Article: Twins Minor League Report (4/25): Harrison Propels Lookouts

[Jeremy Nygaard]

With only one game today, the organization kept busy by making a number of moves. The first trickle began at 12:25pm when Mike Berardino of the Pioneer Press reported that Alex Meyer was being recalled by the Twins. Just shy of two hours later, the Twins officially announced the rest of the transaction: Danny Santana would be activated and both Max Kepler and Byron Buxton would be sent down.It came out later in the afternoon that Loek Van Mil was released from AAA and David Murphy had asked for, and was granted, his release. Terry Ryan told the media that John Hicks had been placed on waivers to open up a spot for Murphy. Whoops!

 

Anyway, the Twins played on Monday night with 14 pitchers on their active roster. There could be more moves as only Chattanooga was in action on Monday and, seriously, a two-man bench? Come on.

 

RED WINGS REPORT

Rochester - off day

 

The Red Wings will head to Buffalo to start a series on Tuesday.

 

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 7, Birmingham 6

Box Score

 

Travis Harrison had a day. He put the Lookouts on the board with an RBI double that scored Zach Granite who singled to open the inning and moved over on a sacrifice by Levi Michael.

 

Harrison led off the fourth inning with his second double of the night. Daniel Palka moved him to third on a single and Harrison scored on a Mitch Garver single. Stuart Turner loaded the bases with the third single of the inning. An error by the third baseman allowed Palka to score off of Engelb Vielma’s bat. And with two outs, Michael tripled to score Garver, Turner and Vielma, the third, fourth and fifth runs of the inning, pushing the lead to 6-2.

 

Aaron Slegers pitched six innings, giving up a single run in four of them and leaving with a 6-4 lead. He allowed seven hits and walked one. He struck out six.

 

Slegers was relieved and holds were credited to both Mike Strong and Jake Reed, who both pitched to the minimum three batters. Neither allowed a walk or hit and Reed’s defense was able to erase the base runner who was on due to Vielma’s sixth error of the season.

 

Nick Burdi was summoned to attempt to collect his first save of the season and coaxed a fly ball to record his first out. After walking a batter, Burdi allowed a hit and runners were on the corners. He got his second out of the inning with a swinging strikeout, but lost the save chance with the runner of first stole second and the batter followed with a ground-rule double. Burdi blew the save and the 6-4 win turned into a tie game.

 

Burdi retired the next batter and the Lookouts came to bat in the bottom of the ninth. Michael drew a one-out walk and guess who ended the game with a two-out double? None other than Travis Harrison, who hit his third two-bagger of the day.

 

The Lookouts improved to 7-12.

MIRACLE MATTERS

Fort Myers - off day

 

The Miracle will go to Jupiter to start a series on Tuesday.

KERNELS NUGGETS

Cedar Rapids - off day

 

The Kernels will host West Michigan starting on Tuesday.

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

 

Pitcher of the Day – Aaron Slegers

Hitter of the Day – Travis Harrison

 

TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

 

Rochester @ Buffalo (5:05PM CST) – TBD

Birmingham @ Chattanooga (6:15PM CST) – RHP Ryan Eades (0-2, 6.14 ERA)

Fort Myers @ Jupiter (5:30PM CST) – LHP Stephen Gonsalves (1-1, 1.89 ERA)

West Michigan @ Cedar Rapids (6:30PM CST) – RHP Randy LeBlanc (1-2, 2.00 ERA)

 

Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Monday’s only game.

 

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[jsteve96]

I'd say Palka and harrison are on fire the last couple of games. Harrison has got on in 8 of 11 PA's with 5XBH to increase his OPS from .540 to .786

 

Palka has reached in all 10 PA's hes had with 4XBH in the last 2 games so his OPS has went from .647 to to .871..

 

I'd say these 2 really did some stat padding the last 2 days. Plus Arcia hit a walk off homer. life's good

[clutterheart]

Harrison is such a damn tease

Scouts like his swing, his plate approach looks good but he hasn't hit

 

Boy oh boy if he took off and turned his career around that would be a big shot in the arm

[JaleelWhite FanClub]

It came out later in the afternoon that Loek Van Mil was released from AAA and David Murphy had asked for, and was granted, his release. Terry Ryan told the media that John Hicks had been placed on waivers to open up a spot for Murphy. Whoops!

 

This is UNACCEPTABLE from a GM of a major league baseball team!

[Mr. Brooks]

Nice to see Harrison possibly figuring some things out.

Better late than never.

With all the depth we already have at the corners he'll likely never start here regardless, but he could end up having some value as a second or third piece in a trade.

[FormerMinnasotan]

It came out later in the afternoon that Loek Van Mil was released from AAA and David Murphy had asked for, and was granted, his release. Terry Ryan told the media that John Hicks had been placed on waivers to open up a spot for Murphy. Whoops!

 

This is UNACCEPTABLE from a GM of a major league baseball team!

Great to see Ryan have so much support for Berrios their best pitching prospect in the minors. If Ryan can't get behind Berrios he might as well trade him as Ryan doesn't believe in him anyway.

[FormerMinnasotan]

It came out later in the afternoon that Loek Van Mil was released from AAA and David Murphy had asked for, and was granted, his release. Terry Ryan told the media that John Hicks had been placed on waivers to open up a spot for Murphy. Whoops!

 

This is UNACCEPTABLE from a GM of a major league baseball team!

Great to see Ryan have so much support for Berrios their best pitching prospect in the minors. If Ryan can't get behind Berrios he might as well trade him as Ryan doesn't believe in him anyway.

[Eric R Pleiss]

Jeremy - can I have a hug?  I'm lonely.  And sad.  The Twins are bad.  So bad.  

[gunnarthor]

 

Nice to see Harrison possibly figuring some things out.
Better late than never.
With all the depth we already have at the corners he'll likely never start here regardless, but he could end up having some value as a second or third piece in a trade.

Yeah, in a perfect world, he probably gets squeezed out of the corner OF spots but he could, as you say, be a nice piece for a trade.  Hopefully he breaks out this year.  He's still fairly young for AA even though he is repeating it.  Perhaps he'll be like Plouffe and the power won't come until much later?

[Seth Stohs]

I don't know... As a GM, you sign a guy because he wants an opportunity to get to the big leagues. You tell him that can happen, and even give him an opt-out date just two weeks later. You don't assume that he's going to say No when you tell him you're making a move to get him to the big leagues...

 

It's like when Ryan called Tyler Grimes and invited him to big league spring training and Grimes said, I'll get back to you. 

 

This is weird on Murphy, I think. I'm not saying there couldn't have been a conversation, but I don't get it from Murphy's perspective. He was just about to make a little over a million and decided he didn't want to. 

[Seth Stohs]

 

Great to see Ryan have so much support for Berrios their best pitching prospect in the minors. If Ryan can't get behind Berrios he might as well trade him as Ryan doesn't believe in him anyway.

 

Pretty sure that Terry Ryan loves JO Berrios. No question about that. 

[Jeremy Nygaard]

 

Jeremy - can I have a hug?  I'm lonely.  And sad.  The Twins are bad.  So bad.  

 

Hugs are free.

[FormerMinnasotan]

Pretty sure that Terry Ryan loves JO Berrios. No question about that.

Not to be a jerk, just curious. But why is Ryan so hesitant to bring Berrios up? Milone hasn't been real good and Santana (and possibly Duffey) are hurting. But from what I hear there are no plans in place to bring Berrios up anytime soon. Why? I mean he's going to dominate in AAA we all know that. What Berrios needs is to face batters that really challenge him IMO. And Berrios won't have much of that in AAA. I am excited for this kid, following him through the minors I have found he learns pretty quickly and is really smart when it comes to adjustments towards hitters and adjustments to the different levels of competition. I expect he will be the same once he gets to the big league club. Will he struggle at times? Well yeah, but I suspect he will recover quickly.

[Seth Stohs]

Keeping tabs of more transactions today:;

 

Alex Wimmers promotedd to Rochester.

 

Brett Lee released (by Twins) from Chattanooga.

 

Trevor Hildenberger and Luke Westphal promoted to Chattanooga.

 

Brandon Peterson sent down to Ft. Myers. 

 

Brian Navarreto to the FM DL. Explains more the Kevin Garcia promotion to FM the other day. Navarreto sprained his ankle sliding into a base.

[Vanimal46]

 

I don't know... As a GM, you sign a guy because he wants an opportunity to get to the big leagues. You tell him that can happen, and even give him an opt-out date just two weeks later. You don't assume that he's going to say No when you tell him you're making a move to get him to the big leagues...

 

It's like when Ryan called Tyler Grimes and invited him to big league spring training and Grimes said, I'll get back to you. 

 

This is weird on Murphy, I think. I'm not saying there couldn't have been a conversation, but I don't get it from Murphy's perspective. He was just about to make a little over a million and decided he didn't want to. 

The weird part, I think, is having that big of a disconnect in communication between Murphy and management. It sounds like the expectations were set by TR when he was signed... 2 weeks of tuning up in AAA and we'll give you a call up to the majors. It's unrealistic to think TR's had a lot of conversations with him over the last 2 weeks, but I would imagine that Mike Quade's had conversations with him. Was Murphy playing a good soldier and hiding the fact he really didn't want to play baseball anymore? Did Quade misread the situation and didn't pick up on the signs that Murphy's mind was on other things? 

Edited April 26, 2016 by Vanimal46

[Mike Sixel]

 

Keeping tabs of more transactions today:;

 

Alex Wimmers promotedd to Rochester.

 

Brett Lee released (by Twins) from Chattanooga.

 

Trevor Hildenberger and Luke Westphal promoted to Chattanooga.

 

Brandon Peterson sent down to Ft. Myers. 

 

Brian Navarreto to the FM DL. Explains more the Kevin Garcia promotion to FM the other day. Navarreto sprained his ankle sliding into a base.

 

Wimmers over Chargois.....?

[Seth Stohs]

 

The weird part, I think, is having that big of a disconnect in communication between Murphy and management. It sounds like the expectations were set by TR when he was signed... 2 weeks of tuning up in AAA and we'll give you a call up to the majors. It's unrealistic to think TR's had a lot of conversations with him over the last 2 weeks, but I would imagine that Mike Quade's had conversations with him. Was Murphy playing a good soldier and hiding the fact he really didn't want to play baseball anymore? Did Quade misread the situation and didn't pick up on the signs that Murphy's mind was on other things? 

 

Terry Ryan was in Rochester for about a week during t that time.

 

But yes, normally these types of signings, there is a verbal agreement and timeline set. Every team does them. The Twins have done many of them. 

[Seth Stohs]

 

Wimmers over Chargois.....?

 

My guess is that it's temporary until a pitcher or two come down from the Twins. Wimmers could give more than an inning in the bullpen start today and come back. They probably don't want to mess with Chargois for that short of a move. 

[Mike Sixel]

 

My guess is that it's temporary until a pitcher or two come down from the Twins. Wimmers could give more than an inning in the bullpen start today and come back. They probably don't want to mess with Chargois for that short of a move. 

 

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks, I am sure your guess is correct on a pitcher or two coming down. And, I hope they are doing this to keep from messing with Chargois.

Edited April 26, 2016 by Mike Sixel

[Bob Sacamento]

 

 

Brian Navarreto to the FM DL. Explains more the Kevin Garcia promotion to FM the other day. Navarreto sprained his ankle sliding into a base.

If it's his right ankle, he's been nursing that since spring training.  I watched as the Miracles' trainer Alan Rail was showing an FGCU intern the proper taping for an inversion sprain, they had taped it up nearly everyday towards the end of camp.  With his catching load, not exactly something you want to play around with.

[s1xthw1]

 

I don't know... As a GM, you sign a guy because he wants an opportunity to get to the big leagues. You tell him that can happen, and even give him an opt-out date just two weeks later. You don't assume that he's going to say No when you tell him you're making a move to get him to the big leagues...

 

It's like when Ryan called Tyler Grimes and invited him to big league spring training and Grimes said, I'll get back to you. 

 

This is weird on Murphy, I think. I'm not saying there couldn't have been a conversation, but I don't get it from Murphy's perspective. He was just about to make a little over a million and decided he didn't want to. 

 

 

You would think that Ryan would have talked to Murphy (or had someone else talk to Murphy) before he basically gives away his 3rd string catcher for nothing.

 

 

[Seth Stohs]

I think the 40 man roster will be used just fine... 

[ShouldaCouldaWoulda]

 

Ah, that makes sense. Thanks, I am sure your guess is correct on a pitcher or two coming down. And, I hope they are doing this to keep from messing with Chargois.

Probably like the idea of grooming for late-innings pressure innings by keeping him in the closer role in AA too. 

[Mike Sixel]

 

Probably like the idea of grooming for late-innings pressure innings by keeping him in the closer role in AA too. 

 

how is that more pressure than AA? Or, do you mean someone else would be in that spot in AAA?

 

in which case, I'd ask why.....why is the most likely best RP prospect they have right now not in AAA, in the closer role?