Joe C. and I are at Hammond Stadium on Joe Mauer Watch. We’ll have an update if the Twins officially release an update on the All-Star catcher.

Update: Checked with the Twins, and there’s no update today. I’m not reading anything troublesome into the developement. It’s an off day here. No players, coaches or trainers are here. If it takes one more day - and we can talk to everyone involved and finally write the ending to this mystery - that’s acceptable.

We also shot a new video notebook that’s now on the website.

I did make it over to the minor league camp this morning to talk with Bill Springman, the Twins’ minor league hitting coordinator, for a story I’m working on. While over there, I picked up some notes.

Jim Rantz, the Twins director of minor leagues, told me they have just signed another lefthander, Reid Santos, to be in the mix for a spot at Class AAA Rochester. Boy, are they piling up some unheralded/developing lefties. There’s Santos and Carmen Pignatello and Kyle Aselton and Ben Julianel. Mike Gosling and Sean Henn will end up there. And either Jose Mijares or Brian Duensing will end up there, too. And there’s Ryan Mullins, but he’ll probably begin the season at New Britain. He’s still a starter, for now.

Updates

Rantz had a couple notes from yesterday’s games.

Kevin Slowey looked solid in his outing, but Craig Breslow struck out two in an inning or work and really looked good.

Evan Bigley, part of the Elizabethton bomb squad last season, homered and hit two doubles for Beloit against Greenville.

Joe C. asked to pass this along: He ran into lefthander Tyler Robertson a couple days ago and was told that his offseason shoulder rehab went very well and he’s full-go. Robertson, the Twins’ third-round pick in 2006, should begin the season at Class A Fort Myers.

Observations

I had just finished my interview with Springman when I looked to my left and saw 7-1 Dutch hurler Loek Van Mil -and the 5-3 Chris Cates just five feet away. All these minor leaguers roaming around and I see the tallest and shortest ones virtually next to each other. You can’t make this stuff up.

Van Mil would have been part of the Netherlands team for the World Baseball Classic, but injured his elbow just before the Olympics and has been shut down. The Twins are crossing their fingers that rehab is all he needs.

 “He’s doing well and there are no symptoms of having any elbow problems,” Rantz said. “The test will be when we get him on the mound. He’ll throw a bullpen soon. But we don’t expect him to break with the club.”

But if Van Mil has another elbow problem, he’ll have Tommy John surgery.

Christopher Parmelee, who should be at Class A Fort Myers this year, is one broad-shouldered, powerful-looking young man.

Middle infielder Brian Dinkleman, who should start at Class AA New Britain, is put together pretty well, too. Terry Ryan has identified him as one to watch, and others in the organization feel he has leadership qualities.

Steve Singleton came up to me and introduced himself. “I’ve read your stuff on the Internet,” he said.

I told him I wrote about him in the minor league report last year.

“Yeah that’s how it started,” he said. “My dad read that and told me about it.”

You never know who’s reading…

Finally, an announcement

I regret to inform you that there will NOT be a weekly minor league report in the newspaper this year. There just isn’t any space available to do it the right way.

But there will be a weekly report here. We still trying to figure out the best day to post it. This will allow me more space to write longer on the weeks I have really good stuff. I can also use a week to rank stuff like the top second base prospects. I can check in with people like Springman and talk about hitters. I can bug minor league managers like Stan Cliburn and Jeff Smith.

This could be a good thing. I don’t think I can match the prolific coverage of Seth Stohs, but I won’t be encumbered by a newshole, either. Â

This entry was posted on Thursday, March 19th, 2009 at 9:32 am and is filed under The minors, Uncategorized, preseason. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.