Seth Stohs

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?412-Saturday-in-the-(Minor-League)-Park(s)

The Twins lost 8-2 to the Orioles on Saturday night in what proved to be a tough day throughout the Twins organization. Including the Twins, the organization went a combined 0-5 on the day. Of course, that doesn’t mean there weren’t some highlights… just that there aren’t as many! The Twins and the Red Wings are the only two teams that play on Easter with the three lower levels able to enjoy a day off on the holiday. Here is what happened on Saturday in the parks of the Twins minor league affiliates: ROCHESTER 2, BUFFALO 4 For the third time in three games, Brian Dozier had two hits. He added his second double of the year. Unfortunately, the Red Wings had just five total hits. JR Towles went 1-3 with a walk and a double. Daryl Thompson started and gave up three runs (2 earned) on six hits and three walks in five innings. He struck out five. Esmerling Vasquez gave up a run on two hits and a walk over two innings. Brendan Wise walked one and struckout one in two scoreless innings. NEW BRITAIN 2, RICHMOND 3 (12 innings) Jason Marquis made his first New Britain start on Saturday. He went six innings and gave up one run on seven hits. He walked none and struckout four. It would be nice to get him a second start before he starts for the Twins, but he is pretty close based on this game. He was replaced by Andrew Albers who began his 2012 season pitching like it was still his 2011 season. The lefty threw three scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked none and struckout three. Lester Oliveros then struckout two in two scoreless frames. Lefty Blake Martin gave up two runs in the 12th to take the loss. Pedro Florimon had two of the Rock Cats four hits. He also stole a base. Danny Lehmann went 0-1 but he walked four times. The Rock Cats had some chances to win this game thanks to nine walks. FT. MYERS MIRACLE 3, CHARLOTTE 4 (10 innings) BJ Hermsen made his 2012 debut, and he was terrific. He threw five scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked none and struck out one. Tony Davis came in and gave up three runs on three hits and a walk in two innings. Jhon Garcia went the next two innings without allowing a run. However, he allowed a couple of base runners in the 10th frame. Matt Hauser came in and gave up a hit that scored the go-ahead run before getting the final out of the inning. The Miracle were led again on offense by Danny Santana. Santana didn’t match the three hits he had in the season’s first two games, but he did go 2-5 and hit his first homer of the year. Josmil Pinto was 2-4. BELOIT 2, PEORIA 6 Miguel Sano hit a grand slam on Friday night, so it only makes sense that Eddie Rosario would notch his first home run of the season on Saturday afternoon. Unfortunately, it was one of just two hits for the Snappers on the day. Rosario went 1-3 with a walk and stolen base. Matthew Koch was 1-2 with a double. He also stole a base. The catcher stole home on the back-end of a double-steal (with JD Williams stealing second). Tim Shibuya made his first start of the season. In 3.2 innings, he gave up five runs (3 earned) on seven hits, a walk and a hit batter. However, of the 11 outs that he got, ten of them came via the ground ball. AJ Achter came in and gave up a run on two hits and two walks in 1.1 innings. Ryan O’Rourke struckout three in two perfect innings. Corey Williams gave up one hit in two scoreless frames. --- Players of the Day for Saturday, April 7, 2012 Hitter of the Day – Danny Santana [ATTACH=CONFIG]551[/ATTACH] Pitcher of the Day – Andrew Albers [ATTACH=CONFIG]552[/ATTACH] --- A Look Ahead – Sunday, April 8, 2012 Schedule Rochester @ Syracuse – 1:05 (CST) – Cole DeVries --- If you have any questions or comments on the Twins minor league system, players, teams, etc., leave them in the Comments and I’ll try to answer them!

2 games... That is all... Yankees and Red Sox are 0-2... think they're over-reacting? The Yankees are expected to win 90. The Red Sox may win 82. The Twins are expected to win 75ish... Only 160 more games to go! The positives? Carroll has looked very good. Morneau is swinging pretty well. I'm not saying this team is or isn't good yet, but come on... panic after two games??

He was a 6-year minor league free agent. He hasn't signed with anyone, likely to retire.

Rochester: PJ Walter, Scott Diamond, Daryl Thompson, Cole DeVries, Sam Deduno New Britain: Luke French, Steve Hirschfeld, Logan Darnell, Alex Wimmers, Andrew Albers Ft. Myers: Pat Dean, BJ Hermsen, Adrian Salcedo, Marty Popham, Manuel Soliman. Beloit: Madison Boer, Steven Gruver, Tim Shibuya, Jason Wheeler, Matt Summers. Which is the best? Which has the best potential? Which other pitchers do you anticipate getting starts throughout the season?

AAA and 40 man roster salaries look nice. Minor League F/A salaries look good... But how about a player spending six years in the minors and only getting to Hi-A or AA? Maybe they can negotiate to go beyond the $1,050 per month, but they don't have much power in that negotiation. The sad thing was that the foreign players could be paid as little as $300 a month!! Wow!

Thrylos, I'll agree that when the signing bonus is factored in, it may be more equitable to real life. Those drafted in the first round get a million, and it drops from there. Most players that get taken after the 10th round get hardly any signing bonus, so I'm not sure that helps most.

Clearly the Rock Cats just wanted the game to finish there in the 12th.

Here are the lineups for tonight's game: Twins Denard Span CF Jamey Carroll SS Joe Mauer C Justin Morneau DH Josh Willingham LF Chris Parmelee 1B Danny Valencia 3B Ben Revere RF Alexi Casilla 2B SP: Francisco Liriano Orioles Nolan Reimold LF JJ Hardy SS Nick Markakis RF Adam Jones CF Matt Wieters C Mark Reynolds 3B Nick Johson 1B Ronny Paulino DH Robert Andino 2B SP: Tommy Hunter

I believe the pay goes up as players move up... Veteran AAA types can do OK, but there is a reason that many of them jump at the opportunity to play Winter Ball. I talked to someone once about the 40 man roster. If a player is added to the 40 man roster, their minor league pay jumps nearly 8 times then first year, then a little more if they're on the 40 man roster the second year, and so on. But even a AA player generally only makes about $1,500 a month. It is absolutely ridiculous, if you ask me.

Andrew Albers starting 2012 right where he ended 2011. He threw three shutout innings in this game.

Agreed with VodkaDave... Hughes may not be 'significantly' better than Plouffe at 2B, but he is better... Also, Plouffe has much more upside offensively and defensively than Hughes. Hughes has huge spring trainings when he gets a chance to play every day. Then the regular season starts and he plays about every third day. I think many fans (myself included) are curious what he would do if he did get every day playing time and at bats for a couple of months. He may be terrible, and he could hit 7-8 homers in a month.

Very good point, Nick. And to answer the initial question, I'd be pretty disappointed with any move that was only given one regular season game to see how it went.

This is definitely unfortunate! Swarzak will be fine, but you hate to see any starter have to miss a start with something like this!

I didn't start it, but I certainly perpetuated it. Lots of the TC media down there was saying he was playing 2B, and I had heard from others down there that he was playing 2B... but now it's four games in LF out of four games.

That would definitely be Slama.

Thoughts: 1.) can't make any rash judgments based on one game, but 2.) I didn't like Burroughs swinging at the first pitch, but then again, he got a pitch right down the middle and who knows if he would have seen another one of those. 3.) I definitely did a double-take when I saw Plouffe at 2B instead of Hughes. He did make the one play hit at him...

I would argue that in recent drafts, the Twins have attempted to add a lot of power arms. They certainly seem to have a higher injury risk (although I could be proven wrong). I think pitchers can be successful throwing 89-91, but when Pavano was throwing 84-86, it won't work because all it takes is a pitch not moving like you'd hope for it to be crushed. I love 'pitch to contact' in theory, when it is just saying "throw strikes and don't worry about strikeouts. It also has to mean that you have to play good defense. The Twins won for so long because of pitch to contact and great defense.

John brought this up a month ago, and I may have changed my mind on it now. If Revere isn't going to play pretty much every day (and I don't count pinch-running as playing, even though it is, but you know what i mean), he should be in Rochester. His minor league numbers indicate that he can eventually hit for better average, which will naturally bring up the OBP. He made things happen last year despit pretty poor offensive numbers. Consider he's a little younger than Benson and Parmelee and Dozier, the idea that he completely is what he is probably isn't fair yet. I don't think he's got a ton of upside, but if he can become what Juan Pierre was a decade ago, that's pretty valuable. But the decision to move Willingham means that Revere sits.

This blog has been promoted to an article. Please feel free to Comment Here: http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?410-Friday-on-the-Farm

I'm shocked that they hadn't done an MRI previous to yesterday. Maybe it was a smart career decision for Baker to leave yesterday after 11 pitches to force the MRI.

In a given game, how often will there be a ball hit that Doumit (or Plouffe, or Parmelee) don't get to or don't catch that Revere would? My guess is about once a week. How often will Doumit (or Plouffe, or Parmelee) do something more offensively than Ben Revere? Probably 4-5? That's not a knock on Revere, and it's not in any way claiming that defense isn't important. It's saying that Doumit likely catches that ball 9 out of 10 times. That was ugly, but it shouldn't hide the general principle. The again, I agree that Willingham should be in RF with Span in CF and Plouffe/Revere in LF..

You can view the page at http://www.twinsdaily.com/content.php?410-Friday-on-the-Farm