Tom Froemming

I’ll admit it. I was terrified of what Miguel Sano and Jorge Polanco playing next to each other was going to look like on a daily basis. To be fair, both players had performed pretty terribly at their respective positions coming into 2017. My most optimistic ray of hope was that at the very least maybe they could both just make all the routine plays. They’ve done that and much, much more over this first month of the season, and their efforts in the field are among the most positive developments so far in 2017.It’s not like either Polanco or Sano magically got better over the offseason. Both guys put in a lot of hard work. It’s clear Polanco put a ton of time on his footwork; getting his body set up in an advantageous position to make a good throw. Sano is in phenomenal shape. He looks much trimmer than previous seasons, and it’s obvious he put in the effort to boost his flexibility and agility. He looks like a different guy out there. Polanco has committed just one error in 168 innings at shortstop after averaging an error every 34.3 innings prior to this season. Sano has two errors in 149 innings at third base. He averaged an error every 30.2 innings coming into the year. Basically, they've combined for three errors over a span you would have expected them to commit 10. Errors aren't the best way to evaluate defense, but it’s still pretty early to put much stock into advanced defensive metrics (which absolutely love Polanco, by the way), but these two are definitely passing the eye test. Gushing over highlights is a lot more fun than crunching the numbers anyway. Here are just a few of my favorite defensive highlights from the suddenly solid left side of the infield, starting with "Polar" Polanco (he's just so cool). This one may be my favorite. It's a great showcase of Polanco trying to prevent his momentum from carrying him toward left field. Even while trying to avoid Sano, he still manages to kind of whee-around to get the ball moving toward first. Since he doesn't have the greatest arm, it's key that he's able to get as much mustard on his throws as possible, or ... ... just get rid of the ball super quick. Nice scoop and you gotta love the turn and basically no-look throw. He didn't get a lot on the toss, but it was on target. That's the key. This one was deeeeep in the hole. Again, notice how once Jorge has secured the ball once he gets his feet set. He didn't get a ton behind this throw, either, but it's on target. Nothing wrong with getting it over there on a bounce. Those long hops are easy pickin' for the first basemen, it's the short hops that are tricky. I wanted to point this one out especially because we've always known Miguel had a cannon, but he's really struggled with popups in the past. This a high degree of difficulty catch right here, tracking the ball back and avoiding the tarp. Ok, but really ... that arm. A great barehanded pickup and a laser beam over to first. Another barehanded beauty. Throw is right on the money. He makes it look so natural, too. That's maybe the most striking thing about both Sano and Polanco, they look so much more comfortable in the field this year than in previous seasons. The craziest part is there have been plenty more great plays by these two already this season. If you have a favorite that I've missed, please share in the comments. Additional Notes -Ervin Santana has held opposing hitters to a .116/.189/.188 line. That's not a typo. -Expect to see Eduardo Escobar in the lineup Friday night. He’s 7-for-16 with a homer off Ian Kennedy. -Joe Mauer vs. current Royals pitchers: .321/.392/.414. Career at Kauffman Stadium: .331/.422/.471. -Kyle Gibson has been very good in five starts at KC, posting a 2.88 ERA and 1.107 WHIP, but Phil Hughes has an ugly 5.49 ERA and 1.488 WHIP in seven starts at Kauffman. -Players with the most career PAs vs. Gibson: Eric Hosmer (.658 OPS in 37 PAs), Alcides Escobar (.801 OPS in 36 PAs) and Alex Gordon (.901 OPS in 36 PAs). -Friday night, the Royals are giving out Rusty Kuntz bobble heads. I wonder if any Royals fans would be willing to swap for the Rocket Raccoon one the Twins are giving away on May 6. -Michael Tonkin has pitched in just six games. He's on pace to make just 46 appearances. -The Reds activated catcher Devin Mesoraco from the DL, but have decided to hang on to Stuart Turner, rolling with three catchers on their roster. -The 2016 Twins didn't get their 10th win until May 15, their 11th win until May 21 and their 12th win until May 25. -On this date a year ago, Brian Dozier was hitting .207/.289/.368. -Buxton in the Rangers series: 3-for-7 with five walks. Scored twice, drove in a run and swiped a base. -Joe Mauer (93.6) and Jorge Polanco (91.1) lead the league in contact percentage. -Twins rank fifth in hard contact at 34.6 percent and have the second-lowest swing frequency at 43.1 percent. -Kennys Vargas has a .372 OBP in 605 PAs at Triple A. He's drawn 100 walks in 146 games in Rochester. I think he's a much better hitter than he gets credit for. -Fun fact: Nick Gordon was the youngest Opening Day SS in the Southern League and the third-youngest in all of AA. Click here to view the article

I'm not saying a demotion is the answer, but I do wish Molitor would quit pinch hitting for Buxton late in games. He's already hitting ninth now, so he's not gonna get tons of plate appearances. I'd much rater see Byron get four PAs a night in Triple A than two on the Twins.

Stewart's averaging 9.4 BB/9, has thrown nine wild pitches and hit two batters. This is so out of line with the previous 380 innings we saw from him that I'm inclined to simply write it off and assume either he's struggling with some big mechanical adjustment or he's not healthy. I think Jeremy hits the nail on the head, he needs some kind of phantom DL stint to help hit the reset button on this season, take a little time off and come back with a fresh start.

Those would be the two bright, shiny prospects, yes. But none of the other guys (Jason Wheeler, Aaron Slegers, David Hurlbut) deserves to be demoted or released at this point. I suppose somebody could go to the pen, but it seems the last thing the Twins need is another reliever in the high minors. There will be opportunities that open up, and they could come quick, but for right now it's tough for me to find a path for LeBlanc into the Chattanooga rotation.

I'd be all for LeBlanc getting the bump up to Double A, but then who do you take out of the Lookouts' rotation? Obviously not any of the three prospects (Romero, Stewart, Jorge). The other three guys who have started (Clemens, Tracy, Turley) all have an argument that they should be in Triple A ... but then who do you take out of the Red Wings' rotation?

Not sure, but Lachlan is still only 20, and pitched just 71.1 innings last season. It appears they're trying to limit his innings in the early going.

The Red Wings faced some of the top prospects in the game, Randy LeBlanc extended his scoreless-innings streak, the Kernals somehow managed to get beat on a "swinging strike" and, of course, there was another rain out. Find out what else happened around the Twins' minor leagues on Saturday.RED WINGS REPORT Charlotte 7, Rochester 3 Box Score The Red Wings had 10 hits and drew five walks, but thanks to untimely hitting and spotty defense they were unable to capture a vicory. Rochester was 0-for-7 with runners in scoring position and committed three errors. J.B. Shuck hit his second home run of the season and smacked a double, as well. After an icy start, Shuck has his OPS up around .800, hitting .250/.316/.481. Tommy Field also had two hits for the Wings. Aaron Slegers got the start and was the victim of a number of poorly-hit balls that fell in for base hits. Oh, and the defense didn't do him any favors, either. Slegers gave up seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits and a walk over five innings. He struck out three batters. Charlotte, an affiliate of the White Sox, had several of their top prospects appear in the game. Reynaldo Lopez went six innings, giving up three runs on seven hits. He issued more walks (four) than strikeouts (three). Zack Burdi, Nick's younger brother, pitched a scoreless ninth. And Yoan Moncada, the top prospect in all of baseball, was 2-for-4 with a pair of runs scored and retired Field on a nifty defensive play ... or did he? Unfortunately, the Cougars' baserunner perfectly screens the camera right at what would have been the moment of impact. But if that wasn't a foul tip, then we're to believe that Rortvedt just completely missed that ball and it hit him square in the mask. Again, the visual evidence isn't strong, but it's pretty hard to believe the batter didn't make contact. Lewin Diaz did his best to keep Cedar Rapids in this game, delivering a couple of clutch two-out hits. He got the Kernels within one with a line-drive single in the bottom of the sixth inning before tying up the game on a run-scoring double in the eighth. Mitchell Kranson went 2-for-4 with a pair of doubles, and is now hitting .318/.348/.545 on the young season. Jermaine Palacios had another extra-base hit, a double, but after going 1-for-4 is average is now "only" .390. Domenick Carlini started for Cedar Rapids, surrendering three runs over four innings. Andrew Vasquez, Alex Robinson and Max Cordy came out of the bullpen to combine for five innings of four-hit ball with four walks and an eye-popping 10 strikeouts. Cordy was on the mound for that bizarre game-deciding play, and was credited with the loss despite not allowing a hit. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Randy LeBlanc (7.0 IP, 9 H, 0 ER, 1BB, 3K) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Lewin Diaz (2-for-4, 2 RBI, hit game-tying double) SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Charlotte (1:05 CT) - David Hurlbut (0.00 ERA, 1.18 WHIP) Chattanooga v. Tennessee (1:15 CT) - Kohl Stewart (5.11 ERA, 1.70 WHIP) Chattanooga v. Tennessee (Game 2) - TBA Fort Myers @ Dunedin (Noon CT) - Dereck Rodriguez (3.44 ERA, 1.20 WHIP) Cedar Rapids v. Kane County (2:05 CT) - Clark Beeker (2.45 ERA, 1.16 WHIP) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Saturday's games. Click here to view the article

They say ignorance is bliss, and there’s plenty of validity to that statement. You ever want to enjoy a hot dog again? Don’t look up what’s in them or how they're made. And if you want to believe the Twins will have a good pitching staff, you’ll want to stop reading this article. There’s no questioning the performance of the pitching up to this point, the staff has been nothing short of spectacular despite the familiar personnel. Why?Jason Castro? He’s certainly been a help. Better defense? There’s no doubt that's improved over last year. But, as much as I hate to say it, it’s possible Twins pitchers have also been lucky. Usually I despise bringing the “L” word into conversation about major league baseball. These are the greatest players in the world; it seems borderline offensive to attribute their successes or failures to chance. But … if there was ever a situation in which to apply that term it may be to the 2017 Minnesota Twins’ pitching staff. Here are some of the numbers heading into Thursday afternoon’s game: Twins Starting Pitchers ERA 3.18 2nd in the AL FIP 4.20 11th in the AL xFIP 4.60 13th in the AL Twins Relief Pitchers ERA 2.64 4th in the AL FIP 3.61 9th in the AL xFIP 3.54 5th in the AL Overall, the results have been outstanding. The Twins have the best team ERA in the AL at 2.98, which is second-best in all of baseball (Dodgers 2.88). Pretty hard to spin that negative, right? Well, if you take a deeper look into the numbers, as the FIP and xFIP suggest, there are plenty of reasons to believe this has all been a mirage. Twins pitchers allowed the worst BABIP in the AL last season, .319. This year, they have the lowest mark in the game by 15 points (.233). Only six teams last year surrendered a BABIP under .290, with the Cubs leading the league with a freakishly-low .255 mark. The improved defense has certainly helped Twins pitchers, but is the 86-point improvement sustainable? They’re still coaxing the least amount of soft contact in the AL (16.6 percent), so it’s not like they’ve done any better at pitching to contact. The Twins have also managed to leave 79.7 percent of opposing base runners stranded so far. That’s an 11.4 percent increase over 2016. Last season, only five teams had a LOB% above even 75 percent. The 2015 Cardinals eclipsed 79 percent in LOB%, but the last team to accomplish that feat before then was Cleveland in 1968. It’s also worth noting that the Twins still have the lowest K/9 (6.75) and fifth-lowest K% (18.6) in baseball. Strikeouts aren’t everything, but it’s really difficult to have a good pitching staff without at least average strikeout rates. Over the past five seasons, teams that finished in the bottom five in K% also finished in the bottom five in ERA 60 percent of the time, and the bottom 10 in ERA 84 percent of the time. The only team to finish bottom five in K% and post an above average ERA over that span was the 2016 Brewers, who finished 13th in ERA. Again, all those figures are from before the Twins' 6-2 loss to Cleveland this afternoon, in which Ervin Santana had a great start but the bullpen surrendered five runs over three innings. Depressed yet? Well then let’s go back to the nice shiny numbers. Sustainable or not, the Twins have been pretty good at preventing runs thus far in 2017. See, willful ignorance can be very pleasant. Click here to view the article

Noooooooooooooo!

We looking at the same graphic? I see one sure strike called a ball and like seven pitches out of the zone called strikes. The solid box is the actual strike zone, right? Or am in misinterpreting that?

Hector Santiago is super fun to analyze. His attack plan and batted ball profile defy conventional wisdom. Yet here he is, a former 30th-round pick with so-so stuff in his seventh season as a big league starter. I suspected Castro would be particularly valuable for Hector, glad to see that's working out so far. It's really tough for lefties to get that outside strike called against right-handed batters. If Castro can continue to make that happen, I think we'll see Santiago take advantage. He's smart, that's how he's made it this far. We're sure to see some starts where his command fails him and he gives up a ton of walks and homers, but it's pretty great to see a 1.47 ERA right now, especially since Nolasco leads the league in HRs allowed (7) and Meyer has a 4.80 ERA and 1.60 WHIP in Triple A. Atta boy Antony!

Looks like I'm in the minority, but I'm of the mind that you keep a player in the spot where he could provide the most value until you're convinced he will be unusable in that role. Maybe Duffey as a starter was a lost cause, but if we're gonna give Kyle Gibson 101 starts, I would've been fine giving Duffey more than 36. Yes, he was bad last year, but maybe with the new evaluation team and Castro/Gimenez able to help we would have seen something extra from Tyler. That's a great tidbit about his change in positioning on he rubber, you never know how little stuff like that can make big differences. I would have put him in the No. 5 spot, but if it turns out he's a great reliever I'm not gonna get too worked up about it. But, you're never going to convince me a pitcher can provide more value throwing 70 innings instead of 200. Yes, high-leverage innings are the most important, but if your starters get blown out it's pretty tough to get use out of a great pen. The first inning is the highest-leverage inning of the entire game in my eyes.

It would be nice to know when the new front office's "evaluation period" ends. I guess we'll just have to wait and see how everything plays out. I didn't have any problem with Berrios starting the year in Rochester, but how many more great starts does he have to put together to get back into the rotation? I agree that Mejia should probably get a long look, at least a handful more starts regardless of results, so it's pretty tough to see Jose rejoining the rotation anytime soon, barring an injury. It's a nice problem to have. I'm still nervous about the current rotation depth behind Berrios, though. Pretty nuts that Tonkin has pitched in just two games and Breslow has logged just 1.2 IP thus far. Seems silly to me that they've stuck with the 13-man pitching staff for so long. Very interested to see how this all plays out ...

Rain, rain, go away. Let all the baseball teams play! The Twins managed to get both their games in so far this weekend despite some rain at Target Field, but Saturday the Rochester Red Wings got rained out for the third time and wet weather impacted the Cedar Rapids Kernels' game for the second night in a row. Find out what else happened around the Twins' minor leagues on Saturday.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester, Syracuse (Postponed) These two teams will play an Easter Sunday doubleheader. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 10, Jacksonville 1 Box Score Off to a 3-5 start, the Lookouts had only been averaging 2.75 runs per game. Saturday night Chattanooga topped that mark in two separate innings, crushing the Jacksonville Jumbo Shrimp 10-1. The game was scoreless through the first four innings before the Looks tallied two runs in both the fifth and eight innings and three runs in the sixth and ninth innings. Felix Jorge pitched 5.2 innings, giving up one run on just three hits. He walked three and struck out four. Over his 11 starts in Double A last season, Jorge averaged a meager 3.9 K/9, but through his first two starts of 2017 he has seven strikeouts over 9.2 innings. Jorge almost ran into trouble in the fourth inning, thanks in part to two passed balls by catcher Jose Gonzalez. The 29-year-old backstop made up for those miscues in a big way, drawing a leadoff walk in the fifth inning and later coming around to score the game's first run. The next inning, Gonzalez hit a three-run homer. Nick Gordon, who started at second base, continued his hot start. He was on base three times in six trips to the plate, drawing a pair of walks to go with a two-run single. Engelb Vielma and Ryan Walker each had two hits. Luke Bard (2.1 IP, 2 H, 1 BB, 4 K) and Nick Burdi (1 IP, 1 H, 1 BB, 1 K) combined to throw 3.1 shutout innings out of the bullpen. MIRACLE MATTERS Fort Myers 4, Daytona 8 Box Score Fort Myers got off to a great start, tacking on two runs in the top of the first on Zander Wiel's Little League home run. It was officially scored a triple, but the Miracle's first baseman made the full trip around the bases, scoring on a throwing error. Things didn't go as well from there, as Daytona answered with two first-inning runs of their own before tacking on two more in the second. Fort Myers pulled within a run in the fourth inning, but Daytona had one more big inning in them, scoring three runs in the fifth to put the game out of reach. Daniel Kihle, Sean Miller and Nelson Molina each had a pair of hits. Kihle hit his second home run of the season. The triple was Wiel's tenth of his career in just 150 professional games. Keaton Steele gave up seven runs, but only five earned, over five innings for Fort Myers. The bright spot on the mound for the Miracle was Sam Clay, who pitched a perfect eighth inning while striking out two. Clay had a disastrous first appearance of 2017, but has bounced back to throw three shutout innings to go with five strikeouts. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 0, Wisconsin 6 (5 1/2 Innings) Box Score The start of the game was delayed 45 minutes, and there were other delays throughout the contest. As if the rain wasn't enough to contend with, Cedar Rapids also faced off against a pitcher who had no-hit stuff. Timber Rattlers' starter Braden Webb had a perfect game going until Mitchell Kranson hit a two-out triple in the fourth. The Kernels added just one more hit, an Aaron Whitefield double, before the game was called. Kernels starter Alex Schick surrendered six runs over his 3.1 innings of work. Domenick Carlini made his Cedar Rapids debut, throwing 2.2 scoreless innings while racking up four strikeouts. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Felix Jorge (5.2 IP, 3 H, 1 ER, 3 BB, 4 K) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Jose Gonzalez (2-for-4, HR, BB, 4 RBI, 2 R) SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Syracuse @ Rochester (12:35 CT, Game 1): Jason Wheeler (7.20 ERA, 1.60 WHIP) Syracuse @ Rochester (Game 2): Aaron Slegers (0.00 ERA, 0.50 WHIP) Chattanooga @ Jacksonville (2:05 CT): Paul Clemens (6.75 ERA, 1.75 WHIP) Fort Myers @ Daytona (12:05 CT): RHP Randy LeBlanc (0.00 ERA, 0.71 WHIP) Cedar Rapids: OFF Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Saturday's games. Click here to view the article

Turley, 27, last pitched for Somerset in the Atlantic League. He was a starter, and set a league record for Ks in a postseason game (14). While he was fantastic there (2.02 ERA, 0.918 WHIP, 5.08 K/BB), he started the season at Double A Portland and struggled (4.29 ERA, 1.514 WHIP, 1.71 K/BB).

Dazzle sounds fairly confident they'll play ... which makes me nervous

Sooo they're not playing this game tonight, right? Anybody hear anything or have any guesses?

Here's hoping. Even worse than the overall record last year was the fact it felt like the season was over barely after it had started. Coming out of May with a 15-36 (.294) record was a tough pill to swallow. One more note in regard to all the home games, we can probably expect Miguel Sano to continue his hot start. So far in his young career, Sano has a .921 OPS at Target Field (.791 on the road).

FWIW Berrios is working on some mechanical adjustments. On the Red Wings' pregame show just now he said he's trying to ditch that wrist curl thing he does with his pitching hand behind his back at the start of his delivery. Said he's been doing that his whole life, so it has been difficult to change that habit. Primary reason for the change is they think it will help his command, but they're also hoping it make it less likely he'll tip his pitches.

The phrase taking things one day at a time is a baseball cliche for a reason: Looking ahead can be the kiss of death. After an 0-9 start to last season, the Twins are 6-3 this year. So they're going to be much better this season, right? Well, the marathon of a season has just begun ... but maybe. Right now, all we know is the team is off to a good start and if you look ahead at the schedule, as dangerous as that may be, there is reason for optimism.Friday night, the Twins start a 10-game homestand, which is tied for their longest of the season. In fact, 16 of the team's next 22 games will be played at Target Field and 28 of the next 43. Since Target Field opened in 2010, the Twins have a .461 winning percentage at home versus a .425 mark on the road. If we just assume the team plays to those averages over the next 43 games, they'll go something like 19-24. In other words, they'd head into June a couple games under .500. That would be pretty exciting stuff from a team that some idiot (me) suggested could lose another 100 games this year. I realize that's probably about the least-sensical prediction method you could come up with, but the point is this: Even if the Twins play exactly like they have over the past six seasons (poorly), they should still have a respectable record a month and a half from now. This early, it's hard to draw many conclusions, but we should know a lot more about this 2017 Twins team a week from today. Despite the home-heavy schedule ahead, the Twins face some tough tests. They're going to get a feel for what's it's like facing the cream of the crop in the American League. Not that a team coming off 103 losses can talk, but the Royals, White Sox and Tigers aren't exactly projected to be world beaters this season. Chicago is in town this weekend, but Monday the Twins open a four-game series against Cleveland. A week later, the Twins travel to play three games against the Rangers and the first weekend of May the Twins host the Red Sox. The results against those three defending division champions should serve as an excellent measuring stick to determine if this hot start for the Twins is legit or a mirage. It's also worth noting that things could get especially difficult in June. The Twins open the month with a 10-game West Coast road trip and play a total of 37 games in 39 days before heading into the All-Star break. Luckily, sandwiched in the middle of that streak is another 10-game homestand. But hey, that's getting a little ahead of ourselves. For now, let's just soak up the sunshine of 6-3 and look forward to seeing the Twins at Target Field on a regular basis through the end of May. We may not be able to know how it's all going to play out, but it sure has been a fun start. ADDITIONAL NOTES -The Twins scored 11 runs in their victory over Detroit Thursday. The 2016 Twins scored a grand total of 14 runs over their first nine games and didn't score double digits in a game until Jun 21, when they beat the Phillies 14-10. -The White Sox already started some measure of a rebuild this offseason, but if the Royals and/or Tigers get off to poor starts they could also go into fire sale mode. In KC, Eric Hosmer, Mike Moustakas and Lorenzo Cain are all set to become free agents at the end of the season. And there is something of a cloud of uncertainty surrounding the Tigers after the death of their excellent owner Mike Ilitch, who was always willing to stretch the payroll if he felt it increased the likelihood of his team winning a World Series. This year, maybe more than ever, it's very important to get off to a good start in the AL Central. The division already doesn't look particularly strong, but in the second half a few of the teams could gut their rosters and become complete pushovers. -Next month, the Twins will play 18 of their 27 games at home. Last May, they played just 10 of 27 at Target Field. The terrible start to 2016 crippled that team, but having a tough schedule in May made it very difficult for them to get things back on track. -On this date a year ago, I wrote a blog post at Twins Daily titled Finding Hope At 0-8. In it, I did some similar nonsensical math, saying the team was really only four or five wins off the pace from what many of us had expected, meaning they only had to win one extra game a month than we had originally projected them for. Things ... um ... did not work out that way. This is a great opportunity to point out that anybody can start up their own blog at Twins Daily and write whatever they'd like. Even if you write something that ends up being comically wrong, like I did, there's a chance you could get your article promoted to the main site. At the very least, hundreds (if not thousands) of Twins Daily readers will read what you've written, you'll get some comments and I promise you'll have fun. Click here to view the article