Twins Minor League Report (7/26): Kirilloff Hitting Streak Continues, Tyler Watson Pitches a Gem

Should I be intrigued by this Tademo kid?  Or was this just an emergency deal of convenience?  Or both?  He got subbed in for Blankenhorn--is Blankie okay?

Can't believe you didn't go with a "Strikeouts are Elementary, My Dear Watson" headline.

I hope Alex Kirilloff has a 47 game hitting streak.  Or hits 47 doubles, or homers, or something.

The FO has been pretty aggressive with promotions of young prospects over the past year; I'd like them to turn it up a notch and get Kiriloff up to AA

Kirilloff learns quickly:

OPS by Month

April (CR): .740

May (CR): 1.063

June (CR): 1.156

June (FM): .799

July (FM): 1.066

Also, he's raking same-handed (lefty) pitchers to the tune of a 1.064 OPS in CR and now .848 in Ft. Myers. 

He probably needs to be a bit more selective at the plate, so it will be interesting to see what happens when he does get the call to Chattanooga. 

Tyler Wells AND Alex Kirilloff need to be moved up. Let Alex try the next level. If he’s capable, who cares what his age is. There’s a reason he’s a first rounder so let him eat! I don’t get why you wouldn’t give him a shot. If he can do the job let him do it!

I know that the farm teams are for development, but it would sure be more encouraging if the top 3 levels, at least one of them, were playing winning baseball.

Nice night for Kirilloff and Grz.  Also, real nice outing for Landon Leach.  Didn't go back to look at each game last year, but this was probably the longest start of his career.And with no earned runs, probably his best.

As for the Kirilloff discussion, my prediction is he stays at Fort Myers before going to the AFL with Rooker. 

Had to look up Michael Davis because his named seemed to keep popping up. Someone quoted this previously after the draft but I don't know where it's from.

---Senior shortstop Michael Davis could be a potential snag in this year’s MLB Draft. The Lubbock local is a versatile baseball player who, over the years, has played multiple positions in addition to shortstop, including second and third-base.

Davis has a cannon for an arm and unbelievable range making him a good draft prospect. His batting average could be better, but he has the power to knock it out of the park and can be clutch in big game situations. Davis has the experience – he’s played in the 2016 CWS, helped Texas Tech win back-to-back Big 12 conference titles and appeared in more than 200 games for the Red Raiders.

So far this season, Davis has a .290 batting average, 11 home runs and 50 RBIs; however, he has 63 strikeouts which needs to be improved. His fielding percentage is .946 and he has 14 errors on the year. Davis has a chance to increase these numbers this week in the Super Regional.

Davis isn’t listed on Baseball America’s top prospect list, but don’t be surprised if he’s picked up in the later rounds of the draft. ---

Safe to say the batting average is doing pretty well so far. A little old for low A but he's doing what he should.

Great to see prospects playing up to expectations and some exceeding them.  With Sano/Buxton/Kepler/Garver not meeting our hopes we need to continually find those who might go all the way with their talent.

I get the SSS approach for Krilloff, but the big league club can't turn away impact bats. Im not paid to make these decisions but I would move the kid to AA and see if he continues to rake. See if he adjusts in Aug and crushes for the remainder of the season. If so, push the kid up to the bigs for the back half of September. 

I never understand why we think struggling at a level ruins a kid. Krilloff obviously is a kid that can handle adversity. Push him until he struggles and then reassess. Who knows, this kid just may be that fast mover. But we will never know if he HAS to stay at a level for a set time. 

FO has been aggressive but the kid obviously isn't being challenged. Every night its 2 or 3 for something with XBH and RBI's. 

FREE KRILLY - (thats obviously his Molitor nickname when he gets up)

Great to see prospects playing up to expectations and some exceeding them.  With Sano/Buxton/Kepler/Garver not meeting our hopes we need to continually find those who might go all the way with their talent.

Garver's up to a 111 wRC+, if you've been paying attention .... The Twins will probably needed a defense first tandem catcher who can hit better than Bobby Wilson to pair with him, but he's starting to prove the bat can play.  

Kepler had a dismal June, but he battled through it and is having a solid July with a pretty decent on base streak still going.

I got nothin' on Sano and Buxton, but it's way to early to throw in the towel on these 25 and unders and their 27 yo catcher friend.

I'm hoping these younger players can supplement those four, not replace them.

Great to see prospects playing up to expectations and some exceeding them.  With Sano/Buxton/Kepler/Garver not meeting our hopes we need to continually find those who might go all the way with their talent.

I think Garver is meeting our hopes.  He was projected to be a decent hitter, for a catcher, who needed work defensively.  Isn't that exactly what he has been?  His bat began the season so-so, but as he has gotten more at bats he is doing a good job at the plate.  

And as for Kepler, we always have known that he would take a bit longer to develop because of his baseball background in Germany.  Will he become the 5-tool star most of us hope for?  That remains to be seen, but I wouldn't call him a disappointment.  At least not yet.

Kirilloff just keeps on rolling. I keep going back and forth on promoting him. It's been a pretty short time in High A. It's a fairly small sample size. He's only 20. But my goodness he just keeps. on. hitting!

I'm not worried about walks when he's hitting over .380 with an OBP over .400. That seems fine to me.

30 games or so left in the minor league season. Does it make sense to jump him up another level for 30 games? Does it mean anything? Hard to think he shouldn't be starting at AA next season regardless, and going to the AFL sounds like a good idea too.

I dunno, but it's starting to look like we might have a gem here.

It's probably hard to be selective when you're crushing everything. I'd hope we'd find out more if he can be selective once teams start pitching around him.

 

Though I wouldn't complain too much if he has that Vlad Guerrero/Eddie Rosario gene where he can somehow barrel up any pitch anywhere.

Yeah, I mean there are definitely strong similarities to Rosario . . . left-handed hitter, corner outfielder, line-drive oriented swing, ability to make hard contact all over (and sometimes outside) of the zone. It's pretty rare for that last bit to work in the Majors and it did take Rosario 800+ plate appearances to figure it out, but either way I'm not concerned at all with Kirilloff . . . I think he's just a natural hitter who will make whatever tweaks he has to as he moves up.

Nick Gordon drew a walk.  Is that more news-worthy than Kirilloff's six consecutive multi-hit games?

Kirilloff is up to #31 on MLB Pipeline Top 100

Is there any cause for concern with Romero? His strike outs are down and he’s had 2 subpar starts in a row. He’s at 110 or so innings now so my concern is he’s breaking down just like last year.

The fact that he went 7 2/3 is a good sign compared to last year.  He never went more than 5 innings after June 25 last season.

I'm having more fun following the Twins' minor league players than the ones on the big league club this summer. It's gonna be sad when their respective seasons end in the coming weeks.