Tons of Info

Alright, forget the speculation. Tons of Twins moves tonight, and all sorts of interesting things involved with all of that.

First, let me say I was wrong. I didn't expect the Twins to call anyone up until after the minor league season. That theory was blown out of the water tonight. Second, I didn't expect anyone to be added to the 40-man roster in order to be called up for September. I was wrong on that count as well. I was, however, correct that the Twins wouldn't make any of those moves prior to the midnight deadline to set playoff rosters, because they didn't need to. The injury to Shannon Stewart makes it a moot point, because the Twins can add anyone they would like to the post-season roster. Moving Stewart to the 60-day DL may affect that, however; more on that later.

Here are the important things, which can all be read about on the Twins website here:

1.) Phil Nevin

The Twins pulled the trigger on this deal to pick up Nevin. It's an interesting move, and I assume Nevin will be primarily a designated hitter down the stretch. He may start out at 3B, if Punto plays a lot of 2B in the next week or so to give Luis Castillo time to rest his ankle. In the end, though, I assume Nevin is primarily a DH for the Twins. Rondell White hit a HR tonight, but just hasn't hit well enough to retain his position. Even though Nevin is only hitting .245 this season, this has to be seen as an upgrade offensively.

We don't know what this cost the Twins in the end, because the Cubs are getting the infamous "player to be named" back in this deal. Incidentally, there are a number of ways that this PTBN works. One possibility is that the teams agreed on a player who hasn't been in the league for a long enough time to be traded. I believe players have to have been under contract for a year before they can be dealt. It's possible, then, that the teams know the name of the guy who will be dealt, and we'll hear about it once the service time has been completed. It's also possible the teams agreed on a list of players, with the choice to come later. Or it's possible that the player is injured. Basically, there are a lot of reasons that this transaction involves a PTBN.

To wrap up the Nevin discussion, there's the little issue of getting Nevin on the 40-man roster. The Twins went the simple route, transferring Shannon Stewart to the 60-day DL. Players on the 15-day DL count on the 40-man roster, but players on the 60-day DL don't, so this is basically a freebie for the Twins. Incidentally, this MAY eliminate the Twins ability to use Stewart's roster spot as a free pass to add someone to the playoff roster. Normally, the deadline to set that roster is tonight at midnight, but if a team has an injured player they get a ton of flexibility. I don't know if that extends to players on the 60-day DL as of the deadline, however. In fact, I suspect that it doesn't. So, the free pass might be gone unless Francisco Liriano is unable to come back. And frankly, I'd rather have Francisco than a free pass to add someone else.

2.) Roster Expansion

The Twins are making a statement that they're taking this race seriously, and the decision to call up three players immediately is part of that statement. Two of the names aren't in the least surprising, as Scott Baker gets the call (and, as mentioned earlier tonight, the Saturday start), and Chris Heintz was called up to sit on the bench in case the Twins need a pinch runner late for Mike Redmond.

Conveniently, the Twins also called up that likely pinch runner, in the form of Alexi Casilla. Or, I should say, will call him up tomorrow when the rosters expand. The interesting question is how the Twins will get Casilla on the 40-man roster. By far the most likely answer is that Mike Smith will be waived. In fact, I almost can't fathom a single other possibility. I would be absolutely FLOORED if Casilla got into games as anything other than a pinch runner; he's not ready for the big leagues yet, and would be severely overmatched against MLB pitching. This was being called for by many fans and bloggers, like Seth, who wanted to see some infield speed. I can't disagree with the move.

A Few Thoughts

1.) This is such a strange game. Last night, everything reversed on the Twins in the span of about 30 minutes, and it went from a great night to a really horrible night. Today, fate did an about face and decided to just pretend that yesterday never happened. The Twins picked up a win (although things were frighteningly close against the Royals, as they continued to audition for "giant killer of 2006"), and the Tigers lost to the Yanks. But the best news of all was that, despite making another comeback agains the Devil Rays, the White Sox blew the lead and lost today's game. The result? The Twins find themselves within 1/2 game of Chicago and 5 games of Detroit entering September.

2.) There was some thought that the Twins would make roster moves today in order to make players eligible for the post-season roster, but that was never likely and now appears not to be happening at all, according to the Twins website. The reason this wasn't likely is that there exists a loophole allowing a team to replace a player on the disabled list with pretty much anyone that they want to. With Shannon Stewart (and possibly Francisco Liriano) on the DL, the Twins have at least one spot that they can mess around with later. As a result, there simply is no pressure on the Twins to make a move today. And really, they wouldn't want to anyway; their playoff roster is going to look a lot like their current active roster, with one probable difference being the addition of Chris Heintz and the subtraction of Willie Eyre. Hopefully the Twins make the playoffs and get a chance to prove me right.

3.) Rosters expand as early as tomorrow, but as I've said in a few previous posts, I don't expect the Twins to do much as far as calling up players is concerned until after the minor league season is over. The one almost certain exception is Scott Baker, who the Twins stated yesterday would probably be asked to take Brad Radke's start on Saturday against the Yankees. The scary thing? We're going to be throwing Carlos Silva, Scott Baker, and Matt Garza into the teeth of the Yankees at YANKEE STADIUM. The Twins need to survive one of these games, and I'll be very happy.

4.) September is a big month for Carlos Silva. The Twins hold an option on his contract for next season, and he needs to show some toughness to even have a chance of being back. The only thing in his favor right now is that with Radke's almost certain retirement, the rotation will be Santana, Liriano, and then a bunch of young guys (probably Garza, Bonser, and Baker, with a free agent maybe replacing one of those). As a result, there may be some pressure to keep Silva around as a "veteran presence." I hope that's not the case; the Twins could get any number of players capable of giving the Twins at least as much as Silva has on the free agent market, and I don't necessarily think a Santana-Liriano-Garza-Bonser-Baker rotation would be so horrible, so long as Garza and Bonser pitched like they have been recently, and so long as we got ANYTHING out of Baker. So, stay tuned on this one, as it marks one of the interesting decisions facing the Twins immediately after the season is over. Of course, the Torii Hunter fiasco remains by far the most interesting bit of post-season drama that will be resolved sometime in October or November.

Down on the Farm: Low A Report

Beloit Snappers

Starting Pitchers
1.) Ryan Mullins - 5-7 / 3.77 ERA / 150.1 inn / 130-51 K-BB
2.) Alexander Smit - 7-1 / 2.93 ERA / 101.1 inn / 131-50 K-BB
3.) Yohan Pino - 13-2 / 2.02 ERA / 89 inn / 97-18 K-BB
4.) Zach Ward - 1-4 / 5.76 ERA / 25 inn / 22-8 K-BB
5.) Eduardo Morlan - 5-5 / 2.40 ERA / 101.1 inn / 119-36 K-BB

Ryan Mullins pitched 5.1 innings. His ERA fell by .02 points, and he struck out 8 while walking 5.

Alexander Smit pitched 7 innings. His ERA fell by .22 points, and he struck out 11 while walking 4.

Yohan Pino pitched 8 innings and picked up another win. His ERA fell by .09 points, and he struck out 7.

Zach Ward pitched 6.2 innings but suffered another disappointing loss. His ERA did go down by .13 points, and he struck out 5 while walking 2.

Eduardo Morlan pitched 5 innings. His ERA fell by .12 points, and he struck out 5.

Relief Pitchers
1.) Frank Mata - 5-3 / 4.38 ERA / 51.1 inn / 28-18 K-BB
2.) Danny Vais - 3-4 / 2.16 ERA / 79 inn / 78-25 K-BB
3.) Armando Gabino - 1-2 / 2.96 ERA / 27.1 inn / 20-3 K-BB
4.) Jose Cordero - 2-2 / 4.41 ERA / 49 inn / 48-24 K-BB
5.) Dan Leatherman - 0-1 / 2.21 ERA / 20.1 inn / 24-7 K-BB
6.) Adam Hawes - 4-4 / 4.26 ERA / 82.1 inn / 60-34 K-BB

Frank Mata pitched 4 innings in 3 games. His ERA fell by .18 points, and he struck out 4 while walking 2.

Danny Vais appeared in 3 games, pitching 6.1 innings and taking a loss. His ERA fell by .07 points, and he struck out 10 while walking 2.

Armando Gabino pitched 5 innings in 2 games. His ERA fell by .67 points, and he struck out 6.

Jose Cordero got into 1 game, pitching 6.1 innings and picking up a win. His ERA fell by .44 points, and he struck out 8 while walking 3.

Dan Leatherman pitched 4.2 innings in 4 games and took a loss. His ERA rose by 1.64 points, and he struck out 6 while walking 4.

Adam Hawes got into 2 games, pitching 1.2 innings and taking a loss. His ERA rose by .02 points, and he struck out 2 while walking 1.

Catchers
1.) Jose Leger - 41 games / .265 BA / 0 HR / 16 RBI
2.) Allan de San Miguel - 68 games / .199 BA / 0 HR / 19 RBI

Jose Leger started 4 games at C. His batting average fell by 11 points, and he picked up an RBI.

Allan de San Miguel started 2 games behind the plate. His ERA didn't budge, but he picked up an RBI.

Infielders
1B - Matthew Betsill - 22 games / .313 BA / 0 HR / 7 RBI
2B - Juan Portes - 69 games / .235 BA / 2 HR / 31 RBI
3B - William Luque - 26 games / .225 BA / 0 HR / 8 RBI
SS - Toby Gardenhire - 82 games / .204 BA / 0 HR / 18 RBI
IF - Chris Parmalee - 6 games / .313 BA / 0 HR / 2 RBI
IF - Yancarlos Ortiz - 16 games / .214 BA / 0 HR / 4 RBI
DL - Erik Lis - 105 games / .326 BA / 16 HR / 70 RBI
DL - Paul Kelly - 95 games / .280 BA / 3 HR / 48 RBI
DL - Whitney Robbins - 32 games / .304 BA / 3 HR / 26 RBI
DL - Andrew Thompson - 74 games / .261 BA / 3 HR / 23 RBI

Matthew Betsill started 3 games at 1B and 3 at 3B. His batting average fell by 20 points, but he picked up 2 RBI's.

Juan Portes started 6 games at 2B. His batting average rose by 7 points, and he hit a HR while picking up 2 RBI's.

William Luque started 3 games at 3B. His batting average fell by 29 points.

Toby Gardenhire started 3 games at SS. His batting average fell by a point, but he picked up 1 RBI.

Chris Parmalee started 3 games at 1B. His batting average went from .000 to .313, and he picked up his first 2 Low A RBI's.

Yancarlos Ortiz started 3 games at SS. His batting average rose by 14 points.

Outfielders
LF - Dwayne White - 91 games / .261 BA / 8 HR / 42 RBI
CF - Edward Ovalle - 124 games / .266 BA / 9 HR / 55 RBI
RF - Eli Tintor - 111 games / .287 BA / 11 HR / 52 RBI
OF - Tarrence Patterson - 98 games / .255 BA / 1 HR / 19 RBI
OF - Joe Benson - 3 games / .111 BA / 0 HR / 1 RBI
OF - Mark Robinson - 37 games / .167 BA / 0 HR / 5 RBI

Dwayne White started 4 games in LF and 2 at DH. His batting average fell by 2 points, but he hit 2 HR's and picked up 4 RBI's.

Edward Ovalle started 5 games in CF and 1 at DH. His batting average fell by 8 points, but he picked up an RBI.

Eli Tintor started 6 games in RF. His batting average rose by 2 points, and he hit a HR while picking up 2 RBI's.

Tarrence Patterson started 1 games in LF and 1 in CF. His batting average rose by a point.

Joe Benson started 2 games at DH. His batting average fell by 222 points.

Mark Robinson started 1 games in LF and 1 at DH. His batting average fell by 17 points.

What a Night

Baseball has a way of jerking you around. Tonight was one of those nights, in a big way. At one point earlier this evening, about halfway through the Twins game, three really good things were happening: 1.) the Twins were winning; 2.) the Tigers were losing, again, to the Yankees; 3.) the White Sox were inexplicably losing to the Devil Rays. And then...

As I write this, the White Sox haven't actually finished off the D-Rays, but they've scored 3 runs in the 8th to take the lead (and did anyone actually trust the D-Rays bullpen to hold onto this thing?), and it certainly looks like they're on the way to a victory. That means the Twins will go into tomorrow trailing in the Wild Card by 1.5 games.

But ya know what? The Twins are still in good shape, for a lot of reasons. First, Johan Santana is starting tomorrow, in the metrodome, and generally he doesn't lose in the Metrodome. Hopefully the bats can do something to help him. Second, just as Radke goes down, Garza and Bonser BOTH put up two consecutive solid starts. That is very encouraging, and while they aren't going to be solid every time out, I'll take 2 out of 3. Third, this lineup can still do damage, although only Cuddyer is demonstrating that against these powerhouse Royals.

The moral of the story? Things could be worse; after all, we could be Red Sox fans.

Down on the Farm: High A Report

Ft. Myers Miracle

Starting Pitchers
1.) Anthony Swarzak - 10-7 / 3.33 ERA / 140.1 inn / 127-59 K-BB
2.) Josh Hill - 6-5 / 5.09 ERA / 99 inn / 75-40 K-BB
3.) Kyle Aselton - 9-4 / 3.39 ERA / 95.2 inn / 87-52 K-BB
4.) Kyle Waldrop - 3-2 / 3.27 ERA / 41.1 inn / 24-14 K-BB
5.) Oswaldo Sosa - 4-0 / 1.65 ERA / 27.1 inn / 22-16 K-BB
DL - Justin Jones - 1-3 / 5.20 ERA / 53.2 inn / 32-22 K-BB

Anthony Swarzak started 2 games, pitching 7.2 innings and picking up both a win and a loss. His ERA rose by .07 points, and he struck out 5 while walking 6.

Josh Hill pitched 3 innings in his start. His ERA fell by .16 points, and he struck out 4 while walking 1.

Kyle Aselton pitched 5 innings and picked up the win. His ERA rose by .01 point, and he struck out 5 while walking 4.

Kyle Waldrop pitched 4 innings and took a loss. His ERA rose by .14 points, and he struck out 2 while walking 4.

Oswaldo Sosa continued to pitch well in Ft. Myers, pitching 5 innings and picking up another win. His ERA did rise by .04 points, but is still in excellent shape. He struck out 5 while walking 4.

Relief Pitchers
1.) J.P. Martinez - 3-4 / 2.89 ERA / 74.2 inn / 85-43 K-BB
2.) Ryan Callahan - 3-5 / 3.91 ERA / 69 inn / 57-24 K-BB
3.) Chris Schutt - 4-2 / 2.88 ERA / 59.1 inn / 63-30 K-BB
4.) Tim Lahey - 6-1 / 4.59 ERA / 68.2 inn / 54-27 K-BB
5.) Danny Powers - 6-2 / 2.93 ERA / 55.1 inn / 56-16 K-BB
6.) Jose Mijares - 2-5 / 3.66 ERA / 59 inn / 74-27 K-BB
7.) Jeffrey Manship - 0-0 / 2.08 ERA / 8.2 inn / 12-2 K-BB

J.P. Martinez pitched 4 innings in 2 games. His ERA fell by .04 points, and he struck out 4 while walking 1.

Ryan Callahan got into 1 game, pitching 2 innings. His ERA fell by .12 points, and he struck out 2 while walking 1.

Chris Schutt pitched 3.2 innings in 3 games. His ERA fell by .03 points, and he struck out 5 while walking just 2.

Tim Lahey appeared in 2 games, pitching 2.2 innings. His ERA rose by .09 points, and he struck out 5 while walking 1.

Danny Powers pitched 2 innings in 2 games. His ERA fell by .13 points, and he picked up a K.

Jose Mijares got into 3 games, pitching 7.2 innings and picking up a win. His ERA fell by .55 points, and he struck out 10 while walking just 2.

Jeffrey Manship's only appearance was as a starter in the second game of a double-header. Unlike his previous starts, in which he's pitched just around 1 inning in each, he actually made it 4 innings this time around. Unfortunately, he also gave up a couple of runs, and now has an ERA. He struck out 6 while walking just 1.

Catchers
1.) Caleb Moore - 23 games / .243 BA / 1 HR / 7 RBI
2.) Jeff Christy - 6 games / .063 BA / 0 HR / 1 RBI
3.) Korey Feiner - 78 games / .225 BA / 1 HR / 21 RBI

Caleb Moore started 3 games behind the plate. His batting average fell by 19 points.

Jeff Christy got 2 starts at C. His batting average fell 14 points, and is disastrously low. At least the sample size is relatively small, with his having played in only 6 games to this point.

Korey Feiner also started 2 games at C. His batting average fell by 2 points, but he picked up an RBI.

Infielders
1B - Brock Peterson - 115 games / .302 BA / 20 HR / 74 RBI
2B - J.R. Taylor - 32 games / .207 BA / 0 HR / 10 RBI
3B - David Winfree - 61 games / .271 BA / 12 HR / 45 RBI
SS - Trevor Plouffe - 120 games / .246 BA / 4 HR / 43 RBI
IF - Steven Tolleson - 43 games / .252 BA / 3 HR / 18 RBI
IF - Luke Hughes - 92 games / .235 BA / 4 HR / 36 RBI

Brock Peterson started 6 games at 1B and 1 at DH. His batting average rose by 1 point, and he hit a HR while picking up 2 RBI's.

J.R. Taylor started 6 games at 2B. His batting average rose by 22 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

David Winfree started 4 games at 3B, 1 at 1B, and 1 at DH. His batting average fell by 1 point, but he hit 2 HR's and picked up 7 RBI's.

Trevor Plouffe started 7 games at SS. His batting average rose by 6 points, and he hit a HR while picking up 3 RBI's.

Steven Tolleson started 4 games at DH and 1 at 2B. His batting average stayed even, but he picked up an RBI.

Luke Hughes started 3 games at 3B and 1 at DH. His batting average rose by 3 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Outfielders
LF - Deacon Burns - 111 games / .227 BA / 4 HR / 32 RBI
CF - Brandon Roberts - 66 games / .316 BA / 3 HR / 32 RBI
RF - Justin Arneson - 68 games / .228 BA / 3 HR / 23 RBI
OF - Jeremy Pickrel - 90 games / .220 BA / 4 HR / 36 RBI
OF - Erold Andrus - 50 games / .197 BA / 3 HR / 24 RBI

Deacon Burns started 6 games in LF. His batting average fell by 4 points, but he picked up an RBI.

Brandon Roberts started 7 games in CF. His batting average fell by 3 points, but he picked up 3 RBI's.

Justin Arneson started 4 games in RF. His batting average rose by 12 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Jeremy Pickrel started 3 games in RF. His batting average rose by 3 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Erold Andrus started 1 game in LF. His batting average fell by 4 points.

Down on the Farm: AA Report

New Britain Rock Cats

Starting Pitchers
1.) Errol Simonitsch - 8-13 / 4.42 ERA / 144.2 inn / 88-37 K-BB
2.) Glen Perkins - 4-11 / 3.91 ERA / 117.1 inn / 131-45 K-BB
3.) Brian Duensing - 1-2 / 4.07 ERA / 42 inn / 26-16 K-BB
4.) Adam Harben - 4-9 / 3.96 ERA / 122.2 inn / 74-67 K-BB
5.) Nick Blackburn - 6-8 / 4.83 ERA / 117.1 inn / 72-35 K-BB

Errol Simonitsch pitched 13 innings in two starts, picking up a win. His ERA increased by .05 points, and he struck out 4 while walking 2.

Glen Perkins pitched 5 innings and picked up the win. His ERA fell by .10 points, and he struck out 6 while walking 3.

Brian Duensing pitched 5 innings and took a loss. His ERA rose by .42 points, but he picked up 2 K's.

Adam Harben made 2 starts, pitching 11 innings and taking 2 losses. His ERA rose by .01 point, but he had a 15-5 K-BB ratio.

Nick Blackburn pitched 7 innings and picked up a win. His ERA fell by .23 points, and he struck out 5 while walking 1.

Relief Pitchers
1.) Tristan Crawford - 5-5 / 3.57 ERA / 88.1 inn / 88-30 K-BB
2.) Julio DePaula - 2-2 / 2.00 ERA / 63 inn / 39-26 K-BB
3.) Justin Olson - 7-6 / 5.25 ERA / 82.1 inn / 96-39 K-BB
4.) Jay Sawatski - 4-1 / 2.94 ERA / 70.1 inn / 65-20 K-BB
5.) David Shinskie - 0-2 / 7.11 ERA / 12.2 inn / 11-7 K-BB
6.) Colby Miller - 0-1 / 6.43 ERA / 7 inn / 1-6 K-BB

Tristan Crawford pitched 2 innings in 2 games, taking a loss. His ERA rose by .03 points, but he struck out 3.

Julio DePaula got into 2 games, pitching 3 innings. His ERA rose by .05 points, and he struck out 1 while walking 4.

Justin Olson made 1 spot start during a double-header, and also appeared once out of the bullpen. He pitched a total of 4 innings, and his ERA rose by .42 points. He struck out 4 while walking 3.

Jay Sawatski pitched 7 innings in 3 games, picking up a win. His ERA fell by .33 points, and he struck out 6.

David Shinskie appeared in 2 games, pitching 5 innings. His ERA fell by 3.46 points, and he struck out 4 while walking 3.

Colby Miller pitched 2 innings in 1 game. His ERA fell by 2.57 points, but he walked a batter.

Catchers
1.) Jose Morales - 79 games / .206 BA / 3 HR / 25 RBI
2.) Kyle Geiger - 25 games / .141 BA / 2 HR / 5 RBI

Jose Morales started 5 games behind the plate. His batting average fell by 11 points.

Kyle Geiger started 3 games at C and 1 at DH. His batting average fell by 26 points.

Infielders
1B - Daniel Matienzo - 117 games / .252 BA / 16 HR / 74 RBI
2B - Felix Molina - 109 games / .272 BA / 9 HR / 47 RBI
3B - Matt Moses - 117 games / .249 BA / 14 HR / 68 RBI
SS - Alexi Casilla - 43 games / .305 BA / 1 HR / 13 RBI
IF - Doug Deeds - 124 games / .285 BA / 12 HR / 67 RBI
IF - Matt Tolbert - 64 games / .259 BA / 3 HR / 33 RBI

Daniel Matienzo started 4 games at 1B and 3 at DH. His batting average rose by 2 points, and he picked up 5 RBI's.

Felix Molina started 5 games at 2B and 1 at DH. His batting average fell by a point, but he picked up 4 RBI's.

Matt Moses started 7 games at 3B and 1 at DH. His batting average fell by a point, but he picked up 3 RBI's.

Alexi Casilla started 8 games at SS. His batting average rose by 15 points, and he picked up 3 RBI's.

Doug Deeds started 4 games at 1B, 2 at DH, and 1 in LF. His batting average rose by a point, and he had an amazing week in the power/production categories, hitting 4 HR's and picking up 10 RBI's.

Matt Tolbert started 3 games at 2B and 1 at 3B. His batting average rose by 3 points, and he picked up 3 RBI's.

Outfielders
LF - Garrett Guzman - 57 games / .261 BA / 4 HR / 19 RBI
CF - Denard Span - 127 games / .282 BA / 1 HR / 43 RBI
RF - Trent Oeltjen - 107 games / .303 BA / 3 HR / 42 RBI
OF - Scott Whitrock - 68 games / .197 BA / 3 HR / 16 RBI

Garrett Guzman started 5 games in LF. His batting average fell by 13 points, but he picked up 3 RBI's.

Denard Span started 8 games in CF. His batting average rose by 6 points, and he picked up 3 RBI's.

Trent Oeltjen started 6 games in RF and 2 in LF. His batting average rose by 2 points, and he picked up 3 RBI's.

Scott Whitrock started 2 games in RF. His batting average fell by 1 point.

Down on the Farm: AAA Report

Rochester Red Wings

Starting Pitchers
1.) Pete Munro - 8-11 / 4.32 ERA / 154 inn / 94-45 K-BB
2.) Jason Miller - 3-8 / 3.80 ERA / 94.2 inn / 82-33 K-BB
3.) Scott Baker - 5-4 / 2.67 ERA / 84.1 inn / 68-25 K-BB
4.) Mike Smith - 10-5 / 3.92 ERA / 142.1 inn / 104-52 K-BB
5.) Dave Gassner - 2-0 / 4.66 ERA / 19.1 inn / 11-7 K-BB
DL - J.D. Durbin - 4-3 / 2.33 ERA / 89 inn / 81-50 K-BB

Pete Munro pitched 5 innings in his only start. His ERA fell by .03 points, and he walked 1 while striking out 1.

Jason Miller pitched 2.2 innings and took the loss. His ERA rose by .47 points, and he struck out 2 while walking 2.

Scott Baker made 2 starts, pitching 14 innings and taking one loss. His ERA rose by .11 points, and he struck out 9 while walking 4.

Mike Smith pitched 7 innings. His ERA stayed even, and he struck out 5 while walking 1.

Dave Gassner pitched 6.1 innings and picked up a win. His ERA fell by .88 points, and he struck out 4 while walking 1.

Relief Pitchers
1.) Beau Kemp - 7-4 / 2.34 ERA / 84.2 inn / 34-26 K-BB
2.) Kevin Cameron - 4-4 / 3.34 ERA / 59.1 inn / 53-24 K-BB
3.) Matt Ford - 1-2 / 4.20 ERA / 55.2 inn / 32-25 K-BB
4.) Bobby Korecky - 4-3 / 3.38 ERA / 42.2 inn / 24-11 K-BB
5.) Henry Bonilla - 3-6 / 4.12 ERA / 89.2 inn / 58-28 K-BB
6.) Levale Speigner - 1-1 / 4.15 ERA / 8.2 inn / 7-3 K-BB
DL - Ricky Barrett - 5-1 / 3.42 ERA / 47.1 inn / 49-26 K-BB

Beau Kemp pitched 4.2 innings in 2 games and took a loss. His ERA rose by .20 points, and he struck out 2 while walking 1.

Kevin Cameron pitched 2.2 innings in 1 game. His ERA fell by .15 points, and he struck out 3.

Matt Ford pitched 3.1 innings in 4 games and took a loss. His ERA fell by .10 points, and he struck out 3.

Bobby Korecky pitched 1.2 innings in 2 games and picked up a win. His ERA fell by .13 points, and he struck out 2 while walking 1.

Henry Bonilla got into 1 game, pitching 4 innings. His ERA fell by .08 points, and he struck out 2.

Levale Speigner pitched 1.2 innings in 2 games. His ERA fell by .99 points and he picked up a K.

Catchers
1.) Chris Heintz - 96 games / .277 BA / 3 HR / 37 RBI
2.) Shawn Wooten - 100 games / .243 BA / 6 HR / 39 RBI

Chris Heintz started 3 games at C and 3 at DH. His batting average fell by 5 points, but he did pick up an RBI.

Shawn Wooten started 3 games at C. His batting average rose by 5 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Infielders
1B - Garrett Jones - 133 games / .237 BA / 18 HR / 86 RBI
2B - Glenn Williams - 108 games / .247 BA / 6 HR / 34 RBI
3B - Terry Tiffee - 72 games / .279 BA / 4 HR / 36 RBI
SS - Tommy Watkins - 55 games / .280 BA / 3 HR / 20 RBI
IF - Luis Maza - 90 games / .209 BA / 3 HR / 35 RBI
IF - Gil Velazquez - 52 games / .273 BA / 1 HR / 16 RBI
IF - Donaldo Mendez - 18 games / .286 BA / 3 HR / 4 RBI

Garrett Jones started 6 games at 1B. His batting average fell by 5 points, but he picked up 2 RBI's.

Glenn Williams started 3 games at 2B. His batting average fell by 1 point, but he picked up an RBI.

Terry Tiffee started 6 games at 3B. His batting average fell by 9 points, but he picked up an RBI.

Tommy Watkins started 4 games at SS. His batting average fell by 3 points, but he picked up an RBI.

Luis Maza started 3 games at 2B. His batting average fell by 5 points.

Gil Velazquez started 2 games at SS. His batting average went up by 5 points.

Donaldo Mendez did not get a start this week, but did get into one game. His batting average stayed put.

Outfielders
LF - Alex Romero - 65 games / .260 BA / 0 HR / 25 RBI
CF - Andres Torres - 109 games / .237 BA / 2 HR / 28 RBI
RF - Josh Rabe - 88 games / .307 BA / 5 HR / 44 RBI
OF - Quinton McCracken - 26 games / .298 BA / 1 HR / 10 RBI
OF - Kevin West - 71 games / .241 BA / 11 HR / 40 RBI

Alex Romero started 5 games in LF. His batting average didn't budge, but he picked up an RBI.

Andres Torres started 5 games in CF. His batting average fell by 4 points, but he picked up an RBI.

Josh Rabe had a solid week in his return to Rochester, started 3 games in RF and 1 in LF. He went 5-for-8 in his first two games, and picked up his 5th HR of the AAA season. He won't be here for long; the Twins are expected to call him back up as soon as his 10 day minor-league stint ends.

Quinton McCracken started 2 games in RF, 1 in CF, and 1 at DH. His batting average fell by 18 points, but he did pick up 2 RBI's.

Kevin West started 2 games at DH and 1 in RF. His batting average rose by 4 points, and he hit a HR while picking up 3 RBI's.

Enemy Intel Report

The Twins enter the week as the Wild Card leader, and with a reasonable shot at catching the Tigers. This thing is getting interesting...

Minnesota Twins
Off Day (Mon)
3 games vs. Kansas City (Tue-Thu)
3 games @ New York Yankees (Fri-Sun)

Detroit Tigers
Off Day (Mon)
3 games @ New York Yankees (Tue-Thu)
3 games vs. Los Angeles Angels (Fri-Sun)

Chicago White Sox
Off Day (Mon)
3 games vs. Tampa Bay (Tue-Thu)
3 games @ Kansas City (Fri-Sun)

New York Yankees
Off Day (Mon)
3 games vs. Detroit (Tue-Thu)
3 games vs. Minnesota (Fri-Sun)

Boston Red Sox
3 games @ Oakland (Mon-Wed)
4 games vs. Toronto (Thu-Sun)

Good Lord

Check the calender, because it sure doesn't feel like August. These game was not pretty, but it sure was entertaining. Makes you wonder what's in store tomorrow afternoon. No matter what, the Twins will leave Chicago with the Wild Card lead, and that's nothing to sniff at. That's all I'm going to say for the night. Go get 'em Carlos, and lets hope those bats can beat up on Buehrle. Until tomorrow...

Phew

Now, that's a ballgame. This thing was filled with all sorts of twists and turns. Here were my high/lowlights:

1.) Radke going only 2. It was bound to happen. The man's arm is about to fall off. I expect this to happen again this season, but let's hope that he can keep it together MOST of the time when he's asked to go out there and pitch.

2.) Punto hits a homer. What? Punto? Are you kidding me?

3.) Hunter's re-emergence as an offensive player. Hunter is incredibly inconsistent, but his recent power surge has made me forget that he's lost a step on defense.

4.) Neshek gives UP a homer. This is almost as nuts as Punto hitting one. Guess the cosmos had to balance things out. Oh...wait...I don't believe in that kind of thing...

5.) Ozzie's moves. How rough is it when you take out your starter in the 6th inning when he's thrown only 71 pitches and given up just 1 run, only to see the lefty specialist give up a base hit, and then to see his rightie replacement give up a homerun. Sometimes, you can just get too cute. Ozzie should have left Vazquez in. After all, it's not often he gets solid starts from his starters (excepting the recent performances of Jon Garland).

6.) Finally, a huge shoutout to the bullpen for covering 7 innings and allowing just 1 run. Neshek was due for giving one up, because he had been unbelievable of late. When your starter leaves after 2, you just aren't supposed to win the game. Even better is the fact that no one, other than Guerrier, had to work too terrible much, so the 'pen isn't shot for the rest of the series. Great job, guys. Of course, that's what we fans have come to expect, for good reason.

Let's Try This Again...

Ok, so the last time I put the Twins Magic Number up on the sidebar, horrible things happened. And they kept happening, until I took it down. But I'm a (semi) rational person who doesn't believe in things like jinxes and superstition. Really. So, the Magic Number counter is back on the sidebar. Of course, if the Twins lose tomorrow...

Down on the Farm: Rookie League Report

Elizabethton Twins

Starting Pitchers
1.) Alex Burnett - 4-2 / 3.66 ERA / 66.1 inn / 69-11 K-BB
2.) Brian Kirwan - 4-5 / 5.98 ERA / 58.2 inn / 55-22 K-BB
3.) Jose Lugo - 7-4 / 3.66 ERA / 66.1 inn / 62-21 K-BB
4.) Sean Land - 3-4 / 4.21 ERA / 57.2 inn / 54-25 K-BB
5.) Jose Castillo - 4-3 / 3.31 ERA / 68 inn / 53-22 K-BB

Alex Burnett pitched 4 innings and took a loss. His ERA rose by .48 points, and he struck out 3 while walking 2.

Brian Kirwan pitched just 1 inning, taking a loss. He got bombed, with his ERA jumping by .99 points, and he walked 2 while walking 2.

Jose Lugo pitched 6 inning and picked up a win. His ERA fell by .22 points, and he struck out 6 while walking 3.

Sean Land pitched 4 innings and took a loss. His ERA rose by .86 points, and he struck out 3 while walking 2.

Jose Castillo got 2 starts, winning one and losing one. He pitched a total of 12 innings. His ERA rose by .42 points, but he struck out 14 while walking 6.

Relief Pitchers
1.) Danny Hernandez - 1-1 / 2.84 ERA / 25.1 inn / 35-8 K-BB
2.) Matthew Williams - 4-2 / 3.79 ERA / 35.2 inn / 37-9 K-BB
3.) Aaron Craig - 2-1 / 5.56 ERA / 22.2 inn / 28-15 K-BB
4.) Matthew Fox - 3-0 / 3.13 ERA / 37.1 inn / 42-10 K-BB
5.) Brandon McConnell - 1-1 / 7.71 ERA / 35 inn / 32-12 K-BB
6.) Patrick Bryant - 0-0 / 6.75 ERA / 22.2 inn / 28-15 K-BB
7.) Justin Staatz - 2-0 / 4.82 ERA / 18.2 inn / 14-8 K-BB

Danny Hernandez pitched 2.1 innings in 2 games. His ERA fell by .29 points, and he struck out 3.

Matthew Williams got into 2 games, pitching 2 innings. His ERA rose by .31 points, but he struck out 3 with just 1 walk.

Aaron Craig pitched 3 innings in 2 games. His ERA fell by .85 points, and he struck out 9 while walking just 2.

Matthew Fox appeared in 1 game, pitching 2 innings. His ERA fell by .18 points, and he struck out 1 while walking 1.

Brandon McConnell pitched 5 innings in 2 games. His ERA rose by .51 points, but he struck out 3 while walking 1.

Patrick Bryant got into 1 game, pitching 3 innings. His ERA fell by .11 points, and he struck out 5 while walking 3.

Justin Staatz pitched 3.2 innings in 2 games. His ERA more than doubled, rising by 2.42 points, and he struck out 2 while walking 1.

Catchers
1.) Gregory Yersich - 46 games / .258 BA / 4 HR / 21 RBI
2.) Daniel Berg - 48 games / .247 BA / 5 HR / 23 RBI

Gregory Yersich started 4 games at C. His batting average fell by 16 points, but he did pick up an RBI.

Daniel Berg started 2 games at C and 2 at 1B. His batting average rose by 7 points.

Infielders
1B - Daniel Valencia - 42 games / .325 BA / 7 HR / 26 RBI
2B - Brian Dinkelman - 40 games / .291 BA / 4 HR / 29 RBI
3B - Garrett Olson - 45 games / .319 BA / 0 HR / 19 RBI
SS - Steven Singleton - 35 games / .344 BA / 2 HR / 20 RBI
IF - Joshua Dean - 25 games / .253 BA / 2 HR / 12 RBI
IF - Michael Lysaught - 25 games / .167 BA / 0 HR / 4 RBI
DL - Henry Sanchez - 12 games / .220 BA / 1 HR / 8 RBI

Daniel Valencia started 2 games at 1B, 3 at 3B, and 1 at DH. His batting average rose by 8 points, and he hit a HR while picking up 5 RBI's.f

Brian Dinkelman started 4 games at 2B and 2 at DH. His batting average stayed even, but he picked up an RBI.

Garrett Olson started 3 games at 3B and 1 at DH. His batting average fell by 17 points.

Steven Singleton started 6 games at SS. His batting average fell by 3 points, but he hit a HR and picked up 6 RBI's.

Joshua Dean started 2 games at 1B and 2 at DH. His batting average rose by 43 points, and he hit a HR while picking up 8 RBI's.

Michael Lysaught started 2 games at 2B. His batting average rose by 3 points.

Outfielders
LF - Josh Land - 32 games / .217 BA / 2 HR / 14 RBI
CF - Danny Santiesteban - 59 games / .257 BA / 6 HR / 29 RBI
RF - J.W. Wilson - 45 games / .235 BA / 6 HR / 21 RBI
OF - Richard Sojo - 31 games / .236 BA / 0 HR / 11 RBI
OF - Wesley Connor - 28 games / .181 BA / 0 HR / 7 RBI

Josh Land started 3 games in LF. His batting average rose by 15 points, and he hit a HR while picking up 3 RBI's.

Danny Santiesteban started 5 games in CF. His batting average rose by 12 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

J.W. Wilson started 3 games in RF and 1 in CF. His batting average fell by 15 points, but he picked up an RBI.

Richard Sojo started 3 games in LF. His batting average fell by 14 points.

Wesley Connor started 3 games in RF. His batting average fell by 2 points, but he picked up an RBI.


GCL Twins

The GCL Twins season ended on August 21. As a result, this will be the last post that includes the GCL Twins stats. Only 3 games were played between the last Rookie League Report and the end of the season, so there was not a lot of change. Where players have been assigned to other teams in order to finish off their season, I have so noted.

Starting Pitchers
1.) Omar Alcala - 3-1 / 4.02 ERA / 53.2 inn / 41-26 K-BB
2.) Michael Allen - 0-2 / 4.91 ERA / 22 inn / 22-8 K-BB
3.) Tyler Robertson - 4-2 / 4.25 ERA / 48.2 inn / 54-15 K-BB
4.) David Bromberg - 3-3 / 2.66 ERA / 50.2 inn / 31-18 K-BB
5.) Ludovicus Van Mil - 1-2 / 3.30 ERA / 43.2 inn / 24-17 K-BB

Omar Alcala pitched 3 innings in his start. His ERA rose by .29 points, and he struck out 7 while walking 3.

Michael Allen pitched 7 innings and took a no decision. His ERA fell by 1.69 points, and he struck out 6 while walking 2.

Tyler Robertson pitched 4 innings and took a no decision. His ERA rose by .42 points, and he struck out 5 while walking 3.

Bromberg and Van Mil did not pitch this week.

Relief Pitchers
1.) Luis Carreras - 1-1 / 3.34 ERA / 29.2 inn / 23-5 K-BB
2.) Thomas Wright - 0-1 / 11.74 ERA / 7.2 inn / 3-9 K-BB
3.) Bradley Tippett - 3-5 / 2.53 ERA / 21.1 inn / 18-5 K-BB
4.) Robert Delaney - 1-3 / 4.64 ERA / 33 inn / 27-1 K-BB
5.) Adam Revelette - 2-1 / 4.78 ERA / 26.1 inn / 18-3 K-BB
6.) Jakub Toufar - 0-0 / 4.70 ERA / 15.1 inn / 5-6 K-BB
7.) Carlos Garcia - 3-0 / 3.68 ERA / 22 inn / 16-15 K-BB
8.) Bruno Sanchez - 1-3 / 8.31 ERA / 17.1 inn / 7-9 K-BB
9.) Jose Acosta - 0-1 / 1.50 ERA / 6 inn / 3-1 K-BB
10.) Curtis Leavitt - 0-2 / 7.59 ERA / 32 inn / 33-16 K-BB
11.) Walter Patton - 0-0 / 9.00 ERA / 2 inn / 1-4 K-BB
12.) Joan Ortiz - 1-0 / 3.86 ERA / 2.1 inn / 0-1 K-BB
13.) Nathan Crawford - 0-0 / 18.00 ERA / 2 inn / 2-1 K-BB
14.) Jeffrey Schoenbachler - 0-0 / 0.00 ERA / 1 inn / 0-0 K-BB

All of the relievers who pitched this week made just one appearance.

Luis Carrerras pitched 5 innings, and lowered his ERA by .67 points while getting a strikeout.

Thomas Wright pitched .2 innings, and his ERA skyrocketed by 5.31 points. He picked up a strikeout, but walked 3 batters.

Bradley Tippett pitched .2 innings and took a loss. His ERA rose by .35 points, and he struck out 1 while walking 1.

Robert Delaney pitched 1 inning and took a loss. His ERA rose by .14 points, but he picked up another K to end the season with that very solid 27-1 K-BB ratio.

Adam Revelette pitched 5 innings, and lowered his ERA by 1.13 points while striking out 3.

Jakub Toufar pitched 1.1 innings, and lowered his ERA by .44 points.

Carlos Garcia pitched 1 inning. His ERA rose by .25 points, and he struck out 1 while walking 2.

Bruno Sanchez pitched 2 innings and took a loss. His ERA rose by .09 points, and he walked a batter.

Acosta, Leavitt, Patton, Ortiz, Crawford, and Schoenbachler did not pitch this week.

Catchers
1.) Wilson Ramos - 46 games / .286 BA / 3 HR / 26 RBI
2.) Mighuel Barrientos - 8 games / .143 BA / 0 HR / 2 RBI
3.) Gilbert Buenrostro - 13 games / .281 BA / 0 HR / 0 RBI

Wilson Ramos caught 3 games this week. His batting average fell by 12 points.

Mighuel Barrientos started 1 game at DH. His batting average fell by 24 points.

Gilbert Buenrostro did not play this week.

Infielders
1B - Juan Delgado - 40 games / .228 BA / 1 HR / 15 RBI
2B - Thomas Cowgill - 35 games / .185 BA / 2 HR / 13 RBI
3B - Deibinson Romero - 50 games / .313 BA / 4 HR / 38 RBI
SS - Eric Santiago - 35 games / .250 BA / 0 HR / 8 RBI
IF - Matthew Lawman - 28 games / .256 BA / 0 HR / 4 RBI
IF - Rodolfo Palacios - 37 games / .279 BA / 0 HR / 16 RBI
DL - Starling De Los Santos - 24 games / .195 BA / 0 HR / 2 RBI

Juan Delgado started 2 games at 1B. His batting average fell by 14 points.

Thomas Cowgill started 2 games at 2B. His batting average fell by 4 points.

Deibinson Romero started 3 games at 3B. His batting average rose by 12 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Eric Santiago started 3 games at SS. His batting average rose by 3 points.

Matthew Lawman started 1 game at 2B, 1 in LF, and 1 at DH. His batting average fell by 8 points.

Rodolfo Palacios did not get a start this week. However, his batting average did rise by a point, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Outfielders
LF - Kevin Harrington - 36 games / .136 BA / 0 HR / 6 RBI
CF - Joe Benson - 52 games / .260 BA / 5 HR / 28 RBI
RF - Mark Dolenc - 51 games / .212 BA / 1 HR / 26 RBI
OF - Chris Parmalee - 45 games / .279 BA / 8 HR / 32 RBI

Kevin Harrington started 1 game in LF and 1 in CF. His batting average fell by 8 points.

Joe Benson started 2 games in CF. His batting average rose by 2 points, and he hit a HR with 1 RBI. He was promoted to Low A Beloit for the remainder of the season.

Mark Dolenc started 2 games in RF and 1 in LF. His batting average fell by 8 points, but he picked up an RBI.

Chris Parmalee started 1 game in RF and 1 at 1B. His batting average fell by 18 points. He was promoted to Low A Beloit for the remainder of the season.

Site Update

I'm at a grad orientation today until 3, so I won't get to the Rookie League Report until this afternoon.

Notes for the Night

1.) On Justin Morneau - His 1 HR and 2 RBI night moved him into a tie for 13th on the Twins All-Time single season homer list (with Bob Allison '64, Tony Oliva '64, and Tom Brunansky '84 & '87), and also a tie for 13th on the comparable RBI list (with Killebrew '66 and Puckett '92).

2.) Quality starts from both Garza and Bonser in back-to-back nights? I'll take it. Makes you wonder whether Carlos Silva would be in trouble if Francisco Liriano gets healthy enough to return to the rotation this year. Makes you wonder even more if Silva's option will be picked up at the end of the year.

3.) Lest anyone thought I forgot about tracking the Twins magic number to clinch the Wild Card, it's sitting at 37.

4.) I was rooting for a 2-2 series split in the Tigers/White Sox matchup, and that's what we got. I was rooting for this largely because I was conflicted about exactly what I should hope for, and this way we ended up gaining a 1/2 game on each of them. In other words, we have the White Sox right where we want them coming into this weekend's series.

Dennys Reyes Extension

Dennys Reyes seemed like one of the least likely off-season Twins signees to make the team in March. But after names like Darrell May and Gabe White failed to register, the Twins offered Reyes a spot in the minor leagues, and called him up in April to try to shore up what had become a troublingly weak bullpen. Since that time, Reyes has been spectacular, posting a 0.96 ERA in 43 games, and becoming the go-to guy for lefty batters.

Now, Reyes' great season has been rewarded by the Twins with a raise and an extension. Reyes signed a two-year, $2 million deal that will keep him a Twin through 2008. I see this as a great move for the Twins. With all the great young pitching in the system, one thing that doesn't seem immediately available is a situational lefty. It's hard to expect that Reyes will be this good over the next two years, but if he's even close than the Twins made the right decision. A million dollars a year is nothing to sneeze at, but with the rising cost of middle relief, signing players like Reyes makes sense.

Down on the Farm: Low A Report

Beloit Snappers

Starting Pitchers
1.) Ryan Mullins - 5-7 / 3.79 ERA / 145 inn / 122-46 K-BB
2.) Alexander Smit - 7-1 / 3.15 ERA / 94.1 inn / 120-46 K-BB
3.) Yohan Pino - 12-2 / 2.11 ERA / 81 inn / 90-18 K-BB
4.) Zach Ward - 1-3 / 5.89 ERA / 18.1 inn / 17-6 K-BB
5.) Eduardo Morlan - 5-5 / 2.52 ERA / 96.1 inn / 114-36 K-BB

Ryan Mullins pitched 5 innings and took a loss. His ERA rose by .13 points, but he struck out 6 while walking just 1.

Alexander Smit pitched 7 innings and picked up a win. His ERA fell by .25 points, and he struck out 9 while walking 3.

Yohan Pino pitched 6 innings and got the win. His ERA fell by .17 points, and he struck out 5 while walking 1.

Zach Ward pitched 5 innings, taking another loss. His ERA fell by 1.54 points, and he struck out 3 while walking 3.

Eduardo Morlan pitched 5 innings and picked up a win. His ERA fell by .14 points, and he struck out 6 while walking 1.

Relief Pitchers
1.) Frank Mata - 5-3 / 4.56 ERA / 47.1 inn / 24-16 K-BB
2.) Danny Vais - 3-3 / 2.23 ERA / 72.2 inn / 68-23 K-BB
3.) Armando Gabino - 1-2 / 3.63 ERA / 22.1 inn / 14-3 K-BB
4.) Jose Cordero - 1-2 / 4.85 ERA / 42.2 inn / 40-21 K-BB
5.) Dan Leatherman - 0-0 / 0.57 ERA / 15.2 inn / 18-3 K-BB
6.) Adam Hawes - 4-3 / 4.24 ERA / 80.2 inn / 58-33 K-BB
DL - 0-2 / 8.53 ERA / 6.1 inn / 8-4 K-BB

Frank Mata pitched 1.1 innings in 2 games. His ERA fell by .26 points, and he struck out 1 while walking 1.

Danny Vais got into 3 games, pitching 6 innings. His ERA fell by .20 points while striking out 6.

Armando Gabino pitched 2 innings in 1 game. His ERA fell by .35 points, and he struck out 1.

Jose Cordero appeared in 2 games, pitching 3 games. His ERA fell by .14 points, but he walked a batter.

Dan Leatherman pitched 2.2 innings in 2 games. His ERA fell by .12 points, and he struck out 3.

Adam Hawes got into 1 game, pitching 2 innings. His ERA fell by .11 points, and he struck out 2.

Catchers
1.) Allan de San Miguel - 66 games / .199 BA / 0 HR / 18 RBI
2.) Jose Leger - 36 games / .276 BA / 0 HR / 15 RBI

Allan de San Miguel started 3 games behind the plate. His batting average fell by 3 points, but he picked up 2 RBI's.

Jose Leger started 2 games at C and 2 at 3B. His batting average stayed where it was, but he picked up 4 RBI's.

Infielders
1B - Matthew Betsill - 16 games / .333 BA / 0 HR / 5 RBI
2B - Juan Portes - 63 games / .228 BA / 1 HR / 29 RBI
3B - William Luque - 21 games / .254 BA / 0 HR / 8 RBI
SS - Toby Gardenhire - 78 games / .205 BA / 0 HR / 17 RBI
IF - Chris Parmalee - 1 game / .000 BA / 0 HR / 0 RBI
IF - Yancarlos Ortiz - 12 games / .200 BA / 0 HR / 4 RBI
IF - Erik Lis - 105 games / .326 BA / 16 HR / 70 RBI
DL - Paul Kelly - 95 games / .280 BA / 3 HR / 48 RBI
DL - Whitney Robbins - 32 games / .304 BA / 3 HR / 26 RBI
DL - Andrew Thompson - 74 games / .261 BA / 3 HR / 23 RBI

Matthew Betsill started 4 games at 1B and 1 at 3B. His batting average fell by 35 points, but he picked up 2 RBI's.

Juan Portes started 4 games at 2B. His batting average fell by 3 points, but he picked up 3 RBI's.

William Luque started 2 games at 3B, 1 at 2B, and 1 at SS. His batting average rose by 13 points, and he picked up an RBI.

Toby Gardenhire started 3 games at SS. His batting average fell by 8 points.

Chris Parmalee was promoted to Beloit after the GCL season ended on Monday, skipping a stop at Elizabethton. He got into a game as a first baseman, so I'm listing him as an infielder for now. By next week, I expect him to play more in the outfield.

Yancarlos Ortiz was promoted from Elizabethton, likely due to the great number of injuries Beloit's infield has suffered. He was with Beloit earlier this season before being demoted. He started 1 game this week at SS.

Erik Lis did not play again this week, and we can probably assume that he's on the DL.

Outfielders
LF - Dwayne White - 85 games / .263 BA / 6 HR / 38 RBI
CF - Edward Ovalle - 118 games / .274 BA / 9 HR / 54 RBI
RF - Eli Tintor - 105 games / .285 BA / 10 HR / 50 RBI
OF - Tarrence Patterson - 96 games / .254 BA / 1 HR / 19 RBI
OF - Joe Benson - 1 game / .333 BA / 0 HR / 1 RBI
OF - Mark Robinson - 33 games / .184 BA / 0 HR / 5 RBI

Dwayne White started 4 games in LF and 1 at DH. His batting average rose by 3 points, and he picked up an RBI.

Edward Ovalle started 3 games in CF, 1 in RF, and 1 at DH. His batting average fell by 2 points.

Eli Tintor started 4 games in RF and 1 at DH. His batting average rose by 4 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Tarrence Patterson started 2 games in CF, 1 in LF, and 1 at DH. His batting average rose by 5 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Joe Benson, like Chirs Parmalee, was promoted to Beloit from the GCL Twins after the GCL season wound up. He started a game at DH.

Mark Robinson did not play this week.

Nine Days in Rochester...

Rondell White was activated by the Twins following tonight's win over the Orioles. To make room, the Twins sent Josh Rabe down to Rochester. Rabe won't be there for long, however, as the Twins have been saying for awhile that whoever was sent down to make room for White would come back up as soon as rosters expand on September 1. Rabe has played well when he gets in the lineup, but that doesn't happen very often anymore, so I guess it makes sense to send him down now. I like what I've seen from Rabe so far; I'm sure we'll be seeing a lot more of him in years to come.

Arizona Fall League Update

Rosters have been announced for the AFL, and there are some interesting surprises for the Twins. First, the Twins are affiliated with the Mesa Solar Sox in the AFL, so all of their players are assigned to that team. Interestingly, the Twins have seven players listed on the Mesa roster, rather than the six that is the norm. I'm not sure why that is, but if I find an answer I'll be sure to provide it. Here are the names of the Twins who made the cut:

Adam Harben - SP - New Britain Rock Cats
Jay Sawatski - RP - New Britain Rock Cats
Errol Simonitsch - SP - New Britain Rock Cats
Kevin Slowey - SP - New Britain Rock Cats
Matt Moses - 3B - New Britain Rock Cats
Matt Tolbert - IF - New Britain Rock Cats
David Winfree - 1B/3B - Ft. Myers Miracle

My first thought is that Slowey's presence is interesting because he's been designated as a member of Team USA. I assume his responsibilities will have been fulfilled by the time the AFL season begins. Next, it's a clear sign of where the Twins minor league system is right now that not a single AAA player was selected to participate in the AFL. The strength of this system really is at the AA level for now, but that of course should change soon as these guys get called up. The Twins used their sub-AA roster exception on David Winfree, rather than Brock Peterson or Erik Lis. Winfree is a guy that the Twins have a lot of faith in, even after he missed time for personal reasons earlier this season. The fact that he missed time earlier probably makes him an ideal candidate for the AFL, because it will allow him essentially to get a full season of baseball in. The other guys, especially the Pitchers, will probably be awfully tired when their post-season finally rolls around in late November.

Down on the Farm: High A Report

Ft. Myers Miracle

Starting Pitchers
1.) Anthony Swarzak - 9-6 / 3.26 ERA / 132.2 inn / 122-53 K-BB
2.) Josh Hill - 6-5 / 5.25 ERA / 96 inn / 71-39 K-BB
3.) Kyle Aselton - 8-4 / 3.38 ERA / 90.2 inn / 82-48 K-BB
4.) Kyle Waldrop - 3-1 / 3.13 ERA / 37.1 inn / 22-10 K-BB
5.) Oswaldo Sosa - 3-0 / 1.61 ERA / 22.1 inn / 17-12 K-BB
DL - Justin Jones - 1-3 / 5.20 ERA / 53.2 inn / 32-22 K-BB

Anthony Swarzak pitched 6 innings and picked up a win. His ERA fell by .15 points, and he struck out 4 while walking 2.

Josh Hill pitched 5 innings and took the loss. His ERA rose by .01 point, but he struck out 6 while walking just 3.

Kyle Aselton started 2 games, pitching 9.2 innings while winning and losing 1 each. His ERA rose by .05 points, but he struck out 10 while walking only 3.

Kyle Waldrop pitched 5 innings and took a loss. His ERA rose by .62 points, but he struck out 5 and walked just 2.

Oswaldo Sosa pitched 5 innings and picked up a win. His ERA fell by .47 points, and he struck out 6 while walking only 1.

Relief Pitchers
1.) J.P. Martinez - 3-4 / 2.93 ERA / 70.2 inn / 81-42 K-BB
2.) Ryan Callahan - 3-5 / 4.03 ERA / 67 inn / 55-23 K-BB
3.) Chris Schutt - 4-2 / 2.91 ERA / 55.2 inn / 58-28 K-BB
4.) Tim Lahey - 6-1 / 4.50 ERA / 66 inn / 49-26 K-BB
5.) Danny Powers - 6-2 / 3.04 ERA / 53.1 inn / 55-16 K-BB
6.) Jose Mijares - 1-5 / 4.21 ERA / 51.1 inn / 64-25 K-BB
7.) Jeffrey Manship - 0-0 / 0.00 ERA / 4.2 inn / 6-1 K-BB

J.P. Martinez pitched 5 innings in 2 games. His ERA fell by .09 points, and he struck out 8 while walking 4.

Ryan Callahan got into 2 games, pitching 6.1 innings. His ERA fell by .12 points, and he struck out 6 while walking 2.

Chris Schutt pitched 3.1 innings in 2 games. His ERA fell by .19 points, and he struck out 6 while walking just 1.

Tim Lahey appeared in 2 games, pitching 3 innings and picking up a win. His ERA rose by .21 points, but he struck out 3 without giving up a walk.

Danny Powers pitched 2 innings in 1 game. His ERA fell by .12 points, and he struck out 2.

Jose Mijares appeared in 2 games, pitching 2 innings. His ERA fell by .17 points, and he struck out 3.

Jeffrey Manship got into 2 games, 1 in relief and 1 technically a start. You may remember that last week, Manship started a game and pitched 2 innings before being taken out; this week, he was used for just 1 inning before being relieved. He went a total of 2.2 innings this week (meaning, of course, that his relief appearance was actually longer than his start), and maintained his null ERA. He also struck out 3 while walking just 1.

Catchers
1.) Caleb Moore - 20 games / .262 BA / 1 HR / 7 RBI
2.) Jeff Christy - 4 games / .077 BA / 0 HR / 1 RBI
3.) Korey Feiner - 75 games / .227 BA / 1 HR / 20 RBI

Caleb Moore started 4 games behind the plate. His batting average rose by 22 points, and he picked up an RBI.

Jeff Christy started 2 games at C. His batting average went from nothing to .077...not great, but at least he has a hit. He also picked up an RBI.

Korey Feiner came off the disabled list and got a start at C. His batting average rose by 3 points.

Infielders
1B - Brock Peterson - 108 games / .301 BA / 19 HR / 72 RBI
2B - Steven Tolleson - 38 games / .252 BA / 3 HR / 17 RBI
3B - Luke Hughes - 88 games / .232 BA / 4 HR / 34 RBI
SS - Trevor Plouffe - 113 games / .240 BA / 3 HR / 40 RBI
IF - David Winfree - 54 games / .272 BA / 10 HR / 38 RBI
IF - J.R. Taylor - 26 games / .185 BA / 0 HR / 8 RBI

Brock Peterson started 6 games at 1B and 1 at DH. His batting average rose by 7 points, and he hit a HR while picking up 5 RBI's.

Steven Tolleson started 4 games at 2B and 2 at DH. His batting average stayed even, but he picked up 3 RBI's.

Luke Hughes started 4 games at 3B. His batting average fell by 2 points.

Trevor Plouffe started 7 games at SS. His batting average fell by 4 points, but he hit a HR and picked up 3 RBI's.

David Winfree started 3 games at 3B, 3 at DH, and 1 at 1B. His batting average fell by 21 points.

J.R. Taylor started 3 games at 2B. His batting average fell by 15 points.

Outfielders
LF - Deacon Burns - 105 games / .231 BA / 4 HR / 31 RBI
CF - Brandon Roberts - 59 games / .319 BA / 3 HR / 29 RBI
RF - Jeremy Pickrel - 87 games / .217 BA / 4 HR / 34 RBI
OF - Erold Andrus - 49 games / .201 BA / 3 HR / 24 RBI
OF - Justin Arneson - 64 games / .216 BA / 3 HR / 21 RBI

Deacon Burns started 4 games in LF and 2 in RF. His batting average fell by 3 points.

Brandon Roberts started 6 games in CF and 1 at DH. His batting average fell by 13 points, but he picked up an RBI.

Jeremy Pickrel started 3 games in RF. His batting average fell by 6 points.

Erold Andrus started 3 games in LF. His batting average fell by 5 points, but he picked up an RBI.

Justin Arneson started 2 games in RF and 1 in CF. His batting average rose by 11 points, and he hit a HR while picking up 2 RBI's.

Post Update

The High A Report is still forthcoming tonight; I'll get to it while I'm watching the game. Also, for anyone who was interested in the "Old Ballparks I'd Like to Have Seen" post, it'll be coming eventually. I haven't had the time to get around to really considering the question, so I'd expect to get it down by the middle of next week. If anyone has any ideas of parks they think should be included, leave a comment or drop me an e-mail.

Down on the Farm: AA Report

New Britain Rock Cats

Starting Pitchers
1.) Errol Simonitsch - 7-13 / 4.37 ERA / 131.2 inn / 84-35 K-BB
2.) Glen Perkins - 3-11 / 4.01 ERA / 112.1 inn / 125-42 K-BB
3.) Brian Duensing - 1-1 / 3.65 ERA / 37 inn / 24-16 K-BB
4.) Adam Harben - 4-7 / 3.95 ERA / 111.2 inn / 59-62 K-BB
5.) Nick Blackburn - 5-8 / 5.06 ERA / 110.1 inn / 67-34 K-BB

Errol Simonitsch made 1 start and 1 relief appearance, pitching 8 innings and taking a loss. His ERA rose by .15 points, and he struck out 6 while walking 3.

Glen Perkins pitched 12.1 innings in 2 starts, winning 1 game and losing 1. His ERA fell by .04 points, and he struck out 19 while walking 3.

Brian Duensing started 2 games, pitching 11.1 innings. His ERA fell by .56 points, and he struck out 9 while walking 6.

Adam Harben pitched 5.1 innings and picked up a win. His ERA rose by .06 points, and he struck out 3 while walking 3.

Nick Blackburn pitched 5 innings and took the loss in his start. His ERA rose by .02 points, but he struck out 3.

Relief Pitchers
1.) Tristan Crawford - 5-4 / 3.54 ERA / 86.1 inn / 85-30 K-BB
2.) Julio DePaula - 2-2 / 1.95 ERA / 60 inn / 38-22 K-BB
3.) Justin Olson - 7-6 / 4.83 ERA / 78.1 inn / 92-36 K-BB
4.) Jay Sawatski - 3-1 / 3.27 ERA / 63.1 inn / 59-20 K-BB
5.) David Shinskie - 0-2 / 10.57 ERA / 7.2 inn / 7-4 K-BB
6.) Colby Miller - 0-1 / 9.00 ERA / 5 inn / 1-5 K-BB

Tristan Crawford pitched 7.1 innings in 3 games, picking up a win. His ERA fell by .11 points, and he struck out 9 while walking just 2.

Julio DePaula appeared in 5 games, pitching 5.2 innings. His ERA fell by .20 points, and he struck out 4 with no walks.

Justin Olson made a spot start during a double-header, and also appeared once out of the bullpen, pitching a total of 7 innings and picking up a win. His ERA fell by .09 points, and he struck out 8 while walking 4.

Jay Sawatski pitched 5.1 innings in 3 games, getting a win. His ERA fell by .30 points, and he struck out 4 while walking 1.

David Shinskie appeared in 4 games, pitching 3.2 innings. His ERA fell by 9.68 points, and he struck out 3 while walking none.

Colby Miller made a spot start in yet another double-header, and also appeared once out of the bullpen, pitching a total of 5 innings. His 1-5 K-BB ratio needs to be improved over the last stretch of the season.

Catchers
1.) Kyle Geiger - 21 games / .167 BA / 2 HR / 5 RBI
2.) Jose Morales - 74 games / .217 BA / 3 HR / 25 RBI

Kyle Geiger caught 5 games this week. His batting average fell by 18 points, but he did hit a HR while picking up an RBI.

Jose Morales caught 4 games. His batting average rose by 3 points.

Infielders
1B - Daniel Matienzo - 110 games / .250 BA / 16 HR / 69 RBI
2B - Felix Molina - 103 games / .273 BA / 9 HR / 43 RBI
3B - Matt Moses - 109 games / .250 BA / 14 HR / 65 RBI
SS - Alexi Casilla - 35 games / .290 BA / 1 HR / 10 RBI
IF - Doug Deeds - 116 games / .284 BA / 8 HR / 57 RBI
IF - Matt Tolbert - 60 games / .256 BA / 3 HR / 30 RBI

Daniel Matienzo started 5 games at 1B and 3 at DH. His batting average rose by a point, and he hit a HR while picking up 3 RBI's.

Felix Molina started 6 games at 2B. His batting average rose by a point, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Matt Moses started 5 games at 3B and 2 at DH. His batting average rose by a point, and he picked up 4 RBI's.

Alexi Casilla started 8 games at SS. His batting average rose by 14 points, and he picked up 3 RBI's.

Doug Deeds started 4 games at 1B, 2 in LF, and 2 at DH. His batting average fell by 9 points, but he hit a HR and picked up 5 RBI's.

Matt Tolbert started 4 games at 3B, 3 at 2B, and 1 at SS. His batting average fell by 12 points, but he picked up 4 RBI's.

Outfielders
LF - Garrett Guzman - 51 games / .274 BA / 4 HR / 16 RBI
CF - Denard Span - 119 games / .276 BA / 1 HR / 40 RBI
RF - Trent Oeltjen - 99 games / .301 BA / 3 HR / 39 RBI
OF - Scott Whitrock - 66 games / .198 BA / 3 HR / 16 RBI

Garrett Guzman started 6 games in LF and 1 at DH. His batting average rose by 7 points, and he picked up 3 RBI's.

Denard Span started 8 games in CF and 1 at DH. His batting average fell by 3 points, but he picked up 2 RBI's.

Trent Oeltjen started 5 games in RF, 1 in LF, and 1 in CF. His batting average rose by 8 points, and he hit a HR while picking up 5 RBI's.

Scott Whitrock started 4 games in RF. His batting average fell by 9 points, but he picked up an RBI.

Marty's Podcast

Marty must not have been able to find anyone else to appear on his podcast this week, because once again he asked me to do it. You can find it here, if you'd like to listen.

Evening Wrap Up

A few jottings from this night off:

1.) I'm not sure what to root for in this White Sox/Tigers series. So long as the Twins do their job, and win at least 2 of 3 in Baltimore, any result is pretty much a good result. Watching the Tigers beat up on Jose Contreras tonight, though, I realized that I would like a Tigers sweep more than anything, to give the Twins a chance to build a lead in the Wild Card going into this weekend's series with the Sox in Chicago. Plus, it's always fun to see the White Sox lose games.

2.) ESPN is reporting that David Wells cleared waivers. If you're the Red Sox, do you take the plunge and deal him when the rest of your rotation is in trouble? Certainly, losing 5 straight at home to the hated Yankees proves that things are rough. The Red Sox are done, and I think they should very seriously consider any offer they receive. This isn't their year.

3.) One time can be passed off as a problem with the player, twice seems like a pattern. I'm referring, of course, to the confrontation between John Gibbons (manager of the Blue Jays) and Ted Lilly, detailed here. Sources suggest that Gibbons pushed first. Ron Gardenhire defended Gibbons the last time this happened, but I don't think anyone will be defending him this time. I give Gibbons 3 days before he's out of a job. Or at least, he should be; managers can't go around pushing players, no matter what the player did. This clubhouse certainly appears to be in disarray.

Down on the Farm: AAA Report

Rochester Red Wings

Starting Pitchers
1.) Pete Munro - 8-11 / 4.35 ERA / 149 inn / 93-44 K-BB
2.) Jason Miller - 3-7 / 3.33 ERA / 92 inn / 80-31 K-BB
3.) Scott Baker - 5-3 / 2.56 ERA / 70.1 inn / 59-21 K-BB
4.) Mike Smith - 10-5 / 3.92 ERA / 135.1 inn / 99-51 K-BB
5.) Dave Gassner - 1-0 / 5.54 ERA / 13 inn / 7-6 K-BB
DL - J.D. Durbin - 4-3 / 2.33 ERA / 89 inn / 81-50 K-BB

Pete Munro started 2 games and pitched 14.2 innings, picking up a win. His ERA fell by .41 points, and he struck out 5 while walking 2.

Jason Miller pitched 14 innings in 2 starts, including a complete game victory. He also lost a game. His ERA fell by .36 points, and he struck out 11 while walking 1.

Scott Baker pitched 6.2 innings and picked up a win. His ERA fell by .27 points, and he struck out 6 while walking 1.

Mike Smith pitched 5 innings and picked up a win. His ERA rose by .12 points, striking out 1 while walking 4.

Dave Gassner pitched 4 innings in his start. His ERA rose by 4.54 points, and he struck out 1 while walking 2.

Unfortunately, J.D. Durbin is officially out for the season, as confirmed in the Twins mailbag on the Twins website. That means you can forget about him being a September call-up or participating in the AFL.

Relief Pitchers
1.) Beau Kemp - 7-3 / 2.14 ERA / 80 inn / 32-25 K-BB
2.) Kevin Cameron - 4-4 / 3.49 ERA / 56.2 inn / 50-24 K-BB
3.) Matt Ford - 1-1 / 4.30 ERA / 52.1 inn / 29-25 K-BB
4.) Bobby Korecky - 3-3 / 3.51 ERA / 41 inn / 22-10 K-BB
5.) Henry Bonilla - 3-6 / 4.20 ERA / 85.2 inn / 56-28 K-BB
6.) Levale Speigner - 1-1 / 5.14 ERA / 7 inn / 6-3 K-BB
DL - Ricky Barrett - 5-1 / 3.42 ERA / 47.1 inn / 49-26 K-BB

Beau Kemp pitched 6 innings in 3 games, taking a loss. His ERA rose by .19 points, and he struck out 5 while walking 1.

Kevin Cameron appeared in 1 game, pitching 2.1 innings. His ERA fell by .15 points, and he had 2 K's.

Matt Ford did not pitch this week.

Bobby Korecky pitched 3 innings in 3 games. His ERA fell by .04 points, and he struck out 1 while walking 2.

Henry Bonilla got into 1 game, pitching 3 games. His ERA fell by .15 points, and he struck out 4.

Levale Speigner pitched 1.2 innings in 2 games, taking a loss. His ERA rose by 1.76 points, and he struck out 1 while walking 2.

Catchers
1.) Chris Heintz - 90 games / .282 BA / 3 HR / 36 RBI
2.) Shawn Wooten - 97 games / .238 BA / 6 HR / 37 RBI

Chris Heintz started 4 games at C and 3 at DH. His batting average rose by 9 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Shawn Wooten started 3 games at C. His batting average rose by 1 point.

Infielders
1B - Garrett Jones - 127 games / .242 BA / 18 HR / 84 RBI
2B - Glenn Williams - 105 games / .248 BA / 6 HR / 33 RBI
3B - Terry Tiffee - 66 games / .288 BA / 4 HR / 35 RBI
SS - Tommy Watkins - 50 games / .283 BA / 3 HR / 19 RBI
IF - Gil Velazquez - 49 games / .268 BA / 1 HR / 16 RBI
IF - Donaldo Mendez - 17 games / .286 BA / 3 HR / 4 RBI
IF - Luis Maza - 85 games / .214 BA / 3 HR / 35 RBI

Garrett Jones started 7 games at 1B. His batting average rose by 4 points, and he hit a HR while picking up 6 RBI's.

Glenn Williams started 5 games at 2B. His batting average rose by 1 point and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Terry Tiffee started 6 games at 3B. His batting average fell by 8 points, and he picked up 4 RBI's.

Tommy Watkins started 4 games at SS and 2 at 2B. His batting average fell by 5 points.

Gil Velazquez started 2 games at SS and 1 at 3B. His batting average fell by 9 points.

Donaldo Mendez started 1 game at SS. His batting average fell by 47 points.

Luis Maza didn't start any games, but got into 1 as a replacement. His batting average didn't change.

Outfielders
LF - Alex Romero - 59 games / .260 BA / 0 HR / 24 RBI
CF - Andres Torres - 103 games / .241 BA / 2 HR / 27 RBI
RF - Quinton McCracken - 22 games / .316 BA / 1 HR / 8 RBI
DH - Kevin West - 66 games / .237 BA / 10 HR / 37 RBI

Alex Romero started 7 games in LF. His batting average rose by 3 points, and he picked up 5 RBI's.

Andres Torres started 7 games in CF. His batting average rose by 5 points, and he picked up 3 RBI's.

Quinton McCracken started 7 games in RF. His batting average rose by 87 points, and he hit a HR while picking up 5 RBI's.

Kevin West started 4 games at DH. His batting average rose by 17 points, and he hit a HR while picking up 2 RBI's.

More September Speculation

This article in the Pioneer Press mentions several players who are not on the 40-man roster who may nonetheless be called up when rosters expand. In my previous post on September call-ups, I stuck to those players currently on the 40-man roster.

The most prominently mentioned players in the article are IF Glenn Williams, IF Gil Velazquez, and OF Andres Torres (for his speed). In order to add these players, however, other players would have to be waived in order to make room on the roster. That begs the question of who is most likely to be removed from the roster.

Clearly, the most obvious answer is SP Mike Smith. He's not in the Twins long-range plans, and if a team claimed him off of waivers (which I assume is rather unlikely) the Twins wouldn't exactly be upset. He might not even be offered a contract for next year anyway, which would just make this move that much more likely to happen.

Things get tougher after that. There are no other players who are obvious candidates to be removed. I suppose the Twins could take the plunge and designate Shannon Stewart for assignment for the purpose of releasing him. That would open up a roster spot, and not really cost the Twins anything (remember, I mentioned earlier that it would be dangerous to offer him arbitration in the off-season in order to secure a draft pick when he signed elsewhere, since he might just accept arbitration). I don't expect that to happen, but if the Twins made the same analysis that I did, they wouldn't be losing anything by cutting Stewart at this point. The same thing could be done with Rondell White, but he was hitting better before he was disabled again, and the Twins seem interested in bringing him back sooner rather than letter as a bat off the bench.

Looking at more conventional names, the team may have decided that one of the pitchers who they are protecting (Jose Mijares, Adam Harben, Errol Simonitsch) who are below the AAA level is worth waiving, taking a chance that they would lose them. I just don't see the Twins doing that, however. They could also go in the direction of waiving Garrett Jones, recognizing that Justin Morneau is solidly entrenched, and by the time the Twins have to worry about Morneau becoming a free agent in 3 years, they will hopefully have Brock Peterson or Erik Lis ready to come up.

All-in-all, I still think it's unlikely that more than one of the names mentioned above will get added to the 40-man roster. My suspicion is that it will be Gil Velazquez, to give the Twins an additional middle infielder. I could be wrong, but messing with the 40-man roster to position for September call-ups doesn't seem to be the Twins style.

Enemy Intel Report

After a week in which the Twins did what they needed to do (4-2 against the Indians and White Sox), and the Tigers and Red Sox self-destructed, things get even more interesting for Twins fans over the next seven days.


Minnesota Twins
Off Day (Mon)
3 games @ Baltimore (Tue-Thu)
3 games @ Chicago White Sox (Fri-Sun)

Detroit Tigers
4 games vs. Chicago White Sox (Mon-Thu)
3 games @ Cleveland (Fri-Sun)

Chicago White Sox
4 games @ Detroit (Mon-Thu)
3 games vs. Minnesota (Fri-Sun)

New York Yankees
1 game @ Boston (Mon)
3 games @ Seattle (Tue-Thu)
3 games @ Los Angeles Angels (Fri-Sun)

Boston Red Sox
1 game vs. New York Yankees (Mon)
3 games @ Los Angeles Angels (Tue-Thu)
3 games @ Seattle (Fri-Sun)


Not sure who to root for in that Tigers-Sox series. Guess I'm hoping for a 2-2 split. Then a nice sweep by the Twins in Chi-Town (again), just to make things really interesting.

One Quick Note

Not much to say tonight, but I want to comment on one thing in Sid Hartman's latest column, which can be found here.

In the article, Hartman says the following: "...this group [the bullpen], which includes free agents Reyes and Matt Guerrier..." (italics are mine).

So, what gives? Matt Guerrier had 1.056 years of major league service time coming into this season. He's spent the entire season on the Twins 25-man roster, so you can just add 1 to that number to arrive at his total at the end of the season: 2.056 years.

Here's the rub: to become a free agent, a player must accrue 6 years of MLB service time. Guerrier isn't even close. In fact, he's so far away that he won't even qualify for arbitration this offseason, which happens at three years (with the exception of the so-called "super 2's", who qualify for being close to 3 years). In other words, Guerrier is not a free agent in any sense of the word at the end of the season.

Perhaps Hartman means that Guerrier was acquired as a free agent, but that doesn't make sense either. Guerrier was drafted by the Chicago White Sox in 1999, and made his way from there to Pittsburgh in a trade in 2002. At the end of the 2003 season, Guerrier was placed on waivers for whatever reason, and was claimed by the Twins on 11/20/03. It's not accurate, then, to describe Guerrier as a free agent in terms of how the Twins acquired him.

The moral of the story: don't trust Sid Hartman, or his editors.

Arizona Fall League

The Arizona Fall League recently revealed its schedule for the 2006 season, and it's nearing the time for Major League teams to select players to be sent to the AFL. If, like me, you don't know a lot about the AFL, I suggest you check out the information on the league website under History, which you can find here.

Here's the executive summary of that information: There are six teams in the AFL, with rosters of 30 players each. Of course, that's 180 positions available in the league, and Major League teams equally divide those roster spots, meaning each MLB team sends 6 players to participate in the AFL. Players at the AA and AAA rosters are eligible, and each team can send one player below the AA level as well. Also, the league is designed primarily for American players, although foreign players who come from a country that doesn't have a winter league (such as the famous Venezuelan Winter League) can be sent. I'm sure there are also rules about number of pitchers v. position players, etc, because otherwise there would be no way to compose proper rosters.

Sometime in the middle of August players are assigned to the AFL. Knowing very little about how that process works, here's a list of Twins prospects who I think might find themselves in the AFL this season:

Beau Kemp - RP - Rochester Red Wings
Kemp seems to have a solid arm, and has had a great year for Rochester. He needs to work on boosting his strikeout totals, however. The Twins may elect to send him to the AFL to evaluate whether they want to add him to the 40-man roster before this year's Rule 5 Draft.

Garrett Jones - 1B - Rochester Red Wings
Tons of power, but a batting average under .240; the Twins would probably like Jones to work on his swing, and the AFL would provide him with an additional opportunity to do so.

Kevin West - OF - Rochester Red Wings
West was one of the top Twins prospects before he injured himself, and he's had a disappointing season average-wise. He has, however, hit with some power, and the Twins may want to send him to the AFL to continue his fight to come back. Like Kemp, West is Rule 5 eligible, so the Twins may also like to evaluate him as a potential roster addition.

Errol Simonitsch - SP - New Britain Rock Cats
Simonitsch is on the 40-man roster, and so the Twins might like to send him to the AFL to continue his development, since the clock is ticking in terms of options. I imagine that with starters, a lot depends on how the player's arm feels at the end of the season; does he need the 2 months rest more than he needs to work on his development?

Glen Perkins - SP - New Britain Rock Cats
Perkins becomes Rule 5 eligible this year, and as a left-handed starter, he may be gobbled up if the Twins don't protect him. His record this season (2-10) is terrible, but his ERA is around 4.00, and the Twins seem to believe he has a lot of upside. Sending him to the AFL may be a way to hurry along his development, but see the note above about whether it's a good idea to send a starter to the AFL.

Adam Harben - SP - New Britain Rock Cats
Harben is in a similar position to Simonitsch, in that he's on the 40-man roster. See above for the pro's and con's.

Doug Deeds - 1B - New Britain Rock Cats
Deeds has had a very solid season for New Britain, hitting just under .300 with 7 HR's. If Jones doesn't go, there's a good possibility that Deeds could. However, there are two other 1B in the system who may be even more likely to go...

Brock Peterson - 1B - Ft. Myers Miracle
Peterson is having a monster year, hitting .294 with 18 HR's. He's eligible in the Rule 5 draft, but is unlikely to be drafted because he's in A ball (and remember, Rule 5 draft picks have to spend the entire season in the Majors), but if he has another solid season next year (presumably in AA), then things would get tricky. He may be a good choice for the Twins sub-AA player to get the AFL nod. If not, then could it be...

Erik Lis - 1B - Beloit Snappers
Even further down the totem pole, Lis has had a brilliant season, hitting .326 with 16 HR's and 70 RBI's. What's more, Lis completely destroyed Henry Sanchez in the 1B phenom battle. Sanchez played so poorly, and Lis so well, that Sanchez was finally demoted to High Rookie Elizabethton when the short season started, and was injured after not too many games there. Lis' emergence means that the Twins have a glut of young, powerful 1B in their system. Unfortunatley, Lis hasn't played in about a week, and there may be a serious injury situation there that would keep him out of the AFL. If not, there's a distinct possibility that he could get the nod.

Matt Moses - 3B - New Britain Rock Cats
At times this year, Moses' name was mentioned as the next Twins 3B. In fact, his offense was mentioned as being "Major League ready" by the Strib (sorry, not going to dig through archives at this point, so you'll have to take my word for it...unless I get bored and look later). It was his defense that concerned Twins brass. Well, Moses has power (14 HR's), but his batting average of .249 in AA probably won't translate to great success at the Major League level. He's induspitably one of the Twins top prospects, however, and so it would probably be more surprising if Moses didn't get an AFL invite than if he did.

Denard Span - OF - New Britain Rock Cats
Span, like Moses, has practically been anointed as a Twins starter despite not having played above AA. In his case, of course, the position is CF, where wishful thinkers have the Twins picking up Torii Hunter's option in order to give Span one more year to mature before he takes thing over. That may, in fact, be what happens, but I'm not convinced that Span will be MLB ready in another year. Nevertheless, like Moses he is one of the Twins top prospects, and it would be surprising for him not to end up in the AFL.


Those are the biggest names, but as I said before, I'm not an AFL afficianado, and I could be way off. For the record, I'm going to guess (and that's all it is) that the following six guys get the AFL nod: Denard Span, Matt Moses, Glen Perkins, Beau Kemp, Brock Peterson, Errol Simonitsch. Now, the wait is on to see how right I am...

Quick Notes

1.) This was a huge game for the Twins, not only because it preserves the possibility of a sweep, but because this was the game that the Twins were supposed to lose. With Brad Radke and Johan Santana going the next two days, the Twins are poised to make a run at grabbing the top spot in the Wild Card on Sunday afternoon. Let's hope they can.

2.) The Tigers are doing their best to slide back to the pack. Trailing 2-1 tonight against Texas, they managed to get a runner on 3rd with no outs against Rangers closer Aknori Otsuka. They proceeded to squander the opportunity. That's the kind of situation that would have been automatic for them earlier in the season, but their aura of invincibility has disappeared, and now the question is whether or not they can hold on to their lead, not whether they can clinch by September. The discussion of Justin Verlander tipping his changeup by using a different arm slot when he throws it also has to be a concern for the Tigers; what's clear is that he hasn't been the same pitcher in recent starts that he was in the first half.

3.) It continues to look like Shannon Stewart is too far gone to make a return to the Twins this season. It's equally clear that the Twins aren't going to make an effort to resign him. The really unfortunate thing about his injury, and the Twins inability to trade him away at the deadline, is that they now probably won't get anything at all for him, and here's why: Stewart's injury problems don't exactly make him the most attractive player to teams looking for outfield help. As a result, it's highly unlikely that he'll be signed by a team in the approximately one month window between the opening of free agency (10 days after the World Series ends) and the deadline to offer arbitration (around December 7). If a player is signed in this period, the team losing the player automatically gets draft pick compensation. Since Stewart won't likely be signed in that period, however, the Twins would have to make a decision on whether to offer arbitration, and with few suitors lining up to give him a contract offer (at least in the price range he's used to), it would be very tempting for Stewart to accept arbitration if it's offered. That would be disastrous for the Twins, because it's very unlikely the arbitration board would cut Stewart's salary. As a result, the best move is for the Twins not to offer Stewart arbitration at all, thus assuring his departure. Unfortunately, that's the price the team will probably have to pay to cut ties with Stewart.

Down on the Farm: Rookie League Report

This is my second attempt at this today; when I did it earlier, there was a technical problem and it didn't post. Sorry about the tardiness, but I didn't have the heart to go right back at it again immediately afterward.

Elizabethton Twins

Starting Pitchers
1.) Alex Burnett - 4-1 / 3.18 ERA / 62.1 inn / 66-9 K-BB
2.) Brian Kirwan - 4-4 / 4.99 ERA / 57.2 inn / 53-20 K-BB
3.) Jose Lugo - 6-4 / 3.88 ERA / 60.1 inn / 56-18 K-BB
4.) Sean Land - 3-3 / 3.35 ERA / 53.2 inn / 51-23 K-BB
5.) Jose Castillo - 3-2 / 2.89 ERA / 56 inn / 39-16 K-BB

Alex Burnett pitched 5 innings and picked up the win. His ERA fell by .27 points, and he struck out 5.

Brian Kirwan started 2 games and pitched 10.1 innings, pickin gup a win. His ERA rose by .05 points, but he had a very nice 12-3 K-BB ratio.

Jose Lugo pitched 11 innings in 2 starts, picking up 2 wins. His ERA fell by .13 points, and he struck out 8 while walking 3.

Sean Land pitched 5.2 innings and got the win. His ERA fell by .21 points, and he struck out 4 while walking 4.

Jose Castillo pitched 5 innings. His ERA fell by .o7 points, and he struck out 2 while walking 2.

Relief Pitchers
1.) Danny Hernandez - 1-1 / 3.13 ERA / 23 inn / 32-8 K-BB
2.) Matthew Williams - 4-2 / 3.48 ERA / 33.2 inn / 34-8 K-BB
3.) Aaron Craig - 2-1 / 6.41 ERA / 19.2 inn / 17-13 K-BB
4.) Matthew Fox - 3-0 / 3.31 ERA / 35.1 inn / 41-9 K-BB
5.) Brandon McConnell - 1-1 / 7.20 ERA / 30 inn / 29-11 K-BB
6.) Patrick Bryant - 0-0 / 6.86 ERA / 19.2 inn / 23-12 K-BB
7.) Justin Staatz - 2-0 / 2.40 ERA / 15 inn / 12-7 K-BB

Danny Hernandez pitched 3 inning in 2 games, picking up a win. His ERA fell by .47 points, and he struck out 4.

Matthew Williams got into 2 games, pitching 7 innings and taking a loss. His ERA rose by .10 points, but he struck out 6.

Aaron Craig pitched 3 innings in 2 games. His ERA fell by 1.15 points, but he walked 3 batters.

Matthew Fox got into 3 games, pitching 6.2 innings and getting a win. His ERA rose by .17 points, but he struck out 9 while walking just 1.

Brandon McConnell pitched 5 innings in 3 games. His ERA rose by 1.08 points, and he struck out 5 while walking 2.

Patrick Bryant got into 1 game, pitching 2 innings. His ERA rose by .75 points, and he struck out 2 while walking 2.

Justin Staatz (who has been listed on the Elizabethton website as Jon until this week) pitched 4.1 innings. His ERA fell by .98 points, and he struck out 3 while walking 1.

Catchers
1.) Gregory Yersich - 42 games / .274 BA / 4 HR / 20 RBI
2.) Daniel Berg - 44 games / .240 BA / 5 HR / 23 RBI

Gregory Yersich started 4 games at C and 2 at DH. His batting average rose by 26 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Daniel Berg started 3 games at C and 1 at 1B. His batting average rose by 5 points, and he hit 2 HR's while picking up 5 RBI's.

Infielders
1B - Daniel Valencia - 36 games / .317 BA / 6 HR / 21 RBI
2B - Brian Dinkelman - 34 games / .291 BA / 4 HR / 28 RBI
3B - Garrett Olson - 40 games / .336 BA / 0 HR / 19 RBI
SS - Yancarlos Ortiz - 34 games / .275 BA / 1 HR / 11 RBI
IF - Joshua Dean - 21 games / .210 BA / 1 HR / 4 RBI
IF - Michael Lysaught - 23 games / .164 BA / 0 HR / 4 RBI
IF - Steven Singleton - 29 games / .347 BA / 1 HR / 14 RBI
DL - Henry Sanchez - 12 games / .220 BA / 1 HR / 8 RBI

Daniel Valencia started 4 games at 1B, 2 at DH, and 1 at 3B. His batting average fell by a point, but he hit a HR and picked up 8 RBI's.

Brian Dinkelman started 4 games at 2B and 3 at DH. His batting average rose by 31 points, and he hit 2 HR's with 11 RBI's.

Garrett Olson started 6 games at 3B. His batting average rose by 39 points, and he picked up 6 RBI's.

Yancarlos Ortiz started 4 games at SS. His batting average rose by 25 points, and he picked up 5 RBI's.

Joshua Dean started 2 games at 1B. His batting average rose by 21 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Michael Lysaught started 3 games at 2B. His batting average fell by 8 points.

Steven Singleton started 3 games at SS. His batting average rose by 6 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Outfielders
LF - Josh Land - 29 games / .202 BA / 1 HR / 11 RBI
CF - Danny Santiesteban - 54 games / .245 BA / 6 HR / 27 RBI
RF - J.W. Wilson - 41 games / .250 BA / 6 HR / 20 RBI
OF - Richard Sojo - 28 games / .250 BA / 0 HR / 11 RBI
OF - Wesley Connor - 25 games / .183 BA / 0 HR / 6 RBI

Josh Land started 3 games in LF. His batting average rose by 13 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Danny Santiesteban started 7 games in CF. His batting average rose by a point, and he hit a HR while picking up 5 RBI's.

J.W. Wilson started 5 games in RF. His batting average rose by 18 points, and he picked up 5 RBI's.

Richard Sojo started 2 games in LF and 1 in RF. His batting average rose by 26 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Wesley Connor started 2 games in LF and 1 in RF. His batting average rose by 51 points, and he picked up 4 RBI's.


GCL Twins

Starting Pitchers
1.) Omar Alcala - 3-1 / 3.73 ERA / 50.2 inn / 34-23 K-BB
2.) David Bromberg - 3-3 / 2.66 ERA / 50.2 inn / 31-18 K-BB
3.) Michael Allen - 0-2 / 6.60 ERA / 15 inn / 16-4 K-BB
4.) Ludovicus Van Mil - 1-2 / 3.30 ERA / 43.2 inn / 24-17 K-BB
5.) Tyler Robertson - 4-2 / 3.83 ERA / 44.2 inn / 49-12 K-BB

Omar Alcala pitched 5 innings and picked up a win. His ERA rose by .38 points, and he struck out 6 while walking 4.

David Bromber made 2 starts, pitching 10.1 innings and taking a loss. His ERA rose by .19 points, but he struck out 10 while walking only 3.

Michael Allen pitched 5 innings in his start. His ERA rose by .30 points, but he struck out 7 without walking anyone.

Ludovicus Van Mil pitched 7 innings. His ERA fell by .63 points, and he struck out 2 while walking 3.

Tyler Robertson pitched 6 innings and took a loss. His ERA rose by .09 points, but he struck out 8 with no walks.

Relief Pitchers
1.) Luis Carreras - 1-1 / 4.01 ERA / 24.2 inn / 22-5 K-BB
2.) Thomas Wright - 0-1 / 6.43 ERA / 7 inn / 2-6 K-BB
3.) Bradley Tippett - 3-4 / 2.18 ERA / 20.2 inn / 17-4 K-BB
4.) Robert Delaney - 1-2 / 4.50 ERA / 32 inn / 26-1 K-BB
5.) Adam Revelette - 2-1 / 5.91 ERA / 21.1 inn / 15-3 K-BB
6.) Jose Acosta - 0-1 / 1.50 ERA / 6 inn / 3-1 K-BB
7.) Jakub Toufar - 0-0 / 5.14 ERA / 14 inn / 5-6 K-BB
8.) Carlos Garcia - 3-0 / 3.43 ERA / 21 inn / 15-13 K-BB
9.) Bruno Sanchez - 1-2 / 8.22 ERA / 15.1 inn / 7-8 K-BB
10.) Curtis Leavitt - 0-2 / 7.59 ERA / 32 inn / 33-16 K-BB
11.) Walter Patton - 0-0 / 9.00 ERA / 2 inn / 1-4 K-BB
12.) Joan Ortiz - 1-0 / 3.86 ERA / 2.1 inn / 0-1 K-BB
13.) Nathan Crawford - 0-0 / 18.00 ERA / 2 inn / 2-1 K-BB
14.) Jeffrey Schoenbachler - 0-0 / 0.00 ERA / 1 inn / 0-0 K-BB

Luis Carreras pitched 4 innings in 1 game. His ERA fell by .78 points, and he struck out 4.

Thomas Wright pitched 1.1 innings in 1 game. His ERA fell by 1.51 points.

Bradley Tippett pitched 4 innings in 2 games, taking a loss. His ERA rose by .25 points, but he picked up a K.

Robert Delaney pitched 4 innings in 2 games, taking a loss. His ERA rose by .96 points, but he picked out another strikeout.

Adam Revelette pitched 1.2 innings in 1 game. His ERA rose by 1.79 points, and he picked up 1 K and 1 BB.

Jose Acosta pitched 2 innings in 2 games. His ERA fell by .75 points, and he struck out 2.

Toufar, Garcia, Sanchez, Leavitt, Patton, Ortiz, Crawford, and Schoenbachler did not pitch this week, while Jeffrey Manship earned a promotion.

Catcher
1.) Wilson Ramos - 43 games / .298 BA / 3 HR / 26 RBI
2.) Mighuel Barrientos - 7 games / .167 BA / 0 HR / 2 RBI
3.) Gilbert Buenrostro - 13 games / .281 BA / 0 HR / 0 RBI

Wilson Ramos started 6 games at C. His batting average rose by 31 points, and he picked up 5 RBI's.

Mighuel Barrientos started 2 games at DH. His batting average fell by 21 points.

Gilbert Buenrostro did not play this week.

Infielders
1B - Chris Parmalee - 43 games / .297 BA / 8 HR / 32 RBI
2B - Matthew Lawman - 25 games / .268 BA / 0 HR / 4 RBI
3B - Deibinson Romero - 47 games / .301 BA / 4 HR / 36 RBI
SS - Juan Delgado - 37 games / .242 BA / 1 HR / 15 RBI
IF - Rodolfo Palacios - 35 games / .278 BA / 0 HR / 14 RBI
IF - Eric Santiago - 32 games / .247 BA / 0 HR / 8 RBI
IF - Thomas Cowgill - 33 games / .189 BA / 2 HR / 13 RBI
DL - Starling De Los Santos - 24 games / .195 BA / 0 HR / 2 RBI

Chris Parmalee started 3 games at 1B, 2 games in RF, and 1 at DH. His batting average rose by 9 points, and he picked up 3 RBI's.

Matthew Lawman started 4 games at 2B. His batting average rose by 54 points.

Deibinson Romero started 4 games at 3B and 1 at DH. His batting average rose by 9 points, and he picked up 2 RBI's.

Juan Delgado started 3 games at SS and 2 at 3B. His batting average fell by 15 points, but he picked up 3 RBI's.

Rodolfo Palacios started 1 game at 1B. His batting average rose by 2 points.

Eric Santiago started 3 games at SS and 2 at 1B. His batting average fell by 55 points.

Thomas Cowgill started 2 games at 2B and 2 at DH. His batting average fell by 19 points.

Outfielders
LF - Kevin Harrington - 34 games / .144 BA / 0 HR / 6 RBI
CF - Joe Benson - 50 games / .258 BA / 4 HR / 27 RBI
RF - Mark Dolenc - 48 games / .220 BA / 1 HR / 25 RBI

Kevin Harrington started 4 games in LF. His batting average rose by 15 points, and he picked up an RBI.

Joe Benson started 6 games in CF. His batting average fell by 18 points.

Mark Dolenc started 4 games in RF and 2 in LF. His batting average rose by a point.

General Stuff

A quick roundup before we all turn our attention to the weekend series against the White Sox.

1.) It looks like the White Sox are going to salvage a split of their 4 game series against the Royals today. With the Twins loss today, we'll go into the weekend series trailing Chicago by 2 games. I'm hoping for taking 2-of-3 against the Sox, which would put us a game back. A sweep, of course, would land us a game ahead of Chicago. Hey Boof . . . think ya can help us out on that front?

2.) Nick Punto wasn't ready to return to the lineup today, and the Twins website is reporting that the Twins won't go into the series with the White Sox at the status quo. If Punto is not going to be available for a couple of days, the Twins will call up an infielder (probably Terry Tiffee), and send down a pitcher (almost certainly Willie Eyre...is there any other choice?). My guess? Punto will be fine, and available to play this weekend.

3.) Justin Morneau's solo shot today gave him 104 RBI's on the season, moving him into 20th place all-time on the Twins single-season RBI list. With 5 more, he'll move into a tie for 15th.

That's More Like It...

I'll take 5 innings and 3 ER's allowed from Garza at this point in his career. He looked like he really settled down over the last couple of innings that he pitched, and showed throughout the day that he can get hitters behind in the count. He just needs to figure out how to not throw 50 pitches through the first 2 innings so that he can stretch to 6+ innings.

I'm encouraged by Garza's improvement from his 1st start to this start, and also by his improvement during the game today. Let's hope that the Twins can come back and prevent him from taking the loss today.