Notebook: Tough Day for Twins Baseball

[Matthew Lenz]

The Twins offense continued sputtering today against the Pirates and Alex Kirilloff optioned, making it a tough day for the Twins on social media platforms. That and more in today’s notebook!Pittsburgh 1, Twins 0

Box Score

 

Twins Takeaways:

Standout pitcher: Derek Law (1 IP, 2 K, 11 pitches)

Standout hitter: Luis Arraéz (1-for-3)

 

Lineup:

 

Highlights:

The Twins pitching staff was top notch today allowing just one earned run over nine innings through a solo shot off the bat of Adam Frazier off of Josh Winder.

 

Griffin Jax got the start allowing five baserunners over 3 innings and getting hit hard despite not allowing anyone to cross the plate. Derek Law (2 K), Luke Farrell (1 H, 2 K), Winder, Matt Canterino (2 BB), and Charlie Barnes (2 K) followed Jax with one inning apiece.

 

 

On the offensive side of the ball, the Twins were only able to muster up three hits getting one hit each from Luis Arraéz, Willians Astudillo, and Andrew Romine.

 

Although we tend not to put a lot of stock in spring training stats, it would feel a little better to see the Twins offense hit. The Twins rank 29th or 30 in nearly every offensive category as a team as we are less than two weeks from the start of the regular season.

 

Other Hippenin’ and Happenin’s

Alex Kirilloff was sent down after slashing .129/.182/.258 in 31 at-bats

BOY did this cause quite the stir within Twins social media communities. To me it’s simple ... the Twins were not going to use service time as an obvious reason to keep Kirilloff in the minors, BUT if he gave them any reason outside of that I would bet they would take advantage. With nearly any other player, posting those numbers would have the same results and nobody would think anything of it but understandably things are different when you’re the top prospect in the organization. When you let your longest tenured Twin and fan favorite left fielder walk (**whispers** Eddie Rosario is slashing .139/.179/.139 meaning he has ZERO extra base hits **ducks**), you better do it because your top prospect is ready to take over.

 

Optically, it’s not a great look but with Brent Rooker and Kyle Garlick having good springs, it allowed the Twins the flexibility to send Kirilloff to the alternate training site for some extra seasoning.

 

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[Dman]

Jax is an interesting pitcher.  Doesn't get many strikeouts but I don't think there was one ball hit in the air.  Some fairly hard hit ground balls but mostly weak contact.  I am still surprised he didn't get picked in the rule V.  I guess strikeouts rule, but I honestly think he could succeed as a number 5 on several teams.  His stuff would also play out of the pen as I think he could refine it to get K's.  Nothing he threw looked straight and he looked like he was trying to pitch just off the plate but the hitters were not biting. Even when he threw over the plate no one got solid contact in three innings of work.  He did manage to give up 4 hits though.

 

 

Law didn't look quite as efficient this time out and gave up some hard contact but still he had 2 K's, no walks and no hits.  So a dominant performance non the less.

 

 

Farrell had his usual bendy stuff and got his typical 2 K's but did give up a hit today.  Farrell's breaking stuff is pretty slow but he did have a fastball at 94 today. He is still my sire of ft meyers choice but Law is right there with him as well.   

 

 

Winder and Canterino can throw hard but both had control issues today.  Definitely need some refining. they both had several balls not even reaching the plate. Maybe those are by design but they fooled no one so I can only conclude they are missing their spots.  Winder gave up a HR but it barely cleared the fence, again both those guys have the stuff but they need to be more consistent than they were today.

 

 

Rooker and Garlick didn't look great today.  Rooker K'd once and Garlick twice.  Rooker did hit one ball pretty well and that was it.  Tough day for the hitters again with only three hits.  This was pretty much the B squad though so not too surprising.

 

 

Honestly the Pirates didn't do much better they managed 4 hits off of Jax but a couple of those were cheapies and not much after that. I believe Farrell only gave up a hit because Astudillo lost it in the sun and the one good hit they did have went for a home run.  The one good hit we had just missed going out and went off the wall for a triple and got erased on a hard hit ball that doubled up the runner.  Thats the way she goes sometimes.  Pitching looked great even from the guys that won't beak with the team. So that is encouraging.  On to Tampa tomorrow.

[D.C Twins]

I know it is only ST, but if I was the Twins hitting coach, I would be very anxious heading into the season. I think that his leash is shorter than people think because the FO is in win now mode

 

There is a difference between a below average and atrocious hitting performance in ST.

 

Cruz has been awesome, but I suspect he is teaching the hitting coach at this point and not vice versa

[Richard Swerdlick]

La Tortuga continues to hit. I hope the Twins decide to keep him. If not then he should get a lot of catching time at St. Paul unless he is out of options and picked up by someone else. Rooker is going to strike out a lot but has great power. Kirolloff startting in the minors is the right move for him and the Twins. It will be interesting to see what the Saints roster is going to be. 

[cHawk]

The Pirates are 10-10 in ST. This is why ST stats are useless. They will lose ~110 games this season.

[mikelink45]

 

The Pirates are 10-10 in ST. This is why ST stats are useless. They will lose ~110 games this season.

The fact that they are a bad team makes our pitching and hitting more suspect. 

[HrbieFan]

Nearly a full year with Rudy as hitting coach and I still don't like what I see. I don't know what is different under him vs Rowson, but the results are immensely different. Front office and Rocco have to see the lack of results too. Has anyone in the media questioned the results?

[Trov]

I do not see how people can claim the Kirilloff move is service time related.  I said from beginning if Kirilloff played well in spring he would break with team.  He has not hit well, and Rooker and Garlick have both hit better.  Rooker has shown he should get a chance.  I am afraid what his defense will be, but let his bat carry him.  

 

I see no issue sending Kirilloff to alternate site.  Everyone thinks he should get shot, me included, but when you struggle in spring and the others do not it is hard to push him into lineup.  If Rooker does not carry bat into season and struggles, you can bring Alex over, he is only across the river. 

[dbminn]

 

Nearly a full year with Rudy as hitting coach and I still don't like what I see. I don't know what is different under him vs Rowson, but the results are immensely different. Front office and Rocco have to see the lack of results too. Has anyone in the media questioned the results?

 

I agree. This question should get traction if the Twins hitters start the season as poorly as they performed last year. 

[PDX Twin]

 

Everyone thinks he should get shot, me included,

 

I assume you mean "a shot" and I agree. Perhaps more than one, one with the Twins and one or more in the arm.