Article: Twins Minor League Report (5/8): A Case of the Mondays

[Jeremy Nygaard]

Despite the Twins being off to travel, there was still plenty to go down on Monday.

 

Young Dominican Lewin Diaz was named Midwest League Player of the Week just a day after being named Twins Minor League Player of the Week.

 

Later in the afternoon, the Twins worked out a trade with the Atlanta Braves.

 

All four full-season affiliates were in action on Monday.RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester 0, Lehigh Valley 9

Box Score

 

The bats and gloves didn’t show up on Monday night and, interestingly, three members of the Red Wings rotation made an appearance.

 

Aaron Slegers made the start and lasted four innings, getting knocked around for five runs on seven hits and one walk. He struck out two.

 

Reliever Alan Busenitz hit the first batter he faced before getting a fly out and striking out the last two batters of the inning.

 

Longtime starter Jason Wheeler came in to face Lehigh Valley in the sixth inning and was on the receiving end of three errors committed behind him in two innings. At the end of those two innings, Wheeler had allowed six hits and four runs, though only one was earned.

 

Nik Turley, who made a start for the Red Wings last week after being promoted from Chattanooga, got two swinging strikeouts and a foul pop-out. (Maybe Turley could help the Twins bullpen?)

 

Wheeler and Turley shifting to the bullpen is the result of all of Gibson, Berrios and Mejia being in AAA.

 

The bats managed one more hit (five) than errors (four). Matt Hague led the offense with two hits. Tommy Field, Niko Goodrum and John Ryan Murphy combined for the other three. Ironically, Field (two), Goodrum (one) and Murphy (one) also committed the four errors.

 

The loss drops Slegers to 2-3 and Rochester drops to 14-12, two games off the IL North pace.

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 4, Montgomery 9

Box Score

 

Fernando Romero didn’t have his best stuff on Monday, allowing nine hits in 5.2 innings. He allowed seven runs (five earned). He hit a batter and threw 94 pitches (63 strikes). Romero struck out four and got 12 outs by groundball.

 

Randy Rosario struck out two, allowing two runs (one earned) in 1.2 innings and Mason Melotakis struck out three in an inning. Both walked one batter.

 

LaMonte Wade reached base safely four times (single, double and two walks). He’s brought his batting average up to .321. Nick Gordon and Engelb Vielma each added singles and are batting .330 and .316 respectively. Gordon committed his sixth error of the season.

 

Daniel Rohlfing’s fourth inning grand slam put the Lookouts up 4-1, but Montgomery scored the next eight unanswered.

 

The Lookouts drop to 17-14 after suffering their first loss in May.

 

MIRACLE MATTERS

Fort Myers 5, Palm Beach 2

Box Score

 

Cody Stashak pitched well enough to give Fort Myers a chance to win on Monday, allowing two runs on three hits and a walk. He struck out four. Unfortunately for Stashak, he only lasted five innings and the Miracle didn’t put their big inning together until the sixth.

 

The Anderson Boys combined for the win and save. Brady struck out two in three shutout innings and improved to 2-0. Nick picked up his second save, striking out one in a scoreless ninth frame.

 

None of the hitters did anything extraordinary, but seven of the nine registered hits and when four of them come in the same frame, good things tend to happen. Rafael Valera tripled and drove in two runs. Max Murphy, Nelson Molina, Chris Paul, Zander Wiel and Kevin Garcia all singled and scored. Sean Miller also singled. Garcia stole his first base of the year.

 

Fort Myers clawed back to .500 and 16-16.

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 1, Lake County 4

Box Score

 

The Kernels bats didn’t show up after the long bus trip to Dayton. Besides Jermaine Palacios’s second home run in the fourth inning, the only offense came from Christian Cavaness, who singled and was picked off in the third.

 

Eduardo Del Rosario cruised through the first three innings before running into trouble in the fourth. Four hits and three walks later, Del Rosario was getting the hook. Failing to complete four innings, Del Rosario gave up four runs, striking out five.

 

Logan Lombana escaped a bases-loaded jam and worked three additional scoreless innings, striking out three. Tom Hackimer pitched the final scoreless frame.

 

Travis Blankenhorn was ejected by the home plate umpire after being called out on strikes in the second inning.

 

The loss drops the Kernels to 17-13.

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Pitcher of the Day – Logan Lombana, Cedar Rapids

Hitter of the Day – LaMonte Wade, Chattanooga

 

TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Rochester at Lehigh Valley (6:05 CST) - RHP Kyle Gibson (0-0, -.-- ERA)

Chattanooga at Montgomery (10:35 CST) - RHP Paul Clemens (1-0, 3.46 ERA)

Fort Myers vs Palm Beach (5:35 CST) - RHP David Fischer (2-1, 2.74 ERA)

Cedar Rapids at Dayton (6:00 CST) - RHP Tyler Beardsley (3-1, 3.91 ERA)

 

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

 

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[jsteve96]

I have a feeling LaMonte Wade is going to play in the MLB for a long time. his plate approach and discipline are elite.

[Seth Stohs]

Cedar Rapids played at 2:00 on Sunday. They signed autographs after the game, and they were scheduled to leave Cedar Rapids at 6:00 p.m... and arrive in Dayton at 4:00 a.m. Those Eastern Division trips can be brutal. As I told some of the players, it's the glamorous life of professional baseball!

[Seth Stohs]

LaMonte Wade at AA this season. 

1st 10 G: .103/.229/.103 (.332)
Past 19 G: .442/.581/.712 (1.293)

Total 29 G: .321/.468/.494 (.962)

 

24 BB, 15 K

[blindeke]

 

I have a feeling LaMonte Wade is going to play in the MLB for a long time. his plate approach and discipline are elite.

 

How's his defense?

[nytwinsfan]

 

How's his defense?

Good question. I've heard it is at least decent, but is it Kepler decent, Rosario decent, or something less than Kepler decent?

[nytwinsfan]

 

 

LaMonte Wade at AA this season. 

1st 10 G: .103/.229/.103 (.332)
Past 19 G: .442/.581/.712 (1.293)

Total 29 G: .321/.468/.494 (.962)

 

24 BB, 15 K

The crazy thing is that this was after being "aggressively" promoted to AA after only 127 PAs in A+ and 275 PAs in A-.  That's crazy.  Yes, he is 23, but if he keeps anything like this up he has got to be a top 5 Twins prospect and a potential top 100-150 prospect nationwide.

[Seth Stohs]

Regarding Wade's defense.... I'd put it as similar to Kepler (which is anything but bad)... He can play CF, and played there mostly in 2016. But he's more of a corner guy. Average arm.

[Thrylos]

I was at the Rochester game last night and was not really impressed. 

 

Matt Hague was the only one who did any hitting, but was on the receiving end of 3 of the errors that were from mediocre to bad throws to 1st base. 

 

Slegers has 2 pitches:  a straight 90-92 mph fastball and a 83-86 off-speed thing that looks like a cutter but could be a changeup.  Not that much velocity difference than the fastball to be effective.

 

Wimmers was throwing put junk out there 82-89.  The softer stuff was commanded better (I think again that it was change, but have a hard time to call it that if only 5 mph from the fastball.)  Wish he would have been better in the pen.

 

Busenitz was a breath of fresh air.  Good FB at 94-96 and a 82-84 mph change that was an out pitch yesterday.  I will not be surprised if we see him up North some time soon.

 

I did not see Turley.  It was 51 degrees and blowing by then