Class AAA Rochester needs a spot starter. Danny Graves needs to face as many hitters as possible.

So Graves will start tonight for Rochester against Buffalo and probably throw three innings, if he’s effective.  He’s a reliever, but it’s a good way for him to face a lot of hitters and be evaluated. Graves, 34, signed with the Twins just before the minor league season began and has pitched at Class A Fort Myers and Class AA New Britain.

My intuition tells me that Graves could become an option to be called up if he pitches well. His fastball is coming in around 87-88 miles an hour but the Twins say it’s got good movement. You might want to keep an eye on the Rochester box score tonight.

Couple other notes:

Jim Rantz, the Twins director of minor leagues, just pulled into Beloit to watch the Snappers play for a few days. Ben Revere, who was named Twins minor league player of the week yesterday, has an 11-game hitting streak.

For those of you who like to keep up with such things, the Twins’ 40-man roster currently sits at 38, with the ability to go to 37 if they move Pat Neshek to the 60-day disabled list. They would have room to add Graves, Kevin Mulvey, Tim Lahey, or anyone they want to.

Update: Graves have thrown three perfect innings, striking out two. Here’s the link.

This entry was posted on Monday, May 12th, 2008 at 2:28 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.