Minor Leagues

The Twins don’t appear to be playing real inspired (or inspiring) baseball, so let’s get right into the farm.

A few transactions to sort through:
The Red Wings released 1B Aaron Bates and recently-signed INF Joe Thurston.
It was announced that OF Wilkin Ramirez (who has been tearing up AA) and RP Lester Oliveros have been promoted from New Britain to Rochester.

2B Tsuyoshi Nishioka - you may have heard of him - is expected to be activated before tomorrow’s game. The addition of Nishi, as well as Matt Maloney, pushes 1B/DH Matt Rizzotti from Rochester to New Britain.

There is no word on any other corresponding moves to fill the other hole in New Britain (and it would be purely speculation to point out that neither Miracle OF Oswaldo Arcia nor INF Levi Michael were in the lineup tonight).

Let’s take a spin around the farm: ...

A VERY HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY from TwinsCentric and the Twins Daily staff!!

Scott Diamond did it again. In a repeat of his first big league start of the season, the left-hander threw seven shutout innings. That he lasted seven innings is most impressive since he was drilled in the left shoulder by a line drive in the second inning. He gave up some hits, and a lot of line drives, but seven shutout innings is always appreciated. Brian Dozier had two hits, including his first big league home run. The Twins had several opportunities to add on to a four-run lead, but did not capitalize. That proved large when Jared Burton gave up three runs in the 8^th inning. Burton, who had not allowed a hit to his last 34 batters faced, gave up three straight hits before being replaced by Glen Perkins, who got out of the inning thanks to a great diving play by Joe Mauer. Matt Capps closed out the game with a big strikeout and the Twins won 4-3 to split the series with the Blue Jays.

Here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Sunday: ...

The Twins and Blue Jays sat in a rain delay of nearly two hours before getting their game going just after 9:00 central time. Although the game should be done and I should be sleeping, it is a good competitive game thus far, so I will be up for a while. There were some good performances on Friday night, and there were some poor performances on Friday night.

In player news, Kyle Waldrop’s rehab in Ft. Myers has been successful to this point. He pitched in seven innings over seven games with the Twins Extended Spring Training squad. He was even able to pitch on back-to-back days earlier this week. He will begin an official rehab stint now with the Ft. Myers Miracle before evaluating what the next steps will be.

Congratulations to Darin Mastroianni on his first big league hit and two RBI.

Here is a look at the Twins minor league scores and highlights from Friday: ...

The Twins lost again, 6-2 tonight. I had hope that they would win this series against the Angels, especially after impressive performances last night by Brian Dozier and Scott Diamond, but it was not to be. Josh Willingham, with a home run and a double, continues to swing the bat well, but with the offense mustering only 6 hits, the chances of victory were slim tonight.

Here's a look at how the Twins' minor league affiliates fared Wednesday night.
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Scott Diamond and Liam Hendriks switched teams for their starts on Tuesday night and both players found success at their different levels. Liam Hendriks had struggled in his outings with the Twins so he was sent back down to Rochester. He didn't make it out of the sixth inning but he only gave up one earned run with eight strikeouts.

Diamond found himself on the mound at Target Field with a team struggling to score runs. He put together an outstanding start as he lasted seven innings and didn't allow a run. There were some excellent defensive plays made behind him especially by newly called-up Brian Dozier. The Twins would go on to win the game by a score of 5-0 and they will look for the series win tomorrow against the Angels.

Here is a quick look at what happened in the Twins minor league system on Tuesday: ...

I was asked to be a guest on KFAN’s Baseball Weekly with Gleeman & The Geek on Sunday. I was on the second segment of the show and shared a Good, a Bad and an “Other” story. It was a fun segment and I encourage you to listen to the podcast, if you haven’t already.

It was fun to do some research on each of those topics, and I thought that I would share some of that with you today. Obviously we could talk about Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario, and that’s good, but we want to make sure that other guys get discussed too. Would we mention that Sano is hitting .308/.438/654 (1.091) with 18 extra base hits and 28 RBI. We could mention that he is 10-20 (.500) with three doubles and two home runs in his last five games. Or, we could mention that he had three errors in a game this weekend and ten on the season. Rosario is hitting .308/.438/.455 with ten doubles, a triple and a home run. He has also walked more than he has struck out (17-15). He also has seven stolen bases… and nine errors, although it is at his new position of 2B.

You take the good, you take the bad… you take them both, and there you have… Life in the Minor Leagues! ...