Article: Twins Minor League Leader Board (through June 12)

[Seth Stohs]

The minor league seasons are about half over. Here is a look at the updated Twins minor league standings and statistical leaders through Friday, June 12. Feel free to discuss.STANDINGS

 

Here is a quick look at where the teams rank in their divisions as the first half of three of the Twins affiliates seasons come to a close very soon.

 

Rochester is 31-29, 1-6 since last week. A week ago, they were 1.5 games ahead of Scranton/Wilkes Barre. Now, they are 3.5 games behind them.

 

Chattanooga is also 36-24. They went 6-1 in the last week and have opened up a four-game lead over Tennessee. Their magic number to clinch a playoff berth is just five.

 

Ft. Myers has gone 6-0 since last week. They are 31-30 and ten games back of Charlotte. Despite a great week, they were eliminated from playoff contention.

 

Cedar Rapids is 36-25. They are 4.5 games behind Quad Cities. They won just one of six games played this week However, their magic number to clinch a playoff spot is just five.

 

 

HITTERS

 

For batting average, on-base percentage, slugging percentage, OPS, IsoD and IsoP, we used a minimum of 160 plate appearances.

Plate Appearances: Byron Buxton (268), Zach Granite (255), Travis Harrison (243), Jorge Polanco (241), Niko Goodrum/Nick Gordon (240)

 

Batting Average: Trey Vavra (.346), James Beresford (.324), Alex Swim (.317), Jorge Polanco (.314), Max Kepler (.298)

 

On-Base Percentage: Trey Vavra (.406), James Beresford (.367), Travis Harrison (.366), Zach Granite (.364), Miguel Sano (.357)

 

Isolated Discipline: Mitch Garver (.135), Tanner English (.117), Niko Goodrum (.109), Travis Harrison (.105), Miguel Sano (.102)

 

Slugging Percentage: Adam Brett Walker (.567), Trey Vavra (.538), Miguel Sano (.495), Byron Buxton (.489), Danny Ortiz (.478), Max Kepler (.471)

 

Isolated Power (IsoP): Adam Brett Walker (.309), Miguel Sano (.240), Byron Buxton (.206), Danny Ortiz (.202), Trey Vavra (.192)

 

OPS: Trey Vavra (.944), Adam Brett Walker (.879), Miguel Sano (.852), Byron Buxton (.840), Max Kepler (.825),Danny Ortiz (.804)

 

Hits: Alex Swim/Jorge Polanco (71), Byron Buxton (67), Zach Granite (65), James Beresford (59), Chad Christensen/Max Kepler (57)

 

2B: Max Kepler (19), Danny Ortiz (16), Adam Brett Walker/Travis Harrison (15), Reynaldo Rodriguez (13), Three with (12).

 

3B: Byron Buxton (12), Max Murphy (6), Tanner English (5), Aaron Hicks/TJ White/Max Kepler (4)

 

HR: Adam Brett Walker (16), Miguel Sano (11), Danny Ortiz (7), Trey Vavra/Josmil Pinto/Byron Buxton (6)

 

Runs: Byron Buxton (44), Adam Brett Walker/Miguel Sano (41), Zach Granite (39), Max Murphy/Nick Gordon (37), Travis Harrison (36)

 

RBI: Adam Brett Walker (51), Byron Buxton (37), Miguel Sano (36), Danny Ortiz (34), Zack Larson (33), Trey Vavra/Michael Gonzales (28)

 

SB: Byron Buxton (20), Tanner English (19), Zach Granite/Nick Gordon/Engelb Vielma (14), Jorge Polanco (12).

 

 

STARTING PITCHERS (>49 IP)

 

Innings: Taylor Rogers/JO Berrios (75.2), Tyler Duffey (75.0), Pat Dean (67.0), Greg Peavey (65.1)

 

ERA: Stephen Gonsalves (1.49), Mat Batts (2.01), Chih-Wei Hu (2.10), Felix Jorge (2.57), Pat Dean (2.69), Ryan Eades (2.97)

 

WHIP: Stephen Gonsalves (0.86), Felix Jorge (0.94), Chih-Wei Hu/Mat Batts (1.06), Pat Dean (1.16), JO Berrios (1.19)

 

K/9: Stephen Gonsalves (11.8), JO Berrios (9.8), Tyler Duffey (8.8), Mat Batts (8.5), Chih-Wei Hu (8.2)

 

BB/9: Felix Jorge (1.7), Greg Peavey (1.8), Aaron Slegers/Pat Dean//Tyler Duffey (1.9), Mat Batts (2.0)

 

Strikeouts: JO Berrios (82), Stephen Gonsalves (79), Tyler Duffey (73), Alex Meyer (56), Todd Van Steensel (54)

 

Wins: Stephen Gonsalves (7-1), JO Berrios (7-3), Jared Wilson (6-1), 4 with 5 Wins

 

 

RELIEF PITCHERS (>19 IP,

 

Games: AJ Achter (25), Alex Muren/Brandon Peterson/JT Chargois/Todd Van Steensel (21), Madison Boer (20).

 

Innings: Todd Van Steensel/Alex Muren/Zach Tillery (36.1), Randy LeBlanc (36.0), Madison Boer (34.0), Mike Theofanopoulos (32.2), Trevor Hildenberger (32.1)

 

ERA: Trevor Hildenberger (0.56), Brandon Peterson (0.85), Cameron Booser (1.40), Alex Muren (1.73), Randy LeBlanc (1.75), JT Chargois (1.83)

 

WHIP: Trevor Hildenberger (0.62), AJ Achter (0.64), Brandon Peterson (0.92), Alex Muren (0.99), Zack Jones (1.00), Tim Shibuya (1.01)

 

K/9: Cameron Booser (13.7), Todd Van Steensel (13.4), Brandon Peterson (12.5), Trevor Hildenberger (11.7), Lester Oliveros (11.3), Zack Jones (10.8)

 

BB/9: Trevor Hildenberger (1.4), AJ Achter (1.7), Tim Shibuya (1.8), Lester Oliveros/Zack Jones/Alex Muren (2.7)

 

Saves: AJ Achter (9), Zack Jones (8), Todd Van Steensel (7), Trevor Hildenberger/Michael Tonkin/JT Chargois (6)

 

 

There you have it. The Twins Minor League Leader Board through Friday, June 12.

 

What are your thoughts? What surprised you?

 

Click here to view the article

[GMinTraining]

ABW hits #17 and 53rd Ribby

http://www.milb.com/multimedia/vpp.jsp?content_id=164227183&sid=t498

 

Edited June 14, 2015 by GMinTraining

[Seth Stohs]

The strikeouts continue, but man, so does the production!

[lightfoot789]

As much as a strikeout can be a learning curve - Walker is going deep in most of his AB counts.  3-2 in the majority of counts it almost appears.  But yeah - they do keep piling up .  He is overly patient in the box to me and doesn't attack enough early in count, which leads to lots of 2 strike situations for a poor contact guy.  I want to see him mash earlier.

[Mike Sixel]

 

As much as a strikeout can be a learning curve - Walker is going deep in most of his AB counts.  3-2 in the majority of counts it almost appears.  But yeah - they do keep piling up .  He is overly patient in the box to me and doesn't attack enough early in count, which leads to lots of 2 strike situations for a poor contact guy.  I want to see him mash earlier.

 

They have specifically told him to lay off low pitchers, even if they might be strikes, for now. Maybe the pitchers know that, and are attacking him there?

 

 

[GMinTraining]

Walker #17 2B - #2 3B - #17 HR

36 XBH

Second in the southern league in 2B shows he's not all HR or Bust

 

.902 OPS - Not bad for 91 SO

43 Runs Scored with a terrible BB/K rate

(3rd most runs scored in all of AA)

 

Just a different dude IMO (4 for 5 with 2 2B)

[jokin]

As much as a strikeout can be a learning curve - Walker is going deep in most of his AB counts.  3-2 in the majority of counts it almost appears.  But yeah - they do keep piling up .  He is overly patient in the box to me and doesn't attack enough early in count, which leads to lots of 2 strike situations for a poor contact guy.  I want to see him mash earlier.

Walker had 4 hits today, 3 of which were on the second pitch thrown.

 

In his defense, Walker is averaging 4.17 P/PA, which is ranked 5th in the Southern (Harrison is 4th at 4.18). And he's seeing lots of strikes- 64.2% strike rate.

 

And not enough contact- 62.7% contact rate, which is 2nd worst in the Southern. And not surprisingly, a 17.9% Whiff rate (3rd in Sl), with a KSw rate of 25.7% (also 3rd in SL). And of course, he leads the Southern with a 36.7% K rate with only a 6.5% BB rate. Those are AA numbers that seem very hard to translate to the bigs.

Edited June 16, 2015 by jokin

[GMinTraining]

http://puckettspond.com/2015/06/15/minnesota-twins-under-the-radar-prospect-part-two/

 

In a perfect world (Walker)

[GMinTraining]

 

Walker had 4 hits today, 3 of which were on the second pitch thrown.

In his defense, Walker is averaging 4.17 P/PA, which is ranked 5th in the Southern (Harrison is 4th at 4.18). And he's seeing lots of strikes- 64.2% strike rate.

And not enough contact- 62.7% contact rate, which is 2nd worst in the Southern. And not surprisingly, a 17.9% Whiff rate (3rd in Sl), with a KSw rate of 25.7% (also 3rd in SL). And of course, he leads the Southern with a 36.7% K rate with only a 6.5% BB rate. Those are AA numbers that seem very hard to translate to the bigs.

 

With Walkers 36 XBH - He places himself in scoring position 46% of the time he reaches base overall (BB or Hit).  Where as teammates Sano (29%) or Harrison (24%) or Kepler (31%) are in scoring position slightly less despite reaching base via BB much more.  In all - Sano has reached base 8 more times overall (86 to Walkers 78).  Walker has 11 more XBH which has helped him score at an equal amount (43) despite his high K rate.

 

The question becomes :

Does a slight reduction in his power numbers at the Bigs still translate to the Production?  

 

Playing like a poor mans Brian Dozier with all those XBH and Runs Scored.

 

46% is a CRAZY percentage to be in scoring position at any level, especially AA.

[ExpectMorePayLess]

Minnesota Twins: Under the Radar Prospect Part Two
BY JAMIE CAMERON 14H AGO - PUCKETS POND

Adam Brett Walker
Walker was drafted by the Twins in the 4th round of the 2012 MLB Draft out of Jacksonville University. The son of a former NFL player, Walker is an absolute unit at 6’4 225lbs and can hit a baseball a long, long way. The concern with Walker has always been his ability to maintain a palatable average and keep his SOs down. He has been remarkably consistent thus far in his MiLB career. With Rookie ball Elizabethton in 2012 he hit .250 with 14HR and 45 RBI in 58 games. In 129 games for low A Cedar Rapids, Walker hit .278 with 27 HR and 109 RBI. At high A Fort Myers in 2014 he hit .246 with 25 HR and 94 RBI in 132 games. Walker has continued his consistency at AA. Through 58 games, he has hit .258 with 16 HR and 51 RBI. To put thing in perspective, if Walker was playing a 162 game schedule, he would be on pace to hit 44 HR and 142 RBI this season. If Walker can maintain his average, he could see meaningful time for the Twins, perhaps at DH.

 

 

A 45 double and 241 SO pace too.   Ground out or SO I don't care.   44 and 142 are magical numbers.  I read these are his highest OBP (.320) and OPS (.902) of career too.  ALL IN