Live from Beloit: Game 1
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Travis and I
hosted a special Saturday
morning Twins Minor League Weekly from Beloit. Check it out and let us
know what you think.
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Also, not to be
negative, but I tweeted this on Saturday
morning. “Eric Hosmer (192 PA vs RHP) - .301/.349/.540 with 11-2B, 1-3B, 9-HR. (75 PA vs LHP) - .186/.240/.200 with 1-2B, 0-3B, 0-HR. #JustSaying”
You may have heard that Travis Aune, my co-host on Twins
Minor League Weekly and the blogger at Travis Twins Talk, and I were
heading to Beloit, Wisconsin, this weekend to see three games of the Beloit
Snappers, the Twins Low Class A affiliate. A year ago, I was able to make the
trek with Josh Johnson of Josh’s Thoughts and really enjoyed it, so I am
totally looking forward to this trip as well. Sure, BJ Hermsen
threw great again on Wednesday, and Adrian Salcedo
pitched well on Thursday, so we won’t see them, but that doesn’t mean that
there is no one here to watch. There is still plenty of talent, and you never
know which of these guys will be competing for a spot with the Twins in coming
years. Since I write the Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook, co-host two
episodes each week of Twins Minor League Weekly and generally focus on the
Twins minor leagues, it’s great for me to get to Beloit and see these guys
play.
If you’re a Twins fan and understand their
philosophy of building from within, or even if you just have seen how many
transactions that Twins have made between Minnesota and Rochester, you can
fully understand the fun I find and the value in knowing the Twins farm system.
As I can attest, box scores, stats and scouting reports are wonderful, but
there is nothing like actually watching the players in person.
The Twins Triple-A
affiliate is in Rochester, New York. The Double-A
affiliate is in New Britain, Connecticut. The High Class A
affiliate is in Ft. Myers, Florida, where they also have their GCL Twins team.
Their advanced rookie league team is in Elizabethton, Tennessee. So, if you
want to make a trip and spend a weekend watching Twins minor leaguers develop,
make the short drive to Beloit, Wisconsin. A year ago when Josh and I went, we
got to see Aaron Hicks and Angel Morales, Brian Dozier, Daniel Santana and
several other prospects. Not only that, but Angels’ 19-year-old outfielder Mike
Trout played for Cedar Rapids, the team the Snappers were playing. Watching
him, he was head and shoulders the best player on the field. The 2011 Snappers
team may not have the big name, like Hicks, this year, but they do have some
talent, and later in this blog, and in subsequent blogs, I will be writing more
and more about them.
I left work at noon on Thursday, and left
Warroad at about 2:30. I picked up Travis in Perham at about 6:45, and we
headed down to Chanhassen. We arrived there at about 10:00 and met the Twins
Geek, John Bonnes, at Buffalo Wild Wings for a little bit. On Friday morning,
we left Chanhassen and beat rush hour traffic. We took 94 east and basically
took that to 39 south to Beloit. We arrived in Beloit
by about 1:15. That was a 6 hour drive that included a stop at Perkins in
Menomonie, and a Rest Area stop. So again, if you’re from the Twin Cities, it
is only about a 5 ½ hour drive.
We checked into the hotel we had reservations
for, the same hotel that the West Michigan team will be staying in during the
upcoming series. Around 3:30, we made the short trek over to Pohlman Field, the Snappers home ballpark. There, we were
introduced to the GM of the Snappers, Jeff Vohs, on the field. He was kind
enough to spend a good 20 minutes talking to us, answering all out questions.
As the GM of the Snappers, he wears many hats. Obviously there is the business
side of things, the concession stands, the payroll, making sure everything is
up and running, etc. However, he also has to do things like play meteorologist
before games to help determine rainouts, or determine if a dry field should
have the tarp put in it in case of rain before the next day. He helps the
grounds crew during the game to drag the infield, and before the game, he’s on
the tractor making sure the infield dirt is smooth as can be. He arranges for
the special promotions including last night’s and tonight’s fireworks displays,
and then has to be out by the fireworks when they are shot off. We joked that
during his offseason, when he’s doing sales and promotions and speaking
engagements and such, he’s only working 50 hours as opposed to the 80 hours he
works each week during the season. At that point, we were corrected, he likely
works much more than 80 hours each work during the season.
But as you know, I enjoy watching batting
practice. While we are in town this weekend, minor league pitching coordinator
Erik Rasmussen is also in Beloit. So is minor league hitting coordinator Bill Springman.
Paul Molitor was on the field hitting ground balls,
watching BP and talking to players and then he was in uniform and in the
Snappers dugout during the game. Terry Ryan was also there, sitting in the
stands observing all that was going on. During the game, he sat behind home
plate with several other scouts, including White Sox scout Jerry Krause (who
you may remember for his role in putting together those Bulls championship
teams).
Last night, the Twins lost the third and
final game of their three game set against South Bend
by a score of 10-2. Hermsen and Salcedo
had won the two previous games. Saturday through Monday, the Snappers will play
three games against West Michigan. Here is the quick highlight/summary of the
game we watched:
Ryan O’Rourke started and gave up four runs
(3 earned) on three hits in four innings. He walked five and struckout four. Nelvin Fuentes
came in and gave up two runs on four hits and a walk in two innings. He struck
out two. Ben Tootle gave up one run on one hit and one walk in one inning. Bart
Carter came in and the lefty gave up three runs on four hits in his innings.
Finally Jose Gonzalez pitched a 1-2-3 ninth frame. Lance Ray led the offense.
He was 2-4 with his 22nd double and ninth home run. Danny Ortiz and
Daniel Santana each went 2-4.
That’s the high level, now what you really
want to read, my thoughts and notes:
Ryan O’Rourke – he was a little bit more wild
in this game than he has been all year. He entered the game with a miniscule
1.98 ERA, and watching him on the mound, I can understand why. First, watching
him come out onto the field before the game to prepare, you can see how intense
and competitive he is. When he is on the mound, he works very fast. He catches
the ball from the pitcher, takes the sign and delivers. Of his five walks, one
was intentional and three of them were to South Bend’s leadoff hitter, a lefty
that stood right on top of home plate. He has a good fastball, and worked both
sides of the plate. However, left-handed batters had absolutely no chance
against O’Rourke’s slider. As I watched him, I could only think that he could
almost already be a bullpen lefty up at higher levels just because of that
pitch. He has a good to better-than-good fastball, and a great slider. He also
threw a few changeups, but that was a pitch that needs work. If he can gain
control of that change up, he can continue forward as a starter. If not, he
could still have a great career as a lefty bullpen arm with two very good
pitches!
Nelvin Fuentes – Completely the opposite of O’Rourke in
terms of pace of the game. He walked around, took his time delivering, and
looking at the fielders around him, he kind of lost them a little. He has good
stuff, decent fastball, OK breaking ball, and what appeared to almost be a
screw ball. He struggled though. He almost worked out of O’Rourke’s 5th
inning mess, but a pitch around (or just below) the knees was
called a ball. The next pitch was lined to center for a base hit and an
inherited runner scored. The next batter drilled a double to the gap to score
another. In his next inning, he gave up monstrous home run before getting the
next two batters out. A single and another hard-hit double later, but he
stranded them with a strikeout of the nine hitter.
He’s had a lot of success, so I’m chalking this up to ‘one of those games’ but
the pace did make it more difficult to watch.
Ben Tootle got an inning and he was all over
the place. He has a high leg kick, to go with the high socks, and a motion that
looks like it would be hard to know where the elbow is, where the shoulder goes
and where the release point is. He didn’t have much control, but he does throw
hard. He’s not a big guy. I didn’t see a breaking ball for a strike, although
not many fastballs were either. He gave up a single, a walk, then
got a line out before a sacrifice fly. Clearly if he can gain any control, he
has a future in the bullpen.
Bart Carter – The lefty was pitching his
second game for the Snappers after being promoted from E-Town where he walked
two and struckout 24 in 12.2 innings. Decent fastball, rolling curveball that a couple of times broke
quite sharply. If you look at his box score line (1 IP, 4 H, 3 ER), you
would assume he got drilled. Not at all the case. The
leadoff hitter blooped a single just over a leaping
Danny Santana. The second batter reached on a rolling single that Santana went
far to his left to just miss. The third batter hit a hard hopper down the 3B
line that Jairo Perez made a very good play on, but
had no chance at an out at any of the bases. The cleanup hitter came up and hit
a bouncer hard off of the dirt in front of home plate and it bounced over the
1B head and into right field for a two run single. He then got a 1-6-3 double
play and ended with a strikeout. Not a good line, but he didn’t pitch poorly at
all.
Finally, Jose Gonzalez came in. Reports I got
last year and wrote in the Prospect Handbook were that he was a shorter version
of Jose Mijares. He is not tall. He has a little gut
about him. But he is left-handed and throws hard. He throws across his body
just enough to probably keep hitters uncomfortable, and he does throw pretty
hard.
Wang-Wei Lin led off and I thought he looked
comfortable at the plate. He took some good at bats and worked in a walk. He
twice stayed back nicely and grounded out to the shortstop who
also made a very nice play up the middle on one of them. One the first grounder
to short, instead of running through the bag, he watched the play occur.
Defensively, he is very solid in CF. He showed good range. Has a strong and
accurate arm, and he’s not afraid to get his uniform dirty.
Adam Bryant batted second. He was the Twins 9th
round pick just this June and did a nice job. He isn’t flashy at all, but he
made the plays at shortstop and has an arm to play that position. In his second
at bat, he lined a shot over the right fielder and showed very good speed
racing into third for a triple. With runners on second and third in the 5th,
he hit a fairly deep fly ball to right-center. Tobias Streich
was on 3B and Danny Santana was on 2B. Both tagged. The CF made the catch and a
perfect throw to 3B to get Santana out before Streich
could touch home plate. Not really Santana’s fault for going. Took a perfect throw. Not Streich’s
fault, he went hard to try to score. It didn’t turn out well, turned into a
strange double play, but it was a good piece of situational hitting.
Jairo Perez played 3B and batted third. He is not a big
guy, yet he has 8 home runs in his first full month with the Snappers after
missing all of 2010 and the first two months of 2011 after Tommy John surgery.
He walked his first plate appearance before grounding out to short the second
time. He then hit a hard ground ball/line drive down the 3B line for a double.
In his final at bat, he got a pitch at the letters and tomahawked the ball high
into the night sky. It was caught on the warning track in very deep left field.
When it left the bat, I was sure it was gone.
Michael Gonzales is still a big man. However,
it is very clear that reports that he lost 30+ pounds in the offseason were
accurate. He looked a little more mobile at 1B, and his swing does look vastly
improved, much, much quicker than it did one year ago. In batting practice, he
hit some balls a long way, and he hit a lot of line drives. He also struggled
on some pitches up and popped them up which made me think that he still has
some room for improvement in the bat-speed category. But it’s great to see that
he’s putting up good numbers across the board. In the game, he had just one
hit, a first inning line drive single to right in which he pulled a good
fastball. In his third at bat, he straight down on a ball on the outer part of
the plate and hit what we all assumed was a gapper to
left center, but the left fielder covered a ton of ground and made a
spectacular catch to rob him of an RBI double. He then walked in his final
plate appearance.
Lance Ray was very impressive. He is not real
big, but he has a very strong, smooth, left-handed swing. In his second at bat,
he drilled a double over the right fielder’s head. In his third at bat, he took
a pitch away and hit a long home run to the opposite field that hit off of the
new scoreboard. That was truly impressive! In his final at bat, he hit a ball
to right field that we thought was long gone, but it was caught on the warning
track. He had a very impressive night at the plate. He played 1B in this game,
with Gonzales DHing and looked pretty smooth over
there. He also plays a lot of outfield.
Danny Ortiz, as I have mentioned many times,
packs a big punch in a small body. He is not big, but he is very strong and can
hit the ball a long way. In the game, he had two ground ball singles between
first and second. He played right field and showed a strong arm. He looked
natural out in right field, very comfortable, which is to say that he is a
solid outfielder but we didn’t exactly see him have to do anything too
difficult.
Derek McCallum was recently demoted from Ft.
Myers. He was drafted as a 2B, but has been playing primarily outfield this
year. He looked OK out in left field. Offensviely, he
has a good approach at the plate. In his first at bat, he lined a shot that the
left fielder caught. In his final at bat, he hit a semi-deep fly ball to
center. In between, a strikeout and a pop up to 3B.
Tobias Streich is
known for his defense abilities behind the plate, but most reports I’ve read
said he had an average arm. He does a great job behind the plate. Nothing got
by him and that included some sharp sliders in the dirt. Very
impressed by his glove. However, South Bend was 5-5 on stolen base
attempts in this game. That said, obviously the pitchers have something to do
with that. However, the South Bend second run came when a runner stole third
and Streich’s throw sailed into left field. But
again, he did a great job behind the plate and seemed to really work well with
the pitchers. His trips to the mound seemed very well timed.
Danny Santana is really, really fast. He also
looks very solid at second base. He has a lot of range and he has a cannon for an arm and he seems to like showing it off. With a 2-4 night last night, he got his OBP over .300 again.
In his first at bat, he laid down a perfect drag bunt down the first base line.
He was caught stealing soon after, but the catcher’s throw was right on the bag
and it was still close. He was another who was robbed by the South Bend left
fielder (Chris Jarrett) on a liner. His last at bat, he grounded out to 2B and
it was a close play. Santana has a ton of tools. He definitely is taking better
at bats than when I saw him play his first game with the Snappers last year and
he swung at everything.
So there you have it. Some pretty detailed
game notes and things that I noticed. Again, I don’t claim to be a scout by any
means, but it is pretty neat to be able to make your own evaluation of these
players that we see in box scores.
The post-game fireworks display was very
impressive! It may be worth the 5 ½ hour from the Twin Cities for just that.
Tonight’s game is at 7:00 and we will get to see Manuel Soliman,
which I am very excited about! On Sunday at 2, the Snappers will start AJ Achter against West Michigan. Come on over! There’s also a
noon game on Monday!!
If you have any questions or comments on the
Beloit trip, the team, etc., please feel
free to e-mail me or leave
Comments.
Here is the rest of the Friday night Minor
League Scoreboard:
The Rochester Red Wings lost 8-4 to Buffalo.
Kevin Slowey started and gave up three runs on six
hits and a walk in 4.2 innings. Dusty Hughes came in and got the final out of
the fifth, but not before giving up two more earned runs on two hits and a
walk. Cole DeVries gave up three runs on five hits in
two innings. Jake Stevens pitched a scoreless ninth. Jeff Bailey went 3-5 with
his 14th double and fifth stolen base. Rene Tosoni
went 3-5 and threw out a runner at third base from right field. Chase Lambin was 2-5 with his 14th double. Toby Gardenhire went 2-4 with his 11th double.
The New Britain Rock Cats lost 10-6 to
Portland. Brett Jacobson gave up two runs on two hits in 3.1 innings. He walked
one and struck out two. Blake Martin threw 3.1 scoreless innings, allowing one
hit and four walks. Deolis Guerra got just two outs,
and he gave up four runs on one hit, two walks and a hit batter. Tyler
Robertson got the final two outs but not before giving up four more runs on
three hits and a walk. Deibinson Romero was 2-4 with
his sixth homer. Chris Cates was 2-4 with his sixth double. Evan Bigley notched his 22nd double, and Chris Parmelee hit his 18th double. Chris Herrmann
went 1-3 with two walks and his fourth home run.
Ft. Myers needed a Miracle, and they got it
in their 5-4 win over Daytona. Logan Darnell started and gave up three runs on
seven hits. In 6.2 innings, he walked none and struck out seven. Brad Stillings came in and gave up one run on two hits and two
walks before getting the final out of the 7th. Ricky Bowen came into
the 8th inning with the bases loaded and no out, and he got a double
play and a strikeout to get out of the jam. He pitched a quick ninth inning for
the save. James Beresford went 2-4 with a walk, his seventh double and first
stolen base. Steve Liddle went 2-4. Aaron Hicks hit
his fourth homer.
Elizabethton topped Greeneville 7-0. David Hurlbut started and threw seven shutout innings. He gave up
three hits, walked none and struck out five. Nick Alloway
threw two scoreless innings in relief and gave up one hit and walked two.
Miguel Sano went 2-5 with his fourth triple and third stolen base. Nick
Lockwood went 2-4 with his eighth double. Max Kepler
went 2-4 with a walk. Eddie Rosario hit his third triple.
The GCL Twins lost 7-4 to the GCL Rays. Jorge
Polanco went 3-5 with his third double and first triple. Drew Leachman went 3-4. Dereck Rodriguez was 2-4 with his third double. Hein Robb
started and went 3.2 innings. He gave up four runs (3 earned) on four hits and
a walk while striking out five. Nick Cicio gave up
two earned runs on four hits in 1.1 innings. Mark Trau struckout three in two
scoreless innings. Gonzalo gave up one run on two hits in two innings. He struckout two.
Any other questions on the
Twins minor leagues? E-mail
me, or leave
some Comments.