Bob Sacamento

No question, the Twins need a new minor league pitching coordinator with the new regime. Eric Rasmussen is too much like the old boys in charge. In that same breath Cliburn needs shown the door as well

Yes, high octane fastball that sits 97-98 comfortably into the 4th/5th with life along with a slider that's 87-89 with sharp break. He still has to work on his curve and develop a changeup along with his overall command. Definitely alot to like about the kid. He is a max effort guy like alot od the kids are nowadays, just to give you an idea his warmup pitches are 94-96.

Brusdar Graterol called up to Etown

If you believe Flash Jr is average to maybe slightly above average defensive SS (like I do), then Gordon should solve a long term problem at SS and be a top of the order hitter for years to come. Gray has electric stuff but his health history scares me. But acquiring young cost controlled pitching is what the Twins should be doing now and/or in the offseason as the 2018 Free Agent SP market is very thin on difference makers. I'd much rather deal some of my lower level minor leaguers (Kiriloff, Wander, Diaz, Blankenhorn) it's just not going to garner as much as Gordon., Still I had heard that Beane was wanting a high level CF in return for Gray.

Tempered expectations is what I'm going for, the team has been extremely lucky to this point and the Indians have been extremely unlucky, but law of averages evens out over a large enough sample size which does not bode well for Twins Nation. But yeah well the good thing is the front office cares very much about odds and probabilities thus not likely mortgaging the future of 2018/2019/2020 for sliver of possibility in 2017. Gladly the fans are not running the organization.

Before last year's 2016 Rangers, there were only four teams with a negative run differential to ever make the playoffs and yes the 1987 Twins are the only team with a negative run differential to ever win it all: 2007 Arizona Diamondbacks Record: 90-72 Run Differential: -22 Pythagorean W-L: 79-83 Finish: Lost in NLCS 1997 San Francisco Giants Record: 90-72 Run Differential: -9 Pythagorean W-L: 80-82 Finish: Lost in NLDS 1987 Minnesota Twins Record: 85-77 Run Differential: -20 Pythagorean W-L: 79-83 Finish: Won World Series 1984 Kansas City Royals Record: 84-78 Run Differential: -13 Pythagorean W-L: 79-83 Finish: Lost in ALCS

By no means is run differential the be all end all but it sure is a great predictor of even making the playoffs, Twins are at -66 the Indians are at +85. Anytime you can score more runs than what you give up to your opponent is a good thing. In the past five years, there is only one team that has had a negative run differential that has made the playoffs. That team being the 2016 Texas Rangers who overshot their Pythagorean record by a record of +13 meaning they got lucky very very lucky as no team in the past 40 years has a +13 PythaLuck score or higher. Right now the Twins are +6 on their PythaLuck score while the Indians are -5 on the Luck score. Just stating the obvious that at this point the Twins are just tilting at windmills. 2016 Cubs +270 WS Winner Indians +113 WS Blue Jays +104 ALCS Dodgers +68 NLCS Rangers -4 ALDS Red Sox +176 ALDS Giants +83 NLDS Nationals +156 NLDS Orioles +26 Wildcard Mets +51 Wildcard 2015 Cubs +81 NLDS Pirates +101 Wildcard Yankees +66 Wildcard Mets +70 WS Dodgers +72 NLDS Astros +111 ALCS Cardinals +122 NLDS Rangers +18 ALDS Blue Jays +221 ALCS Royals + 83 WS Winner 2014 Athletics, +157 -- Wild Card Angels, +143 -- Division Series Nationals, +131 -- Division Series Orioles, +112 -- League Championship Series Dodgers, +101 -- Division Series Tigers, + 52 -- Division Series Pirates, + 51 -- Wild Card Giants, + 51 -- WON WORLD SERIES Royals, + 27 -- World Series Cardinals, + 16 -- League Championship Series 2013 Red Sox, +197 -- WON WORLD SERIES Cardinals, +187 -- World Series Tigers, +172 -- League Championship Series Athletics, +142-- Division Series Braves, +140-- Division Series Reds, +109 -- Wild Card Indians, + 83 -- Wild Card Dodgers, + 67 -- League Championship Series Pirates, + 57 -- Division Series Rays, + 54 -- Division Series 2012 Nationals, +137 -- Division Series Yankees, +136 -- League Championship Series Cardinals, +117 -- League Championship Series Rangers, +101 -- Wild Card Braves, +100 -- Wild Card Athletics, + 99 -- Division Series Reds, + 81 -- Division Series Giants, + 69 -- WON WORLD SERIES Tigers, + 56 -- World Series Orioles, + 7 -- Division Series And here's how the run differential leader fared in the decade prior to that: 2011 Yankees, +210 -- Division Series 2010 Yankees, +166 -- League Championship Series 2009 Yankees, +190 -- WON WORLD SERIES 2008 Cubs, +170 -- Division Series 2007 Red Sox, +206 -- WON WORLD SERIES 2006 Yankees, +163 -- Division Series 2005 Cardinals, +171 -- League Championship Series 2004 Cardinals, +196 -- World Series 2003 Braves, +167 -- Division Series 2002 Angels, +207 -- WON WORLD SERIES

No the issue is that the Twins have a -66 run differential this season meaning teams have outscored them by 66 runs this season. I don't know about you but when I go gambling, I like to go in knowing what my chances are of actually winning. The Twins need to be thinking the same way too. They have a 10.6% chance of making the playoffs as one of the two wildcard teams and a 2.6% chance of winning the division. Want to know the other teams with a worse run differential than the Twins? Orioles (-71), Athletics (-72), Phils (-77), Reds (-80), Blue Jays (-90), Giants (-114), Padres (-132). Not exactly good company.

Well it sure as hell didn't help as the 2015 team didn't make it to the playoffs and Jepsen was so horrible that he got cut halfway through 2016 on a horrible team. I'd still rather have six cost controlled years of a swing man than what the Twins got out of Jepsen.

I think the same thing was said about that Kevin Jepsen deal a couple of years ago and now Hu is on the 40 man roster for Tampa and part of their future.

To save owners from themselves or at least that is the only rationale I can come up with. Once MLB let's draft pick trades happen there will be clubs that trade a full season of draft picks for current MLB talent. Only positive of this trade, my twitter and youtube page getting action with all the video I've taken of Ynoa over the years.

But would you trade your 2018 2nd round pick for him? So wish baseball allowed draft pick trades ahead of time.

We're talking about the same kid who had tommy john surgery and the Braves didn't like his medical report since then. I'd be more worried about that if I was a Twins' fan.

The Twins are more than one backend starting pitcher away from contending for a playoff spot in 2017, mathematically speaking the Twins have a little over 10% chance of making the playoffs and about a 3% chance of winning the division. Granted Ynoa is not Romero, Gonsalves, etc at this point but yes he is a recently turned 19 year old and is in short season A ball, he also has all the talent to stay a starter. He signed for 800K as a 16 year old, if you want a translation or conversion think of it as a draft pick, you'd trade your 2nd round pick in the draft for 2 months of Jaime Garcia? Personally, I wouldn't.

No one going to mention what the hell happened in High A? How the hell does a manager get ejected before the game?? Then the hitting coach turned manager gets tossed leaving the pitching coach as the defacto manager? Just insane, who's next after the pitching coach in the active manager hierarchy? The bat boy? The PA announcer? One of the players?

Akil Baddoo is pronounced Akeel Bah - Do

At the GCL game 1 on Saturday, Glen threw maybe 10 pitches, and was extremely economically so much so that I only got video of one at bat. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMgbg3rw-IM Daniel Palka was also in the lineup drawing a walk and driving the ball well, he shouldn't be here much longer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IutKd3w_fvk Royce Lewis at the plate and drawing the pitcher's interest at first base https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Chl23GgzMMo But the story of the day was 18 year old RHP Brusdar Graterol. Brus's fastball was 97-100 mph, the earlier in the game he was sitting 98-99mph but his fourth and fifth inning he was down to 97mph. Recently the Twins have started to use Trackman on the field for the GCL games (last two weeks), so when I say Graterol hit 100 it was a legit 100.2 mph and his average spin rate on his fastball was 2200 rpm. The fastball has arm side run with late life so it's not a flat straight fastball. The slider wasn't too shabby either hitting 87-89 mph with hard bite. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SHlx5KBpysw

There is an "allowable variation" of the specs not only in MLB which has led to the several studies on MLB balls) but even more so between MiLB to MLB. MiLB balls are made in China while the ROMLB are made in Costa Rica.

You don't check here often enough then I literally just posted within the week videos of him throwing since being drafted. Vasquez pitches off his breaking balls (2 "different" sliders - one looks like a curve and the other a soft slider) instead of his fastball. He's maybe 30-40% FB for his pitch percentage. It's the model, thanks to trackman etc, that many pitchers are going towards of throwing your best pitch more often than your fastball.

I talked to Blayne about his time table last week and he said he is building arm strength back up after a long layoff and is expected to get some game action in another week or two.

Romero had knee surgery as well after his Tommy John, so that pushed him back even further. To start 2016, Romero was throwing at the end of spring training/beginning of extended spring training ball but no more than 20-30 pitches per outing for a long period before joining up with Cedar Rapids at the end of May. He was hitting 98 mph back then but was on a strict pitch count much as he has been since then. The goal is still building back up arm strength, El Toro has logged 100 pitches once this year (and once since coming back from TJ), although he does have 8 starts of 90 or more pitches.

Even though the GCL game only lasted 2 batters, Graterol hit 97-99 mph with his fastball. Carlos Suniaga is slated for one of the games today. Daniel Palka was also dressed and in the lineup for the game that never happened.

Rare Monday Backfield notes today, (I took the morning off from my bday partying the night before) Brusdar Graterol started the GCL game but only made it two batters in before the game was delayed an hour due to lightning strikes in the area. An hour later, the umps came out and called the game due to lightning and impending weather although the Miracles game across the street continued on throughout without any delay. Port Charlotte's coach was not too happy. Graterol only threw a few pitches but his fastball was 97-99 mph, I also got to meet his girlfriend and his agent today. His slated opponent was to be rehabber and talk of TD forums all winter RHP Jose De Leon. In the lineup today for the GCL Twins was rehabber Daniel Palka. On the bench, OF Lean Marrero is slated for surgery on his hamate bone and will be out until Instructional ball.

Lefty Petru Balan with the start today for GCL Twins

Well Topps does have it available where you can make your own custom cards, unfortunately the 1960 regular card is not an option. I actually have played around with the idea of making a GCL set or two and getting the guys to sign them as I have portrait pics of pretty much all of t hem, I know they'd love it but it's actually more coin than what one would think unless it's mass ordered.