Article: Twins Minor League Report (4/11): Offensive! (And Not In A Good Way)

[Jeremy Nygaard]

Hopefully you’ve all gotten a chance to warm up after sitting in the less-than-ideal weather at Target Field Monday for the Twins Home Opener. If you haven’t properly warmed up, or if your mood towards the parent club has gone cold, grab your cup of joe and learn all about what happened in the Twins farm system on the first Monday of the minor league schedule.It wasn't a very productive day for the affiliates as all three teams that played put a tally in the loss column.

 

RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester vs Lehigh Valley

 

The Red Wings (2-1) issued a press release on Monday afternoon informing fans that their game against the IronPigs would be postponed due to rain. The two clubs will face off in a doubleheader on Tuesday beginning at 4:05 pm. Both games will be of the seven-inning variety.

 

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 1, Biloxi 3

Box Score

 

In a rematch of the 2015 Southern League Championship Series, the Lookouts (1-4) came out on the wrong end in this match-up, losing four games in the five-game set.

 

Ryan Eades gave up the first run of the game after allowing a single and issuing a walk to start the third inning. Biloxi followed with two sacrifices to open the scoring. Eades closed out his evening with three scoreless frames to finish with a very respectable line: six innings, three hits, one run, two walks and three strikeouts.

 

Offensively, the Lookouts were able to push only one run across the plate and that was in the fifth inning. Engelb Vielma, who reached on a one-out single, was driven in on a single by Leo Reginatto. Those two singles were two of the seven singles produced today. Chattanooga had no extra-base hits. Daniel Palka led the lineup with two hits.

 

Jake Reed came into a tie game and hit the first batter he faced. After allowing a single to the next batter, Reed allowed a one-out, two-run triple. It appeared that center fielder Zach Granite had a play on the ball but may have misjudged how much room he had between himself and the wall. The ball deflected off the wall and skittered away from Granite. Regardless of whether he should have caught it or not, the go-ahead run would have scored either way. Reed recorded five more outs despite only facing four batters - thanks to a double-play and Mitch Garver erasing a walk with a pick-off from behind the dish. Reed’s line in the loss: two innings, two hits, two runs, one walk, one hit batter, no strikeouts. Reed has allowed two runs in both of his 2016 outings.

 

MIRACLE MATTERS

Fort Myers 0, Brevard County 2

Box Score

 

After splitting the four-game season-opening home-and-home series with Bradenton, the Miracle dropped the first game of their four-game set with Brevard County.

 

The offense was able to get runners on base, picking up eight hits (one more than their opponent), but a lack of extra base hits (none), walks (none), hits with runners in scoring position (0-for-4) and an abundance of strikeouts (ten) prevented the club from getting any of those runners around the bases and to home plate. TJ White and Alex Real each collected two hits.

 

Felix Jorge took the loss in his high-A debut, but not by much fault of his own. He allowed six runners to reach (five hits and a walk) in six innings, two of who scored. Jorge struck out seven. According to Brice Zimmerman, Jorge was “sitting 92-94” with his fastball and hit 97, also citing a “nice slider and workable change-up.”

 

Brian Gilbert (1.1 IP) and Luke Westphal (1.2 IP) combined to finish the game. Each allowed one hit and each struck out one. Gilbert also issued a walk.

 

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 0, Quad City 9

Box Score

 

The Kernels dropped their first game of the season and did so without putting up much of a fight.

 

Chris Cavaness (single), LaMonte Wade (single, five-game hitting streak), Zander Wiel (hit, walk) and Rafael Valera (hit by pitch) provided all the offense. Again, no extra-base hits. Only one walk. And 0-for-3 with runners in scoring position.

 

To add insult to… well, insult, the Kernels committed four errors, including Jermaine Palacios’s second of the season. Valera was also caught stealing twice.

 

Dereck Rodriguez took the rock and pitched six innings. He allowed eight hits and five runs while striking out six. Kuo Hua Lo allowed three unearned runs in one inning, striking one out. Michael Theofanopoulos allowed a run in his inning of work.

 

It would be nice if there were a positive or two to work into this the recap… about the most positive part is that the Kernels have a noon game on Tuesday, so they can wash the stink of this game out of their memories.

 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

 

Pitcher of the Day – Ryan Eades (6 IP, 3 H, R, 2 BB, 3 K)

Hitter of the Day – Daniel Palka (2-for-4, no strikeouts)

 

There was not a single extra base hit, nor a single RBI on Monday. Palka wins by default, really. He was the only hitter who collected multiple singles and didn’t strike out. Ouch.

 

TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

 

Lehigh Valley @ Rochester (4:05PM CST) – LHP Logan Darnell (0-0, -.-- ERA)

Lehigh Valley @ Rochester (following game one) – RHP David Martinez (0-0, -.-- ERA)

Jackson @ Chattanooga (5:15PM CST) – LHP Jason Wheeler (0-1, 5.40 ERA)

Brevard County @ Fort Myers (6:05PM CST) – LHP Randy Rosario (0-0, -.-- ERA)

Cedar Rapids @ Kane County (NOON CST) – RHP Miles Nordgren (0-0, -.-- ERA)

 

Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Monday’s games.

 

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[Old Twins Cap]

Good night for Twins fans to go to bed early.

 

And wake up to a new day.

 

Wowsa. 

[Seth Stohs]

 

Good night for Twins fans to go to bed early.

 

And wake up to a new day.

 

Wowsa. 

 

I slept from like 7:00 - 8:30... Woke up to the end of these games. Should have just gone back to bed.

 

However, three more starts tonight. All three went six innings. So far, Twins minor leaguers have made 18 starts. 17 of them have gone five or more innings. The only one that didn't go 5 innings was Tyler Duffey and that's because he had only gone 4 innings (no runs) before the rains came on Opening Night. 

[clutterheart]

One positive is Jorge's performance. I am liking what I see from some emerging pitchers

[Tommygun921]

Jeremy....what's the report on Palka? Do scouts believe he can cut down on the Ks and become a productive MLBer? I'd love to see it happen considering what they gave up to get him. Could be a major steal.

[Jeremy Nygaard]

 

Jeremy....what's the report on Palka? Do scouts believe he can cut down on the Ks and become a productive MLBer? I'd love to see it happen considering what they gave up to get him. Could be a major steal.

 

The swing-and-miss is always going to be in his game. With his swing, you're going to get power and you're going to get swing-and-miss. The biggest question is whether he's going to make enough contact to have value as he moves forward. This is a big year for him as it's the most advanced pitchers he'll have seen to date.

[Bob Sacamento]

 

MIRACLE MATTERS
Fort Myers 0, Brevard County 2

After splitting the four-game season-opening home-and-home series with Bradenton, the Miracle dropped the first game of their four-game set with Brevard County.

The offense was able to get runners on base, picking up eight hits (one more than their opponent), but a lack of extra base hits (none), walks (none), hits with runners in scoring position (0-for-4) and an abundance of strikeouts (ten) prevented the club from getting any of those runners around the bases and to home plate. TJ White and Alex Real each collected two hits.
 

I just got to mention that in the Bottom of the 4th, TJ White tried tagging from second on a deep flyball to right from Swim when the Manatee RF Clint Coulter threw an absolute ROPE on the money to gun down White at third.  Needed a perfect throw to get him and it was!  Video of it is circulating somewhere...

[Seth Stohs]

 

One positive is Jorge's performance. I am liking what I see from some emerging pitchers

 

Easily the most consistent pitcher in the Twins farm system last year and a nice star to this season.

[jokin]

 

Easily the most consistent pitcher in the Twins farm system last year and a nice star to this season.

 

What do you think, Seth?

Has Jorge gotten entirely past his previous years of struggles and inconsistencies?

Has he re-positioned himself enough to finally make a move into Top 10-15 Twins prospect status?

Has he had any uptick in velocity?

Is he physically strong enough to become a major league SP candidate?

[Seth Stohs]

 

What do you think, Seth?

Has Jorge gotten entirely past his previous years of struggles and inconsistencies?

Has he re-positioned himself enough to finally make a move into Top 10-15 Twins prospect status?

Has he had any uptick in velocity?

Is he physically strong enough to become a major league SP candidate?

 

Some people, whose opinions I respect, think that Jorge's struggle in 2014 in Cedar Rapids was an inability to figure out how to pitch in the cold that he had never played in before. He got over that last year.

 

Right now he's in most people's 20-25 range for Twins prospects, so another solid season of starting in Ft. Myers and he could easily move into the 10-15 range.

 

Based on what Jeremy wrote in the article, his velocity is definitely where it would need to be. It's up from where it was a year ago.

 

He's very thin... but he got to 142 innings last year. Can he get to 165 this year? He definitely didn't get much bigger since last season, so we'll likely find out this year. But, Chris Sale is able to throw lots and lots of innings every year, so I think Jorge can do it.