Jeremy Nygaard

We asked Gonsalves about Aiken when we had him on our podcast. They were/are good friends. That would be an interesting angle.

That's an interesting read. But as far as development paths go, Giolito, who had the surgery in the fall following his senior year of high school, and Aiken, who had the surgery in the spring following his senior year, are basically on the same path and the Nationals - who are more picky about that "TJS2" than anyone - probably would take Aiken if they had the chance.

Funkhouser, Fulmer and Buehler will all have the same area scout eyes on them (in addition to the higher ups), so there will be plenty of opportunities to compare them. At this point, I'm higher on Funkhouser than the others, but I'd like to give that more time. And sure, someone could turn out being an "ace" (by whoever's definition), but, at 6, they're going to be choosing between people with a flaw or two more than, say, Rodon had last year. You're looking at Aaron Nola-type guys. Great pitchers with great potential, sure... just leaving something to be desired. But this is a debate for another day. I'm just trying to sort through what I'm hearing/seeing.

I'd absolutely take him, if available. But the Twins expect him to go before they have a chance to.

Re Aiken vs the money. I feel how you all feel. The more he says "no" the less leverage he has. But he still has a ton of leverage. He can go through the draft a few more times. (I think IMG is considered a post-secondary school, so he still has four more drafts after this one.) With slots continuing to rise, he'll still get paid. The sense I'm getting from those I've talked to, is that they don't expect him to sign outside of the top couple of picks. He'll go back, get healthy and prove that he's worth a lot of money and, eventually, he'll get it. Taking him at #6 to get the 7th pick next year is a risk. It diminishes the bonus pool greatly without a 2nd round pick. But, yeah, next year's draft has got to be better.

At what point does TwinsDaily get renamed TreyDaily? Back-to-back Hitter of the Day. Picture all over the place. Maybe after a good game tomorrow? We'll see. The Twins made a transaction today, trading C Dan Rohlfing to the Mets for cash considerations. Dan was the last member of the 2007 draft class and an all around good guy. Rohlfing told TwinsDaily, "I think it's a really good opportunity and I plan on taking advantage of it." Rohlfing also posted on his Facebook page, "Thanks to the Minnestoa Twins for everything they have done for me over the years.. I will definitely miss everyone involved with the organization! Excited to start a new journey after being traded to the New York Mets today!" Rohlfing will report to Triple-A Las Vegas and had been on the disabled list with Rochester, suffering from a "sprained ankle". Best of luck to Dan! Let's take a look at today's action.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 11, Syracuse 7 Box Score Jason Wheeler had the worst AAA start of his four-game AAA career. He recorded only 13 outs and allowed seven earned runs on eight hits. He allowed home runs in each of the first three innings. He struck out three. Stephen Pryor picked up the win, striking out three in his 1 ⅔ innings pitched. Pryor was the first of the four-headed bullpen monster - which also included Logan Darnell, A.J. Achter and Ryan Pressly - that pitched 4 ⅔ innings of no-hit ball. Despite the rough outing from Wheeler, the hitters had a pretty stellar game coming back from five down to win convincingly. Aaron Hicks and Doug Bernier each contributed three hits in this 16-hit attack. Hicks had two doubles while driving in two. Bernier batted three runs in. Eddie Rosario homered and doubled, bringing his OPS up to .729, the highest it’s been since the third game of the season. The Red Wings improved to 7-6. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 3, Mississippi 4 Box Score We didn’t get to see The Machine today, that’s for sure. But don’t overreact to the less than expected numbers. Jose Berrios only lasted five innings (83 pitches, 58 strikes), but he wasn’t aided by defensive errors from the team’s top two prospects: Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano. Berrios cruised through four innings, navigating trouble by getting a pick-off and nine groundball outs (as opposed to only one in the air). He did only strike out three batters, but got 13 swinging strikes (by my count). Three of the four runs Berrios allowed were earned. Adrian Salcedo pitched the last three innings, allowing only two hits while striking out three. Salcedo has been very effective against both left- and right-handed hitters so far in this young season, impressively allowing an OBA of .176 vs lefties. The offense spotted Berrios a 3-0 lead, but didn’t do much as a whole. Buxton went 0-4 and Sano went 0-3 dropping their season averages to .180 and .175, respectively. Levi Michael hit a two-run home run, his first, batting in the nine-hole. Travis Harrison had a double among two hits to raise his average to .310. Max Kepler got his first professional sniff of AA, giving Adam Brett Walker a day off in left field, and doubled. It should be mentioned that Walker failed to catch a routine fly ball in last night’s game. Could that have led to a day off? It’s probably not the sole reason, but it should be a lesson to all outfielders that if you want to play every day, you can’t “ozzie” fly balls. This is the Lookouts third straight loss and drops them to 6-6. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 2, Palm Beach 7 Box Score Well, the Palm Beach Cardinals completed the three-game sweep and the Miracle drop to 5-9. Niko Goodrum was 2-5 with a double. He scored both runs. Mitch Garver also had a multi-hit game and drove in a run. Defensively, Marcus Knecht, Goodrum, Tanner Vavra and Alex Muren all committed errors. Aaron Slegers got roughed up, giving up five runs (four earned) on eight hits in only three innings. He struck out one. After Muren gave up two more runs in two innings, Brandon Peterson (three strikeouts) pitched two no-hit innings and J.T. Chargois struck out one in the final frame. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 5, Wisconsin 4 Box Score The Kernels jumped out to an early lead and hung on tight to improve to 10-4. Zach Granite and Nick Gordon led off the game with singles. Zack Larson was hit by a pitch to load the bases. And Max Murphy “drove in” the first run of the game with a walk. Trey Vavra drove added another run with a run-scoring single. T.J. White drove in another run on a fielder’s choice. With Pat Kelly batting, the Kernels successfully pulled off a double-steal with Max Murphy scoring from third for the fourth run of the inning. The Kernels add their fifth, final and game-winning run on a White single in the sixth which followed a Vavra double. All told, Vavra went 4-4 and had over half of the team’s seven hits. He’s now batting .372. Zach Tillery started in place of John Curtiss and struck out six in 4 ⅔ innings. He gave up three runs. Randy LeBlanc (win) and Cameron Booser (save) split the last four innings. (LeBlanc also got the last out of the fifth.) LeBlanc struck out five and gave up one hit - a home run. Booser also struck out five and dropped his ERA to 1.13. He did have an error, as did Nick Gordon. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Red Wings bullpen Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Trey Vavra, Cedar Rapids THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Syracuse (12:05 CST) – RHP Mark Hamburger Chattanooga @ Mississippi (7:00 CST) – RHP Greg Peavey Ft. Myers @ St. Lucie (5:30 CST) – RHP Chih-Wei Hu Cedar Rapids @ Wisconsin (12:05 CST) – LHP Stephen Gonsalves Click here to view the article

There's no college arms that have "ace potential" currently. Possibly Tate, but even that's dicey. Aiken is the closest thing. And Nikorak if you're OK rolling the dice.

The Twins drafted Luke Bard after he missed a couple months with a lat strain. Tate's lat strain pushed him back a week. Kirby is 6-8 weeks, I think. Seems more serious.

Interesting point about the SSs. Bregman caught his last two years of high school. Have some feelers out to see if that's a possibility again. If there's belief he can do it, man, I'd consider it.

Kirby has been bad and hurt lately. I think he's out for an extended period of time now.

This draft is a mess. The plan was for this to be a draft board - one through ten, but with the spring playing out as it has, it would be plenty difficult to do that. Instead there are 10 players listed in three different groups. Let's run through some of the facts and you can try to sort it out for yourself later. Or we can just wait til the draft gets closer. (But how much fun would that be?)SS Brendan Rodgers of Lake Mary (Longwood HS) in Florida is as close to a consensus #1 as you’ll find in this year’s draft class. That’s on account of him starting at (or near) the very top and - despite having a solid but not great year - that he stayed healthy. His season ended earlier this week with a playoff loss, so he should remain healthy up until the draft. Rodgers has been in the mix to Arizona and since no one has been on the field consistently enough to wrestle it from him, that’s where he’ll remain… for now anyway. P Dillon Tate, UC Santa Barbara, has been the biggest mover this season. The rapid ascension is due to Tate being moved from a reliever to a starter and having success doing it. With that, however, comes the durability question and, lo and behold, Tate missed his last start with a lat strain. While it’s not exactly a long-term concern, when durability was a question mark to start, it’s enough to make you wonder. Or is it? At this point, it won’t matter to the Twins. A relatively healthy Tate will be off the board in the top 5 picks. SS Dansby Swanson, Vanderbilt, has also jumped up the board. Successfully making the transition from second base to shortstop has helped his stock. Personally, I have a hard time ignoring the lack of superstar-level shortstops who come from a four-year college. And Swanson isn’t Tulo (and Tulowitzki went 7th in his draft). To be fair to Swanson, it’s not his fault the draft is not good. But Swanson doesn’t have the pop of Tulowitzki (or even Brian Dozier) and it’s not a slam-dunk he stays at shortstop. The debate, though, is moot because Swanson, who is putting up an 1.100 OPS in the top conference is college, isn’t dropping to the Twins. Those three players are the closest to any consensus Top “pick-your-number” you’ll see and you can feel pretty confident that those three will be off the board before the Twins step to the podium. Of the three, I’d prefer Tate first, Rodgers second and Dansby third - if I were stacking a board - with the bigger gap between Rodgers and Dansby than between Tate and Rodgers. This is where the murky gets murkier. Kyle Tucker, a prep outfielder from Florida, has the prettiest looking swing in the draft and lots of raw power. His stock is quietly going up and it’s been suggested to me that he could be off the board by the time the Twins pick. I’d put him and Twins solidly as a potential match at #6 and that’s why he’s being mentioned only shortly after the “top 3”. He’s also the younger brother of Astro minor leaguer Preston Tucker and you know how the Twins love their bloodlines. Kolby Allard, a prep lefty from California, also shows up in the second group. Allard is unlikely to pitch again until right before the draft, having been sidelined since mid-March with a stress reaction in his back. Allard offers low-to-mid-90 mph heat with a plus curveball, an improving change-up and command that the Twins will love. The knock on Allard is that he’s only going to measure taller than six feet if he stands on his tippy toes. I’d take Allard, cause he’d be signable, he’s young for his class, and his injury isn’t going to be a long-term concern… but he’s really a step below... Brady Aiken. If I would have told you three weeks before last year’s draft that there is a good chance that the Twins would be able to take Aiken, you wouldn’t have believed me. Well, eleven months later, here we are… As we all know, the Astros drafted the polished prep lefty first overall last year and agreed to sign him for $6.5m. An MRI showed some “abnormalities” and the Astros reduced their offer to $5m. Aiken, and his rep Casey Close, balked at that figure and he enrolled at IMG Academy this spring. And as you also know, his season their lasted 12 pitches before he eventually underwent Tommy John surgery last month. There have been other questions raised recently about Aiken, and at this time, there is no general consensus about where he should go. I was told that the afore-linked article gives bloggers a “black-eye”. Basically, Aiken tore his UCL… what else could be wrong/worse? As the article mentions, eventually the truth will be revealed. But for now, health is not my issue with Aiken. He’s an elite talent and you can’t pass on an elite talent because of an injury that many/some/most pitchers will eventually have. My hang-up with Aiken is, if he wouldn’t sign for $5m last year, why would he sign for 20% less than that this year. (The Twins have a sliver under $4m tied to their 6th overall pick.) So, as of right now, those would be my Top 6. Some other names to keep in mind: Louisville pitcher Kyle Funkhouser. Funkhouser has the chops to be a front-end starter, but his lack of command leaves him a step below. Prep righty Mike Nikorak from Pennsylvania is climbing the charts and, with his season just starting, has the most to gain. I’m not going to put him in the Top 6 yet. But I’m not ruling him out. LSU SS Alex Bregman is a player. Where and how he fits is a question, but you can’t simply ignore players like him. Rounding out the Top 10 is Georgia prep OF Daz Cameron. As I mentioned on a draft thread, it doesn't appear the Twins are too heavy on Mike’s kid, but rumors persist that the Astros may pop the Boras client with the 5th pick in the draft. As we wind through the last seven weeks heading to the draft things will change quickly and often, but here’s a good place to start. Click here to view the article

Between Booser and Poulson, the Twins scouting department has unearthed some real (potential) gems.

Jeremy: 12 Seth: 16 Cody: 20 I was bullish on him after I'd heard multiple reports of his improved change-up. Some games, scouts were calling it "plus"; other games, scouts said "average at best". I think it's fair to say he could fill a mid-rotation role if he continues to progress. The area scout, Greg Runser, is responsible for a TON of arms in the system as the club has been adding Texas and Louisiana pitchers at a very high rate.

As far as the Pitcher of the Day goes, I'll be honest: The other games went longer (and later) and this guy doesn't stay up too late. The games finished, I was half asleep and threw Stewart in there. In doing that, I'm not comparing apples to apples. Sure, Duffey's stats were better, but he dominated AA last year before getting moved to AAA. I expect him to dominate. Stewart, on the other hand, eclipsed his career high (from Low-A) by two innings. I used to get nervous every time he threw for Cedar Rapids that he'd be shut down for the year. So in comparison, sure, Duffey was better. But the start Stewart had, for me - and I'm the only vote that counts - was of the much more encouraging variety. And I love Duffey... and he'll be in AAA soon.

If he became a reliever, he'd ditch the changeup and be a fastball/slider guy. His fastball was all over yesterday, but, overall, shrinking his repertoire should help him walk less batters. It also might not. And like you said, he might turn it around. At the end of the day, his arm is an asset. There's just a lot of questions about where it fits.

I feel like I pimp Duffey enough. (Because I do.) And how many times does a Twins pitcher - majors or minors - complete 8 innings? About as often as Meyer gets to the seventh.

Thanks. Fixed.

The organization-wide success of the minor league affiliates continued on Wednesday with two wins and two extra-inning losses. There had been some questions on Monday about why Adrian Salcedo - and not Alex Wimmers - was making the start for Chattanooga. Well, it turns out the Lookouts were going to be cautious with Wimmers after he experienced a tight hamstring. The club has pushed him back to Sunday. Let's take a look at what happened on the farm on Wednesday.RED WINGS REPORT ROCHESTER 11, SCRANTON/WB 6 Box Score The Red Wings dug themselves an early hole in this morning showdown before running away with a 5-inning ninth to secure their fifth victory in six games. For better or worse, the story of this game will be the struggles of Alex Meyer. Meyer failed to complete four innings (3.2 IP) and surrendered five runs (all earned) on seven hits and five(!) walks. He struck out six and now sports an ERA of 8.31. Of the 88 pitches Meyer threw today, only 49 found the strike zone. Watching parts of the game, many balls weren't even close. The clamoring you hear is no longer about putting Meyer in the Twins rotation, it’s about putting him in the bullpen. For now, though, the investment in Meyer as a starter will continue, and rightfully so. One of the positives of Rochester’s young season has been the performance of the bullpen. Today it was the trio of Stephen Pryor, Caleb Thielbar and A.J. Achter. Pryor gave up a run in his 2.1 IP, walking two. But the trio combined to throw 5.1 innings, allowing only four hits, two walks and a run. Each of Pryor and Thielbar struck out three. Simply put, this bullpen has been everything the Twins bullpen hasn’t been through a week of the season. The lineup sprayed 15 hits around today, led by Eric Fryer (four hits, four RBI) and Josmil Pinto (four hits, RBI). Danny Ortiz had a two hits and Jose Martinez drove in two runs. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER CHATTANOOGA 4, BIRMINGHAM 3 Box Score After dropping their opener, the Lookouts have been on a tear. The Lookouts needed all 27 outs to secure a victory on Wednesday... and then needed to make sure they got their 27th out before celebrating their home opener. Tyler Duffey took a no-decision despite having, arguably, the best game of any Twins pitcher - majors or minors - this season. Duffey struck out eight in seven innings. He walked one and allowed two hits. He got eight outs on the ground and only one through the air. He STILL hasn't allowed a run to score. He does however, have the bad luck of his bullpen blowing both of his (potential) wins. After Dalls Gallant gave the lead up, Zack Jones retired the side (but not without making it interesting by allowing a triple) with three swinging strike outs. The Lookouts retook the lead in the bottom of the eighth after a Levi Michael walk was followed by a Byron Buxton single. A Miguel Sano fielder's choice advanced Michael to third before a Mike Gonzales single scored him. Both Adam Brett Walker (home run) and Jorge Polanco (double) had extra-base hits in multi-hit efforts. Buxton went 1-for-4 and Sano went 0-for-4. Neither of them struck out though, which is a better sign. MIRACLE MATTERS FORT MYERS 1, TAMPA 3 (11 innings) Box Score Kohl Stewart tossed a career-high eight innings on Wednesday night. Though the press box didn’t have an official pitch count, all reports indicate that Stewart was very efficient. While he didn't strike out a high amount of guys (three), he didn't walk many either (two) and only allowed one run on eight hits. He had an impressive 12:3 groundout to flyout ratio as well. Unfortunately, Stewart got a no-decision. Alex Muren relieved Stewart and gave up two runs in the 11th to get hung with a loss. Brian Gilbert finished it off. The bats were pretty quiet again for the Miracle. Aderling Mejia had two hits, including a double, but is still only batting .120 on the season. Niko Goodrum also doubled, but saw his average drop to .345, which leads the team by a wide margin. Last year's playoff hero, Jason Kanzler, went 0-for-3 and is now in a 0-for-23 slump that involves 14 strikeouts. Max Kepler got a hit in his first prolonged action as he works his way back from some elbow discomfort. KERNELS NUGGETS CEDAR RAPIDS 2, PEORIA 3 (12 innings) Box Score It took 12 innings, but the Kernels finally lost a game this year. Mat Batts had a solid outing, pitching six innings and only allowing two runs (one earned) on four hits. He struck out five. Both Sam Clay and Trevor Hildenberger struck out four in three innings, but Hildenberger couldn't go unscathed, giving up the winning run in the top of the 12th. The middle of the lineup really struggled, going 0-for-13 with six strikeouts and two walks. Zach Granite had three hits (of the eight) and drove in two runs. Tanner English added a double. Nick Gordon got the day off today. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Hitter of the Day - Eric Fryer Pitcher of the Day - Kohl Stewart THURSDAY'S PROBABLES Rochester vs Pawtucket (7:05 ET) - Taylor Rogers (0-0, 0.00) faces off against top prospect Henry Owens (0-0, 1.42) in a battle of lefties. Rochester has a one-game lead on Pawtucket in the International League North. Fort Myers vs Tampa (7:05 ET) - Aaron Slegers (1-0, 0.00) will be on the mound as the Miracle try to battle back to .500. Chattanooga vs Birmingham (7:15 ET) - Jose Berrios (1-0, 1.42) looks to build off his season-opener as the first-place Lookouts intend to stretch their five-game winning streak to six. Cedar Rapids vs Peoria (7:35 ET) - John Curtiss (1-0, 4.76) Click here to view the article

More or less impressive than Buxton was when you saw him there?

It's dang near impossible right now to project who is going 1st in the June 2015 draft.

Looking at what Duffey did at AA last year (and at his couple of starts at AAA), he deserved to be the Opening Day starter. And he backed it up. If the Twins have to make a move, Duffey goes to AAA. TR did mention that a guy could come from AAA or AA. That got people thinking "Berrios!". Nah, it's Duffey. He's the man. #ILoveDuff

All of the confirmed Adopt-a-Prospects are listed near the top of this thread in one of Seth's posts. That way you don't have to scroll all the way through.