Article: 2013 Twins Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year

[Seth Stohs]

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=2323-2013-Twins-Minor-League-Relief-Pitcher-of-the-Year

[diehardtwinsfan]

I'm not a fan of Ibarra personally. He might be useful in a major league pen, but I don't think it's unreasonable to expect my relievers to be striking out a batter or more per inning. I wonder if the Twins will put the Joneses together in AA next year. I don't think that's a bad idea as both could earn mid season promotions and be making a case for the ML pen in 2015.

 

Terry Ryan's position of strength right now is the pen. Between Tyler and Zach Jones as well as Tonkin, I could see one or two of our relievers being traded this offseason if the right prospect is dangled in return.

[Mike Sixel]

I'd like to see the Twins promote more relievers to the majors, and not sign so many guys from other orgs, but that's just me.

 

Another nice job, Seth. Thanks, and congrats to eveeryone on the list.

[Thrylos]

His (T. Jones) 11.4 strikeouts per nine innings were second only to Zach Jones. He also slightly improved his walk rate. ...... Would you consider Zach Jones who tied with Michael Tonkin for most saves in the organization this year and led the organization with 12.9 strikeouts per nine innings?

 

These need a bit of clarification, saying that these guys did not lead the organization (which is inaccurate), but they led the players who only played in the full-season minor league parts of the organization.

 

Organization Leaders in K/9 for 2013 (with 11 as the cut-off) :

 

Carson Goldsmith 14.5 (R-Etown)

Luis Nunez 14.4 (R-Etown)

Wilfredy Liranzo 13.61 (R-DSL)

Brandon Peterson 13.12 (R-Etown)

Zach Jones 12.95

Dallas Galand (R-Etown/A) 12.30

Andrew Ferreira 12.9 (R-Etown)

Brian Bixler 12.27 (R-Etown/A)

Andre Martinez 11.86 (R-Etown)

Miguel Gonzalez 11.57 (R-GCL)

Tyler Stirewalt 11.49 (R-GCL)

Lester Olivers 11.37 (R-GCL - rehab)

Tyler Jones 11.35

Glen Perkins 11.24 (MLB)

 

Lots of E-town kids would be upset with the above statement

[Steve Lein]

I would have liked to have seen Zach Jones get promoted. Yes, there's more walks than you'd like to see, but when you're striking out that many guys and are otherwise unhittable, walks don't hurt. I think if they want to see improvement in that regard, he needed to be pushed somewhere where they would hurt him. I got the impression he was just overpowering everybody and didn't have to worry as much about his control because of that.

[Seth Stohs]

Lots of E-town kids would be upset with the above statement

 

I'm pretty sure they're pretty angry about a sentence! And, I apologize. I made the assumption that there would be an assumption on innings pitched that would limit it to guys who played a majority of the full seasons.

[Seth Stohs]

I would have liked to have seen Zach Jones get promoted. Yes, there's more walks than you'd like to see, but when you're striking out that many guys and are otherwise unhittable, walks don't hurt. I think if they want to see improvement in that regard, he needed to be pushed somewhere where they would hurt him. I got the impression he was just overpowering everybody and didn't have to worry as much about his control because of that.

 

Well, obviously he did have to worry about his control. He's a very smart guy. He knew that he needed to do two things. One, not walk so many, but also, two, develop a second pitch, a slider that is said to be improving. Walk numbers do matter. How many relievers in the big leagues are successful walking 5/9? Billy Bullock threw in the upper 90s too. I'd have been fine with promoting Jones, but I don't think he is hurt at all by staying there.

[Steve Lein]

How many relievers in the big leagues are successful walking 5/9? Billy Bullock threw in the upper 90s too. I'd have been fine with promoting Jones, but I don't think he is hurt at all by staying there.

 

There's actually quite a few that have pretty good MLB lines with high walk rates (say, above 4/9)! But I don't disagree with any of what you say.

 

I do believe though, that no matter how much a guy is told or knows he has to work on something, that the results of what he's doing unconsciously play a larger role in the actions put on the field. I'm certain in your playing days this happened to you Seth, I know it happened to me. I had a coach tell me one year that I needed to swing more in hitter's counts and not end up drawing so many walks... Well, my on-base-percentage that year ended up well over .500, am I really going to, or is there even a reason to, mess with that? I think the same thing comes up here. He's still not walking every guy he faced, and for each of those walks was striking out 2.5. He struck out more than one batter per baserunner allowed. Look up the MLB relievers who do that - it's quite good company. But my main thought is why would you potentially sacrifice something else (like BAA in Jones' case, or OBP in my example) to get, almost certainly, worse results?

 

I guess it makes sense to me that a guy has to struggle in some way to understand what needs to be adjusted as he develops. Jones certainly didn't struggle this year with the end-results.

[LewFordLives]

Nice article, although Dakota Watts needs to be on this list. He dominated down the stretch.

[TRex]

But my main thought is why would you potentially sacrifice something else (like BAA in Jones' case, or OBP in my example) to get, almost certainly, worse results?

 

Your assertion would be perfectly valid if major leaguers swung at the same number of 'out-of-zone' pitches as High-A players... but they don't! And, in contrast your example, where winning was the goal, the goal for Jones is to ready himself for the big leagues. I especially imagine that Jones gets most of his strikeouts by elevating the fastball, like many other high-A pitchers we have discussed. However, unlike 20 year old kids, the pros are more likely to lay off that pitch (or give it away as a souvenir)!

 

Somewhat related, it was interesting to hear Buxton say that the most significant difference between low-A and high-A was pitchers worked the corners rather than the middle of the plate... which may also be something Jones needed to work on before he was ready for AA.