Saturday, May 5, 2007
Friday Night Bites
I know... I said I was done for the week, but I had some time, so I figured I would post a quick update on the games from Friday night. I also thought giving a few Other Thoughts would be good too. I also wanted to say Happy Cinco de Mayo. So, let's get started.
Here are the Twins updates from last night, including game reports
of their minor league affiliates.
TWINS REPORT
Twins 0, Red Sox 2
Joe Mauer and Jason Bartlett each had a double. Torii Hunter extended his hitting streak to 19 games with two singles. Hit-wise, that was it for the Twins. They made the knuckle ball of Tim Wakefield look really good!
Carlos Silva started and really was excellent. As 2-seemer that actually moved too much, right into the powerful swing of David Ortiz, was really the lone bad pitch. Silva went seven innings and gave up that one run on five hits and two walks.
Pat Neshek struck out Kevin Youklis and David Ortiz, then got Manny Ramirez for the third out of his perfect inning.
Juan Rincon started the ninth by hanging a slider to JD Drew who hit a triple. The infield came in and Mike Lowell grounded out. But Coco Crisp singled past Luis Castillo to drive in the second run.
Michael Cuddyer missed another game saying that he was still sore. They need to get him back in the lineup.
From
Yahoo.com's game recap:
"Schilling
and
Johan Santana
held a pregame news conference to announce they were teaming
up to promote skin cancer awareness. Surprisingly, it was
the first time the two players met in person. "I look at him
like I looked at (Randy
Johnson) a few years ago,"
Schilling said of Santana. "There's him, and then there's
everybody else.'"
I like how Schilling just gets it. He understands the history of the game, and he knows a great pitcher when he sees one. I was reading something lately asking why more Hollywood-types aren't speaking out politically right now. When I read that, I immediately wondered what that person thinks when Schilling, a conservative, speaks out. Usually he is bashed and these people think that he shouldn't speak out and should just pitch the baseball. I think it is a funny inconsistency.
It started with Charley Walters and now if you check out MLB Trade Rumors, there is talk that Torii Hunter could get a four year, $60 million contract from someone after the season. Any Twins fans out there that really think that they should lock him up for that price?
Saturday night - 6:10 - Johan Santana vs Julian Tavarez.
Sunday afternoon - 1:10 - Sidney Ponson vs Curt Schilling.
Any other Twins Thoughts? E-mail me or leave Comments below.
ROCHESTER
REPORT
Friday - Red
Wings
2, Columbus 7 –
Dave Gassner had a rough outing for the Red Wings. The
soft-tossing lefty gave up seven runs on ten hits and three walks in
just 3.2 innings. He did strikeout four. Brian Bass came in
and threw 3.1 shutout innings. He gave up four hits and walks two
and struck out four. Bobby Korecky pitched a scoreless
inning. Alexi Casilla went 2-5 with a double. He also stole
two bases. Chris Heintz and Tommy Watkins each had two
hits. Lew Ford was 1-2 with two walks.
ALERT! ALERT! ALERT! Tonight, the Red Wings start a series against Chris Coste and the Ottawa Lynx. So Coste fans, be sure to watch the box scores or check out the Red Wings site to listen to the games live. Secondly, it will be a double header. Kevin Slowey will start Game 1 for the Red Wings. Starting Game 2 for the Lynx will be former Twin JD Durbin!
NEW BRITAIN
NEWS
Friday - Rockcats
2, Trenton 1 –
Felix Molina went 2-5 with an RBI. It was his seventh
straight game with at least two hits. Seven other Rockcats had one
hit including doubles from Brian Buscher, Brock Peterson
and Matt Allegra. Brian Duensing pitched another
excellent game. The lefty gave up one run on four hits in eight
innings. He struckout six and did not walk a batter. Danny Powers
got the win though with a two strikeout ninth.
FT MYERS MEMOS
Friday - Miracle 1, Tampa 7 (13)
– That's right. This game was 1-1 until a six run 13th inning by the
Yankees affiliate. Edward Ovalle went 2-5. Four other Miracle
hitters had one hit. Steven Tolleson went 1-3 with two walks.
Oswaldo Sosa was on again this night. He gave up one run on
four hits in 6.2 innings. He walked two and struck out five. He had
11 groundouts to just four flyball outs. Kyle Aselton
finished out the seventh. Then Eddie Morlan came in and
struck out seven in three perfect innings. Yohan Pino got two
outs in two batters faced. Angel Garcia then gave up five
runs on three hits and three walks in 1.2 innings. He struck out
three. Josh Hill gave up another run on two hits in just 2/3
of an inning.
BELOIT
BITS
Friday - Snappers 6, Great Lakes 3
– The Snappers scored four runs
in the first and held on for the win. Steve Singleton
continues to make me and probably plenty of others wonder how it was
possible that he spent time at extended spring training. He went 2-5
with a double and is hitting .419 in his time with the Snappers.
Allan de San Miguel went 2-4 with a double and three RBI.
Adam Hawes picked up his first win with a Quality start. He gave
up three runs on five hits. He walked three and struck out five.
Minnesota native Aaron Craig came up from EST the same day
Singleton did. He struck out three hitters in three shutout innings
for his first save.
ALERT! ALERT! If you want a pitcher's dual to follow tonight (Saturday), check out the Snappers/Loons game tonight. It will pit Jeff Manship against Dodgers top pick in 2006 Clayton Kershaw.
Friday SethSpeaks
Player of the Day – Alexi Casilla,
Rochester Red Wings
Friday SethSpeaks Player of the Day –
Brian Duensing, New Britain Rockcats/Eddie Morlan, Ft.
Myers Miracle
Do you have any further thoughts on any Twins prospects, minor leaguers, or these summaries? E-mail me, or also feel free to leave comments below.
OTHER THOUGHTS
Our friend Grant Balfour spent spring training with the Milwaukee Brewers. He was sent down to AA to get more innings in after missing the last two full seasons with injury. There he had two saves in eight games. In 11.1 innings, he walked four and struck out 21. He moved up to AAA this past week and has three more strikeouts in two innings with a save. Good for him. Balfour is a great guy with a huge arm and still so much potential. I'm just happy that he is getting this chance and making the most of it. It won't be long before he is up with the Brewers.
With the news that Josh Hancock's Blood Alcohol Level was about twice the legal limit and there was marijuana and other drug paraphernalia in his rental vehicle that he was driving because three days earlier he was also drunk and in another car accident, the Cardinals decided to take alcohol out of the locker room after games. The A's had done this previously after Esteban Loaiza got a DUI. I think it is a smart move by teams to do. I mean, it's not like my employer provides me with alcohol right before I drove home from work every day. That said, it does get a bit old when everyone from the bartender to the team to the team and more. In the end, we are all responsible for ourselves. If you drink and chose to drive rather than find an alternative, that's on you! Stick & Ball Guy had a great blog entry on that topic that I think everyone should take a look at.
The number of injuries to pitchers so far this year is just crazy. It is absolutely killing my fantasy teams. This week alone, I got short starts from Chris Capuano (2 leagues), Phil Hughes (one league), Jake Westbrook (two leagues), Adam Loewen (3 leagues), Bob Wickman AND Eric Gagne in a league where you need to use two relievers, Michael Cuddyer and Brian McCann (3 leagues). It is just crazy. That said, I have been able to pick up Tim Lincecum in two leagues already and hopefully will be able to in another one shortly. In one league, I picked up Yovanni Gallardo. The Brewers almost have to call him up at this point. Anytime a guy is compared to Francisco Liriano, it can't be a bad thing.
Speaking of Tim Lincecum, he will make his major league debut on ESPN's Sunday Night game. He will match up against Cole Hamels who is another excellent young pitcher. There are a lot of very high end pitching prospects out there, and not just in the Twins system. Matt Garza and Kevin Slowey are going to be terrific, but they aren't even the only top pitching prospects in the division. Luke Hochevar could be with the Royals by midseason. Adam Miller could be up with Cleveland already if not for the emergence of Fausto Carmona. I still would expect Miller to be up at some point this year.
Thanks to the guys over at
The Minnesota Sports Guys
for their mention on their site today. If you don't have their
site bookmarked, be sure to do that. If you're interested in
thoughts and links on the Twins and the other Minnesota sports
teams, you will enjoy this great source. They did
a nice piece on Twins pitching prospect Jeff Manship that
includes this interesting information:
He was listed by prestigious
baseball publication, Baseball America, to be the 13th overall
player taken in their 2003 mock draft (the year he'd have come out
of college) He was rated by Baseball America as the third best
pitching prospect coming out of high school behind only Ian Kennedy
and some guy named Andrew Miller, heady company but wasn't drafted
until the 50th round by the Arizona Diamondbacks because it was
known around baseball that he was committed to attending Notre Dame.
That is it for today. If you have any ideas for the site, people to try to get Q&As from, article concepts or more, please leave some Comments or send me an e-mail. I would appreciate your help. Have a terrific day!
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