Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Catching Up

I took Memorial Day off completely from working on the site, so today is a catch up day. I’ve got highlights from the games of the minor league affiliates from Monday and Tuesday. The Twins had their first day off in twenty days on Monday, so I guess they went out of their way to play a little extra ball on Tuesday, their first of twenty straight days of games, again.

Twins 4, Royals 3 (11 innings)

• Nick Blackburn – What more can you say? He is doing his best to make John Manuel and the folks at Baseball America look very good. I ranked Blackburn low because of the lack of strikeouts and really a year and a half of nothing special at AA. Manuel ranked Blackburn as the Twins top prospect and believed he saw more than a #4 type of starter. Again, to this point, he is making Manuel look very wise. Last night was the best Blackburn has been. He started the game with eight shutout innings in which he threw just 85 pitches. He gave up two hits and got just one out in the 9^th inning, so his day ended with eight hits allowed and no walks. It would have been hard for him to walk anyone. Of his 92 pitches thrown, just 17 were out of the strike zone. This was one of those games that proves that Win-Loss record for a starting pitcher means next to nothing.
• Of course, by this point, you know what happened on Joe Nathan’s first pitch after replacing Blackburn. Mark Teahen hit a ball toward the end of the bat, right down the left field line. Delmon Young hustled and slid to try to make the play, but the spin of the ball made it ricochet off the ground, and then off the wall in foul territory and back to the outfield fence. Young chased after hit, hit Brendan Harris perfectly, and Harris made a solid throw to Joe Mauer, but it was well late and Teahen had tied the game with an inside-the-park homer to tie the game. It all happened so quickly. Young had to decide whether to dive, slide or let it bounce. I think he made the right choice. If he dives, he likely doesn’t make the catch and jars in shoulder into the wall. If he plays it passively, then you can question the effort. I definitely think he made the right choice, it’s just one of those weird things about baseball.
• I have to say this because I know that he has been, deservingly, under a lot of scrutiny. I am 100% a believer in the future of Jesse Crain. His stuff has been incredibly impressive to me all year, but as the season has gone on, the stuff appears to be better, despite the fact that the numbers have not been as good.
• Michael Cuddyer got an RBI single for the Twins first run, then he got the game-winning RBI on a single in the top of the 11^th inning. Sure, he had a couple of bad swings again, but I think in the last couple of games, he has shown that he can be a contributor. Now we just have to get rid of the flat-out bad at bats, and we’ll be just fine. He did go 3-6 in the game.
• Alexi Casilla also went 3-6. Justin Morneau went 3-5. Brendan Harris went 2-4 with a double.
• On the flip side, Delmon Young is again swinging at everything, hitting into a lot of ground balls, and in his last five games, he is 1-20. That has dropped his average from .286 to .262.
• Tomorrow night, the Twins will send Livan Hernandez to the mound opposite Royals ace, Zach Greinke.

Any Twins thoughts?

Twins Minor League Updates

Monday SethSpeaks Player of the Day – Garrett Jones, Rochester Red Wings
Monday SethSpeaks Pitcher of the Day – Tim Lahey, Rochester Red Wings

Tuesday SethSpeaks Player of the Day – Randy Ruiz, Rochester Red Wings
Tuesday SethSpeaks Pitcher of the Day – Philip Humber, Rochester Red Wings / Cole DeVries, Ft. Myers Miracle

ROCHESTER REPORT
Monday – Rochester 7, Charlotte 6 (10 innings) – Randy Ruiz singled in pinch runner Felix Molina with the winning run in the 10^th. Ruiz went 2-5 in the game. Tommy Watkins, Jason Pridie and Darnell McDonald were also 2-5 in the game. McDonald hit his 12^th double, fourth triple and drove in three runs. Pridie recorded his fifth double. Garrett Jones led the offense, going 3-5 with his 12^th double and fourth home run. Jose Morales went 2-4. Of course, any time Francisco Liriano takes the mound, he is the focal point. It wasn’t a good outing for the lefty. In 6.2 innings, he gave up six earned runs on seven hits and a walk. He struck out four. Mariano Gomez got the three batters he faced out. Tim Lahey then struck out four in 2.1 perfect innings to record his third win.

Tuesday – Rochester 12, Charlotte 0 – Philip Humber needed a start like this. He had his best start of the season. Humber went six shutout innings, allowing just three hits. He walked four and struck out five. Casey Daigle then struck out three in two shutout innings. Carmen Cali gave up two hits in a scoreless ninth. Randy Ruiz went 4-5 with two doubles. He has 13 on the season. Brian Buscher went 3-5 with his eighth double. Tommy Watkins set the table by going 2-4 with two walks. Sergio Santos went 2-5 with his 10^th double and three RBI. Darnell McDonald went 2-6. Jose Morales went 1-3 with two walks. His batting average is now at .307.

NEW BRITAIN NEWS
Monday – New Britain 11, Portland 15 – On this day, Errol Simonitsch showed the rust you would expect from a guy who has missed so much time the last two season. In just 4.1 innings, he gave up ten earned runs on 11 hits and three walks. Jay Sawatski came in and gave up three runs (2 earned) on four hits in 1.2 innings. Jason Miller gave up two runs on five hits in on inning. Armando Gabino pitched a perfect ninth. Erik Lis had another excellent game. He went 2-3 with three walks, his fourth home run and three RBI. Trevor Plouffe went 2-4 with a walk and his 12^th double. Steve Tolleson went 2-5 with a walk and his 14^th double. Drew Butera hit his second homer and drove in three runs.

Tuesday – New Britain 4, Connecticut 6 – Oswaldo Sosa was again on the mound last night and again did not fair well. He fell to 2-4 with a 6.46 ERA after giving up four runs in five innings. He gave up six hits, walked three and struck out five. Jason Miller struck out four in two shutout innings. Zach Ward then gave up two runs on two hits and two walks in one inning. Armando Gabino gave up two hits and a walk, but no runs, in one inning. Matt Moses then went 2-4 with his 14^th double. Dustin Martin went 2-4 with his ninth double and two RBI. Luke Hughes also had his ninth double.

FT MYERS MEMOS
Monday – Ft. Myers did not have a game scheduled

Tuesday – Ft. Myers 5, Sarasota 0 – Cole DeVries just seems to continue to get better and better. In this game, he went six shutout innings. He gave up four hits and a walk. Danny Vais, Frank Mata and Robert Delaney each threw a shutout inning in relief. Danny Valencia went 2-4 with his 17^th double. Juan Portes went 2-4 with his ninth double. Brian Dinkelman went 1-3 with two walks, his 16^th double and his eighth stolen base. Another highlight in the game was the return of Eli Tintor from his 50 game suspension. He went 1-4 as the team’s DH. We obviously hope that Eli was able to turn the suspension into a positive in his life as well as in his baseball career.  

BELOIT BITS
Monday – Beloit 8, Burlington 12 – Brian Kirwan got off to a good start for the Snappers but has really struggled of late. That trend continued in this game. In four innings, he gave up seven runs (6 earned) on eight hits and three walks. He struck out none. Matt Williams gave up three runs in his two innings. Loek Van Mil gave up a run in 1.2 innings before Brad Tippett gave up one in 1.1 innings. Ramon Santana went 3-5 with his fifth double and eighth stolen base. Joe Benson had two doubles in four at bats. He now has 14 two-baggers. Jair Fernandez went 3-5. Ben Revere was 2-5 with his seventh double, his 15^th stolen base, and subsequently his 9^th caught stealing.

Tuesday – No Game Scheduled.  

Be sure to check back later for Part 1 of the 2008 midseason Top 50 Twins Prospects list.

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