Plouffe
is on Fire!
·
Be
sure to check out last
night’s SethSpeaks.net Weekly Minnesota Twins Podcast. There was plenty
of Twins talk, and also I was joined by John Kohagen.
He is the man behind the Cedar Falls Hoose-Cows.
Learn more about the Hoose-Cows and all our Twins
talk!
When
the Twins went out of their way to denigrate Trevor Plouffe
at the end of May and demoted him to Rochester, Plouffe
could have sulked. He could have folded. Coupled with the media and the Twins
manager’s efforts to call him out, Plouffe had an
injured finger and missed about a week or game action before playing for the
Red Wings. And since then, there has not be a better
player anywhere in the Twins system, if not in all of minor league baseball. And
frankly, I do not fully understand how he, and specifically his bat, is still
in Rochester and not with the Twins.
In
early May, Alexi Casilla was really struggling at
shortstop. Defensively, he was adequate, but he wasn’t hitting close to .200
and time for change was imminent. Plouffe was hitting
well for the Red Wings after a slow start. Plouffe
was finally promoted to the big leagues. In his first plate appearance, he hit
a home run over the Green Monster at Fenway Park against knuckleballer Tim
Wakefield. Plouffe would play in 18 games and hit
.200 (12-60). However, of those 12 hits, two were doubles and three were home
runs. Defensively, he looked more comfortable, until that one bad game. The
first bad throw came on a play that Plouffe went deep
into the shortstop hole, dove and made a great play,
got up and threw too tall for the first baseman. It was a great play
unfortunately capped by a bad throw. Soon after, there was a slow roller, and
instead of setting and throwing, Plouffe threw on the
run. He didn’t get a good grip on the ball and the ball fluttered to 1B too
late. I thought that he needed to throw on the run, he
just didn’t get anything on it. Some thought he was showboating, which I
guarantee was not the case. Soon after, a hard hit, one hopper bounded a way from him. Just one error, but the manager felt the
need to call Plouffe out loudly. And
then again. And again.
No
wonder Plouffe was struggling. Few could play under
those circumstances. Plouffe was benched for three
games, played another and then back on the bench. There were words between the
manager and the media about Plouffe. Plouffe was upset that Gardenhire
made it so public. It wasn’t pretty and soon Plouffe
was headed back to Rochester. Sure, Luis Rivas and Alexi Casilla
got 4-5 years worth of opportunities. Plouffe got 12
starts. Does anyone think that the manager will ever play Plouffe
on a regular basis at SS? Of course not.
Again, Plouffe could have sulked and
been frustrated when he went back to Triple-A. He missed some games with the finger
injury. However, since he started playing, he has been incredible. In 18 June
games, he hit .310/.388/.648 with five doubles, two triples and five home runs.
In six games so far in July, he has hit .400/520/.1.000 with four home runs. Plouffe has hit 15 home runs in Rochester now to go with
the three he hit with the Twins. In 2010, Plouffe had
15 home runs with the Red Wings and two homers for the Twins, all season. He
already has a combined 18 homers this year and it is through July 5!
Since Plouffe’s return, he has played all over the field. Yes, he
has played some at shortstop. He has played 2B. He has played right field and
left field. We know he can play 3B, and in Game 2 on Tuesday night, he played
1B. Clearly the Twins now plan for him to be a super utility player, which is
not a bad thing.
Regardless,
there is no question that Trevor Plouffe’s bat needs
to be on the Twins roster and most days in the Twins lineup. So, how do we get
him there? Well, do the Twins really need a third catcher? That is kind of
redundant and ridiculous. Matt Tolbert can play four infield positions, but can’t
hit. He could go down. Luke Hughes hasn’t exactly been lighting the world on
fire at 1B, so Plouffe could take his spot. For me,
that is the order in which I would send guys down to get Plouffe
up here. Maybe they’re waiting for him to get a little more comfortable at a
few more positions.
Trevor
Plouffe could then play all four infield positions. He
can also play both corner outfield positions. Worried about his outfield
defense? As Josh Johnson tweeted on Tuesday night, Delmon
Young has played a lot of LF, how much worse can Plouffe
be out there? Who knows? Plouffe could probably even
pitch if necessary! Remember when the Twins used their first pick in the 2004
draft to take Plouffe as a shortstop. Many teams
considered drafting him as a pitcher.
Hey,
even if none of us expects Plouffe to maintain an OPS
north of 1.000 in the big leagues, he has earned another opportunity for a big
league job!
Any
thoughts?
As you may have noticed, Trevor Plouffe
was the star of this double header. In the two games, he went 3-4 with four
walks and three home runs. So what happened besides Plouffe?
In the first game, the Red Wings beat the Paw Sox 13-3. Former
Twins pitcher Matt Fox started for the Paw Sox. He gave up 11 runs on ten hits
and two walks in just 2.2 innings. Kevin Slowey
started for the Red Wings. He gave up two runs on four hits and four hit
batters in 2.2 innings. Chuck James gave up one run on two hits and two walks
in 2.1 innings. Dusty Hughes recorded two strikeouts in 1.1 scoreless innings.
Kyle Waldrop struck out two in one perfect inning. The Red Wings hit six home
runs in the game. Plouffe hit two. Dustin Martin went
2-4 with his eighth homer. Brandon Roberts went 2-4 with his first homer. Delmon Young was 2-4 and hit the first pitch that he saw on
the day out for a home run. Danny Lehmann hit his second homer and drove in
three. Toby Gardenhire went 1-2 with two walks and
his tenth double.
In the second game, the Red Wings lost 4-2. Brandon Roberts and
Trevor Plouffe each homers. Jeff Bailey had two hits.
Delmon Young went 0-3. Cole DeVries
made his first start of the year. He gave up four runs on eight hits and two
walks in 2.2 innings. Thomas Diamond threw 2.2 scoreless innings, despite
allowing four hits and three walks. Jim Hoey went 1.2
scoreless innings.
The Rock Cats lost
7-2 to New Hampshire. Brett Jacobson gave up seven runs on ten hits and two
walks in five innings. He struck out six. Deolis
Guerra struck out two in two scoreless innings. Tyler Robertson gave up one hit
in a scoreless inning. Joe Benson returned to the Rock Cats lineup. He went 1-2
with a double. He hit a sacrifice fly and was hit by a pitch. He even threw out
a runner at home. Chris Parmelee went 1-2 with two
walks and his seventh home run.
Ft. Myers lost 9-2 to St. Lucie. The Miracle managed just four
hits. Steve Liddle hit his tenth double. Oswaldo Arcia went 1-2 and is hitting .313
(he went 4-5 the day before). Kane Holbrooks started
and gave up two runs on nine hits in five innings. Ricky Bowen gave up two runs
on two hits and a walk in his inning. Matt Tone gave up five runs on five hits
and a walk in just 0.2 innings. Bruce Pugh got the final four outs, two via the
strikeout.
A sacrifice fly by Jairo Rodriguez and
a Niko Goodrum RBI single
gave the E-Twins a 6-4 lead in the top of the 9th, a lead they would
hold for the win. Tim Shibuya started and gave up four runs on six hits and two
walks in four innings. Derek Christensen threw two scoreless innings. Pedro
Guerra threw a shutout frame. Madison Boer struckout two in a scoreless eighth inning for the win.
Matt Summers struck out two in a scoreless inning for the save. (Summers now has two innings pitched with the E-Twins and five
strikeouts. Goodrum went 2-4. Nick Lockwood hit a
triple. Miguel Sano hit his third home run.
Any other thoughts or questions on the Twins minor leaguers? Feel free to comment here.