Tom Froemming

Here's a fun look at what Taylor Rogers did to get Joey Gallo out to start the eighth inning:

The Twins have also hit 12 more home runs with projected distances between 430-438 ft. Nelson Cruz has three of them, Miguel Sano and Marwin Gonzalez have two and there's one each from Jonathan Schoop, Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, C.J. Cron and Jake Cave. Seems odd that Eddie Rosario's longest home run so far this season is just 421 ft. Jason Castro leads the Twins with an average home run distance of 421 ft.

Sure, fireworks are fun, but have you seen the 2019 Twins lineup? The bomba squad has brought plenty of explosive firepower to the park so far this season. To celebrate the 4th of July, let’s kick back and take a look at the 10 longest home runs crushed by Twins hitters so far this season.Check out some of these moonshots! Make sure to add your own ooohs and ahhhhs while watching this highlight reel. Here's some more info on the taters included in that video are below. 10. Max Kepler and Miguel Sano (tied) Kepler: 438 ft., 112.3 mph exit velocity April 26 off Alex Cobb at Target Field Sano: 438 ft., 113.2 mph exit velocity May 23 off Matt Harvey at Angel Stadium 9. Jason Castro 443 ft., 108.5 mph May 11 off Spencer Turnbull at Target Field 8. Jason Castro 443 ft., 110.1 mph exit velocity April 27 off Jimmy Yacabonis at Target Field 7. Nelson Cruz 445 ft., 108.3 mph exit velocity June 6 off Blaine Hardy at Comerica Park 6. C.J. Cron 453 ft., 114.3 mph exit velocity May 16 off Erik Swanson at T-Mobile Park 5. Miguel Sano 454 ft., 108.9 mph exit velocity May 23 off Matt Harvey at Angel Stadium 4. Byron Buxton 454 ft., 111.0 mph exit velocity June 5 off Tyler Olson at Progressive Field 3. Jonathan Schoop 465 ft., 108.1 mph exit velocity May 1 off Collin McHugh at Target Field 2. Jonathan Schoop 467 ft., 110.4 mph exit velocity May 23 off Matt Harvey at Angel Stadium 1. Nelson Cruz 469 ft., 112.4 mph exit velocity June 29 off Jose Ruiz at Guaranteed Rate Field Here’s to more fireworks from our favorite firecrackers. Have a happy and safe 4th of July everybody! Click here to view the article

Edwar Colina dominated, there were eight home runs hit and some epic comebacks. Cedar Rapids was down to their final out but came back in the ninth inning to win, Pensacola overcame a seven-run deficit and Rochester came back in the seventh. Come see what else happened across the system Wednesday.TRANSACTIONS -Zack Littell recalled from Rochester by the Twins. RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 6, Syracuse 3 Box Score Chase De Jong: 5.2 IP, 7 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 4 K, 70.5% strikes (62 of 88 pitches) HR: Jordany Valdespin (7), Jaylin Davis (6) Multi-hit games: Jaylin Davis (2-for-4, HR), Nick Gordon (2-for-4, 2B, 3B) Rochester entered the bottom of the seventh inning of this game trailing 3-2. Jaylin Davis gor things going with a leadoff single and Nick Gordon later added a go-ahead two-run triple.

I'll say that my postseason list for the Prospect Handbook will likely be much different. That's not so much because of what happens between now and then, I'll just have a lot more time to invest in it.

Had Brusdar Graterol continued to pitch well and be healthy, I would have considered putting him at No. 1. There's really no reason to be concerned over an 8.69 K/9, 24.3 K% and a swinging strike rate of 13%. All of those numbers could certainly be better, but I think the overall quality of hitters you face once you get to Double A is a massive difference. He's the second-youngest pitcher to log at least 40 innings in Double A this season. He'll start to get more refined and consistent the more he throws and the longer he's in the high minors. When his slider is good, that's his best pitch. Pretty crazy thing to be able to say about a guy with a 100 mph fastball. And he can get a ton of arm-side run and sink on that heater, which has helped him post a ground ball rate in excess of 50%. If you want to try and do a statistical comp of Graterol to another top prospect, Sixto Sanchez would be a good place to start. They're nearly the same age and both are pitching not just at the same level, but in the same league. Southern League numbers Graterol: 1.89 ERA, 24.3 K%, 13.0 SwStr% (47.2 IP) Sanchez: 2.77 ERA, 25.4 K%, 10.7 SwStr% (52.0 IP) MLB Pipeline has Sanchez at No. 22 overall while Graterol is No. 50. They have Ian Anderson at No. 26. Keep in mind that he's 21 and had a four-game cameo in Double A last year, but here are his Southern League numbers: Anderson: 2.94 ERA, 31.4 K%, 12.1 SwStr% The Tigers have No. 2 overall prospect Casey Mize, who's 22, and No. 32 Matt Manning, 21, in Double-A's Eastern League: Mize: 1.21 ERA, 25.1 K%, 14.0 SwStr% (52.0 IP) Manning: 2.60 ERA, 29.4 K%, 13.2 SwStr% (86.2 IP) I think Graterol stands up pretty well against all these guys.

IIRC Royce Lewis didn't play shortstop for his high school team either. At least one of his final two years he was in center, right?

If you missed the game and have nine minutes to spare, here's every pitch of Thorpe's outing and the entire interview with his parents, which was outstanding:

We continue to roll along with our midseason prospect list, and this next group of five includes both the biggest new arrival and the highest climber from our preseason list. This quintet of prospects features pitching, power and potential. Come find out who landed in our Nos. 6-10 spots.Make sure to let us know how you feel about these rankings in the comments below. We put a lot of work into compiling these lists, but it is an inexact science. As you can see, there’s quite a bit of disagreement just between the five of us who contributed to these rankings. 10. Blayne Enlow, RHP Age: 20 ETA: 2022 2019 Stats (A+/A): 72.2 IP, 3.47 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 8.5 K/9, 2.8 BB/9, 3.00 K:BB Ratio 2019 Preseason Ranking: 9 Seth: 11 | Tom: 14 | Cody: 8 | Ted: 10 | Steve: 10 Enlow is on quite a roll right now. Over his final four starts with Cedar Rapids and his first five outings for Fort Myers, Enlow has pitched to a 2.13 ERA and 1.00 WHIP over 55 innings. While he’s not posting huge strikeout numbers, Enlow is flashing signs that the potential is there. Among the pitchers in the system with at least 50 innings, Enlow ranks fourth with a swinging strike rate of 14.0%. The only guys he trails are Austin Schulfer (17.4%), Jhoan Duran (16.2%) and Lewis Thorpe (14.3%). On top of that ability to miss bats, Enlow is also a ground ball machine. His ground ball rate of 55.3% also ranks fourth in the system in that same sample. 9. Jhoan Duran RHP Age: 21 ETA: 2021 2019 Stats (A+): 59.1 IP, 3.19 ERA, 1.11 WHIP, 11.4 K/9, 3.5 BB/9, 3.26 K:BB Ratio 2019 Presason Ranking: 7 Seth: 8 | Tom: 9 | Cody: 9 | Ted: 8 | Steve: 8 Speaking of Duran and his impressive swinging strike rate, he’s our No. 9 prospect. The thing that really stands out about Duran is his velocity. He sits in the upper 90s, reaching triple-digit heat on a regular basis. Duran has also been blazing hot of late. Over his last 30 innings he has a 1.80 ERA and 45 strikeouts against 12 walks. Opposing batters are hitting just .158/.265/.198 (.463 OPS) against him over that stretch. One thing to keep an eye on going forward is how Duran handles opposite-side hitters. Lefties are hitting .316/.396/.468 (.864 OPS) against him so far this year. That being the case, it's impressive he's been effective as he has despite those struggles against southpaws. 8. Brent Rooker, LF Age: 24 ETA: 2019 2019 Stats (AAA): .283/.412/.549 (.960 OPS), 13 2B, 0 3B, 12 HR, 81 K, 32 BB 2019 Preseason Ranking: 6 Seth: 9 | Tom: 7 | Cody: 10 | Ted: 4 | Steve: 7 A big storyline of this season across the minor league system has been injuries and underperformance, but in Rooker we now have yet another guy who is hitting his stride right now. Since being activated off the IL at the start of this month, Rooker has hit .340/.512/.617 (1.129 OPS). Prior to that stay on the IL, Rooker was having a difficult time in his first taste of Triple-A. He posted an alarming 44.3 K% and 38.1 K-BB% over his first 97 plate appearances. Since then, however, Rooker has a 29.5 K% and impressive 9.3 K-BB%. Here are some highlights of the damage he did earlier this month: 7. Keoni Cavaco, SS Age: 18 ETA: 2024 2019 Stats (Rk): .143/.143/.143 (.286 OPS), 0 2B, 0 3B, 0 HR, 2 K, 0 BB 2019 Preseason Ranking: Unranked Seth: 6 | Tom: 6 | Cody: 7 | Ted: 11 | Steve: 11 How have so many prospects on our list thus far slid down? To make room for the next two guys on our list. First up is 2019 13th-overall pick Keoni Cavaco. Finding spots for the recent draftees is the most difficult part of doing these midseason updates, but one thing I kept asking myself was “what’s really the difference between Cavaco today and where Royce Lewis was in June of 2017?” Cavaco shows all the same athletic potential that Lewis did at that time. He has a chance to be a true five-tool player. High school picks always come with a lot of uncertainty, but when it comes down to it, the big difference is familiarity. Cavaco was a huge pop-up prospect in the draft. He was under the radar mainly due to the fact he didn’t play in the majority of showcases. Being so new to the system, we’re obviously still learning more about Cavaco, but I suspect if anything this ranking is conservative. For more on Cavaco, check out the Q&A Ted did with him shortly after the draft. 6. Jordan Balazovic, RHP Age: 20 ETA: 2022 2019 Stats (A+/A): 65.2 IP, 2.74 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 12.5 K/9, 2.6 BB/9, 4.79 K:BB Ratio 2019 Preseason Ranking: Honorable Mention Seth: 7 | Tom: 10 | Cody: 6 | Ted: 7 | Steve: 5 Balazovic rockets up our list after not just being among the top performers in the system, but all of the minor leagues. Among the 580 pitchers to log 50 innings across the minors this year, Balazovic ranks 13th in K/9, 16th in K-BB%, 25th in FIP and 19th in xFIP. After a great first four starts with Cedar Rapids, Balazovic moved up to Fort Myers and made quite the first impression. He struck out 22 batters in just 12 innings his first two starts in the Florida State League. He’s had a bit of mixed results since then, and closes out June with a 4.12 ERA and 1.63 WHIP on the month. Maybe that’s not such a bad thing. Balazovic is still only 20 and made a grand total of 16 appearances with Cedar Rapids before making the jump to High-A. For comparison's sake, Enlow made 28 appearances for the Kernels and Duran tallied 21 outings in the Midwest League prior to moving up. So I think it’s reasonable to expect a bit of an adjustment period from Balazovic. His overall performance has been outstanding, but another reason to be encouraged is Balazovic has already set a career high in innings pitched this season. Here’s a look back at some highlights from a couple of his starts for Cedar Rapids earlier this season: Twins Daily 2019 Midseason Prospect Rankings Prospects 36-40 Prospects 31-35 Prospects 26-30 Prospects 21-25 Prospects 16-20 Prospects 11-15 Prospects 1-5 Coming Soon Click here to view the article

That had to have felt good for Royce Lewis. Why? Bradenton was the team that threw at him after he did pushups on second base. I took a look back at that situation and gave my interpretation of what went down:

Plenty of people who would have believed Max Kepler was going to set a new career high in home runs this season, but to do it before the end of June? This is incredible. Max homered twice, giving him a career-high 21 homers, as the Twins beat the White Sox 10-3 this afternoon.Box Score Pineda: 6.0 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 1 BB, 8 K, 71.6% strikes (63 of 88 pitches) Bullpen: 3.0 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 1 ER, 0 BB, 4 K Home Runs: Kepler 2 (21), Cruz 2 (15), Sano (12) Multi-Hit Games: Cruz (4-for-5, 2 HR, 2B), Kepler (2-for-5, 2 HR), Polanco (2-for-4, BB), Castro (2-for-4) Top 3 WPA: Pineda .229, Cruz .223, Kepler .086 Bottom 3 WPA: Buxton -.086, Gonzalez -.049, Cron -.048 Kepler’s first homer came off White Sox starter Ivan Nova, the second came against left-handed reliever Josh Osich. That’s Max’s fifth home run off a left-handed pitcher already this season. He entered 2019 with nine homers off southpaws in his entire career. Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet Click here for a review of the number of pitches thrown by each member of the bullpen over the past five days. Click here to view the article

Defense does not factor into WPA. Anything that happens when the team is in the field is credited to the pitcher.

Fixed, thank you.

It was a hard-fought game by the Twins, but for the second straight game the offense didn’t manage to produce the necessary runs and Minnesota came up short, dropping the series opener against the White Sox in Chicago. Miguel Sano busted out of his funk, hitting a pair of homers to go with a walk.Box Score Berríos: 7.1 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 3 ER, 0 BB, 5 K, 74.3% strikes (78 of 105 pitches) Bullpen: 0.2 IP, 0 H, 0 ER, 0 BB, 0 K Home Runs: Sanó, 2 (11) Multi-Hit Games: Sanó, (2-for-3, 2 HR), Kepler (2-for-5), Adrianza (2-for-3, R) Top 3 WPA: Sano .245, Adrianza .088, Cruz .068 Bottom 3 WPA: Polanco -.289, Berrios -.201, Schoop -.157 The Twins are in the middle of their roughest patch of the season, at least injury wise. Already playing without center fielder Byron Buxton and super utility man Marwin Gonzalez, Minnesota was also forced to place backup catcher Willians Astudillo in the IL yesterday and left fielder Eddie Rosario today. Once again, Rocco Baldelli had to deploy infielder Luis Arraez on the outfield. To make things worse, a number of relief pitchers were not available to pitch tonight, due to all of them being used in Thursday 18-inning marathon against the Rays. A couple of home runs put both teams on the board early. James McCann hit a two-out, two-run shot early off Twins starter José Berríos, to put the White Sox ahead in the first. The Twins responded immediately. After Ehire Adrianza hit a triple in his first trip to the plate, Miguel Sanó tied it up with a bomb to the left field. Bullpen Usage Spreadsheet Click here for a review of the number of pitches thrown by each member of the bullpen over the past five days. Click here to view the article

Oh sure, everybody gets all wrapped up in guys with postseason and World Series success until you roll out Sergio Romo, huh? I see. You know, there is an option to disable comments on these things ... (I kid, I kid )

Ronald Torreyes hit a pair of homers in his return to Rochester, Brent Rooker racked up three more hits, Travis Blankenhorn went deep again, Brian Navarreto played hero for Pensacola and a 2019 draftee earned his first victory and was named pitcher of the night. Come check out tonight’s Twins minor league report.TRANSACTIONS -Lewis Thorpe recalled by the Twins from Rochester. -Zack Littell optioned to Rochester from the Twins. -Ricky Ramierz sent on a rehab assignment to the GCL Twins. RED WINGS REPORT Pawtucket 7, Rochester 5 Box Score Chase De Jong: 3.1 IP, 9 H, 3 ER, 2 BB, 3 K, 63.8% strikes (44 of 69 pitches) HR: Ronald Torreyes 2 (5) Multi-hit games: Brent Rooker (3-for-5, 2B), Ronald Torreyes (2-for-4, 2 HR), Nick Gordon (2-for-5, 2B), Wynston Sawyer (2-for-4, 2B) Ronald Torreyes returned to the Red Wings in a home run homecoming. He played a couple of rehab games for Fort Myers, but announced his return to Triple A with authority, hitting a pair of homers. Spencer Steer, the Twins’ third-round pick from this year’s draft, was a one-man wrecking crew. He hit a two-run double in the second inning, an RBI single in the fourth and another run-scoring single in the eighth. Ben Gross, a 10th rounder from the recent draft, earned his first professional victory in an excellent start. The only run he gave up over six innings was on a solo homer. He gave up just two other hits and did not walk a batter. GCL TWINS TAKES GCL Red Sox 4, GCL Twins 3 (10 innings) Box Score Niklas Rimmel: 3.2 IP, 4 H, 1 ER, 0 BB, 2 K HR: None Multi-hit games: Parker Phillips (2-for-4, BB) Keoni Cavaco was 0-for-3 with a strikeout and exited this game in the bottom of the fifth inning. According to the game log the Red Sox hit a single to shortstop prior to the substitution. STARS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day: Ben Gross, Elizabethton Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day: Ronald Torreyes, Rochester TOP PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed 2. Alex Kirilloff (PNS): 2-for-5, 2B, K 5. Wander Javier (CR): 2-for-3, 2 2B, BB 6. Brent Rooker (ROC): 3-for-5, 2B, K 11. Nick Gordon (ROC): 2-for-5, 2B, SB, K, E (throw) 16. Gilberto Celestino (CR): 2-for-4, 2B, E (fielding) 19. Jorge Alcala (PNS): 2.2 IP, 4 H, 3 ER, 3 BB, 6 K, 61.7% strikes (37 of 60 pitches) SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester vs. Pawtucket, 6:05 pm CT (TBD) Pensacola vs. Biloxi, 6:05 pm CT (TBD) Fort Myers vs. Bradenton, Game 1: 4:00 pm CT (Tyler Watson) Fort Myers vs. Bradenton, Game 2: TBD (Jordan Balazovic) Cedar Rapids vs. Kane County, 6:35 pm CT (Josh Winder Elizabethton at Greeneville, 5:30 pm CT (TBD) GCL Twins vs. GCL Red Sox, 9:00 am CT (TBD) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the games. Click here to view the article

This comment saying something along the lines of "you guys are wrong because of this, this and this" is great. Please share your opinions. Some disagreement is natural, of course. even just within the five of us who contributed to this list there's a wide range on most of these prospects. Nobody has a crystal ball. I like to say prospect lists are a really fun form of torture. There is a lot of time, effort and energy put in to compiling these things, so when someone comes on here and says stuff like "so and so is only here because they were drafted high or because of their bonus" it's pretty deflating. I'd encourage everyone to try to make a top 30 or top 50 list of their own. Some things really get revealed even to your own self in the process. When I was just coming up with a loose outline for a top 50, I started by just listing out guys I thought were worthy of inclusion. I ended up with 75 guys! So there are 25 guys who I basically think are top 50 prospects in the system that didn't make the cut. It gets difficult, and really forces you to dig in and take a stance on some guys.

Gordon has a much better set of tools than Arraez. That's why he's higher. Gordon is the better shortstop, he's faster and has more power than Arreaz. I love what Luis is doing right now, but he has a .457 BABIP for the Twins. He's one of my favorite players to watch, but that's not what this is about. We're looking at tools and forecasting potential future value. Luis deserves a lot of credit. This is the best shape I've seen him in, his plate discipline has come a long way and he's showing more arm than I've seen from him at points in the past. Still, if you 1) can't play catcher, shortstop or center field, 2) can't hit for much power and 3) don't have above average speed, it's going to be very tough for you to carve out a role in the bigs for very long.

Trying to decipher anything from DSL stats is incredibly difficult, in my opinion. If you take a look back at the best 17-year-old pitchers from the 2010-14 DSL Twins I'd bargain you'll find some impressive performances and not a whole lot of future success. Now if you want to turn that same argument against Urbina, I get it. I had him down lower than anyone else, but some of the reports on him are very enticing. This is very difficult, especially when it comes to teenagers who haven't played stateside or recent draftees (which you can expect to see more of in the next installments of these rankings).

One last thing and then I'll hang up and listen This is more about outs than anything. They're precious. The only way a baseball game advances is by making outs. I really hate the idea of willfully giving them away, especially the first one. OK, on the bunting decision. If you want to get into the math on the specific scenarios, you can review Tom Tango's Run Expectancy Matrix, which is based on real-life data pulled from Retrosheet. From the 2010-15 tables: Chance a run will score at some point First and second, no outs: 61% Second and third, one out: 67.6% Average number of total runs scored First and second, no outs: 1.437 Second and third, one out: 1.367 So while you have slightly increased your odds of scoring a run, you've also hurt your odds of scoring multiple runs. But we're also taking a very broad look at this. For me, the range of things that can potentially go wrong is not worth the increase of 6.6% that you'll score a run (also, that increase was only 5.4% from 1993-2009, 4.6% from 1969-92 and 4.1% from 1950-68). We're assuming the bunt gets executed properly, which you obviously cannot do. There's also the potential that Schoop could have gotten a hit or drew a walk. Heck, the opposing team could have committed an error (like the play prior to the bunt attempt) or the pitcher could uncork a wild pitch, who knows? So accepting all the things that could go wrong and ignoring all the things that could go right just for a 6.6% better chance of scoring a run seems like a poor choice to me. Now specifically in terms of the 2019 Twins, I think when you have a lineup with this kind of firepower and a bullpen with as many questions this one has, playing to tie the game in the seventh inning seems like a fool's errand. Obviously the pen took care of business in the final two innings last night, but that's not really something I'd like to bank on.