Twins Minor League Report (9/14): Saints Steal the Show in Lone Action

Woods Richardson may eventually provide the Twins with some value as a result of the Berrios trade.

SWR has had a very good season. Consistent performance across AA and AAA and good health. He’s quickly running out of things to prove in the minors. 

It was great to see SWR step up in AAA and perform. Have great expectations for him.

We have three interesting prospects on the mound tonight--Balazovic, Headrick, and Raya.  Hopefully, Balazovic has another good performance tonight so he has something to build on next year.  He and SWR could both put themselves in a position to help next year at some point. 

Not having watched him pitch, SWR's lack of strikeouts feels concerning. Should I actually be worried, or is he just very very good at getting soft contact?

1 hour ago, Alex Schieferdecker said:

Not having watched him pitch, SWR's lack of strikeouts feels concerning. Should I actually be worried, or is he just very very good at getting soft contact?

He's averaging over a K/inning this season, which is down a little for him but I'm not sure it's something to worry about it at this point. He hasn't been at elite levels this year, but his K/9 would be higher than any Twins starter this season outside of Louie Varland (who has one game under his belt, but has a higher K/9 in the minors as well). I'm very happy with SWR's season: he's pitching late into the year, he's been mostly healthy (except for a bout with COVID I believe), he's pitched more innings than any year since he was 18, and he absolutely earned the promotion to AAA and performed really well since moving up.

SWR is soooooo young. Between him and Ronny Henriquez, plus Balazovic, the Twins have three young studs. If they make "The Show" is the question.

Who is Nash Knight?

5 hours ago, Steve Lein said:

I'm going to the Saints game tonight. Am really interested to watch this year's version of Balazovic in person.

You suck (not jealous at all ).  Would totally love to see him in person.  If for no other reason than just to be able to break down and dissect his mechanics, body language, etc. 

I still feel (hopefully) that he'll be fine in the long run; that he just needs some time to heal up, reset and get his mind right. Baseball is tough, and that's when you're fully healthy.  I can't even imagine what's been running though his head this year (and yes pitchers are often a bit of a head case ).

6 hours ago, Steve Lein said:

I'm going to the Saints game tonight. Am really interested to watch this year's version of Balazovic in person.

I would love to hear your impression of his performance if you can post it.  I saw him earlier this year and he really struggled.  I hope he is righting the ship.  We need him.

15 hours ago, RJA said:

I would love to hear your impression of his performance if you can post it.  I saw him earlier this year and he really struggled.  I hope he is righting the ship.  We need him.

While I wasn't there in person, it did watch the game on MiLB TV.  Honestly, he looked ok.  Enough so, that I feel he will be ok going forward.

8 minutes ago, MN_ExPat said:

While I wasn't there in person, it did watch the game on MiLB TV.  Honestly, he looked ok.  Enough so, that I feel he will be ok going forward.

Thank you!  It sure would be great if he gets back on track next year.  The stuff is definitely there.

56 minutes ago, Steve Lein said:

 

I'd describe his outing as a bit inconsistent, but overall he was pretty good. Dropped some pitches on corners to catch guys looking, as well as some swings-and-misses.

He came out firing 97 MPH fastballs (which is in line with last year), but I say inconsistent because in the innings that followed his velocity (on all his pitches) was all over the place.

Fastball was down 90-92 in the second and third innings (when he gave up some loud contact) after those 97's, then in his last inning was back up to 96. The lowest reading I saw was a 76 (curveball) but it was really hard to correlate the readings to his pitches because of their variation. To my non-scout eyes, I'd say his slider was anywhere from 80-89, FB 90-97, etc...

I'd say he looked confident and throwing 97 says there's not a physical ailment, but could definitely be something mechanical that gets out of whack at times.

Thanks, Steve.  I greatly appreciate your response.  When I saw him there were glimmers of great stuff, but the same inconsistency you noted, only probably worse.  In one case he threw three almost unhittable pitches to get a punch out, and followed it with walks and multiple hits on pitches he left hanging.  I suspect he will get a lot of tutoring and help this off season.