Article: Twins Minor-League Report (7/22): Big Innings Lead To Wins

[Jeremy Nygaard]

The Twins were awarded a pick in the Competitive Balance Lottery on Wednesday afternoon. They were eligible for a pick in the B Round (after the second round) because they received revenue sharing money last season. So as of Wednesday afternoon, the Twins were in line for four of the top 74 picks in the 2016 draft: #21 (Round 1), #59 (Round 2), #72 (awarded Wednesday) and #74 (compensation for not signing Kyle Cody). The first three picks can change throughout the rest of the season and free agency. The Twins are locked in to pick #74 regardless.

 

After the Kernels game, Trevor Hildenberger was promoted to Fort Myers. This was called a “short-term” move because of the Miracle’s marathon affair on Tuesday night, but he has definitely earned the shot to move up. Zach Tillery will take his place on the Kernels active roster.RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester 4, Gwinnett 2

Box Score

 

Despite finding themselves in an early hole, the Red Wings used a big fifth inning and added an insurance run later to cruise to victory.

 

Pat Dean scattered eight hits and two walks over seven innings. He allowed two runs in picking up his seventh win of the season. He struck out one before turning the ball over to Michael Tonkin, who earned a two-inning save. He walked one, gave up two hits and struck out two.

 

Tonkin hasn’t allowed an earned run in AAA since June 28th (eight appearances) and has seen his ERA drop to 1.30. His 37:5 K:BB ratio in 27.2 innings is equally impressive. Unfortunately, Tonkin has not done much to impress during his three brief cameos with the Twins in 2015.

 

Chris Herrmann started getting back on track with the bat on Tuesday when he had two hits, his first hits in a week. On Wednesday, Herrmann had two more hits and an RBI. Eric Farris added a double, but in a five-hit game for the Wings, there wasn’t much offense to speak of.

 

The three-run fifth started with a Danny Ortiz walk. He advanced to second on one of Herrmann’s singles. Farris followed that with a double to score Ortiz. Doug Bernier plated Herrmann on a sac fly and Argenis Diaz singled Farris in to close the scoring.

 

The following inning James Beresford scored after singling and advancing on a error, eventually coming around on Herrmann’s second hit.

 

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 8, Tennessee 7

Box Score

 

There wasn’t a lot of pretty to talk to about this game. Except for one inning. One really big inning.

 

Trailing 7-1 in the bottom of the seventh inning, the Lookouts exploded for seven runs. Aderling Mejia coaxed a one-out walk and advanced to second on a Shannon Wilkerson single. Levi Michael walked to load the bases and Heiker Meneses was hit by a pitch to score the team’s second run. Max Kepler followed with a bases clearing double and the game was 7-5. Kepler scored on Kennys Vargas’s single and two more runs scored on Adam Brett Walker’s 26th home run.

 

Wilkerson’s three hits paced the team and he also stole his first base with the team. In addition to his hit-by-pitch, Meneses also had two singles. Walker had two hits. Michael added a double.

 

Brett Lee got a no-decision after pitching five innings and giving up six runs (two earned) on six hits and a walk. He struck out three.

 

Matt Summers was credited with the win. He struck out four and allowed three hits and two walk (which only led to one run) in 2.2 innings. Alex Muren got his third save, striking out one and retiring four, total.

 

MIRACLE MATTERS

Ft. Myers 2, Tampa 6

Box Score

 

The Miracle pitching staff got a much-needed long start after last night’s extra-inning game. Ryan Eades threw 97 pitches in six innings, giving up six runs on nine hits and three walks. He struck out three and got the loss.

 

Trevor Hildenberger made his High-A debut. He allowed two hits in two innings, striking out two. Combined, he’s allowed four earned runs in 47 innings (0.76 ERA). He has 61 strikeouts (11.7 K/9) and allowed 26 hits and 5 walks (0.66 WHIP). Video game numbers.

 

The offense was led by two-hit nights from Engelb Vielma, who doubled, and Chad Christensen. Ryan Walker had the team’s only RBI with a hit and a walk, and Logan Wade also added a hit and walk. Jason Kanzler tripled. Walker (4) and Christensen (18) each stole a base.

 

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids 5, Wisconsin 4

Box Score

 

The Kernels used a five-run third inning and hung on by a narrow margin to improve to 56-41 overall and 15-12 in the second half.

 

Sean Miller led off the third inning with a single. Tanner English backed that up with a single of his own. After a Nick Gordon walk, Edgar Corcino cleared the bases with a triple to center field. Later that inning Tyler Kuresa singled in Corcino and advanced to third on a Pat Kelly double. Alex Real drove in Kuresa with an RBI groundout.

 

Corcino and Miller led the offense with two hits each. Miller also stole his first base as a pro.

 

Ethan Mildren picked up the win with 5.1 innings pitched. He allowed three runs on five hits and three walks. He struck out three.

 

Yorman Landa cleaned up the sixth inning mess and completed two more innings, striking out two and walking one.

 

The ninth got a little messy for Cameron Booser. Booser didn’t allow any hits, but two walks and two wild pitches scored a run and had the tying run on third base. Booser coaxed a pop out and then got his second strikeout of the inning to preserve the win. It was his ninth save of the year.

 

E-TOWN E-NOTES

Elizabethton 0, Princeton 3

Box Score

 

E-town out-hit Princeton, but Princeton did more with their seven hits than the E-Twins did with their eight.

 

E-town failed to a score a single run despite eight hits. Chris Paul and A.J. Murray each had two hits. The team was 0-for-1 with runners in scoring position.

 

Miles Nordgren took the loss despite pitching well. He lasted 6.2 innings allowing three runs (one earned) on six hits. He struck out three. Logan Lombana pitched 2.1 shutout innings. He allowed one hit and one walk.

 

GCL TWINS TAKES

GCL Twins 0, GCL Orioles 12

Box Score

 

It was two-and-a-half hours of not pretty for the GCL Twins on Wednesday afternoon.

 

The notables:

 

Offensively, the team mustered four hits. Two of those hits were singles off the bat of Jermaine Palacios. Palacios is in the midst of a 12-game hitting streak. He’s had multiple hits in ten of those games and is currently hitting .434.

 

Lewin Diaz doubled and walked. Rowan Ebersohn got a hit in his only at-bat as a late-inning replacement.

 

John Curtiss pitched two innings in a rehab appearance. He gave up one run on three hits and a walk. Five other pitchers made appearances today. It’s not pretty, so please be cautious while viewing.

 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

 

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Yorman Landa, Cedar Rapids

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Max Kepler, Chattanooga

 

THURSDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

 

Rochester vs Gwinnett (10:05 CST) – RHP Jose Berrios

Chattanooga vs Tennessee (6:15 CST) – RHP D.J. Baxendale

Ft. Myers at Tampa (6:00 CST) – LHP Mat Batts

Cedar Rapids vs Wisconsin (6:35 CST) – RHP Zach Tillery

Elizabethton vs Princeton (6:00 CST) - RHP Andro Cutura

GCL Twins at GCL Orioles (11:00 CST) - TBD

 

Feel free to leave any questions or comments below!

 

Click here to view the article

[GMinTraining]

Great video of Lookout comeback courtesy of Chattanooga News station:

 

http://www.wdef.com/content/sports/localsports/story/Lookouts-Use-7-Run-7th-Inning-Rally-to-Beat/d7pUDJj2HUKrQHzAToTmfw.cspx

 

[sane]

Adam Brett Walker now has 82 RBI n 92 games.

 

If his team actually played a 162-game-schedule, he would be on pace for 144 RBI.

And Trevor Hildenberger got promoted from Cedar Rapids to Fort Myers!'

WELL DESERVED!!!!!!!

[Seth Stohs]

Great to see Hildenberger finally get that promotion.

[Vance_Christianson]

What is Adam Brett Walker's batting average with Runners on base and nobody on base? Stats tell me (the box score guy) that he's clutch.

Thanks,

[Cap'n Piranha]

 

What is Adam Brett Walker's batting average with Runners on base and nobody on base? Stats tell me (the box score guy) that he's clutch.

Thanks,

 

Leaving aside whether clutch is a real thing or not, ABW hits extremely well with only 1 runner on, but very poorly with multiple runners on.  The numbers below are somewhat nebulous as MiLB.com doesn't show plate appearances, but it paints a picture of a guy who is better with runners on (as you would expect from almost any hitter).  Interestingly, only 5 of his 26 walks have come with 1st base occupied, leading me to believe at least some of his walks are of the "unintentional" variety--therefore, his plate discipline is probably even worse than his 1-to-5.4 bb/k ratio would suggest.

 

Bases Empty--.230/.312/.421 in 152 AB's

Runner at 1st--.277/.302/.759 in 83 AB's

Runners at 1st & 2nd--.148/.207/.259 in 27 AB's

Runners at 1st & 3rd--.167/.154/.417 in 12 AB's

Runner at 2nd--.500/.529/1.125 in 32 AB's

Runners at 2nd & 3rd--.143/.222/.286 in 7 AB's

Runner at 3rd--.462/.467/.923 in 13 AB's

Bases Loaded--.143/.200/.214 in 14 AB's

[DJL44]

Troubling note about ABW strikeout rate increasing in July in today's Pioneer Press.

[TNLooky2015]

An encouraging thing about ABW & clutch to me is that he has hit 6 grand slams in the 2 previous full seasons and has hit .316 & .600 respectively with the bases loaded in those seasons.  Not as clutch this year with the bases loaded, but has shown the ability to make the play late in games when the score is close.

 

The stat line I like most this year in terms of clutch, is the fact that in close game situations & late in games (28 ABs) - [Walker is hitting .429 BA / .500 OBP / 1.036 SLG / & 1.536 OPS] - that includes 6 SO & 5 BB.  They actually keep a stat line for those situations.

 

His stat line with runners in scoring position this year is: .295 BA / .330 OBP / .619 SLG / .949 OPS

 

The HR last night in that above video link was a monster blast.  Had to be way over 450 feet.

 

[Jeremy Nygaard]

Twins should hire Colabello's hitting coach to work with Walker.

[Steve Lein]

 

The HR last night in that above video link was a monster blast.  Had to be way over 450 feet.

 

It actually probably isn't as hard as you think to hit it over the scoreboard there, as it's basically even with the fence. But around 450 is probably accurate, and that's still a "monster blast."

[GMinTraining]

It actually probably isn't as hard as you think to hit it over the scoreboard there, as it's basically even with the fence. But around 450 is probably accurate, and that's still a "monster blast."

Larry Ward said (yesterday) he has only seen ball go over scoreboard 4 times in his years (27) with the Lookout. Walker has done it 3 times this year. Hard to tell from news video truly how far, but looked like blast. Really wish Lookouts had televised games with multiple angles. Only Chattanooga and Mobile without televised games.

[lightfoot789]

 

Twins should hire Colabello's hitting coach to work with Walker.

Not a bad idea

[70charger]

It's be pretty cool if we had more than one prospect to talk about.

[TRex]

The thing I don't like about the back-and-forth on Walker is that, despite the fact that I like him enough to have had him as my adopt-a-prospect 2 years ago, it drives me to be almost 'happy' when he has an 0-4 night with 3 strikeouts. I can not remember ever having a twinge of rooting against a Twins prospect.

[lightfoot789]

 

The thing I don't like about the back-and-forth on Walker is that, despite the fact that I like him enough to have had him as my adopt-a-prospect 2 years ago, it drives me to be almost 'happy' when he has an 0-4 night with 3 strikeouts. I can not remember ever having a twinge of rooting against a Twins prospect.

Me and my posse seem to have that affect on people (on this board).   We joke about it offline all the time.  Because of that - "We" are retired.  We know that it's not easy to change the minds of non believers.  And HARD views are often frowned upon when not in the norm.  That's OK.  We get it.

 

ABW II will continue to be a polarizing figure on this board, because he is an anomaly.  He does things that others in the system can't do (good and bad).  He will forever be judged on his probabilities and not his effectiveness as a player in season.  At least not until he proves himself in the same light at the MLB level.

 

I leave you with this (forever):

Most posters on the board are happy with the change in organizational philosophy in terms of power arms and power bats.  We frown upon players like Burdi; Chargois; Jones; Reed; Arcia; Vargas; Harrison; Kepler; etc. for not tapping into their power "skill set" more consistently, yet the only prospect to consistently tap into his power "skill set" every year is the one most viewed as "least likely to make it".  ABW II Lol

 

Peace Love and Sooooul / Don't hate

JU4Life

[70charger]

Ah. College buddies. Makes so much more sense now.

 

Well, enjoy your retirement. I know I will.