Minor Trending
The Twins had a much-needed off day on
Monday, so today, let’s spend a little time talking
about the Twins minor league system. We notice at the big league level which players
start off to a hot or a cold start. It is the same thing in the minor leagues.
Here are a few notes on the starts of players from the Twins affiliates:
Rochester Red Wings:
·
Trevor Plouffe has been able to start off very well. He is hitting
.300 with three doubles, a triple and five home runs.
·
Kyle Gibson is
again on the mound on Tuesday for the Red Wings. In his most recent start, he
took a no-hitter into the seventh inning. He was named the Red Wings most
recent player of the week.
·
Ben Revere is
currently hitting just .203/.239/.234. Of course he will be fine. However, in
his past nine games, he has just four hits in 35 at bats.
·
Matt Brown has
not played in the past four days. His batting average is down to .162 after he
went 0-11 in his previous four games.
·
Jeff Bailey
played well in spring training, and he has a game-winning, walk-off homer for
the Red Wings, but he is struggling. His last hit was 11 days ago (April 15).
In his past eight games, he is 0-23.
New Britain Rock Cats
·
Danny Lehmann
made a strong impression on the big league staff in spring training, again. He
began the season in Double-A and went 6-13 (.462) with
a double. He moved up to Rochester recently where he has gone 5-14 (.357) with
a double and a home run.
·
After being named
the organization’s top minor league hitter in 2010, it’s great to see Joe
Benson off to a fast start. He is hitting .379/.446/.638 with seven doubles,
one triple and two home runs. One of his issues had been strikeouts. Through
last night’s games, he has 13 strikeouts in 65 plate appearances. The one
strikeout every five at bat ratio would be a great number for Benson. In fact,
with Ben Revere and Brandon Roberts struggling in Rochester, and Rene Tosoni cooling off, is it possible that if Delmon Young needs to go on the DL for four or five days
that they could call up Benson now for a week?
In his past six games, Benson is 9-23 with three doubles, a triple and a
home run.
·
Yangervis Solarte is hitting .356
(with a .367 OBP) with six doubles, a triple and a home run. He has six hits in
his past ten at bats.
·
Steve Singleton
had 43 doubles for the Rock Cats in 2010 (along with four triples and seven
home runs). With three doubles on Monday night, he now has seven doubles on
this season with a home run. How he is still at Double-A is beyond me.
·
Cole DeVries amazing start to his 2011season continues. In five
games, he has 12.1 innings thrown. He has given up just two hits, one walk, and
he has struck out 18 batters.
·
After a fast
start, Ray Chang has four hits in his last 26 at bats.
·
Another veteran
that the team signed was Michael Holliman. He played for the Detroit Tigers in
2008. After playing in independent league ball in 2010, the Twins signed him.
He played very well in spring. He homered in his first regular season game with
the Rock Cats. Since then, it’s been a struggle for him. He has three hits in
42 at bats this season, an .071 average.
Ft. Myers Miracle
·
Chris Herrmann’s
nine-game hitting streak came to an end in a game that he went 0-1 with two
walks. He started a new hitting streak last night. He is now hitting
.355/.425/.516.
·
Minnesotan Nate Hanson ‘s 12 game hitting streak came to an end over the
weekend. Since then he has gone 1-13 and is now hitting .296 with three homers.
David Dorsey of the Ft. Myers News Press wrote a nice article
on the First Baseman.
·
Danny Rams played
well in spring camp too. He has started the season by hitting. 357/.419/.536
with three doubles, two triples and a home run. He is 8-17 in his past five
games, and 14-33 over his past nine games. Like Benson, strikeouts will be
worth watching with Rams. So far, he has 18 strikeouts in 62 plate appearances.
·
Through 11.1
innings, Shooter Hunt is 2-0 with a 0.00 ERA. He has 12 strikeouts to go with
nine walks. Still a lot of walks, but he has been able to have enough control
for those walks not to come back to haunt him.
·
Steve Liddle is struggling. He is hitting just .136 on the young
season, but he is also 2-21 in his past 7 games. It is surprising because the
nephew of the Twins 3B coach had a terrific college career at baseball power
Vanderbilt.
·
Aaron Hicks had a
good first week, but in his last seven games, he has gone 4-27 and is now
hitting .232.
Beloit Snappers
·
Danny Ortiz was
my choice for Breakout Hitter of the Year for the Twins throughout the
offseason. Through 15 games, he .360/.411/.680 with five doubles, a triple and
three home runs. He has been remarkably consistent. In
his first 25 at bats, he had nine hits. In his past 25 at bats, he has nine
hits.
·
Oswaldo Arcia broke out last year
as the Appalachian League MVP. He got off to a fast start, then
recently went 1-14 to drop below .300. However, last night he went 2-4 to
return to the .300 level.
·
Early in the
year, Ortiz and Arcia were joined by Gunner Glad as
the guys carrying this offense, but Glad has really struggled of late. He has
just two hits in his last 19 at bats and is now hitting .222.
·
Glad’s University
of Kentucky teammate Lance Ray, the Twins 8th round pick a year ago,
has just three hits in his last 25 at bats. He is hitting .184. It is
surprising because after signing last year, he played very well at Elizabethton
and was promoted to Beloit. In 47 games with the Snappers, he hit
.279/.377/.418 with 14 doubles and three home runs. In other words, he will get
it turned around at some point.
·
Derek McCallum
was the Twins 4th round choice in 2009 out of the University of
Minnesota. He was in Beloit last year but was limited to just 47 games by two
separate injuries. He hit just .228 last year, and due
to the limited playing time, he returned to the Snappers this year. He’s been
healthy, but he is hitting just .135 (5-37) He has three hits in his last 21 at
bats which is a .143 average. That means he was 2-16 (.125) to start the
season. It has been a struggle, and the 2B also is now playing a lot of left
field.
Draft
Notes – The draft experts at Baseball
America put together their first
mock draft, and with the 30th pick, their choice for the
Twins was RHP John Stilson from Texas A&M
University. The Twins drafted Stilson out of Texarcana Junior College two years ago, but did not reach
an agreement with him at the time. In fact, on the deadline day in August of
2009, he and his American Legion team were in Fargo, playing in the American
Legion World Series. Had he signed with the Twins, he would have been unable to
play in the championship game. As you recall, the Twins went right up to the
deadline that year to sign their first-round pick, Kyle Gibson.
Kolten Wong is a 2B from the University of Hawaii who has
risen up draft boards. In the same mock draft, they have him going 27th
to the Cincinnati Reds. Wong was the Twins 16th round pick in 2008
out of high school as a catcher.
There is a quick glance at who is hot and who
is not with the Twins four full-season affiliates. It is important to remember
that the season is still very young, that most of the players have played less
than 15 games and have less than 50 plate appearances. The weather has made
conditions difficult and rain/snow outs make it hard to get into a routine. As
the weather improves, they will play every day and it will be interesting to
see where some of these players are in another 300 or 400 plate appearances.
But it is fun to follow.
Minor
League Report
Be sure to check out last
night’s Twins Minor League Weekly podcast here.
SethSpeaks.net Minor League Hitter of the Day– Steve
Singleton, New Britain Rock Cats
SethSpeaks.net Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Cole DeVries, New Britain Rock Cats
Red Wings Ramblings
Monday
– Red Wings, Pawtucket – Another day,
another rain delay. Kyle Gibson will pitch on Tuesday night against Buffalo.
The Red Wings are currently 7-10.
Rock Cats Report
Monday
– Rock Cats 9, New Hampshire 2 – Each
of Liam Hendriks’ scheduled starts had been affected
by rain. In fact, he was supposed to start on Saturday for the Rock Cats, but
with the rainout, he was pushed back to Monday. With this start, he recorded his
first win of the year. In six innings, he gave up two runs on four hits. He
walked one, hit one and struck out three. He got eight groundballs to just two
fly outs. Cole DeVries incredible start to his season
continued. He recorded his second three-inning save pitching three more perfect
innings and striking out six. Yangervis Solarte got the Rock Cats on the board with a home run. He
was 3-5 in the game. Steve Singleton went 3-5 with three doubles. Joe Benson
went 1-3 with two walks and his second home run. The Rock Cats are now 9-6 and just 1.5 games
out of first place.
Miracle Matters
Monday
– Miracle 5, Charlotte 11 – The
Miracle had been the Twins’ affiliate that you could count on for a game. On
this night, their game was delayed by the rains, but they did get it in. Ryan
Mullins started and gave up four runs on three hits and two walks in just one
inning. Matt Tone gave up four runs on four hits and two walks in two innings.
Edgar Ibarra threw four shutout innings before giving up three runs in the 8th
inning. Shooter Hunt got the final five outs. He walked two and hit one but did
not allow a run. Danny Rams went 2-4. Chris Herrmann went 1-3 with a walk. The Miracle are now
10-8, a very solid start. They are in second place, but they are already 6.5
games behind the St. Lucie Mets, who are 17-2.
Snappers Bites
Monday
– Snappers 3, Burlington 7 – Andrei Lobanov started and the Moscow-native gave up six runs (5
earned) on three hits and three walks in 4.2 innings. Clinton Dempster got all four batters he faced out. Ryan O’Rourke
gave up one run on three hits in two innings. Martire
Garcia struck out two in his scoreless frame. Danny Ortiz remains on fire. He
hit his fourth and fifth doubles in four at bats. Oswaldo
Arcia went 2-4 with his second stolen base. Wang-Wei
Lin was 2-4 with his first double. The
Snappers are 8-7 and 4.5 games back in the division.
Feel free to leave
your thoughts, questions or comments.
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