Monday, June 13, 2011

Twins players of the week

I am starting a new thing over here at travistwinstalk.blogspot.com and that every Monday I will be bringing you pitcher and hitter of the week . With the pitchers I go back to their last three starts for the starting pitchers and last 10 outings for the relievers. I will be going back to the last 10 games for the hitters. I will also talk about promotions and demotions that happened in the current week for the teams. It will be kind of a one stop shop for minor league information. I will also be doing the Twins in the player of the week awards as well. Also check back Thursday night after Twins Minor League Weekly as I will be posting another Twins minor league player profile. I really enjoyed doing the one on Aaron Hicks and hope you come back either late Thursday night or read with your coffee on Friday Morning to learn about Twins prospects.

Minnesota Twins

Pitcher of the Week: Carl Pavano- The mustache has really bounced back from a rough month and a half to show the stuff that made the Twins resign him in the offseason. In his last three starts Pavano is 1-1 with a very good 2.63 era in 24 innings of work he has only given up seven runs. If you go a little bit further back it is even more impressive as in his last six starts he is 1-1 with a 2.51 era. So after getting off to a rough start Pavano has righted himself to be the innings eater we all thought he would be. On the year he has already put in 85.1 innings in thirteen starts so if you multiply that out to making 32 starts like he did in 2010 he would have over 200 innings once again. The only concerning thing is his strikeout rate as he only has 26 strikeouts so far this season in April and May while in 2010 he had 42 in that same time period. He is never going to be a strikeout pitcher, but you would expect more strikeouts than that. He went two straight games without a strikeout and that just can not happen. He has improved with that in his recent string getting three to four strikeouts a game and that is just fine. It will be key for the Twins to get back into the AL Central race for Pavano to keep being an innings eater and a staff leader.

Hitter of the Week: Delmon Young- Delmon Young has been the most disappointed hitter in the Twins lineup all season long. However, he came on the last week in a big way as he hit .407 on 11-27 with three doubles, a homerun, and three runs scored. Granted some of the hits were bleeders that were not hit very good, but .407 is .407. If Delmon can keep it up the Twins lineup could go from good to lethal with a healthy Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau along with good years from Michael Cuddyer and Denard Span. Young can not keep hitting the way he is right now, but if he can hit .300 with more extra base hits that would be huge. In 2010 Young hit .298 with 21 homeruns and 112 rbi’s. So far this year he is hitting .246 with two homeruns and 17 rbi’s. Young has to pick it up for the Twins to have any chance to get back in the AL Central race they need closer to the type of numbers he had in 2010.
Those are the weekly winners for the Twins and tomorrow I will bring the same awards for the Rochester Red Wings and the New Britain Rockcats. Then on Wednesday, I will bring the awards for the Fort Myers Miracle and the Beloit Snappers.

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