Monday, May
11, 2009
Weekend Update
I watched the Friday night Twins game and blogged on it. I didn’t watch
more than about half of the Saturday and Sunday games. I would love to hear
your thoughts on the weekend or any of the Twins’ storylines. Here are a couple
of comments and links:
·
First, be sure to
listen to the Twins Geek and I talk Twins at the
MNGameNight.com podcast. We talked about the Mariners series, the
upcoming Tigers series, the bullpen, Carlos
Gomez and Tollhouse Bars from The Voice of Reason!
·
Speaking of Carlos Gomez, the Twins Geek mentioned that
Dick and Bert were openly discussing if Gomez should be sent to AAA. Blyleven
actually said that he needs to play every day. Nick
Nelson and Aaron
Gleeman share their opinions. I’m on the other side of the story. I
understand that he is great defensively, but what good is that if he’s only out
there for one or two innings a game?
·
The Michael Cuddyer
tear continued over the weekend. Tim Kurkjian of ESPN.com wrote a nice
article on how the Twins are built on players with high character. Cuddyer is kind of the poster boy for that.
·
For those of you
who still aren’t checking out the Twins Page at
BaseballDigest.com yet, be sure to go there, bookmark it, sign up for
the RSS Feed, it’s worth it. On Saturday, Alex
Halstad of Twins Territory wrote a nice
article on Delmon Young called An
Average Hitter. It comes complete with charts and everything. On Sunday
night, Justin Murphy of Seamheads.com
wrote his weekly article; This
Week in Twins History.
·
I was on Twins
Weekly on KFAN with Phil Mackey and Joe Nelson for a segment on Sunday afternoon. (Click
here to listen) It was fun, and PMac asked me several questions about the Twins minor
leagues. Specifically, we talked about Anthony
Slama, Rob
Delaney, Sean Henn,
Anthony Swarzak,
Danny Valencia, Luke Hughes, Dustin Martin,
Chris Parmelee,
Carlos Gutierrez, Deolis Guerra, and more. You should really
listen to the entire show, but if you just want to hear my part, it is about
half way through the show.
·
There have been
several more former Twins players listed on the Forgettable Twins blog.
·
Travis
Talks gives his choices for the
Top Hitters and Top Pitchers at each level of the Twins system in April (Part
I and Part II).
Check it out and let him know what you think.
·
Roger Dehring posted his weekly
Minor League Report.
SethSpeaks.net Weekly Twins Podcast Tonight!
At 9:00 (central time) tonight,
the SethSpeaks.net Weekly
Minnesota Twins podcast will be live online. Hopefully we can get a ton
of people listening and participating in the chat room. Here is the schedule
for the show:
·
9:00-9:05 –
Introduction
·
9:05-9:20 – Liam Hendiks, Twins pitching prospect, missed entire
2008 season after surgery
·
9:20-9:35 – Drew Thompson,
Twins infield prospect, missed half of the 2006 season and all of the 2007 and
2008 seasons with back injury. Last week, he returned to Beloit and played 2B.
Really, it is a terrific story and it should be fun to talk to him.
·
9:35-9:55 – Travis Aune,
the author of Travis Talks. I have known Travis
forever as we are from the same hometown. He is one of the more passionate
baseball fans I know, and he really is learning the Twins minor league system
too. Anyway, we will talk about several Twins topics.
·
9:55-10:00 –
Conclusion
There is also a possibility of
another guest in there somewhere, so be sure to tune in and send your questions
in to the chat room. If you are unable to listen live, be sure to download the
show afterward and listen in. I would love to hear your feedback.
GAME RECAPS
The Twins won two out of three
against the Mariners in the weekend series. They will have another home off day
on Monday before starting a three game series against the AL Central leading
Detroit Tigers. The Twins will send Kevin
Slowey, Glen
Perkins and Scott Baker to the mound
against Armando Galarraga,
Dontrelle Willis and Justin Verlander.
Saturday - TWINS 9,
MARINERS 6
It was supposed to be a matchup
of young aces. So, of course, there was little pitching in this game. Francisco Liriano
pitched long enough for the win. In five innings he gave up five runs on
six hits and two walks. King Felix Hernandez gave up six runs (5
earned) on six hits and three walks. The highlight, for Twins fans, has to be
the back-to-back home runs by Joe Mauer and Justin
Morneau, a feat they accomplished in back-to-back
games. Mauer went 2-3 with two walks, his third
double, his third homer and three RBI. Morneau was
2-2 with two walks. The homer was his eighth. Michael Cuddyer went 2-4 with his third
homer, a three-run blast.
Sunday - TWINS 3,
MARINERS 5
Nick Blackburn was excellent.
Seven shutout innings with just five hits and one walk. He struck out six.
Unfortunately, the bullpen imploded again. Jose
Mijares came in and after walking Jose Lopez, he gave up a game-tying home run
to Ken Griffey. Jesse Crain came in and all three batters he faced got on base. Matt Guerrier
got them out of the inning, but the Twins were now down 5-2. The Twins
attempted another walk-filled comeback against Brandon Morrow. Joe Mauer singled in a run, but Morrow was able to finish
the job at get the save. Mauer went 2-4. After two
games off, Nick Punto
returned to the lineup and went 2-3.
MINOR LEAGUE REPORT
Saturday -
SethSpeaks.net Hitter of the Day – Chris Parmelee, Ft. Myers
Miracle
Saturday -
SethSpeaks.net Pitcher of the Day – Brad Tippett, Beloit
Snappers
Sunday -
SethSpeaks.net Hitter of the Day – Luke Hughes, Rochester Red Wings
Sunday -
SethSpeaks.net Pitcher of the Day – Kevin Mulvey, Rochester Red
Wings
INJURY UPDATE –
You may have heard already that Wilson Ramos hurt a finger on his
glove hand while catching. Seems like a very strange injury, but he was put on
the Disabled List, and it has affected the catchers throughout the system. Danny Lehmann has been promoted from
Ft. Myers to New Britain. Allen de San
Miguel, who went from New Britain to Beloit just over a week ago, will now
be heading to Ft. Myers to join the Miracle. Also, Jeff Lanning is being promoted from Extended Spring Training to
Beloit.
Danny Valencia was scheduled
to be back in the starting lineup on Sunday for the Rockcats
after missing several games with a wrist injury.
ROCHESTER REPORT
Saturday –Rochester 7, Charlotte 6 – David Winfree went 2-4 and connected on his fourth home run. Justin Huber went 2-5 with his second
double and first triple. Jason Pridie went 2-5 with his fifth
double and two RBI. Alexi Casilla went 2-5
with his first stolen base. Jose Morales
went 1-1 with three walks. Jason Jones
started and gave up five runs on seven hits (including two HR) in three
innings. Bobby Keppel gave up two
hits and two walks in three shutout innings. Juan Morillo got the win by going two
shutout innings. He walked three and struck out two. Sean Henn recorded the save despite
giving up a solo home run.
Sunday –Rochester 8, Charlotte 4 – Kevin Mulvey improved to 2-1 with six strong innings. He gave up a
run on five hits and two walks, and he struck out four. Mike Gosling gave up two hits, walked one and struck out two in a
scoreless inning. Tim Lahey gave up three runs on three hits and got just one
out. Juan Morillo
came in and got the final five outs, three via the strikeout. Alexi Casilla
went 3-5 with two stolen bases. Luke
Hughes was 2-3 with two walks. Jose
Morales went 2-4 with his second double.
ROCKCAT RECAP
Saturday - New Britain 7, Portland 8 – Ryan Mullins had his best
game in a long time. The lefty gave up one run on five hits and three walks in
five innings. Frank Mata then gave up
five runs on six hits and a walk in just 1.2 innings. Jose Lugo came in and struck out the one batter that he faced. Zach Ward gave up two unearned runs on
two walks in one inning. The bats were pretty quiet until they scored four in
the top of the 9th, but it wasn’t quite enough. Jeff Christy went 3-5. Erik Lis went 2-3 with two walks and a double. Brandon Roberts and Rene Tosoni
each went 2-4 with a walk. Brian Dinkelman was 2-5.
Sunday - New Britain, Portland –
Rained out.
MIRACLE MEMOS
Saturday –Ft. Myers 7, St. Lucie 5 – Chris Parmelee
had a big game. He was 3-4 with his fourth double, three RBI and a stolen base.
Danny Lehmann went 2-4 with his
third double. Danny Berg went 2-4
with his fourth double. Joe Benson
was 2-4 with a walk. Michael McCardell improved to 4-2, but he was a little shaky.
He gave up four runs on eight hits and a walk. He struck out five. Kyle Waldrop gave up a run on three
hits in two innings. Henry Arias pitched a scoreless eighth. Alex Burnett got his third save with a
perfect ninth inning.
Sunday –Ft. Myers – No Game
Scheduled.
SNAPPERS SNIPPETS
Saturday – Beloit 8, Lansing 3
– Brad Tippett
continues to impress on the mound. He improved to 3-0 while dropping his ERA to
2.73. He gave up two runs (1 earned) on three hits and a walk in six innings. Bruce Pugh gave up a hit in a scoreless
inning. Shooter Hunt made his
bullpen debut. He gave up a run on two hits and a walk in his inning. Steve Blevins pitched a perfect ninth
inning. Dominic de La Osa went 4-5. Nathan
Hanson went 3-4 with two doubles and a stolen base. Evan Bigley went 3-5. Nick Romero went 2-5 with a triple.
Sunday – Beloit 3, Lansing 6
– Michael Allen fell to 0-4 after
giving up six run in 6.1 innings, but just three of the runs were earned. He
walked one and struck out seven. Danny Rondon got the final two outs of the seventh inning
after giving up two hits. Joe Testa struck out two in a scoreless inning. Adan Severino
went 2-4. Ozzie Lewis went 1-3 with
two walks. Allan de San Miguel went
0-1, but he walked three times.
.
Please feel free to Send me an e-mail, or leave
your questions or comments here.