nclahammer

Love all these good outings from these young arms so far this season.

Saw the kid twice last year pitching for Cedar Rapids and his stuff is electric. Such a small sample size simply from the lack of innings pitched in college and as a pro, but what we've seen is really something. Stay healthy kid.

Thank you Tom and Twins Daily. These minor league reports are the French vanilla creamer to my coffee. Love them and welcome back to the minor league teams.

Thank you Tom, I look forward to this every spring.

You gotta have dreams...I'll take them.

Another doggone terrific article Ms. Berman!

I saw Connor Prielipp pitch on two occasions for Cedar Rapids, at home and at Davenport, and it's easy to buy into the hype. His stuff is electric. His 23.1 innings pitched in 2024 at three levels with the Twins is nearly any many IP in his entire college career at Alabama (21 IP in 2020-then COVID; 7 IP in 2021 then TJ surgery.) The last time the kid pitched more than 50 innings in one season was his junior year in high school in Tomah, WI (2018.) All of this is not a lot to go off of for an evaluation, but what is there so far, I know has the Minnesota Twins (and fans like me) salivating. Like Greggory said, the Twins took a gamble when they drafted him, so think of Prielipp as a lottery ticket...and the ping pong balls that have dropped so far are looking pretty good. Could the rest fall this season? I sure hope so.

BINGO El' Ringo!

A well-detailed stroll down memory lane, you got all the big ones. I might add Glen Perkins and Kurt Suzuki closing out the 2014 All Star game to clinch an AL victory ,at least on my list because I was there. I think that can embed itself in your memory a little more when you're there.

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.