Twins Minor League Report (7/24): E-Twins Lose Pitcher, Win Big

Lewis Thorpe Scouting Report

Was at the Miracle game tonight to watch Thorpe pitch.  It was a very rough outing.  

For innings 1-3, Thorpe threw 92 fastball, 86 slider, 80 curveball.  He tired in inning 4 and his FB was predominately at 91.   He had limited control over his fastball although he threw it for strikes.  His FB has limited movement so A+ hitters could get contact with a lot of foul balls which really seemed to force his pitch count up.  He had almost no control over his offspeed pitches.    His slider was erratic except for the 3rd inning when he finally seemed to have the release point, only to lose it in the 4th.  He just is not around the plate enough with the breaking pitches so he could not miss bats tonight and at times he missed really badly.   I think the heat and humidity had an impact on him as he seemed to be really laboring.  He looked very uncomfortable and his mechanics are not polished at all.  He is not a very good athlete on the mound and was an exceptionally poor fielder, the unearned runs were caused by his own throwing error fielding a bunt and did not get to first in time on a grounder to first.  

Michael Theofanopoulos is a little pitcher that probably doesnt have much upside, but he came in and threw strikes, 92 mph of FB with a reasonable slider.  The 3rd Leftie up Alex Robinson popped the most impressive radar gun numbers of the game, 97/96 with a nice slider movement but has such limited control it is as if he is randomly throwing up there.  He could be a good pitcher if he just trusted his stuff.  He walked the bases loaded and escaped.

Last of the 4 consecutive lefties, Andrew Vasquez had a bad game.  The guy has only given up 14 runs in his entire professional baseball career that started in 2015, and I got to see 2 of them.  He is 6-6, but his fastball only tops out at 90 but he has reasonable control.  Throws a slider at 82 and curve at 72 with really good spin.  His career numbers (ERA 1.34 overall) suggest good control over those pitches but he was just a smidgen off tonight, getting hurt on some bad 2 strike pitches.  At 6-6 he has good downward plane but he could really stand to move his are slot up a bit to get even better downward plane on his limited fastball. 

Brent Rooker had a reasonable game, just missing his first A+ home run off the wall in left center field and he had two walks.  He also had a very bad AB when he struck out.  Jermaine Palacios had a mixed game.  He hit the ball hard twice, foul.  He had a bad throwing error on the first hitter of the game displaying very poor fundamentals but he turned a couple of double plays.  The rest of the Miracle in the game outside of Kranson and Wiel (neither of which has a position in the field), are slap hitters that have very limited power:  Tanner English, Sean Miller, Nelson Miranda, Brandon Lopez.  Millers double tonight was a spinner that went down the left field line and his other hit was a blooper.  

Not a good night for the Miracle.

Thanks for recognizing a good relief performance

Miranda is having a strong season and has been red hot with multi-hit games in 6 of his last 7.

There is zero reason to worry about Thorpe. One bad outing after a bunch of good ones. Velos look good. He's fine.

 

I don't think the Haley decision really does much for Gonsalves/Romero's timeline

 

I don't think Graterol's promotion is based on others. 

WHile that may be true, at the A+ level Thorpe was not as good of a pitcher at Kohl Stewart, did not have as good of velocity or control of the fastball, and his secondary pitches were not as developed, particularly compared to Stewart's changeup.  He also did not have Stewart's athleticism and Thorpe was a terrible pitcher.

Maybe it was just a bad outing.  To me he looked uncomfortable (it was really hot and humid) and he just seemed to labor at everything he did.  He also struggled to pitch through errors (two of them committed by himself, even though one was ruled a hit he missed the bag at first), a bad call on the HBP were the batter check swung. 

The umpire also disallowed a run when a Miracle runner was thrown out at 2nd, even though the runner had already crossed the plate.  I think the Miracle guys had to keep their mouths shut after all of the ejections the previous game.

WHile that may be true, at the A+ level Thorpe was not as good of a pitcher at Kohl Stewart, did not have as good of velocity or control of the fastball, and his secondary pitches were not as developed, particularly compared to Stewart's changeup.  He also did not have Stewart's athleticism and Thorpe was a terrible pitcher.

 

Maybe it was just a bad outing.  To me he looked uncomfortable (it was really hot and humid) and he just seemed to labor at everything he did.  He also struggled to pitch through errors (two of them committed by himself, even though one was ruled a hit he missed the bag at first), a bad call on the HBP were the batter check swung. 

 

The umpire also disallowed a run when a Miracle runner was thrown out at 2nd, even though the runner had already crossed the plate.  I think the Miracle guys had to keep their mouths shut after all of the ejections the previous game.

I love the "live" report.  Thanks so much as most of us only have a few videos and stat lines.

I am willing to give Thorpe some slack.  He basically went 3 years without pitching due to various injuries.  This year is not really about results but more about staying healthy and putting in innings.  

Next year he probably will start at the FSL league again and hopefully he will have his instincts back.     

I think Theofanopoulos can pitch more than 2.1 innings.  Why not keep him in there when he was doing so well?

I think Theofanopoulos can pitch more than 2.1 innings.  Why not keep him in there when he was doing so well?

I think that they pitch defined roles and that was his turn.  

Like I said, Alex Robinson has absolutely nasty stuff if, if is a big word, he can get control.  His FB was 96/97 and his slider was really big.  He just can't throw strikes when he needs to, and sadly, I think that will be the story of his career.  

I do not mind Haley being outrighted, but based on the way we have treated him and the impact he has had on prior decisions it is a shocking move.  

Huh?
At A+ level:
Thorpe: 9.6 k/9, 4.0 bb/9
Stewart: 5.7 k/9, 3.2 bb/9

Thorpe has been vastly superior to Stewart at Ft. Myers. Maybe I'm misunderstanding what you are saying here?

You post one statistic and claim Thorpe is "vastly superior".  Having actually watched the two pitch, Stewart at the A+ minor league level Stewart was by far the better pitcher.  More velocity, better command, much more advanced secondary pitches.  If you go back you can see my report on Stewart and why his strike out rate is lower than what it should be.

The funniest part of the Not Top Ten clip is how annoyed the catcher looked that the pitcher went and flailed around on the infield.