Joe Benson has been holding a four to five vote lead all morning. With voting down to only a few votes an hour, I am going to move on to the next round. Thus, Benson takes the fifth spot in this year's poll with 105 votes (28%). Kyle Gibson was second (101) in the closest voting this year. Chris Parmelee was third with 55 votes, Liam Hendriks fourth (30) and Brian Dozier fifth with 28 votes. We now have our top five in the books, Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario, Oswaldo Arcia, Aaron Hicks and Benson. What a change that is for the Twins as there isn't a single pitcher in our Top Five.

B. J. Hermsen just missed getting two percent and will be dropped from the next round. Added will be David Bromberg and Levi Michael. Bromberg is a two time Twins Pitcher of the Year and also the leader of all minor league baseball in strikeouts when at Beloit. He was pitching great last year at New Britain when he sustained a broken arm when hit by a line drive. After missing several months, he never got back to the level he was pitching at when injured. Michael is last year's top pick who played through several injuries while with UNC in the College World Series.

Please continue to provide names of those players you believe should be added to future rounds. Tommorrow is movie day, so I will be posting the next round early tommorrow afternoon.

Fans continue to value Aaron Hicks potential, selecting him as our fourth best prospect with 39% (123) of 309 votes. Kyle Gibson was second with 50 votes, Joe Benson third (45), Chris Parmelee fourth (32) and Liam Hendriks fifth (19) in today's voting.

Both Manuel Soliman and Cole DeVries failed to get two percent of the votes and will be dropped from the next round. I will bring back three players who were dropped after the first two rounds, Angel Morales, Alex Wimmers and Adrian Salcedo.

Please continue to provide suggestions of players you would like to see included in the coming rounds.

Good morning!

I will be skipping the Elizabethton Twins to review the GCL Twins. I will do the DSL Twins next week, then finish with Elizabethton on December 17th.

In other news, we will begin selection of the 2012 Twinkie Town Top 50 Prospects on Thursday after the Winter Meetings. The rules will be tweaked so that we can get this completed a little quicker than last year. Watch for the selection of our Top Prospect Thursday afternoon.

In winter league news, Rene Tosoni and Joe Benson returned home after brief appearances in Venezuela. Aaron Bates is hitting .372 average in 43 at bats with a .994 OPS in Puerto Rico. Angel Morales is off to another slow start, hitting .219 average in 32 at bats. Eddie Rosario picked up where he left off in the Appy League by hitting .320 average with a .833 OPS in 25 at bats. Alexi Casilla is hitting .288 in 59 at bats in the Dominican Republic.

Most of the pitchers are playing at home in Venezuela. Deolis Guerra has a 3.38 ERA in 13 games (18.2 innings) with 17 strikeouts. The other Guerra, Pedro, has a 3.86 ERA in 11 games (23.1 innings) with 22 strikeouts. Jose Mijares has five appearances without allowing a run. Lester Oliveros is one of several relievers in contention for a spot in the 2012 bullpen, either out of spring training or later in the year. He has been excellent early this winter with a 0.82 ERA in 12 games (11.0 innings) with 10 strikeouts. Cuban Dennys Suarez has made five starts, pitching 24.0 innings with a 3.38 ERA. Esmerling Vasquez, who is on the 40-man roster, has a 7.36 ERA in 3.2 innings in the Dominican Winter League. One of the many free agents signed this winter, Luis Perdomo, is also pitching in the Dominican Republic. He has a 1.80 ERA in 15 innings.

It was announced this week that Yangervis Solarte signed with Texas. My review of the GCL Twins follows the jump.

Continue reading this post »

The Mesa Solar Sox ended their season as it began, losing five of their last six.  Between their first and last weeks, Mesa was very good finishing in second place of their three team division with a 17-20 record, 4.5 games behind Salt River. 

Cole DeVries was one of the Solar Sox top starters.  He made eight starts, pitching 26.0 innings with a 3.12 ERA, a 0.92 WHIP, nineteen strikeouts and only three walks.  Dakota Watts appeared in eleven games (14.1 innings) with a 5.65 ERA, nine strikeouts and ten walks.  Watts allowed a total of one run in nine of his starts, demonstrating what two rough outings can do to your ERA in a short season.  Bruce Pugh pitched in twelve games (14.0 innings) with a 12.21 ERA, thirteen strikeouts and fifteen walks.  Brett Jacobson made eleven appearances (11.2 innings) with a 6.94 ERA, twelve strikeouts and eight walks.  With this performance following a great season, will the Twins lose Cole DeVries in next months Rule 5 draft?

Brian Dozier did everything he needed to demonstrate that he may be the Twins answer at shortstop as soon as late next season.  Dozier hit .296 average with a .811 OPS in 108 at bats.  He had four stolen bases in four attempts and made only two errors in 26 games.  Aaron Hicks hit very well after a rough first week when he hit only .107 average.  He finished with a .294 average and .959 OPS with three home runs in 102 at bats.  Hicks stole five bases in nine attempts while tying for the team lead with five triples and eight doubles.  Against the highest level of pitching he has ever faced, Hicks hit a respectable .258 average in 66 at bats from the left side of plate. 

Chris Herrmann was one of the Solar Sox' stars, hitting .380 average with a 1.076 OPS in fifty at bats.  Herrmann is one of the six players nominated for the AFL Dernell Stenson Sportsmanship Award given since 2004 to the player who best demonstrates 'unselfishness, hard work and leadership.'  The winner will be announced later today at the AFL championship game.  Five of the past seven winners played in the big leagues the year following their winning the award.  Past winners include Mark Teahen, Andre Ethier, Jason Donald and last year's winner, Steve Lombardozzi.  Of all the Twins players participating in the AFL in recent years, Herrmann may have done the most to enhance his future.    

Jesse recently wrote about the minor league free agents the Twins signed this week.  Jim Mandelaro also had an excellent article this week about those eight players.  http://www.democratandchronicle.com/article/20111117/SPORTS06/111117009/Minnesota-Twins-sign-eight-players-who-could-help-2012-Red-Wings?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|Sports

With the addition of reliever Jason Bulger, these additions mean the Red Wings roster is nearly full.  Look for them to add another catcher and at least one more starting pitcher. 

In other news, the Twins added three players to their 40-man roster.  Added were Carlos Gutierrez, Oswaldo Arcia and Tyler Robertson.  In his first year as a reliever, Robertson was excellent as New Britain's closer.  He isn't a hard thrower, but may be an excellent left handed set-up man who gets a lot of ground balls.  To create a spot on their 40-man roster which now is at 38, the Twins outrighted David Bromberg to Rochester.  That is a surprise to most of us, however, the two time Pitcher of the Year cleared waivers after missing most of last season with a broken arm.  Many of us will now be holding our breath to see if Angel Morales and Tom Stuifbergen survive the Rule 5 draft.  Considering Stuifbergen's injury history and Morales missing most of last year, the Twins are betting they will.

My review of Beloit's season is after the jump.  

Continue reading this post »

Every year the Twins sign a few minor league free agents to supplement Rochester's roster. It's one of the first things they did last season when they went out and found players like Ray Chang, Eric Hacker, Jeff Bailey, and Chuck James. Unfortunately for the Twins (and the Red Wings), not many quality minor leaguers will be making the jump to triple-A to start the season. In an effort to, once again, allow talent to stay where they are since they're not quite ready to advance, we find the front office loading up on filler talent.

After the jump we'll take a brief look at each of the six new Twins. Do any of them look like potential contributors?

Continue reading this post »

Reports that Wilson Ramos has been rescued is an answer to all of our prayers.  Hopefully, he and his family will find a safe place to spend time together as he recovers from his ordeal.  

With five games remaining in the AFL season, Mesa has a 16-16 record and is 3.5 games behind Salt River.  Chris Herrmann, who has been used as a catcher, is hitting .372 average with a 1.030 OPS in 43 at bats.  Brian Dozier has a .309 average with a .844 OPS in 97 at bats.  Aaron Hicks, who is hitting .233 with a .841 OPS in 86 at bats, continues to struggle from the left side.  Cole DeVries started seven games (23.0 innings) with a 2.74 ERA.  All of the Twns relievers haven't performed well, although none has pitched over twelve innings.  Brett Jacobson has a 6.94 ERA, Bruce Pugh (11.37) and Dakota Watts (6.57).  Watts is a good example of what one bad outing can do in a short season as he has allowed only four earned runs in his last nine appearances (11.2 innings) after an ugly first game.

There were multiple reports yesterday that the Twins have signed thirty eight year old middle infielder Jamey Carroll to a two year contract for six to seven million dollars.  There were also numerous reports that the Twins have resigned Brian Dinkelman to a minor league contract.  LaVelle E Neal III reported that the Twins signed right handed pitcher Jared Burton.  Burton split his time between AAA and the major leagues the last five years, although the thirty year old right hander pitched only 4.2 innings with Cincinnati last year.  His best year was 2008, when he had a 5-1 record with a 3.22 ERA in 58.2 innings with the Reds.  Initial indications are that Burton was signed to a minor league contract.

My Ft. Myers review is after the jump.  

Continue reading this post »

With the minor league season ending this weekend, I join many fans who look back on what has been a long year.  As I expect is the case for the fans in Rochester, Beloit and Ft. Myers, the losing has gotten to me.  Having done this every Saturday for something like six years, I need a break.

I will be taking next weekend off, then return regularly during the off-season.  It just won't be every week.  I will be back in two weeks with your voting for Player of the Year and Pitcher of the Year.  In October, I  will wrap up the seasons for each of the Clubs.

It is no surprise that last week's Player of the Week was Eddie Rosario.

As the season comes to an end, Rochester played .500 ball with all of the other teams having winning weeks.  I will recap their weeks after the jump. 

Continue reading this post »

With less than two weeks remaining, only New Britain and the Elizabethton Twins remain in contention for the playoffs.  The organization had a winning week at 22-19, with the GCL Twins on a 7-0 winning streak.  The New Britain Rock Cats and Elizabethton Twins both were 5-2. 

The Appalachian League announced their season ending awards.  Eddie Rosario was selected as the co-MVP with Danville Braves third baseman Brandon Drury.  Rosario and three other Twins, Miguel Sano, Tim Shibuya and Madison Boer, were named as all-stars.  Sibuya was named the Appy League Pitcher of the Year.  This week's transactions will be included in the comment section. 

Manager Ray Smith was speaking about Sano earlier this week when he was quoted in the Elizabethton Star as saying, "He's got an upside that is very rare in professional baseball.  He's a young pup (18).  He can do some things.  He's got a lot of work to do, don't get me wrong, he's got a long, long way to go.  But if you're just talking tools and you're talking upside, he's special."  Sano is special.  He was also our Player of the Week with 67% of the votes.

Continue reading this post »