nclahammer

I like Jair Camargo. I feel he still has some potential to untap. He had a few injuries last season that slowed him down, but two years ago had a terrific season in St. Paul (21 HRs.)

I'm thankful I won't have to watch Manny Margot at the plate or in the field for the Minnesota Twins next season.

My annual baseball roadtrip group saw Emmanuel Rodriguez play five games when he was with the Kernels, four-in-a-row at one point. We saw where Emma had some moments at the plate where he got a key hit, followed by taking a called third strike and looking back at the umpire, a scene repeated during the games we attended. He is touted for his defense in centerfield, but what we saw over that brief set of games tended to be lackadaisical play including an error on what should have been a can of corn. Rodriguez had some big moments in helping to lead that Cedar Rapids Kernels team to a Midwest League champions, but what we saw in our short sample was that he was just not consistent enough for us. He didn't pass the eye test for us. We came away thinking that E-Rod was a bit over-hyped, and felt that the Minnesota Twins should sell high on his value.

A very interesting read, answers some questions and wonderings I've always had regarding pitching draft picks.

Brooks Lee: Avoiding the sophomore Slump????? In order to avoid the sophomore slump, that implies the player had a good freshman year, which statistically was not the case with Brooks Lee. He racked up a whopping -0.2 WAR while batting .221, those are already slumping numbers. The headline should say something like Brooks Lee: Hoping to prove the hype with sophomore campaign.

I have that vinyl Minnesota Twins jacket from 1978, still in the package. Wow. I saw Trevor Hildenberger's name mentioned above as one of the top rookie middle relievers, but nothing was written about him, so I'll add a few notes. Trevor and his college roommate at California, Michael Theophanopolos, were both drafted by the Minnesota Twins in 2014. Both would later be roommates again as teammates for the Cedar Rapids Kernels in 2015, I saw them both play that year in Iowa. Trevor made his MLB debut with Minnesota in 2017 tossing 42 innings, 44 Ks, only 6 walks, a 3.21 ERA, and one save in 37 games. Growing up a fan of Kent Tekulve and Dan Quisenberry, I liked watching Hildenberger, also a submarine pitcher, on the mound. Hildy threw 73 innings the next season (2018) and I remember him beginning that season fairly strong. However, the strikeouts per inning went down that year (70) while the walks went up (26) and he was plagued by the longball giving up 12 taters. The reason I remember being mentioned was batters figuring him out (his delivery.) Any other Trevor Hildenberger memories? I still have one of his home white Twins jerseys I bought at a discount at TwinsFest.

Nice write-up and Festa info., I see him in the rotation for the Twins next year and beyond.

Could come down to a decision between Helman and Eeles.

I'll believe the Pohlads are selling once they're actually sold (see Glen Taylor and Minnesota Timberwolves.)

Mind blowing stats TD, especially Jax and the 27 three pitch k's. Wowzers!

Love the write up, best AFL information comes from TD!

IMHO, Willi Castro gets the nod for team MVP because of his availability and flexibility. Castro filled more holes than the little Dutch boy (definitely dating myself with that reference) for the Twins with 25 or more games at four different positions if I remember correctly, and performing admirably..

Bingo el Ringo! Spot on!

I'm happy Buxton played 100 games and had one of his highest batting average season at .279. I hope this is a step forward to 120+ games for him as a Twin.

I really enjoy articles that challenge my current line of thinking, and this is definitely one of those (thanks Thiéres Rabelo ). I am a life-long Minnesota Twins fan, go to a dozen or so games a year (I am a 20 game season ticket holder since 2010 and live an hour from the Twin Cities), and I go so soley for the enjoyment of watching the game with friends and/or family. I love how a baseball game, anywhere, is a great place to socialize, watch and enjoy the game and sights, and have time to look around, make observations, and have conversations. I read BEAN5302's comment, "Again, I don't know how many times I need to state this. PEOPLE DO NOT GO TO STADIUMS TO WATCH THE GAME." This simply isn't true, for many fans. I go to 30-40 baseball games every year (town ball, minors, majors, etc.) and it is to watch the game, make observations, take in the sights, sounds, and smells, watch the strategies, converse with fellow fans, and enjoy the surroundings that come with a baseball game (can't do that with many other sports.) I am very disappointed in the performance of this year's Minnesota Twins team, and it starts at the top with ownership and the front office. I feel their lack of providing a viable product on the field through trades is negligent, and I feel it rippled down and affected the psyche of the entire team. Rocco was trying to manage a team with several rookies expected to fill numerous holes, which became too many for even the little Dutch boy to plug. If your slicing up the blame, I know he'll take a piece of that as well with some of the decisions he made. Am I going to cancel my partial season ticket package as a result of this season? No, because I am a Minnesota Twins fan for the long haul. I truely love this team, moreso that any other Minnesota team. I enjoy going to the games and usually very much enjoy the product I'm watching on the field. So with one game left, the team out of contention, and the Minnesota Vikings playing at the same time, I will flip channels during a commercial break to see how the Twins are doing. So, until next season, I'll avoid the ALL CAPS (wow, a lot of those among the comments) comments and laughing emojis, countdown the days until winter caravan and TwinsFest, and look forward to hopefully seeing an improved team take the field next year.

Good to see Rosario and De Andrade get some more at bats and Ross is a good kid who can play just about anywhere. With all those young arms, I guess they're just hoping something sticks.

IMHO DaShawn Keirsey Jr. will be the Minor League Player of the Year. 111G/71R/133H/14HR/81RBI/.300BA/36SB Eeles has also had an outstanding season, especially coming from independent ball.

Terrific report Matt and TD. The minor league updates are always my first stop on Twins Daily each morning, and nobody does it better that TD!

Tyler Mahle, Sam Dyson, Justin Topa, Athony DeSclafani. All pitchers aquired in trades who have pitched little, or not even at all, for the Minnesota Twins and provided little or no value. I mean one I get, an oops, but four? The Minnesota Twins need to do a more thorough job of checking off all the boxes before making deals like these.

Another terrific report Seth. I know you'd rather be covering six games, but I do have to say that I like this gradual ending of the minor league seasons rather than having them all abruptly ending at once. This also allows some minor leagues to get a few games in at a higher level, like Jenkins. IMHO this is better than having it end cold turkey. Keep up the fantastic work TD.

Fantastic report Seth. Another good start for Prielipp, who has really only had one bad one this summer for the Kernels. You have to remember that this year is like a rehab season for him; this is the most innings he's pitched (23.1) since 2020 when he was on the mound for Alabama (21.0.) Heading down to Cedar Rapids with some friends today to catch Jenkins, Culpepper, and company in the season finale'. LOTS of exciting young players down on the farm for the Minnesota Twins.

Excellent write-up, thorough details.

What an awesome read and stroll down memory lane. So many new (or forgotten) details about his time in Minnesota. Tom Brunansky is perhaps my favorite all-time Twin, of the players I grew up watching in person. I openly wept when he was traded to the Cardinals. In 1988, we road-tripped to St. Louis for a couple of games and my roommate painted a huge bedsheet with the words "We miss you Bruno!" on it. While I was not able to hang it up at the old Busch Stadium (ushers told me it was not allowed), I was able to hang it up when Brunansky returned to the Metrodome with the Boston Red Sox. From what I hear, the split between the team and Bruno when he was Minnesota's hitting coach, did not go over very well, and his relationship with the team is not on very good terms. I hope things can be patched up and I would love to see Tom Brunansky back at a TwinsFest and get a chance to talk to him again and thank him for some terrific memories.

A story about a guy who hasn't played in about two months due to injuries and who had played inconsistently over his career thus far being the top prospect in baseball is a non-story.

Good luck Zebby, the Minnesota Twins are really rolling the dice here.