Article: Twins Minor League Report (5/24): Jay Sets Career Mark

[Cody Christie]

Baseball's rich history is something that draws fans to the game. Records are meant to be set and records are meant to be broken. That's all part of the game.

 

There were a few records on the line as Tuesday's action got underway. Randy LeBlanc entered his start with the Kernels in the midst of an impressive scoreless streak. He hadn't allowed a run in 28 innings before taking the mound tonight. Tyler Jay has also been improving for Fort Myers and he would do something that he had never done before.

 

Would LeBlanc's streak continue? What kind of record did Jay set? Read on to find out.RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester 3, Indianapolis 4

Box Score

Roster Moves: Left-handed pitcher Sean Burnett was signed by Minnesota and assigned to Rochester. Infielder Jorge Polanco was optioned to Rochester. Outfielder Max Kepler and left-handed pitcher Dan Runzler were placed on the disabled list. Kepler has a left groin strain and Runzler has a right oblique strain.

 

Rochester tried to rally late in this game but they didn't have enough steam left to get it done. Byron Buxton had given the Wings an early 1-0 lead with his fourth home run of the season. Kennys Vargas walked twice in two appearances and also cranked his seventh home run. His 26 walks were tied with Richie Shaffer for the league lead coming into play on Tuesday. Jorge Polanco collected his fourth triple and trails Max Kepler by two for the league lead.

 

Andrew Albers was tagged for three runs on four hits with three strikeouts and three walks. It was his first loss since rejoining the Red Wings. Marcus Walden allowed one earned run on two hits. Sean Burnett made his Rochester debut and allowed one base runner on a walk while striking out one.

 

The Red Wings drop to 25-20 with the loss and it was only the team's second loss in their last seven contests. Rochester is a half game back in the International League North Division as Scranton/WB has played one more game than the Wings and got a win.

 

MIRACLE MATTERS

Ft. Myers 1, Palm Beach 3

Box Score

Fort Myers took an early 1-0 in the first inning and they managed to do this without getting a hit. Logan Wade started the frame with a walk before advancing to second on a deep fly-out. The next batter was Nick Gordon and he grounded to the shortstop who bobbled the ball and Wade was waved around to score the team's only run. Chris Paul went 3-for-5 and Wade reached base three times including the team's only extra-base hit, a double.

 

Tyler Jay struck out a career-high eight batters as the Miracle combined to collect a season high 14 strikeouts. Jay went five frames and scattered six hits on his way to allowing a pair of earned runs. Brandon Peterson allowed one run but struck out four in two innings. Yorman Landa and Todd Van Steensel finished the final two frames by putting zeros on the board.

 

The Miracle dropped to 24-22 after leaving 11 men on base and going 0-for-9 with runners in scoring position. Fort Myers has struggled over the last week as they have lost six of their last eight games. Even with the recent struggles, the Florida State League South is a mess as every team is within three games of first place.

 

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 4, Burlington 1

Box Score

The streak was bound to end but Randy LeBlanc did his best to stretch it as far as the Bees would allow it to go. LeBlanc saw his scoreless streak stretched to 34 innings before the Bees pushed across a run. He finished the night by allowing one run in seven innings with three strikeouts. He's the first Midwest League pitcher to reach six wins. Anthony McIver earned his first save, a two inning version, with five strikeouts.

 

Brian Olson and Nelson Molina both had multi-hit nights with each player collecting a double. The Kernels had five doubles on the night with Luis Arraez, Daniel Kihle, and Sean Miller collecting the other three. Monday's walk-off hero Zander Wiel went 1-for-3 while Jermaine Palacios hit his first triple of the season.

 

Cedar Rapids improves to eight games above .500 with the win as they have a two game edge on the Clinton LumberKings for the top spot in the Midwest League Western Division. The Kernels have won six of their last seven games.

 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day- Randy LeBlanc, Cedar Rapids Kernels

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day- Kennys Vargas, Rochester Red Wings

 

WEDNESDAY'S PROBABLE STARTERS

Rochester vs. Indianapolis (6:05 CST)- LHP Jason Wheeler (2-1, 1.65 ERA)

Chattanooga vs. Tenessee (6:15 CST)- RHP D.J. Baxendale (3-5, 3.11 ERA)

Fort Myers vs. Palm Beach (6:05 CST)- RHP Keaton Steele (1-4, 4.31 ERA)

Cedar Rapids @ Burlington (6:30 CST)- LHP Sam Clay (3-1, 1.10 ERA)

 

Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Tuesday games.

 

Click here to view the article

[jokin]

Buxton in May:

 

.358/.419/.597/(1.016) 4 HR 8 XBH

 

Vargas in May:

 

.329/.457/.616/(1.074) 6 HR 9 XBH BB/K= 18/17

[roger]

Is great to see Vargas having a very good month after an ugly April.  If he continues to hit, and walk, as he has he will give the Twins a good problem to think about.  Do they bring him up?  If Park continues to struggle they could send him to Rochester where he wouldn't be as over matched as he has been for awhile. 

 

If Vargas comes up and hits well, the Twins will need to look hard at trading someone.  Considering Mauer is not in that discussion, would it be Vargas or Park?

[Thrylos]

I think that the Twins should try Vargas at RF

/sarcasm

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

I think that the Twins should try Vargas at RF

/sarcasm

I was actually wondering that about Park (getting some outfield reps), although the last week suggests maybe he's not quite fully established offensively yet to go messing around with his position...

Edited May 25, 2016 by spycake

[Badsmerf]

Very nice to see Buxton continuing to do well. It is only a matter of time until he puts it together with the twins.

[Thrylos]

 

I was actually wondering that about Park (getting some outfield reps), although the last week suggests maybe he's not quite fully established offensively yet to go messing around with his position...

 

Park is the best fielding first baseman this team has in any level in the organization from A up (pretty sad situation, but it is what it is.)  He should be starting there.   The guy who should change position (LF is screaming) is Mauer.  Trade Plouffe allowing Sano to play where he belongs, slot Vargas to DH and you are set.

However, we all know that the people who are ru(i)nning the Twins, will not do it.

[Vanimal46]

Good for Jay, He seems to be handling the transition to starter very well so far. 

We say this every week, but what exactly does LeBlanc have to do to get the call to Fort Myers? 

[Mike Sixel]

 

Good for Jay, He seems to be handling the transition to starter very well so far. 

We say this every week, but what exactly does LeBlanc have to do to get the call to Fort Myers? 

 

They have to promote one of the guys from FtM.....but apparently it is against the rules to do so.

[jokin]

 

Park is the best fielding first baseman this team has in any level in the organization from A up (pretty sad situation, but it is what it is.)  He should be starting there.   The guy who should change position (LF is screaming) is Mauer.  Trade Plouffe allowing Sano to play where he belongs, slot Vargas to DH and you are set.

However, we all know that the people who are ru(i)nning the Twins, will not do it.

 

Hah. LF is Screaming? No Joe there as long as we have Robbie Ballgame!

[jokin]

 

 

Honest to God, how hard is it for you to add to the picture caption who the person in the photo is????  I'm not exactly the casual fan and since in the lede you discuss Tyler Jay and the guy is clearly pitching for Ft Myers I can put two and two together, but this would literally take you 5 seconds and then even a casual fan would know who in the heck is in the photo.  if you can take time to credit the source of the photo, you can add the player's name.  If I was Tyler Jay, I'd want the picture captioned so that the fans knew what I looked like.  Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy...

 

Honest to God, how hard is it for you to add to the picture caption who the person in the photo is????  I'm not exactly the casual fan and since in the lede you discuss Tyler Jay and the guy is clearly pitching for Ft Myers I can put two and two together, but this would literally take you 5 seconds and then even a casual fan would know who in the heck is in the photo.  if you can take time to credit the source of the photo, you can add the player's name.  If I was Tyler Jay, I'd want the picture captioned so that the fans knew what I looked like.  Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy...

 

They'll probably dock Cody a day's pay for that intolerable indiscretion. And maybe a fine, too...

[Seth Stohs]

 

Honest to God, how hard is it for you to add to the picture caption who the person in the photo is????  I'm not exactly the casual fan and since in the lede you discuss Tyler Jay and the guy is clearly pitching for Ft Myers I can put two and two together, but this would literally take you 5 seconds and then even a casual fan would know who in the heck is in the photo.  if you can take time to credit the source of the photo, you can add the player's name.  If I was Tyler Jay, I'd want the picture captioned so that the fans knew what I looked like.  Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy...

 

Alrighty then... check it now.

[Taildragger8791]

 

Buxton in May:

 

.358/.419/.597/(1.016) 4 HR 8 XBH

 

Vargas in May:

 

.329/.457/.616/(1.074) 6 HR 9 XBH BB/K= 18/17

 

I'm not sold on Buxton being ready considering he still has an extreme K/BB ratio which was the #1 thing he needed to address in the minors. In May he has 15 Ks to 6 BBs, and over his last 10 games it's 10 Ks to 2 BBs. Strikeout rate is 20.5% in May and 23% over his last 10 games as well. So he isn't trending in the positive direction yet.

 

It was expected he was going to put up numbers in AAA due to his speed and the lower quality defense and pitching. It's the plate control and breaking balls that were killing him in the majors, and that's what he needs to show improvement on.

[TRex]

 

Honest to God, how hard is it for you to add to the picture caption who the person in the photo is????  I'm not exactly the casual fan and since in the lede you discuss Tyler Jay and the guy is clearly pitching for Ft Myers I can put two and two together, but this would literally take you 5 seconds and then even a casual fan would know who in the heck is in the photo.  if you can take time to credit the source of the photo, you can add the player's name.  If I was Tyler Jay, I'd want the picture captioned so that the fans knew what I looked like.  Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy...

Wow... just, wow!

[Darius]

Everyone needs to settle down Park, apparently. The league adjusted, now it's his turn.

 

Send him down to Rochester? Good grief. Did you really expect that he would keep up that pace consistently and hit 45 home runs? Even the best hitter go through slumps and have to tweak some things. Mauer is widely considered the 2'd coming of Ted Williams in Twins Territory, and he has been slumping for four years. Park has been slumping for a week and half, and still one of the top slugging % guys in the AL (and has o my been in yheg MLB for a little over a month).

[DJL44]

"Anthony McIver earned his first save, a two inning version"

 

Resourceful guy, that McIver.....

[DocBauer]

 

Park is the best fielding first baseman this team has in any level in the organization from A up (pretty sad situation, but it is what it is.)  He should be starting there.   The guy who should change position (LF is screaming) is Mauer.  Trade Plouffe allowing Sano to play where he belongs, slot Vargas to DH and you are set.

However, we all know that the people who are ru(i)nning the Twins, will not do it.

 I'm not sure I can agree with this post any more! It makes so much sense that it's simply impossible to ignore!

 

One item though, I would think Mauer would be a better fit in RF. He does have a decent arm, and RF, at least in Target Field, has less ground to cover than left.

[jokin]

 

I'm not sold on Buxton being ready considering he still has an extreme K/BB ratio which was the #1 thing he needed to address in the minors. In May he has 15 Ks to 6 BBs, and over his last 10 games it's 10 Ks to 2 BBs. Strikeout rate is 20.5% in May and 23% over his last 10 games as well. So he isn't trending in the positive direction yet.

 

It was expected he was going to put up numbers in AAA due to his speed and the lower quality defense and pitching. It's the plate control and breaking balls that were killing him in the majors, and that's what he needs to show improvement on.

 

No disagreements here. He's back up on the bicycle, now let's see if he can raise the overall quality of his Tour de AAA ABs.

[puckstopper1]

Still no Alex Meyer, eh?  He is listed on the active Red Wings roster, but has not pitched since he was sent back down three weeks ago.

[Ctwink]

They'll probably dock Cody a day's pay for that intolerable indiscretion. And maybe a fine, too...

 

Yea - I'm pretty much a jerk. I know you guys write for free and do it for fun - and - I read you every day. I apologize about my post.

 

I'm not sure why I wrote that. Oh that's right - I'm a jerk...