Minor League Update: What the Top 25 Are Up to This Week

Last week, we saw a lot of great performances from some of the Twins' youngest and brightest minor league players. This week, we'll see some of the same, with bonus interesting stories and information. Instead of going over all 25 like last week, however, I'm going to be highlighting the best of the week to save myself a lot of time, but to also save e-trees and things. Before we start, make sure you all go check out Anelle's post about visiting the Cedar Rapids Kernels here! Okay, let's jump right in.

1) Miguel Sano - Sano continues to tear the cover off the ball, hitting .500 this past week, including a home run and a couple of doubles over the past 6 games. Sano's season OPS is now up to 1.222, which is ridiculous and so promising. Sano's batting average so far this season is .387.

2) Oswaldo Arcia - While Arcia hasn't been stunning in his big league appearances, he is getting hits, which is positive. In the past week, he's got 6 hits, but 8 strikeouts, so there's a bit of a problem. It'll be interesting to see how Gardy continues to use Arcia in the coming weeks.

3) Byron Buxton - Buxton is hitting .337 in the past week, basically continuing to be a really good and promising player that will most likely get fast-tracked through the minor league system. He's only hit one home run, but has 9 hits in his past 7 games. His season OPS is now at 1.135.

6) Eddie Rosario - Going with the theme of having a pretty good week at the plate, Rosario has hit .394 in his last 6 games, including 2 doubles and a couple RBI. Rosario has also only struck out twice in the past 6 games, and now has a season OPS of .912.

9) Jose Berrios - Berrios had a pretty good start on Sunday, when he pitched a solid 6 innings, giving up a high number of hits (6), but only 2 runs. The really fun part was the fact that Berrios didn't walk any batters, and managed to strike out 8 instead. His season ERA is now down to 2.55 with a 3-0 W/L record in 17.1 innings pitched.

10) Trevor May - Trevor had a really good start on Saturday, following his really rough start the prior week. He went 7 innings, giving up just 3 hits and 1 run. He didn't strike out that many batters (just 3), but he also didn't walk many (only 2). May's season ERA is now down to 3.90, with a 1-1 W/L record in 32.1 innings pitched.

11) Joe Benson - While the rest of his week wasn't bad, I just want to talk about Benson's great game on Tuesday night against Toledo. Benson went 2-for-6 with a walk, but both of his hits were doubles (the game went into extra, hence the 6 at-bats). He did strike out three times in the game as well, but it was nice to see him hit for a little power after a sub-par start to his season. His OPS is now at .618.

15) Danny Santana - While Santana didn't have a bad week, he didn't have a great week either. He did, however, have a really good game on Monday, when he went 2-for-5 with a double, triple, 2 RBI, and a run scored. Santana's season OPS is still sitting at a somewhat low .590, but his flashes of power are encouraging.

18) Hudson Boyd - While Boyd's starts have been hit-or-miss (mostly miss...), he did have a decent start on Thursday against Wilmington. Boyd went 5 innings, giving up 6 (yeah, whoops) hits, but only 2 runs. He did walk 3, but struck out 4, so that's also a little promising. Boyd's season ERA is now down to 5.48 (yikes), with a 1-1 W/L record in 23 innings pitched.

20) Niko Goodrum - Fun fact: Niko's first name is actually Cartier. Who knew? Anyway, Goodrum had a pretty good week, hitting .299 in his past 5 games. He didn't have any extra base hits, but he did have 2 RBI and drew 7-yes, seven-walks over those 5 games. His eye at the plate has greatly improved as the season's gone on, which is great news for the Twins organization. Goodrum's season OPS is now at .805.

23) DJ Baxendale - Well, well, well. Baxendale had himself an excellent start this week, facing Tampa on Monday. He went seven innings (first good sign), giving up just three hits (second good sign), no earned runs (third good sign), no walks (fourth good sign), and-get this, Twins fans, this is actually possible-TEN strikeouts. Yeah, that happened. Baxendale's season ERA is now down to 1.49 with a 5-0 record in 36.1 innings pitched. Keep an eye on this kid.

Other Players/Things of Note
-Fort Myers is April's Top Team-
From Baseball Prospectus, J.J. Cooper covers how Miguel Sano and the Fort Myers Miracle and how they've been keeping it pretty awesome down in Florida. He mentions that the Miracle had the best minor league record in April, going a blistering 21-4. Read the piece for the rest; it's good information about one of the organization's teams.
-Prospect Handbook Podcast-
From Cooper again, he and Ben Badler discuss the best Twins prospects (focus on Sano and Buxton), as well as some interesting short stop information. Check it out here.
-Baxendale Shuts Down Yankees-
Another Miracle story, this one from milb.com, discusses Baxendale's great performance in more detail.
-Rochester Red Wings Hall of Fame-
The Red Wings Hall of Fame entered four new members this past week, and they have an interesting piece posted about the four players inducted (to save you lazy bums time, they were: Mike Mussina, John Ganzel, Jim Hutto, and Scott Pitoniak).

Make sure you stop by later for the Game Thread when the Twins take on Boston at Fenway!