Rand: When are we going to see some of these hotshot Twins pitching prospects?

[jokin]

http://www.startribune.com/sports/blogs/261585781.html

 

Michael Rand joins with the parade and noticed what's going on in Rochester.

 

The dominance by Twins' pitching prospects at Class AAA Rochester is bordering on ridiculous -- so much so that Alex Meyer, the best prospect, only has the fourth-best ERA among starters at 3.31.Yohan Pino, a 30-year-old righty who has been a minor-leaguer since 2005, has a 1.65 ERA (1.52 as a starter). Kris Johnson is right behind him at 1.83. Trevor May, the key piece in the Ben Revere trade, has thrown 26 consecutive scoreless innings to drop his ERA to 2.62. All three of them are among the top seven in the International League in terms of ERA.

The peripheral numbers are good, too. Meyer has well more than a strikeout per inning. May has about a strikeout per inning. Pino is giving up less than one baserunner per inning. Johnson has given up just 42 hits in 54 innings.

 

The Red Wings team ERA has gone from worst (4.21 in 2013) to first (3.16 in 2014) in the IL. Kudos to the organization and the players for an impressive turnaround.

 

Rand gives the boilerplate defensible reasons why there have been no promotions yet. And yes, the Twins' May pitching numbers have turned around from April, to a level that, though slightly below league average, appears to be about what is reasonable to expect from this group as a body of work. Now, when is it time to improve upon this body of work with better options? Time will tell.

[Thrylos]

There may be excuses to keep Meyer and May there (service time, whatever,) but having Burton and Guerrier over Pino is inexcusable.

[cmathewson]

"Not ready, you'll see them eventually," says Rob Antony. My guess is September. They don't want to lose sunk costs and they can't get anything for the guys they sunk money into.

[Paul Pleiss]

I don't know how much longer the Twins can keep all of them down in AAA. Correia may not be finished, but he's certainly no better every 5 days than any one of those 5.

 

I think moving Deduno back to the pen and dropping someone like Guerrier or Kubel to make room would make sense. Kubel probably goes down when Fuld is back, so maybe Mr. G is the next roster removal. Not much more for the guys in AAA to do besides wait for a spot.