yarnivek1972

Mejia is currently listed on the "Temporary Inactive List". Is that like a catch all for family emergency thing or is something else afoot? Obviously someone had to be taken off the roster to make room for Tonkin and Tepesch, but I don't think the Twins have any intention of cutting Mejia.

I don't think there is any need to manage Berrios' innings this year. Well, maybe a cap at 190-200. But, between MLB and AAA he's had 170 two consecutive years. But I doubt that's an issue. Ervin Santana didn't even break 190 last year.

The irony is that he is in his worst "slump" of the young season. 1 for his last 12, albeit with 4 walks.

Bad weather in upstate New York is certainly nothing unusual for spring. But the culprit a lot of the time ends up being snow. There have to be some places in the area that have set weekly rainfall totals in the past 2-3 weeks.

I doubt they move Gordon up to AAA that fast. He won't be 22 until after the season ends. Maybe if he still has an OPS around .850. He's never shown the extra base power he has shown so far this year. Will it hold up? Remains to be seen. Could simply be a product of gaining muscle with age - you know like we all expected would happen with that guy that wears # 7. Meanwhile, Vielma will be 23 in 5 weeks. To answer what to do if both are in AAA, I would say the answer is let guys like Leonardo Reginatto and Bengie Gonzalez, both age 27, or Tommy Field, age 30, go.

At least Wilk can give the team innings. They may not be very good innings, but are Breslow's? Sure, his ERA is okay, but he has never gotten righties out and now seems intent on walking lefties. He's aleady walked 3 out of the 17 LHB he has faced. That's not helpful. What the Twins really need is a LHP that can get RHB out at a decent rate. They don't have one.

Just don't try to bring him in with runners on base. Because of all the contact, he's more likely to fail under those circumstances than a guy who can get a strikeout when he needs to. Bringing him in to a clean inning, he'll be as successful as almost any other closer.

Vielma spent 2/3 of of last year in AA. He should be in AAA. He should have started 2017 in AAA. His glove is already MLB ready and that is what is important to his future. Vielma is a long shot prospect as an everyday player. I don't mind both players getting time at 2b and ss. But Vielma is a year and a half older than Gordon. As it stands now, Vielma might get a call up if an infielder gets hurt. He should be facing AAA pitching.

Go figure. I thought MLB hitters wouldn't swing at bad pitches like they do in AAA. I seem to recall some here saying that.

I'm not sure how to read sending Turley to EST. The Twins will have to send someone down or out to make room for Berrios. Isn't it pretty likely that whoever that is takes Berrios' AAA roster spot?

No runs. But don't know that I would call it great. 5 walks.

What was the exit velocity on that laser?

I hope Berrios is in the dugout watching Ervin PITCH and get hitters out without his best stuff and without the best command. Watching Ervin pitch is the biggest reason why I have wanted Berrios up for a few weeks.

There were also those 12 hoppers to second or the ball that landed 10 rows up behind home plate...

If nothing else, I suspect the next three weeks will answer this question. Up until now, the Twins have played a lot of teams that are currently below .500 and have not done well against the teams above .500 that they have seen. The Twins will play 4 teams that currently lead their divisions in the next 3 weeks. It will be by far their biggest test of the young season. In 3 weeks time the Twins will have played a little less than 1/3 of their schedule and I think we will all have a better idea of the answer to this question.

Lachlan Wells posted his second quality start of the season last night. It wasn't enough to prevent him from being tagged with his 5th loss, however. Kinda had a case of the Brad Radkes last night. 5 hits, including two doubles, led to 3 first inning runs for Charlotte. After that, he held the Stone Crabs to 3 singles over his remaining 5 innings. On the evening, Wells walked none and struck out two. Assuming Wells continues his pattern of pitching every 6th day, he would project to start next on May 17 in Clearwater with his mound opponent expected to be 2016 5th round Phillies draft pick Cole Irvin. Tune in next week. Same bat time, same bat channel!

Recently, sure. But I'm an old man. I remember David McCarty, Scott Stahoviak, Matt Moses and even some guys that did well that never really lived up to the hype. Like Hicks, Plouffe, Matt LeCroy.

I'm of the school of thought that believes that player development, not drafting and scouting, are the bigger issues for the Twins organization. Every baseball GM and scout knows who has the best talent. There may be some slight slot disagreement, but if you take all 30 GMs and ask them to put down the top 50 players in the draft, probably going to see the same 45 names on everyone's list. But the Twins have been largely unable to turn these raw, talented athletes into MLB players. Why? I wish I knew. It could very well be the philosophy of the old regime: pitch to contact and hit the ball the other way. If you have uber raw talent, odds are you don't pitch to contact or hit the ball the other way very often.

First of all, he's still pitching. Second, I don't know what your standards are, but I guess I would call a 2.85 career MLB ERA with a WHIP a tick over 1 and a K per 9 a tick under 9 pretty good. PS: I like Boshers. If you break down his appearances last year, it's easy to see why his overall numbers were not impressive. He pitched in a blowout game (a Jose Berrios 2 IP special) and gave up like 6 runs in an inning and a third. Walked a guy, hit a guy, HR. Boom, there go your season stats. Take that out of the equation and his numbers were pretty solid all around. Is it fair to simply ignore a pitcher's worst outing? Perhaps not. But, Boshers had been asked to pitch more than 1 inning 6 times before the blowout. He was scored on in 4 of those games. Some guys are 1 IP at a time. Doesn't mean he can't help. He pitched very poorly in ST, so I don't know what to expect of him. Personally I think he's better than Breslow for sure and maybe Rogers.

Not sure what else Melotakis can do. He doesn't control where he pitches. His strikeout pitch has been a little inconsistent. He had a two week stretch covering 6 appearances where he did not strike anyone out. And then he struck out the side just a few days ago. His numbers otherwise are very good. Just 2 extra base hits and just 3 walks allowed so far. He's getting both lefties and righties out. He has an insanely low BABIP of .154. So, he's either been very lucky or doing a good job inducing weak contact.

I guess I feel the Twins are in better position to take care of the bullpen In house than they are the rotation. If any trades are made, the goal should be improving the starting rotation.

I think Hildenberger is a guy that can help at the MLB level as well. Minor league numbers better than Neshek's? As Ob-Wan Kenobi said, "what you say is true, from a certain point of view". Some are, some are not. First, Hildenberger is already a year older than Neshek was when he made his MLB debut. And Neshek stuck. He didn't ride the shuttle back and forth to Rochester once he made it up. In 2006 in AAA, Neshek was used as an "old school" closer. By that I mean he often came into the game in the 8th and a couple times in the 7th, and finished the game - you're going to have to take my word for it, BR doesn't have minor league game logs prior to 2008. But Neshek made 33 appearances in the first half of 2006 (finished 23 of them), and pitched 60 innings. Hildenberger is being used primarily 1 IP at a time. There's nothing wrong with that approach except that I think part of the reason why Neshek was used that way was to accelerate his development. He essentially got a full season's worth of innings at AAA in half a season. Of course, Neshek was more of true sidearmer. I've never seen Hildenberger pitch, but from what I have heard he does sometimes use a "conventional" delivery. Which brings me to my second point. Neshek obliterated AAA. 6 hits per 9, 13 K per 9. Through 10 innings, Hildenberger has allowed 8.4 hits per 9 and "only" 10 K per 9. Obviously far fewer IP than Neshek at the AAA level, so who is to say where his numbers will go. But that brings me to my third point. As I said, Neshek had 60 IP at AAA before getting called up. If that is the standard the Twins use with Hildenberger, he won't be up before September. Frankly that would be true of any of the other guys (Burdi, Melotakis, et al) as well. I don't know that 60 IP at AAA will be the standard used by Falvey. I suspect it will not if the Twins fall out of contention. But if the Twins do stay in contention with the bullpen they have, Falvey would be quite justified in saying "Why change it?"

Something to consider is that if the Twins start trading veterans like Ervin and Dozier for pitching will Sano want to sign? Will he feel that the Twins are committed to winning? He's going to get paid no matter what. But he may feel that his best chance for true greatness is to be on a perrenial contender as opposed to a perrenial also ran. Questions only he can really answer. So, I think the Twins have to either extend Sano before making those trades or sit down and talk to him about the direction of the team.

If Miguel Sano wasn't such a great hitter, he would probably be a closer touching 100.

Molitor's a genius.