Twins Fan From Afar

And the Rock Cats actually end up losing 7-3. Wow. Here's how the last inning played out: Portland Top of the 9th Oscar Tejeda pops out to shortstop Pedro Florimon.Bryce Brentz doubles (2) on a line drive to right fielder Evan Bigley.Offensive Substitution: Pinch runner Jeremy Hazelbaker replaces Bryce Brentz.Ronald Bermudez reaches on fielding error by pitcher Luke French. Jeremy Hazelbaker to 3rd.Dan Butler singles on a ground ball to right fielder Evan Bigley. Jeremy Hazelbaker scores. Ronald Bermudez to 2nd.Heiker Meneses singles on a ground ball to second baseman James Beresford. Ronald Bermudez scores. Dan Butler to 2nd.Derrik Gibson called out on strikes.Pitcher Change: Bobby Lanigan replaces Luke French.Kolbrin Vitek walks. Dan Butler to 3rd. Heiker Meneses to 2nd.Juan Carlos Linares singles on a ground ball to right fielder Evan Bigley. Dan Butler scores. Heiker Meneses scores. Kolbrin Vitek advances to 3rd, on throwing error by right fielder Evan Bigley.Reynaldo Rodriguez reaches on a fielder's choice, fielded by shortstop Pedro Florimon. Kolbrin Vitek scores. Juan Carlos Linares advances to 2nd, on throwing error by shortstop Pedro Florimon.Oscar Tejeda strikes out swinging. New Britain Bottom of the 9th Jeremy Hazelbaker remains in the game as the right fielder.Deibinson Romero grounds out, shortstop Derrik Gibson to first baseman Reynaldo Rodriguez.Aaron Hicks strikes out swinging.Pedro Florimon pops out to third baseman Kolbrin Vitek.

Mine is stalled also. I show a runner on second with one out in the top of 9, NB still leading 3-2.

Lucas French has thrown 7 innings, allowed 7 hits, 2 earned runs, and has struck out 6 while issuing 0 free passes.

So far this year: Deolis Guerra, Chris Colabello, Pedro Florimon (his average is creeping toward .300).

3-2 Rock Cats after a Portland double and RBI single in the top of the 5th.

Portland gets on the board after a double and a wild pitch. 3-1 NB in the 4th.

Nathan Hanson 1-out walk. James Berersford single. Wild pitches moves them to 2nd and 3rd. De Los Santos with RBI groundout. 3-0 NB after 2.

After a scoreless top of the first, NB strikes early. Estarlin De Los Santos doubles, Chris Herrmann singles. A wild pitch while Chris Colabello is batting scores De Los Santos. Colabello doubles home Herrmann. 2-0 NB after 1.

9:35 central time start. Lucas French on the mound, trying to improve to 3-0. I'll update when anything interesting happens.

 [TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4CgSEMDxhD0/T5fsk39GnxI/AAAAAAAAASw/ftjl8qrHDD0/s320/Herrmann.jpg [TD=class: tr-caption]Chris Herrmann celebrates his first inning home run. Mauer's 2013 backup??? [/TD] [/TABLE] [Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar] Unlike their parent club, the New Britain Rock Cats put up a fight after the odds were stacked against them Tuesday night and, thanks to a 5-run 7th inning, came back to defeat the Portland Sea Dogs 7-6. The weather was not great last night, and neither were the Rock Cats for the first several innings. They were stymied by Portland starter Billy Buckner (no relation to Bill Buckner of Red Sox lore), who tossed an easy 6 innings, giving up only 3 hits while striking out 11 and walking 1. The one bright spot for the Rock Cats against Buckner was a Chris Herrmann solo home run in the 1st inning. Other than that, Buckner really challenged the New Britain hitters. In contrast, the Rock Cats did not get a good start from Logan Darnell, who lasted only 3 innings after giving up 6 earned runs on 8 hits and 4 walks. He had no strikeouts, and gave up 2 home runs. Notably, the wind seemed to be blowing out at a pretty good clip, so hard hit balls really sailed. Watching Darnell, the worst part of the night was that he simply didn't miss bats -- yes, there were some weak grounders and routine fly balls, but for the most part everything was hit hard. The Rock Cats were down 6-1 after the third inning, and things did not look optimistic. [TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZiMvb5bw4ZU/T5ftEe1LW9I/AAAAAAAAAS4/-JN_lBgIWUo/s320/Molitor.jpg [TD=class: tr-caption]You may recognize the gentleman in the middle in the black jacket as Hall of Fame member Paul Molitor. [/TD] [/TABLE] For the second consecutive night, however, the Rock Cats' bullpen kept them in the game. Actually, the bullpen -- called on for 6 innings tonight -- was pretty perfect. Lester Oliveros, Brett Jacobson and Deolis Guerra each tossed 2 scoreless innings. Oliveros walked and struck out 1; Jacobson walked 2 and struck out 3. And then there's Guerra, who walked 0 and struck out 5 in his 2 innings, picking up the win in relief. Guerra's ERA stands at 0.71. In 12 and 2/3 innings, he has only allowed 5 hits and 1 earned run, and has struck out 15 and walked 1 along the way. Once Buckner left the game after the 6th inning, the tides changed. With two outs in the bottom of the 7th, New Britain completed a 5-run comeback to tie the game. 7 straight batters reached base, and here's how it played out: Pedro Florimon walk; Danny Lehmann single; James Beresford single; Aaron Hicks single to score Florimon; Chris Herrmann walk with bases loaded to score Lehmann; Evan Bigley infield single to score Beresford; Chris Colabello single to score Hicks and Herrmann. Nothing fancy -- some walks and some singles got the job done against the Sea Dogs' bullpen. With the game tied in the bottom of the 9th, Herrmann opened things up with a single to left field. Thereafter, he was sacrificed to second by Bigley. Colabello was intentionally walked, and then Deibinson Romero popped out to catcher. But again with 2 outs, the Rock Cats came through. Nathan Hanson had the game-winning, walk-off hit to score Herrmann from second, and New Britain won! It was quite a game. Here are just a few notes from what I observed (In full disclosure, I picked an awful time to leave -- right as the comeback, and a hard, cold and slanty rain, were both commencing): Hicks batted leadoff tonight -- to my knowledge he had been batting 5th all season. Chris Herrmann has some pop in his bat. His home run, though helped somewhat by the wind blowing out to right field, was smacked. He was playing left field in this game. Paul Molitor is in town this week as a roving instructor. It was neat to see him interact with the young guys on the team. I'm sure they can learn a lot from a Hall of Famer with 3,319 big league hits. All of New Britain's runs came with 2 outs tonight. Impressive, and great that they can score that way, but it would have been nice to see some earlier rallies. Finally, the team is back in action at 10:35 this morning completing their homestand in a rubber match against Portland.

 [TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-4CgSEMDxhD0/T5fsk39GnxI/AAAAAAAAASw/ftjl8qrHDD0/s320/Herrmann.jpg [TD=class: tr-caption]Chris Herrmann celebrates his first inning home run. Mauer's 2013 backup??? [/TD] [/TABLE] [Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar] Unlike their parent club, the New Britain Rock Cats put up a fight after the odds were stacked against them Tuesday night and, thanks to a 5-run 7th inning, came back to defeat the Portland Sea Dogs 7-6. The weather was not great last night, and neither were the Rock Cats for the first several innings. They were stymied by Portland starter Billy Buckner (no relation to Bill Buckner of Red Sox lore), who tossed an easy 6 innings, giving up only 3 hits while striking out 11 and walking 1. The one bright spot for the Rock Cats against Buckner was a Chris Herrmann solo home run in the 1st inning. Other than that, Buckner really challenged the New Britain hitters. In contrast, the Rock Cats did not get a good start from Logan Darnell, who lasted only 3 innings after giving up 6 earned runs on 8 hits and 4 walks. He had no strikeouts, and gave up 2 home runs. Notably, the wind seemed to be blowing out at a pretty good clip, so hard hit balls really sailed. Watching Darnell, the worst part of the night was that he simply didn't miss bats -- yes, there were some weak grounders and routine fly balls, but for the most part everything was hit hard. The Rock Cats were down 6-1 after the third inning, and things did not look optimistic. [TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZiMvb5bw4ZU/T5ftEe1LW9I/AAAAAAAAAS4/-JN_lBgIWUo/s320/Molitor.jpg [TD=class: tr-caption]You may recognize the gentleman in the middle in the black jacket as Hall of Fame member Paul Molitor. [/TD] [/TABLE] For the second consecutive night, however, the Rock Cats' bullpen kept them in the game. Actually, the bullpen -- called on for 6 innings tonight -- was pretty perfect. Lester Oliveros, Brett Jacobson and Deolis Guerra each tossed 2 scoreless innings. Oliveros walked and struck out 1; Jacobson walked 2 and struck out 3. And then there's Guerra, who walked 0 and struck out 5 in his 2 innings, picking up the win in relief. Guerra's ERA stands at 0.71. In 12 and 2/3 innings, he has only allowed 5 hits and 1 earned run, and has struck out 15 and walked 1 along the way. Once Buckner left the game after the 6th inning, the tides changed. With two outs in the bottom of the 7th, New Britain completed a 5-run comeback to tie the game. 7 straight batters reached base, and here's how it played out: Pedro Florimon walk; Danny Lehmann single; James Beresford single; Aaron Hicks single to score Florimon; Chris Herrmann walk with bases loaded to score Lehmann; Evan Bigley infield single to score Beresford; Chris Colabello single to score Hicks and Herrmann. Nothing fancy -- some walks and some singles got the job done against the Sea Dogs' bullpen. With the game tied in the bottom of the 9th, Herrmann opened things up with a single to left field. Thereafter, he was sacrificed to second by Bigley. Colabello was intentionally walked, and then Deibinson Romero popped out to catcher. But again with 2 outs, the Rock Cats came through. Nathan Hanson had the game-winning, walk-off hit to score Herrmann from second, and New Britain won! It was quite a game. Here are just a few notes from what I observed (In full disclosure, I picked an awful time to leave -- right as the comeback, and a hard, cold and slanty rain, were both commencing): Hicks batted leadoff tonight -- to my knowledge he had been batting 5th all season. Chris Herrmann has some pop in his bat. His home run, though helped somewhat by the wind blowing out to right field, was smacked. He was playing left field in this game. Paul Molitor is in town this week as a roving instructor. It was neat to see him interact with the young guys on the team. I'm sure they can learn a lot from a Hall of Famer with 3,319 big league hits. All of New Britain's runs came with 2 outs tonight. Impressive, and great that they can score that way, but it would have been nice to see some earlier rallies. Finally, the team is back in action at 10:35 this morning completing their homestand in a rubber match against Portland.

Rock Cats came back from 6-1 to win 7-6. Good victory!

Absolutely correct. I just couldn't find that other stat.

That is a fantastic question. Definitely deserving of its own post. I don't have an exact answer. Looking on fangraphs, they have a stat called Clutch. Here's how they define it: "Clutch measures how well a player performed in high leverage situations. It’s calculated as such: Clutch = ( WPA / pLI) – WPA/LI In the words of David Appelman, this calculation measures, “…how much better or worse a player does in high leverage situations than he would have done in a context neutral environment.” It also compares a player against himself, so a player who hits .300 in high leverage situations when he’s an overall .300 hitter is not considered clutch. Clutch does a good job of describing the past, but it does very little towards predicting the future. Simply because one player was clutch at one point does not mean they will continue to perform well in high-leverage situations (and vice versa). Very few players have the ability to be consistently clutch over the course of their careers, and choking in one season does not beget the same in the future." They go on to say the majority of players scale between 1 and -1, with 0 being average. So where does Mauer figure on their scale? Very good. http://www.fangraphs.com/statss.aspx?playerid=1857&position=C#advanced Scroll down to the "Win Probability" section, and it's all the way on the right. For his career, he's at a .99, just .01 below "great," according to Fangraphs. For this season, though, he's at a -.25 -- just below average. I'm not sure that I really buy into this stat. It doesn't completely answer your question about how he does in high leverage RISP situations, either, but it's at the very least interesting.

Well that explains that!

[TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OyIHjCc0xCc/T5afN6GtHqI/AAAAAAAAASo/1nQgtg4aAOM/s320/Mauer+Baltimore.bmp [TD=class: tr-caption]Though he had 2 hits last night, Joe Mauer came up short when it counted the most. [/TD] [/TABLE] [Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar] Regardless of what some people in Twins Territory might think, the fact of the matter is that Joe Mauer has been very solid in his career when there are runners in scoring position. You might even call him "clutch," if you are one who believes that such a thing as clutch hitting exists. For his career, Mauer is a .323 hitter. When there are runners in scoring position, he's a .339 hitter. When there are runners in scoring position and 2 outs, Mauer becomes a .348 hitter. There's data from 2004-2012 backing those stats up, so it's anything but a small sample size at this point. Thus far in 2012, Mauer is batting .313, with 1 home run and 9 RBIs. He has played in every game this season, which is a great sign. It's an even better sign that he's playing, and being productive. Still, though, it's easy to remember a few occasions during the first month of 2012 where Mauer failed to get a runner home from third with less than two outs. One incident, of course, was last night, following Jamey Carroll's leadoff triple in the bottom of the 8th inning. The game was tied at 5, and I thought the Twins were going to win it. After working the count to 3-and-2, Mauer helplessly flailed at the next pitch and bounced out weakly to first base. I'm not sure how he didn't break his bat or throw his helmet in the dugout in disgust. But it had to be frustrating. The other game that comes to mind was the Twins' great come-from-behind victory over the Angels a couple weeks ago at Target Field, when both Mauer and Morneau failed to get a runner on third home. The Twins won that game, though, and Mauer and Morneau both homered, so presumably all was forgiven. But still -- in this short sample size of April, 2012, doesn't it feel like Mauer has stranded a higher-than-normal percentage of runners in scoring position? After all, over the past 5 games, the team is batting .170 (8-for-47) with runners in scoring position. Well, it turns out that Mauer is consistent -- even this early in the season -- in that his average with runners in scoring position is higher than his batting average. He's batting .412 (7-for-17) with runners in scoring position this season, and an even .400 (2-for-5) with runners in scoring position and two outs. Small sample size, yes, but given the several years of career data, it seems that Mauer is doing what he always has done: perform better when it matters most. It's interesting, though, because I went to bed thinking about this question, and fully expected that his average with runners in scoring position would be very low this season. It's funny what your brain focuses on. Still, though, the Twins need Mauer to be consistently great when runners are on, and he wasn't last night. It cost them a run, and possibly the game. Despite having 2 hits and a walk before the failed 8th inning at-bat, hopefully Mauer will come back with a chip on his shoulder tonight. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A quick New Britain Rock Cats update. In chilly conditions last night, the Rock Cats lost the series opener to the Portland Sea Dogs 5-3, despite outhitting Portland 10-8 and being the recipient of 2 Sea Dogs errors. Starter Steve Hirschfeld took his first loss of the season -- in fact, the first loss of the season for a New Britain starter. He went 5 and 2/3 innings, gave up 5 earned runs on 5 hits, walked 3 and struck out 3. He's 2-1 on the season now, and his ERA stands at 2.78. Blake Martin, David Bromberg and Luis Perdomo were almost perfect out of the bullpen, which is a good sign. The trio allowed no hits, walked 3 and struck out two. On offense, Evan Bigley and Estarlin De Los Santos each had 2 hits, and Chris Herrmann, Aaron Hicks, Deibinson Romero, Pedro Florimon, Nathan Hanson and Mark Dolenc all tallied 1 hit. Hanson, who had a double, drove in 2 runs, and Romero was responsible for the other RBI with a sacrifice fly. Much like their parent club, the Rock Cats scuffled with runners in scoring position, going 2-for-12. They will be back in action tonight. I plan to attend the game, so expect a better re-cap and some pictures tomorrow. Finally, it was also announced that the Rock Cats placed starter Alex Wimmers on the disabled list with a right elbow strain. When I heard the announcement on AM radio, I believe the organization referred to the 7 day disabled list. The DL trip is no surprise, as Wimmers has not pitched since April 9. Here is the press release. Hopefully it's just a minor strain, and he has a speedy recovery.

[TABLE=class: tr-caption-container] http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OyIHjCc0xCc/T5afN6GtHqI/AAAAAAAAASo/1nQgtg4aAOM/s320/Mauer+Baltimore.bmp [TD=class: tr-caption]Though he had 2 hits last night, Joe Mauer came up short when it counted the most. [/TD] [/TABLE] [Originally published at Twins Fan From Afar] Regardless of what some people in Twins Territory might think, the fact of the matter is that Joe Mauer has been very solid in his career when there are runners in scoring position. You might even call him "clutch," if you are one who believes that such a thing as clutch hitting exists. For his career, Mauer is a .323 hitter. When there are runners in scoring position, he's a .339 hitter. When there are runners in scoring position and 2 outs, Mauer becomes a .348 hitter. There's data from 2004-2012 backing those stats up, so it's anything but a small sample size at this point. Thus far in 2012, Mauer is batting .313, with 1 home run and 9 RBIs. He has played in every game this season, which is a great sign. It's an even better sign that he's playing, and being productive. Still, though, it's easy to remember a few occasions during the first month of 2012 where Mauer failed to get a runner home from third with less than two outs. One incident, of course, was last night, following Jamey Carroll's leadoff triple in the bottom of the 8th inning. The game was tied at 5, and I thought the Twins were going to win it. After working the count to 3-and-2, Mauer helplessly flailed at the next pitch and bounced out weakly to first base. I'm not sure how he didn't break his bat or throw his helmet in the dugout in disgust. But it had to be frustrating. The other game that comes to mind was the Twins' great come-from-behind victory over the Angels a couple weeks ago at Target Field, when both Mauer and Morneau failed to get a runner on third home. The Twins won that game, though, and Mauer and Morneau both homered, so presumably all was forgiven. But still -- in this short sample size of April, 2012, doesn't it feel like Mauer has stranded a higher-than-normal percentage of runners in scoring position? After all, over the past 5 games, the team is batting .170 (8-for-47) with runners in scoring position. Well, it turns out that Mauer is consistent -- even this early in the season -- in that his average with runners in scoring position is higher than his batting average. He's batting .412 (7-for-17) with runners in scoring position this season, and an even .400 (2-for-5) with runners in scoring position and two outs. Small sample size, yes, but given the several years of career data, it seems that Mauer is doing what he always has done: perform better when it matters most. It's interesting, though, because I went to bed thinking about this question, and fully expected that his average with runners in scoring position would be very low this season. It's funny what your brain focuses on. Still, though, the Twins need Mauer to be consistently great when runners are on, and he wasn't last night. It cost them a run, and possibly the game. Despite having 2 hits and a walk before the failed 8th inning at-bat, hopefully Mauer will come back with a chip on his shoulder tonight. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- A quick New Britain Rock Cats update. In chilly conditions last night, the Rock Cats lost the series opener to the Portland Sea Dogs 5-3, despite outhitting Portland 10-8 and being the recipient of 2 Sea Dogs errors. Starter Steve Hirschfeld took his first loss of the season -- in fact, the first loss of the season for a New Britain starter. He went 5 and 2/3 innings, gave up 5 earned runs on 5 hits, walked 3 and struck out 3. He's 2-1 on the season now, and his ERA stands at 2.78. Blake Martin, David Bromberg and Luis Perdomo were almost perfect out of the bullpen, which is a good sign. The trio allowed no hits, walked 3 and struck out two. On offense, Evan Bigley and Estarlin De Los Santos each had 2 hits, and Chris Herrmann, Aaron Hicks, Deibinson Romero, Pedro Florimon, Nathan Hanson and Mark Dolenc all tallied 1 hit. Hanson, who had a double, drove in 2 runs, and Romero was responsible for the other RBI with a sacrifice fly. Much like their parent club, the Rock Cats scuffled with runners in scoring position, going 2-for-12. They will be back in action tonight. I plan to attend the game, so expect a better re-cap and some pictures tomorrow. Finally, it was also announced that the Rock Cats placed starter Alex Wimmers on the disabled list with a right elbow strain. When I heard the announcement on AM radio, I believe the organization referred to the 7 day disabled list. The DL trip is no surprise, as Wimmers has not pitched since April 9. Here is the press release. Hopefully it's just a minor strain, and he has a speedy recovery.

Yea, I was just writing about this on my blog. They made it sound "minor" on the radio -- and they also referred to the 7 day DL (admittedly I didn't know that existed). But still, he hasn't pitched since April 9 -- 2 weeks now -- so I'm not exactly sure what to think.

Wimmers is on the 7 day disabled list due to a right elbow strain. Hopefully this is just a minor, short-term injury. Press release here: http://www.milb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20120423&content_id=29463944&vkey=news_t538&fext=.jsp&sid=t538

Thanks for the comments, guys. I'm a little worried about a couple guys getting called up (Lucas French, especially if Scott Diamond gets the MLB call), but I guess that's what this team is really for. I hope Guerra continues to shine, too.

Alex Wimmers was the Twins' first round draft pick (21st overall) in the 2010 amateur draft. The 6' 2'' righty was born on November 1, 1988, so he's 24 years old for the 2012 season. He completed 3 years at THE Ohio State University, where he was back-to-back Big 10 Pitcher of the Year. Assigned to the Ft. Myers Miracle last spring, Wimmers walked the first 6 batters he faced. The organization made the wise decision to pull him from the rotation. When he came back, first to the bullpen and then, in August, to the rotation, he threw a 7 inning no-hitter, walking only 2 along the way. He was assigned to AA New Britain this season, and is on most top 10 or to 15 Twins prospect lists. He has only started one game for the Rock Cats, however, because of what is believed to be a minor sore back and flexor strain. In 40 and 2/3 innings in Ft. Myers last season, Wimmers posted a 4.2 ERA, striking out 39 and walking 22, with a WHIP of 1.23. In 4 and 1/3 innings in New Britain thus far, Wimmers has a 4.15 ERA, with 3 strikeouts and 2 walks, and a WHIP of 1.846. Go here for his full minor league stat sheet.

Oh, did we need to provide reasoning??

Alex Wimmers