Article: Twins Minor League Report (6/25): Sammons Shuts Out Snappers

[TheLeviathan]

 

Stewart was left for dead by many fans, myself included. It's a very nice development to see him strike out more batters.

 

The best thing to happen to Kohl Stewart was the firing of Terry Ryan and his organizational approach.

 

Hopefully these guys can salvage this kid.  

[nater79a]

 

Really like how Miranda's season has been going.  After a very cold start, May was much better with June better than May.  And he won't turn 20 until later this week.  This kid probably is the best 3B prospect in the organization.  Lets hope he keeps getting better every step of the way.

 

Lots to like when looking at Sammons' numbers.  The only negative I see is that his strikeouts are down a bit from last year at Cedar Rapids, although that wasn't all that many innings.  The other knock is that at 23, he is a bit old.  Assuming he came out of college last year as a senior.  For those of you who have seen him, does he have the stuff to be a potential big leaguer?  Or is it likely that his ceiling is more of another AAAA starter?

 

Stewart's results were better last night, although he still had a 1.50 WHIP.  I guess baby steps are good.

 

Bechtold, Miranda and Blankenhorn are probably all in the mix for best 3B prospect.

It's also not out of the question that any or all of them could move off the hot corner at some point.  

They all have played some 2B already.

[nater79a]

 

Looks like a nice 4-game stretch, but I was concerned when the WHIP number was posted; the fancy ERA under 2 seems aided by timely outs (or untimely hitting by opponents). But I checked, and BA on balls in play during these 4 games is high, almost .400. These two aspects of "luck" may have cancelled each other out. Encouragingly, two of those games were against opponents who had cuffed him around in the two bad starts preceding these. I'm back to, "nice 4-game stretch."

 

Haven't checked the play-by-play in the boxscores on Stewart lately.  But with the increased K's is he still the ground ball machine that he has been in the past?

[rdehring]

 

Don't forget the young man who could, not saying will, be the best of all of them...Lewis Thorpe.

Thorpe followed his dominant performance last time out with a nice outing this morning.  Pitched 5.2 innings with 7 K's, 4 hits, 1 walk and 1 run.  Was pulled after two outs in the 6th after he crossed the 90 pitch threshold.  Seth, do you know if all pitchers are still on a 90 pitch count, or is this specific to Thorpe?

[nater79a]

 

Maybe they should have optioned Buxton already? Using rehab to tweak his swing costs service time. Now he is only 18 days away from reaching 3 full years service time. Obviously they would much rather see him start hitting well, but absent that, they might as well have tried to get an extra year of control in case he gets hurt again or it doesn't click for awhile.

Same for Sano, although he was 31 days ahead of Buxton in service time already -- but they could have optioned him a few days earlier and had some protection in case he too failed to adjust quickly or got injured in the minor leagues.

Crazy to think we will only control these guys for 3 seasons beyond this one.

 

Yes, I noticed this service time tidbit too when he first got sent on his rehab.

But then I started thinking -- you'd be probably be hit with a grievance from the union if you started playing games and jacking around with this too much.

[ashbury]

Haven't checked the play-by-play in the boxscores on Stewart lately.  But with the increased K's is he still the ground ball machine that he has been in the past?

During these last four games the log shows 61% GB. That is up from earlier in the season, when it had been 56%. Not sure the difference is significant. Last year at Chattanooga it was about 47% grounders.

 

Game logs for 2018 are here for anyone to peruse.

[MangLitch]

 

Stewart is repeating AA for a third year, and his improved K rate is still only league average (23%). Remember, this is a league where Luke Bard struck out 34% last year, and Nik Turley 52%. Strikeouts are a big part of the modern game, but that also means that strikeout numbers aren't necessarily indicative of special talent anymore.

 

Fair.... but he is around the league average age, has 46 starts there (1.5 seasons) and hasn't had a track record of striking out 10.5 k/9 innings. Probably more of a mirage than a trend, agreed. But the premise was that it would be nice if he figured things out and was on an upward trend. 

 

I get it, people want to be down on him and for good reason. But he was a kid with baseball as his second sport. Not saying that attributes to the slow learning curve, but its not impossible that he blooms late. Likely, no. Would it be awesome, absolutely. 

[Otto von Ballpark]

Yes, I noticed this service time tidbit too when he first got sent on his rehab.

But then I started thinking -- you'd be probably be hit with a grievance from the union if you started playing games and jacking around with this too much.

Buxton's -3 wRC+ was more than enough justification for a demotion. So was Sano's 81, 40% K rate, and negative defensive value.

 

The Brewers famously demoted JJ Hardy in August 2009 to gain an extra year of control, just before he reached 5 years service time, and he had a 77 wRC+ for the season and positive defensive value at the time. (Of course, they traded him after the season so they didn't have to deal with him personally anymore either.)

 

And it wouldn't be specifically to keep them under that service time threshold. Just some insurance that would provide us with some little benefit in case their minor league sojourn took longer than expected, or they got hurt while in the minors. Odds are, one or both would have been back by August regardless and rendered the earlier demotion moot.

[nater79a]

 

During these last four games the log shows 61% GB. That is up from earlier in the season, when it had been 56%. Not sure the difference is significant. Last year at Chattanooga it was about 47% grounders.

 

Game logs for 2018 are here for anyone to peruse.

 

Well that's good.  Between the uptick in K's and continued chances for ground ball double plays he can probably survive a somewhat higher WHIP.

[Doctor Wu]

 

To be determined in about 10-12 more days. If hes' still completely lost, then sure. If not, ,get him up here to continue.

To continue striking out? Sorry, if that sounds snide and snarky. I always appreciate your posts, Seth, so I apologize in advance. But Buxton has me completely frustrated this year. Providing that he's rested and recovered, I hope another week of rehab will help straighten him out and maybe help him regain his confidence. But I'm starting to have serious doubts about Buxton.