Article: Twins Minor League Starting Pitcher Of The Month - August 2015

[Seth Stohs]

It’s hard to believe that it’s September already. The full minor league seasons will be complete on Labor Day. Both short-season affiliates are now done with their seasons as well. But before we start thinking too much about the 2015 season, let’s take a look at some of the top performers. Today we start with the starting pitchers. As Terry Ryan told local media on Tuesday night, he saw a lot of great performances in the last week while in Rochester.Before getting to the Top 5 starters for the month of August, here are a few starters who just missed the cut but deserve recognition.

 

Honorable Mention

• LHP – Luke Westphal – Ft. Myers – 5 GS, 1-2, 1.75 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 25.2 IP, 21 H, 6 BB, 22 K
• RHP – Kohl Stewart – Ft. Myers – 4 GS, 2-1, 2.39 ERA, 1.18 WHIP, 26.1 IP, 25 H, 6 BB, 16 K
• RHP – Andro Cutura – Elizabethton – 5 GS, 1-1, 1.75 ERA, 1.25 WHIP, 25.2 IP, 25 H, 7 BB, 22 K
• LHP – Lachlan Wells – GCL Twins – 4 GS, 3-1, 1.50 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 18.0 IP, 12 H, 5 BB, 17 K

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Number 5 – Cedar Rapids Kernels – RHP Keaton Steele – 5 G, 4-1, 2.57 ERA, 0.80 WHIP, 35.0 IP, 26 H, 2 BB, 22 K

Third time is the charm. After being drafted by the Rays in 2012 and the Royals in 2013, he signed when the Twins used their eighth-round pick in 2014 on the University of Missouri right-hander. He went 2-1 with a 2.93 ERA in 19 games out of the bullpen for Elizabethton last year. He began this season in extended spring training, but in mid-May he came up and did well out of the rotation. He missed three weeks in July, but has returned strong. In August, opponents hit just .210/.238/.298 (.537). He was 5-5 in quality starts. Overall this year, he is 6-4 with a 3.33 ERA in 14 games (13 starts) for the Kernels.

Number 4 – Rochester Red Wings – LHP Logan Darnell – 5 G, 3-1, 2.25 ERA, 0.94 WHIP, 32.0 IP, 23 H, 7 BB, 26 K

Darnell was the Twins sixth-round draft pick in 2010 out of Kentucky. He made seven appearances, including four starts, for the Twins in 2014. He went to spring training with the Twins this year as a bullpen arm, a role he held through the season’s first four months. However, he made a spot start early in August and stayed in the rotation and put up tremendous numbers. He gave up two runs in 28 innings during his four starts. His third start, he threw a complete game shutout. In his final start of the month, he gave up one run over eight innings. Opponents hit just .195/.238/.280 (.518) against him, making a September call up a possibility.

Number 3 – Rochester Red Wings – LHP Pat Dean - 6 GS, 4-2, 2.28 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 43.1 IP, 37 H, 7 BB, 25 K

Dean was the Twins third-round pick in 2010 out of Boston College. We Got To Know the southpaw last week in a story in which he talks about his impressive, surprising, successful 2015 season. Overall, he’s 11-11 with a 2.91 ERA in 26 starts and 170 innings. Opponents hit just 233/.265/.277 (.542) against him. His monthly numbers are more impressive when you consider that he gave up seven runs in six innings in one start. However, he threw two complete game shutouts and an eight-inning shutout in the month as well.

Number 2 – Rochester Red Wings – RHP JO Berrios - 6 GS, 2-0, 2.03 ERA, 0.83 WHIP, 40.0 IP, 30 H, 3 BB, 48 K

I think it’s fair to say that JO Berrios has been the biggest topic among Twins fans, with the exception of one Miguel Sano. He continued to put up great numbers through the month of August. Just yesterday, GM Terry Ryan finally announced the Berrios would not be getting called up to the Twins this year. Instead, he will head home for the offseason. He made six starts and the final two were in front of the Twins GM. His worst start, statistically, of the month came against Scranton/Wilkes Barre when he gave up four runs on six hits in six innings. You may recall, he had a no-hitter through six innings in that game. In other words, take away that one inning and the numbers look even more astonishing. On the season, between AA and AAA, he is now 13-5 with a 2.90 ERA. In 26 starts and 161.1 innings, he has walked just 37 while striking out 170 batters, the most in minor league baseball. We’ve all seen

, and when I wrote about him being the Twins Daily Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Year in 2014, teammates raved about him and his work ethic. He even did an interview for Twins Daily in both English and Spanish.

And the Twins Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Month is:

 

Chattanooga Lookouts – LHP Brett Lee - 6 GS, 5-0, 1.30 ERA, 0.91 WHIP, 41.2 IP, 29 H, 9 BB, 27 K

Lee was drafted by the Pirates in 2009 and the Dodgers in 2010 before signing with the Twins as their 10^th round pick in 2011. He was an All-Star in the Florida State League last year, but he missed time with injury. He began this season late again and made six starts for the Miracle before moving up to AA Chattanooga. He struggled some in his transition to the Southern League. Not in terms of runs allowed, but he wasn’t getting through five innings most starts. That changed in August. All six of his starts this month were quality starts. During the month, he reduced his ERA from 4.25 to 2.89.

Twins Daily caught up with Lee following his tremendous August performance. Asked if there was a difficult adjustment from the Florida State League to the Southern League, he said, “It was a little tougher adjusting to the smaller strike zone. The hitters are more disciplined at the plate. They have better approaches and know what they’re trying to do. That made me have to make good pitches more consistently, and get ahead in the count.”

So to progress, he had to make some adjustments. “I’d say a huge factor for me was lengthening my stride, following through and developing a slider.”

He was quick to give credit to his pitching coach with the Lookouts, Stu Cliburn. “Cliburn helped me a lot with it. He showed me some new grips with it, and some things I can do to make sure I can repeat my delivery.”

It was a strong month for Brett Lee, but also for several members of the Triple-A Rochester rotation. It’s exciting to see so many strong performances in the upper levels of the Twins minor league system.

 

 

So there you have it. The top pitchers in the Minnesota Twins farm system in August. What do you think? How would you rank these starting pitchers?

 

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[TRex]

At first I was going to decry "nepotism!" in your choice of #1, because you have always had a soft spot for Lee. I was really surprised at how great his August was! I guess I pronounced judgement a little too early and stopped watching for development.

 

Like SD's article on Sean Miller the other day, I am happy that TD doesn't let these performances don't slip through the cracks. Thanks for all your hard work.

[Seth Stohs]

I'll be honest... I thought JO Berrios was the hands-down choice when I started looking at this... but then I went side-by-side between Lee and Berrios and it was closer than I thought, and I thought that Lee deserved it. (though I wouldn't argue with Berrios arguments either)

 

Thank you for the compliment. It's important and one of our focuses, not to solely promote and write about the big names. Enough guys get up in different paths and frankly, they all deserve to be written about when they perform.

[Mike Sixel]

Great month for those guys! Thanks for all the work Seth.

[goulik]

Well, dang it, you stole my thunder! I wrote about Lee as my adopt a prospect last night but then I lost my write up before I posted it and went to bed. I was trying to take partial credit as he is undefeated as my prospect but alas, he didn't give me any credit...

[DAM DC Twins Fans]

Brett was my AAP in 2013 and 2014. I have still been following him closely in 2015 and noticed that he turned his season around in August (like he did second half of 2013 for Kernels). I know he had a great month--still surprised you named him pitcher of month over Berrios--don't disagree--don't have your expertise but I think I would have gone with Berrios.

 

And yes very disappointed Berrios wont see time with Twins in Sept. even to just get feel of life in the show.

[bluechipper]

I think you have to give it to Berrios because of the strikeout numbers.

 

By the way, does anyone else always get Pat Dean and Brett Lee mixed up when reading about them? They just seem so similar with the single-syllable names and both being lefties with mediocre strikeout rates.

[goulik]

I might lean more towards Berrios given the strike outs, walks, and WHIP but Lee didn't have even the "one bad inning" in the whole month. I can see the argument both ways

[mikelink45]

Who would be the Major League starting pitcher of the month?  What a question.  We sure don't need these minor leaguers during this playoff run when we have such quality to run out each night. 

[DocBauer]

While pure stuff and potential would probably have Gonsalves and a healthy and fully re-habed Thorpe as easily the top LHSP options in the organization, it does seem as though there are a number of other, decent LH options in the organization.

 

Sure would be nice if at least one of them could make the transition to reliable LH bullpen arm.

[jlknapp]

48 strikeouts and 3 walks in 40 innings vs 27 and 9 in 41?  Good month Brett!  Great month Jose!  Did TR help make this choice?