Article: Twins Minor League Report (6/14): Raucous Rochester Ending

[Cody Christie]

Minnesota will be adding a lot of talent to their minor league system in the coming weeks as draft picks from last week's draft are signed and assigned to start their professional careers. With the draft in the rear-view mirror, I posted my updated Twins Top-10 Prospect list including the Twins new first round draft pick.

 

Tyler Jay, Kohl Stewart, and Fernando Romero (three of the pitchers on my top-10 list) were on the mound tonight for different affiliates. Jay is in the midst of a fantastic season, Stewart has already been promoted from High-A to Double-A, and Romero has come back strong from Tommy John surgery.

 

What could each pitcher do on Tuesday? Read on to find out...RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester 1, Columbus 0

Box Score

Roster Moves: JT Chargois was optioned to Rochester from Minnesota. Danny Santana was also added to the roster as he begins his MLB rehab assignment.

 

Tommy Milone continued his impressive run at Rochester as posted seven scoreless innings to drop his ERA to 1.66 across seven games. He struck out eight, walked one, and scattered three hits. The bullpen took over from there. Marcus Walden struck out the side in the eighth inning. J.T Chargois got back into game action after his disastrous big league debut. All he allowed was a two-out single and that set up a dramatic bottom of the ninth.

 

Eddie Rosario led off the inning with an impressive at-bat. He worked the count full before coaxing a walk. With Rosario on first, Logan Schafer popped out to third. Wilfredo Tovar grounded out to third for the second out but Rosario was now in scoring position. With a 2-2 count, Adam Brett Walker lined a single to right field for a walk-off winner as Rosario just barely beat the throw home.

 

It was the first win of the season for Chargois. Danny Santana went 1-for-3 in his first rehab start before being pinch hit for late in the game. Buck Britton made the most of his pinch-hit appearance as he lashed his 10th double. Rochester improves to an impressive 11 games over .500 with the victory.

 

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 1, Tennessee 4

Box Score

After leading off Monday's game with a home run, Zach Granite had to settle for a lead-off triple to start today's contest and was driven in by an Engelb Vielma sacrifice fly. The Lookouts had an early 1-0 lead but it wouldn't last as the three through nine hitters in the line-up were held to two total hits. Granite ended the day 2-for-4 while Vielma was 2-for-3 with a double. D.J. Hicks cracked his 15th double as part of the losing effort.

 

Kohl Stewart took the loss but he only allowed one earned run in 6.2 innings. Two unearned runs were scored off him due to a throwing error by second baseman Ryan Walker. After allowing four earned runs in his first Double-A start, Stewart has lowered his ERA from 21.60 to 3.14 after allowing one earned run in his last two outings.

 

Corey Williams took over for Stewart and allowed one run on three hits in just over an inning of work. The last run wouldn't matter as the Lookouts left five runners on base and went 0-for-8 with runners in scoring position. Chattanooga had won eight of their last ten games coming into the game and they are still a game over .500 (33-32)

 

MIRACLE MATTERS

Ft. Myers 3, Lakeland 8

Box Score

For Tyler Jay it just wasn't his day as he allowed six earned runs on eight hits including three home runs. He struck out two and walked two but couldn't make it through more than three innings. Brian Gilbert replaced Jay and promptly allowed four walks and two earned runs while only recording one out. Todd Van Steensel, Luke Bard, and Nick Anderson combined for 4.2 shutout frames the rest of the way but the damage was already done.

 

Nick Gordon raced around for his fourth triple of the season and he also drove in a run. Logan Wade went 2-for-4 and Brian Olson reached base twice and had an RBI. Tanner Witt scored a run and added a double but he also struck out three times. The team only managed one walk and they struck out 13 times with each player having at least one K.

 

Fort Myers has lost the first three games of this four-game series with Lakeland. With five losses in a row, the Miracle have dropped from one game over .500 to four games under .500. The team isn't officially eliminated from the first-half title but they are five games back and their elimination number is two.

 

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 2, Burlington 3 (7 Innings-Rain)

Box Score

Fernando Romero struggled in the early innings as he threw 60 pitches in the first two innings and allowed three earned runs. He settled down to make it through five frames. He finished by allowing eight hits with four strikeouts and one walk. It was his first loss of the season. Anthony McIver pitched 2.2 scoreless innings by striking out five and allowing only one hit.

 

Nelson Molina had the Kernels' big hit as he drove in both of the team's runs with one swing of the bat. Luis Arraez and Daniel Kihle both went 1-for-3 and each player scored a run. No Cedar Rapids players got on base more than once and the team was limited to four at-bats with runners in scoring position.

 

Cedar Rapids is really scuffling at this point as tonight's loss was the team's sixth straight defeat. With a 33-31 record, they can still finish the first half with an above .500 record. The first step will be winning tomorrow's series finale with Burlington if the field isn't too wet to play.

 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day- Tommy Milone, Rochester Red Wings

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day- Zach Granite, Chattanooga Lookouts

 

WEDNESDAY'S PROBABLE STARTERS

Rochester vs. Columbus (6:05 CST)- LHP Andrew Albers (4-1, 3.65 ERA)

Chattanooga @ Montgomery (7:05 CST)- RHP D.J. Baxendale (6-6, 3.23 ERA)

Fort Myers @ Lakeland (5:00 CST)-RHP Felix Jorge (5-3, 1.64 ERA)

Cedar Rapids vs. Burlington (12:05 CST)- RHP Miles Nordgren (2-3, 3.26 ERA)

 

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

 

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[John Kelsey]

Good for Stewart. You'd like to see more strikeouts obviously but it's nice to see him settling down and getting guys out in AA for the time being. 

[stringer bell]

Free Tommy Milone! With the devastation that is the Twins starting rotation, Milone has to deserve another chance in the rotation, if nothing more than to build trade value.

[diehardtwinsfan]

I'll give Kohl a bit of a pass on the Ks in his first few weeks of AA.  Nice to see him getting what is hopefully a lot of weak contact.  He's really reclaimed himself as a prospect and if he sharpens his command a bit, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ks come back.

[diehardtwinsfan]

 

Free Tommy Milone! With the devastation that is the Twins starting rotation, Milone has to deserve another chance in the rotation, if nothing more than to build trade value.

 

A handful of even decent starts before the deadline won't change his value I suspect. 

[Cody Christie]

 

Free Tommy Milone! With the devastation that is the Twins starting rotation, Milone has to deserve another chance in the rotation, if nothing more than to build trade value.

He should be up but I feel like the Twins have something against him over the last couple years. They seem willing to keep him in the minors

[Cody Christie]

 

I'll give Kohl a bit of a pass on the Ks in his first few weeks of AA.  Nice to see him getting what is hopefully a lot of weak contact.  He's really reclaimed himself as a prospect and if he sharpens his command a bit, I wouldn't be surprised if the Ks come back.

Last season was the first time in his career that he threw over 100 innings. He's still figuring out the art of pitching. He will continue to improve as he keeps racking up innings.

[wsnydes]

 

A handful of even decent starts before the deadline won't change his value I suspect. 

Agreed.  He's already cleared waivers once and we've seen this show before.

[Seth Stohs]

Stewart's performance was actually much more impressive than even the box score shows. 

 

First, that was a tough error on Walker, ball bad-hopped on him, but had it not, it would have been another double play. Then, after a sac bunt, there were runners on 2nd and third. That's when he got his first strikeout, which was impressive. 

 

With two outs, he got a ground ball to the left of third base that went just off the glove of 3B Leo Reginnato. Engelb Vielma was going for it in the hole as well and because the ball was deflected, it ended up going behind him as well. Just because of inches and where the ball happened to end up in shallow left field, the batter was able to get to 2nd and both runs scored. It wasn't hit all that hard... 

 

Obviously that's how the game works, and they were unearned runs, but he really pitched well in that spot. 

[Badsmerf]

Thanks for the recap Seth. I've been a proponent of his from the signing. I hope he can continue to build on the success he is having. I look forward to a fresh scouting report this summer from caple or klaw.

[Mike Sixel]

I've been on record that this is the year we begin to learn what Stewart is or is not. I remain hopeful for sure.

[Monkeypaws]

Twins should try to find a NL team to take Milone. He could do well there.

[Jeff A]

Sorry if you mentioned this and I missed it, but I see LaMonte Wade hasn't played much lately.  Is he injured?

[Cody Christie]

 

Twins should try to find a NL team to take Milone. He could do well there.

I like this idea. Especially since it doesn't seem like the Twins are going to utilize him. They might not get much for him but team's are always looking for pitching depth in the second half.