok today, but I worry about the Pedroia-Ramirez top of the order right out of the gates. I expect a lot of jams, but we know that he is really good at "minimizing damage" so we should be good. Hopefully, the Twins bats are awake today . . . just in case. 2. Nothing. As in nothing is ever going to keep Eduardo Escobar out of the lineup and batting sixth or seventh. He is rocking a .595 OPS. Now that is 60 points higher than Danny Santana's OPS! So, Jorge Polanco. There I said it. 3. Not very good. Steven Wright isn't very good. The ERA is 3.90 and the FIP is 5.36. Lucky dog. He isn't striking anyone out and is giving up some homers this year. The Twins should be able to take advantage with a bunch of left-handed bats. But they don't have those. Vargas and Arcia are deemed not worthy of this squad. See no. 2 again. One of those guys plus one of the four million pitchers on the roster instead of Vargas and Arcia. 4. Day games. I like day games a lot. Night games come at night-time go the bleep asleep rituals for my two boys. Day games also remind me of playing baseball as a kid, where I started in summer day ball. Even high school games started at 4:30 for a double header. Not that Bemidji was all that good back in those days (late 90s). Great summer programs with great teams and then terrible baseball coaches in high school. For years and years . . . 5. Individual predictions. The Twins will get 5 and 2/3 out of Milone and only three runs at the time he leaves. Whoever comes in will need to work out of a jam. The offensive player of the game will be Aaron Hicks (and I predict a defensive gem . . . on the warning track from him). 6. Game prediction. Twins win (I will never pick them to lose) 6-4. They get out of Boston with a split in the series and welcome the terrible Brewers tomorrow before a big series at home against the Royals.

Hunter (not that he would go for it). Isn't Robinson still out OPSing Escobar?

I am saying that this play was in no way an indication of that.

On no planet is it justified for Oswaldo Arcia to be stuck playing for the Rochester Red Wings.

Not you too! Uh, the Red Sox announcers were on the call and had it right.

Are you watching the same video? Are you listening to the same audio? He clearly wasn't getting the ball so he tried to deke Pedroia. Why would anyone trust Dan Gladden's interpretation of events?

I like how you organized your guys into one blog post. I think I will do that a few times during the year now! Your enthusiasm for AAP is *very* much appreciated by me!