Thursday,
October 15, 2009
Minor League
Awards
On Thursday, the
Twins
announced their Minor League award winners. David Bromberg was the choice for the Jim Rantz Award for top minor league
pitcher in the Twins system. For the second straight year, Ben Revere was named the recipient of the Sherry Robertson Award for the organization’s top hitter.
David Bromberg had another terrific season, and although there
were several very good pitchers in the Twins system in 2009, this was really an
easy choice. Bromberg went 13-4 with a 2.70 ERA. In 153.3 innings this year, he
struck out 148 batters, which was the most in the organization. In 2008,
Bromberg led all minor league pitchers with 177 strikeouts while pitching for
the Beloit Snappers. He was named, by Baseball America, the top pitching
prospect in the Florida State League. Bromberg spent the entire 2009 season at
the age of 21 and is clearly a Top 10 Twins prospect.
Here are some
others who were likely considered:
·
In 51 games at AA New Britain, Anthony Slama struck out 93 in 65.1
innings. He was 4-2 with 25 saves and a 2.48 ERA. He pitched in 11 games at AAA
Rochester. He was 0-2 with four saves and a 3.45 ERA. He struck out 19 in 15.2
innings. He gave up five of those six runs in one outing. Overall, he was 4-4
with 29 saves, a 2.67 ERA, and 112 strikeouts (with 40 walks) in 81 innings.
·
Alex Burnett was moved from being a
starter and into the bullpen. In 18 games in Ft. Myers, he went 2-1 with a 1.99
ERA. Then in 40 games after being promoted to New Britain he was 1-2 with a
1.79 ERA. Overall, he was 3-3 with a 1.85 ERA. In 78 innings, he had 78
strikeouts and just 26 walks.
·
Steve Hirschfeld went 7-7 with a 2.2 ERA.
He pitched in 15 games out of the bullpen before making 17 starts.
·
Santos Arias was 6-3 with a 2.15 ERA
in 100.2 innings. He made 29 relief appearances before ending the season with
nine starts.
·
Joe Testa spent the first half of
the season pitching in Beloit. In 25 games, he was 0-2 with a 2.56 ERA in 45. 2
innings. Then in Ft. Myers, he was 5-0 with a 1.22 ERA in 21 games, and 37
innings. Altogether, in 82.2 innings, he struck out 116, and walked 41.
·
Adrian Salcedo (3-2, 1.46 ERA, 1.02 WHIP, 3 BB, 58 K in 61.2 IP), Blayne Weller (5-1, 1.58 ERA, 0.95 WHIP, 8
BB, 49 K in 57 IP), BJ Hermsen (6-2,
1.35 ERA, 0.68 WHIP, 4 BB, 42 K in 53.1 IP) and Andrei Lobanov (2-1, 0.82 ERA, 0.68 WHIP,
1 BB, 35 K in 22 IP) all had strong showing for the short-season GCL Twins.
The choice for
hitter of the year was much more difficult, so it is hard to argue the
selection of Ben Revere for winning
for the second straight season. Revere finished second in the Florida State
League in batting average in 2009 with a .311 average. He was on base 37.2% of
the time and had 19 extra base hits. He also stole 45 bases in 62 attempts.
Something I like to see in a top of the order hitter, he walked 40 times with
just 34 strikeouts. No question, Revere has proven a lot of critics wrong
through his first two full minor league seasons.
There are
several other hitters who warranted strong consideration:
·
After a strong showing during big league spring training,
Danny Valencia started his season
back where he ended the 2008 season, in New Britain. There, he hit
.284/.373/.482 with 14 homers, four triples and seven homers. That earned him a
promotion to AAA where he got off to a fast start before tailing off late. He
hit .286/.305/.454 with 24 doubles and seven home runs. All together, he his
.285/.337/.466 with 38 doubles, four triples and 14 home runs.
·
Brian Dinkelman spent the entire 2009
season at New Britain. He played primarily in 2B, but in the 2nd
half of the season, he played several games in LF as well. With the bat, he had
a very strong season. He hit .296/.383/.440 with 38 doubles, two triples and
eight home runs.
·
Rene Tosoni hit .271/.360/.454 with
25 doubles, four triples and 15 home runs for the New Britain Rockcats.
·
Also at AA was Erik
Lis for the second straight full season. He hit
.283/.353/.462 with 29 doubles and 17 home runs.
·
Chris Parmelee hit .258/.359/.441 with
27 doubles and 16 home runs for the Ft. Myers Miracle.
·
Ramon Santana spent most of the season
at Beloit for the third season. There he hit .296/.384/.453 with 25 doubles,
three triples and nine home runs. He went 4-15 in four games at AA New Britain
at the end of the season.
·
In short season Elizabethton, Josmil Pinto hit .332/.387/.610 with 14 doubles, two triples and 13 home
runs in just 53 games. Brian Dozier
hit .353/.417/.431 with 17 doubles.
There were
several very good performances in the Twins minor league system, some that I
didn’t mention here. It’s hard to argue with either of the Twins choices. So,
congratulations to both David Bromberg
and Ben Revere. If you would like to
share your thoughts, please
click here.
Arizona Fall League Update – Yesterday, the Mesa Solar Sox
lost 12-5 to Surprise. Rene Tosoni was 0-4 with a walk. Chris Parmelee went 0-3 with a walk. Steve Singleton went 1-4 with his
second double in two games.