Article: Twins Minor League Report (4/24): Gonsalves Improves to 3-0

[Seth Stohs]

 

Worth noting that Nick Anderson was born in Minnesota, graduated high school in Minnesota, went to college in North Dakota, was drafted by the Brewers, cut by the Brewers, then signed by the Twins out of indy ball.

 

Almost an identical path to Caleb Thielbar (who went to college in the other Dakota ).

 

Anderson is old, but this is just his 3rd season in affiliated ball. I have no idea about the scouting on him, but he might be more interesting than Kinley at this point.

 

Anderson is from Brainerd. He actually went to St. Cloud State for three years, and then went to Mayville State the last year. The Brewers drafted him, but they never offered him a contract (which goes against the CBA, by the way). So, he went to indy ball. 

 

He's got good stuff. He throws 94-87 with a good slider. 

[purplesoldier4u]

 

Trout's were in MLB, not AA. If you haven't noticed, that's quite a different league.

[caninatl04]

 

Gonsalves is ready for a shot guys, what are they waiting for?? Why is he still in AA?

What do you recommend?  AAA?

[caninatl04]

 

All it takes is 80 plate appearances to become a non-prospect? Well then, the Angels should have give up on Mike Trout when his first 80 PAs looked bad.

 

Rooker's path to the majors has been accelerated and he's struggling upon reaching the upper minors. I'm not surprised that he's striking out a lot - he's got plenty of time to adjust and learn how to hit AA pitchers. I have little to no concerns for him in the long run.

What do you consider a good sample size?  I'm thinking 1200-1500 MiLB plate appearances?

[caninatl04]

 

(Actually, Trout's first 80 PA in MLB were pretty good -- 120 wRC+, and that was held down by a .222 BABIP. Good ISO and K%, and even a decent BB%.)

 

K and BB rates stabilize faster than other stats, so I think it's fair to have some concern about Rooker. Yeah, he's been rushed a bit from the draft a year ago to AA now, but he hit well in high-A last year and he's 23 years old, so you would think he'd be able to at least show a solid approach in AA, even if the other results weren't quite there yet. 68 PA, 0 walks, 24 K is a bit of a concern. He certainly has time to right the ship, but the longer this continues, he does seem to be trending toward Adam Brett Walker status...

Are you suggesting a return to High A for a month?

[BJames]

The grass is greener.  The easy thing to do is throw $$$ at F.O's, but for a small market like the Twins, we fans have seen little results from spending $$$ on F.O.'s We would have paid Vargas little to put up the same numbers, we could have keep Cargois for nothing. We had decent talent.  We needed a RH hitting OFer and Starting Pitching.