Friday, July 23,
2010
Twins Minor League Weekly
And Pavano Does It Again!
Last night at 11:00, Travis Aune and I hosted this
week’s episode of Twins Minor League Weekly. The show is always fun and
based on the number of live listeners and call-ins,
maybe it is starting to catch on. We can hope, but even if it doesn’t, you know
how much I enjoy discussing the Twins minor league system, even through its
struggles this year. So, if you have a chance, please listen to the podcast and
let me know what you think.
But even in a blog entitled “Twins Minor
League Weekly,” it would be sad if I didn’t at least mention Carl Pavano and his terrific performance last night. He
threw yet another complete game and a shutout of the Baltimore Orioles. Shortly
after the completion of the game, uber-blogger Aaron Gleeman tweeted, “Carl Pavano has now started 32 games for Twins: 17-10 with 3.72 ERA,
140/35 K/BB ratio in 217.1 IP.” To that, I could only respond, “Definitely
worth Yohan Pino!”
At the time of the trade, I actually liked the idea of Pavano
coming to the Twins, but I thought that giving up Pino,
who has been a very solid pitcher throughout his pro career including at AAA
last year, was maybe a little much. Well, Pavano has
not only stuck around for an extra year, but he has been one of the most
consistent pitchers in the league. It was his second straight complete game
win, his fifth complete game of the year, and the 15th time in 20
starts that he has completed seven innings.
The front office and the advanced scouts
that told the Twins brass that Pavano should be
targeted deserve a ton of credit. That’s why, although I am not one willing to
give up enough in terms of prospects to go after Roy Oswalt
of Dan Haren, I believe the Twins will make a
deal for a “lesser known” pitcher, and maybe they can’ find lightning in a
bottle. The name that came up during our podcast last night was Paul Maholm of the Pittsburgh Pirates. The 28 year old lefty
is 6-7 with a 4.03 ERA and a 1.44 WHIP on the season, but he has completed six
innings or more in 15 of his 19 starts this season. Just another name to put in
the back of your mind as the Trade Deadline approaches. Maholm
is in the second year of a three year, $14.5 million contract. He is making $4.
5 million this year and will make $5.75 million in 2011. He also has an option
for $9.75 million for 2012 with a $750,000 buyout.
But back to Pavano. He has been everything that the Twins
and we as fans could have hoped, and more. The only problem is that he only
starts once in every five games. Also on Twitter last night, I asked the
question about what the Twins should do with Pavano
in terms of contract and the future. I tweeted, “I'd offer Pavano
a 2 year, $19 mil deal right now. $9 mil in 2010, $9 mil in
2011, $1 mil buyout of $9 million option for 2012. Thoughts?”
And the comments were excellent, in
general. The results were split. There were several that said that the Twins
have got to sign him and keep him in the organization. What would they do
without him next year?! There are others who essentially said “Take the two
draft picks and run.” That’s right, Pavano is
pitching at such a level that he is now a Type A free agent meaning that if
they offer him salary arbitration and he does not accept it and signs
elsewhere, the Twins will receive two draft picks. I typically favor going the
way of draft picks in such scenarios. However, I think that the terms of the
contract I outlined above are low enough that even if he were to sign it, I
would not be upset in the least. Clearly he will be, and should be, looking for
a multi-year contract. He says he likes pitching in Minnesota. The off seasons
of second-tier Type A free agents the last few years have been difficult
because teams are so unwilling to lose draft picks that maybe Pavano would be willing to give up that free agency for
comfort and to stay out of that situation. What do you think?
Tonight, it will be Brian Duensing pitching for the Twins.
According to Rick Anderson in his
interview with Paul Allen on KFAN
yesterday, he will be on a pitch count limit of 60-70. Hopefully that means he
can get through five innings, but that’s pretty optimistic probably. It will be
interesting to see if Nick Blackburn
would be the guy who comes in at that point. (You can listen to the Anderson
interview, and my 9:20 segment with The Voice of the Vikings, by going to FAN
ON DEMAND and downloading the segments.)
Here is a quick glance at what
happened on Thursday in the Twins minor league system:
SethSpeaks Thursday Minor League
Hitter of the Day – Oswaldo
Arcia – Elizabethton Twins
SethSpeaks Thursday Minor League
Pitcher of the Day – Matt Fox – Rochester
Red Wings
Red Wings Report
Thursday – Rochester 10, Buffalo 0 – Matt Fox was excellent in this game. The right-hander threw six
shutout innings. He gave up four hits, walked three and struck out four. Alex Burnett made his first AAA
appearance and threw 22 pitches, but did not allow a run. Jose Lugo and Rob Delaney
each threw a scoreless inning. D’Angelo Jiminez went 3-5 with his seventh double and second triple. Brian Dinkelman went 3-5 with his 23rd double. Trevor Plouffe
went 2-5 with a walk, his 18th double and his career-high 15th
home run. Brendan Harris hit his 5th
and 6th doubles. Wilson Ramos
went 2-5.
New Britain Notes
Thursday – New Britain 10, Harrisburg 11 (10 innings) – Deolis Guerra had another rough start. In five innings, he
gave up eight earned runs on six hits and three walks. Cole DeVries gave up a run on two hits and
a walk in two innings. Loek Van Mil gave up a run on two hits in
his inning. Billy Bullock gave up an
unearned run in two innings to take the loss. Juan Portes went 3-4 with a walk and his
12th double. Ben Revere
went 2-5 with a walk and his 26th stolen base. Steve Singleton hit his
second triple and drove in three runs.
Miracle Matters
Thursday – Ft. Myers 5, Brevard
County 4 – Bruce Pugh gave up four runs (3 earned) on five hits in six
innings. He walked four and struck out five. He also committed three of the six
Miracle errors. Nick Romero, Angel Morales and Drew Thompson each went 2-4. Morales hit his fourth double, and
Romero hit his third triple.
Snappers Snippets
Thursday – Beloit 3,
South Bend 8 – Edgar Ibarra started and gave
up only an unearned run on four hits in four innings. He walked two and struck
out five. Nelvin Fuentes gave up a run on two hits and
a walk in two innings. Matt Tone
came in and gave up four runs on four hits and a walk in his inning. Peter Kennelly then gave up two earned
runs on two hits and three walks in an inning. Michael Gonzales went 2-4 with his 13th double. James Beresford was also 2-4.
E-Twins Talkers
Thursday – Elizabethton 7,
Johnson City 3 – Oswaldo Arcia had
another great game. He went 3-4 with a walk, his 12th double, and
his ninth home run. He is now hitting .388/.436/.777 on the season. Danny Ortiz went 3-4 with a walk and
his third home run. Brian Burke went
3-4 with his sixth double and first home run. Andy Leer hit his third homer. Manuel
Solimon improved to 4-2 by giving up three runs
on six hits in five innings. He walked two and struck out five. Jose Gonzalez recorded his first save by striking out three in two
hitless, scoreless innings.
GCL Twins Topics
Thursday – GCL Twins 4,
GCL Rays 6 – Ricardo Arevalo gave up three runs (2 earned) on
two hits in five innings. He walked three and struck out four. Matt Schuld gave up a run on three
hits and two walks in two innings. Matt Trau then gave up two runs (1 earned) on one walk in
one inning. Ramon Santana went 3-4 with his second double in his rehab
assignment. Fred Hanvi
went 2-4 with his second double. Miguel
Sano hit 2-4 with his second home run. Jorge
Polanco went 1-2 with two walks. Also, the Twins
signed draft pick Derek Christensen,
a right-handed pitcher from Salt Lake City CC.
Any thoughts of the Twins or the
minor league system? Feel free to leave
your questions and comments here.