Here We Go
The All-Star Break is now past. Throughout
the first half of the season, through the struggles of April and May, we
continued to talk about how good the Twins have traditionally been in the
second half of the season. We talk about how the season is a marathon and not a
sprint. We would say things like, “As long as the Twins don’t get too far back
while Player X, Y, Z, L, M, N, O, and P were out with injury, we’ll take our
chances. We talked about how if the Twins could cut the lead in the AL Central
to eight or nine games by the All Star break, they were right back in
contention. Well, as the second half starts tonight, the Twins are 6.5 games
back of the division leaders in Cleveland.
Are the Twins buyers or sellers? Simply, we
do not know that answer yet. The Twins entered the Break after winning three
out of four games at Chicago. The come out of the break with a twelve game home
stand which included four games each against Kansas City, Cleveland and
Detroit. There is a good chance we will be able to answer that buyer/seller
question after those games.
Joe Mauer has now
been back for a few weeks and shown signs. Tsuyoshi Nishioka
has been much improved at shortstop and at the plate in the last two weeks. Jim
Thome is back. In some great news, Denard Span has been cleared and will soon get into some
rehab games in Rochester. Delmon Young has been
activated after spending a week rehabbing with the Red Wings. When will Jason Kubel be back, and can he produce as he did during the first
two months of the season? When will Justin Morneau be
back and the fact that he can feel his fingers help him to make more solid
contact when he is back?
The ‘stars’ are coming back. Before the
season, we always talk about what players can help the team to another division
title. Which player will step up? Who will surprise? But at the end of the day,
to win, you need to get production from the guys you are supposed to count on.
That is Morneau, Mauer, Cuddyer, Thome, Kubel, Span and Young. How those guys do in the 2nd
half will have the biggest role in how the Twins do.
Of course, it’s fair to say that pitching is
really important. And if that’s where it starts, then we have to talk about
Scott Baker. All indications are that he just needed to skip a start and a
break, so hopefully he has no lingering effects with this elbow injury. Each of
the other four starters had a hiccup. Pavano and Liriano struggled early. Duensing
struggle some in four June starts. Blackburn enters the Break with three
straight bad starts. Anthony Swarzak has been nice in
spot starts. These guys are key. As much as we want to
see Kyle Gibson up with the Twins, if the team doesn’t need to drop any of
their pitchers from the rotation, that would be a positive.
The question marks with this team are in the
bullpen. It was discussed in the offseason. Losing four decent relievers in one
offseason is hard to account for. Glen Perkins has stepped up remarkably. Joe
Nathan definitely looks better since his return from the DL recently. Matt
Capps had his three-game hiccup, but he’ll be a solid guy in the bullpen. After
that… question mark after question mark. And that’s not good. That said, consider what bullpen arms are available. Are any of them
worth a Top 10 Twins prospect? In fact, with the player traded impact considered, how many of them are better than a healthy
Anthony Slama, a relaxed Jim Hoey
and the soft-tossing Chuck James.
As a guy who follows the minor leagues, it
has been fun to see the emergence of Ben Revere. Sure, he hasn’t hit much, but
he has had a very strong impact on the Twins anyway since he returned.
Likewise, Rene Tosoni, who was sent down following
Sunday’s game, struggled immensely his first time up. No surprise there, he had
19 games at AAA this year after missing more than half of last year at AA due
to shoulder surgery. However, in his second trial with the Twins, he got more
playing time and you could see the improvement. We saw the power potential, but
we also saw his ability to take a lot of pitches, to use the whole field and to
play solid defense. The improvement was great. Luke Hughes improved with
playing time. Nishioka has improved with playing
time. Trevor Plouffe dominated AAA pitching after his
most recent demotion. Can he come back now and make the necessary adjustments
to make himself a viable super-utility player?
But there are a lot of good questions for the
Twins in the second half. How does Plouffe get into
the lineup? What happens in the outfield now that Young is back? What about
when Span comes back? What about when Kubel comes
back? What about when Morneau comes back? At the end
of the day, these are good questions. Getting back proven talent is always a
good thing. And, frankly, don’t we prefer a bench including Butera,
Young, Thome, and Plouffe
or Hughes much better than a bench with Butera,
Rivera, Repko and Tolbert?
Regardless, I’m excited for the start of the
second half. As much as the first two months were discouraging, the Twins are
now back in it, and I will take my chances with this
roster any day of the week. Here we go!!
Minor League Notes:
Andrew Albers was promoted from Ft. Myers to
New Britain. Estarlin de Los Santos ended his rehab
assignment and went to Ft. Myers. Brad Stillings was
activated from the DL and Matt Tone was put on the DL. In Beloit, Tyler Grimes
and Nate Roberts were put on the 7-Day DL. Sam Spangler was promoted from
E-Town to the Snappers.
Chuck James represented the Rochester Red
Wings in the AAA All Star game. He faced four batters and walked two and struck
out two.
In the AA All Star game, three New Britain
Rock Cats played. After his Futures Game appearance, Liam Hendriks
pitched a scoreless inning in this game. Brett Jacobson pitched 1.1 scoreless
innings. Yangervis Solarte
went 0-2 with a walk.
Ft. Myers beat Daytona 4-3. Dan Rohlfing went 4-4 with a triple. Estarlin
de Los Santos went 3-5 with a double in his first game with the Miracle. Steve Liddle was 2-3 with a walk. James Beresford went 2-4. Pat
Dean started and gave up three runs on six hits and two walks in 7.1 innings.
Bruce Pugh recorded his 10th save by getting the final five outs.
Beloit beat South Bend 5-1. BJ Hermsen improved to 9-6 with seven strong innings. He gave
up one unearned run on three hits and two walks. Michael Tonkin struck out four
in the final two innings. Daniel Santana went 2-3 with his 11th
double and 20th steal. Adam Bryant went 2-4 with a walk. Michael
Gonzales went 1-2 with two walks and his 13th home run.
Elizabethton beat Pulaski 6-3. Eddie Rosario
went 2-4 with his sixth home run. Kennys Vargas was
2-3 with a walk and his fourth double. Tyler Koelling,
Nick Lockwood and Matej Hejma
each had two hits. Pedro Guerra started and gave up three runs on six hits. In
4.2 innings, he walked one and struck out five. Steve Evans threw 2.1 scoreless
innings. Nick Alloway gave up two hits and got an out
on a strikeout. Matt Summers went the final 1.2 innings. He struck out two and
gave up just one hit.
The GCL Twins lost 4-3 to the GCL Orioles in
10 innings.. Hyun-yi Chen
struck out three in three one-hit innings. 17-year-old Gerardo Ramirez gave up
one run on two hits and a walk in two innings. Kyle Wahl struck out five in two
scoreless innings. Matt Tomshaw gave up two runs on
three hits in two innings. Marcus Limon took the loss as he gave up the winning
run with one out in the 10th.
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