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    Twins Minor League Report (5/15): Gibson Ks 10


    Jeremy Nygaard

    The Twins completed a series victory in Cleveland and returned home to rest before welcoming the Colorado Rockies and then the Kansas City Royals to Target Field. It will be interesting to see what happens over the next six days as rain is forecasted nearly every day while the Twins are back in town.

    Though the Twins were off, there were plenty of transactions throughout the system. The Red Wings welcomed RP Michael Tonkin (outrighted) and SS Engelb Vielma (from AA). They released 1B/OF Ben Paulsen. The Lookouts added OF Ryan Strausborger (activated and sent from AAA) and 3B TJ White (activated). Fort Myers added OF Tanner English from Chattanooga and released P Chris Anderson. Cedar Rapids activated RP Zach Tillery.

    Image courtesy of © Brad Rempel-USA TODAY Sports

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    RED WINGS REPORT

    Rochester 0, Lehigh Valley 1

    Box Score

    The Red Wings offense only managed two hits: a Zach Granite two-out single in the third inning and a leadoff double off the bat of Tommy Field in the seventh. Field didn’t score as #oldfriend came Casey Fien came in and abandoned him at third base (after he advanced on a wild pitch).

    Engelb Vielma went 0-3 with a strikeout in his AAA debut.

    Kyle Gibson took a hard-luck loss and dropped to 0-2 with Rochester. He allowed six hits, four walks and only a lone run - though a solo home run - while striking out 10.

    Kevin Chapman struck out three getting five total outs and Drew Rucinski struck out two in his inning of work.

    Rochester drops to 17-15.

    CHATTANOOGA CHATTER

    Chattanooga 6, Birmingham 0

    Box Score

    Chattanooga led a close game throughout before adding four insurance runs late and winning a game that was closer than the final score makes it appear.

    Nick Gordon led off the bottom of the first with a triple and scored on an Edgar Corcino sac fly. Corcino scored the second run after singling and eventually crossing home on a Travis Harrison sac fly.

    The four runs in the eighth came by way of two singles, four walks and a hit by pitch.

    T.J. White was 2-4 with an RBI in his return to the lineup.

    Randy LeBlanc picked up the win, scattering seven hits and a walk in six shutout innings. Miraculously, he didn’t strike out a single batter.

    Randy Rosario struck out four in three no-hit innings.

    The Lookouts jump to 22-16 and are among the leaders in the Southern League North (unfortunately the best four teams in the Southern League are all in the Northern Division).

    MIRACLE MATTERS

    Fort Myers 7, Clearwater 3

    Box Score

    Max Murphy and Bradley Strong both hit solo home runs, Zander Wiel and Nelson Molina tripled, and Alex Perez, Chris Paul, Tanner English and Brian Navarreto all doubled in an extra-base hit barrage at the Lee County Sports Complex. No one drove in more than one run and no one scored more than once in a balanced offensive attack.

    Cody Stashak struggled through four innings - five hits and four walks - but only allowed two runs while striking out three. Jonny Drozd allowed five hits in two innings; one runner scored and Drozd struck out four. Williams Ramirez struck out two in the final frame.

    Fort Myers is now 18-20 on the season.

    KERNELS NUGGETS

    Cedar Rapids 8, Peoria 12 (GAME ONE)

    Box Score

    Cedar Rapids scored seven third-inning runs, but Peoria scored in six of the seven innings to win game one going away.

    Jermaine Palacios scored in the first inning after being hit by a pitch. He also walked to start the third inning. Lewin Diaz doubled him home to score the first run of that frame. Travis Blankenhorn, who also walked, scored as well. Diaz scored on Jaylin Davis’s ensuing double. Davis scored on a Ben Rortvedt single. Aaron Whitefield hit a sac fly to score Alex Perez, who walked. Christian Cavaness later homered to bring in Rortvedt. When all was said and done, the Kernels had an 8-3 lead… but their offense was done. And their pitching was done in.

    Eduardo Del Rosario gave up three home runs - seven runs total - on five hits and three walks. He struck out one in five innings, but was still in line for the win.

    Logan Lombana took care of that, allowing four runs, including a home run, in 1.2 innings. He couldn’t finish the game and Alex Robinson got the final out, but not before giving up a three-run home run to close the book on Lombana.

    Cedar Rapids 2, Peoria 0 (GAME TWO)

    Box Score

    The Kernels went with the bullpen approach in the second half of the doubleheader and got much better results. Max Cordy struck out three in three innings, allowing three hits and a walk. Colton Davis picked up the win striking out two in two innings and only allowing a single hit. Tom Hackimer earned his fifth save of the year. Hackimer struck out three, issuing a walk and a hit in two innings.

    Offensively, the bats did little, but enough to win. Jermaine Palacios hit his third home run of the year in the fifth inning. Mitch Kranson doubled. Diaz, Caleb Hamilton and Cavaness added singles. Cavaness also stole his third base of the season.

    The Kernels improve to 21-16.

    TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY

    Pitcher of the Day – Randy LeBlanc, Chattanooga

    Hitter of the Day – Jermaine Palacios, Cedar Rapids (maybe only 1-5 on the day, but scored every time he got on base - three times - and continues to be a catalyst for their offense)

    TUESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS

    Rochester vs Lehigh Valley (6:05 CST) - LHP David Hurlbut (2-2, 1.59 ERA)

    Chattanooga vs Birmingham (6:15 CST) - LHP Matt Tracy (2-3, 4.40 ERA)

    Fort Myers vs Clearwater (5:35 CST) - RHP David Fischer (2-2, 3.54 ERA)

    Cedar Rapids vs Peoria (6:35 CST) - RHP Tyler Beardsley (3-2, 4.34 ERA)

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


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    Marek Houston

    Cedar Rapids Kernels - A+, SS
    The 22-year-old went 2-for-5 on Friday night, his fourth straight multi-hit game. Heading into the week, he was hitting .246/.328/.404 (.732). Four games later, he is hitting .303/.361/.447 (.808).

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    Kyle Gibson's start doesn't encourage me much. The thing he's supposed to be working on is attacking the strike zone. I wonder how many of those 10 K's would turn into even more walks if he were facing more disciplined MLB hitters.

    I guess it can go both ways.    Kind of depends on the at bats.   Were they 3-2 counts where he threw sliders to get them to chase or were they 3-0 counts where he didn't have command.     I will go with slightly encouraged.    Its better than his other start.  I don't know what to make of him.   Two years ago he would throw clunkers but at least as often as not he would throw a gem and I am ok with that in a 3-5 starter.    ST seemed encouraging but I understand the short leash.    He just hasn't produced.

     

    I think he is still in that range.  Seems unlikely that he finishes at .850 this year, based on components thus far.  Just regressing his BABIP to .355 (which would still be a career high for him), which is simply taking away 4 singles from his 2017 line, and he'd be having a .798 OPS so far.  Downgrade two triples to doubles (which would give him a career normal triples rate, and a career high double rate) and he'd be at .784.

    ... or add another triple and a HR and you have mass confusion! Now you have to downgrade three triples to doubles, two doubles to singles, 2 HR to triples... and then another triple to a double, and another double to a single. Do I have that right?

     

    I think he is still in that range.  Seems unlikely that he finishes at .850 this year, based on components thus far.  Just regressing his BABIP to .355 (which would still be a career high for him), which is simply taking away 4 singles from his 2017 line, and he'd be having a .798 OPS so far.  Downgrade two triples to doubles (which would give him a career normal triples rate, and a career high double rate) and he'd be at .784.

    It's possible he's still in that range and his BABIP is unsustainably high but there's more going on with Gordon than just getting hits.

     

    His walks are back up to an acceptable level (9.3%) but his K rate has held close to steady (19.8%, up a couple of points over last season).

     

    But the real difference is the power. Now, he's coming out of the FSL so we should expect a power surge but Gordon's ISO has jumped from .095 to .185 at the same time he made a significant jump in talent level, as he's now playing in AA at just 21 years old.

     

    Last season, Gordon had 493 PAs with 23 2B, 6 3B, 3 HR.

     

    This season, Gordon has 162 PAs with 8 2B, 5 3B, 3 HR. He's on pace to add 50% to his XBH total and more of those XBH are going for 3+ bases.

     

    That's the kind of trend you expect and want to see with a lean 21 year old player. All he did was smack doubles last season. This season, more of those doubles are turning into triples or leaving the park.

     

    Time will tell whether this holds but there are reasons to be optimistic.

    Brock, to be fair, Gordon added a triple and a HR since my post. :)

     

    Although it is still a small sample. Before yesterday he had 2 HR, for a full season pace of 6 HR. Better than where he was before but not necessarily indicative of a real meaningful improvement in the power department.

     

    Triples are also pretty variable, as we've seen with Rosario, especially in the minors. Seeing that Gordon doubled his rate of hitting triples, with only a modest improvement in HR rate, was another reason I questioned his power improvement.

     

    It's possible he's still in that range and his BABIP is unsustainably high but there's more going on with Gordon than just getting hits.

     

    His walks are back up to an acceptable level (9.3%) but his K rate has held close to steady (19.8%, up a couple of points over last season).

     

    But the real difference is the power. Now, he's coming out of the FSL so we should expect a power surge but Gordon's ISO has jumped from .095 to .185 at the same time he made a significant jump in talent level, as he's now playing in AA at just 21 years old.

     

    Last season, Gordon had 493 PAs with 23 2B, 6 3B, 3 HR.

     

    This season, Gordon has 162 PAs with 8 2B, 5 3B, 3 HR. He's on pace to add 50% to his XBH total and more of those XBH are going for 3+ bases.

     

    That's the kind of trend you expect and want to see with a lean 21 year old player. All he did was smack doubles last season. This season, more of those doubles are turning into triples or leaving the park.

     

    Time will tell whether this holds but there are reasons to be optimistic.

     

    FSL tends to suppress power as well... that is something that cannot be stated enough. When evaluating power in the FSL, you really need to look at it in context to the rest of the league.

     

    FSL tends to suppress power as well... that is something that cannot be stated enough. When evaluating power in the FSL, you really need to look at it in context to the rest of the league.

    Yeah, I briefly mentioned that but it's an important point to note.

     

    Though Gordon has nearly as many triples in 2017 as he did in all of 2016. Now, we're dealing with relatively small numbers here so that could be an aberration but given the size of FSL stadiums, if Gordon was really ripping the ball in 2016, he probably should have had more triples. He's not nearly as fast as his brother but he's supposed to have pretty good wheels.

     

    Fangraphs has wRC+ for minor league hitters, which does some adjusting for league and park, and Gordon was doing pretty well (above average) up until this year, even with the lack of power.

    His wRC+ lines up with my expectations. Previous to 2017, he was a solid, though unspectacular, hitter. This season is waaaaay above that. It will be interesting to follow if/when that BABIP normalizes.




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