Catching up on Transactions

A number of moves have been made throughout the Twins organization in the last few days, and I'm a bit behind the curve in commenting on them. Hopefully, this post will get me up-to-date on that front.

First, as expected by . . . well . . . everyone in the blogosphere since the announcement that Rondell White wasn't coming back, the Twins have called up Garrett Jones for the second time this season. Expect him to get significantly more than 8 at bats this time through (he went 1-for-8 in his earlier stint with the team). I expect that the Twins will use at least the next two weeks to evaluate Jones, since this is his last option year and they'll need to make a decision on him one way or the other by the end of spring training 2008. That doesn't mean that I think Jones will play every day -- against left-handed pitchers, especially, Jones is likely to get the day off. Then again, Jones is hitting .333 against left-handed pitching in 99 at-bats this season, so the Twins might want to consider letting him get some at-bats against the lefties. Unless Jones is very impressive, I expect him to get sent down again in a couple of weeks when (if) Rondell White gets "healthy" (in quotes because, really, is he ever going to be truly healthy again?) -- but I expect no matter what happens now, Jones will be with the Twins in September as the evaluation process continues.

In the "about darned time" department, Rob Delaney was promoted from the Low A Beloit Snappers to the High A Ft. Myers Miracle, joining a flood of players who have already made that trip so far this season. Delaney had a 0.77 ERA in 46.2 innings for the Snappers, so it was clearly time to make this move. Replacing him on the Snappers roster is Anthony Slama, a 39th round selection from 2006 who was playing with Elizabethton so far this season. Slama's 2.45 ERA was solid, but he had pitched just 7.1 innings in E-town, so this could be a big jump. I'll be watching his performances closely for the next couple of weeks to see whether he adjusts.

Another promotion (from July 6) involved Brad Baker, who was promoted from New Britain to Rochester. This move was, shall we say, a bit perplexing. Baker had a 5.33 ERA with New Britain before his promotion in 77.2 innings of work. His K-BB ratio was actually solid (56-25), which is great and all -- but he's given up too many hits and too many runs to really justify this call up. Nonetheless, he's pitched well so far in a couple of innings with Rochester, having not yet given up a run.

The Twins also signed Mark Hamburger, a right-handed reliever out of Mesabi Range Community & Technical College, and assigned him to the GCL. So far, he's pitched 3.1 scoreless innings of relief. The 20-year-old attended an open tryout and pitched well enough to be signed by the club. Hopefully, he'll turn into a feel good story over the remainder of the season.

It's possible I missed something somewhere -- if you happen to spot an error or ommission, please drop me a line in the comments or via an e-mail.

UPDATE: Thanks to an anonymous commenter, I realized that I missed Angel Garcia earlier. Garcia was promoted to AA New Britain after putting up a 3.38 ERA in 45.1 innings for the Miracle. The move was made to make room for the addition of Rob Delaney to the Miracle roster. Thanks again for pointing this out, and if anyone else sees anything I missed, let me know.