Article: Twins Minor League Report (7/15): Friday NIght Lights

[Seth Stohs]

It was a big day for offense in the Twins minor league games. There were 11 players who had multiple-hit games for Twins affiliates. There was a game-winning home run by a big prospect in one game. One player that didn’t even start for his team on Friday night ended up with four hits and raised his batting average by .115 points. The big first baseman in Cedar Rapids had two extra-base hits and half of his team’s RBI. Of course, it isn’t all positive.One team was on the opposite end of the spectrum.

 

Wander Javier did not play again on Friday. The first time he hurt his hamstring, he missed 16 days before playing two games. He re-aggravated the hamstring and has now not played again for two weeks.For the details of Friday in the Twins minor leagues, please continue reading.

 

RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester 8, Norfolk 6

Box Score

 

Adam Brett Walker came through in the clutch for the Red Wings again. With the score tied at 6-6 in the bottom of the 8th Byung Ho Park recorded his first AAA double. Walker came up and belted his 17th home run of the season. It gave the Red Wings the lead and made them a winner.

 

Walker led the Red Wings offense. He went 2-3 with a walk and his second triple to go with the home run. Darin Mastroianni was in the leadoff spot. He went 2-4 with two doubles and drove in two runs. Wilfredo Tovar went 2-3 with his 16th double. Logan Schafer went 2-4.

 

Logan Darnell made his first start of the second half. The lefty gave up four runs on eight hits and a walk over just 3.2 innings. He struck out two as his ERA jumped to 3.53. Nick Greenwood came in and gave up one run on three hits over the next 2.1 innings. Sean Burnett threw an inning. He gave up an unearned run on two hits. Buddy Boshers gave up a hit and walked a batter in 0.2 innings. Alex Wimmers got the final out of the eighth inning and then three outs in the ninth to pick up the win.

 

 

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 2, Mobile 20

Box Score

 

It happens to every team, and pretty much every year. Even the best teams have an absolute clunker. On Friday night, Chattanooga had one of those.

 

Omar Bencomo made the start. He gave up five runs on seven hits and a walk in the first three innings. Ryan Eades came on, and he was charged with eight runs (six earned) on five hits and three walks. Luke Westphal came on and gave up seven runs (five earned) on eight hits and four walks. Jake Reed came on and got the final five outs, including two strikeouts. He gave up just one hit.

 

The Lookouts didn’t have much offense either. They had just four hits. Dalton Hicks went 1-3 with a walk and his 20th double. Shannon Wilkerson went 1-3 with a walk and his eighth double.

 

 

MIRACLE MATTERS

Ft. Myers 4, Tampa 3 (7 innings)

Box Score

 

The game was called on account of rain in the seventh inning. Fortunately, the Miracle were winning at the time. Randy LeBlanc had a quality start. He gave up three runs (two earned) on four hits over six innings. He walked one and struck out four.

 

Offensively, the Miracle had just six hits. AJ Murray hit his sixth double. Joe Maloney drove in two runs with his fourth double. Logan Wade reached base twice without a hit. He walked and was hit by a pitch. He also stole a base. Nick Gordon added a single to extend his hitting streak to 10 games.

 

 

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 6, Lake County 1

Box Score

 

Dereck Rodriguez had another solid start, and in this one, he even got the win. He improved to 2-10. He had not been the winning pitcher in a game in two months. He gave up one run on six hits over the first six innings. He walked one and struck out four. Anthony McIver gave up one hit over two scoreless relief innings. Michael Cederoth got the final three outs to preserve the win.

 

Zander Wiel led the Kernels offense. He went 2-3 with a walk, his 17th double and his eighth home run. The other three Kernels RBIs came from Luis Arraez who had an RBI in each of his first three plate appearances. Casey Scoggins led off and went 2-4 with a walk and his third double. Jermaine Palacios is now hitting .224 after going 2-3 with a walk and a hit-by-pitch in this game. Kevin Garcia went 2-4.

 

 

E-TWINS E-NOTES

Elizabethton 6, Danville 8

Box Score

 

Roberto Gonzalez wasn’t even in the starting lineup on Friday night. For some reason (we’re looking into it), Luis Martinez left the game in the first inning and Gonzalez replaced him. He came into the game hitting just .111, but the powerful outfielder went 4-4 with two doubles and raised his average to .226. That’s the beauty of small sample sizes.

 

Bryant Hayman had the big hit. He hit his first homer of the season and drove in three runs. Alex Kirilloff went 1-3 with a walk and his fifth double. Shane Carrier went 2-4.

 

Tyler Wells made the start. He gave up four runs (two earned) on four hits over 3.2 innings. He walked three and struck out five. Quin Grogan came on and worked 2.1 hitless innings. He walked two and struck out three. Johan Quezada struggled. He gave up four runs (3 earned) on three hits and two walks and recorded just one out. Colton Davis got the final five outs, three of them on strikeouts.

 

 

GCL TWINS TAKES

GCL Twins 0, GCL Red Sox 3

Box Score

 

Huascar Ynoa started again for the GCL Twins on Friday. The young right-hander gave up three runs on five hits over four innings. All three runs came in the second inning. Ynoa walked three and struck out four. Moises Gomez came on and threw two scoreless innings. He is yet to give up an earned run (and allowed just one unearned run) in 11.1 innings this season. Callan Pearce ran his scoreless inning streak to 10 with two more scoreless innings. He struck out three. Daniel Martinez pitched a clean ninth inning.

 

Lean Marrero went 2-4 in this game. Jhon Alvarez hit his first double. Twins 2016 second-round picks Jose Miranda and Ben Rortvedt each went 1-3 with a walk.

 

 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

 

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Dereck Rodriguez, Cedar Rapids Kernels

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Roberto Gonzalez, Elizabethton Twins

 

 

SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

 

Norfolk @ Rochester (5:05 CST) - LHP Andrew Albers

Mobile @ Chattanooga (6:15 CST) - LHP Tyler Jay

Ft. Myers @ Tampa (5:00 CST) - LHP Sam Clay

Cedar Rapids @ Ft. Wayne (5:35 CST) – RHP Sam Gibbons

Elizabethton @ Princeton (6:00 CST) - RHP Ryan Mason

GCL Twins @ GCL Red Sox (9:00 am CST) - RHP Brady Anderson

Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Friday's games.

 

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[goulik]

Real nice to see DerekRodriguez putting things together lately. Hopefully this is a real start to something.

[roger]

I remember maybe one year in the past ten or so that Elizabethton missed the playoffs.  I don't remember any years that they began this poorly.  Do you, Seth?

 

And what is puzzling is that there are some legit prospects on this team.  Kirilloff is a top pick and Blankenhorn and Cabbage are excellent prospects.  But I guess they are all young and maybe this group doesn't have the depth or pitching they usually have. 

[Seth Stohs]

 

I remember maybe one year in the past ten or so that Elizabethton missed the playoffs.  I don't remember any years that they began this poorly.  Do you, Seth?

 

And what is puzzling is that there are some legit prospects on this team.  Kirilloff is a top pick and Blankenhorn and Cabbage are excellent prospects.  But I guess they are all young and maybe this group doesn't have the depth or pitching they usually have. 

 

E-Town hasn't done much the last 2-3 years really. But yeah, for awhile there they were in the playoffs every year. 

 

I think that team is definitely fully of prospects, but they're young. The three you mentioned have high upsides.

[jwb1226]

As I look at the AA box scores it seems like Garver is usually the DH and Turner the catcher. Shouldn't there be a more even split to let Garver develop defensively?

[h2oface]

Hey! Maybe the Twins Daily Minor League Hitter/Pitcher of the Day should be changed to honor a minor league hitter and pitcher that never quite made it in the bigs, like:

 

The Chris Parmelee Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day

 

and

 

The Anthony Slama Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day

 

How about it? Trendy, eh?

[John Kelsey]

 

As I look at the AA box scores it seems like Garver is usually the DH and Turner the catcher. Shouldn't there be a more even split to let Garver develop defensively?

 

Of their 92 games, Turner has started 49 at catcher and Garver has started 36 so it's not too uneven. Garver has also started 9 at first base. 

[Darius]

All Walker does is deliver in the clutch. I don't care what metrics and ratios say about how he projects at the major league level, I think he'll end up being a valueable part of the major league club.

 

I'd like to see him get some at-bats in September, if not sooner.

[Seth Stohs]

 

Of their 92 games, Turner has started 49 at catcher and Garver has started 36 so it's not too uneven. Garver has also started 9 at first base. 

 

And Garver missed about a week with a concussion. The key is Garver is getting catcher time and also keep his bat in the middle of their order. He's been terrific the last six weeks. 

[Seth Stohs]

 

Hey! Maybe the Twins Daily Minor League Hitter/Pitcher of the Day should be changed to honor a minor league hitter and pitcher that never quite made it in the bigs, like:

The Chris Parmelee Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day

and

The Anthony Slama Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day

How about it? Trendy, eh?

 

I've written that for the TD Minor League Player of the Month awards...

 

RP would be Slama and/or Achter ,and there are several others that would be strongly considered for the others.

[Seth Stohs]

 

All Walker does is deliver in the clutch. I don't care what metrics and ratios say about how he projects at the major league level, I think he'll end up being a valueable part of the major league club.

I'd like to see him get some at-bats in September, if not sooner.

 

I'm not a believer in clutch being a skill or something, but Walker definitely seems to come up big often... We've seen it over and over and over over the years. I think he'll get up here in September... but they already have Rosario, Grossman, Buxton and Kepler in the outfield, and Park will likely come up to DH, along with Vargas. So, he may not. 

[Han Joelo]

Good job on the player of the day awards for Gonzalez and Rodriguez.

[JaleelWhite FanClub]

 

I'm not a believer in clutch being a skill or something, but Walker definitely seems to come up big often... We've seen it over and over and over over the years. I think he'll get up here in September... but they already have Rosario, Grossman, Buxton and Kepler in the outfield, and Park will likely come up to DH, along with Vargas. So, he may not. 

 

Seth, how big a problem is the projected logjam? I'm not an expert on 40-man roster management, but I'd hate to see ABW run into the same usage problem that occurred between the Twins and Arcia. I know he (Arcia) struggled in the majors, but I also feel like his playing time was so inconsistent that it would have been hard for most any player to settle in.

 

I also think the Twins dwelled on Arcia's weaknesses (bad defense, can't hit lefties) and failed to put him in situations that emphasized his strengths. All I hear about ABW from management is "Oh, he's gotta cut back on those strikeouts." Well yeah, maybe, but he does offer a pretty consistent track record on HR and RBI. Sure RBI is a misleading, team-related stat, but he still has to produce the run-generating hit with runners on.

 

I don't know. I've always been a fan and am fearful the team will let him go for nothing. (My dream was a Arcia/ABW platoon at DH, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.)

[Seth Stohs]

 

Good job on the player of the day awards for Gonzalez and Rodriguez.

 

Thanks... gotta admit... deciding between Gonzalez, Zander Wiel and Adam Brett Walker wasn't easy.

[Seth Stohs]

 

Seth, how big a problem is the projected logjam? I'm not an expert on 40-man roster management, but I'd hate to see ABW run into the same usage problem that occurred between the Twins and Arcia. I know he (Arcia) struggled in the majors, but I also feel like his playing time was so inconsistent that it would have been hard for most any player to settle in.

 

I also think the Twins dwelled on Arcia's weaknesses (bad defense, can't hit lefties) and failed to put him in situations that emphasized his strengths. All I hear about ABW from management is "Oh, he's gotta cut back on those strikeouts." Well yeah, maybe, but he does offer a pretty consistent track record on HR and RBI. Sure RBI is a misleading, team-related stat, but he still has to produce the run-generating hit with runners on.

 

I don't know. I've always been a fan and am fearful the team will let him go for nothing. (My dream was a Arcia/ABW platoon at DH, but alas, it wasn't meant to be.)

Fair points and concerns, but it's hard to say. 

 

I think that if all goes well, Buxton and Kepler will be the CF and RF for a long time. So, that leaves one outfield spot. Rosario is in the picture. Daniel Palka is finding his way into the discussion. And a lot of people are thinking Zach Granite is someone who could be added too. And, I didn't even mention Robbie Grossman.

 

DH? Well, Vargas and Park are there now, and Mauer will still be around for two more years. 

 

And, I don't think any of that is a bad thing. 

 

 

[Han Joelo]

 

Thanks... gotta admit... deciding between Gonzalez, Zander Wiel and Adam Brett Walker wasn't easy.

I think the idea of positive reinforcement for adults might be underrated.  I can imagine the players maybe paying attention to this report, and if not them, there are commenters who do who might just let them know, "hey, according to Twinsdaily, you had the best day out of anybody in the system."  As my sixth grade coach liked to say (and I didn't quite get), it's nice to get that "feather in your cap" from time to time.

[ashbury]

I think the idea of positive reinforcement for adults might be underrated.  I can imagine the players maybe paying attention to this report, and if not them, there are commenters who do who might just let them know, "hey, according to Twinsdaily, you had the best day out of anybody in the system."  As my sixth grade coach liked to say (and I didn't quite get), it's nice to get that "feather in your cap" from time to time.

[h2oface]

I've written that for the TD Minor League Player of the Month awards...

 

RP would be Slama and/or Achter ,and there are several others that would be strongly considered for the others.

Oh., OK. But I was just kidding. I am in the camp that thinks the new award names are tacky and unnecessary and ostentatious. I take it back.