Article: Twins Minor League Report (5/26): Gonsalves Returns to Dominance

[Tom Froemming]

Stephen Gonsalves made his return last week in a brief start, but Friday night we saw the big southpaw return to his 2016 form. His team won in a wild (literally) fashion, but another Twins affiliate picked up a victory in one of the more lopsided games you’ll ever see.

 

Find out what else happened around the Twins' minor leagues on Friday.INJURY NEWS

Here's the Nick Burdi Tommy John Surgery support group ... er, thread.

 

TRANSACTION ALERTS

RED WINGS REPORT

Indianapolis 11, Rochester 6

Box Score

 

Nick Tepesch had a dud of a start, giving up nine earned runs over 3.1 innings, but at least there were some offensive highlights. Daniel Palka hit his eighth homer of the year, and was 2-for-5 with three RBI.

 

Engelb Vielma had his best game for the Red Wings thus far, going 3-for-4 with a pair of runs scored. Niko Goodrum hit his fourth home run of the season and both Mitch Garver and Matt Hague had two hits.

 

CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

Chattanooga 3, Montgomery 2

Box Score

 

In his second start of the season, Stephen Gonsalves turned in an impressive effort and the Lookouts won in a strange fashion. Possibly the most encouraging thing out of Gonsalves was the fact that he threw seven innings, 88 pitches. But he also held the Biscuits to two runs on six hits and no walks while tallying seven strikeouts.

 

As excellent as Gonsalves was, this game was tied heading into the bottom of the eighth. Chattanooga scored the game-winning run when Ryan Strausborger struck out. Yes, it’s true. Strausborger went down swinging on a wild pitch that allowed Nick Gordon to score.

 

Gordon had a double, a walk and scored twice. LaMonte Wade was 1-for-2 with a sac fly, an intentional walk and threw out what would have been the go-ahead run at the plate in the seventh inning.

 

Todd Van Steensil pitched a perfect eighth inning to earn his fourth win of the season. Mason Melotakis followed suit with a perfect ninth for his fourth save of the year.

 

MIRACLE MATTERS

Fort Myers 17, Charlotte 1

Box Score

 

Shortstop Sean Miller led the way with four hits, but four more of his teammates had multi-hit games. The Miracle combined for 16 hits, only three of which were for extra bases (a pair of doubles from Chris Paul and a Tanner English homer).

 

Second basemen Alex Perez filled up the box score, going 2-for-3 with two walks, three RBI and three runs scored. Paul’s big game (he was 3-for-5 with three RBI and two runs) boosted his batting average to an even .350.

 

Dereck Rodriguez was the beneficiary to all the offense, and he picked up his third win of the season after surrendering one run over five innings. He gave up just three hits and did not issue a walk while striking out four.

 

Nick Anderson had three strikeouts over an eventful, but scoreless ninth inning. The 26-year-old has a 0.93 ERA and 0.83 WHIP on the season.

 

KERNELS NUGGETS

Kane County 2, Cedar Rapids 1

Box Score

 

Cedar Rapids fell just short of completing a comeback in the ninth. Trailing 2-0 in the final frame and down to their last out, the Kernels strung together three straight hits: a Jaylin Davis double, a Travis Blankenhorn RBI single and another single from Brandon Lopez. But Ben Rortvedt was not able to keep the conga line moving as he grounded out to end the game.

 

It was a night to forget for the young backstop. He was 0-for-4 and had both a passed ball and a throwing error. Ouch. Cedar Rapids got great pitching performances for what was a bullpen game for the team. Max Cordy made his first start of the season, he gave up two unearned runs over three innings and struck out five batters.

 

Cordy was followed by newcomers Ryan Mason and Patrick McGuff, who were both making their Cedar Rapids debuts. Mason a 13th rounder in 2016, threw three shutout innings. McGuff, a 36th rounder last year, held the Cougars scoreless over the final two innings.

 

TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Stephen Gonsalves (7 IP, 2 ER, 7 Ks)

Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Chris Paul (3-for-5, 2 2Bs, 3 RBI, 2 R)

 

SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

Rochester vs. Indianapolis, 6:05 CT, Nik Turley (3.27 ERA, 1.36 WHIP)

Chattanooga vs. Montgomery, 6:15 CT, Yohan Pino (has not pitched in 2017)

Fort Myers at Charlotte, 5:05 CT, RHP Randy LeBlanc (return to the Miracle)

Cedar Rapids at Kane County, 6:30 CT, Sean Poppen (2.68 ERA, 1.13 WHIP)

 

Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss Friday's games.

 

Click here to view the article

[mikelink45]

Very sad news about Burdi.  He has had terrible injury luck.  I had been hoping to see that he was in MLB and not the hospital this year.  It reminds me of the fact that arms have only so many pitches in them and that is why I would like to see our quality relievers called up sooner rather than working their way through the levels of the minors like starters and we have a few pitchers like Belisle that should be replaced by Melotakis and others in the system. 

[jimbo92107]

Stephen Gonsalves suddenly puts himself into the conversation for a September cuppa Joe. 

[ThejacKmp]

 

Stephen Gonsalves suddenly puts himself into the conversation for a September cuppa Joe. 

  

September? Let's think July if Hughes or Gibson doesn't become playable.

[Oldgoat_MN]

Looking at our position players in the minors:

In our AAA affiliate, Mitch Garver has an OPS of .886 and no one else is even close. Matt Hague is second with a .758 OPS. No one on the team is hitting >=.300.

In our AA affiliate, only Nick Gordon (.875) and LaMonte Wade (.863) have a higher OPS than the .751 OPS that Edgar Corcino is posting. Corcino has a BA of .307, Gordon .305 and Wade .299.

 

Any other promising bats (high OPS) are in A+. We have a few there (English .841, Granite .955, Kennedy .902, Paul .885, Weil .849). Arraez and his .902 OPS are out for the season.

 

Vielma just got to AAA so let's see how he does.

Basically it appears that we are pretty weak in hitters above A+. Of course A+ is a long way from MLB, but at least some of them look encouraging.

 

 

 

 

 

[Rhino and Compass]

Nice to see Chris Paul hitting those doubles, but it would be nice to see a few clutch triples too.

 

Did you know that Chris Paul is also the name of a basketball guy?

[Thrylos]

Semantics but: 7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 7 K whether is nice, it is not close to "dominance".  Dominance would be something like: 7 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 11 K

 

Bit of difference there.   Good to see Gonsalves return to pitching well and keeping his team long into games, but still he if far from "dominance".

[drjim]

Semantics but: 7 IP, 2 ER, 6 H, 7 K whether is nice, it is not close to "dominance". Dominance would be something like: 7 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 11 K

 

Bit of difference there. Good to see Gonsalves return to pitching well and keeping his team long into games, but still he if far from "dominance".

Tjat was my thought too. Nice start, not dominant. Hopefully he'll have a couple more and can then move up to AAA.

 

He still might make it to the bigs this year.

[Lonestar]

As far as that goes, I think there is a different between dominant and dominating. 

7 IP, 0 ER, 2 H, 11 K is a dominating performance but Scott Diamond or Aaron Slegers could do that on occasion.

 

Berrios' 39 IP, 5 ER, 39K, 8 BB, .807 WHIP is dominant

 

But Gonzalves' start is encouraging.  Any word on his velocity

[70charger]

Nice to see Chris Paul hitting those doubles, but it would be nice to see a few clutch triples too.

 

Did you know that Chris Paul is also the name of a basketball guy?

"Basketball"? Never heard of it. Sounds stupid.

[DocBauer]

Recently, last Sunday I believe, on the pre-game show they were talking with someone...want to say Antony?...but mention was made that Gonsalvez would be considered as a promotion candidate from AS if the Twins needed another starter. Now, he's have to be healthy and pitching well, but I found it an interesting statement.