A minor league state of mind

I could, I suppose, comment today on Tuesday's Twins developments, but I haven't anything new to say. Jason Marquis is a disappointment, Justin Morneau better be ready to play a lot more first base, Chris Parmelee may well benefit from playing in Triple A as opposed to sitting on the major league bench ... let's move on.

I'm beginning today a brief minor-league road trip -- two games in Beloit, Wis., to give Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario a chance to reinstill hope in the Twins future, and two games in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, a stop that is at least as much about visiting the Amana Colonies again as about seeing the Kernels play.

Beloit will be playing Quad Cities, a Cardinals affiliate; Cedar Rapids, an Angels affiliate, will face Kane County (A's Royals; used to be an Oakland affiliate) and Peoria (Cubs). All these teams are in the Midwest League, a Low A league.

So that's what the rest of this week is going to be about here. The minors and the future, not the Twins in the present.

While thinking about the minors, I thought I'd look up the stats for Billy Bullock, the hard-throwing relief prospect the Twins traded at the end of spring training 2011 for Scott Diamond. That deal drew immediate criticism from many of us Internet know-it-alls. I had my share of skepticism, but tried to keep an open mind about why the Twins would prefer Diamond.

Bullock is repeating Double A for the Atlanta Braves. He has, as of Tuesday, a 2.29 ERA in 19.2 innings, which looks good. But he also has 19 walks (and 16 strikeouts), and that walk number is emphatically not good.


Granting that two good starts from Diamond is a small sample size, this trade isn't looking so bad right now.