Miracle Season Ends

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The Ft. Myers Miracle won both the first half and second half titles in the Florida State League. Unfortunately, that meant little in their Best of 3 first round playoff series against Charlotte.

Santos Arias got the Game 3 start. In five inning, the righty gave up three runs (2 earned) on four hits. He walked four and struck out three. Bobby Lanigan came in and did a great job. In four innings, he gave up just one hit. Ben Revere went 2-3, was hit by a pitch, stole a base and drove in both runs. Jair Fernandez went 2-4 with a double.

The New Britain Rockcats are now down two games to one in their Best of 5 series against Connecticut. It certainly wasn’t Wilson Ramos’s fault. The catcher went 4-5 with a double, a homer and four RBI. Ramon Santana went 3-5. Whit Robbins and Steve Singleton each went 2-4. Matt Fox got the start for the Rockcats. He gave up six runs on six hits and two walks in four innings. He struck out five. Frank Mata came in and gave up a home run in his inning. Kyle Waldrop gave up three runs on four hits in one inning. Spencer Steedley and Alex Burnett each threw a scoreless inning. Burnett struck out the side in the ninth inning.

The Rockcats will send lefty Ryan Mullins to the mound at home tonight in Game 3.

It was a bad day all around for the Twins organization on Thursday. The Twins lost 3-2 on Thursday afternoon in Toronto to fall back to .500 (70-70). Scott Baker started and gave up three runs on five hits in 6.2 innings. He walked four and struck out seven. Ron Mahay and Jesse Crain each recorded two outs in relief.

Denard Span’s seventh home run of the year tied the game at one in the top of the third inning. In the fourth, Baker gave up a solo homer to Jose Bautista. Then in the top of the fifth inning, Orlando Cabrera singled in Nick Punto to tie the game at two a piece. Unfortunately in the bottom of the 5^th inning, Baker gave up another run, one the Twins could not get back. Cabrera went 2-4 with his 30^th double. Michael Cuddyer hit his 31^st double.

I you’re looking for a bright side, the Royals beat the Tigers again so their lead over the Twins remains 5.5 games. The White Sox are ½ game behind the Twins.

In World Cup play, several Twins minor leaguers participated on Thursday. Nelvin Fuentes struck out two in 1.1 relief innings against Cuba. He gave up a solo home run to Yulieski Gourriel. Rene Tosoni batted third and played RF for Canada yesterday. He went 0-3 with two walks. Team USA lost 13-9 to Venezuela in 11 innings. Trevor Plouffe batted 2^nd and played SS. He went 0-4 with two walks. He made all eight plays he was involved in. Terry Tiffee was the DH and went 1-5 with a walk.

Twins Links:

• Aaron Gleeman has restarted his Top 40 Twins series.
• I’m sure it surprises no one that the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle’s Jim Mandelaro went negative in his Red Wings Season Review.
• Nick Nelson discusses a couple of Misperceptions floating around the Twins these days. What do fans believe?
• Adam Peterson asks (and then answers) if the Twins are still doing the little things right.

 If you have any opinions, comments or updates, please leave them in the Comments section.

Friday on the Farm

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As the Twins and Angels are now into extra innings, I figured I’d get a quick blog posted on the Twins minor league system from tonight. There were some very impressive performances.

MINOR LEAGUE REPORT

Friday – SethSpeaks.net Hitter of the Day – Drew Thopmson, Beloit Snappers

Friday – SethSpeaks.net Pitcher of the Day – Tom Stuifbergen, Elizabethton Twins

ROCHESTER REPORT

Friday –Rochester 4, Gwinnett 2 – Kevin Mulvey fought control the first few innings of this game. Through three innings, he had thrown 62 pitches. Just 30 of them were strikes. But he still managed to go six innings. He gave up two runs on four hits and four walks. He struck out nine and got credit for the Win. Juan Morillo threw two shutout innings, striking out three. Rob Delaney pitched a scoreless ninth to record his fifth save. Justin Huber had two doubles in four at bats. Jason Pridie went 2-5 with his 19^th double. Jose Morales was 2-4 with a walk, and Trevor Plouffe went 2-5.   

ROCKCAT RECAP

Friday – New Britain, Bowie – Postponed by Rain.   

MIRACLE MEMOS

Friday – Ft. Myers 6, Clearwater 1 – Michael Tarsi improved to 3-1 with five innings. He gave up only an unearned run on four hits and two walks. Matt Williams and Henry Arias each threw two scoreless innings. Chris Parmelee, Rene Leveret and Estarlin de los Santos each went 2-5. Parmelee hit his 19^th double and Leveret hit his 14^th double.    

SNAPPERS SNIPPETS

Friday – Beloit 3, Ft. Wayne 2 –Bobby Lanigan had a great start. The righty went 8.1 innings and gave up two runs on six hits and two walks. He struck out ten. Billy Bullock got the final two outs after giving up a hit and a walk for his first save. Drew Thompson went 2-5 with his first homer of the year and his second stolen base. Danny Rams went 2-3 with a walk. Ozzie Lewis was 2-4 with his 15^th double and fourth stolen base. Nathan Hanson went 2-4 with his 16^th double.    

E-TWINS EXTRAS

Friday – Elizabethton 2, Burlington 1 – After having games postponed each of the past three days, the E-Twins were finally back on the field. Tom Stuifbergen took the mound and dominated. He gave up only an unearned run over eight innings to improve to 4-0. He gave up three hits, walked none and struck out seven. Tony Davis got his third save with two strikeouts in the ninth. Brian Dozier went 3-4. Derek McCallum went 2-4 with his eighth walk.

GCL TWINS GOINGS ON

Friday – GCL Twins 2, GCL Red Sox 1 – Jairo Perez led the offense again. He went 2-4 with his third stolen base. Kennys Vargas went 2-3 with a walk and his sixth double. Blayne Weller had another strong outing. He went five shutout innings. He gave up five hits, walked one and struck out three. Raynard Doran gave up a run in his inning. Edison Alvarez, Kelvin Mota and Zach See each threw a scoreless inning See struck out two and recorded his first save.     

Please feel free to Send me an e-mail, or leave your questions or comments here.

Top 50 Twins Prospects Part 2: 21-35

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In case you missed my posting earlier today, the Twins promoted Carlos Gutierrez and Alex Burnett from Ft. Myers to New Britain where they will join the Rockcats pitching staff. I would think there could be more subsequent moves to follow, so I will try to stay on top of that. Burnett can be used to fill Rob Delaney’s spot. Carlos Gutierrez likely will start. Cole Devries and Matt Fox have both been quite good this season. Jeff Manship has been better of late, and Jay Rainville has been good enough to stick around. Ryan Mullins is the guy who may be out of the starting picture. Or, maybe the Twins decided that the 26 year old Fox is deserving of a AAA opportunity. I would be supportive of that. As I hear any new information, I will keep people updated. Thanks!

After looking at Twins prospects 36-50 yesterday, today we will look at my choices for the Twins Prospects 21-35. Again, let me know what you think. In the next days, I will continue to work my way up the Twins prospect list until finally giving you my selections for the Top 10 Twins prospects. I hope you enjoy this and again, please feel free to comment.

 Here are my choices for #21-#35. For much more information on each, please see the extended version of this at www.SethSpeaks.net.

#35 – Ramon Santana – SS – 22 (6/20/86)

 

#34 – Bobby Lanigan – RHP – 22 (5/5/87)

 

#33 – Martire Garcia – LHP – 19 (3/1/90)

 

#32 – Juan Morillo – RHP – 25 (11/5/83)

 

#31 – BJ Hermsen – RHP – 19 (12/1/89)

 

#30 – Jose Morales – C – 26 (2/20/83)

 

#29 – Deibinson Romero – 3B – 22 (9/24/86) 

#28 – David Winfree – RF – 23 (8/5/85)

 

#27 – Cole DeVries – RHP – 24 (2/12/85)

 

#26 – Deolis Guerra – RHP – 20 (4/17/89)

 

#25 – Whit Robbins – 1B – 24 (9/25/84)

 

#24 – Brian Dinkelman – 2B – 25 (11/10/83)

 

#23 – Shooter Hunt – RHP – 22 (8/16/86)

#22 – Evan Bigley – OF – 22 (3/9/87)

#21 – Steven Tolleson – IF – 25 (11/1/83)

So there you have it, my selections for Twins prospects 21-35. Be sure to check back tomorrow for my choices for #11-20, and again, later in the week, you will also get my Top 10 Twins Prospects. If you have any feedback, comments, opinions or suggestions, please feel free to Send me an e-mail, or leave your questions or comments here