Thread: Ramirez and Oliveros to AAA, Bates and Thurston released and Nishioka off the DL...

...tomorrow for Rochester

Interesting moves. I did not expect Bates' release, I suspect next will be Parmelee in AAA.

Why release Bates? How about releasing Clete Thomas and giving Parmelee more time that way? Bates was a serviceable mlb potential player to fill in if needed this year. I thought it could be argued that he should have been called up earlier to replace Parmelee. What the hell?

I know. I really liked Bates and he has been pretty popular in Rochester as well. He has not hit with much power this season but OBP was like .380 The only thing I can think is that Parmalee will go down soon and they needed space. On the other hand they still got Rissotti on the team who is an immovable object and has no bussiness in AAA.

Rizzotti is a AAA DH, not a 1B. I'm surprised and disappointed in the decision on Bates. That's too bad. Good guy, good ball player, still young. Ramirez and Oliveros were easy choices to move up.

Rizzotti is heading to AA to make room for Nishi. Now who plays first? (Obviously Parmelee, right?)

Yeah that was a huge dissapointment. Ultimately, the Twins' choice was 31 year old Burroughs over 28 year old Bates. Since Valencia went down Burroughs has been a first baseman exclusively.

Originally Posted by Jeremy Nygaard

Rizzotti is heading to AA to make room for Nishi. Now who plays first? (Obviously Parmelee, right?)

Burroughs has been playing 1B since Valencia was demoted. We'll see. There are a lot of things in flux right now

Ok, how are we going to get two 12 pitchers with Parmalee going down? Morneau and who? Florimon is not 40 man roster, is he?

Florimon is not on the 40 man roster, but DFAing Gray (or even taking Nishioka off for that matter - it will be a blessing if someone claims him) will open a spot

Burroughs has actually been playing a bit of 2B too since he's been down there.

Originally Posted by thrylos98

Yeah that was a huge dissapointment. Ultimately, the Twins' choice was 31 year old Burroughs over 28 year old Bates. Since Valencia went down Burroughs has been a first baseman exclusively.

No real reason to make that decision though. Bates has previously played some left field and I would think RF would not be out of the question. Clete Thomas, once again!

I just don't understand. Parmelee has struggled for the Twins and Morneau's injuries for this season have started . . . and they already gave up on Hughes.

This might indicate that Butera is staying for quite some time up with the Twins and that they do not really plan on calling anyone else up (like Carson).

If I count them correctly, they actually have an opening on the 40-man, so it wouldn't require DFAing anybody. Of course, they may want to do it anyway, to preserve future options.

Another head scratcher, I have zero confidence in the way they are handling the minor league and big league rosters.

Originally Posted by DJSim22

Another head scratcher, I have zero confidence in the way they are handling the minor league and big league rosters.

I am much less confident in the minor league roster management.

After more than 1300 AAA plate appearances, Bates OPS sits at .720 and SLG at .369. That would be poor for a middle infielder. Seems like the mistake (if there was a mistake) was keeping Bates over Steve Pearce in the first place. The reality is that neither will likely ever help at the major league level, but they could have expected Pearce to be provide more help to the AAA team.

It's nice to constantly move players around and about, and the Twins have had a sorta luxury when they have High-A as well as rookie ball at Ft. Myers...and basically they can move that third catcher or extra batter or pitcher from Ft. Myers to AA or AAA on a temporary basis. But don't move players down. Rochester is looking pretty crappy for the third straight year. And, yes, the Twins have one 40-man spot open currently.

what was there to like about Bates?? 134gm @ ROC over 2 yrs (442ABs) & he had 7HR 47 RBI. He did have 71bb's but ony 27doubles...nothing to write home about or save a spot for him. At least Burroughs has shown that he is a MLB caliber player in bits/pieces.
With 26yr old Ramirez in AAA, I could see less playin time/release of 31 yr old Matt Carson.
Getting spots for 40 man roster is easy as they could take Nishi & Tosoni off & not risk losing either.

Zero HR for Rochester 1B's this season. That position is supposed to be a power contributor.

I wonder if Chris Colabello will get called up to AAA. He's showing power. His knock would be his low BA/OBP but his K rate is a strong 16% so he's likely got a low BABIP meaning he's having a bit of bad luck.

Originally Posted by jorgenswest

After more than 1300 AAA plate appearances, Bates OPS sits at .720 and SLG at .369. That would be poor for a middle infielder. Seems like the mistake (if there was a mistake) was keeping Bates over Steve Pearce in the first place. The reality is that neither will likely ever help at the major league level, but they could have expected Pearce to be provide more help to the AAA team.

This. I'm sure Bates is a nice guy, but I can't believe all the hand-wringing I'm seeing over dropping him. He was a 28-year-old first baseman slugging .286 in AAA.

Originally Posted by Rosterman

It's nice to constantly move players around and about, and the Twins have had a sorta luxury when they have High-A as well as rookie ball at Ft. Myers...and basically they can move that third catcher or extra batter or pitcher from Ft. Myers to AA or AAA on a temporary basis. But don't move players down. Rochester is looking pretty crappy for the third straight year. And, yes, the Twins have one 40-man spot open currently.

They actually have two spots open on 40-man roster. They have 39, including Baker who was moved to the 60-man disabled list...so that leaves two openings. [Disregard, I missed last addition....it is at 40 with Baker, leaving one opening]