Notes, quotes and comment

The Tsuyoshi Nishioka farce will continue,  more or less.

Terry Ryan told the beat writers Thursday that Nishioka is staying despite the horror show he put on in Cleveland:

"He had a very difficult game yesterday and we all saw it but the only way to find out how he’ll respond up here is to play him."

Ryan went on to:

• imply that Nishioka's status depends on Trevor Plouffe's availability; Ryan appears inclined to send Plouffe on a rehab assignment before activating him. (This would allow Plouffe to test the thumb under game conditions without restarting the disabled list clock if the thumb needs more time);
• deny that Ron Gardenhire was under orders to play Nishioka;
• insist that Nishioka got the call-up not because the Twins have so much invested in him as because he was the most logical player to fill the spot. (Sean Burroughs and Pedro Florimon were injured, and Eduardo Escobar, acquired in the Francisco Liriano trade, couldn't be recalled because he had been optioned out less than 10 days earlier and there was no injury involved.)

The beat writers have interpreted all this as: Nishioka's on the roster, but only until Plouffe returns, and he's not going to play. We'll see; that phrase about the only way to find out is to play him suggests something different to me. 

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Baseball America has this piece about possible affiliation changes in Triple A, with the Rochester-Minnesota connection prominent.

In a nutshell: The Red Wings like the way the Twins deal with them but isn't happy with the teams they've been given in recent seasons. So they're keeping their options open.

Here's the fear for the Twins: Buffalo (now affiliated with the Mets) is expected to hook up with Toronto (which is now affiliated with Las Vegas). The Mets would doubtless rather shift to Rochester than Las Vegas, which has a number of drawbacks and may be the least attractive of all the Triple A affiliations.

Working in the Twins favor: The reason Buffalo is eager to cut ties with the Mets is that the Mets haven't provided winning teams, so Rochester isn't necessarily improving its chances of having a quality squad by changing affiliates. 

BA figures the Red Wings will stick with the Twins for two more years. And the Mets will wind up with Vegas.