Thursday Twins Linkage : April 30, 2009

• First off, for those who don't know, tonight's MNGameNight podcast will feature a special guest. Twins starter Glen Perkins is scheduled to host the podcast along with Seth Stohs of Seth Speaks. It should be a great show and I highly recommend that everyone listen to it.

• Tampa Bay took game one of the three game series this week, but the Twins battled back and took the last two games to take a two-one lead on the season series. Last night they beat the Rays 8-3. They will have a month break from one another before the two teams meet again, only next time they will be in Tropicana Field.

• As Aaron Gleeman notes today, the Twins finished April at .500. Keep in mind, they played the entire month without All-Star catcher Joe Mauer. The team gets Mauer back on Friday which will be a huge boost from here on out. Mauer hit .400 on his rehab assignment with Class-A Ft. Myers, but more importantly had no setbacks.

• Both Nick Nelson of Nick's Twins Blog and Parker Hageman of Over the Baggy are speaking out about Alexi Casilla's horrendous start. Although Brendan Harris may be considered by some to be a defensive liability, having Casilla (or Nick Punto for that matter) hit in the two-hole right now would be an even greater offensive liability.

• In a recent post over at Minor League Ball, John Sickels talks about a few "Interesting College Hitters for 2009 Draft" where they list a former Twins-draftee Jared Mitchell. The Twins drafted Mitchell out of Westgate High School in the 10th round of the 2006 draft. Mitchell chose to play college football/baseball which could be a great decision as he's currently projected to be a 1st or 2nd round pick in the draft. He has outstanding speed and deceptive power. It will be interesting to see if the Twins have any interest in him, but with the high amount of outfielders the organization has drafted in the past few years, I don't see them taking an outfielder in the first few rounds this year. But anything is possible. Sickels does give a reason why Mitchell fell to the 10th round in the 2006 draft, and it's because he is playing football/baseball at LSU. Clubs could be shy on drafting him in fear that he'll again choose football over baseball.

• The Low-A Beloit Snappers fell to the Dayton Dragons 2-1 yesterday. Brad Tippett lasted 5 1/3 innings and only gave up one run in the no-decision. The Snappers only collected two hits, one of which was a Evan Bigley double.

• The High-A Ft. Myers Miracle beat the Palm Beach Cardinals 5-1 yesterday. Ben Revere and Marc Dolenc both had three hits apiece. Both also stole a base as well. Starter Michael McCardell had another impressive start, going 7 innings while only giving up one run. Santos Arias pitched two innings of relief to finish the game.

• Double-A New Britain fell to the New Hampshire Fisher Cats 5-0 yesterday. The Rock Cats offense was anemic, collecting less than half as many hits as strikeouts. Ryan Mullins started and gave up four runs over 4 2/3 innings.

• Triple-A Rochester out-dueled the Buffalo Bisons to a 1-0 win yesterday. Red Wings starter Kevin Mulvey had his best start of the season, lasting 5 2/3 innings while shutting out the Bison. He struck out seven while walking two in the no-decision. Mike Gosling picked up the win while Sean Henn picked up the save. Jason Pridie went 2-3 and scored the only run of the game. Dustin Martin drove him in.

• Twins infield prospect Trevor Plouffe updated his blog, this time he took us through a typical day in the life of Trevor Plouffe.

• Alright Hamilton has a funny post looking at some of the Twins players walk-up music for the 2009 season.