Samuel Deduno and his effective wildness (101 pitches, 50 strikes) held the Red Sox scoreless over six innings. The bullpen finished it out and the Twins offense provided 5 runs to complete their first shutout of the Red Sox in Fenway in almost 16 years.

In what had been speculated for months and basically confirmed by Terry Ryan on Sunday, 2010 1^st round pick, Alex Wimmers, had surgery today to repair a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his elbow, better known as “Tommy John Surgery”.

Ironically, Kyle Gibson, who had the surgery himself about eleven months ago is working his way back and is throwing it in the mid-90s. True, both players lost a year of development, but elbow surgery isn’t the “kiss of death” that it used to be.

As I promised a few weeks ago, I posted my edition of the Top 50 Prospects in the Twins system. There is a lot of good debate that follows it up. I would encourage you to use what you've read on these daily updates to form your own Top Howevermanyyou'recomfortabledoing List.

I'm excited to be joining Seth and Travis tomorrow and Saturday in Beloit. Hopefully we'll have something insightful to offer you after the weekend is over.

And now, Thursday’s action:

ROCHESTER 4, TOLEDO 1

Box score

Liam Hendriks continues to tease with his dominance in AAA. Seven innings, seven strikeouts, no walks, four hits, one run. His last outing – which was brutal – was quickly forgotten with this phenomenal start.

Kyle Waldrop picked up his fourth save by pitching two scoreless innings.

Chris Parmelee continues to mash. After hitting a home run tonight, he has six in his last seven games.

Evan Bigley hit his first AAA home run. Rene Rivera added a triple. All other starters added a hit except for newcomer Eduardo Escobar, who followed up a 3-hit game by going 0-for-5.

Pedro Hernandez, the other half of the Liriano trade, will be making his Wings debut on Monday.

NEW BRITAIN 3 , BOWIE 5

Box score

All of the Rock Cats offense came from three bats: Chris Colabello, Deibinson Romero and Dan Rohlfing.

Colabello, who also doubled, and Romero, who had three hits and a walk, hit back-to-back home runs in the 4^th inning. Rohlfing went 2-for-4 with a double.

The “Big 3” of Aaron Hicks, Joe Benson and Oswaldo Arcia combined to go 0-for-12 with 5 strikeouts.

Steven Hirschfeld went five innings. He allowed four runs (three earned) on seven hits. He walked four and struck out two.

The bullpen of Matt Hauser (2 IP) and Dakota Watts (1 IP) each allowed two hits. Hauser allowed a run, walked one batter and also struck one out.

FT. MYERS 2, DAYTONA 8

Box score

Josmil Pinto’s solo HR in the second inning tied the game. That was tonight’s highlight. Lance Ray had a double. Anderson Hidalgo and Andy Leer added singles.

Pat Dean gave up three longballs over five innings. He didn’t strike out any. A walk and seven hits resulted in six runs.

Nelvin Fuentes continued his streak of giving up runs while striking out a lot of batters. Tonight it was two runs, three strikeouts, two innings.

Ricky Bowen struck out one in an inning.

BELOIT 5, KANE COUNTY 7

Box score

It definitely wasn’t “Pretty at Pohlman Field” night in Beloit. And that has very little to do with the fact Seth was in attendance. The Snappers did make a charge in the end, but it was too little, too late.

Tyler Jones struggled through four innings. He allowed eight hits, a walk and threw a wild pitch. He allowed six runs (five earned) while only striking out one.

He was replaced by Steven Gruver, who had another strong relief performance allowing only one hit in three innings. Corey Williams allowed a run on three hits in two innings.

Down six entering the home half of the ninth, the Snappers loaded the bases with walk, walk, single and no outs. After Wang-Wei Lin struck out for the first out, Eddie Rosario singled in two runs. Miguel Sano walked and Kennys Vargas followed that up with a two-run single. The tying runner is on first with one out. Unfortunately, Drew Leachman and then Stephen Wickens flew out to end the game.

Rosario (one double) and Vargas both had two hits and drove in two runs. Sano had a double as well. The team batted 3-for-18 with runners in scoring position.

ELIZABETHTON 5, BURLINGTON 15

Box score

Looking closely at this game, the song “Ugly” started playing in my head. It’s not a good song; and this wasn’t a good game. I won’t be offended if you choose to not read this recap.

Hudson Boyd, who, coincidentally, has a similar body build to Bubba Sparxxx, had his second consecutive bad outing. He lasted only 3 1/3 innings, surrendering nine hits, three runs and two walks. He struck out two, but also allowed two home runs, including one to Byron Buxton-ish super-athlete Bubba Starling.

Kaleb Merck, who called draft day a “terrible day”, probably has worse things to say about today’s outing. He got three outs, but not before giving up five runs (all earned). Andrew Ferreira struck out three in 1 2/3 innings and didn’t allow any runs. Travis Huber, however, allowed six runs in 1 2/3 innings. As if that wasn’t quite enough, Travis Huber surrendered another run while pitching 1 1/3 innings.

The batters weren’t their typical selves, not that it would have mattered. Niko Goodrum had three hits. Jhonatan Arias had a two hits (one double). Josh Hendricks had a double and Max Kepler drove in two.

And, in one last example of ugly, all of the Burlington batters had multiple hits. The 8- and 9- hitters each had four.

GCL TWINS 0, GCL ORIOLES 8

Box score

There’s really not much good to say about this game today, so there isn’t going to be much said at all.

Javier Pimentel and B.K. Santy each had doubles. Jose Ramirez and Kelvin Ortiz added singles.

Byron Buxton went 0-for-4 and committed an error in the 7^th that helped lead to four unearned runs.

Sam Gibbons had three strong innings. He allowed a run, striking out three. Hung Yi Chen struck out two over two. Markus Solbach allowed five runs (one earned) in two innings. Carson Goldsmith allowed two runs in two innings.

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Players of the Day for Thursday, August 2, 2012

Hitters of the Day – Deibinson Romero

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Pitcher of the Day – Liam Hendriks

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A Look Ahead – Friday, August 3, 2012 Schedule

Rochester at Toledo – RHP Shairon Martis (1-1, 7.88)

New Britain vs Altoona – LHP Aaron Thompson (3-6, 5.81)

Ft. Myers at St. Lucie – RHP Matt Summers (1-1, 3.60)

Beloit vs Kane County – LHP Matt Tomshaw (2-2, 3.73)

Elizabethton at Bristol – RHP Angel Mata (3-1, 2.29)

GCL Twins vs GCL Orioles – TBA

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If you have any questions on the Twins minor league system, players, teams, etc., leave them in the Comments and we’ll try to answer them! Comments also welcome.