Minor Leagues

The Rule 5 Draft can be an interesting test of an organization because of all of the rules and regulations involved in selecting a player. To understand the Twins mindset for the draft, it is important to know the rules involved in selecting a player and the purpose of the Rule 5 Draft. All of these things can go a long way into a team's decision to pick a player or to let their pick go to the wayside.

When MLB instituted the Rule 5 Draft, the purpose was to keep teams from stockpiling MLB ready talent in their organization. This draft gives players that are ready the opportunity to sink or swim at the big league level. If a player has been with a team for an allotted amount of time and hasn't been added to the 40-man roster, he is exposed to the Rule 5 Draft.
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The “typical” day in the offseason is quite a bit different from those during the season. I put typical in quotations because not many days are the same for me. My wife and I spend most of our time in Rochester, MN, where she is a nurse at St. Marys Hospital. Today she worked from 7:00-7:30pm, here’s how my day went…

At 5:40, Emily (my wife) wakes up to get ready for work, I grunt, roll over and fall back to sleep until a little after 6:00. Twenty minutes later, I give Emily a ride to the hospital.

On the way home I stop in at Best Buy to grab a cord we were missing for our surround sound.
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Over the weekend, seven members of the Twins farm system were part of a championship in the Arizona Fall League. Their team, the Peoria Javelinas, took the title in a championship contest that saw no runs scored in the final six innings. By the end of the game, the Javelinas were able to celebrate on the field and prospects for the Twins were right in the middle of all of the excitement.

The only member of the Twins to start in the game was Nate Roberts, the 2012 AFL batting champion. He was penciled into the number two spot and he served as the designated hitter. Roberts would finish the game by going 3-for-4 with a run scored which raised his average to .446 in the fall league. ...

When I look at how fortunate the Twins were last June in the draft, it’s hard to imagine this organization not returning to some level of major league competency soon. The organization picked up two teenagers with high ceilings with their first two picks of 2012, and both showed extreme promise after signing quickly and making their pro debuts. Byron Buxton was somewhat of a surprise to be available to the Twins at #2 overall. I feel the need to analyze what kind of player landed in the Twins lap ...

Most every hardcore Twins fan is well aware of the Puerto Rican 18-year-old we picked up in last June's draft (Jose Orlando Berrios! for the rest of you). After dominating both rookie levels in 2012, this kid is screaming fast-track potential. Where can we expect this guy to finish the 2013 season?



J.O. is what they are gonna call him. And he should certainly get to pick his nickname after averaging 14.4 K's/9 innings as a minor-league-rookie. ...

Originally posted at PuckettsPond.com

In my last Down on the Pond post I took a look at how the Twins players were doing down in the Arizona Fall League. Rather than look at how they're doing now, or even taking a look at the guys who are playing Winter Ball around the Southern Hemisphere, I thought I'd share some photos that players throughout the Twins system posted to the Twitter machine and use that as a jumping off point to talk about some of the guys that are toiling down in the ...