Article: Twins Minor League Report (6/28): Rooker Rocks, Hamilton Heroic

[RaymondLuxuryYacht]

 

If you look at the picture of Rooker that leads this article, you will see why he will never make it with the Twins. It is clearly evident that he is watching the ball all the way until contact is made with the bat. Contrast that with the picture of our 2017 All Star, Sano, from an article about a week back. Sano's helmet is flying off and his head is looking towards the left field bleachers anticipating where the ball will go. Thats the Twins Way. Come on, Rooker, get with the program.

I honestly can't tell if this is serious.

[Mr. Brooks]

It's not that they can't... pros just care more about the long-term value of the player than a college program will.

Do we actually have any factual evidence that pitch counts reduced injuries and extend careers?

[caninatl04]

 

Dear FO, 

 

We are worried and confused. If you cannot find a roster spot on a non-playoff contender for Romero, what chance will any of us have ever?!

 

Please clarify or trade us at the earliest possible opportunity.

 

Humbly Yours,

 

The Entire Twins Minor league Pitching Staff (signatures found in supplemental on line material)

Dear Entire Staff-

 

Why the heck would we bring you up?  Confidence is a big piece of progression.  We could bring you up, you could start 3 times, but each time, you would give a quality start, say 6 2/3 innings, 2 earned runs, 7 hits, 2 walks.

 

But you would be 0-3 because our team has a clean-up hitter who hits .100, and the bottom five (not the bottom one or two, but the bottom five) of our line up can't hit their weight.

 

 

[caninatl04]

 

I know it's easy to pile on Sano right now, and there's not much question Sano's future is trending decidedly down and Rooker's up.  But just in an exercise in perspective, and also to remind ourselves that Sano is worth significant salvaging efforts...here is how Rooker's half-year at Chattanooga compares to Sano's half year there..

 

Sano, 22 years old, HR% 5.2; BB% 13.3; SO% 23.8; OPS 918 (Sano was coming off a missed year with Tommy John)

 

Rooker 23 years old, HR% 4.3; BB% 6.9; SO% 28.5; OPS 813

 

Rooker seems to be making very steady progress, especially with the K rate.  Encouraging.

Free lottery ticket (at least in the near term)

[caninatl04]

 

Why do we keep Enns?

Free lottery ticket.

[MN_ExPat]

 

I don't think you and I are going to agree on this. No biggie.

I'd have to concur a little.   129 pitches (while a phenomenal performance by the freshman), does make me cringe, especially considering he had thrown 20-30 pitches in game 1.

 

However, while I don't agree with the OSU coach keeping him in for that many pitches, I can understand the thought process and why he might do it.   This got me thinking about other herculean pitch counts and brought me to my favorite game of all time:

https://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN199110270.shtml

 

Here's the link to Baseball Reference for Game 7 1991 WS.   Morris hurled 126 pitches in this CG (and yes I know, he wasn't a college freshman )

 

[Tomj14]

 

It's not that they can't... pros just care more about the long-term value of the player than a college program will. 

I would argue they can't because they are not be trained to, is there any evidence that limited pitches have caused less injuries?

[T_J]

129 pitches really isn't that outrages. Also taking into consideration that he can rest it up for a bit before he pitches again. It's not like he wasn't effective or pitched like 250 pitches. 

 

We are turning into lemmings with this whole pitch count thing. 

[108Stitches]

 

Free lottery ticket.

Get rid of him and call up Wells or Barnes to Chat

[Seth Stohs]

 

Why do we keep Enns?

 

1.) Left-handed.

2.) Breathing.

[108Stitches]

Breath is good.

[DocBauer]

Do we actually have any factual evidence that pitch counts reduced injuries and extend careers?

 

To my immediate knowledge, there is no study that would indicate any correlation. However, right or wrong, it has long ben believed that consistently throwing that many pitches on a very young arm can be detrimental. Note, I said consistently, and not one game. And it makes sense when you think about someone still maturing physically and not used to that kind of workload.

 

If you listen to Blyleven and Morris and other veteran pitchers, they make strong arguments on 2 points:

 

1] Pitchers never develop the ability to throw more than 100 pitches because they aren't allowed to. And...

 

2] they often talk about long toss programs that used to be employed to develop arm strength and endurance. I'm no expert, but I never hear anyone talk about long toss used any longer to develop arms.

[DocBauer]

Why do we keep Enns?

 

IMO, he should be groomed as a RP. Realistically, where else is his value?

[Doctor Wu]

I noticed in the Roster Moves that you posted the Twins signed Juan Graterol and assigned him to Rochester. My first thought; is he related to our Brusdar Graterol? And then I wondered why he is playing at AAA? Never heard of the guy before .But a quick net search revealed that he was recently with the Angels, among several other organizations. Looking at his Wikipedia page, he tends to get signed by teams and then put on waivers or released a month or two later, never actually having played for the club So ... what's the deal with this guy? No doubt roster filler since we now need another catcher at AAA, but does he have special attributes (hitting, pitch framing, etc.) that will make him worth keeping for a while?