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Melissa Lockard does a great job covering Giants prospects, and this is what she had to say about Malique in an “under-the-radar” column a few weeks ago: “Malique Ziegler, OF: In many ways, Ziegler’s season was the reverse of Bond’s. Also a member of the Augusta opening day roster, Ziegler got off to a torrid start with the GreenJackets. The 2016 22nd-round pick hit .275/.405/.522 in April and was arguably the Giants’ top position-player prospect that month. Then he strained an oblique, which curtailed the rest of his season. Ziegler missed nearly all of May, June and July, so it wasn’t surprising that when he returned to the GreenJackets in late July, his timing wasn’t what it had been before the injury. He posted a .556 OPS in 29 games after his return. Despite the disappointing finish, there’s still plenty to be excited about regarding Ziegler’s future. When healthy, he profiles as a potential top-of-the order hitter. He is an above-average athlete who runs well and can drive the ball into the gaps. He also has a solid grasp of the strike zone and is a potential plus defender in center field. Ziegler will be 22 throughout the 2019 season and could get an opportunity to start the year in San Jose if he has a strong spring.”

Good for Tyler. Good for the twins. In years past the twins would have built around a player like Tyler. Good to see they went out and got better players. I think Austin will have a nice big league career in a franchise that has a need

While I agree the Turtle will never be Pucket as he just doesn't have his speed I think you are highly underestimating what La Tortuga can be. Since he rarely strikes out (3%) that means he is going to put more balls in play. Since the rough average for balls in play is .300 odds are he is going to be close to a .300 hitter unless he has bad BABIP luck. With good BABIP luck he will hit over .300. He also can hit for power and looks like a decent defensive catcher at this point (at least as good if not better than Garver). Add that all up (especially if he can play catcher) and you have a very valuable MLB player. If he ends up hitting around .300 which baring injury seems likely given his current track record, that would have been the best average on the entire Twins roster last year. Granted he has yet to play a full season of Major League baseball yet, but if you ask me the odds are in his favor to be a better than average catcher in MLB. A catcher who might hit better than JT Realmuto this year. Add to that he can also play 1st, 2nd, 3rd and left field and you have a flexible and valuable player who can fill in when and where needed. Give it time you will be on La Tortuga's bandwagon before long.

No doubt the Giants are trying to recover from the bloodbath that was the Pierzynski trade.

I agree on Marwin. He looks uninspired, which hopefully can be chalked up to not being 100% healthy. If he didn't have that game winner in the opener, there might be more grumbling about his slow start.

Yeeesh....perusing that prospect summary list. It looks, well....in a word, ugly. Well, there's always games tomorrow!

You know what y'all? It's baseball, it happens. Yeah, they had their chances but came up short. It's baseball. Philly looks to be a pretty good team this year and the Twins showed well overall. It was a good, close game and I enjoyed watching it. Sucks that they lost, but now we move on to the next contest. Man, I love this game

I hope it works out for Tyler in San Francisco... He's got to stop this severe westward movement of his career. From New York to Minnesota to San Francisco... Next stop moving west for him will be Japan or South Korea... or the Solomon Islands.

Why's it so hard to get Astudillo playing time? Use him at 3rd, use him at 2nd, use him at 1st to rotate in. He's hitting better than any of them. Use him to pinch hit for slumping players when he's not starting. For example: I was looking for them to pinch hit Astudillo for Castro late in the game yesterday. There were several other possible times he could have pinch hit. Why so difficult?

Going 3-4 on an early season road trip against these teams was never going to be the end of the world. That's worst case scenario at this point. Hopefully, they can steal one from the Mets and have a winning road trip.

So we're 5-3. A lot of folks will say, "meh". Well, going 5-3 every 8 games allows you to meh your way to a 100-win season.

The Twins did pretty well considering there was no place for Cruz to play except to pinch hit. The big question is how will the Twins solve this problem when playing at the National League park in the World Series this season?.

I know we want to play all our players, but Polanco on the bench? Give me a break - don't give Philadelphia a break. Get our bats in the lineup.

well, it's not like they've got a .500 hitter on the bench.

This wasn't the best lineup the Twins could have put out there. In a 2-1 game, the lineup matters.

I wouldn't have minded trying him in the OF. Though even if they had, the way things are shaking out this year I wouldn't have wanted him to get too many at bats anyway. I used to be a platoon Kepler guy, I'm starting to buy into the hype and contract extension now though.

Marwin played more in the outfield last year than the infield, iirc.

Personally, I don't mind the imperfections of human umpires, but I'm starting to endorse robo-umps, in the hopes that it would reduce the "we wuz robbed!" fan commentary.

Willians Watch! LOVE IT

With all the new players, I was concerned about getting off to a decent start. The Twins are 3-3 against contenders (Indians, Phillies) and 2-0 against weak teams (Royals). They're 2-1 at home and 3-2 on the road. So far so good. A split with the Mets would be a nice way to end the road trip. They get DeGrom and Syndergaard, so this will be a real test.

They've played like 3-4 games... (and pitched one game)

I dont know where either Astudillo or Garver will end up as hitters, or catchers. But why is Garver considered a developing 28 year old catcher? First off, that's already getting along in MLB years. Secondly it seems it's a rationale for him getting a developmental nod over Astudillo. Sort of strange considering Astudillo is 27! Garver at the present is not as good a catcher, not as good a hitter, and does not have the positional flexibility of Astudillo. . Plus, Astudillo is younger, ergo more time to develop, if that is indeed a factor?

One of my "mailbag" questions to Seth was asking if Marwin's 0-fer in Spring Training should have us worried. He said NO....so maybe we should trust him. I mean, we do have a lot of baseball left. Let's see how Marwin's average is on May 15 before we start calling him a "bad signing". So far the offense has me frustrated. One game the Twins break out, the next game they fall silent. One game they execute, the next game they leave runners on 3rd base with 1 out. Right now I don't think this team really has a leader on offense when Cruz is out. I feel that Cruz has quickly proven himself the lynch pin for this offense. He gives the guys around him confidence. When he's out everyone's looking around for someone else to step up. Polanco and Kepler seem to be heating up. Nice to see Buxton bounce back from that 3-strikeout game by making contact in the following 2 games. Still waiting to see any kind of power from Jonathan Schoop. Marwin Gonzalez is cold. Cron is luke-warm but we're still waiting on a HR from him also. It's crazy that this team replaced almost half its offense with new guys! Can't wait for them to all settle in and get comfy at Target Field.

After a successful opening series at home, the Minnesota Twins hit the road and battled hard, posting a winning weekly record with help from multiple comebacks and (mostly) continued excellence from the pitching staff. Read on for a full rundown of the 2019 club's first full week. Weekly Snapshot: Mon, 4/1 through Sun, 4/7 *** Record Last Week: 3-2 (Overall: 5-3) Run Differential Last Week: -1 (Overall: +6) Standing: 3rd Place in AL Central (1 GB) Willians Watch: 4-for-12 last week (Season AVG: .500) Before we get underway with this week's column, a few housekeeping notes. On Saturday, the Twins announced they'd designated first baseman Tyler Austin for assignment, in order to make room for right-hander Chase De Jong, who was re-added to the 40-man roster as an insurance arm. Austin can now be plucked by another team, or if he clears waivers he can elect free agency. It's also possible he remains in the Twins organization, but the odds are slim. More importantly, as you can see, I've added a "Willians Watch" tracker above. I just feel like we need to keep our finger on the pulse of this one regularly. HIGHLIGHTS For the most part, Friday night's game was a concentrated source of the team's lowlights for the week, but Jorge Polanco was a gleaming exception. While his teammates bumbled along, Polanco was a one-man wrecking crew, hitting for the cycle in his first four at-bats, then adding a single in his final turn for good measure. It was the first cycle by a Twin in about a decade. A year ago at this time, Polanco was coming to grips with the reality of watching his squad start the season from afar. Now he's taking full advantage of being here from the get-go. The shortstop is raking, with a team-leading 12 hits (including six XBHs) in 35 plate appearances. Meanwhile, Minnesota's leadoff man has also begun to find his stroke. Max Kepler put a quiet first week behind him, going 8-for-23 with three home runs and six RBIs. On Saturday, with Polanco in the three-hole, it was Willians Astudillo batting behind Kepler atop the order – an honor he has certainly earned. Astudillo is 7-for-14 on the young season, and this sequence on Saturday where he and Kepler went back-to-back was emblematic of their outstanding weeks at large: LOOKING AHEAD While there have been glimpses, Minnesota's offense hasn't been quite as explosive as advertised in the early going. It's tough to see that changing at Citi Field, where they'll have to contend with two of the most dominant starting pitchers in baseball. After that two-game set, sandwiched by the last two off days they'll see in a while, the Twins return home to face a Tigers squad that's played well off the block. Forecasts currently call for highs in the 30s and 40s, with a possible mid-week snow storm looming. TUESDAY, 4/9: TWINS @ METS – RHP Kyle Gibson v. RHP Jacob deGrom WEDNESDAY, 4/10: TWINS @ METS – RHP Jake Odorizzi v. RHP Noah Syndergaard FRIDAY, 4/12: TIGERS @ TWINS – TBD v. RHP Michael Pineda SATURDAY, 4/13: TIGERS @ TWINS – RHP Tyson Ross v. RHP Jose Berrios SUNDAY, 4/14: TIGERS @ TWINS – RHP Jordan Zimmermann v RHP Kyle Gibson Catch Up On Twins Daily Game Recaps Game 4 | MIN 5, KC 4: Cruz Steps UpGame 5 | MIN 7, KC 6: Twins Come Back From 3-Run DeficitGame 6 | PHI 10, MIN 4: Polanco Cycles in the Rain, Rest Is All PainGame 7 | MIN 6, PHI 2: Twins Find Power Stroke, Slug 3 Homers in VictoryGame 8 | PHI 2, MIN 1: Kepler Stays Hot, Hoskins Pops Deciding Homer Click here to view the article

Sometimes you lose a game, sometimes you win a game and sometimes you just get beat. The Twins managed to check all three of those boxes in this series at Philadelphia. The Twins couldn’t muster any more scoring outside of a leadoff home run while the Phillies hit a two-out, two-run homer and made an excellent play to nail a Twins runner at the plate.Box Score Berrios: 6.0 IP, 2 H, 2 ER, 3 BB, 7 K, 65.3% strikes (64 of 98) Home Runs: Kepler (3) Multi-Hit Games: Kepler (2-for-4, HR), Gonzalez (2-for-4) WPA of +0.1: Kepler .130 WPA of -0.1: Schoop -.120, Cron -.126 Download attachment: Win47.png (chart via FanGraphs) This game got off to a tremendous start for the Twins, as Kepler homered for the third straight game. This was Kepler’s eighth game of 2019, it took him 10 games last season to reach three homers, 32 games in 2017 and 33 in ‘16. So trending in the right direction. Bullpen Usage Here’s a quick look at the number of pitches thrown by the bullpen over the past five days: Download attachment: Bullpen47.png Next Three Games Tue at NYM, 6:10 pm CT (Gibson-deGrom) Wed at NYM, 6:10 pm CT (Odorizzi-Syndergaard) Fri vs. DET, 7:10 pm CT (TBD) Last Game MIN 6, PHI 2: Twins Find Power Stroke, Slug 3 Homers in Victory More From Twins Daily Twins Minor League Report (4/6): And on the Third Day, There Was Baseball The 12 Stages of Willians Astudillo Fandom Click here to view the article

Happy for him and hope he has finally found opportunity and a fit. Sometimes that's what it takes. Cave could be considered an example of that. To be fair and honest, it Austin does well, and so does Cron, I'm not going to shed tears. I just don't think there was a spot for Austin now, or moving forward.

Beyond Marwin, in the high minors we got Wade, Andreoli, Rooker, Raley, Kerrigan, Davis, Wiel, and potentially Kirilloff. IMO I believe that should be enough to deal with the potential loss of Cave. Of course, the most important part of all this, is that we’d have to actually get something of value for Cave. Trading him for a prospect doesn’t seem like the best use of a trade chip like him, so I’m in favor of pairing him with one of our better prospects for a notable relief arm like Archie Bradley of the D-Backs, who already lost Souza for the year.

The often stated dream of Austin having the ability to play some OF. The lingering question of is Cron better than Austin. He didn't play a single inning of OF in spring training so I've been assuming he just can't do it. If he could play some OF he wouldn't be headed to SF right now but he didn't play any OF so... I'll let my current assumption ring. And of course... He is starting tonight for the Giants and starting at 1B with Brandon Belt moving to LF. So for now... I'll just be watching to see who produces better... Cron or Austin... trying to compare and contrast in unique situations... National League... American League. I'm not saying my watching will do any good but that has never stopped me before.

Baltimore didn't have a chance to claim him, since he was traded before we had to put him on waivers.

One thing I thought should be added to the "lows" of the week is Martin Perez. He pitched terribly when he came in, struggling with walks especially. He's been an awful pitcher and people rode the hype train of spring training to go along with his pitching style similar to Johan's. Also, what the heck was with the lineup yesterday? Our best players getting the day off before an off day is not ideal.

From yesterday. Looks pretty good to me.

Royce Lewis helped to get things going in the first inning. With one out, he walked and then stole second, which one was of two steals on the day. Yeah! in this high-tech era of advanced metrics or stats or whatever is being used to evaluate players nowadays, I still love seeing players like Lewis steal bases. Exciting baseball!

It's too bad that the Twins don't have one of those pitch framing catchers to turn those close calls into strikes.

Well, great job and a mighty "Huzzah!!" to Jax and Ober. Go Get em' tomorrow boys.

He’s been battling shoulder issues all spring. It’s pretty likely IMO that he will need to be rested more than would be typical for a starting shortstop.

Spoiler alert...Every team in the organization lost on Sunday. Now that that's out of the way, there were still some very strong performances. Three of the four minor league affiliates were within two runs or fewer. There were also some strong starting and relief appearances from minor league hurlers. Who shined on Sunday? I'm glad you asked...RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 0, Lehigh Valley 7 Box Score Rochester found themselves in an early hole. Zack Littell got knocked around for four first inning runs. He would settle in a little from there and pitch into the fifth inning. He ended up allowing five runs on seven hits while striking out two and walking two. The Red Wings were limited to six hits with only two of them being for extra bases. Jordany Valdespin went 2-for-3 out of the number nine spot in the order. He was the lone Red Wings hitter to collect multiple hits. John Andreoli reached base two times including his first double of the season. Randy Cesar collected his second double. Andrew Vasquez pitched 1 1/3 innings and struck out four. No… that’s not a typo. Ryan Eades ran into some trouble in the final frames. He gave up two runs on three hits in a little over two innings. BLUE WAHOO BITES Pensacola 1, Mobile 2 Box Score Griffin Jax was strong, but the Blue Wahoos lost for the first time on Sunday. Jax stranded base runners in all five innings he worked and left the game with a 1-0 lead. Blue Wahoos starters have allowed one run in 20.0 innings so far this season. Pensacola didn’t collect an extra-base hit for the first time this season and the club was limited to four hits in the entire game. Pensacola actually scored first in this one as Drew Maggi scored on a fielder’s choice by Brian Schales. That would be the lone run for the Blue Wahoos. It turned into a bullpen game for Pensacola. Jeff Ames took over for Jax. He allowed one run on three hits in just under two innings of work. Tyler Jay pitched 1 2/3 innings of scoreless ball. He was followed by Dusten Knight who tossed two scoreless frames with a pair of strikeouts. Sam Clay took the loss but it was more to do with the runner starting on second base in extra innings. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 1, Charlotte 2 (10 Innings) Box Score Royce Lewis helped to get things going in the first inning. With one out, he walked and then stole second, which one was of two steals on the day. Trevor Larnach advanced Lewis to third before Jose Miranda drove him in with an RBI-single. Bailey Ober was the story of this game as he dominated on the mound. In six innings of work, he scattered four hits and allowed one unearned run. He struck out 11 and walked only one. Calvin Faucher took over for Ober and was just as good. He struck out four in two innings and limited the Stone Crabs to one hit. Calvin Faucher pitched two scoreless frames and limited Charlotte to one hit while striking out four. Alex Phillips took the loss. He allowed the runner to score from second base in extra innings. However, he struck out four in 1 2/3 innings of work. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 2, Wisconsin 4 (6 Innings- Rain Shortened) Box Score After trailing 2-0, the Kernels scored a pair of runs in the top of the sixth to tie the game. Joe Cronin walked before a Michael Davis singled moved him into scoring position. Gilberto Celestino plated a run with a line-drive single to cut the score to 2-1. DaShawn Keirsey singled to tie the game, but that’s when the scoring stopped for Cedar Rapids. Josh Winder started for the Kernels and pitched five innings. He allowed two runs on five hits while striking out five and walking three. Joe Record was saddled with the loss after he surrendered two unearned runs in less than an inning of work. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY TD Pitcher of the Day- Bailey Ober, Fort Myers (6.0 IP, 0 ER, 4 H, 11 K, 1 BB) TD Hitter of the Day- Aaron Whitefield, Fort Myers (2-for-4, 2 2B) PROSPECT SUMMARY Here’s a look at how the Twins Daily Top 20 Twins Prospects performed: #1 - Royce Lewis (Ft. Myers) - 0-3, BB, K #2 - Alex Kirilloff (Pensacola) - Injured List #3 - Brusdar Graterol (Pensacola) - No Game #4 - Trevor Larnach (Ft. Myers) – 0-4, BB, 3K #5 - Wander Javier (EST) - No Game #6 - Brent Rooker (Rochester) - 0-4, 2 K #7 - Jhoan Duran (Ft. Myers) – Did not pitch #8 - Lewis Thorpe (Rochester) - Did not pitch #9 - Blayne Enlow (Cedar Rapids) – Did not pitch #10 - Akil Baddoo (Ft. Myers) – 0-for-4, BB, K #11 - Nick Gordon (Rochester) - Injured List #12 - Stephen Gonsalves (Rochester) - Injured List #13 - Ryan Jeffers (Ft. Myers) – 0-4 #14 - Ben Rortvedt (Ft. Myers) - 0-4, K #15 - Yunior Severino (Cedar Rapids) – Did not play #16 - Gilberto Celestino (Cedar Rapids) – 1-3, RBI, 2 K #17 - Zack Littell (Rochester) – 4.1 IP, 5 ER, 7 H, 2 K, 2 BB #18 - LaMonte Wade (Rochester) – 0-3, BB, K #19 - Jorge Alcala (Pensacola) – Did not play #20 - Jose Miranda (Ft. Myers) – 2-5, RBI, K MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Syracuse (5:35 CST) – LHP Justin Nicolino (0-0, 0.00 ERA) Pensacola @ Mobile (6:35 CST) – RHP Sean Poppen (0-0, 0.00 ERA) Fort Myers vs. Dunedin (5:30 CST) – LHP Charlie Barnes (0-0, 0.00 ERA) Cedar Rapids vs. Kane County (6:35 CST) – RHP Andrew Cabezas (0-0, 0.00 ERA) Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Sunday’s games. Click here to view the article

My father is awful with money and therefore, I was awful with money... until I landed flat on my ass at age 30. Since then, I’ve been a pretty good saver. The savings themselves wax and wane based on what I’m paying off so my savings account may not look great at times but it means I threw a chunk of money at something recently.

Cave? I have my doubts, you need 4 OF. And Marwin and Astudillo are not OF. Can Garver play the OF?

Nobody should have to earn a correct call. Automated pitch calling is currently at or above the level of humans and will improve. It's time to take action to install that.

Agreed. I was hoping that the Twins could at least scratch out a 2-3 record vs the Phillies and Mets. Tall task going up against Thor and deGrom. Hopefully they can get one.

Will be interesting to see where Moya goes when off the IL. Could Vasquez be surpassing him as the next lefty called up to the big club this year? Great starts by Jax and Ober, really great start by Ober with 11 K's in 6 shutout innings. I see elsewhere that Sano is nearing his rehab assignment. Expect it will start with a couple EST games before sliding over for a few games with the Miracle. I see the Blue Wahoos (gonna have to get used to that name) have a 5 game homestand against Mobile from the 20th (a week from Saturday) thru the 24th. Will be real surprised if he isn't in that series as the weather in upstate New York can still be questionable at that time. Also would be real nice to have a player with Sano's status getting into a couple games for a club new to the organization. Could then either move on to the Twins or to Rochester on the 25th...who will then be at home versus Pawtuckett. Looks like he should be back by May 1. Will be curious what move the Twins make to open a spot for him.

Thanks for calling out Marwin. Some of his at bats have been downright ugly. I know it's early and one good game can change a players stats significantly but right now he is black hole for us. I would rather see Austudillo playing third as he doesn't seem to be as affected by cold weather. Maybe let Marwin handle pinch hit duties until the weather warms up. I wonder if if Rocco corrects course or just shows faith in the veteran. At any rate he is making me wish we had Sano back at third.

Wasn't a fan of the Marwin signing and still aren't. Would rather see Astudillo getting those reps at 3B, Austin getting them at 1B and Cave getting them in the OF. The Marwin signing hurt this team more than it helped it. Now Baldelli feels the need to use him and the youngsters that we already had to cover those spots get pushed back, or even worse in Austin's case get DFA'd.

First at-bat was ugly, with a first pitch pop out to the catcher on a slider in the zone with a runner on first and no outs. His second at-bat was good, stayed away from balls off the plate and stung a line drive 400 ft to center for an out. He did foul another slider in the zone though, so he probably needs to learn to spit on that pitch in hitter's counts. I didn't see the final at-bat but the play-by-play report looks decent.

LOL

Eflin was helped a lot today by Twins swinging at pitches out of the strike zone. There was one Adrianza at bat where Elfin threw him 8 straight balls. He could have walked twice! I laughed when Adrianza singled at the end of the at bat.

Twins have matchups against de Grom and Syndegaard the next two games. Shoulda grabbed this game and ran. Instead they rolled over. Berrios deserved better. If the Twins can't hit Zach Eflin, it's gonna be a long 2 games in New York to start the week.

I will respectfully disagree... He also found out in the morning that he was going to start yesterday instead of a couple of days later... Nothing to see here.

Yes, although it is out of date. There was a documentary made some years ago concerning the next stage, which I believe is our Willians's lineage. You may remember seeing footage of him flying around the bases that one time last year.

I'm not sure their opinion changed....but maybe it did. But plenty of sites have had him ranked as a likely RP all along....