Thursday,
August 5, 2010
Thursday Notes
On Thursday at 9:20 a.m., I’ll again be joining Paul Allen on KFAN, its
affiliates and www.KFAN.com. Talking Twins is
always fun! Also, check out my newest TwinsCentric
blog at StarTribune.com. It takes a
look ahead at the Twins 40 man roster decisions.
The Twins won an ugly 2-1 game against the Tampa Bay
Rays in 13 innings last night, and if you listen to some Twins fans, you would
think it means nothing. There were some missed opportunities. Delmon Young and Denard Span took
turns looking really bad defensively. Span and Michael Cuddyer
each went 0-6 in the game. There were several situations with a runner on third
base and less than two outs where all you need is a medium deep fly ball and
the team didn’t come through. Matt Capps blew a save.
If you want to think all negative after a game like that, that’s your prerogative… you can do what you want to do.
But here is how I choose to look at it. The Twins played an imperfect
game, on the road, against (arguably, but in my opinion) the best team in
baseball, without Justin Morneau and Orlando Hudson,
with Joe Mauer only able to DH, against one of the
best, young left-handed pitchers in baseball (meaning no Jason Kubel or Jim Thome too) and they
still were able to win.
Most important to note is the impressive pitching performance by Scott Baker.
Following two, two-run losses to the Rays, the Twins needed a big game from
Baker, and he came through. He has not looked that good all year. The fastball
was popping a little, and moving a lot. The curveball was as sharp as I’ve seen
it. He had good control, and was very impressive. Eight
innings. He gave up just three hits and one walk against a good Rays lineup. Despite a couple of bad plays (or non-plays)
behind him, he was able to pick up his defense and make big pitches and get big
outs. He deserved a “Win” even if I don’t care about that statistic for a
starting pitcher in today’s game.
Matt Capps blew the save, so a lot of people thought the sky was falling
down. But in reality, if Delmon Young catches that
first lazy fly ball, Capps likely saves a 1-0 win for
the Twins. But, that didn’t happen. Again, I am not a big fan of Capps, but he
did not look bad last night. He does make the 2010 Twins bullpen better,
regardless of a blown save. So, we really should not make too much out of that.
Also, yes, Young should have caught that ball. No question about that. But in
reviewing the tape, he did start out playing very deep. Teams always do that to
(ironically) take away doubles. Young hesitated briefly, but not much, and he went a long way to get to that ball. It hit off
the tip of his glove, and really, it just looked rather awkward. Should have been caught, but not as easy a play as many are thinking.
But the beauty of baseball is that there is a new game every day, and
each at bat and appearance are new. Players and tames
have the opportunity to redeem themselves quickly. Young had the play in the 9th
inning, and he was 0-5 when he came to the plate with runners on 1st
and 3rd in the 13th. He came through with what proved to
be the game-winning hit.
On Tuesday night, Matt Guerrier played the role
of goat after an awful performance in which he walked two before throwing BJ
Upton a 2-0 fastball right down the middle that I think I could have hit out of
the park! On Wednesday night, he pitched the 12th and 13th
innings and was tremendous.
When asked before this series what I thought the Twins needed to do in
this four game series against Tampa, I thought they needed to win one game, and
that two wins would have been terrific. Anything more than
that would have been pie in the sky. This morning (11 a.m. start time), the Twins can earn a split of the four game series.
Here is a quick glance at what
happened on Wednesday in the Twins minor league system:
Red Wings Report
No game scheduled for the Red
Wings on Wednesday.
New Britain Notes
The Rockcats
beat Erie 13-6. Bobby Lanigan improved to 2-0. The
righty gave up three runs (2 earned) on seven hits in 5.2 innings. He walked
one and struck out five. Mike McCardell came out of
the bullpen and gave up two runs on four hits in 2.1 innings. He did not issue
a walk and struck out four. Cole DeVries gave up a
run on two hits and a walk in his inning. Juan Portes
went 4-5 with his third triple and fifth home run. Erik Lis
went 4-5 with his 12th double. Jeff Howell went 3-4 with a walk and
his first Rockcats double and home run. Joe Benson
was 2-5 with his 17th double. Estarlin de
Los Santos went 2-5 with his first triple. It was announced as well that Ben
Revere will miss the rest of the season after being hit in the eye, and
breaking his eye socket, on Tuesday night.
Miracle Matters
The Ft. Myers Miracle lost 5-2 to Clearwater. Nick Romero went 2-3. Santos
Arias gave up one run on five hits and three walks in five innings. Jhon Garcia gave up one run on two hits in three innings.
Snappers Snippets
Tom Stuifbergen improved to 5-0
in the Snappers 7-2 win over Burlington. The Dutch right-hander gave up two
runs on six hits in 6.1 innings. He walked none, hit two batters and struck out
five. Andrei Lobanov struck out three in 2.2 scoreless
innings. Michael Gonzales has been on fire of late. In this game, he was 2-3
with a walk, his 20th double and his 12th home run. Danny
Rams was 3-4 with his fourth triple. Reggie Williams went 2-4.
Brad Stillings, Anderson
Hidalgo and Peter Kennelly were put on the Disabled List. Who will replace
them? Check out the E-Twins Talkers for
my thoughts.
E-Twins Talkers
Elizabethton did not play on Wednesday. So, who will be heading
up to Beloit? I would say that it would make a lot of sense for the Twins to
promote Adrian Salcedo, Martire
Garcia and Oswaldo Arcia.
All three have performed great for the E-Twins and are likely very ready for a
promotion. But I don’t think that is what will actually happen. The E-Twins are
going to win their division and advance to the league’s playoffs where they
have a strong opportunity to win another Appalachian League title. Those three
players will be a big part of that. So, I expect that the Twins will not send
their primary players to the Snappers. I could be wrong, but I think they will
let the Elizabethton team and fans win again. It is likely that all three will
end the season at Beloit, following their playoff run for a few games.
According to LaVelle, Pat
Dean has been promoted to Elizabethton. It will be interesting to see
if he starts, or just continues to throw an inning at a time in the bullpen.
GCL Twins Topics
It was a long day for the Twins Gulf Coast League team.
They were able to drive north to Tampa (St. Petersburg) to watch the Twins and
the Rays. They got to see 13 innings of that game. They played early in the day and worked a
little overtime to beat the Orioles team 6-4 in 11 innings. Max Kepler went 3-4. Matej Hejman was 2-5 with his third double, first home run and
three RBI. Eddie Rosario went 2-5 with his ninth double. Justin Parker gave up
four runs (just 1 earned) on four hits and a walk in five innings. Derek
Christensen threw two scoreless innings. Matt Schuld
struck out four in three scoreless innings. Nick Alloway
got his second save with a scoreless inning.
On his way to Tampa, LaVelle E.
Neal made a quick stop in Ft. Myers and observed the GCL Twins. Here
are his notes on several of the players.
Any thoughts on the Twins or the
minor league system? Feel free to leave
your questions and comments here.