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On Monday the Atlanta Braves acquired Brian Matusz from the Baltimore Orioles in exchange for in exchange for a couple minor leaguers. This deal may have seemed odd in the sense that Matusz is ineffective, owed $3.6mil the rest of the season, and the Braves released him immediately. However, under a newer rule, Atlanta was able to acquire a “competitive balance” draft pick in the deal. According to Jeff Passan of Yahoo!™ Sports, the Braves are now in the business of buying draft picks. It is an interesting strategy for a MLB team to take this approach as trading for draft picks until recently has been a non-feature of professional baseball. The 2013 MLB draft was the advent of competitive balance draft picks (CBDPs). And, unlike other draft picks, CBDPs can be traded. In a nutshell, the MLB awards extra draft picks within the top 100 overall selections to teams in the bottom 10 of the league in revenue and market size in addition to any other team that received revenue sharing in the previous year. If you’re an NFL fan, think of them somewhat like compensation picks. The Twins were awarded one CBDP in the upcoming draft, #73 overall. Mike Axisa of CBS Sports wrote an interesting article on potential trade partners for the Braves and their strategy of accumulating draft picks in exchange for cash to bail themselves out of their predicament. Ricky Nolasco is owed $12million in both 2016 and 2017 with a vesting option of $13million for 2018 if he pitches 400+ innings over the previous two years. In short, to state the obvious, this is an awful contract to saddle a team with. Would the Braves (or any other team for that matter) take on that contract in exchange for the 73rd overall pick? As Axisa points out the 73rd pick is worth less than a +2 WAR over six years which isn’t much but it isn’t nothing. On the high side, it would be worth a player who commands about $14million over that time span. You would hope with the added payroll flexibility the Twins would be able to obtain a better return (but the Twins’ use of their payroll money is another blog entirely). Axisa also seems to think the Braves could also flip Nolasco for a couple prospects in the future which would appear to be optimistic unless Nolasco is pitching well in the last year of a deal. One may wonder if the Twins should be using the same philosophy as the Braves. I would argue, current season results aside, the Twins are further along in a rebuild and are more in need of payroll flexibility than draft picks. The Braves were supposed to be awful this season, the Twins were not. However, if the Matusz deal is any indication, it’s going to take a lot more than Nolasco and the pick in exchange for a bag of baseballs to get it done. I would expect the Braves would inquire more into Suzuki ($6mil), Jepsen ($5.3mil), or potentially even Plouffe ($7.2mil but a far more productive player than the others) instead. Obviously, if a deal is to be made, it will have to be done prior to the June draft.

In the minors on Sunday, Twins affiliates saw a solid rehab appearance from starter Ricky Nolasco in Cedar Rapids, and eight dominant innings from a left-hander in Rochester. Multiple games had dramatic finishes, but just one team would bring home a victory. Read on to find out what happened and where!RED WINGS REPORT Syracuse 4, Rochester 6 Box Score Rochester plated four runners in the third inning, and two in the fourth to provide just enough offense for the bullpen in the ninth, after starter Pat Dean had delivered eight dominant innings. Dean allowed just six hits (all singles) and walked two, while striking out seven. He retired the first ten Syracuse hitters, and his lone earned run against came in the fourth inning. Tony Gwynn Jr. singled with one out, moved to second on a walk and was brought home by a Kila Ka'aihue single. Dean struck out the next hitter to end the inning. Rochester's offense brought all nine hitters in the lineup to the plate in the third, resulting in their big inning. Aaron Hicks led off with walk, then stole second base and scored the first run of the game on a Josmil Pinto single. A Brock Peterson single later loaded the bases for Danny Ortiz, whose ground out went 3 to 2 to prevent a run but kept the bases loaded with two outs. Jose Martinez then singled to bring in two runs and chase starter Taylor Jordan from the game. James Beresford brought Ortiz home with the final run of the inning with a double. A Reynaldo Rodriguez triple to left field in the fourth inning scored Hicks and Pinto to provide the needed offense for the ninth, when Stephen Pryor relieved Dean with a 6-1 lead. The first three batters loaded the bases after a double, walk and single. The Red Wings then conceded the run for a double play that made the score 6-2 with two outs and a runner on third. The next hitter, Cutter Dykstra, hit his first home run of the season to make the score 6-4. Rochester went back to the bullpen for closer Michael Tonkin. He struck out the final batter for his fifth save of the year. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 2, Tennessee 5 Box Score The Lookouts scored first and last in this one, but lack of anything in between led to their sixth loss in their last seven games to put them at 7-9 on the season, and in fourth place in the Southern's Leagues North Division. Dalton Hicks hit his second home run of the year in the first inning for the early 1-0 lead, and a ninth inning double from Adam Brett Walker put runners on second and third. A Stephen Wickens ground out then brought in the game's last run. In between, the Lookouts managed just three singles and Tennessee starter Frank Batista retired the last twelve hitters he faced to complete seven innings. Chattanooga starter Tyler Duffey ran into trouble with two outs in the fifth inning and the game tied 1-1. With runners on first and third, four consecutive singles plated runs to put the Smokies up for good 5-1. Adrian Salcedo came on for the sixth inning, and pitched three scoreless innings, allowing just one hit and striking out three to finish the game. MIRACLE MATTERS Palm Beach 4, Fort Myers 2 Box Score Starter Brett Lee came off the disabled list to make his first start of the season for the Miracle, and left the game down 4-0 after five innings. He surrendered the four runs on 11 hits, while striking out four. It was a flurry of singles that caused problems for Lee in the fifth (and all game for the Miracle), when four walks led to three runs on the scoreboard. Dereck Rodriguez made his Florida State League and 2015 season debut when he came on for the sixth inning. He pitched two innings of scoreless ball, allowing one hit and walking two, with two K's. Brandon Peterson allowed two hits while collecting the first two outs of eighth inning, before being replaced by Madison Boer who finished the game with 1.1 scoreless. The Miracle scored both their runs in the sixth, when with two outs a Jason Kanzler single moved Chad Christensen to second. Logan Wade brought him home with a single of his own, and Marcus Knecht followed with a double to bring in Kanzler. The Miracle wouldn't collect another hit until there were two outs in the ninth inning when Mitch Garver singled to center. The next hitter, Bryan Haar flew out to left to end the game. Despite all of the Cardinals hits being singles, the Miracle were outhit 14-7 and fell to 6-12 on the season. Palm Beach got a complete game effort from Jimmy Reed, who improved to 2-0. KERNELS NUGGETS Kane County 3, Cedar Rapids 2 Box Score Cedar Rapids made a late effort to avoid a series sweep, but would left a runner in scoring position in the ninth to be handed a series sweep by rival Kane County. Ricky Nolasco made the start in his first rehab appearance, and was solid in five innings. He allowed just one unearned run on three hits and zero walks. while striking out five. He completed his outing with a 1-2-3 fifth inning, with the final two hitters going down looking. A Tanner English error in center field in the first inning led to the only blemish in the run column. The Kernels tied the game in the fifth, when Nick Gordon brought home English after he had singled and stole second base (his seventh of the year). This tied the game at one and made up for the early misplay. It was then quiet until the seventh inning, when reliever Michael Theofanopoulus ran into some issues. A double from Fernery Ozuna put the Cougars up 2-1, and then two consecutive wild pitches brought him home to make it 3-1. In the ninth inning Cedar Rapids had a chance after English led off the frame with his first home run of the year, making it 3-2. Zach Granite drew a walk and moved to second on a wild-pitch to put the tying run in scoring position, but a Max Murphy ground out ended the game. English and Granite each collected two hits to lead the Cedar Rapids offense, but as a team the Miracle were just 1-11 with runners in scoring position and stranded twelve men on base. TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Pat Dean, Rochester Red Wings (W, 8.0IP, 1 R, 6 H’s, 2 BB, 7 K’s) Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Tanner English, Cedar Rapids Kernels (2-4, 2 R's, HR, RBI, SB) MONDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Columbus @ Rochester (5:35 PM CST) – LHP Taylor Rogers (1-0, 2.37 ERA) Chattanooga @ Tennessee (6:05 PM CST) – RHP J.O. Berrios (1-1, 3.94 ERA) Fort Myers @ Tampa (6:06 PM CST) – LHP Luke Westphal (0-1, 5.40 ERA) Cedar Rapids - Scheduled Day Off. Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Sunday games. Click here to view the article