Testa to Fort Myers

I just found out that there are a couple of promotions to speak of. Joe Testa after a successful all-star outing has been promoted to high A Fort Myers. In addition to that new draft pick Buddy Munroe has been added to the Beloit Snapper roster. Testa went 0-2 with a very good 2.56 era along with 7 saves in 24 games with the Snappers. Munroe was a catcher out of the University of Florida. Best of luck to both guys.

Wednesday, June, 24th

Twins Talk



Twins 7 Brewers 3

• In a word this game could not be called anything but ugly. It seemed the first 3 innings took 2 hours as both starters were not real great. The difference was Liraino got out of some jams and Brewers starter Jeff Suppan did not as the Twins beat the Brewers last night by the score of 7-3. Liriano only lasted 5 innings and gave 3 runs on 7 hits along with 5 walks and 6 strikeouts to lower his era to 5.88 and raise his record to 3-8 on the year. I am kind of at a loss with Liriano because he has so much talent, but seriously his starts are difficult to watch. I don't think he knows where his pitches are going. Sometimes he is way up and the next one is 3 ft in front of home plate. The sad part about it is the talent is there as sometimes he will just blow hitters away with 2 fastballs on the black and then an unhittable slider down and in. He has way to much talent to give up on but the same time it is not fair to the rest of the players to keep letting him pitch like this. The positive is he is getting better of wriggling himself out of these jams, but there are times where he can't and gives up big hits. Another thing is the walks as he has 45 walks in 75 innings which is a crazy amount and I don't know what to do about that because I thought we had solved that last year when he spent 3 months in AAA working on his control, but apparently not. I am asking for some suggestions on what everyone would do with Liriano. R.A. Dickey came in relief and he was good as always. Dickey pitched 2 shutout innings on only 1 hit to bring his era down to 2.43 on the year. Matt Guerrier then came on and pitched a scoreless 8th to lower his era to 2.76. Joe Nathan pitched a 1-2-3 ninth to lower his era to 1.63 on the year.

• The Twins did something in this game that they have struggled with all season which is something they did so well last year. That is getting the key hit with runners on base. Joe Crede and Carlos Gomez had big 2 out hits with guys on that really led to the Twins win. Carlos Gomez showed all the tools that the Twins were expecting out of him going into the year. He went 3-5 with a hustle double along with 2 rbi's and 2 runs scored. The 2 rbi's brings his total on the year to 12. Justin Morneau had a big game after struggling a bit in the Houston series by going 2-4 with his 20th double of the year to bring his average up to .322 on the year. Joe Crede went 2-5 with his 10th double and drove in 3 to bring his total on the year t0 33. Delmon Young went 1-5 with his 5th double of the year and drove in a run to bring his total up to 23. Brendan Harris, Michael Cuddyer, Nick Punto, and Jose Morales each contributed a hit in the game to help the Twins win.



• Tonight, the Twins continue their series with Milwaukee as the Twins will send Nick Blackburn to the mound looking to pick up the Twins second straight win of the series.

Rochester Wrap

Columbus 8 Rochester 7

• The Red Wings suffered a devastating loss last night to Columbus in 10 innings as they wasted a great start by Anthony Swarzak before losing 8-7 in the 10th inning. Anthony Swarzak got the start for the Wings and was very impressive last night. Swarzak left with 1 out and runners on 1st and 2nd and the bullpen made his outing look worse than it really was. Swarzak went 7.1 innings and gave up 3 runs on 6 hits along with 1 walk and 4 strikeouts to raise his era to 2.47. He pitched much better than his line showed and continues to show that he belongs up with the Twins. I was wondering what kind of frame of mind he would be in after being sent to AAA and thankfully he was in the right kind of mind to get better. Rob Delaney then came on and was totally awful as he gave up 4 hits and 4 runs and 2 homeruns in 2/3 of an inning. Last night was just a outing that Delaney would like to forget about and a game he needs to forget about because it is not the first bad outing of his career and won't be the last it is just how he responds. Juan Morillo then came on and gave up the winning run in 2 innings of work. Morillo went 2 innings and gave up 1 run on 1 hit along with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. Morillo once again showed he is not ready to come back to the bigs because he walked 2 batters in that 10th inning and like it will in the bigs they came back to bite him. He has now walked 18 batters in only 28 innings of work so until he gets that walk number way down he will and should stay in AAA.

• The Red Wings had a good night at the plate it was just the pitching could not back them up as they put up 7 runs on 14 hits. Newly promoted Danny Valencia led the Wings attack by going 3-5 with his first double and his first 2 rbi's in a Red Wings uniform. It had to be a confidence boost for Valencia to have a big opening night in Rochester to prove to himself that this is no different then it was at New Britain. Steve Tolleson went 3-5 with his 2nd homerun with the Wings. His homerun tied the game 7-7 in the bottom of the 8th and drove in his 6th run of the year. Dustin Martin also had a big game going 3-5 with his 3rd triple of the year along with his 26th and 27th rbi's of the year to raise his average up to .258. Denard Span, Trevor Plouffe, David Winfree, Matt Macri, and Brock Peterson each added hits in the losing cause for the Red Wings last night.


• Tonight, the Red Wings take on Columbus and Philip Humber will get the start for Rochester.

New Britain Business

New Britain 5 Harrisburg 4 13 innings

• The Rockcats won a hard fought and very long game with Harrisburg last night by a score of 5-4 thanks to a rbi single by Matt Moses in the bottom of the 13th inning. Matt Fox got the start for the Cats and for the first time in a long time he just did not have it. Fox only lasted 4.1 innings and gave up 4 runs on 11 hits along with 2 strikeouts to raise his era to 2.80. Fox has been so good this year that I am not going to make too big of a deal out of it because of what Fox has done so far this year. I truly expect Matt Fox to bounce back next time out and pitch another good game like we are used to seeing. Jay Rainville now pitching out of the Rockcats bullpen and pitched 1.2 innings of scoreless relief along with 2 strikeouts to lower his era to 5.29. Kyle Waldrop then came into the game and made his Rockcat debut for the year pitching a scoreless inning along with a walk. Alex Burnett then came in and pitched a scoreless inning of relief to lower his era to 1.10 on the year. He was followed by Anthony Slama who pitched 2 scoreless innings of relief on 1 hit along with 1 walk and 2 strikeouts to lower his era to 2.57. Yohan Pino then came in and gave the Rockcats what they needed and gave them 3 innings of scoreless ball along with 5 strikeouts to lower his era to 3.89 and won his 2nd game of the year.

• The Rockcat offense had a big night offensively by putting up 14 hits, but were only able to bring 5 of them to score thanks to 9 guys left on base. The important thing though is they scored just enough runs to win the game. The Cats were led by Erik Lis who went 3-6 with his first triple of the year and his 32nd rbi to bring his average on the year to .309. Brian Dinkelman went 2-6 with his 17th double to bring his average up to .293. Rene Tosoni went 2-5 with his 42nd rbi of the year. Tosoni has really been productive with 9 homeruns and 42 rbi's to pace the Cats. Matt Moses had a big game going 2-4 with 2 rbi's including the winning run in the 13th inning. Moses now has driven in 36 runs on the year. Brandon Roberts, Whit Robbins, Danny Berg, Yancarlos Ortiz, and Danny Lehman all contributed hits in the winning cause.


• Tonight, the Rockcats continue their series with Harrisburg and Carlos Gutierrez will get the start for New Britain.

Fort Myers Minutes

Fort Myers 7 Jupiter 6

• The Miracle had a big lead yesterday afternoon and had to hang on for dear life to win the game. Deolis Guerra got the start for the Miracle and he was very good for the Miracle. Guerra went 6+ innings and gave up 2 earned runs on 6 hits along with 3 strikeouts to lower his era to 5.03 and improved his record to 5-7 on the year. Guerra has been so inconsistant that it is hard to get to excited or too upset about any of his starts because all year he has followed that one start with one the total opposite. Hopefully, Guerra can become more consistant in the 2nd half because all the talent is there and they just need him to put it all together. Loek Van Mil proved he was human as he pitched an inning and gave up his first run of the year on 1 hit along with 3 walks and 2 strikeouts to raise his era to 0.69. Spencer Steedley pitched the last 2 innings to pick up his 3rd save of the year. Steedley went 2 innings and gave up 2 runs on 2 hits along with a walk and 2 strikeouts to raise his era to a very very good 1.05.

• The Miracle played a game of who can hit it the farthest as the Miracle combined for 3 homeruns in their 10 hits. Steve Singelton led the offense going 4-5 with his 4th homerun of the year along with 2 rbi's to bring his total up to 30 on the year. With the 4 hits Singelton raised his average up to .262 on the season. Singelton has really come on after a rough start to the season. In the month of June Singelton is hitting .333 with 3 homeruns and 10 rbi's and an ops of .894 which shows what Singelton is capable of doing when he is going good. Ben Revere went 1-4 with his 2nd homerun of the year and 2 rbi's to bring his season total up to 28 and brought his average up to .322. Chris Parmalee went 1-4 with his 9th homerun and drove in his 34th and 35th runs of the year. Rene Leveret went 2-2 at the plate to bring his average up to .299 on the year. Juan Richardson and Chris Cates added singles in the winning cause.
• Tonight, the Miracle finish off their first half with a game versus Jupiter as David Bromberg gets the start for Fort Myers.

Beloit Beat

• The Snappers had yesterday off and Snappers pitcher Joe Testa got both hitters out he was asked to face in the Midwest League All-Star game. The Snappers will start their second half on Thursday night in Clinton.

E-town Entertainment

E-town 8 Bluefield 2

• The E-town Twins got their season off to a good start with a big 8-2 victory over Bluefield last night. Tom Stuifbergen got the opening day assignment for the Twins and was very very good. Stuif went 6 innings and only gave up 1 earned run along with 10 strikeouts. Tom Stuifbergen really opened eyes in the WBC and looks like he is going to continue it this year with E-town and he appears to be a guy you will be hearing about for years to come. Kyle Carr then came on and pitched 3 shutout innings to pick up his 1st save of the year. Carr went 3 innings and no hits along with 4 strikeouts for the Twins.

• The Twins jumped all over the Orioles pitching and put up 8 runs on 13 hits in the game. 2008 2nd round pick Tyler Ladendorf was the story of the game for the Twins goingg 4-4 along with a walk and 2 runs scored. Danny Rams also had a big game going 3-3 with 2 doubles and 3 rbi's. Jasmil Pinto went 1-4 with his 1st homerun of the year and drove in 2 rbi's. Michael Gonzalez went 2-5 for the Twins in the game also. Derek Mccallum, Anderson Hidalgo, and Jonathon Goncalves all contributed hits in the winning cause for the E-town Twins.
• Tonight, the Twins continue their series with Bluefield as Liam Hendricks will get the start for E-town.

Manship Promoted

I again would like to thank Seth over at Sethspeaks.net for breaking another story this one being the promotion of Jeff Manship to AAA Rochester. Manship had been lights out the last month or so posting a 1.80 era in his last 5 starts and showing the promise that we all expected out of him when he was drafted out of Notre Dame a couple years ago. I really expect him to do well with the Red Wings and possibly be a September callup for the Twins this year and work out of that bullpen. I am really excited to see how Jeff will do with this new challenge, but I am sure he will use his usual competitivness and poise to pitch lights out for the Red Wings until he gets that call that says we want you with the big club. So congrats to Jeff Manship and good look at Rochester.