I am officially sick of trade rumors and trade speculation. The whole "who can they trade with" discussion bores the hell out of me. When/If they make a trade I will look at it but until then I will focus on the team. Unfortunately the team stinks right now. And my God. Nick Blackburn really sucked today. Can you pitch much worse than that? What the hell are the Twins going to do with this guy...I can't even focus on that.

As big believer in the life philosophy "out of site out of mind" I decided to close my eyes to the harsh reality and delve into the ranks of the minors. For some reason I was only able to look at players on the Miracle as my internet is screwy. Which is unfortunate because the Mircale are almost as disappointing as the MLB Twins. ...but whatever I started this and I am going to finish. More after the jump

Matthew Hauser has moved into a starting role.. We at the Twinkietown ranked him at 27 last year. If he continues to start, I think he might go up a few ticks rankings next year. He was drafted in 2010 and made it all the way up to AA in 2011 as a relief pitcher. He started the season in the bullpen but the team has moved him to a Starting role in late June and he has done OK. As a starter has 2.05 ERA 17 SO in 22 IP. He is supposed to have an average FB, good slider and a split finger FB. He got bit by the injury bug last year but if he can stay healthy and develop his three pitches, he could advance as a Starter. He has shown a few signs of stinking in July as he pitches longer in games so the jury is still out on him. I think as he gets more starts, his flaws might become more apparent but if not expect him to be in the Mid-teens of prospect rankings.

Lefthander Pat Dean was picked 3 rounds before Hauser in 2010 and he has been a mainstay of the rotation for the horrible Miracle. Despite his poor pitching in 2011 he was promoted to AA where he made 1 start. We at Twinkie town ranked him 39 and he is doing very little to show he should be much higher. Left handers are hitting .287 off him and RH are hitting .290. This is not good. If he can't get a LH batter out he is going to have issues, Right now it looks like his hope of advancing will be in the bullpen or perhaps develop a Knuckleball. Has there been any LH knuckleball pitchers? He does have a decent ERA so that is something, but not a lot.

Soliman, Stuifbergen & Salcedo have not been very good and I don't want to talk about them too much. I liked all of these guys coming into the season. Salcedo has been injured and is still young so there is hope there. Stuifbergen was injured too, but he is very hittable and LH batters mash against him. Soliman is also injured. I think all three of those guys pitched a lot of innings in Winterball and I wonder if there is something to letting young guys rest instead of throwing them out there and having pitch year round.

Madison Boer is the Nick Blackburn of the Fort Meyers Miracle. A 2nd round pick last year so he has to get his innings but wow has he been hittable. He is bad against both LH and RH batters, he is bad in the pitching friendly Hammond Stadium and really bad in away games. He has shown no signs of turning it around and I have no idea why the Twins keep throwing him out there as a starter. Let him get some innings in the bullpen and see if he can't turn it around that way.

Another local kid Cole Nelson has also pitched poorly in the FSL league. Acquired in the Young Trade he is just really not very good. The one thing I can say about him is he does not give up many home runs, so maybe just maybe if he advanced some levels and got a better defense to play behind him he could do better. But 67 hits in 59 innings is not very good

This roster has a lot of questionable pitchers. What about the hitters?

Danny Santana - This is the one bright spot of this lousy team. He gets on base OK, supposedly plays good defense, is fast and is doing a decent job for the Miracle. He came into this year with some uncertainties due to Levi Michael getting opportunity to be the everyday SS. Instead Santana said to the Twins, don't forget about me. He is only 3 months younger than Michael and has outplayed that guy in every aspect of the game.

Levi Michael - El Stinkerino. He started slowly, then had 1 good month and has followed it up by playing poorly. He has not improved his game and the FO has to be hoping he is not a bust.

Danny Ortiz - Just OK, he improved from his poor 2011 numbers in Beliot last year so that’s something

Lance Ray - Scouts liked his bat but he has not cracked an .800 OPS once, not even in E-town.

Danny Rams -He had 1 good year in 2009, I would imagine this is his last year of pro ball. For a a 2nd round pick in 2007 you would have hoped he would be at least in AA by now.

Angel Morales - Sigh...example # 564 why we should not get so hyped over rookie league success.

There is probably more but its just so depressing, maybe the recent call ups will show something for next year...

I started writing thinking it was going to be a positive Cherry Picking post about the twins minor league system. But then my internet got all screwy - not surprising considering the country I live in - and I was forced to look at the Miracle. After Arcia and Hermson got promoted this team it is full of guys who probably will be out of baseball soon and not even make it to the level of organizational filler. The only player I actually have legitimate hope in is the SS Santana than maybe Hauser. Those are the only two players who deserve a promotion next year to AA but I suspect Pat Dean will also get promoted based off his not terrible ERA.

The Miracle's roster show why the team must again go out and get a bunch of Minor League FA this offseason because there just isn't enough talent on this team to replace the guys who leave New Briton next year.

Yuck