Twins sign Hermsen, plus minor league notes
Posted on August 14th, 2008 – 5:15 PMBy La Velle
The Twins tonight have signed righthander B.J. Hermsen, their sixth round pick in the June draft. There are indications that Hermsen signed for around $600,000, but all a Twins official would tell me was that it was above the league-suggested slot figure.
Hermsen had a scholarship to Oregon State, a very good program, but chose to turn pro. He will head to Fort Myers, Fla. to begin the transition into the pro ranks. He’s not expected to pitch in any games, part of the reason is that Iowa’s baseball season includes the summer. So he just finished his year.
The Twins also signed 14th-round pick Blayne Weller, a righthander from Key West (Fla.) High School.
Was told that the Twins are not trying to sign Joe Loftus before the 11 p.m. deadline Friday night.
Class A Fort Myers Lefthander Tyler Robertson has been shut down for the season because of a tight shoulder. Robertston, who flew to the Twin Cities this week for an examination, will undergo a rehabilitation program that hopefully will loosen the shoulder up.
Fort Myers outfielder Danny Santiesteban is an outfielder no more. He’s being converted to a pitcher. He’s already 88-92 on the gun with a good slider.
The Twins have extended their player development agreement with Class AA New Britain through 2010.
Alejandro Machado is batting .360 at Class AAA Rochester but his arm is not strong at all coming off of two shoulder surgeries.
Reported this week that Luke Hughes will play third base at the Arizona Fall League. Was told today that while they do want him to play third, he may wind up in winter ball.
50 Responses to "Twins sign Hermsen, plus minor league notes"
Hopefully Machado can build some arm strength over the winter.
Interesting on Santiesteban. Great athlete, it just didn’t really come together. Great competitor though, this could be good with an offseason to really work on becoming a pitcher. They have used him in 3-4 games already and he’s done well.
Bj Hermsen will sign with the Twins tonight.Rumor in town is that it will be $600K plus college money set aside
Kris Sutter
Manchester Iowa
I got confirmation on the Hermson signing.
Thanks for the Hermson update Seth! It’s kind of exciting we got our top 15 signed. Now if only we could get a certain MN third basemen to sign. Oh well…
I have been told to expect at least one more signing yet tonight.
Blayne Weller should probably be next…
Interesting to read the Hughes quasi formal commitment to 3B, given the facts the Valencia (who is the same age with Hughes) is way much better fielder than Hughes at 3B (but at least 2 years away from the bigs) and that with Hughes in 2B for the Twins and Casilla at SS, a whole could have been plugged in the infield… It would be interesting to see what Smith is thinking trying to assemble the ‘09 infield. Clearly with Hughes at 3B, it looks like Casilla is practically stated at 2B and the 2 question marks are (again) SS and 3B. I just hope that the solution results to something better than a Buscher/Hughes platoon at 3rd and Punto/Harris platoon at SS. Frankly, with all the whining that is going on with the Twins’ personnel, for the middle positions that are primarily defensive, the Twins have been fine with Gomez, Everett, Casilla/Punto and Mauer. The offensive production from the 3B and RF has been problematic and I would love to see some moves being made there… And for all the grief I have been giving Gardy since that Yankees series, I think that yesterday’s lineup (with Kubel on RF, Span in CF and Ruiz at DH) is a move in the right direction, but I am digressing 
I expect Casilla to move to SS next season. The Twins have enough depth to fill in around him at 2B and 3B. They have relatively young players with talent: Machado, Hughes, Tolbert, Dinklemann, Tolleson, Valencia, Buscher, Harris. They will add a couple more youngsters to compete. Whoever plays the best, will play the most.
Macri gets another look, also. I may have missed others??????
Craig,
I hear you and there are enough possibilities within this organization to field a perfectly serviceable infield, but this team really needs a power RH bat. From this group, only Hughes might be that and if he lights it up in the AFL, in concert with Young’s and Gomez’ further development the Twins might be ok in that category; but having Hughes at 2nd and adding a veteran RH 3B might be a surer thing. I guess we’ll find out next winter 
thry,
By the way, good call last night.
Hughes has some troubles in the field I hear. I think they see him as a 3B. That’s where he has been playing since he arrived at Rochester. Who knows, of course. They move the players around a lot, position to position. He might end up back at 2B.
Correction: good call Tuesday night.
figured that you meant Tue … my crystal ball says that Delmon will repeat against Mr. Silva and/or Mr Dickey
Seriously, that guy can hit the ball far. Both of the last 3 spots against the Yankees were in the opposite field and the one he hit about a month ago high on those dead CF benches by the fold up seats was the second ball I’ve seen hit there by a Twin (the first one was Chilli’s in ‘91 and I caught it )
Trevor Plouffe, guys. Future shortstop, one year away?
Do the Twins keep Punto around with Harris, Machado, Tolbert around. Is Tommy Watkins done? Is Toby Gardenhire a realistic ultitly infielder?
Tolleson, Dinkelman?
Plouffe is more than one year away (his OPS is .666 this year at AAA) and I am not sure that the Twins are projecting him as a SS anymore (he played 30 games at 3B, 15 at 2B and 5 at SS in Rochester.) Dinkelman might be next year’s Tolbert (he is the elder statesman in Ft. Myers for most of the year at an age where prospect are at AAA) and Tolleson is a much better 2B than a SS. Toby is a realistic utility infielder for the Rock Cats.
SS is deficient through out the organization from the Twins to the 3 rookie leagues; realistically for next year, if Casilla is going to be at second, Harris is probably the best bet for SS
Hermsen is going to sign! Best Draft Ever!
Twins just signed RHP Blayne Weller (14th round pick).
Nohelty next?
No, it’s either Wong or they are done…
Hughes is error prone.
No one has mentioned Steven Tolleson at 2nd baseball at AA…..Having great year.
Don’t read too much into settling into positions. Alexi sent down to AAA this yr to work only at SS but now is the 2nd baseman…….
As for 3B, there’s nothing wrong with having Hughes embrace the position while Valencia is the top prospect there. You have either a safety blanket or a tradable commodity…
Kolten Wong as a catcher or IF? I thought that he was going to sit it out for a year to be picked higher
[…] The Twins had a day off at home on Thursday, probably something they really needed. Tonight, Carlos Silva returns to the Metrodome and will get to face a calmed Francisco Liriano. It should be a fun game to watch. But the six minor league affiliates all played, and here are the game notes from each. Also, LaVelle posted several Minor League notes on his blog. […]
Craig
I’m just glad you didn’t list Punto.
Funny Danny Santiesteban Just hit his 6 Homer after you wrote this?
He’s still going to play some as an outfielder, but he’s transitioning to pitching. Look at the stats.
http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?t=t_ibp&cid=509
It is funny that he goes deep six hours after Jim Rantz tells me he’s going to be a pitcher. But it’s happening.
La Veele
The six homeruns seem to be his only good offensive numbers. Everything else is a bit scary. His pitching numbers are quite a bit more encouraging. I guess, leave it to Jim Rantz.
*Sorry about the misspelling…held the “e” too long.
[…] Originally published by Twins Insider […]
Is Hermsen coming in as a pitcher or position player? He was a super pitcher earlier in high school but he broke his shoulder playing football last year. I don’t know what his velocity is right now?
Good to see that the Twins are signing draft picks (especially a few above “value” even)
Further evidence of a change of perspective? I think so.
T:
What do you think of the White Sox hitting four homers in a row? Think we could do that?
So the Twins big move this time of year to help them in their penant drive is to sign their sixth round draft choice?
Way to go Twins Management! We can see you are always doing what you can to give the fans a real hope of playoff success!
Whatsmore, how do you evaluate a player from Iowa. Its like drafting a hockey prospect who played in the Arkansas High School Club level.
sure allison, mincher, oliva and killer!
Kevin, they tried to get Jarrod Washburn. At least they claimed him off waivers. Why they want a 5-12 starter who makes $14 million, I don’t know, but………..well, I just don’t know.
I think they’ve done a great job with their picks. I would like to see them go after Loftus just a little bit though. Offer him that $600,000 too. I’m guessing he’d want a million though.
I was following the White Sox game on Gamecast. I thought a button was stuck. Homer, Homer, Homer, pitching change, Homer. What the heck ? ? ?
Can’t believe all the 1st round picks that are still unsigned. Obviously I don’t know the details of the negotiations, and a number of them are Boras clients so I can understand the difficulty there maybe, but Baltimore, Washington, the Reds, and the Giants’ 1st round picks are not Boras clients and they can’t get them signed either. How 4 teams as bad as those 4 don’t find a way to get their first rounders signed is unbelievable to me. Can’t believe they weren’t a little more certain about the signability of the guys they drafted. I’m sure most of them will get deals done at the last minute but still….
I can see the Twins front office huddling now.
“What can we do to distract the fan base and tax paying public from our once again inablity and cheapness of making a big move this time of year?”
“I know!” one junior guy says,, “Lets sign the sixth round phenom from Iowa at the same time! That will make them forget all about Santana, Hunter, Ibanez, et al”
I thought the Washburn rumor was a good distraction. He’s from Wisconsin.
Oshkosh B’Gosh.
Wow Kevin I think that’s exactly how the conversation went. Good insight.
What is Harris’s contract situation for next year and beyond? I have no idea what it is. Thanks.
The Washburn claim disturbs me. It screams of wanting “veteran leadership” over going after a good ball player. I’d much rather see Korecky, Duensing, Humber get a chance as a reliever up here than have Washburn here. Frankly, if they were serious about Washburn, I’m scared to see what FAs they’ll pursue next year - I’m tired of the washed up or never was veteran.
glad they signed so many guys this year. I wonder why? Do they feel the farm is that depleted, or is this a fluke year or what?
I saw on ESPN the other night that i believe it was 6 of the top ten picks had not been signed. I think the people who ripped the Twins for drafting players they thought went way to high have to look at this and give them credit for knowing what players they knew they could sign.
Baseball America estimates all but 1 of those will sign today, however, they could be wrong (that was from 2 days ago or so).
And, it isn’t like the Twins picked in the top 10 and had to decide between offering millions in signing bonus or not, the delta between the guys they picked and anyone they passed on was probably a few hundred K.
I think its important to remember that after you get past the first 100 players taken, chances are player will make it to the big leagues are very low. Becoming real contributors is rarer yet. But the more players you sign, the more likely you are to get lucky and find a Kubel or have a guy like Blackburn develop.
What do you think of the White Sox hitting four homers in a row?
It was impressive. Though I was a bit annoyed by the four-peat on the “PUt it on the Board” call.
Think we could do that?
If you consider that one of them was hit by Juan Uribe, how is it any different than if Mauer, Morneau, Kubel, and Young were to go deep in a row?
“I know!” one junior guy says,, “Lets sign the sixth round phenom from Iowa at the same time! That will make them forget all about Santana, Hunter, Ibanez, et al”
Twins never had a shot at Ibanez via waivers. He was claimed by the Tigers who were then unable to work out a deal.
And I don’t think your average Twins fan is going to look at the names in the draft and forget about Santana or Hunter. If they even know baseball has a draft.
I’m glad you pointed that out, T. It seems like most teams are built with players from other organizations who bounced around until they found a fit at a particular level. I would say the baseball draft is really a crapshoot.
