Tom Froemming

Eh, what the hell, why not? We'll put down whatever we feel like. Nobody's gonna be reading these things anymore anyway

Brusdar Graterol is by far the youngest pitcher to appear for the Miracle this year and has already established a personal season high in innings pitched this year. It was to be expected that he was going to be challenged after his promotion up from Cedar Rapids. Well, tonight was Graterol’s fifth start with Fort Myers, and he dominated.TRANSACTIONS -The prospects acquired in the Eduardo Escobar trade now have new homes. Ernie De La Trinidad was added to the Fort Myers Miracle roster while both Jhoan Duran and Gabriel Maciel were sent to Cedar Rapids. -We also know where one of the new additions from the Astros are headed. Gilberto Celestino is going to be joining Elizabethton. No word yet on Jorge Alcala. -Jared Akins, who has been with Cedar Rapids, is on his way back down to the E-Twins. Shane Carrier was placed on the Fort Myers DL with a left quad strain. Bailey Ober was placed on the Cedar Rapids DL with a right elbow strain. -Both Miguel Sano and Gabriel Moya were officially called up from Rochester to the Twins. Taylor Motter rejoined the Red Wings after being outrighted. RED WINGS REPORT Louisville 5, Rochester 2 Box Score SP: D.J. Baxendale (4.0 IP, 6 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 4 K) HR: None. Multi-hit games: None. The Red Wings offense has been pretty brutal. They only mustered four hits and struck out 10 times while not drawing a single walk. Trevor May was impressive over two shutout innings, striking out a pair of batters while throwing 18 of his 26 pitches for strikes, but Alan Busenitz struggled badly (three runs on five hits and a walk over two innings). Willians Astudillo caught for the first time since June 2 and threw out the only base runner who attempted to steal a base off him. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Tennessee 4, Chattanooga 1 Box Score SP: Ryan Eades (2.0 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 1 K) HR: Chris Paul (6) Multi-hit games: Chris Paul (3-for-4, HR), Zander Wiel (2-for-4) The Lookouts led 1-0 heading into the bottom of the ninth, but Tyler Jay gave up a walk-off grand slam. Prior to that, Ryan Eades (two innings), Anthony Marzi (five innings) and Williams Ramirez (one inning) had combined to shut out the Smokies. Chris Paul had a great night, going 3-for-4 with a homer, and Zander Wiel had a pair of hits. The rest of the Chattanooga line up combined to go 1-for-21. MIRACLE MATTERS Game 1: Fort Myers 5, Daytona 1 (7 innings) Box Score W: Brusdar Graterol (5.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K) SV: Jovani Moran (1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 2 K) HR: None. Multi-hit games: Royce Lewis (3-for-4, 2B), Taylor Grzelakowski (2-for-4, 2B) The Miracle staff combined for 12 strikeouts and this was just a seven-inning game. Wow. Brusdar Graterol had a breakthrough performance in this, his fifth start with Fort Myers. One run on two hits and three walks to go with 10 strikeouts. This was Royce Lewis’ fifth multi-hit game in 13 contests with the Miracle. Game 2: Dayton 5, Fort Myers 4 (7 innings) Box Score SP: Andro Cutura (5.1 IP, 8 H, 5 ER, 2 BB, 4 K) HR: None. Multi-hit games: None. Ernie De La Trinidad made his debut with the org, and was 1-for-3. Ho-hum, right? Well, his one hit was a Little League home run. He sent a single out to right field, it was misplayed and EDLT (just go with it) rounded the bases. Alex Kirilloff carried a 10-game hitting streak into today. With there being two seven-inning contests, you’d figure it was going to be tough to keep that streak rolling, but Kirilloff recorded a single in Game 1 before hitting a double in this game. KERNELS NUGGETS Quad Cities 3, Cedar Rapids 2 Box Score SP: Blayne Enlow (6.0 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K) HR: None. Multi-hit games: Jose Miranda (2-for-5), Trey Cabbage (2-for-4) Frustrating night for the Kernels, as they closed the gap to one run in the fourth inning but could not find a way to tie it up from there. Blayne Enlow had a quality start, going six innings for the fourth-consecutive start. Gabriel Maciel was 0-for-5 in his debut in the Twins organization. E-TWINS E-NOTES Elizabethton 5, Bristol 0 Box Score W: Josh Winder (5.0 IP, 1 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 5 K) HR: None Multi-hit games: Michael Helman (3-for-4) Michael Helman has made quite the early impression. This was his 10th pro game, and he’s now hitting .412 and already has six stolen bases. The Twins’ 11th-round pick out of Texas A&M, Helman has primarily been playing second base, but he has also made starts at shortstop and left field. Josh Winder threw five one-hit innings before Juan Gamez and Pedro Garcia each added two no-hit innings. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Twins 5, GCL Red Sox 4 Box Score W: Osiris German (1.1 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 1 BB, 2 K) SP: Andriu Marin (4.0 IP, 3 H, 2 ER, 0 BB, 7 K) HR: Hunter Lee (1) Multi-hit games: Alberoni Nunez (3-for-4, 2B), Estamy Urena (2-for-4) , Austin Hale (2-for-4) Petru Balan had a big performance out of the bullpen for the Twins, pitching two scoreless innings while striking out three batters. This was a tie game heading into the bottom of the eighth, but Alberoni Nunez delivered the game-winning run on double. STARS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Brusdar Graterol, Fort Myers Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Alberoni Nunez, GCL Twins TOP PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed 1. Royce Lewis (FM): 3-for-4, 2B, R, 2 RBI | 0-for-3, R, BB, K 2. Alex Kirilloff (FM): 1-for-3, BB, RBI | 1-for-3, 2B, RBI, R, K 3. Brusdar Graterol (FM): 5.2 IP, 2 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 10 K 4. Nick Gordon (ROC): 0-for-4, K 5. Stephen Gonsalves (ROC): Did not pitch. 6. Trevor Larnach (ET): 0-for-4, K 7. Brent Rooker (CHAT): 0-for-3, BB 8. Akil Baddoo (CR): 1-for-5, 4 K 9. Wander Javier: Out of for the season 10. Zack Littell (ROC): Did not pitch. 11. Blayne Enlow (CR): 6.0 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 1 BB, 1 K 12. LaMonte Wade (ROC): 0-for-3, K 13. Travis Blankenhorn (FM): 0-for-1, K 14. Lewis Thorpe (CHAT): Did not pitch. 15. Ben Rortvedt (FM): 0-for-3 16. Yunior Severino (ET): 1-for-5, 3 K 17. Lewin Diaz (FM): Out with an injury. 18. Ryan Jeffers (CR): 0-for-4, 2 K 19. Jacob Pearson (CR): 1-for-4, R, 2 K 20. Luis Arraez (CHAT): 0-for-4, 2 K SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester at Louisville, 5:00 pm CT: Stephen Gonsalves Chattanooga at Tennessee, 4:30 pm CT: TBD Fort Myers at Daytona, 4:35 pm CT: TBD Cedar Rapids vs. Quad Cities, 2:05 pm CT: Jordan Balazovic Elizabethton vs. Bristol, 5:00 pm CT: Brian Rapp GCL Twins: Off Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the games. Click here to view the article

The Twins held a 4-1 lead after the first three inning of tonight’s game at Fenway Park, but things got ugly from there. Jake Odorizzi gave up five runs over five innings of work before the bullpen surrendered another five. To top it off, Miguel Sano struck out three times in his return from the minor leagues.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Jake Odorizzi: 34 Game Score, 5.0 IP, 5 ER, 5 K, 1 BB, 64.4% strikes Home Runs: Logan Morrison (13) Multi-Hit Games: Joe Mauer (2-for-4) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Polanco .133, Dozier .122 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Rosario -.124, Moya -.144, Odorizzi -.290 Download attachment: WinChart728.png Let’s go around the horn … First Base Ryan Pressly made his Astros debut and gave up a solo homer in his inning of work. Eduardo Escobar started at third and hit fifth in his D-Backs debut. Seeing him in another uniform makes me want to throw my computer out the window. Second Base Anyway, let’s get to the guys who are still here. Well, for now, at least. Paul Molitor was in Cooperstown to celebrate Jack Morris’ induction into the Hall of Fame. That meant bench coach Derek Sheldon took over as manager, and that meant Matt Magill actually got to pitch. Magill gave up a run on two hits over 1 ⅔ innings, but he also struck out three batters. Third Base That’s where Miguel Sano was, making his first appearance with the Twins since June 13. Parker wrote a great article titled Ready Or Not Here Comes Sano earlier today, I encourage you to check that out. Well, I don’t know if you could necessarily say that Sano didn’t look ready, but he certainly didn’t shine in his return. He was 0-for-4 with three strikeouts. Home Plate Gabriel Moya, the other guy who was just added to the 25-man roster, didn’t look so great himself. He faced four batters and gave up a double, a walk, a single and threw a wild pitch. I thought it was a little curious that the Twins would add a third lefty to the pen. Zach Duke hasn’t pitched for three games now. Duke was already a likely trade candidate, but putting two and two together tells me his days in a Twins uni have to be numbered. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Bullpen728.png AL Central Standings CLE 56-47 MIN 48-55 (-8) DET 45-61 (-12.5) CHW 37-67 (-19-5) KC 32-72 (-24.5) Next Three Games Sun at BOS, 12:05 pm CT: Jose Berrios vs. Nathan Eovaldi Mon vs. CLE, 7:10 pm CT: TBD Tue vs. CLE, 7:10 pm CT: TBD Last Three Games BOS 4, MIN 3: No Escobar, but at Least We Still Have Belisle MIN 2, BOS 1: Gibby the Great MIN 12, TOR 6: More Like Er-win Sweep-tana!!! Click here to view the article

Nah. Rebuilding teams don't keep 27 and 28-year-olds who are already on the 40-man-roster, are putting up strong numbers and have multiple years of team control down in the minors in favor of guys like Matt Belisle. They don't start Bobby Wilson over Mitch Garver. They don't hang on to a struggling veteran like Logan Morrison. Well, teams that are actually committed to rebuilding don't.

Hey Seth, you ever think about taking pre-orders for the Twins Prospect Handbook? Something tells me that's going to be a hot item this offseason. Just a hunch.

I like it. Also, I'm happy for Pressly. He gets to go home to Texas and pitch for a really awesome team that's gonna be stoked to add him to their pen.

The Twins traded away Eduardo Escobar earlier today, clearly raising the white flag on the 2018 season, yet their first game after it's been made clear that they're sellers they lost because 38-year-old scrap heap veteran Matt Belisle gave up a walk-off home run. I'm pretty sure this is not how rebuilding works.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Lance Lynn: 53 Game Score, 6.0 IP, 2 ER, 3 K, 1 BB, 63.1% strikes Multi-Hit Games: Jorge Polanco (2-for-4, R, BB), Eddie Rosario (2-for-5, 2B, 2 RBIs) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Rosario .423 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Cave -.105, Dozier -.170, Garver -.190, Rodney -.279, Belisle -350 Download attachment: WinChart727.png Let’s go around the horn … First Base Can’t say I’ve ever seen this before: … Oh ... Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Bullpen727.png AL Central Standings CLE 56-46 MIN 48-54 (-8) DET 44-61 (-13.5) CHW 36-66 (-20) KC 31-71 (-25) Next Three Games Sat at BOS, 6:10 pm CT: Jake Odorizzi vs. Rick Porcello Sun at BOS, 12:05 pm CT: TBD vs. Nathan Eovaldi Mon vs. CLE, 7:10 pm CT: TBD Last Three Games MIN 2, BOS 1: Gibby the Great MIN 12, TOR 6: More Like Er-win Sweep-tana!!! MIN 5, TOR 0: All-Star, Indeed Click here to view the article

The Twins entered play today 48-53. Why in the world would a team like that flip prospects for rental players?

Baseball Prospectus had them at 1.9%

Maybe one of the incentives will be they'll let him sing Take Me Out to the Ballgame at all the home games.

Some others have already mentioned the possibility of the Twins singing Escobar as a free agent, but another thing to keep in mind is these new prospects could be flipped next year for pieces to help the big league club. Or at least their presence in the system could make it more ideal for the front office to trade away other pieces from the system. So no, none of these guys specifically will help the 2019 Twins, but that doesn't mean they can't help next years team in a more indirect way.

Yep, nothing wrong with a college guy being in the MWL during is first full season. Sorry, that comment was more of me trying to pump the breaks a bit on some of the positive reactions in regard to his stats earlier in the comments. He has the most impressive stat line of the trio, but, at least to me, is clearly the undercard in this trade. I doubt I'll consider him much of a prospect until he shows he can do something in the FSL. But also De La Trinidad is going to be 23 this winter and Royce just turned 19.

Wow! I'm surprised they have Maciel that high, not too far back of Akil Baddoo (who they have 11th). Here's a link to their updated list for anybody interested: http://m.mlb.com/prospects/2018?list=min

Just my quick snapshot of the return: Duran is fun. Big fella, sounds like he's been clocked as high as 98 mph and can really spin his curve. Takes advantage of his size with a nice long stride. Overall numbers don't look great but both K/9 (9.9) and K:BB ratio (2.54) look good. Has faced older hitters 84.1 percent of the time. Exactly the type of guy you want to bring into your organization if you're confident in your ability to develop pitching. The jury is obviously still out on whether or not that's a trait you can ascribe to the Falvine era Twins, but I bet their very excited to have gotten their hands on this cat. Maciel has some intrigue as well. He's only 19, but the switch hitter has a nice 16.0 K% and 9.6 BB%. Runs well, has 45 stolen bases in 180 career games. So he's got athleticism and baseball skills. I wonder if the Twins see some physical projection, because if he could add even a little power, he'll shoot up prospect lists. If not, I highly doubt we'll ever see him at Target Field. There's a lot more power than there are piranhas in today's game. De La Trinidad is going to need to go up to Fort Myers. His numbers are good, he's got an advanced approach (48 Ks vs. 45 BBs) so he needs to be challenged. Encouraging to see he's held his own against LHP (.807 OPS). Again, I want to see what he can do in the FSL.

Multiple reports have confirmed that the Twins and Diamondbacks are in agreement on a deal that would send Eduardo Escobar to Arizona. Here's the return: Jhoan Duran, Ernie De La Trinidad and Gabriel Maciel. There has been a lot of debate at the site the past few days about how things should play out as Tuesday's tread deadline approaches. If this deal is indeed finalized, it seems to be a clear indication the direction the team has chosen.News the two sides were close was originally relayed by Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic on Twitter. Jon Heyman of Fancred confirmed there was indeed a deal being finalized. John Gambadoro of Arizona Sports 98.7 has shared that three Diamondbacks minor leaguers will be headed over, though we're still waiting for names. UPDATE: Jeff Passan of Yahoo Sports has the details. The Twins are acquiring right-hander Jhoan Duran and outfielders Ernie De La Trinidad and Gabriel Maciel. Over the past seven seasons, we've watched as Eduardo Escobar has blossomed from a pretty nondescript utility man into an everyday player who's on pace to set the all-time doubles record this year. It's been a fun journey, and I can only speak for myself, but he's a guy who I feel has endeared himself to the fans much more than the average ballplayer. He was less of a professional baseball player who I enjoyed watching and more like a character on my favorite TV show. Always smiling, always having fun, always playing hard. And an entertainer to boot! Arizona is getting a good one. Whether it was his play on the diamond, those great Escobar Name Game videos or him talking about Fogo de Chao in all his postgame interviews (there's one in Scottsdale, I checked), Eduardo will be sorely missed across Twins Territory. According to MLB Pipeline, Maciel ranked No. 11 in Arizona's system and Duran was the Diamondbacks 19th-best prospect. De La Trinidada was not listed among their top 30. In Baseball America's most-recent update of the Arizona rankings, Duran slotted in at No. 10. All three of those players were with Kane County, Arizona's affiliate in the Midwest League (same as the Cedar Rapids Kernels). Here are links to their respective Baseball-Reference pages if you want to scope out their numbers: Jhoan Duran, Gabriel Macial and Ernie De La Trinidad. This is difficult to do in the moment, but if you take your heart out of the equation, you have to recognize that Escobar is exactly the kind of player who it makes sense to deal at the deadline. Not only is he an impending free agent, but he's in the middle of a career year. Escobar's current OPS, .852, is nearly 100 points higher than he's posted in any other season and 130 points higher than his career mark. UPDATE: He's not making it any easier to say goodbye ... The Twins were riding high on the heels of an impressive 2-1 win at Boston last night, but their playoff odds still sat at just 1.6 percent, per FanGraphs. They are seven games back of Cleveland, who recently took measures to build up its biggest weakness. Click here to view the article

Precisely. This is how we base ball.

As for Gibson, I think there's less than a 10 percent chance they trade him. If the hardcore fans are split on that move, just think what the reaction would be like from the casual fans. I'm pretty confident this organization will never do anything that controversial. I'd certainly be listening to offers, which I'm sure the Twins are. The last thing I'd be thinking about right now is trying to sign Gibson to an extension. No need to go there right now, and there are several other players I'd approach about an extension first.

Could be Mejia, he's still on the roster, but I just go with whatever's officially listed on MLB.com (which is still TBD).

HA! This is great! And the hyperdrive never works until that exact moment they need it to kick in.

Up until about 12 months ago, you never really knew what you were going to get out of Kyle Gibson. Who was going to show up? Good Gibby, or bad Gibby? Since, Kyle has been remarkably reliable, until tonight. This was next level. This was Gibson’s transformation in its final form. This was the arrival of Gibby the Great.Snapshot (chart via FanGraphs) Kyle Gibson: 80 Game Score, 8.0 IP, 1 ER, 7 K, 2 BB, 55.8% strikes Multi-hit games: Brian Dozier (2-for-3, R, BB, K) WPA of 0.1 or higher: Gibson .446, Rodney .221 Garver .171 WPA of -0.1 or lower: Escobar -.117, Adrianza -.172 Download attachment: WinChart726.png Let’s go around the horn … First Base Hell of a start by Gibson. This is a Red Sox team he was facing that has the best lineup in baseball and he held them to a single run on four hits over eight innings of work. He threw 120 pitches and racked up seven strikeouts against just two walks. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Bullpen726.png AL Central Standings CLE 55-46 MIN 48-53 (-7) DET 44-60 (-12.5) CHW 36-66 (19.5) KC 31-71 (-24.5) Next Three Games Fri at BOS, 6:10 pm CT: Lance Lynn vs. Chris Sale Sat at BOS, 6:10 pm CT: Jake Odorizzi vs. Rick Porcello Sun at BOS, 12:05 pm CT: TBD vs. Nathan Eovaldi Last Three Games MIN 12, TOR 6: More Like Er-win Sweep-tana!!! MIN 5, TOR 0: All-Star, Indeed MIN 8, TOR 3: Twins Cruise Over Toronto Click here to view the article