Saturday, September 3, 2005
SATURDAY SURPRISE
Good morning everybody! Yes, it is me on a Saturday! Weird, huh? But, since I will be gone on Monday, I figured that I should get some thoughts on here today to make up for it. Primarily, I wanted to just run down an update of the minor league games last night, and make a few comments on the Twins.
First things first though... Congratulations to the Elizabethton Twins who last night won the Appalachian League title with a 5-4 win over Danville. They fell behind early 4-2 in the mid innings, but scored two runs in the 7th inning to tie it up. An 8th inning run gave them the lead and Tim Lahey picked up another Save. Brian Duensing started and gave up four runs in five innings. He allowed five hits and a walk, and struck out five. Oswaldo Sosa came in and was the eventual winner, striking out two in two shutout innings. Danny Powers pitched a scoreless inning before Lahey's two-strikeout ninth. Mark Robinson, the Twins 3rd round pick in 2004, led the offense going 2-4 with a walk and two big RBI. Sean Richardson was also 2-4.
The other four Twins minor league affiliates also won last night! I also want to highlight two player, two of the Twins top picks this past June who both had good games last night. Infielder Paul Kelly was the Twins 2nd round pick (54th overall) out of his Texas high school. Drew Thompson was the Twins supplemental 2nd round pick (80th overall). Both went to the Twins Gulf Coast League team in Ft. Myers to start their pro careers. Kelly started out slowly, but it seems that he adjusted to the wood bat and started hitting late. Thompson got off to a really strong start there and continued to hit well throughout the short season. Their seasons ended a week ago. Kelly was moved up to Beloit to keep playing. Thompson was promoted to Ft. Myers which is an even bigger jump. Both have played a little bit and held their own despite playing two or even three levels above where they were. See the team reports below to see how both did last night.
Rochester got a big 14-6 win over Syracuse. David Gassner got the Win. He gave up three run on nine hits and a walk in five innings. He did strike out nine. Ricky Barrett then threw 2.1 innings and struck out five. Beau Kemp gave up three runs (1 earned) in 1.2 innings, and he struck out three. Todd Dunwoody led the offense. He went 3-6 with his fifth homer and four RBI. Luis Maza was 2-5 with his 14th double, 11th homer and three RBI. Brian Buchanan was 2-4 with his third Red Wing homer. Luis Rivas was 1-4 with two walks and his second homer. Josh Rabe was 2-2 with two walks and his 17th double. Garrett Jones went 2-5 with his 22nd double.
New Britain got a great start from Jim Abbott in a 2-0 win over Binghamton! He went 8 1/3 innings and gave up no runs on four hits and a walk. He struck out five. Daylon Childress picked up his second save, getting the final two outs. The offense could only muster four hits. Matt Moses hit his eighth double.
Down in the Florida State League, Ft. Myers got a big 8-1 win over Sarasota. Justin Jones impressive comeback continued. He gave up just one run on five hits and a walk in seven innings to improve to 7-3 with a 3.01 ERA. Julio DePaula then threw two perfect innings. Jose Leger and Kyle Geiger each went 3-5. Matt Tolbert went 2-5 with his 20th double. Drew Thompson went 2-4 with his first double. His average is .429 (though admittedly in just two games).
I am happy for Kyle Waldrop. He pitched decently throughout the first half, and then really struggled in the middle months. I was thinking that maybe he should be shut down as it appeared he hit a proverbial wall. But of late, he has again been pitching really of late but has not received much run support. Last night, he finally was able to record his sixth win. In 5.1 innings, he gave up just a run on seven hits and a walk. Josh Hill came in and gave up a run in 2.2 innings. Jose Cordero gave up two runs in his inning. David Winfree went 3-5. Chris Brown, Jeremy Pickrel and Trevor Plouffe each had a double. Paul Kelly was the star of the show though. He went 3-5 with a double and a home run, driving in two runs.
And finally, I wanted to post a statement on Kanye West's hugely unfortunate statements during last night's "A Concert for Hurricane Relief" show. I hate to get too political, but I was a big fan of Kanye West before based on his incredible College Dropout album. Now, I will remain a fan of his music, but can really no longer respect his thoughts. Please click here to go to the BrentNet Forum where I posted my thoughts on his comments.
Almost forgot, the Twins fell 6-1 to the Cleveland Indians. They really needed to sweep this series to continue pretending to have a chance. Brad Radke gave up four runs in seven innings, three earned. JC Romero gave up two runs on a home run to lefty Ben Broussard in the 8th to put it fully out of reach. CC Sabathia was on last night too. He didn't allow a base runner until Jason Bartlett singled to center with two outs in the 6th inning. The Indians had 11 hits, which is more impressive when you know that only one of them came from the 3-4-5 trio of Jhonny Peralta, Travis Hafner and Victor Martinez.
And, it is always so much fun watching the September call-ups and trying to figure out which ones will be stars. We saw Jeremy Hermida of the Marlins hit a pinch-hit grand slam in his first big league at bat on Wednesday. Here are some of the other players who have been called up since August 31st who could make an impact yet this season, or will become stars in the near future:
Franklin Gutierrez and Ryan Garko (Cleveland)
Kyle Davies and Andy Marte (Atlanta)
Bernie Castro (Baltimore)
Gerald Laird (Texas)
Gabe Gross (Toronto)
Ryan Zimmerman (Washington)
Lenny DiNardo (Boston)
Rich Hill (Chicago Cubs)
and of course, Francisco Liriano (Minnesota)
I'm sure there will be other prospects called up from AAA when their seasons end. It is fun to watch them. On one negative note, the Philadelphia Phillies on Thursday, purchased the contracts of catcher AJ Hinch and OF Shane Victorino. They designated P Clay Condrey and OF Juan Richardson for assigment. Not a big story nationally, of course. But take a look again at the numbers that Chris Coste has put up again this year. For him to be called up to the Phillies, they would have to purchase his contract and put him on the 40 man roster. Hopefully when their season ends on Monday, the Phillies will call him up for the proverbial cup of coffee.
That's it, and enjoy the rest of your Labor Day Weekend!