Article: Twins Minor League Report (AFL Week 4): Buxton's Season Ends

[Steve Lein]

In the Arizona Fall League, it was further bad news for Byron Buxton’s season, as he injured his finger in Monday’s game, and will miss the rest of the AFL season.

 

Read on to find out how the rest of Twins prospect’s fared during the week, and how the AFL Fall Stars game went for their two participants!The big news out of the Minnesota Twins camp this past week was the naming of their next manager, Hall of Famer Paul Molitor, but that wasn’t the only notable news in the organization.

 

Byron Buxton – 1 game, 1-4 (.250), 1 K, SB (5), CS (1).

 

The play that took Buxton out of action again occurred in the ninth inning of Monday’s 3-3 tie. It was a sinking line drive that he came in on and just missed making the play.

 

Although not as serious an injury as the others that occurred this season, it’s yet another blip on what can only be described as a disappointing and lost season for the young phenom.

 

Buxton had surgery on Thursday and is expected to be ready to go for Spring Training.

 

Eddie Rosario – 4 games, 6-19 (.316), 3 R’s, 2 2B’s, RBI, 4 K’s, 1 SB (10), 1 CS (3)

 

Rosario remained the number three hitter in the Salt River Rafter’s lineup, playing left field and continuing to hit.

 

In Tuesday’s 14-2 Rafter’s win, he was 2-5 with a double. Then later in the week on Halloween he collected two more hits including another double in five at-bats, to finish the week batting .397 in league play and well atop the leaderboard.

 

Max Kepler – 3 games, 4-14 (.286), 3 R’s, 3B, 5 RBI, 1 BB’s, 4 K’s.

 

Kepler appeared in three games during the week, making two appearances in the regular right fielder rotation, and one game at designated hitter.

 

He collected a hit in each of those games, including a triple, two runs scored, and three RBI in Tuesdays 14-2 thumping the Rafters put on the Glendale Desert Dogs. He was also 2-5 in Monday’s game and carries a .289/.385/.422 triple slash line on the season in eleven games.

 

Taylor Rogers – Did not play.

 

Rogers took a line drive to his shoulder in his only start for the Rafters in week 1, and has not pitched since.

 

Jason Adam – 2 games, 2 IP, 0 R’s, 2 H’s, 2 BB’s, 0 K, Win (1-0). 6.00 ERA.

 

Adam was the first of three consecutive Twins pitchers in Monday’s tie, surrendering a double and a walk before getting out of the jam with a fly ball to Kepler.

 

His second appearance came on Friday, entering the game with one out in the sixth inning. He proceeded to hit the first batter he faced and walked the second to load the bases, but induced a groundball to pick up the final out of the inning.

 

He came back out to start the seventh and gave up a single to the leadoff man, but retired the next two batters before being removed. He picked up his first AFL win in the process and lowered his ERA in the AFL to 6.00. Since surrendering runs in his first four appearances, Adam has pitched three scoreless innings.

 

Zack Jones – 2 games, 2 IP, 0 ER, 2 H’s, 2 BB, 2 K’s, 1 Hold (4). 0.00 ERA.

 

Jones was the third of the Twins relievers on Monday and walked the first man he faced. He also gave up a single before retiring the final two batters on fly balls.

 

In the Rafters 5-4 loss on Thursday, Jones pitched the eighth inning. He would again walk the first man he faced, but then retired the next two hitters with strikeouts. A pitch got away from him and hit the next batter to put men on first and second, but he got an infield pop-up to finish the inning and pick up his fourth hold in AFL play.

 

Jake Reed – 2 games, 2 IP, 0 ER, 2 H’s, 0 BB, 1 K. 0.00 ERA.

 

Reed also made two appearances on the week, and in Monday’s tie pitched the sixth inning. He gave up a single to right field with one out but escaped any damage to his perfect ERA with a fly-ball and strikeout to end the inning.

 

He made his second appearance in Wednesday’s tie with the Surprise Saguaros, pitching the seventh inning. He surrendered a single (and then a stolen base) to top shortstop prospect Trea Turner of the San Diego Padres, but retired the other three men he faced.

 

He has now thrown eight scoreless innings in the AFL and continues to focus on improving his changeup and breaking ball in his transition from college to the minor leagues.

 

AFL Fall Stars Game:

 

With the AFL season half over, Saturday’s game was their All-Star showcase, the Fall Stars game.

 

Byron Buxton and Jake Reed were the Twins original participants, but after Buxton’s injury it was (the deserving) Eddie Rosario taking his place.

 

Rosario batted second and played left field for the East squad, going 0-2 with a walk, stolen base, and two strikeouts. He also picked up an outfield assist at second base.

 

Reed made his appearance in the seventh inning, and was credited with a hold after retiring Nick Williams and Just O’Connor, giving up a single to Jace Peterson, and fielding a ground ball off the bat of Kyle Waldrop (not the former Twin) to end the frame.

 

Their AFL-East squad won the game 6-2.

 

Notes

 

-Twins hitters combined to bat .297 with two 2B’s, one 3B, six R’s, six RBI, one BB, nine K’s, and two SB during the week.

-Twins pitchers compiled a 0.00 ERA in 6.0 IP, allowing no runs, on 6 six H’s and four BB’s, while striking out three on the week.

 

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[Dman]

Pretty darn nice Arizona performance by Rosario.  I hope he bounces back next year and we see him with the Twins in the not too distant future.

 

Nice job by the relievers as well. Hard to complain about 0 ERA's.  Should be exciting watching MILB next year.

[gbg]

I want to be more positive about Rosario, but beyond his AVG, there's not much. His OPS is only 5th in his team (excluding two guys with minimal at bats.

 

I notice he's been playing a lot of LF. Any reports on his performance out there?

[jokin]

I want to be more positive about Rosario, but beyond his AVG, there's not much. His OPS is only 5th in his team (excluding two guys with minimal at bats.

 

I notice he's been playing a lot of LF. Any reports on his performance out there?

 

Bouncing back from a disappointing AA record, a .405 OBP, 130 OPS+ and 11 SBs in 14 attempts (counting the All Star game) is nothing to so easily dismiss as "not much."   Given all #s are SSS, his AFL ISO of .044 is so out of line with his AA ISO of .158,, plus his minor league career ISO number of .197, I have to think the precipitous drop in power was a conscious decision on Rosario's part to change his approach for the league, and is not likely to reflect his power numbers too much going forward. 

 

The two sets of eyeballs on record on TD have said his defense has been good, and he's been a very good OFer coming up through the system.  Back to his offensive prospects for 2015, with all of the plate protection in the batting order he will have at Chattanooga, plus the very hitter-friendly "Launching Pad" ballpark there , I think there's an excellent chance that he can build on this AFL experience, and be a candidate for call-up no later than next June.

Edited November 4, 2014 by jokin

[Steven Buhr]

I want to be more positive about Rosario, but beyond his AVG, there's not much. His OPS is only 5th in his team (excluding two guys with minimal at bats.

 

I notice he's been playing a lot of LF. Any reports on his performance out there?

He's making good contact at times, even when the ball doesn't fall in for a hit, but I agree that you don't want to make bold predictions based on 4 weeks of work, even against AFL pitching.

 

As for his OF prowess, he has good range and a good, accurate arm. From what I saw, if he stepped in to the Twins line up, I think he could immediately become the best defensive regular LF the Twins have had in the Target Field era (granted, that's a pretty low bar to clear).

[jokin]

He's making good contact at times, even when the ball doesn't fall in for a hit, but I agree that you don't want to make bold predictions based on 4 weeks of work, even against AFL pitching.

 

As for his OF prowess, he has good range and a good, accurate arm. From what I saw, if he stepped in to the Twins line up, I think he could immediately become the best defensive regular LF the Twins have had in the Target Field era (granted, that's a pretty low bar to clear).

 

Thanks for the eyeball update, JC.  I asked these questions earilier, I'll now repeat them.  Did you see him in person in Class A ball?  With the measured and precipitous drop-off in ISO, is he working with a different coach or consciously employing a vastly different approach at the plate?  And what about this new found speed on the basepaths?  Nothing in his prior minor league career to indicate that this interesting development was going to take place.

[Steven Buhr]

Thanks for the eyeball update, JC.  I asked these questions earilier, I'll now repeat them.  Did you see him in person in Class A ball?  With the measured and precipitous drop-off in ISO, is he working with a different coach or consciously employing a vastly different approach at the plate?  And what about this new found speed on the basepaths?  Nothing in his prior minor league career to indicate that this interesting development was going to take place.

I saw him play a handful of games for Beloit in Cedar Rapids back in... 2012 maybe? Sound right?

 

He was in his first year of trying to learn to play 2nd base at the time and I was more focused on that than I was watching him hit. I don't recall being overwhelmed with his prowess at the plate (but then he had Sano and Vargas on the same team and it was tough to be overwhelmed by anyone else when you watched those two). I thought he was smaller than I expected him to be (again, maybe he just looked small compared to the two other guys).

 

My first thought when I saw him in Arizona was that he had really filled out his body (chest and arms).

 

As for the aggressiveness on the basepaths, I suppose we could choose to be optimists and give credit to Molitor. I think Berardino quoted Rosario as saying Molitor worked with him a lot in 2013. Maybe that was primarily on his infield footwork, but I do know that when I talked to Molitor during his trip to Cedar Rapids in 2013, we talked about base-stealing some. I'll paste what part of what he said at that time. (Bear in mind, our subject at the time was Byron Buxton, not Rosario, but I guess I wouldn't be surprised if he had similar discussions with Rosario):

 

There’s two parts of base stealing: The mechanical, finding the best way to get your body to accelerate from a standstill position; and then there’s the mental side of understanding how they’re trying to slow you down and picking good pitches, good counts, reading pitchers pick-off moves, all those type of things.

 

A lot of times, when you get caught is when you should learn the most. Whether you didn’t get a good jump or you ran on a pitch out or you didn’t anticipate the guy going home or you were tentative. There’s a lot of ways to learn to get better. So it’s a process. The more you do it, the better you get at it.

 

We’re glad to see he’s out running. At least not having fear in athat area to this point.

 

It also could simply be that the Twins told Rosario they wanted him to work on that aspect of his game in the AFL.

[jokin]

I saw him play a handful of games for Beloit in Cedar Rapids back in... 2012 maybe? Sound right?

 

He was in his first year of trying to learn to play 2nd base at the time and I was more focused on that than I was watching him hit. I don't recall being overwhelmed with his prowess at the plate (but then he had Sano and Vargas on the same team and it was tough to be overwhelmed by anyone else when you watched those two). I thought he was smaller than I expected him to be (again, maybe he just looked small compared to the two other guys).

 

My first thought when I saw him in Arizona was that he had really filled out his body (chest and arms).

 

As for the aggressiveness on the basepaths, I suppose we could choose to be optimists and give credit to Molitor. I think Berardino quoted Rosario as saying Molitor worked with him a lot in 2013. Maybe that was primarily on his infield footwork, but I do know that when I talked to Molitor during his trip to Cedar Rapids in 2013, we talked about base-stealing some. I'll paste what part of what he said at that time. (Bear in mind, our subject at the time was Byron Buxton, not Rosario, but I guess I wouldn't be surprised if he had similar discussions with Rosario):

 

There’s two parts of base stealing: The mechanical, finding the best way to get your body to accelerate from a standstill position; and then there’s the mental side of understanding how they’re trying to slow you down and picking good pitches, good counts, reading pitchers pick-off moves, all those type of things.

 

A lot of times, when you get caught is when you should learn the most. Whether you didn’t get a good jump or you ran on a pitch out or you didn’t anticipate the guy going home or you were tentative. There’s a lot of ways to learn to get better. So it’s a process. The more you do it, the better you get at it.

 

We’re glad to see he’s out running. At least not having fear in athat area to this point.

 

It also could simply be that the Twins told Rosario they wanted him to work on that aspect of his game in the AFL.

 

Good stuff, JC.  Sounds like more of TKs passionate and cerebral approach to training for the finer points of the game- and perhaps Molitor has impressed himself positively upon the prospect.  And as far as Rosario working on his base-stealing?  I'd say, Mission Accomplished!.  He's currently on a pace for at least 80 SBs in a full season- and at a 79% clip- he's obviously a good study!

 

As I stated, starting him out next April in Chattanooga- in that park- with that lineup- there are strong reasons to think he could have a break-out early season and quickly insinuate himself in the OF somewhere with the Twins.

[ashbury]

Rogers took a line drive to his shoulder in his only start for the Rafters in week 1, and has not pitched since.

 

It was actually a UFO abduction.  I don't know how the shoulder thing keeps coming up; I fully expect to see it in his scouting reports for the rest of his career.

[DocBauer]

Very optimistic on both Rosario as well as Kepler. I know it's SSS, but considering the shortened and disappointing season Rosario had, seeing him participate in a AA or AA+ environment has me encouraged he's returning to form. Everyone is talking Chattanooga to begin 2015, but I wouldn't rule out Rochester. And I've always believed, nothing but a feeling, that while no slugger, his HR power would start to come back with physical maturity, experience, and simply a chance to play at a comfortable level. He's actually been promoted pretty quickly in his career.

 

I also have a gut feeling the light is going to come in for Kepler as well. There just seems to be so much natural talent and ability there for him to not turn a corner one of these days.

[jokin]

Very optimistic on both Rosario as well as Kepler. I know it's SSS, but considering the shortened and disappointing season Rosario had, seeing him participate in a AA or AA+ environment has me encouraged he's returning to form.

 

Everyone is talking Chattanooga to begin 2015, but I wouldn't rule out Rochester.

 

And I've always believed, nothing but a feeling, that while no slugger, his HR power would start to come back with physical maturity, experience, and simply a chance to play at a comfortable level. He's actually been promoted pretty quickly in his career. I also have a gut feeling the light is going to come in for Kepler as well. There just seems to be so much natural talent and ability there for him to not turn a corner one of these days.

 

Hard to see Rosario moved up to Rochester based on the club's usual history of promoting only after mastery of a level- plus his off-field issues have to still be a consideration.  And to be perfectly honest, the move to Chattanooga gives the guys more accustomed to playing in warm weather a great chance to get it going at the plate a lot sooner.  For example, on this date, last April, the high temperature in Chattanooga was 79 and the low was 63, by contrast, in New Britain, the high temp was below the low temp in Chattanooga, at only 59 degrees, with a frigid low temp of 30.  

 

Sooo...  more warm-weather games in the Southern League, a lot less postponed games, Chattanooga is the way to go to get the best prospects cranked up sooner for a possible major league call-up. 

Edited November 4, 2014 by jokin