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  • Twins Minor League Report (4/23): Gonsalves Gon' Save Us

    Eric Pleiss

    By Eric Pleiss

    The Twins were off on Thursday, so a lot of people spent a lot of time trying to figure out what the heck Torii Hunter was doing when he scampered towards home plate on Wednesday night, attempting a straight steal of home. If that doesn't do it for you, you can get your baseball fix from the newest Talk to Contact podcast featuring TwinsDaily's own Jeremy Nygaard talking about the MLB draft and the Twins' payroll.

    Image courtesy of Seth Stohs

    Twins Video

    RED WINGS REPORT

    Rochester @ Syracuse Chiefs

    The Red Wings and Chiefs were postponed due to inclement weather.

    LOOKOUTS LOOK-IN

    Chattanooga @ Mississippi Braves

    Box Score

    Byron Buxton had the night off, which likely ruffled the feathers of a few of the 2,735 packed into Trustman Park in Pearl, Mississippi, but the Braves came away with the victory, so the home crowd went home winners. Max Kepler replaced Buxton in center field and went 0-4 on the evening. The only real bright spot for Chattanooga was Mike Gonzales, we picked up a pair of hits, including a seventh inning solo home run to knot the game at two-two. The Lookouts had just six hits on the evening, none from their second ranked prospect, Miguel Sano, was was 0-3 with a walk and a strike out. Sano is now hitting just .163 but retains an OBP well above .300 thanks to AA pitchers giving him nearly a free pass a game.

    Greg Peavey, a name all but the most die-hard Twins fans might not be familiar with (2014 Rule 5 draftee from the Triple-A portion of the draft), started for the Lookouts but failed to make it through the sixth inning. Over 5.2 innings, Peavey gave up a pair of runs, walked four, struck out four, and surrendered five hits. Peavey left the game with the Lookouts trailing 2-1 but was left out of the decision after that Gonzales homer. Cole Johnson, a former 44th rounder out of Notre Dame, came on in relief to close out the sixth without issue. Johnson came back out for the seventh and ran into trouble, giving up three runs before being bulled for Dallas Gallant with two outs. Gallant quickly retired the side and pitched a perfect eight for good measure.

    Final Score: Lookouts 2, Braves 5

    MIRACLE MATTERS

    Fort Myers @ St. Lucie Mets

    Box Score

    In front of 1,259 fans at Tradition Field in St. Lucie, Florida, Chih-Wei Hu moved his record to 2-0 with six innings of five-hit baseball against the Mets. Hu struck out four, walked none, and gave up just a single home run, a first inning home run to the St. Lucie leadoff hitter Champ Stuart Stuart owes Kernel's centerfielder Jason Kanzler a beer after the game for the assist on the home run, bouncing from Kanzler's glove over the wall as Kanzler crashed into the padding. After Hu left the game, Todd Van Steensel pitched two perfect innings that included four strike outs. Madison Boer earned earned his first save of the year, but he had to work for it. He gave up a run and three hits before sending the Mets to the showers.

    Losers of their last three games, the Miracle rallied from the first inning deficit to tie the game in the fourth before taking the lead for good with a pair of runs in the fifth innings. Aderlin Mejia and Engelb Vielma both had a pair of hits and an RBI but Mejia earns hitter of the game honors for me as he reached base a third time with a base on balls. Fort Myers had plenty of opportunities to score more runs, but were just 3-13 with runners in scoring position, stranding eight men on base and striking out ten times.

    Final score: Miracle 4, Mets 2

    KERNELS KORNER

    Cedar Rapids @ Wisconsin Timber Rattlers

    Box Score

    Six hits and three runs was plenty of offense for the Kernels as Stephen Gonsalves shut down the Timber Rattlers for seven innings and Trevor Hildenberger slammed the door shut with two shutout innings to earn his first save of the young season. Gonsalves was absolutely brilliant, giving up just a single hit and a single walk, and he fanned eleven of the twenty-four batters he faced. At one point Gonsalves retired ten consecutive batters. Gonsalves has been nearly unhittable this season, he has fanned 30 in just 20 innings spread over three starts and his ERA is just 0.90. Hildenberger kept Wisconsin guessing as well, adding in another pair of strike outs.

    Cedar Rapids' number nine hitter, Jonatan Hinojosa was the only batter from either team to collect multiple hits, finishing the night two for three with a couple of singles. Brian Navarreto provided the game's only extra base hit, his first double of the year. Without much in the way of a hitting display, this game went quickly, just 2:07 in front of a mid-week day game crowd of 476 at Fox Cities Stadium in Appleton, WI.

    Final Score: Kernels 3, Timber Rattlers 0

    TWINS DAILY MINOR LEAGUE PLAYERS OF THE DAY

    Hitter of the Day - Mike Gonzales, Chattanooga Lookouts

    Pitcher of the Day - Stephen Gonsalves, Cedar Rapids Kernels

    FRIDAY'S PROBABLES

    Syracuse @ Rochester - Scott McGregor vs. Mark Hamburger (0-1, 9.35)

    Chattanooga @ Mississippi - D.J. Baxendale (2-0, 0.00) vs. Ryan Weber

    Fort Myers @ St. Lucie - Ethan Mildren (0-2, 5.79) vs. Logan Taylor

    Kane County @ Cedar Rapids - Brent Jones vs. Michael Caderoth (0-1, 4.50)

    Follow Eric Pleiss on Twitter: ERolfPleiss

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    Featured Comments

    bird

    bird 6,083

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

     

    The Kernels have been a middle of the pack offensive team in the MWL, so far. A little streaky. They have beaten up on some teams and then been real silent against others.

     

    In additio to the guys you mentioned, I've liked what I've seen at the plate from the two 1Bs, Trey Vavra and Tyler Kuresa, as well as Tanner English. It's still early, though. With their pitching, they don't have to score a ton of runs to win.

     

    Also, going back to comments about the Miracle, just to be fair, keep in mind that a couple of those "relief pitchers drafted recently with top picks" are already up in Chattanooga. I'll also be surprised (and disappointed) if Kanzler, Garver and a couple other hitters don't start to figure things out soon. A lot of slow starts on that team, though, I grant.

     

    Regarding the comments on Gonsalves, I saw observations/questions that refer to him as a "great kid" and someone "with a chip on his shoulder." I would opine that both are true. Throw in that lefty 93 mph fastball with movement and there's really not much you wouldn't like in a 20 year old.

     

     

    It tells a lot about how uncertain these prospects are until they get a season or two under their belts of full-season play. Of the players you just mentioned, any one of whom could turn out to be a real player.  Or more likely, not:

     

    English: three rankers out of 19 gave him a rank at all. #33 by both Gleeman and Twinkietown, #35 by Shane Wahl.

     

    Kuresa: two of the 19 rankers: #38 by thrylos and #45 by Shane

     

    Vavra: #59 by Shane

     

    The highest rankings any of the Cedar Rapids position players have gotten:

     

    Gordon #3

    JJ Fernandez #19

    Murphy #25

    Larson #28

    Navarreto #29

    English #33 

    Kuresa #38

    Granite #57 

    Vavra #59

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    Steven Buhr

    Steven Buhr 2,279

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    Trying to lay out the possibilities for success for the Kernels this season, I've drawn comparisons to the 2013 Quad Cities River Bandits. They had a stud SS and a bunch of contributors on offense, but not many guys you would drive too far just to see play ball. The 2nd half of the season, though, they had some awfully strong pitching. They breezed through the playoffs to win the MWL title.

     

    I could see CR having a similar team the 1st half of this season and it's impossible to predict what the roster will look like the 2nd half.

     

    None of this, of course, has much to do with what kind of potential the individual position players have to become MLBers. I suspect that the Twins are counting on that class a couple of years older to provide the core of their big league team for several years, and would only need a handful of guys from the 2013-14 draft classes to pan out. If more do, terrific.

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    diehardtwinsfan

    diehardtwinsfan 14,830

  • Community Moderator

    • Posted

    The Kernels have been a middle of the pack offensive team in the MWL, so far. A little streaky. They have beaten up on some teams and then been real silent against others.

     

    In additio to the guys you mentioned, I've liked what I've seen at the plate from the two 1Bs, Trey Vavra and Tyler Kuresa, as well as Tanner English. It's still early, though. With their pitching, they don't have to score a ton of runs to win.

     

    Also, going back to comments about the Miracle, just to be fair, keep in mind that a couple of those "relief pitchers drafted recently with top picks" are already up in Chattanooga. I'll also be surprised (and disappointed) if Kanzler, Garver and a couple other hitters don't start to figure things out soon. A lot of slow starts on that team, though, I grant.

     

    Regarding the comments on Gonsalves, I saw observations/questions that refer to him as a "great kid" and someone "with a chip on his shoulder." I would opine that both are true. Throw in that lefty 93 mph fastball with movement and there's really not much you wouldn't like in a 20 year old.

    I wonder what Keith Law will say about him if he keeps this up :)

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    jokin

    jokin 4,237

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted (edited)

     

    Thank you for that important correction. ;) I was wrong when I said the Kernels were 5th out of 16 teams in OPS. This morning they're actually tied for 6th, .003 percentage points behind the 5th place team. My bad. :)

     

     

     

     

     

    The .659 OPS and 7th place in the MWL is accurate, and obviously, not a good number. Among all 30 Class A teams in two leagues, the Twins OPS ranks 17th.

     

    http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=l_tba&lid=118

    http://www.milb.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?sid=milb&t=l_tba&lid=116

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

    In each of our last few drafts, there has been a consistent balance of pitching and position draftees, so the lack of elite offensive talent can't simply be traced to the emphasis on drafting those hard-throwing relievers.

     

    The fact is, there hasn't been "a consistent balance" in the top rounds-   the Twins have recognized a deficiency in their pitching/catching depth, and have emphasized gathering more quality arms than bats over the last 3 drafts, and they have particularly been trying to find inefficiencies in hard-throwing college RPs. 

     

    2014-  Pitchers-  9 of the first 13

    2013-  Pitchers-  12 of first 19 (+ 3 Catchers = 15/19)

    2012-  Pitchers-  13 of first 18 (+ 1 Catcher = 14/18)

     

    Don't know why you choose to turn this into a debunking contest, since we are essentially in agreement.  The fact remains, my first premise is still accurate, many more pitchers/catchers in the early rounds, which means there is left a big offensive hole in the Ft Myers class, and a lesser, but still significant one at Cedar Rapids.  

     

     

    The best hope for current prospect offensive potential largely lies in Chattanooga- if the current crop there would continue to disappoint at their current level of futility- the Twins would obviously need to look further for more offensive production down the road; they will likely need to wisely develop and deal from the pitching prospect talent surplus- if there ends up being one.

     

    Edited by jokin
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    bird

    bird 6,083

  • Verified Member

    • Posted

    The question of whether the Twins changed their draft approach and thereby created a hitting shortage in the low minors this year is a good one. But the thing is, the draft balance didn't change in 2014, which is the year most of the CR roster was drafted. In fact 10 of the first 20 draftees were hitters that year, including Gordon, Murphy, English, Kuresa, White, and Kelly on that CR team. The Twins have consistently drafted more pitchers than hitters in the early rounds. There just doesn't appear to be a correllation between the draft approach and the offensive production. I think the two main factors are international talent and chance, or essentially the quality of that year's draft. Here's the breakdown for 5 years in terms of pitcher/hitter ratio of the first 20 rounds:

     

    2010:  13/7

    2011:  14/6

    2012:  14/6

    2013:  12/8

    2014:  10/10 (this was the year the Twins loaded up on all those relievers and supposedly created this black hole)

     

     My theory is that hitting talent just hasn't been as impressive in general. BTW, the success rate with these early pitching picks has been decent, all things considered, so it appears to have been a good idea to emphasize pitching. 

     

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    jokin

    jokin 4,237

  • Old-Timey Member

    • Posted (edited)

     

     

    l. BTW, the success rate with these early pitching picks has been decent, all things considered, so it appears to have been a good idea to emphasize pitching. 

     

    Is there anyone arguing that there wasn't a need to address the pitching issue?

     

    Cause and effect still happens, though.

    Edited by jokin
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