Minor League Ball Gameday, Saturday, March 28

Good afternoon everyone and welcome to the daily Minor League Ball Gameday thread. Some potential items for discussion and consideration:

***It looks like Texas Rangers Rule 5 pick Delino DeShields Jr. has earned a spot on the Opening Day roster according to Evan Grant at the Dallas Morning News. He is due for a full write-up here.

***Top Minnesota Twins pitching prospect Lewis Thorpe has torn his UCL and will have Tommy John surgery. Here is the report I wrote on him in the 2015 Baseball Prospect Book:

Signed out of Australia in 2012 for $500,000, Lewis Thorpe gave mixed results in 2014. On the positive side, he showed a fastball up to 94-95 MPH, refined his change-up, had several very dominant starts, and posted impressive K/IP and H/IP marks against older competition in the Midwest League. On the negative side, his fastball sagged into the 80s at times, his curveball and slider were inconsistent, he struggled with his command occasionally, and had a bout of elbow trouble late in the season. Given his age, none of his problems were unanticipated and overall he performed pretty well, but it wasn’t a great leap forward. I’m going to ride the Grade B- for now. Thorpe could wind up being a fine number three starter but it will take some time.

Obviously that's on hold until we see how the injury recovery goes. Note the comment about "bout of elbow trouble late in the season". I guess it was more than a bout.

***In more elbow news, Boston Red Sox catcher Christian Vazquez has something wrong with his, according to a recent MRI anyway as noted by Alex Speier at the Boston Globe. Might that open up playing time for Blake Swihart?

***The Cubans don't always work out: the Royals released Noel Arguelles.

***Adam Warren looks like he will be named as the Yankees fifth starter. Seems like a good idea to give him a full write-up this week. I will put him on the list. Pinestripe Alley has more about Yankees rotation options.

Other players due write-ups include Todd Frazier of the Reds and Starling Marte of the Pirates. I am also working on my ranking of all 30 farm systems which will be out by Opening Day.