Good morning from beautiful South Carolina.  Every week this time of year we find a few more Twins organization players reporting to their winter teams, although players who were with the Twins won't be reporting for several more weeks. 

Following a few year's when the Twins representatives in the AFL played with the top team in the league, this year's version of the Mesa Solar Sox are struggling with a 5-10 record and find themselves in last place in their three team division.  After a 0-10 start, Chris Parmalee is hitting .268/.360/.634 in 41 at bats while leading the Solar Sox with 3 home runs and 15 RBI.  By comparison, Boston's Ryan Kalish (some may remember his name as one of several players talked about in the various Santana scenarios) is second on the team with 8 RBI.  Rene Tosoni is hitting .268/.367/.439 while leading the team with 2 triples.  After a hot start, Steven Singleton is hitting .282/.293/.436.   Michael McCardell has made 3 starts (8.2 ip) with an ERA that shot up to 7.27 following his last outing when he gave up 5 earned runs.  Spencer Steedley has struggled with his control in his first 6 games (6.0 ip) with 3K/10BB for a 6.00ERA.  Alex Burnett appeared in 5 games (4.2ip) with a 5.79ERA and 4K/5BB.  Steve Hirschfield, who was one of the top pitchers in the organization this year, has pitched 4.1 innings in 5 games with 7K/2BB and a 20.77ERA.

Wilson Ramos continues to hit like a man with a mission with last night's 2-4 game becomming the norm.  Early this season, Ramos is 25-62 with 18 runs scored, 21 RBI, 6 doubles, a triple and 5 home runs.  Ramos is responsible for 34 of Aragua's 109 runs.  After a slow start Dustin Martin has been hitting much better of late at .264/.385/.453 in 53 at bats.  Martin is second on the team with 14 RBI.  Justin Huber is hitting .283/.377/.348 while Jonathan Goncalves is 2-11.  Jason Jones has a 5.00ERA in 4 starts with 18.0 innings.  Frank Mata has been great, with a 2-1 record and 3.18ERA in 7 games  (11.1 innings).  Oswaldo Sosa has a 5.40ERA in 1.2 innings while Edgar Ibarra did not appear in any games this week.  After a terrible first week, Aragua has improved to 7-10 and moved up to sixth place in an eight team league.

Pedro Guerra (Ace of this year's DSL Twins) has been very good for Lara in the VWL, appearing in 5 games this week with 7 hits, 5 runs (2 earned) and 6K/5BB in 7 innings.  Guerra has a 4.09ERA early this season.  Winston Marquez had been outstanding for Lara until last night's start that they lost 11-1.  Marquez gave up 6 hits and 4 runs in 5.0 innings to raise his ERA to 5.40 for the season.  He has started 4 games with 12K/6BB in 21.0 innings.

Juan Portes has appeared in one game for Aguilas of the DWL.  Estarlin De Los Santos is hitting .250/.314/.313 in 32 at bats for Gigantes of the DWL.  Juan Morillo didn't make any appearances this week while Jose Lugo appeared in 2 games (2.2 innings) with 2 hits, 2 runs and 1K/1BB. 

Will be travelling the next few days so it will be mid-week before I get back to the position reviews with the corner outfielders.  Will also be completing my first ever Top 20 after I have completed all the position reviews.