Sunday, April 27, 2008
Sunday Afternoon Notes
Hey everyone! The Twins and all four of their minor league affiliates played this afternoon and were done by 4:00, so I thought I would get something posted right away this afternoon... who knows, maybe I'll even get some sleep tonight! I did spend some time during the Twins game hopefully preparing for some future postings too, so keep checking back.
TWINS 0, RANGERS 10
Yes, that was the actual score of the game... and yes, it was that Vicente Padilla who threw the complete game shutout against our beloved Twins hitters.
Positives - well, Brendan Harris was 2-2 with a walk, and went 6-12 in the series. Matt Tolbert broke an 0-14 streak with a double. Bobby Korecky looked much better on the mound in his second outing. He looked much more relaxed and threw a very nice curveball to go with a little better control. Still not there, but at the same time, you can certainly see he's got potential.
Negatives - I won't go through all of them. But I'm also not going to sit here and repeat what you'll likely read all over the Twins blogosphere in the morning. You will read that Livan Hernandez is turning into Ramon Ortiz right before our eyes. People will likely be greatly disappointed in Hernandez. I can't say I'm disappointed because he is performing at about the level we should expect from him. And in reality, he is probably performing to the level that Bill Smith assumed he would when he signed him. I was asked the question about whether the Twins should cut their losses and try to trade Livan right now. My thought would be that that doesn't make sense. First, he has no trade value. I mean, what could they get for him. I would assume no more than the Twins got for Ortiz last September. So, they might as well wait for July. Other teams know that Livan isn't good, so they aren't going to offer a lot. There is a reason that the Diamondbacks didn't really talk to him after he was on their great team last year. They could bring up Brian Duensing or Kevin Mulvey, but why start their arbitration clock? There is no need to right now. So, don't be disappointed in Livan Hernandez. He is what he is, and to expect anything more is not fair.
Big Positive - The Twins will return home for two games against the White Sox. The bigger positive is that they get the day off on Monday... and another day off on Thursday... and Kevin Slowey should be ready within two weeks!
Twins Minor League Updates
Sunday SethSpeaks Player of the Day – Luke Hughes, New Britain (no truth to the rumors that this is going to start being called the Luke Hughes Award).
Sunday SethSpeaks Pitcher of the Day – Tim Lahey, Rochester Red Wings
Be sure to check out Roger's Weekly Minor League Update at Twinkie Town.
ROCHESTER REPORT
Sunday - Red Wings 5, Lehigh Valley 1 – Heath Totten made another start and threw three scoreless
innings. He gave up three hits, but he didn't walk a batter. Ricky
Barrett followed with two shutout innings. Mariano Gomez gave up
a run on four hits in two innings, but he also got the Win, his first with
the Red Wings. Tim Lahey pitched two perfect innings to record his
first Save in place of the recalled Bobby Korecky. The offense
managed just five hits. The numbers eight and nine hitters, Chris Basak
and Eli Whiteside each hit their first homers of the season.
Darnell McDonald went 1-3 with a walk and his first triple. The team
scored five runs with just five hits.
NEW BRITAIN NEWS
Sunday - Rockcats 5, Trenton 7 –
Luke Hughes hit his eighth homer of the season, a solo shot in the
ninth inning, but it wasn't enough to catch up. Hughes went 2-5 and added
his sixth double as well. He is now hitting .356. David Winfree went
2-4 with his fourth homer. Brock Peterson went 2-4 and after his very
slow start, he is now hitting .284. Matt Moses went 2-3 with a walk.
Jay Rainville had another poor outing to fall to 1-3. The righty gave
up six runs on nine hits and two walks in four innings. I can't help but
wonder if he is not completely 100% physically right now. Jason Miller
went the next two innings and somehow just gave up one run despite giving up
four hits and walking two. Peterson's high school teammate Kyle Aselton
struck out two in two scoreless innings.
FT MYERS MEMOS
Sunday
- Miracle 3, Lakeland 8 – Rough start for Deolis Guerra. The 19 year
old got rocked for eight runs (7 earned) on nine hits and a walk in just
five innings. He struck out four. Alex Burnett came in and gave
up a hit and a walk, but no runs. Danny Vais walked two in his
scoreless inning. Zach Day gave up two hits in his scoreless
frame. Toby Gardenhire went 2-4 and is still hitting .333 on the
season. Edward Ovalle went 1-3 with walk, his third stolen
base, and he drove in two of the three runs.
BELOIT BITS
Sunday
- Snappers 5, Wisconsin 3 – For
those that think that a team having the ability to hit a home runs is not
important. Consider this game. Look at the score and then realize that
Chris Parmelee hit a bases clearing grand slam to account for four runs
in a hurry. The homer was his fifth of the season. Jair Fernandez
went 3-4. Steve Singleton went 2-4. Dan Berlind picked up his
first win of the year. In five innings, he gave up two runs on four hits. He
walked one and struck out five. Spencer Steedley went three shutout
innings in relief, striking out six. Then Charles Nolte came in to
start the ninth. He allowed the first hitter to get on base when he
committed an error. He then walked the next hitter before hitting the third
hitter with a pitch. He was then replaced by Matt Williams who gave
up one hit, but struck out two to get out of the inning and record his first
save.
I may be back with a quick posting later tonight, otherwise, just be sure to check back from time to time.
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