here’s what I found interesting while in a semi-beer induced haze (or is that a beer-induced semi-haze?). All info is from MiLB.com, http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/index.jsp, or links from that website.

The Twins Minor League affiliates are:

I just checked a little for info on the top two leagues – I will leave it for others to dive for info on players from the Twins’ A and Rookie rosters. Looking at their AAA team first,  

Setting aside a 27-year old career minor leaguer, their leading home run producers are David Winfree (9),who is a 24 yo right fielder, an older 3B, and Trevor Plouffe (6), a shortstop.

Plouffe is 23 this year. He’s only hitting .240/.365/.662 (BA/SLG/OPS). He  does not steal a lot and has a 2/1 strike/BB ratio. I couldn’t find any fielding stats, but I’m not feeling the love. What exactly does he bring to the table that Brian Bixler or Don Kelly didn’t bring?

Assuming that we need a ML-ready 2B, Alexi Casilla has been up already this year. He’s 25 and from the DR, which means he may be 28. He’s currently hitting .333 in Rochester but he hit only .180 when he was up with the Twins. He has no power, a 2:1 K/BB ratio (10:1 in the bigs), and again just doesn’t do anything for me.

I suppose we could be going for Denard Span, but he’s 25, a CF, and injured. He does have some thump and has proved himself at the MLB level. I’ll leave the pitching prospects to someone else, but would again add that with Joe Kerrigan as our pitching coach, I believe we get a better analysis of potential trades and better return once we acquire a pitcher.

Looking at the New Britain Rock Cats (the whats?), they have Rene Tosoni, a 23 yo right fielder with 10 homeruns and a .498 slugging percentage.  Their next two home run leaders are both 25, making me wonder if they are simply beating up younger hitters. (Although, it appears that Danny Valencia, a 3B, has been pulled up to the AAA team. A powerful third baseman could be intriguing because I believe that L’il Luigi has played some 2B.

They also have an older (26) 2B who’s hitting for average, but I don’t know if I can root for a guy named Dinkelman. I have images of Principal Skinner from the Simpsons yelling out, “DINKLEMANNNNN!”