Talking prospects

Tuesday's major league rainout coincided with the arrival of the dead tree edition of Baseball America and its top prospects lists for each minor league.

The list contains some familiar names from the Twins system, and a couple of  intriguing newcomers to prospect lists.

International League: RHP Jose Berrios, No 9. No surprise there. Berrios has clearly emerged as the best pitching prospect in the organization, and one of the offseason storylines figures to be if and how the Twins clear a path to get him into the major league rotation.

Southern League: 3B Miguel Sano (1), CF Byron Buxton (2), OF/1B Max Kepler (6), Berrios (9), MI Jorge Polanco (14). Chattanooga was loaded, especially early in the first half, before Sano, Buxton and Berrios were moved up. These are five guys who've dotted the organization's top ten lists for a while, and the four position players have all gotten at least a cup of coffee in the majors.

Florida State League: Nobody from the Miracle made the FSL top ten, but RHP Kohl Stewart (15), LHP Stephen Gonsalves (16) and SS Engelb Vielma cracked the second ten. Stewart, who was the No. 4 overall pick 2013, hasn't been as dominant in A ball as one might expect. Vielma is the one of those intriguing newcomers cited above; observers rave about his glove, and as was the case last year, he hit better as the year progressed. Hitting is going to be the key for him.

Midwest League: SS Nick Gordon (4), Gonsalves (18). No surprises there, although I would have thought RHP Felix Jorge might have gotten into the top 20.

Appy League: SS Jermaine Palacios (3), 3B Travis Blankenhorn (15), OF LaMonte Wade (17). If you;re going to remember a name from this list, it should be Palacios. Palacios got a bit of attention this summer from BA for his bat, and this write-up quotes an unnamed scout as saying Palacios is "right there with Nick Gordon," the No. 5 overall pick in 2014. A surplus of young quality shortstops is a definite positive, and a real rarity for the Twins.

Gulf Coast League: Palacios (17).

BA also gave writeups to a selection of players who didn't qualify for the league lists and included to a pair of left-handed pitchers in the Twins system, Tyler Jay (the Twins first-round pick in June) and Mat Batts. Jay didn't qualify for a lack of innings (only 16 after he was used hard in college). Batts didn't make the lists because of his lack of velocity, but his other skills are (BS's word) intriguing. He had dominating numbers in the FSL, but the league is very pitcher friendly. We'll see if his skill set passes muster in the higher levels next year.

One starter's as good as the next (corrected)

The Twins rotation has been a shambles all month, and it got a bit more piecemeal Monday when Phil Hughes was sent back to the hotel with a fever and the flu. Tommy Milone started and got 17 outs (and his ninth win).

Milone's ERA stands now at 4.04. The Twins have six pitchers with at least 16 starts and 100 innings this year, and their ERAs are strikingly similar, with Hughes a bit out of step from the rest:

• Kyle Gibson (31 starts, 188.2 innings): 3.96
• Mike Pelfrey (29 starts, 163 innings): 4.09
• Hughes (24 starts, 154.1 innings): 4.43
• Milone (22 starts, 122.2 innings): 4.05
• Trevor May (16 starts, 113 innings): 4.06
• Ervin Santana (16 starts, 101 innings): 4.10

For that matter, Tyler Duffey and Ricky Nolasco have combined for 16 starts (but just 84.1 innings). Their combined ERA: 4.06.

Bryce Harper, Jonathan Paplebon and the Nationals disaster

Bryce Harper (right) is pulled away from Jonathan Papelbon
in the eighth inning Saturday in Washington.

Bryce Harper is 22 and having a monster season for the Washington Nationals. As disappointing as the Nats have been, Harper is the overwhelming favorite for the National League MVP award.

Jonathan Papelbon has been one of the game's better closers for almost a decade. He's prolific enough a saves artist that he harbors ambitions of catching Mariano Rivera's career mark.

Washington has here two giant egos who clearly don't like each other very much. Sunday's dugout scuffle, in which Papelbon grabbed Harper by the throat purportedly because Harper didn't sprint to first base on a popup, was a vivid illustration.

This isn't about how hard Harper ran or about a veteran policing professionalism. This has its roots in (a) the massive disappointment that has been the Nationals in the second half and (b) the Manny Machado incident of a week or so ago, when Papelbon decided to throw at the Orioles star and Harper in the postgame declared. "It's tired. I'm probably going to get drilled tomorrow."

As it turned out, Buck Showalter, the Orioles manager, quashed any notion of immediate revenge-taking (which doesn't mean it won't happen next year). The point is: Harper called out Papelbon for his stupidity, and as Thomas Boswell of the Washington Post says in this piece on the meaning of Sunday;s tussle, "the fuse had been lit to a tinderbox player."

Boswell last year inaccurately derided Harper as the seventh-best player on the Nats. He is no Harper apologist, but the overwhelming consensus appears to be on Harper's side in this dispute.

During the runup to the trade deadline, I floated here the notion of the Twins acquiring Papelbon. That notion was based on a wildly inaccurate reading of Papelbon's motivations and contract, and I am quite pleased two months later that Papelbon isn't in Minnesota.

The Nats probably wish now he wasn't in Washington either, but they're stuck with him for another year, having guaranteed his overpriced option for 2016.

Washington figures to have a lot of roster turnover this winter, including manager Matt Williams. This is one team where the single most important quality of the next manager is going to be his ability to handle giant egos. Baseball history is replete with managers who ran their careers aground on such rocks.

I never thought I'd say this again, but this might be a team that would benefit from having Dusty Baker as its skipper.

Pic of the Week

Mike Trout, Superman

If you were up late enough last night watching the MLB Network -- or perhaps a highlight show -- you saw this play. Mike Trout of the Angels going far over the centerfield fence in Anaheim to take a three-run homer away from Jesus Montero of the Seattle Mariners.

It might be the best defensive play of the season, By anybody.

The catch certainly mattered to the Angels, who won 3-2 in 10 innings (walk-off homer by David Freese). And it mattered to the Twins, who also won Friday night but made no progress in their quest for a wild-card berth. They're still behind the Angels and the Houston Astros (who also won on Friday).

Looking failure in the eye

Glen Perkins after yielding a two-run, go-ahead
home run in the eighth inning Saturday.

Baseball has been called a game of failure. More accurately, it is a zero-sum game: Every win is balanced by a loss. And in baseball, at least at the highest levels, even the best teams lose a lot. The best winning percentage in the American League so far belongs to Kansas City, and the Royals lose 4.2 games of every 10 they play.

So even those who succeed in the majors fail frequently. They strike out, sometimes, with men on base; they give up, sometimes, home runs in tied games.  The image of Kirby Puckett pumping his fist as he runs the bases in Game Six of the 1991 World Series is balanced by the image of Charlie Leibrandt walking off the field covering his mouth with the crook of his elbow.

I thought Friday night of Leibrandt as I watched Glen Perkins squatting next to the mound after giving up a two-run homer to Rajai Davis. I don't know how much, if any, discomfort Perkins has in his troublesome neck and back these days. He obviously believes he's sound enough to pitch. He also realizes that he's been part of the problem the past few months:

Glen Perkins: “It’s beyond frustrating. I’m at a loss of words. It’s disappointing. This whole second half for me has been torture.”

— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) September 26, 2015

More Glen Perkins: "If I pitched the way I know that I can and the way I have, we probably would’ve clinched a playoff spot."

— Rhett Bollinger (@RhettBollinger) September 26, 2015

I can name pitchers  whose careers went downhill fast after high-profile failures. Connecting those dots may be overly simplistic. Maybe Byung-Hyun Kim and Calvin Schiraldi and Salomon Torres weren't ready emotionally for those moments and were stunted by their failure in the spotlight; maybe they were never destined for stardom.

Perkins, at least, has a base of success to fall back on. But it has to be a searing feeling to squat by the mound watching a game and a wild card berth slipping away.

The return of Ricky Nolasco

The Twins are expected to bring veteran (and high-priced) pitcher Ricky Nolasco off the 60-day disabled list today.

He's not likely to pitch many innings in what remains of the season, and what he does pitch probably won't be significant innings. This move isn't so much about trying to reach the postseason as

• rewarding him for rehabbing his midseason surgery diligently enough to be able to pitch this year; 
• establishing that he is indeed sound going into the offseason.

The Twins have some serious sorting to do among their starting candidates this winter. Nolasco, Ervin Santana and Phil Hughes are to get nearly $40 million next year (and the year after that); if healthy and on the roster, they will be in the rotation. None of them were, taking the season as a whole, as effective/helpful as Kyle Gibson and Tommy Milone. That's a full rotation right there, and we haven't accounted for Tyler Duffey, Jose Berrios or Trevor May -- or for the genuine possibility that the fascination with free-agent-to-be Mike Pelfrey has not run its course.

I doubt Nolasco has much trade value right now, and two or three innings of mopup relief in the final 11 games probably won't change that assessment. But knowing that he's sound might make it easier to deal somebody else.

Nolasco is not, as I write this, on the 40-man roster, so even with the expanded active roster somebody has to go to make room, presumably somebody who didn't get a September callup. Eyeballing the roster, my guess is Aaron Thompson will be DFA'd. While I have argued for waiving Oswaldo Arcia, I can't imagine that happened before the organizational meetings.

Notes, quotes and comment

The 2015 Twins are not a particularly outstanding team. Their record (78-73) is too close to .500 for that. But they have a resilience that seems noteworthy.

After they were swept in Saturday's doubleheader, I had (again) essentially written them off as a playoff contender. Three wins-in-a-row later, they are, in the cliche phrase, in control of their own destiny. Win them all, they win a wild card spot.

Yes, they're a game out of the second wild card. But they are tied with Houston in the loss column, and that's the crucial factor. If the Twins win out, and the Astros win out, they will finish the schedule dead even -- and go to a game 163.

The odds of them winning out are, of course, incredibly thin, but they don't have to. They will have to win a lot, however. And the more whoever gets that second wild-card wins, the less pedestrian their record will be.

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Let's put the remaining schedules for the wild card contenders on the record. I'll include the Rangers, in first place in the West, because much of their remaining schedule is against the Astros and the Angels. One of those teams could catch them for the division crown, which would leave them in the WC picture.

The Twins have 11 games to play. They finish their homestand today with Cleveland, Then it's off to Detroit for three games Friday-Sunday and to Cleveland for four. They finish at home with three games against the Royals.

Houston (nine games to play) is off today. They are home against the Texas Rangers this weekend for three games, then hit the road for three games at Seattle and three games at Arizona.

Anaheim (10) is off today. They are home for three games against Seattle and three games against Oakland, then finish with four games at Texas.

Texas (10) finishes its series at Oakland today, then travels to Houston for three games before returning home for three against Detroit and four against the Angels.

Baltimore is three games behind the Twins, Cleveland 3.5 back. I'll not bother with their schedules. Nor will I bother looking at the Yankees, who are four games ahead of the Astros. If the Yanks come back to the pack, great, but I'll let them actually do so before I start thinking about them.

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A belated note on Yogi Berra, since I had a couple of people ask me about it yesterday. The Hanna-Barbara animated cartoon character was dubbed in the ballplayer's honor, not the other way around. Berra had been known as "Yogi" from childhood after a pal saw him sitting crosslegged "like a yogi." The cartoon character debuted in 1958, by which time Berra had won his three MVPs.

The initial Associated Press bulletin on Berra's death Thursday morning identified him as "Yogi Bear." Ah, the curse of becoming such a cultural icon that cartoon characters swipe your name.