Steve Lein

Burdi made two appearances in the last week, on May 11th vs. the Montgomery Biscuits and the 16th vs. the Birmingham Barons. He worked the final two innings against Montgomery in a game Chattanooga lost 7-1. He was perfect, going one-two-three in both frames and striking out three. He got the first two men he faced, and the last in his outing. He threw 23 pitches, with 17 going for strikes as he was very efficient (5 swinging strikes). Against the Barons, Burdi got his first save opportunity of the year with his team up 4-1 in the ninth. He again set the opposition down one-two-three in picking up his first Save of the season. He struck out the final hitter of the game to punctuate the victory. He threw 13 pitches in this one, with 9 going for strikes (1 swinging strike). If you're keeping track (I am! ), that is now three straight appearances where he's retired every hitter he's faced, and a total streak of fifteen hitters in a row. I'm getting antsy for the promotion... Cumulative Stats: 12 games, 2-0, 1 Save, 14.2 IP, 6 H's, 4 BB, 19 K's, 0.61 ERA, 0.68 WHIP.

All the affiliates took early leads on Tuesday night, but not all of them were able to hang onto them. One prospect had a massive power surge in the Midwest League that gave his team that early lead, and also brought his team back later. Another hitter extended an impressive streak and an early season standout pitcher at AA was back after a cameo in AAA, and struck out a bunch more hitters. Image courtesy of Seth Stohs, Twins Daily (photo of Jaylin Davis) All the affiliates took early leads on Tuesday night, but not all of them were able to hang onto them. One prospect had a massive power surge in the Midwest League that gave his team that early lead, and also brought his team back later. Another hitter extended an impressive streak and an early season standout pitcher at AA was back after a cameo in AAA, and struck out a bunch more hitters. To see who came up with the big blasts on Tuesday night, keep reading! TRANSACTIONS Adalberto Mejia was removed from the temporary inactive list for Rochester and made the start tonight. Alex Wimmers was “sent” to extended spring training to make room. RED WINGS REPORT Lehigh Valley 9, Rochester 5 Box Score Rochester scored early and often in this one, but a Daniel Palka three-run home run in the bottom of the third spelled the end of their offense on the night. His sixth home run of the season made it 5-0 in the home team's favor; unfortunately the ban on bacon at Frontier Field didn’t keep the Iron Pigs from coming back. https://twitter.com/RocRedWings/status/864673849262125056 Adalberto Mejia went the first three innings for the Red Wings, and allowed just one hit while striking out one. He had thrown only thirty-three pitches, so let the speculation about Saturday’s starter for the Twins commence. Nick Tepesch came on for the fourth, and ended up with six runs allowed (just one earned) in 1.2 innings. An error from Engelb Vielma led to the five unearned runs in the fifth. D.J. Baxendale struck out three in 2.1 innings, allowing one run on two hits. Trevor Hildenberger allowed two runs on two hits and a walk in the eighth to cap the game's scoring. Buddy Boshers struck out two in the ninth to finish the game for the Red Wings. Zack Granite (2-4, 2 R’s, 2B) and Bengie Gonzalez (2-4, R, 2 RBI) each had multiple hits. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Birmingham 1, Chattanooga 4 Box Score The Lookouts jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the first as Nick Gordon led off the game with his Southern League-leading fifth triple that was followed by an RBI double from Edgar Corcino. He scored on a single from LaMonte Wade that also had an error on the relay throw. They extended the lead to 4-0 in the fourth, when a Dan Rohlfing double was followed by Gordon’s third home run of the season. It was 4-0 at that point as starter Nik Turley, fresh off the plane back from a cameo in AAA, blanked the Barons for the first four innings. As he had only pitched six innings in three appearances with the Red Wings (one start), Turley was in the process of getting stretched back out so those four innings were all he went (64 pitches). In his last start for them on April 25th, he struck out 14 in seven innings. He actually bested that K-rate in this one, with nine. He allowed only one hit and walked one, lowering his ERA in AA to 0.37. His 45 K’s on the year rank fifth in the Southern League despite eleven or more fewer innings than the four starters in front of him (including White Sox prospect Michael Kopech). Matt Tracy came on for the fifth inning and went the next four innings. He scattered one run on four hits and a walk, while striking out four. The walk came in the sixth and put a runner on second, who scored on the single that followed. Tracy worked around a leadoff double in the eighth and finished his night by striking out the next three hitters. Nick Burdi was brought on for his first save opportunity of the season in the ninth with the score 4-1, and he set the Barons down in order to pick up his first save. He extended the Lookouts home winning streak to nine games by striking out the final hitter. Gordon and Corcino each had two-hit nights to lead the offense from the top two spots in the lineup. Wade’s single in the first made it a five-game hitting streak, and he has reached base safely in his last nineteen games. Over that time he is hitting .428/.556/.603 with five doubles, two home runs, 11 RBI, and 18 walks versus just 10 K’s. Get the man a player of the week award, Southern League. MIRACLE MATTERS Clearwater 2, Fort Myers 5 Box score Fort Myers took a 2-0 lead in the first inning as Max Murphy led off the game for the home team with a single and stole second base. He moved to third on a Chris Paul blooping double, and they scored on singles from Zander Wiel and Alex Perez. Left-hander David Fischer made the start for the Miracle, and went the first 4.2 innings, enduring a rain delay in the bottom of the third. The Threshers got to him in the fifth, as a two-out single with the bases loaded tied the game at two and ended his night. It would remain that way until the bottom of the ninth, as Alex Muren and Nick Anderson combined for 4.1 scoreless innings. Muren allowed one hit in 2.1 innings, and Anderson struck out two in his two innings to give the Miracle a chance in the ninth. Brian Navarreto reached based on an error to start a rally, and Paul ended it with a three-run home run to walk his team off. He finished 2-4 with two runs scored, a walk, and three RBI in leading his team to victory. It was his second home run of the season. Murphy added two hits and scored two runs. Bradley Strong stole his first two bases of the year. KERNELS NUGGETS Peoria 6, Cedar Rapids 7 Box Score Like everyone else in the system Tuesday night, Cedar Rapids also took an early lead in this one. After four innings it was 3-0 for the home team as Jaylin Davis slugged a solo home run in the second, and a two-run shot in the fourth. Starter Tyler Beardsley retired the first ten Chiefs, but ran into more trouble than he could navigate in the top of the fifth. After a double he recorded the inning's second out, but a walk, RBI single, and two-run triple tied the game at three. Catcher Mitchell Kranson helped him finish the sixth by nabbing two runners on the bases. Beardsley got the quality start by allowing the three runs on seven hits and a walk. He struck out one. Andrew Vasquez got wild in the seventh, walking three along with an RBI single, but managed to limit the damage to just the one run as Peoria took the lead 4-3. The Kernels got that run right back as Davis led off the bottom of the inning with his third home run of the game to tie it back up. They went back out front in the eighth after an RBI triple from Christian Caveness, and two-run double from Lewin Diaz to make it 7-4. Hector Lujan pitched a scoreless top-half of the eighth before it got interesting in the top of the ninth. Three singles and a walk to the first four hitters of the inning put the winning run on the bases before an out was recorded. Lujan got the first out on an RBI groundout that closed it to 7-6, but he then buckled down. He got the next two hitters on strikeouts to pick up his second win of the season. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Pitcher of the Day – Nik Turley, Chattanooga Lookouts (4.0 IP, H, BB, 9 K’s) Hitter of the Day – Jaylin Davis, Cedar Rapids Kernels (3-4, 3 HR, 4 RBI) WEDNESDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Lehigh Valley @ Rochester (6:05PM CST) – LHP David Hurlbut (2-2, 1.59 ERA) Birmingham @ Chattanooga (10:15AM CST) – RHP Felix Jorge (3-1, 3.45 ERA) Clearwater @ Fort Myers (5:35PM CST) – LHP Lachlan Wells Peoria @ Cedar Rapids (12:05PM CST) – RHP Sean Poppen (1-1, 2.29 ERA) Please feel free to ask questions and discuss Tuesday’s games! View full article

That could be fair point. I applaud the awareness that goes into noticing something like that. I was hoping the story was how well he pitched this go-round (I was up north this weekend so catching up on this today). Instead, I see this and go read what Parker said and I just don't agree that it was accusatory until Berardino made it so. La Velle also touched on it, and I think framed the topic better.

Escalate a non-story. Sure he should follow-up on "potential stories," but that's not what happened here. Did he ask Parker to clarify? Doesn't look like it, so he DIDN'T follow up on the "story" being discussed. It wasn't an accusation (in my opinion) until he made it into one.

Yup. Berardino has done this type of thing several times. We agree on what happened here.

Baseball America had at least one guy at the game, bunch of more stuff in his timeline. This is one I saw: There were also these from him: So maybe it wasn't the cutter specifically and he did have a "bad" day, but probably overblown. Game story: http://www.baseballamerica.com/college/dan-mcdonnell-gets-500-behind-brendan-mckays-gutty-effort/#FKZEji4E6fSUvqe6.97

From what I recall, Mckay hasn't ever had the mid-90's velocity some here seem to think he did have. Pretty sure it's always been high 80's low 90's, touching a little higher, 93 maybe. But what I did see this last weekend, is multiple reports about him using a "new" cutter, and that it was mid-80's. Based on that, I'm fairly certain reports about the new cutter and velocity being down are related.

I've been saying that I think his bat was being underrated going into this year. Really good "hitter" and he's adding some developmental wrinkle to that with his strikezone control. Had just 23 walks all season at Fort Myers last year, in 116 games. Has 15 walks in just 35 games so far this year (and 2 more intentional ones).

So Parker made an observation, of which he DID NOT make any accusations of anything beyond it being "weird." Then, the actual media (Berardino, among others) turned that observation INTO an accusation. I think they should be apologizing to Parker, not Parker apologizing for what he thought was interesting. I find it really bad media practice, when in an interview Berrios says "I don't care what he says..." That implies that an accusation was made, but in this case that would have been the interviewer (Berardino) making it into such a thing. I didn't read any accusation, so I'm just adding this to my list of reasons why Berardino is...not a good reporter.

Baseball America had him down to #19 in their latest update, but was pretty much a top 10 going into the season everywhere. He has come out on fire in a couple seasons and earned quick promotions (was repeating where he had finished the year before), but has hit a pretty big brick wall in AAA. To compare to one of our SS prospects, Nick Gordon is a better hitter right now I think, but they still give Crawford the upside advantage as he has also been very good at getting on base before AAA. Crawford is also the better defender of the two (quite easily, I think). But right now, I'd be betting on Gordon more, he's shown more ability with the bat than just being able to get on base and his numbers are trending up, not down like Crawford's.

He is definitely the "Staff Ace," and he's throwing like a #1 so far this year, and did for a long stretch to end last year as well. But no, I don't think he' fits in the true MLB "Ace" category, and as you mention, that is a really hard thing to do. But who cares about that title, he's been really, really good and that's all that matters.

Always make it a point to try and chat with Tommy on the backfields down at Spring Training. Fantastic guy!. I owe the Miguel Sano autograph I have to him as well, he made sure to get Miguel to come over for me one year.

I have been searching for reports on Burdi's velocity to post in here as he has altered his mechanics some this year, and we finally have one: http://twitter.com/FLBaseballRanch/status/863064156991348736 There is also this article from 1500ESPN, posted on May 5th. http://www.1500espn.com/twins-2/2017/05/difficult-2016-nick-burdi-says-improved-mechanics-new-perspective/ To summarize, he hit 101MPH in his appearance last night and it seems all that velocity is back.

Wow, I think I got my threads mixed up. I was referring to Burdi here...

I don't really disagree with any of this, just will point out what I see: 1. Hildenberger does throw one of his pitches overhand, not sure which but would guess his 4-seamer. Everything else is side-winder (not quite submariner). You can catch the differences in these videos: 2. Neshek was younger for the levels but these were the #'s: Midwest League: -Neshek (22) - 28 Games, 0.52 ERA, 34.1 IP, 20 H's, 11 BB, 53 K's -Hildenberger (24) - 28 games, 0.80 ERA, 45 IP, 24 H's, 5 BB, 59 K's Fort Myers: -Neshek (22, 23) - 36 games, 2.45 ERA, 47.2 IP, 36 H's, 8 BB, 48 K's -Hildenberger (24, 25) - 19 games, 2.54 ERA, 28.1 IP, 26 H's, 2 BB, 29 K's AA: -Neshek (22, 23, 24) - 86 games, 2.87 ERA, 125.1 IP, 110 H's, 42 BB, 138 K's -Hildenberger (25) - 32 games, 0.70 ERA, 38.2 IP, 21 H's, 6 BB, 45 K's. AAA: -Neshek (25) - 33 games, 1.95 ERA, 60 IP, 41 H's, 14 BB's, 87 K's -Hildenberger (26) - 9 games, 2.53 ERA, 10.2 IP, 10 H's, 3 BB's, 12 K's There's really not the differences you point out until AAA, and Hildenberger has just 9 IP as you mention. Both were drafted out of college, so you can look at it as Neshek debuted in his 5th year in the system, which was also was his first year at AAA. This is Hildenberger's 4th year in the system, and he is in AAA.

I think we'd be hearing a lot more about that if that was the case. But I do think it is down a little, but still mid-to-high 90's most of the time. From my observations he hasn't been the type that was always throwing around the same MPH number with his fastball. Was like 94-101 with it in one of his games I saw in person. When everything's in sync mechanically, he'll light up the gun. If he's off a little some gets taken off. So I wouldn't be surprised if that span is something like 92-99 now.

Love Hildenberger. Reminds me a lot of Pat Neshek. And his numbers in the minors are better than Neshek's were.

Yup, exactly right. I have stated that I think MLB hitters would be laying off those pitches much more than the AAA guys do. His stuff is simply too good for AAA, but will still need to make it over that hump in the MLB with it.

Lots of good stuff here. Only quibble I notice, is the "and there doesn’t seem to be any fan apathy either, as the paid attendance eclipsed 90,000 for last weekend’s series against the Red Sox." 90,000 people came because #RedSox. Take that number off their total, and for the other 15 home games, they've averaged just over 21,000, which is 3,000+ lower than their overall average attendance last year... (far better team so far, worse attendance...) There is definitely fan apathy.

Yay! I hope he's got better command of that 2-seamer. That's going to be the key to how well he does this time. This is how he's done in his six starts (pitches)/(strikes)/(BB)/(K): 77 / 48 / 1 / 7 84 / 64 / 0 / 6 97 / 65 / 2 / 5 102 / 65 / 3 / 10 98 / 66 / 2 / 7 96 / 62 / 0 / 4 Basically exactly 2/3's of his pitches for strikes, which is encouraging. I have also watched quite a bit of video and he's been getting guys to chase out of the zone a lot on his K's. Hopefully that translates!

In the last week, Burdi has made three appearances pitching with a day of rest in between each. On May 5th against the Pensacola Blue Wahoos, Burdi pitched the top of the ninth in a blowout the Lookouts won 8-1. He had a Snapper Mow-Em-Down inning, retiring all three hitters he faced on strikeouts, two swinging, and one looking. 9 of his 14 pitches went for strikes (2 swinging strikes). Again facing the Blue Wahoos on the 7th in game two of a double-header, Burdi was brought on in the top of the eighth (an "extra inning" in this case) with the game tied at two. A leadoff single and sacrifice bunt put the go-ahead run in scoring position, but after an intentional walk to put the force at 2B in play, Burdi got the next two hitters on a flyout and groundout to end the threat. The Lookouts scored the winner in the bottom half, giving Burdi his first Win of the season (1-0). He threw 9 pitches, with eight of them going for strikes (1 swinging strike). Yesterday against the Biscuits of Montgomery, AL; Burdi was summoned to put out a fire in the bottom of the seventh, as he entered with the bases loaded and two outs. He got his man with a big strikeout that would prove to be essential in the victory, as Chattanooga was down 5-1 at the time and would come back to win 6-5 in the ninth. Burdi also pitched a clean eighth inning, sending the Biscuits down one-two-three including another K. He threw 19 pitches in this one, with 11 going for strikes (3 swinging strikes). He picked up his second victory of the year (2-0) thanks to the Grand Slam comeback from Jonathan Rodriguez. Cumulative stats: 10 games, 2-0, 11.2 IP, 6 H's, 4 BB, 15 K's, 0.77 ERA, 0.86 WHIP.

I don't disagree. And for all we know, that might be the case with an open 40-man roster spot. They could pick any of those guys to add. This is actually what I'm most curious about with the Falvey/Levine regime. Will they operate any differently with these types of moves?

We've already started seeing some roster movement at the MLB level, so it shouldn't take long for it to trickle down to AAA and AA. I hope at least two of those guys are in AAA before June, with guys like Chargois, Baxendale, Wimmers, or Hildenberger up with the big club. Sooner the carousel of bullpen tryouts starts, the better in my opinion.