Weekend, August 18-20, 2006

Note - over the weekend, I did more of a literal 'blog' on this site. Instead of waiting to post any new information on Monday, I posted more frequently throughout the weekend. So, in order to correctly read this posting, you will need to start at the bottom and work your way up as new entries were posted on top of the previous.

Sunday - 9:07 p.m. - In Game 1, Elizabethton fell to Danville 12-5. Sean Land gave up seven runs on nine hits and two walks over four innings. Brandon McConnell then gave up five runs in just one inning. Aaron Craig threw two shutout innings. Steve Singleton went 2-2 with his second homer and two RBI. Danny Berg went 2-4.

The second game wasn't any better for the E-Twins. They had just four hits, and Danny Santiesteban had two of them. Alex Burnett gave up seven runs (5 earned) in the first four innings. Patrick Bryant went the final three and gave up two more runs. 

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Sunday - 5:42 p.m. - Over at Balls, Sticks & Stuff, there is a great article on Coste and the whole idea of making a movie on Coste's career and who would be cast to play the different players. Ving Rhames for Ryan Howard? This is a great, fun article that you should check out if you have a chance.

Sunday - 5:31 p.m. - Is Justin Morneau the greatest Canadian 1B of all time? Check out this Mop Up Duty article to find out!

By the way, here is Roger's Weekly Minor League Update for this past week.

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Sunday - 5:18 p.m. - ROGER'S PLAYERS OF THE WEEK - Every week throughout this season, our good friend Roger has given us his choices for weekly hitter and pitchers of the week in the Twins minor league system. Obviously, what Roger does is terrific for all of us Twins fans that like following the minor leagues as well. Please read the choices as well as his last couple of sentences.

Player of the Week…Dwayne White, Beloit Snappers

                In late 2004 the Twins signed outfielder Dwayne White as a free agent out of the University of Kansas.  During the past few weeks, the Snappers lost Erik Lis, Whitney Robbins, Paul Kelly and Andrew Thompson to season ending injuries.  For a team to continue its bid for a championship during times like this, they need other players to step-up.  Dwayne White is one of those who did just that this week, going 12 for 24 with a double, 6 runs scored and 3 rbi. 

2006        Beloit                      .263Ave                 266ab      16-2B      2-3B        6-HR       35-R        37-RBI

2005        Beloit                      .261Ave                 268ab      11-2B      1-3B        2-HR       35-R        30-RBI 

Pitcher of the Week…Eduardo Morlan, Beloit Snappers

For the second consecutive week we go to the Beloit Snappers for our Pitcher of the Week.  This week it is 20 year old right hander Eduardo Morlan who was a 3^rd round pick in 2004.  Morlan, who reportedly approaches 100 mph with his fastball, is a native of Cuba who has often been recognized by scouts for his potential.  Morlan has been one of the Snapper’s top starters since moving from the bullpen earlier this summer.  This week Morlan won both his starts, pitching 7.0 innings with 1 hit, 0 runs and 9K/3BB in Beloit’s 5-0 win last Sunday and a 5.0 inning outing with 5 hits, 0 runs and 6K/1BB in last night’s 5-3 win.  For the season, this hard throwing young prospect has struck out 114 hitters in 96.1 innings, which is 1.18 hitters per inning.  It will be interesting to see what direction Morlan’s career takes with the Twins during the next few seasons…will he remain a starter or be another exciting young member of the Twins bullpen in 2009 or 2010?       

2006        Beloit                      96.1ip      5W-5L   2.52era   114K/36BB

2005        Beloit                      51.1ip      4W-4L   4.38era     55K/31BB

2005        Elizabethton          22.0ip      2W-0L   0.82era       30K/6BB

2004        GCL Twins            25.1ip      1W-2L    2.84era     28K/10BB

This will be my last weekly selections as I will be out of the country until after the minor league seasons are over.  Now lets see if four of our teams can win division championships!

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Sunday - 5:05 p.m. - Ft. Myers won the second game of their doubleheader against Lakeland this afternoon, 4-3. Jeff Manship started and went one shutout inning. JP Martinez went the next four innings. He gave up one run on two hits and three walks. Tim Lahey improved to 6-1 although he gave up two runs in two innings. The Miracle managed just three hits. Trevor Plouffe had a double and a walk. Luke Hughes went 0-1 with two walks.

Beloit beat Clinton 8-1 behind another very strong Alexander Smit start. The lefty threw seven shutout innings. He gave up two hits and three walks while striking out nine hitters. Danny Vais gave up an unearned run in his inning. Frank Mata then threw a shutout inning. William Luque led the offense with a 4-4 day including a double. Eli Tintor was 3-4 with his 17th double. Tarrence Patterson went 2-5 with his 32nd stolen base.

By the way, I would encourage everyone to briefly check out the SportsCow site. It is primarily a local/regional central Minnesota site involving high school and amateur sports, but there is more. On the site, they posted my Hall of Fame discussion article from this week.  

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Sunday - 3:39 p.m. - Well, Juan Rincon is trying his best to give the White Sox a chance here in the 8th inning. Gardy is on his way to the mound to put Dennys Reyes into the game. Torii Hunter let a ball go through him. A 5-1 lead is suddenly a little scary. But, as  I watch the end of this game, I thought I would update you on what is going on with the Twins minor league teams this afternoon. A couple of the games are done already.

Rochester lost 2-1 to Scranton/Wilkes Barre. Peter Munro went seven strong innings, allowing only a single run on two hits. Beau Kemp took the loss as he gave up a run on two hits in his inning. Shawn Wooten went 2-4 with his 17th double. Chris Heintz and Garrett Jones were also 2-4.

New Britain beat Reading 6-5. In the 8th with Garrett Guzman on 2nd, Denard Span had a bunt single, but the pitcher threw the ball away and Guzman scored the eventual winning run. Alexi Casilla went 3-5 with his eighth and ninth doubles and two RBI. Guzman was 1-1 with two walks. Trent Oeltjen hit a two run homer (his 3rd) to tie the game in the 8th. Brian Duensing got the start. He gave up four runs (3 earned) on four hits and four walks in five innings. Tristan Crawford gave up one run in his three innings. Jay Sawatski got the first out of the ninth, and Julio DePaula got the final two outs for his sixth save.

Ft. Myers is currently in the second game of their doubleheader, but they lost game one 5-3. Kyle Waldrop gave up five runs (4 earned) on seven hits and two walks in five innings for his first FSL loss. Chris Schutt struck out four in the final two innings. Justin Arneson went 3-3, and Caleb Moore with his fifth double.

More to come as the games finish. 

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Sunday - 1:03 p.m. - OK, here is the update from the Twins system from Saturday.

The Twins got another solid pitching performance from Brad Radke, but they fell 3-1 at the hands of the Chicago White Sox. Just one of the three runs that Radke gave up were earned in his five innings of work. Willie Eyre gave up a run in his three innings. He has really been pitching well since he has been getting more consistent innings. Jon Garland improved to 14-4 for the White Sox despite his 4.93 ERA. Nick Punto and Jason Tyner each had two hits.

Today, the Twins will again take on the White Sox with Johan Santana facing off against Javier Vazquez.

Jason Miller has been a decent fill-in in the Rochester rotation much of the year. On this night, he showed why he has stayed in the rotation. The left went nine innings and gave up just two hits in a 2-0 win over Scranton/Wilkes Barre. He walked none and struck out seven. 72 of his 108 pitches were for strikes. Garrett Jones went 2-4 with his 30th double. Quinton McCracken went 2-3 with a walk and an RBI. Chris Heintz went 2-3.

New Britain played two games. In the first game, they lost to Reading 5-2. Colby Miller made the start in his return to AA. He took the loss going four innings. He gave up five runs on five hits and five walks. Errol Simonitsch came in and threw two shutout innings. Danny Matienzo went 2-3 with his 16th homer.

In Game two, New Britain won 8-4. Justin Olson started and gave up three runs on seven hits and a walk. He struck out five in five innings. David Shinskie gave up an unearned run in his inning before Julio DePaula pitched a scoreless seventh. Trent Oeltjen went 3-4 with his seventh triple and two RBI. Denard Span and Felix Molina each had two hits. Kyle Geiger hit his second homer.

Ft. Myers was rained out and is playing a double header today.

Beloit managed just one hit, a single by Matt Betsill in a 2-0 loss to Clinton. Zach Ward was the tough luck loser. He went five innings and gave up a run on three hits. He walked three and struck out three. Adam Hawes gave up an unearned run in his two innings. Armando Gabino threw two shutout innings.

Elizabethton and Danville were rained out and are also playing two today.

The GCL Twins managed just four hits in a 4-1, 13 inning loss to the GCL Red Sox. Diebinson Romero was 2-4 with a walk. Michael Allen went the first seven innings and gave up a run on four hits. He walked four and struck out six. Adam Revelette came in and threw five shutout innings. He gave up four hits, no walks and struck out three. Robert Delaney came in and gave up three runs in his one inning to take the loss.

Hitter of the day - Deibinson Romero, GCL Twins

Pitcher of the day - Jason Miller, Rochester Red Wings

Chris Coste started at catcher for the Phillies and went 2-4 with a walk in the team's 11-2 win over the Washington Nationals.

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Sunday - 12:31 p.m. - Here is another excellent story on Chris Coste, this one from the Fargo Forum.

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After reading this article that "a representative from a movie studio and at least one major publishing house have contacted Phillies 33 year old rookie Chris Coste," I can tell you that I have received three e-mails from different publishing houses too. No, they don't want to tell the story of this blogger, instead, they have e-mailed me trying to help them contact Chris Coste. First, I think it is cool that people write to me with such requests. What it likely means is that they went to google.com, did a search for "Chris Coste" and read the Q&A that we had with him on this site in January. However, I have to say that I will not be handing out any contact information for Chris to anyone. I may forward information to him via e-mail, but that is as far as I will take it. That is for Chris or for any of the Twins major or minor league players that I have contact information for. That would not be right for me to do.

That said, I am more than happy to help tell the Chris Coste story, or at least highlight his career on here. I am so happy to be getting a tremendous amount of readership from the Philadelphia Phillies fans. I would venture to guess that, although this is primarily a Twins related blog, probably 40% of my e-mails talk about Chris Coste. And I think that is pretty great! The story is incredible and speaks for itself. Chris is a great guy and after all the hard work and all the bus rides and frustrations, he deserves every bit of the glory and success that he is experiencing now.

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Saturday - 8:53 a.m. - I can't believe I missed this, but here is a great Q&A with Chris Coste that appeared in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune last week.

Saturday - 7:15 a.m. - Good Morning everyone!! Well, it is early Saturday morning. Just fed Jozie and I thought I would post a little update on the Twins system.

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First, the Twins got a nice win over the White Sox, 7-3, last night. To be honest, I only watched bits and pieces. Boof Bonser went 5 1/3 innings and gave up three runs. He left with two on base and just one out. Pat Neshek came in and got the next two out easily. The Twins scored in the bottom of the 6th on a solo homer by Torii Hunter. Neshek pitched another 2/3 inning before Dennis Reyes came in and got the final out of the seventh. Jesse Crain and Matt Guerrier each pitched a perfect inning. I like Paul Konerko because he has always said the right things and just not said things to make Twins fans dislike him. He had this to say last night, "No offense against our bullpen or anybody's bullpen, but you don't want to get into a battle of bullpens with them. They have a good one. A great one." So true! Neshek got the win to improve to 3-0.

Dennys Reyes's ERA is now at 0.99 for the season. In parts of nine previous big league seasons, his career ERA was a robust 4.80. So, what is the explanation? How can this season be explained. I know that a reliever's ERA can be a bit in question because of inherited runners, etc., but what Reyes has done this year is crazy! If you can explain it, or want to read other people's theories, click here. 

Jason Tyner and Nick Punto each had three hits and a stolen base. Justin Morneau had two hits and two RBI. Torii Hunter had a double to go with his 16th homer. Joe Mauer had two hits too.

Tonight's 6:10 game matches Brad Radke against Jon Garland. I guess I was thinking that Johan was up to pitch, but Yahoo is telling me otherwise.

Down on the farm, the Rochester Red Wings lost 9-8 to Syracuse. Quinton McCracken went 3-5 with a homer. Terry Tiffee had three hits including a double. Andres Torres, Kevin West and Alex Romero each had a single and a double in the game. I was thinking that if Matt Garza and Bonser struggled, Dave Gassner may be back in the Twins equation soon. Well, on this night, he gave up seven runs in just four innings. He gave up nine hits and walked two. Henry Bonilla came in and gave three shutout, one-hit innings of relief. Levale Speigner gets the loss giving up two runs in his 1.1 innings.

In another close game, New Britain fell 4-3 to Reading. Alexi Casilla, Danny Matienzo and Matt Moses were each 2-4. Casilla added a walk and a double. Doug Deeds had a 9th inning, pinch hit home run to bring the Rockcats within one. Nick Blackburn got another start. He gave up four runs (3 earned) on ten hits in five innings. Jay Sawatski and David Shinskie combined for three shutout innings in relief.

Ft. Myers lost to Lakeland 4-2. Josh Hill gave up three runs on six hits and three walks to take the loss. Ryan Callahan then gave up one run in his three innings. Jose Mijares pitched a scoreless inning. Deacon Burns was 2-4 with a double. Caleb Moore and Brandon Roberts each had two hits. Roberts stole his 45th base. Brock Peterson had both RBI.

Beloit got a nice 5-3 with over Clinton. Eduardo Morlan continues to impress. He went five shutout innings in which he gave up just three hits and a walk. He struck out six. Jose Cordero gave up a run in two innings. Frank Mata then gave up two runs in his 1/3 of an inning. But Mr. Consistent Dan Leatherman came in and got the final five outs  for the save. Tarrence Patterson went 3-5 and stole his 31st base. Edward Ovalle and Dwayne White each went 2-3.

Elizabethton held on for a 9-7 win over Danville last night. The Braves affiliate score six runs in the top of the 8th, but the Twins were able to maintain their lead. Danny Valencia and Brian Dinkelman were each 3-5. Josh Dean went 2-3 with a walk and his second homer. Josh Land was 2-4 with his second homer. Jose Castillo was excellent to improve to 4-2 on the year. He gave up one run on six hits in seven innings. He walked none and struck out eight. Justin Staatz had a forgettable day! He got just two outs and gave up the six runs on six hits. Matt Williams didn't help as he came in and gave up two hits allowing inherited runners to score, and he didn't get an out. But, Danny Hernandez came in to save the day... or at least the game. He got the final four outs for his 16th save.

The GCL Twins lost 5-4 to the GCL Pirates in ten innings. Deibinson Romero went 3-5 with two doubles. Joe Benson was 2-4 with a double and his fifth home run. Eric Santiago was 2-4. Tyler Robertson started and gave up four runs on four hits in four innings. He walked three and struck out five. Luis Carreras came in and threw five one-hit, shutout innings. Brad Tippett came in for the tenth innings, but with two outs, he gave up the game ending run.

Hitter of the day - Deibinson Romero, GCL Twins

Pitcher of the day - Jose Castillo, Elizabethton Twins

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Thursday - 10:00 p.m. - Here is a quick look at the Twins minor league games that are complete.

The Rochester Red Wings got an 8-6 win over Syracuse. Despite giving up four runs in five innings, Mike Smith got the Win. Beau Kemp went three strong innings in relief. Quinton McCracken was 3-5 with a double. Garrett Jones went 2-4 with a triple and three RBI. Chris Heintz and Glenn Williams each had two hits. Tommy Watkins went 1-2 with two walks.

New Britain got a big 12-4 win over Erie. Adam Harben has really been impressive of late. He got the Win, however, he gave up three runs on eight hits and three walks in 5.1 innings. Tristan Crawford and Julio DePaula combined for 3.2 relief innings to close it out. Garrett Guzman was 3-6 with two doubles and three RBI. Felix Molina was 3-5 with a double and a triple. Matt Moses was 2-6 with a double and four RBI. Alexi Casilla and Jose Morales each had two hits.

Ft Myers beat Jupiter 3-1. Anthony Swarzak got another win with another strong start. In six shutout innings, he gave up just two hits and walked two. Jeff Manship gave up an unearned run in his 1.2 innings. Chris Schutt got the final four outs for the save. Brock Peterson and Steven Tolleson were each 2-3 with a walk. Luke Hughes was 2-4.

Beloit shutout Quad Cities 5-0 behind Yohan Pino and Danny Vais. Pino improved to 12-2 with six shutout innings. He struck out five. Vais struck out four in his three innings. Eli Tintor went 2-4 with two RBI. Matt Betsill and Dwayne White were also 2-4.

Elizabethton again put up double digit runs against Bristol and won a 10-7 decision. Garrett Olson had a third straight big game against Bristol going 3-5. Danny Santiesteban was also 3-5. Danny Valencia was 2-5 with a double and three RBI. Michael Lysaught was 0-1 with three walks. Brian Kirwan started and gave up six runs on nine hits and two walks in 4.1 innings. All six runs came in the fifth. Matt Fox went 2.2 shutout innings for the win. Matt Williams gave up a run in the eighth, but Danny Hernandez finished the 9th for his 15th save.

The GCL Twins were the only affiliate that lost today. They fell 2-0 to the GCL Pirates 2-0. Derek Bromberg went the first seven innings. He gave up just one hit (no runs), walked none and struck out nine. Robert Delaney gave up two runs on two hits in his two innings for the loss. The Twins had just five hits. Matt Lawman and Joe Benson each hit a double.

Hitter of the day - Garrett Guzman, New Britain Rockcats

Pitcher of the day - Derek Bromberg, GCL Twins.

One more quick note - check out a very interesting comparison over at Stick & Ball Guy.

This is the type of post you can look for throughout the weekend. I am trying to figure out ways to have more free time without posting less information. I need to be more efficient. Any ideas are welcome. Please continue to use Comments at the bottom of the page, or feel free to e-mail me.  

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Thursday - 8:15 p.m. - The Twins dropped the final game of the Cleveland series suffering a 3-2 loss. Paul Byrd threw the complete game. Matt Garza started for the Twins. He got out of the first without allowing a run, but he had to throw 27 pitches. Two runs scored in the second, and another in the third. However, he looked great after the first two in the third got on. I definitely feel better about his ability after seeing some of this game. Justin Morneau hit home run number 31! He was the only Twins batter with two hits. The team will now start a three game set against the White Sox.

Haley Joel Osment saw dead people in the movie The Sixth Sense. He may soon be seeing some jail time! The 18 year old drove into a mailbox last month and broke a rib. Osment was arrested. He had a blood-alcohol level of .16, twice the legal limit. There was also pot in his possession! Did I mention he is only 18, not 21, the legal drinking age! And, the best part, he was driving in a 1995 Saturn! I have a 1996 Saturn. I might just be cooler than Haley Joel Osment!