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It's a night later than normal, but this week's Seth's Twins On Deck Podcast was a lot of fun, with five really strong guests. Starting at 8:00 central time, you can listen live to Episode 8. Of course, if that time doesn't work for you, feel free to download it at the same link after the show's completion. You can also find it on iTunes by searching "Minnesota Sports Weekly."First on the show tonight was the first overall pick of the 2017 draft, Royce Lewis. The infielder was fantastic as always, talking about his offseason, camaraderie with teammates at the academy in Ft. Myers and much more. Lewis was followed by former Twins prospect and current Miracle hitting coach Steve Singleton. We discussed his playing career and transitioning into coach. We also talked about the collaboration between hitting coaches at all levels of the system. Also, how tough can the Florida State League be? Prospect Trey Cabbage, who ended 2017 with the Kernels, batted third in our show lineup. We'll discuss his high school days, the transition to the pro game and his 2017 season. Also look ahead to his 2018. Infielder Sean Miller found out in January that he was heading to big league camp. He's been working out with the big leaguers as an additional non-roster invitee. He's played in pretty much all of the Twins games so far. We'll discuss his time in the Arizona Fall League, big league camp and look ahead to 2018. Finally, former Gopher and Twins prospect AJ Pettersen came on to talk about a variety of topics his playing days for the Gophers, in the Twins system and transitioning to his coaching career at Chanhassen High School. Find out what else he's up to post playing career. It was a super fun show, (Listen Here). Thank you to the guests and everyone else for listening. Click here to view the article

Hopefully this story can bring you a little cheer for the holiday season, baseball season is right around the corner, hang in there! While we all expected Miguel Sano to debut last season, we are still waiting to see him at Target Field. Having played with him for about 250 games, I have seen him do some incredible things. Here is why I am excited to see him in a Twins uniform and also why I think you will love watching him play in Minneapolis for many years.This is a two-part story and it is probably my favorite memory from my time playing with Sano. It started in Fort Myers playing the St. Louis Cardinals' High-A affiliate, Palm Beach. We were down a couple of runs late in the game when Sano came up with the bases loaded. With a penchant for dramatic situations, he promptly launched a grand slam deep into the Florida night off of this lanky, slinging righty. He probably stood at home plate a little too long and neither the pitcher, nor the opposing pitching coach, liked that very much. They exchanged words as he crossed home and later as he trotted out to the field the next inning. Things settled and the event ended without anything further. We all had thought it was over. Fast forward two weeks and we were in Palm Beach playing the Cardinals at their place. We had a big lead early in the game and the lanky, slinging righty came out of the pen for some mop-up innings. Sano was the first batter he faced. All of us had forgotten what had happened a couple of weeks prior, except the pitcher, pitching coach… and of course, Sano. The pitcher proceeded to throw the first pitch right at his head, missing only slightly. Throwing at one of our top prospects wasn’t OK, so some choice words were exchanged between dugouts and the field. Sano stepped out calmly, stared down the pitching coach and the pitcher and stepped back in. When the count got to 3-1, the lanky righty threw a meatball and Sano angrily launched a towering blast to left center, spiked his bat, stood at home, and screamed a mix of expletives in English and in Spanish before walking towards first base. He was immediately ejected, which made Doug Mientkiewicz explode from his third base coach’s box. The picture that is seared into my memory is Sano coming around third, a look of anger mixed with a smirk, as Doug is being ejected just inside the foul line. I have never seen someone hit home runs on command like Miguel does. That memory is one of many reasons I am excited to see Sano in Minneapolis. Not only is he a bubbly personality and a genuinely nice guy, he cares and he will bring a ton of excitement to the Twins, I know you will agree when you get the chance to see him play next summer. I promise you won’t be disappointed -- he is worth the wait. I wrote an article for the Prospect Handbook with a few lasting memories and lessons learned through my time in pro ball, it is being released soon, so check it out when it is! More information will be available later this week here at Twins Daily. Read AJ's new blog at Re/Max. Click here to view the article

What is life like on the bus and trying to make it on a minor league paycheck? On this week's No Juice Podcast Dan Anderson and Parker Hageman talk with former Twins' farmhand AJ Pettersen on his experience in the bus leagues. Pettersen peels back the curtain on minor league life. He teaches us all how to survive on $5 a day. Listen up.Listen below, on iTunes or on Stitcher: NO JUICE PODCAST, EPISODE #44: MINOR LEAGUE LIFE WITH AJ PETTERSEN Click here to view the article

I wrote this article a while back, but hadn’t edited it until now. I hope you enjoy the update and a glimpse into the wonderful world of Minnesota Town Ball Baseball. When I was younger, we loved the rain. A storm would come in and my brothers and I would run outside while my dad grabbed the wiffleball and bat. Something about the water pouring down made it a little bit more exciting.Now I sit in the Minnetonka High School parking lot, waiting to play. Rain drops fall on the windshield as I check the radar, but today feels different than the last time rain threatened a game of mine. And it's different than the one before that. Rain is a minor leaguer’s best friend, it offers hope of an extra day off, but I don’t want tonight off. I'm slated to start at shortstop for the Hopkins Berries, a town ball team in the Riverview League. Tonight we face the Minnetonka Millers, the perennial best team in the state. I feel different than I usually feel. I want to play tonight. I don’t care if it’s in the rain, I want to play. This is the exact feeling I was searching for when I signed up to play with a couple of friends. Welcome back, baseball. You have my attention. Town ball has been an integral part of Minnesota for a long time. Teams in cities large and small form to play in front of hometown crowds on cool summer nights. On any given evening you can find a game in places like Dundas, New Ulm and Saint Louis Park. Young kids and, often, grown men, face up against each other for the love of the game. No one is being paid, there is no hope of reaching a higher level, no call-ups or demotions, just pure, unadulterated baseball. Just what I was looking for. My team meets about 45 minutes before games. We chat about the week, take a few swings in the cage, do a little stretching, play catch and take the field. No pressure, just baseball. Sometime during my career, I lost love for playing in the rain, literally and figuratively. I sought to escape the difficult parts of the season. I hoped for washed out games to help me physically escape from the park. Instead of being in a tough time, instead of standing in it and being OK, I sought to run away. Now I want to stand in the rain, I want to get back to being a part of the game I love, every part of it. The game starts a little late and I step into the batter’s box in the first inning. The same box I stepped into for the first time seven years earlier as a high school senior. My soul finds its home in this space. A slight drizzle continues to fall and I am taken back to my childhood. I look toward the mound and feel no pressure, no worry about the future or the past, only focused on this moment. All I need to do is be. To be right here where I am, doing what I love. The pitcher winds and delivers the pitch and I am home again. Twins (finally) beat the A's on Sunday so on Monday you can get 50% off a large or extra-large pizza by using the promo code 'twinswin' at PapaJohns.com. Click here to view the article

Things were pretty tough in the Twins farm system on Wednesday night. However, on Thursday, there were plenty of highlights for each of the four Twins affiliates. There were several great pitching performances. There were a lot of really strong hitting performances with multiple multi-hit games and some big home runs. One team ended one long streak, and another hopes to have started another long streak. A couple of bullpen arms continued their early-season dominance. One pitcher threw six one-hit innings. Another pitcher had a no-hitter through four innings. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Drew Leachman was removed from the Cedar Rapids Disabled List and returned to their lineup. Matt Tomshaw was put on the 7-Day DL for the Kernels. Josue Montanez was sent back to Extended Spring Training. Oh, and it has been verified that J. O. Berrios has been added to the Kernels roster. The Twins had an off day and flew to Chicago to start a weekend series. There is a lot of information today, plenty for those Adopt-A-Prospect forums! Rochester Red Wings 5, Scranton/Wilkes-Barre 4 Box Score It has been a rough and disappointing start to the season for the Rochester Red Wings. Coming into the game, the team was 2-11 and had lost seven straight games. The offense had also not scored a run in 20 innings. The Red Wings got things going in the first inning and were able to hang on for the win. In the first inning, Eric Farris led off with a single. Chris Herrmann scored him on an opposite field double. Clete Thomas singled in Herrmann. Then Chris Colabello launched a towering, two-run blast, his fifth homer of the season. It gave the Red Wings a 4-0 lead before there was an out recorded. In the third inning, Chris Herrmann scored on a fielder’s choice by Colabello for the final run of the game for the Wings. Of course, the offense pretty much stopped after the first four batters. They had just two more hits the rest of the game. Herrmann was 2-3 with a walk and a double. Even Bigley, in his first game back with the Red Wings, went 1-2 with a walk. Virgil Vasquez started and went the first five innings. He gave up two runs (1 earned) on six hits. He walked two and struck out three. Daniel Turpen gave up three hits over the next 1.2 innings while striking out two. Tyler Robertson came on with runners on and two outs in the 7th. He notched a big strikeout. Luis Perdomo got his first save of the year. He went the final two innings, giving up two solo home runs, but got the final out of the Red Wings third win. New Britain Rock Cats 17, Portland Sea Dogs 1 Box Score The goal of any baseball team in any baseball game is to get some runs to support good pitching. Well, in this game, the offense was a bit extreme, and that’s a good thing, but it shouldn’t hide some pretty solid pitching too. 17 runs. 21 hits. 7 walks. The Rock Cats offense came to play. Antoan Richardson went 4-6 with a walk, his second double and his seventh stolen base. James Beresford went 3-3 with three walks and his, you guessed it, third stolen base. Curt Smith went 3-5 with his third double and first home run. Josmil Pinto went 3-6. Reynaldo Rodriguez walked and hit his fourth and fifth doubles. Danny Ortiz went 2-6 with his sixth double. Jhon Goncalves went 2-6 with his first double. All nine Rock Cats batters had at least one hit. Alex Meyer was a little wild but very effective. The lanky righty went the first six innings without giving up a run. He yielded up one hit, walked four and struck out five. Edgar Ibarra came on and worked the 7th and 8th innings. He gave up one run on two hits and two walks. Bobby Lanigan pitched a 1, 2, 3 ninth inning. Ft. Myers Miracle 11, St. Lucie Mets 8 Box Score After starting the season with 12 straight wins, the Miracle finally took their first loss of the 2013 season on Wednesday night. On Thursday, they traveled across the state to play the St. Lucie Mets looking to start a new streak. Thanks to their bats and tremendous bullpen work, the Miracle improved to 13-1 on the season. Things started out well for the Miracle. In the top of the first, AJ Pettersen led off with a double. He came around to score on Miguel Sano’s fifth home run of the year. Pettersen led the offense with three hits. He was 3-5 with his third double and his second stolen base. Sano was 2-4 with a walk and three RBI. Kyle Knudson went 2-5 with his second double. Down 7-6 in the 7th, Kennys Vargas knocked a two-run double to give the Miracle the lead and they didn’t look back. Vargas was 2-4 and the double was his fourth. Lance Ray went 2-3 with two walks and his third double. Madison Boer started and gave up seven runs on six hits and four walks in 2.1 innings. He struck out two. Nelvin Fuentes came on and gave up a run on two hits and a walk in 2.2 innings. He struck out three. Then in the fifth inning the dominant bullpen came in. Ryan O’Rourke has been the guy to come on in close games, often to see the Miracle take the lead. Reflecting this, O’Rourke's record improved to 4-0. He pitched two innings and struck out one. Zack Jones came on and recorded his fifth save by working the final two innings. He walked one and struck out three. Early in the season O’Rourke has pitched nine innings and given up no runs on two hits and a walk while striking out seven. Jones has thrown eight shutout innings. He has allowed one hit, walked two and struck out ten. Cedar Rapids Kernels 4, Peoria Chiefs 13 Box Score Things started out so well for the Kernels on this night, but it didn’t take long for things to completely turn around. The Kernels took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an Adam Walker RBI single. In the second, a Tyler Grimes triple was followed by JD Williams’ first home run of the year. Taylor Rogers started and through four innings he had given up no hits. However, things went sour in the fifth inning. Rogers gave up eight earned runs on seven hits and two walks in 4.1 innings. Manuel Soliman was called on and was hit for five runs (2 earned) on four hits and two walks. Chris Mazza came on and gave up two runs and struck out two in 2.1 scoreless innings. Byron Buxton went 2-4 with a walk and his fifth stolen base. Niko Goodrum went 2-4 with a walk and his fourth double. Dalton Hicks and Adam Walker were each 2-5 with an RBI. Please feel free to comment or ask questions below. View full article

The Twins had their first scheduled off-day of the season on Thursday. They were in Minnesota watching the snow fall. As they look forward to a weekend, interleague series against the New York Mets, the forecast is for snow to fall in Minneapolis throughout the day on Friday. Hopefully they will be able to get some games in. Inclement weather caused the Cedar Rapids Kernels to postpone a game for the third straight night. Three affiliates did play last night. Kyle Gibson was on the mound for the Red Wings and Oswaldo Arcia had a couple more hits. Josmil Pinto reclaimed the organization’s early home run lead. And, one of Twins Daily’s own had a big game for Ft. Myers. Find out if the Miracle were able to remain perfect on the season. All of that and more are below in today’s Twins Minor League Report.[PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] If you’d like to hear some discussion on the Mets and Twins, I was on the MetsMusings.com podcast last night. Listen here. Rochester Red Wings 4, Pawtucket Red Sox 5 Box Score Kyle Gibson got off to a good start on Thursday night. The right-hander had a 1-2-3 first inning that included strikeouts of Jose Iglesius and a rehabbing David Ortiz. However, in the third inning, Iglesius hit a two-run homer to left field. In the fifth inning, Ortiz singled in a run and another run scored on a double before Gibson was replaced by Caleb Thielbar who allowed one of his inherited runners to score. In all, Gibson gave up five runs on either hits. In 4.1 innings, he gave up one walk and struckout six. Thielbar struckout three in 1.2 innings. Michael O’Connor gave up one hit in 1.1 scoreless innings. Luis Perdomo struckout both batters he faced. Oswaldo Arcia continues his torrid start. He went 2-4 and knocked his third home run of the young season. Mark Sobolewski hit his first home run. The two accounted for three of the team’s five hits in the game. Ortiz went 2-3 in his first rehab appearance. Shairon Martis will start for the Red Wings against Pawtucket tonight. New Britain Rock Cats 3, Portland Sea Dogs 9 Box Score Pat Dean struggled again in his second outing of the season. The lefty from Connecticut gave up five runs (2 earned) on seven hits and a walk in 3.2 innings. Marty Popham came on and gave up two runs on a hit and three walks in one inning. He did strikeout two. Nelvin Fuentes went the next 2.1 innings. He gave up two runs on four hits and a walk. AJ Achter struckout three in the final two innings. The pitchers were hurt by four errors by their defense. Jason Christian committed two errors at third base, but he did go 2-4 with his first double. Josmil Pinto launched his fourth home run of the year. Alex Meyer is scheduled to pitch for the Rock Cats against Portland on Friday. Ft. Myers Miracle 6, Jupiter Hammerheads 5 Box Score In a lineup that includes Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario, on Thursday night, it was Twins Daily and Minnesota’s own, AJ Pettersen, who played hero and helped the Miracle improve to 7-0 on the season. Pettersen, batting ninth and playing shortstop, was -3 with a stolen base already when he came up with a runner on in the bottom of the 8th inning. His RBI double gave the Miracle a 6-5 lead. Pettersen is now hitting .353 on the season. Things didn’t start out so well for the Miracle. Jason Wheeler started and gave up five runs on six hits and two walks in just three innings. Chad Rodgers came in and struckout two in two scoreless innings. Ryan O’Rourke went two scoreless innings. Once the Miracle got the lead, Zack Jones was brought in and struckout two in a perfect ninth inning for his third save. O’Rourke, the Vulture, picked up the win to improve to 3-0 out of the bullpen. The big bats at the top of the Miracle batting order contributed as well. Angel Morales was 3-5 with his third double. Eddie Rosario hit his third and fourth doubles in five at bats. He’s now hitting .367. Miguel Sano struckout three times, but when he made contact, he launched a towering home run, his second of the season. He’s hitting .393. Matt Koch was also 2-4. Cedar Rapids Kernels, Clinton LumberKings The Kernels were rained/snowed out for the third straight night on Thursday. After missing the final two games in Wisconsin, the Kernels lost last night’s game to Clinton. The two teams will attempt to play two, seven-inning games on Friday night, starting at 5:00 p.m. View full article