Friday, June, 5th

Twins Talk
Twins 11 Indians 3

• The Twins took game 3 of the 3 game series in a big way as they crushed the Indians yesterday afternoon 11-3. The Twins jumped all over Indians starter Fausto Carmona for 7 runs in the first 2 innings. Jason Kubel was the Catalyst as he jacked 2 3 run homeruns in his first 2 at bats. In all Kubel went 3-4 with 2 homeruns and 6 rbi's. On the season Kubel is hitting .322 with 7 homeruns and 31 rbi's which is very good. The more impressive thing in my mind is he was coming off a 1-19 stretch where he was really struggling with the bat. The bottom line is Kubel is going to struggle against left handed pitching, but when they face righty's he will rake. Look at his numbers this year against lefty's he is only hitting .171 with only 4 rbi's. However, against righty's he is hitting .369 with 7 homers and 27 rbi's. Look at his ops against righty's it is 1.046, but against lefty's its only .464. That says all you need to know that Kubel should not be playing against left handed pitching. The M & M boys did their part as well as they combined for 6 hits and a homerun along with 3 rbi's. Joe Mauer continued his torrid streak going 3-4 to raise his average to a crazy .436 on the year. Justin Morneau was not going to be outdone going 3-3 with his 15th homerun of the year along with 3 rbi's to bring his average up to a very good .345. Denard Span also contributed his 4th homerun of the year in all Span, Mauer, Morneau, and Kubel went 10-15 with 3 homeruns and 10 rbi's wow!

• Scott Baker really came back after a so so start his last time out to pitch a very solid game yesterday. Baker went 7 strong innings giving up only 2 earned runs on 6 hits along with 1 walk and a very good 10 strikeouts. With the 2 runs allowed Baker lowered his era to a much better 5.88 on the season. In his last 3 starts Baker has a more Scott Baker like era of 3.86 in those games. Baker got off to a rough start to the year, but he appears to have figured out what was troubling him and by the end of the year I would expect Baker to have his era down in the mid 3's just like he does every year. Sean Henn came on and pitched very well for 2 innings to finish off the game. Henn did not give up a run on only 1 hit along with a walk and 3 strikeouts. With the no runs allowed Henn's era is down to a very good 2.57 on the year. Sean Henn has been a very big surprise for the Twins because when Craig Breslow imploded I didn't think we had a suitable replacement, but it turns out we did in Sean Henn. Hopefully, he can keep it coming and be a reliable left hander in the middle innings to save on Jose Mijares.
• Tonight, the Twins begin a pivotal 10 game roadtrip with a weekend series in Seattle with Francisco Liriano facing off against Mariner ace Felix Hernandez.

Rochester Wrap

Gwinnett 12 Rochester 5

• The Red Wings really are not playing very well at all as they lost their second consecutive blowout loss to the Gwinnett Braves 12-5. Jason Jones got the start for the Red Wings and was awful going only 3 innings and giving up 8 runs on 11 hits along with 2 walks. After this bad start Jones' era stands at a bad 6.79 and record stands at 1-5. Besides a few good outings this season the Jason Jones experiment with the Red Wings has not been very effective and with guys like Matt Fox and Jeff Manship waiting at AA waiting for the opprotunity Jones may find himself in the bullpen for Rochester because right now he is not doing the job as a starter. It is way to soon to give up on him, but you would also like to see some improvement out of him compared to getting worse like it seems like it is doing. Armando Gabino then came on and did his job by not letting the game get any more out of hand than it already was as he went an impressive 4 innings and only giving up a solo homerun. With this good outing once again Gabino lowered his era to 3.18 on the year. After being my pitcher of the month Gabino has continued his good pitching in June as he continues being one of the most consistant pitchers in the Red Wings bullpen. Juan Morillo then came on and had one of those outings that have had many say he will never make it because in 1 inning Morillo gave up 3 runs on only 2 hits along with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. Morillo's era jumped to 3.93 on the season after this bad outing. We all knew he was going to be a project and last night was just a growing pain that he will have to go through to become the pitcher we know he can be. New Red Wing Rob Delaney then came on in the 9th and pitched a good 9th not giving up anything except a meaningless walk. It won't be long until Delaney is closing games for the Red Wings and I expect him to be with the Twins before the year is out.

• In a game the Red Wings needed the hitters to bail out the pitching the hitters could not do that until a 3 run rally in the 9th which was way too little and way too late. A bright spot for the Red Wings was Brock Peterson who had his best game of the season going 3-4 with his 5th double of the year and drove in his 5th run of the year. Fellow former Rockcat Steve Tolleson hit his 1st homerun as a Red Wing and drove in his 2nd run. Justin Huber, Dustin Martin, Trevor Plouffe, David Winfree, and Matt Macri also contributed base hits in the game for the Red Wings.
• Tonight, the Red Wings finish off their series with Gwinnett as staff ace Kevin Mulvey gets the assignment to end the 2 game losing streak.

New Britain Business

Connecticut 8 New Britain 4

• The Rockcats saw their 3 game winnings streak against the Connecticut Defenders come to an end yesterday morning with a tough 8-4 loss. What made it tough was the Rockcats came back from a 4-2 deficit to tie the game in the 6th inning only to have the bullpen implode and lose the game. Juan Portes made his return to the starting lineup for the Rockcats in a big way by blasting a 2 run homerun to tie the game at 4 in the top of the 6th inning. It was Portes 2nd homerun of the year and brought his average up to a very good .310 on the season. Rene Tosoni and Wilson Ramos also contributed 2 hits to the cause in the losing effort. Tosoni continues his hot streak as he is hitting .303 in his last 10 games to get his average up to .269. After missing about a month to injury Wilson Ramos has been on a vengence hitting .429 in 4 games since he came back.

• Jay Rainville got the start in this one for the Rockcats and once again showed he is consistantly inconsistant. You never know what your going to get out of Rainville because one start he may look awesome and then the next start he will look like he's lost. In this one Rainville really struggled only lasting 4.2 innings and giving up 4 runs on 7 hits along with 2 walks and 5 strikeouts. Zack Ward then came on and did alright for the first 1.1 innings then everything fell apart in the 7th and in all he gave up 2 runs on 3 hits to bring his era up to a very bad 7.27 on the season. Frank Mata then came on and was not any better giving up 2 runs on 2 hits in an inning of work. Yohan Pino came on and finished the game by working the ninth.
• Tonight, the Rockcats begin a series with Harrisburgh as Ryan Mullins gets the start for New Britain.

Fort Myers Minutes

Fort Myers 9 Clearwater 8 10innings

• The Miracle found a way to get it done in a wild back and forth 9-8 victory in 10 innings over Clearwater last night. After trailing 5-3 going into the bottom of the 7th the teams combined for 9 runs in the last 4 innings. By far the biggest story of the game was the return to hitting of Deibinson Romero who had been in a horrid slump that saw his average drop from .269 to one point getting to .201. In this game Romero went 3-5 with his 12th double of the year along wtih 2 rbi's including the game winning sacrafice fly in the bottom 10th to score Ben Revere from third base. The 2 rbi's brought Romero's total up to 25 on the year and brought his average up to .218. Rene Leveret also continued his very good first half going 2-5 with 2 rbi's. Leveret is now hitting .343 on the year and his 2 runs batted in brought his total up to 19 on the year. Nick Romero also contributed 2 hits to bring his average up to .290. Evan Bigley had his first game in quite a while going 3-5 with 2 rbi;s for the Miracle. Bigley now has 7 runs batted in and brought his average up to .290 after going through some struggled Bigley is back in the range we all thought he would be at.

• Glen Perkins got the start for the Miracle in a rehab start from the Twins. Perkins did not do real well, but the bottom line is he was reported to of felt fine after the start which is the most important thing. Perkins went 4 innings and gave up 3 earned runs along wtih 5 strikeouts. Steve Hirschfeld then came in and worked 2 shutout innings along with a walk and 2 strikeouts to lower his era down to 1.23. Blair Erickson then came in and was not real great giving up 2 runs on 2 hits in 1.1 innings to raise his era to 3.31 on the year. Santos Arias finished the game to pick up his 3rd win of the yerar by going 2.2 innings and giving up a run on 4 hits along with 2 strikeouts to lower his era to 2.49 on the season for the Miracle.
• Tonight, the Miracle continue their series with Clearwater as All-Star David Bromberg gets the start for the Miracle.

Beloit Beat

Peoria 4 Beloit 1

• The Snapper continue to find ways to lose even though they continue to play tough which you have to commend the Snappers for even though they are losing they continue to play hard. In this one the Snappers lost a tough 4-1 game to Peoria. Brad Tippett continued to give his team a chance to win even though this was not one of his better starts. Tippett went 5.1 innings and gave up 4 runs on 7 hits along with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts. With the 4 runs Tippett's era rose to 3.19 on the year. Blake Martin then came on and pitched a very good 2/3 of an inning striking out both batters. Steve Blevins then came on and did an outstanding job in his inning with 2 strikeouts to lower his era down to 4.45 on the year. Bruce Pugh finished the game going an inning with a strikeout to bring his era down to 4.10 on the year.

• The Snappers continued their recent lack of runs as they only were able to scratch a run on 4 hits in this one. Ramon Santana hit his 1st triple of the year in really the only offensive highlight. Santana has been very good this season and like I have said before appears ready for the challenge of Fort Myers. Juan Richardson had a hit and drove in his 3rd run of the year. Dominic De La Osa and Michael Harrington also contributed base hits in the losing cause for the Snappers.
• Tonight, the Snappers continue their series with Peoria as Michael Allen gets the start for Beloit.

May Awards: Fort Myers Miracle

Today I will be continuing my May awards by taking a look at the Fort Myers Miracle who are in first place in their division in the Florida State League. There were several deserving canidates for both awards so it was tough to pick just one. Let me know what you think about who I picked either by leaving a message in the comment box or emailing me at travis_aune@yahoo.com.

• Pitcher of the Month: David Bromberg- This award probably would of went to Carlos Gutierrez, but I decided that since he is no longer with the Miracle it would only be right to go with a member of the Miracle. Really though even if Gutierrez had been there it would have been a tough competition between Gutierrez and dominant starter David Bromberg. After having a good month of April of 1-0 2.70era he really ratcheted things up in May. Look at these crazy May numbers in 5 starts David went 4-0 with a 1.45 era. He worked 31 innings in those 5 starts which is 6.2 innings a start which is the proverbial bulldog. In those 31 innings Bromberg only allowed 5 earned runs. His only downfall is he did walk 14 batters which is a little too much, but he did strike out 27 which is 8.7 strikeouts every 9 innings which is very good including a game where he struck out 12. He also held hitters to a very impressive .179 batting average against him. David Bromberg has really stepped it up last year after posting a 9-10 record with a 4.44 era in 27 starts last season at Beloit. If he can cut down on the walks a little he will be very good as his 94 mile per hour fastball will translate as he moves up the system.
  
  
  
  


• Others under consideration: Mike Mccardell, Spencer Steedley, Blair Erickson

• Hitter of the Month: Ben Revere- This is not as big a easy decision as I thought it would be. Although Revere had an awesome month which he did there were other good months by Rene Leveret, Chris Parmalee, and Mark Dolenc. Revere was just a little bit better and really I can't give him enough supleratives because he is that good of a hitter. After hitting .379 in his rookie season at Beloit there were alot of expectations on Revere and he has met every one of them. After having a good month of April by hitting .296 with 2 doubles and 11 stolen bases, which would of been great every month, Ben really turned it on in May. In 26 games Revere hit .388 with 4 doubles and 1 triple to go along with his 10 rbi's. Not Withstanding the 10 bases he stole to bring his season total up to 21 after stealing 44 last season in Beloit. The weird thing is he is just learning how to steal bases because he gets thrown out too many times for a man with his speed. He is getting better in every asset of his game and will continue to get better. He had a unbelievable .430 obp along with a good .449 slug percentage for a non power hitter. It meant a very solid ops of .879 which is great for a leadoff hitter because if he continues to get on base 43% of the time he will be with the Twins in no time. I really can't say enough about him because every time I look in the boxscore the first thing I look for is to see how Ben Revere did because he is the most exciting player in the Twins Organization.


• Others under consideration: Chris Parmalee, Rene Leveret, Mark Dolenc

Thursday, June, 4th

Twins Talk
Cleveland 10 Minnesota 1

• The Twins had their 2 game winning streak come to a crashing halt last night at the hands of Cliff Lee and the Indians as the Twins fell 10-1 at the dome last night. The most exciting part of the game was when Carlos Gomez and Cliff Lee restarted their rivalry. In the 3rd inning Gomez tried to bunt with 2 strikes and struck out and as he was walking back to the dugout Lee said something to him. Then in the 6th inning Gomez flew out to right field Lee started chirping at him again and Gomez started chirping back. Indians 1st baseman Victory Martinez had to help Gomez back towards the dugout. I think Cliff Lee is a baby that thinks he is a superstar and Carlos Gomez is too thin skinned for his own good. Back to the game Anthony Swarzak got the start for the Twins and was victimized by one rough inning. With 2 outs in the 3rd inning Cleveland hit 4 bleeders in a row to get 2 runs and then Swarzak lost concentration and gave up a 3 run homerun to Johnny Peralta. In all Swarzak lasted only 4 innings ang gave up 6 runs on 9 hits along with 3 strikeouts to drop his record on the season to 1-2. With the 6 runs allowed his era jumped to 4.76. I believe Anthony Swarzak has the stuff to be a very solid major league pitcher, I just think he needs a little more time with the mental approach to the game. After all those bleeders he should not of given in and lost his concentration. That is something he needs to work on and I believe he will. Whether he goes down to AAA or just shifts to the bullpen I really believe Anthony Swarzak has a very bright future with the Twins. RA Dickey followed Swarzak and pitched 2 shutout innings in relief to lower his era to 3.06. Luis Ayala then came on and was his usual awful self giving up 2 unearned runs in 1.2 innings on 3 hits along with 2 strikeouts. Jesse Crain came in and lets just say it was another trainwreck as he gave up 2 runs on 3 hits along with a walk and 2 strikeouts in 1.1 innings. His era on the year is now an unacceptable 7.88. I really don't know what to do with him right now because he is awful every time he comes into a game. I am not sure if he is still injured just not saying anything or if he is truly that bad now. I really hope he can get it together because he has all the talent in the world.

• The Twins did not put up much offense up against Cliff Lee as they were only able to muster a run on 7 hits in the loss. Carlos Gomez drove in the only run of the game with a rbi single to centerfield to score Jason Kubel. It was Gomez' 4th rbi of the year in the losing cause. Denard Span continued his torrid streak with 2 more hits to bring his average up to a very good .308. Joe Mauer, Brendan Harris, and Delmon Young also contributed hits in the losing cause against the Indians. With Mauer's hit he is still hitting an awesome .425 on the year in only 106 at bats.
• Today, the Twins finish their series and homestand with an afternoon game against the Indians with Scott Baker getting the call against Fausto Carmona for the Indians.

Rochester Wrap

Gwinnett 9 Rochester 1

• In a dreadful outing for the Redwings Brian Duensing got shelled and the offense could not pick up the slack in a bad 9-1 loss to Gwinnett last night in Rochester. Brian Duensing got the start for the Redwings and basically had nothing as he gave up 8 runs on 9 hits in only 4.1 innings along with 3 walks and 3 strikeouts. It was kind of a disappointing outing after Brian posted a 3.25 era in May and really had been pitching really well going into that start last night. Hopefully, he can put that start behind him and move on and get back to pitching quality innings. The bright spot on a bad night was Ben Hendrickson who is trying to round into form for the Redwings. Last night was his best outing as a Redwing as he went 3.1 shutout innings along with 4 hits and 3 walks along with 6 strikeouts. Tim Lahey finished the game and was once again not very good giving up a run in his 1.1 innings of work.

• The Redwings did not do much with the bats again as they were only able to muster 4 hits against 5 Gwinnett pitchers. The only bright spot was David Winfree who connected with his 9th homerun of the year and added his 26th rbi along with the homerun. Dustin Martin, Trevor Plouffe, and Drew Butera also contributed singles in the loss. The Redwings are really struggling with the bats right now and you can really tell they are missing the bat of Luke Hughes right now and that is why I think now is a perfect time to bring up Danny Valencia to the Redwings and help out with the offense. When Hughes comes back you could move him to 2nd and have Steve Tolleson move all over like he is used to doing.
• Tonight, the Redwings continue their series with Gwinnett as Jason Jones gets the start for Rochester.

New Britain Business

New Britain 2 Connecticut 1

• The Rockcats found a way to claw out another victory with no longer first Place Connecticut. They put 2 runs on the board in the top of the 9th to pull out a 2-1 victory over the Defenders. Jeff Manship got the start and it was one of his better outings of the year as he went 6.1 innings and only gave up a run on only 5 hits along with 1 walk and 5 strikeouts. With the 1 run allowed Manship lowered his era to a decent 4.94 on the year. Jeff Manship has been underperforming this year as he is way too good of a pitcher to have an era in the 5's so it was nice that he is starting to piece it together. In his last 3 starts he has a 2.13 era more like the stuff that we were expecting out of Manship this season. I really expect him to have a big second half and be the ace we all thought he would be going into the season. Alex Burnett made his Snappers debut by helping Manship get through the 7th inning by striking out the 2 hitters he faced. Jose Lugo pitched a clean bottom of the 8th to pick up his 3rd win of the year. Anthony Slama closed the door in the bottom of the 9th to pick up his 12th save of the year. Slama has lowered his era to a still very good 2.73 after struggling a little bit.

• The Rockcats did not hit at all in this one and were very lucky that the pitchers kept them in the game. The Rockcats were only able to get 2 hits in this one, but the reason they were able to steal this one was because the Defenders helped out the Rockcats by walking 8 batters and hitting another one along with a wildpitch. The only Rockcat hitters that were able to get a hit were Brian Dinkelman and pinch hitter in the 9th Wilson Ramos. The Rockcats offense needs to pick it up because the strength of this team is their hitting and if they don't hit they won't win too many games.
• This Morning, the Rockcats finish off their series with Connecticut with Jay Rainville getting the start for New Britain.

Fort Myers Minutes

Clearwater 2 Fort Myers 1

• The Miracle saw their season high 2 game losing streak extend to 3 games as they lost a nailbiter to Clearwater 2-1. Deolis Guerra got the start for the Miracle and did not disappoint as he continued his strong string of starts. In this one he went 7 innings and only gave up 2 runs on a 2 run homerun in the top of first on only 4 hits along with 3 walks, all in the first inning, and struck out 4 to lower his era to 4.25 on the year. Along with that in his last 4 starts he has an awesome 1.79 era which shows that things are starting to come together for Deolis and would not surprise me at all if he doesn't get promoted to AA in the near future, because I definately think he is ready for the challenge. Kyle Waldrop came in relief and did a good job pitched 2 scoreless innings to drop his era down to 3.72 on the year. It will be interesting with Gutierrez gone who will take his spot will it be Kyle Waldrop or Steve Hirschfeld because they both are starting prospects and they both need to start.

• The Miracle continued their hitting slump as they were only able to collect 6 hits in the game. Suprise Suprise Ben Revere was the Catalyst for the Miracle in this one as he went 2-4 to raise his average to a still awesome .344 on the year. Besides him the Miracle really were not able to get anything going as Steve Singelton, Danny Berg, Deibinson Romero, and Danny Lehman all contributed 1 hit each to the attack. The Miracle have really struggled to score runs of late and as good as their pitching has been they can't do it themselves and need the offense to pick it up if they want to win the 1st half title.
• Tonight, the Miracle continue their series with Clearwater as Glen Perkins gets a rehab start for the Twins and gets the start for Fort Myers in this one.

Beloit Beat

Peoria 3 Beloit 2

Peoria 2 Beloit 1

• The Snappers lost a couple heartbreakers yesterday to Peoria. First they finised the suspended game from Tuesday and lost a tough 3-2 game. Following that they lost an equally tough loss to swallow 2-1. In the first game Dan Osterbrock started the game tuesday night and went the first 1.1 innings and gave up a run before the rain ended the game. Last night Michael Tarsi continued the game and was very effective going 4.2 innings without giving up a run on only 3 hits along with a walk and 5 strikeouts. He lowered his era to a much better 3.09 on the season. Danny Rondon and Joe Testa finished the game and coughed up a 2-1 8th inning lead which led to the loss. Rondon got the loss and moved his record to 2-3 on the year.
• In the nightcap Bobby Lanigan got the start and was very good once again. Lanigan went 6 innings in the 7 inning game so it was a complete game. In this one he gave up 2 runs on 4 hits along with 1 walk and 3 strikeouts. Lanigan has been very inconsistant this year so heres to hoping he will get some consistancy in his pitching from here on out.

• The Snappers continue to struggle with the bat as they were only able to get 3 runs in the 2 games. Michael Harrington was probably the best of the bunch last night going 3-3 in the first game with his 18th double and 2nd homeruns of the year. Ozzie Lewis, Jeff Lanning, Dominic De La Osa, and Ramon Santana each got 1 hit apiece combined in the 2 games as the Snappers were only able to get 9 hits combined in the 2 games. The Snappers are really struggling with the bats right now and until they start hitting better it is going to continue to be long days for the Snappers. I believe though that it is a matter of time before the guys bust out because there are too many great hitters on this team and when they bust out it will be for a while.
• Tonight, the Snappers continue their series with Peoria as Brad Tippett gets the start for Beloit

May Awards: New Britain Rockcats

I will be continuing my awards for pitcher of the month and hitter of the month for the month of May. Today I will be looking at the New Britain Rockcats who really took off in May. Let me know what you think you can either leave a comment or email me at travis_aune@yahoo.com.

• Pitcher of the Month: Matt Fox- Matt Fox really came onto the scene in May for the Rockcats. I was expecting Matt to kind of hit the proverbial wall this year with the Rockcats, but he has done just the opposite. After going 7-7 with a 3.37 era in 14 starts for Fort Myers last year he got promoted to New Britain. I did not know what to expect out of Fox because of all the injuries he has endured in his career. Fox did alright in April going 1-1 with a 4.15 era in 4 starts with the Rockcats. In May though he turned the corner to go 3-1 with a great 2.41era in 6 May starts. Along with that he pitched 33.2 innings which is 5.5 innings per start. He also walked 13 and struck out 24 in the month which is good because he is a contact type of pitcher as his 32 hits in 33.2 innings would attest too. The most amazing stat for me though was opponents only hit .248 against him even though he is a contact kind of pitcher.



• Others under consideration: Cole Devries, Anthony Slama

• Hitter of the Month: Danny Valencia- This was the hardest decision I think I have ever had to make when it comes to hitters of the month. Danny Valencia and Whit Robbins had such close numbers in May it was uncanny. The good part was both guys had monster months. The thing that tipped the scale in Valencia's corner is he plays a more demanding position so to hit that good and play good defense too is amazing. Danny had a decent April hitting .269 with 2 homers and 6 rbi's. However, in May Danny really ratcheted it up a notch by posting a .373 batting average. He had 12 extra base hits with 6 doubles, 2 triples, and 4 homeruns to go along with 18 runs batted in. The stat that impressed me was his walk to strikeout ratio as he only struck out 13 times while taking 11 walks. His obp was very impressive at .443 which is very very good. His slugging was awesome as well at .667 which most hitters would just dream of having. Put his great discipline at the plate with raking it when it comes over the plate and you get an unbelieveable 1.110 ops. Anyone not named Joe Mauer would love to have these kind of numbers. The bottom line is he will hit for more power as he gets older and eventually will be a 20-25 homerun a year hitter. Add in his great defense as he has only committed 6 errors and you have the Twins 3rd baseman of the future and that future could begin next spring.



• Others under consideration: Whitt Robbins, Brian Dinkelman, Rene Tosoni, Juan Portes

Wednesday, June, 3rd

Twins Talk
Twins 4 Indians 3

• The Twins got off to a good start on their short 3 game homestand with a very gutty 4-3 win over the Indians last night. Kevin Slowey was once again masterful as he pitched 6.2 innings and only gave up a fluke 2 run double in his 6.2 innings of work. In that he picked up his team high 8th win of the year which is only 1 less than Roy Halladay who is leading the American League with 9. With the 2 runs allowed Slowey lowered his era to a very solid 3.97 on the season. Kevin Slowey has been the pitcher this year that we were all expecting him to be this year. With the struggles of Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano the Twins have needed Slowey along with Nick Blackburn to carry the team and that is exactly what they have done. You know that when Kevin Slowey is on the mound you have a good chance of winning the game and that is all you can ask for from your starter. After Slowey left it got a little dicey for the Twins after Matt Guerrier got a strikeout to end the 7th Jose Mijeras really struggled in the 8th inning. Mijares only was able to get 2 outs and gave up a homerun to Victor Martinez to make it 4-3. With 2 outs in the 8th manager Ron Gardenhire decided to go with closer Joe Nathan in a rare 4 out save over Jesse Crain. That says a lot of what Gardy thinks of Jesse Crain right now because Gardy detests using Nathan for more than an inning. So the fact that they used Nathan in the 8th shows how little confidence they have in Crain. Joe Nathan came on and got the last 4 outs to pick up his 10th save of the year and give the Twins a very big victory and got us within 3.5 games of first place Detroit.

• The Twins were missing outfielder Michael Cuddyer and infielder Joe Crede from their injuries suffered over the weekend so the Twins had to get by shorthanded. Joe Mauer was once again the catalyst for the Twins as he had another big game for the Twins. In all Mauer went 3-3 with a walk and his 12th homerun of the year in only 102 at bats. He also added 3 rbi's to bring his season total up to 35. With his 3 hits Mauer brought his crazy average up to .431 on the year. Joe Mauer is just crazy good now and there doesn't seem like a way to get him out. Teams are starting to walk him to get to former MVP Justin Morneau which is not a good idea either. Justin Morneau also added 2 hits to bring his average up to .345. Brendan Harris continued his hot streak as of late by also contributed 2 hits to bring his average up to .281. Denard Span continues to show he is a good leadoff hitter to anyone besides Steve Phillips. In the game Span went 2-3 with his 9th rbi of the year. Alexi Casilla also contributed a hit along with a walk to get back in the act. The Twins are a different team when Alexi Casilla gets on base with his speed and you can move Joe Mauer down to 3rd and Justin Morneau down to 4th and makes the whole lineup better so heres to hoping he can keep it up.
• Tonight, the Twins are in for a real challenge as they take on the Indians in game 2 of the series as they take on defending Cy Young Award Winner Cliff Lee. The Twins will be sending out rookie Anthony Swarzak to try to get the job done.

Rochester Wrap

Rochester 5 Gwinnett 4

• The Redwings had an old fashioned walk off victory that not many saw coming last night. With 2 outs in the 9th inning with the Redwings trailing 4-3 Trevor Plouffe came to the plate and belted his 5th homerun of the year to erase a 4-1 Gwinnett lead going into the bottom of the 8th. I know I have said this before but thes guys refuse to quit. They may not be the most talented Rochester team, but they just might the most head strong bunch of guys that won't give up no matter how bad it looks and I would take those type of guys on my team any day of the week. They might not make the IL playoffs, but the fans of Rochester are having a very entertaining season, because they know they better not leave the game early because you don't want to miss one of the Redwings pattened comebacks. Plouffe was the hero of this game going 2-4 with his 5th homerun and his 28th and 29th rbi's of the year. With the 2 hits his average rose to .227 on the season. Jason Pridie continued his hot streak as he went 3-3 with his 2nd triple in as many days along with a walk. Pridie raised his average to .257 on the season. In addition to that in his last 10 games Pridie is hitting .349 with 3 doubles and 2 triples with 4 stolen bases. We all knew that it was just a matter of time before Pridie got it going because he is too good of a hitter to be hitting .220 so hopefully he can keep it up.

• Philip Humber had his best start in quite a while last night for the Redwings. Humber went 7 innings and only gave up only 2 runs on 5 hits along with 3 strikeouts. With the good outing Humber's era went down to a still very bad 5.75 on the year. Tim Lahey then came in and was awful once again giving up 2 runs in 1 innings of work. His era on the season is now a terrible 12.00 on the year. Armando Gabino came in and pitched the last inning to pick up his 3rd win of the year and lower his era to a very good 3.30 on the year.
• The Redwings continue their series with Gwinnett as Brian Duensing gets the start for Rochester.

New Britain Business

New Britain 2 Connecticut 1

• The Rockcats took their 2nd consecutive game against first place Connecticut with a very hard fought 2-1 victory over the Defenders. Matt Fox was once again dominant for the Rockcats. In 6.2 innings Fox only gave up a run on only 4 hits along with a walk and 3 strikeouts. With the 1 run allowed Matt Fox lowered his era to a very good 2.81. Matt Fox has been one of the most reliable pitchers on the Rockcat starting staff along with Cole Devries. Jose Lugo got Fox out of the 7th with no more damage done. Anthony Slama finished the game going the last 1.2 innings and giving up 3 hits but no runs along with 2 strikeouts to pick up his 11th save of the year. Slama has not been real great lately and that may have had something to do with Rob Delaney getting the promotion to AAA instead of Slama. He still has a very good 2.83 era and I think he will be fine and will join Delaney in AAA very soon because he is too good of a pitcher to continue to struggle.

• In a game without a lot of hitting Erik Lis got what turned out to be the winning hit in the top of the 7th inning when he bombed a homerun to right field that put the Rockcats up 2-0. It was Lis' 4th homerun of the year and his 25th rbi of the year. Danny Valencia also contributed his 10th double of the year along wtih his 25th rbi. Valencia is now hitting a very good .315 at the plate for the Rockcats after the night. I am really high on Danny Valencia and expect him to make it to AAA very soon and possibly with the Twins come September. Brandon Roberts also contributed 2 hits to the Rockcats victory to bring his average up to a very solid .277 on the year.
• Tonight, the Rockcats finish their series with first place Connecticut and send staff ace Jeff Manship to the mound to finish the sweep.

Fort Myers Minutes

Brevard County 5 Fort Myers 0

• The Miracle suffered their 2nd consecutive loss to First Place Brevard County last night by a score of 5-0. Carlos Gutierrez got the start for the Miracle in what would be his last start for the Miracle. He was ok not as good as recent starts, but still good enough to get the win if the Miracle could of done anything with the bats. Gutierrez went the first 5 and gave up 2 runs on 7 hits along with a walk and a strikeout. His final era at Fort Myers was an awesome 1.32. Steve Hirschfeld then came on and was not real sharp giving up a run on a hit in his 2 innings of work. Spencer Steedley then came on and struggled with his control something we have not been seeing out of Steedley. In 2/3 he walked 3 batters and only 1 strikeout allowing 2 unearned runs to score thanks to an error. Fellow callup Alex Burnett finished the game by getting the last out.

• The Miracle were once again hogtied by a good Brevard County pitcher as they were only able to muster 3 hits against 3 Brevard pitchers. The only hits for the Miracle were harmless singles by Rene Leveret, Deibinson Romero, and Nick Romero. That is consecutive games that Deibinson Romero has gotten a hit in so hopefully this is the beginning of a rebirth for Romero as he tries to regain his top prospect form for the Miracle because he is too good of a hitter to be only hitting .206.
• Tonight, the Miracle begin a series with Clearwater with Deolis Guerra pitching for the Miracle.

Beloit Beat

• The Beloit Snappers had their game suspended last night in the 2nd inning of a 1-1 tie with Peoria. They will continue today with the Suspended game and following that will be the regularly scheduled game with Bobby Lanigan scheduled to pitch the night cap.

Gutierrez and Burnett Promoted to New Britain

I want to thank Seth from Seth Speaks for breaking the story about Carlos Gutierrez and Alex Burnett being promoted from Fort Myers to New Britain. I think they are both well deserved promotions. It caught me a little off guard because I was expecting the Twins to wait until after the Florida State League all-star game to make these promotions, but Congrats to Carlos and Alex and best of luck with the Rockcats.

May Awards for Rochester

Today in the next part of the series I will be naming a Pitcher of the month and Hitter of the Month for the Rochester Red Wings.

• Pitcher of the Month: Armando Gabino- I normally don't usually go with a reliever for Pitcher of the month, but Armando Gabino had an awesome month of May. After having a dreadful month of April where he had a awful 6.14 era in the month. He rebounded in May by going 1-0 with a awesome 0.63 era in 10 games. In 14.1 innings he only gave up 5 hits in those 14.1 innings. His only flaw was he walked 7 with only 11 strikeouts. The most impressive part for me was he held opponents to a .102 batting average. Gabino has been one of the most dependable relief pitchers for the Red Wings and just about every time he comes into the game he has gotten the job done. Hopefully, he can continue his streak in June and cut down on the walks and improve on the strikeout total.



• Others in Consideration: Brian Duensing, Bobby Keppel

• Hitter of the Month: David Winfree- David Winfree is having a consistantly productive season. After hitting 2 homeruns along with 8 rbi's in April. Winfree really stepped it up in May as he hit 6 homeruns and drove in a very good 16 runs in the month. He did not hit for a high average as he only hit .257, but he will never be a high average guy his value is as a run producer. Winfree had a obp of .270, but he had a very good slug percentage of .514. Overall he had a decent .784 ops which is the highest on the team in the month of May. David Winfree had the best month on the Rochester team and is doing a lot better than I thought he would do at Rochester after having his problems while at AA New Britain, but he has proven me wrong and is having a good year.



• Others in consideration: Justin Huber, Dustin Martin

I am sure there will be some discussion on these players so let me know what you think. Tommorrow I will continue the Awards as I will do the New Britain Rockcats.

Q & A with Steve Blevins

In a very big day for Travis Talks I am proud to announce that I have secured my very first Q&A on this website. I think you are all going to enjoy learning about this guy because he is a very nice guy and I want to thank Steve again for doing this I really appreciate it. In case you have not heard of Steve Blevins before trust me you will he is a very good relief pitcher for the Beloit Snappers. The Twins obtained him in the 21st round of the 2008 draft out of Marshall University. I hope you all enjoy and Im hoping it will be the first of many Q&A's on Travis Talks so if you have any questions or comments you can either leave it in the comment box or email me at travis_aune@yahoo.com.

Travis Talks: Growing up in Louisa, Kentucky did you play alot of sports or was it mainly baseball?

Steve Blevins: I have played baseball since I was 6 years old. I also played basketball all the way throughout high school, and football and tennis in middle school.

Travis Talks: Tell me about your High School Career?

Steve Blevins: In Kentucky you can play high school sports while you are in middle school, and I was fortunate enough to play varsity baseball as an eighth grader. Probably the best part of that was getting to play with my older brother Adam who was a senior that year. I played 3rd and shortstop when I wasn't pitching. I played for Hall of Fame Coach Randy Keeton which helped prepare me greatly for when it was time to move on to college.

Travis Talks: Were you highly recruited out of high school?

Steve Blevins: Probably not as highly as some guys, but I had around 10 or so offers. I was pleased with the offers I had and was happy when I signed with the University of Cincinnati.

Travis Talks: You Started your college career at University of Cincinnati how big of an adjustment was that for you from hight school?

Steve Blevins: It was a pretty big change. I would say just the overall speed of the game and the fact that everyone was good were probably the biggest things. In high school the teams I played would have two or three good players, whereas in college most teams were full of them.

Travis Talks: Before your junior year you transferred to Marshall how hard of a transition was that after spending 2 years at Cincinnati?

Steve Blevins: Actually it was pretty easy. I enjoyed my two years at UC, but when I chose to transfer I knew that Marshall would be a good fit for me. It was nice to have a fresh start with a new team and in a new conference. Pitching coach, Tim Adkins, made the transition very easy.

Travis Talks: When the Twins drafted you in the 21st round were you surprised had they been talking to you?

Steve Blevins: I wasn't really surprised because I had talked to the Twins quite a bit. I had lunch with Twins scout, Jeremy Booth, the week of the draft so I kind of figured there was a chance.

Travis Talks: You started in college mostly and now are relieving for the Twins how did that transpire?

Steve Blevins: Basically you show up and do whatever is ask of you. I had never relieved before was it was a change, but it was been a good one and something that I have enjoyed.

Travis Talks: You started your professional career with the GCL Twins for 8 games what was that like for you?

Steve Blevins: It was different from what I was used to for sure. I was used to playing night games in college, and then I went straight to the GCL and we were playing games at noon everyday. We also rarely had over 5 or so fans, so that was definetly something I wasn't used to.But it was a good experience. The team was made up of a lot of younger players so that was different as well.

Travis Talks: You then moved up to E-town how was that different then pitching for the GCL Twins?

Steve Blevins: Once again in E-town we played night games and I was back around guys that were closer to my age, so that was nice. We had a team full of good guys and good players, so finishing out the summer there and winning the Appy League made it a lot of fun.

Travis Talks: This year you moved up to the Beloit Snappers of the Midwest League did you have to make any adjustments to the little colder weather in the Spring?

Steve Blevins: Being from Kentucky and playing my college ball in Ohio and West Virginia, I played a lot of baseball in the snow, so the cold in general wasn't anything new to me. But I had always been a starter in the cold, being in the bullpen for 5 or 6 innings and then pitching was a big adjustment. There aren't many ways to stay warm when your just sitting around in the cold.

Travis Talks: What pitches do you throw?

Steve Blevins: Fastball, Change, Slider

Travis Talks: What would you say is your bread and butter pitch when you need a strikeout?

Steve Blevins: I would say my slider.

Travis Talks: For those who don't know what is a regular game day for a minor league pitcher like?

Steve Blevins: We usually show up to the field 3 hours or so before game time. We then go out and do our throwing program and conditioning. From there we shag during batting practice or possibly do a fundamental. Then we relax for an hour or so before we head out for the game.

Travis Talks: How hard of an adjustment has it been this year from going from short season to now the Full season?

Steve Blevins: The biggest part is playing almost every single day. I think we get an off day every 25 days or so. It's just June now so I'd say come August or September, the grind of a long season will hit.

Travis Talks: What do you think you need to work on the most as you continue your pro career?

Steve Blevins: I would say I need to work on my secondary pitches the most and also my control. There are so many different areas when it comes to pitching and with time and experience, all of those can be improved.

Travis Talks: What would you say is the best part about being a professional player?

Steve Blevins: For me it's knowing that I'm getting the chance to be what I have wanted to be since I was 5 years old. I think it's cool that we are role models for kids who want to be just like us when they grow up.

Travis Talks: Growing up did you have any favorite teams?

Steve Blevins: I was a Reds fan growing up.

Travis Talks: Growing up was there a player you really admired?

Steve Blevins: My all-time favorite is probably Cal Ripken Jr.

Again I would like to thank Steve Blevins for taking the time to do this Q&A and best of luck on the rest of the season.

Tuesday, June, 2nd

Twins Talk

• The Twins had yesterday off as they begin a three game series with the struggling Cleveland Indians as Kevin Slowey is Scheduled to start for Minnesota.

Rochester Wrap

Rochester 6 Lehigh Valley 3

• The Redwings finished off a very successful series against Lehigh Valley as they took 3 out of 4 in the series by defeating the Iron Pigs last night 6-3. Reid Santos got the start last night for the Redwings and was ok as usual, but you can tell he has not been stretched out yet as he only threw 52 pitches again. I think Rochester is expecting the Twins to give them a starting pitcher because they are not trying to stretch out Reid Santos. Last night Santos went 3.1 innings and gave up 1 run on 6 hits along with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts. With the 1 run allowed Santos lowered his era to 5.56. Bobby Keppel then came in and was very impressive for the Redwings. In 3.1 innings Keppel only gave up 1 hit and no runs. With the 3.1 shutout innings Keppel lowered his era to a very good 2.34 on the season. I have been very surprised with Bobby Keppel this year as I was not expecting this kind of season from Keppel. Mike Gosling then came on and really struggled as he gave up 2 runs in 2 innings along with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts. Juan Morillo then came in to finish the game by striking out the final batter of the game to pick up his first save of his Rochester career.

• The Wings offense did its fair share as to get the win as they had 6 runs on 9 hits to get the win. Jason Pridie led the charge as he went 2-4 with his 8th double and first triple of the year. Pridie is now hitting .246 on the season after the 2 hits. Tommy Watkins and Jose Morales also contributed 2 hits apiece. Morales added his first triple of the year and drove in his 9th run. After the 2 hits Morales is now hitting a very good .292. Jason Pridie, David Winfree, and Justin Huber also contributed rbi's on the night. Pridie now has 13, Winfree now has 25, and Huber has 23.
• Tonight, the Redwings begin a 8 game homestand with a series with the 3rd place Gwinnett Braves with Philip Humber on the mound for Rochester.

New Britain Business

New Britain 9 Connecticut 0

• The Rockcats came out firing against first place Connecticut in a big series for the Rockcats. They got off to a good start with a big 9-0 win over the Connecticut Defenders. Cole Devries was once again the story of the game for the Rockcats as he threw 8 shutout innings to pick up his 4th win of the year. Devries went 8 innings and did not give up a run on only 5 hits along with 1 walk and 4 strikeouts. With the awesome 8 innings Devries lowered his team low era down to 2.68. Cole Devries has proven me wrong time and time again it seems. He defies everyone saying he doesnt strikeout enough hitters, he doesn't throw hard enough, he is not big enough to pitch shutout inning after inning. Cole Devries has been the ace of this very talented Rockcat staff and if he keeps proving people wrong maybe someday he will make it with the Twins. Frank Mata came in and finished the job working a clean 9th inning for the Rockcats in their big victory.

• The Rockcats really pounded Connecticut pitchers by getting 9 runs on 10 hits and were helped out by 8 Defender walks. Matt Moses was the story of the game as he put the game out of reach early on smacking a grand slam to right field to put the Rockcats up 4-0. The homerun was Moses' 4th homerun of the year and brought his rbi total up to 29. Another big story was the return of Wilson Ramos to the Rockcats lineup. Ramos missed about a month with a broken finger and did not take long to get back in the groove as he went 2-5 with his 11th and 12th rbi's of the year. Whit Robbins continued his torrid streak going 3-4 with his 12th and 13th doubles. Talk about an awesome couple of games in Whit Robbins last 2 games he is 7-10 which is a .700 average and in his last 10 games he is hitting .447 with 5 doubles, a homerun and 4 rbi's to bring his average up to a great .340.
• Tonight, the Rockcats continue their series with Connecticut as Matt Fox tries to keep it going for New Britain.

Fort Myers Minutes

Brevard County 5 Fort Myers 0

• The Miracle had their 3 game winning streak come to an end last night as they ran into a great pitching outing by Brevard County pitcher Evan Anundsen who held the Miracle to just 3 hits. The only hits for the Miracle were by you guessed it Ben Revere who went 1-4 to bring his average down to .344 on the year. Steve Singelton and Chris Parmalee also added singles for the Miracle in a game that just was not to be. Sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the other pitcher because they were better than you that day and this was one of those days for the Miracle.

• With the start by Anundsen Mike Mccardell had to be pretty much perfect and after a string of good starts by Mccardell he was not quite up to the task on this night. Mike only lasted 4.2 innings and gave up 4 runs on 7 hits along with 2 strikeouts. With the 4 runs Mike's era rose to a still very good 3.97 on the year. Henry Arias came in relief and was ok going 2.1 innings and giving up a run on 1 hit along with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts. Loek Van Mil came in and finished the game pitching a clean 8th inning for the Miracle. It will be interesting to see how Van Mil does for the Miracle after missing all that time because of injury.
• Tonight, the Miracle finish off their series with Brevard County as staff ace Carlos Gutierrez goes on the hill for Fort Myers.

Beloit Beat

• The Snappers had yesterday off and are set to begin a road series tonight against Peoria with Dan Osterbrock scheduled to pitch for Beloit.

May Awards

I will once again be giving out the monthly player and pitcher of the month. I will do one a day until I get through all the teams. Today I am starting with the Twins.

• Twins Pitcher of the month: Nick Blackburn- Nick Blackburn has been by far the most consistant pitcher for the Twins all season. After going 2-1 with a 4.02 era in April Blackburn improved that in May by going 3-1 and a very good 3.08 era in the month. In the Month of May Blackburn made 6 starts and pitched 38 innings which is 6.3 innings a start. He gave up 38 hits in the 38 innings, but that doesn't bother me because he pitches to contact and will always give up his share of hits. He walked 13 and struck out 21 during the month which is a very good ration because that is only 2.9 walks per 9 innings which is still very goood. He held hitters to a very modest .259 opponents batting average. Nick Blackburn is doing everything you can ask out of him and more by carrying the load when some of our other starters are not doing their job. The bottom line is if Blackburn can have the next 4 months like the first 2 he will have a very solid year and be one of the top pitchers for the Twins.



• Also receiving consideration: Kevin Slowey, RA Dickey

• Twins hitter of the month: Joe Mauer- This decision was not as easy as I thought it would be as Justin Morneau and Michael Cuddyer put up very good months as well. The bottom line though was Joe Mauer put up one of the greatest months in Minnesota Twins history and this month will be remembered as the month Joe Mauer took the next step in his greatness. Another reason Joe was selected was you need to remember he missed all of April and there were some who wondered if he would need time to get going. The answer to that was answered on his first at bat when he clubbed a homerun to left field. Take a look at these May stats and be prepared to be amazed. Joe hit .414 along with 7 doubles and a triple along with an astonishing 11 homeruns. You need to remember in 532 at bats last season Joe only hit 10 homeruns so to hit 11 in one month is amazing. Mauer also drove in 32 rbi's in the month of May which is a career high for most rbi's in a month. Joe walked a very impressive 19 times with only 16 strikeouts in 99 at bats. The stats that just blow me away though is his on base percentage which right now is an unbelievable .500 which means he gets on base 1 out of every 2 plate appearances which is crazy to even think about. His slugging is way up to as he is slugging at a crazy rate of .838 which would be number 1 in baseball if he had enough at bats. You don't even want to know what his OPS is because noone has ever had an ops as good as Mauer's was in the month of May as it was 1.338. Joe Mauer is amazing and he just seems to get better and better every month. In my opinion he is the best player in the game and that is why it is so important for the Twins to get him signed.



• Also receiving consideration: Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel

Everyone what do you think of these two receiving the awards if anyone disagrees with my picks let me know or if you have anything to add let me know. You can email me at travis_aune@yahoo.com or leave a comment here at Travis Talks.

Monday, June, 1st

Twins Talk



Minnesota 3 Tampa Bay 2

• The Twins pulled out a very gutty victory yesterday afternoon to salvage the last game against the Rays in St. Petersburg 3-2 over the Rays. The Twins kept fighting back against a very good pitcher in Matt Garza to pull out the victory. Nick Blackburn was the story of the game once again as he pitched 6 solid innings to pick up his 5th win of the year. In 6 innings Blackburn gave up just 2 solo homeruns to Carlos Pena and Matt Joyce, but other than that all he gave up was 5 other meaningless hits. With the 6 innings Blackburn lowered his era down to a very good 3.50 on the season. Blackburn has really kept it together for the Twins when they have needed him too. In his last 5 starts he has a 1.72 era and has been the solid pitcher the Twins have needed with the Baker's and Liriano's not doing their jobs. Baker and Liriano have a combined record of 4-13 on the year, but the Twins have stayed afloat because of Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowy who have a combined record of 12-3. Sean Henn came in relief and got a big out for the Twins. Matt Guerrier came in then and was a little shaky but got his 2 outs. He walked 2 but also struck out 2 hitters in the 4 batters he faced. Jose Mijeras came in and made an unbelievable catch on a popup that hit off the roof and richoceted. He gave up a sharp double to B.J. Upton to put runners on 2nd and 3rd with two outs, but thankfully got out of it. Joe Nathan then came on in the 9th and picked up his 9th save of the year.

• Matt Garza was very sharp for the Rays and has had a very good year so you knew runs would be hard to come by and they were. Brendan Harris had a big hit as he hit his 3rd homerun of the year in the 2nd inning off of Garza. Mike Redmond also added 2 hits for his best game of the year at the plate. Many are wondering when Jose Morales is going to come back and the Twins are going to get rid of Redmond. Well folks that is not going to happen Mike Redmond is going to be Joe Mauer's backup the rest of the year. Granted I don't think he will be back next year, but the Twins will not release Mike Redmond no matter how he does out of respect for the man. Justin Morneau also added a big rbi single in the 6th inning to tie the score at 2. With that hit Morneau is now hitting a very good .346 on the season. With the rbi Morneau now has driven in 47 runs on the year which is 3rd best in the American League behind Evan Longoria and Jason Bay. Carlos Gomez drove in the winning run in the 7th inning with a bloop single that scored Brian Buscher from third base. With the hit Gomez is now hitting .220 on the year. Denard Span and Delmon Young also contributed hits in the win.
• The Twins have a well deserved day off before they begin a short 3 game homestand against the Cleveland Indians starting tommorrow night.

Rochester Wrap

Lehigh Valley 5 Rochester 1

• The Red Wings 2 game winning streak came to an end yesterday as they were handcuffed by Iron Pig pitching in a tough 5-1 defeat to Lehigh Valley. Kevin Mulvey got the start for the Red Wings and was good the first 5 innings only giving up a run, but his last 2 innings of work he gave up 4 runs to make it a not so good start. In all Mulvey went 7 innings and gave up 5 runs on 9 hits along with a walk and 6 strikeouts. With the 5 runs allowed his era ballooned to 4.08 on the season. Kevin Mulvey has been very good this season and I would not make to much out of this start because he is Rochester's best pitcher and I expect him to rebound next time out. Tim Lahey came in and finished the game for the Red Wings and did not give up a run. That is noteworthy because he hasn't pitched a clean inning since he came off the disabled list. For the Red Wings to catch Pawtucket and Durham for the Wild Card they need Tim Lahey to develop into the dependable reliever that he was last year.

• The Red Wings offense was really handcuffed by good Lehigh Valley pitching as they were only able to muster 4 hits in the game. The only highlight offensively was out of David Winfree who connected on his 8th homerun of the year in the 8th inning to break up the shutout. On the season Winfree is hitting .267 with 8 homeruns and 24 rbi's. Which is better than I expected out of him coming into the season. You also have to take in account he is only 23 years old so he could spend a couple years at AAA and still be young enough to help the Twins. Steve Tolleson also contributed a hit in his 2nd game since being promoted to Rochester on Saturday. Tommy Watkins, and Dustin Martin also contributed a hit for the Redwings. For Martin it was his team leading 8th double of the year in the losing cause.
• Tonight, the Redwings finish off their wrap around series with Lehigh Valley as Reid Santos gets the start for Rochester.

New Britain Business

New Britain 15 Binghamton 7

• The Rockcats had one of their best days of the year with the bats as they banged out 19 hits along with a season high 15 runs in a big win over Binghamton yesterday by a score of 15-7. Offensively, the Rockcats were led by Whit Robbins who had a phenomenal day going 4-6 with 3 rbi's. On the year now Robbins is hitting a very good .329 and has driven in 25 runs on the year. I did not see Whit Robbins coming he was ok at Fort Myers, but not this good he is a typical Twins overacheiver that finds ways to get the job done. Brandon Roberts and Erik Lis also contributed 3 hits for the Rockcats. Roberts hit his 3rd homerun of the year and Lis drove in his 21st, 22nd, and 23rd runs of the year. Rene Tosoni continued his hot streak as he had 2 hits including his 8th homerun of the year and drove in 2 more runners to bring his total on the year to 30. Brian Dinkelman, Matt Moses, and Yancarlos Ortiz also contributed 2 hits in the huge Rockcat win.

• Ryan Mullins had his rough spots in this outing, but he was able to make it through 6 innings and in a blowout like this getting through innings is the biggest thing a manager can ask for. In 6 innings Mullins gave up 5 runs on 7 hits along with 3 walks and 5 strikeouts. With the 5 runs allowed Mullins' era is now at 5.07 on the year. The Rockcats need to get back to better starting pitching as the starters have given up 5 runs in consecutive starts. Yohan Pino came in relief and was ok not great, but ok as he gave up 2 runs on 3 hits in 2 innings of work along with 2 walks and 3 strikeouts. Zack Ward came in and finished the game and pitched his second consecutive clean inning. Yesterday he went 1 inning and gave up a hit, but no runs along with a strikeout. With the 0 runs allowed Ward's era is down to 6.93 on the season. I know its a small step, but the Rockcats need Ward to improve if they are going to make it to postseason play.
• Tonight, the Rockcats begin a big series against first place Connecticut with Cole Devries getting the start for New Britain.

Fort Myers Minutes

Fort Myers 2 Brevand County 0

• The Miracle continued their string of strong outings by their pitchers as they defeated fellow first place Brevand County for the second consecutive day 2-0 yesterday afternoon. Tyler Robertson was the story of the game as he pitched 6 shutout innings on only 3 hits along with no walks and 5 strikeouts. Tyler Robertson is a key going forward for the Miracle because if he starts pitching the way we all know he is capable of pitching then the Miracle will have a chance at a Florida State League Championship. After his 0 runs Tyler's era is down to a very good 3.91 on the season. Santos Arias then came in and pitched a clean 1.2 innings and gave up no runs on 2 hits in relief to lower his era to 2.38 on the year. Spencer Steedley then came in and pitched 2/3 of an inning on 1 hit to lower his era on the year to an unbelievable 0.76. Steedley belongs in AA and for the life of me I can not figure out why he is in Fort Myers, but he will be fine and he will make it to AA sometime this year. Blair Erickson came on and got the final 2 outs to pick up his sixth save of the year.

• The Miracle offense did not get much going as well as they only were able to get 5 hits on the day. They were led once again by Ben Revere who had his 6th double of the year along with his 23rd rbi of the year. Jair Fernandez even got in the act as he had a hit and drove in his 7th run of the year. Rene Leveret also added his 7th double of the year and increased his average to a awesome .358 on the year. Evan Bigley and Nick Romero also contributed a hit in the Miracle's victory.
• Tonight, the Miracle continue their series with Brevand County as Mike Mccardell gets the start for Fort Myers.

Beloit Beat

Kane County 11 Beloit 4

• In a game that was alot closer than the score would indicate the Snappers dropped their 2nd straight to first place Kane County by a score of 11-4. Michael Harrington, Ramon Santana, and Angel Morales each hit homeruns to pace the Snappers attack. For Harrington it was his first homerun of the year and his 19th rbi. For Santana it was his 5th homerun and it drove in his 21st rbi in the losing cause. For Morales it was also his 5th homerun and his team leading 22nd rbi of the year. Jeff Lanning also contributed 2 hits to the cause, but it was not nearly enough for the Snappers.

• Dan Berlind had a solid start for the Snappers, but the bullpen let the game get away. Berlind went 5.1 innings and gave up 4 earned runs on 6 hits along with 3 walks and 5 strikeouts. With the 4 runs allowed Berlind's era went up to 4.08 which is not great, but compared to the other starters on the team it is not bad at all. Joe Testa came in relief and was not good at all for the first time in quite a while. It didn't help that his defense did not help him out at all as the 3 runs he allowed 2 of them were unearned. Testa went 2 innings and gave up 1 earned run on 2 hits along with 3 strikeouts without a walk. Testa's era rose to still a very good 1.78. Matt Williams worked a clean 2/3 of an inning to keep the Snappers in the game only down 8-4. Curtis Leavitt finished the game and honestly he was terrible as his line would attest to. In 1 inning of work he gave up 3 runs on 5 hits along with 2 strikeouts without a walk. With the 3 runs allowed Leavitt's era rose to a crazy 11.12. Leavitt spent the first 7 weeks on the disabled list so it is going to take him time to get back in the groove for the Snappers, but I have no doubt he will get it going.
• Today, the Snappers have a day off before they begin a 12 game road trip and start with a series in Peoria.

Ramos Returns

Wilson Ramos returned to the New Britain Rockcat roster as they activated him off the disabled list after spending 3 weeks on the disabled list with a broken finger on his catching hand. Ramos made his return as a defensive replacement in the 9th inning of the Rockcat 15-7 win over Binghamton. It will be great to have Wilson back with the Rockcats.

Sunday, May, 31st

Twins Talk

• The Twins suffered their 3rd straight loss and their 8th loss in their last 9 road games with a tough 5-2 loss to the Rays yesterday. The Twins ran into a tough pitcher in David Price who struck out 11 Twins in 5.2 innings. Francisco Liriano got the start for the Twins and I don't know how to explain the day he had other than to say he threw 94 pitches in 4 innings. The Rays did not hit many balls hard against Liriano but he just could not finish off the hitters very well. It was especially true in the 3rd inning where the Rays got 3 runs to pretty much put the game out of reach as they turned a 1-1 game into a 4-1 game with 3 runs. In that inning Liriano threw 47 pitches to get the 3 outs. It was the same every hitting he would get ahead 0-2 or 1-2 and they would fould pitch after pitch off and somehow would get to 3-2. Then they would hit a chopper that the Twins could do nothing about. In all the Rays had 3 infield singles in 3rd along with a Evan Longoria rbi bloop single barely over Alexi Casilla's head. Liriano did not help himself with 3 walks and 2 wild pitches in the inning, but he was not as bad as his line would indicate. I will admit during the game I wanted him sent to the bullpen or the minor leagues. However, after calming down and looking at the game rationally his control of the strikezone was much better he just did not have a great slider so he couldn't finish off these hitters. His changeup right now is just to throw people off his fastball maybe he could develop it a little more for it to become a strikeout pitch ala Johan Santana. RA Dickey came in relief and did his job as normal pitching 4 innings and only giving up 1 run to lower his very good era down to 3.26 on the year. When the Twins put Dickey in situations like this he has done a great job allowing the Twins the chance to come back in the game and thats all you can ask for out of your long reliever.

• The Twins really could not figure out David Price or Grant Balfour as they combined for 14 strikeouts. Sometimes the pitching is just too good and on this day they ran into the David Price show. Price if he can throw strikes like he did yesterday is almost unhittable. The Twins were only able to muster 6 hits in the game. They were led by the M&M boys once again as they combined for 2 hits and a walk in the game. Justin Morneau had a hit along with his 46th rbi of the year. Alexi Casilla returned to the lineup and contributed a hit and his 5th rbi of the year. Joe Mauer, Denard Span, Brendan Harris, and Carlos Gomez also contributed a hit apiece for the Twins. Delmon Young continued his struggles as he went 0-4 with 3 strikeouts. In 6 games since his return from the death of his mother Young is 2-23 with 13 strikeouts. I know we need to be patient with him because he is such a streaky hitter but he is not being patient at all up there and doesn't seem to have a clue whats going on at the plate. For the Twins to have a chance to contend we need more out of Young then we are getting right now so hopefully he can get it going again.
• Today, the Twins finish off the season series with the Rays with Nick Blackburn gong to the hill for the Twins and will square off against former Twin Matt Garza.

Rochester Wrap

Rochester 6 Lehigh Valley 3

• The Red Wings took their 2nd straight from Lehigh Valley with a very impressive 6-3 victory last night. Steve Tolleson made his season debut with the Red Wings and did not disappoint as he went 2-3 with his 1st double of the year and also added a walk. Jason Pridie also had a big night going 3-5 with his 13th and 14th stolen bases. After getting off to a slow start Pridie is starting to get it going as he raised his average to .246 on the year. Jose Morales also had a big night going 2-4 with his 7th and 8th rbi's of the year. He is now hitting .297 on the season in only a handful of games. Tommy Watkins also added a hit and his 5th rbi of the year. Justin Huber, David Winfree, and Drew Butera also added singles for Rochester.

• It was not the prettiest of outings, but Jason Jones kept the Red Wings in the game and picked up his 1st win with the Red Wings improving to 1-4 on the season. Jones went 5.2 innings and gave up 6 hits and 3 runs on 2 homeruns along with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts. Jones is not the pitcher many of us expected when we gave up a solid reliever to obtain him in spring training, however he seems to be coming on and being a serviceable pitcher. Juan Morillo came in relief and got 4 outs, but he walked 2 batters and that is something no Twins fan wants to see. Really walks are the only stat we need to pay attention to with Morillo and based on that even though he did not give up any runs this was not a good outing for him. Bobby Keppel then came in and pitched a clean 8th inning. Mike Gosling, the new Wings closer, came on in the 9th to pick up his first save in a Wings uniform.
• Today, the Wings continue their series with Lehigh Valley as staff ace Kevin Mulvey gets the start for Rochester.

New Britain Business

New Britain 6 Binghamton 5

• The Rockcats got back on the winning side as the bats picked up Jay Rainville after a so so start in the Rockcats 6-5 victory over Binghamton. Danny Valencia and Rene Tosoni were the story in this game as they combined to go 4-7 with 2 homeruns and 5 rbi's. Valencia went 2-3 with his 6th homerun of the year and 2 rbi's to bring his season total up to 24. With the 2 hits in the game Valencia is now hitt a very good .321 this year. If I have said it once I have said it a thousand times Danny Valencia is ready for AAA as his .321 average and great defense would attest to. I really hope he gets the chance to get to AAA this year, because he has shown when he gets promoted it takes about 25-30 games for Danny to get used to the pitching, but when he gets it he takes off so the sooner he gets there the better. Rene Tosoni also had a big day as went 2-4 with his 7th homerun of the year a 3 run shot that put the Rockcats back in the lead. Tosoni improved his average up to .252 and the 3 rbi's brough his season total up to 28. Brandon Roberts, Brian Dinkelman, Whit Robbins, Erik Lis, Matt Moses, Yancarlos Ortiz, and Danny Lehman all contributed hits for the Rockcats.

• Jay Rainville continues to be an enigma for the Rockcats because every time you think he his turning the corner and being the pitcher we all know he can be he has a stinker like he had last night. Rainville went 5.2 innings and gave up 5 runs on 7 hits along with 2 walks and 1 strikeout. With the 5 runs it increased Rainville's era to 5.17 on the year. I really don't get him he can be so good one start and then pitch bad the next. If he is going to move up to AAA he is going to have to get more consistant because the talent is there he just has to bring that focus on a nightly basis. The bullpen really picked up Rainville as they went 4.1 innings of shutout ball. Frank Mata was the first guy out of the pen getting out of the 6th inning getting an out. Rob Delaney then came in the 7th inning and pitched 2 wonderful innings not giving up anything and striking out 4 batters. Anthony Slama came in the 9th and slammed the door for his 10th save of the season.
• Today, the Rockcats finish their weekend series with Binghamton as Ryan Mullins gets the start for New Britain.

Miracle Minutes

Fort Myers 7 Brevand County 1

• The Miracle continued their dominant first half of the year by beating up on fellow first place Brevand County 7-1 last night. David Bromberg got the start and man was he dominant as he went 6 innings and only gave up a run on 5 hits with 1 walk and an awesome 12 strikeouts. Bromberg blew the hitters away with a 94 mile per hour fastball and good breaking pitches. With the great outing Bromberg's era is down to 1.94 on the year. Bromberg improved his record to 5-0 on the year in his finest outing as a professional. Bromberg and Gutierrez have made quite a 1-2 punch in the rotation for the Miracle and will look to keep it going next time out. Kyle Waldrop came in relief and was very good as well pitching the last 3 innings to pick up his 1st save of the year for the Miracle. In 3 innings he gave up 4 hits and struck out 2 batters to lower his era to 4.00 on the year.

• The Miracle brought their hitting shoes to the ballpark as well as they had 14 hits along with their 7 runs. The hitting star by far has to be Deibinson Romero who was coming into the game on a 1-36 streak. In this one Romero went 2-5 and drove in his 22nd and 23rd runs of the year. Hopefully this is the start of a rebirth for Romero who is too good to be only hitting barely over .200 for the year. Marc Dolenc also had a big game going 3-4 to bring his average up to a very good .301. Chris Cates had another big game going 3-5 with 2 rbi's to bring his total up to 15 on the season. Ben Revere was not going to be outdone going 1-2 with a walk and his 22nd rbi of the year. Rene Leveret had 2 big hits to bring his average up to .363. Steve Singelton, Danny Berg, and Allan De San Miguel also contributed with a hit.
• The Miracle continue their series with Brevand County this afternoon with Tyler Robertson getting the start for Fort Myers.

Beloit Beat

Kane County 5 Beloit 2

• The Snappers saw their brief 2 game winning streak come to an end in a very tight highly contested game against first place Kane County 5-2. Michael Allen was on the hill for the Snappers and was ok once again, but that didn't stop him from dropping his record to an awful 0-7 on the year. Allen went 6 innings and gave up 3 earned runs on 8 hits along with 1 walk and 6 strikeouts. Bruce Pugh came in relief and went 2 innings and gave up 1 run on 2 hits along with a walk and 4 strikeouts. Michael Tarsi finished off the game with a shutout inning with a strikeout. His era on the season now is 5.14 in only a few innings so he has pitched better than his era indicates. The Snappers have been pitching better and if they can keep this up they will be in many more of these games and possibly get some more wins.

• The Snappers offense was really handcuffed by the Kane County pitchers as they were only able to get 6 hits on the night. Ramon Santana had the best night going 1-4 with his 20th rbi of the year. Besides him noone had more than one hit and basically they could not do much against the Kane pitchers. James Beresford went 1-3 with a walk to bring his average up to a very good .315 on the year. Nathan Hansen contributed his 7th double of the year for the Snappers. Alex Soto, Angel Morales, and Juan Richardson also contributed hits for the Snappers.
• Today, the Snappers finish off their series with Kane County as Dan Berlind gets the start for Beloit as the Snappers try to take the series.

Saturday, May, 30th

I just wanted to give everyone a heads up and let everyone know that I am in the process of a new project that I think everyone will find very interesting. I will be back next week with the series on Twins related questions so everyone have a fun filled and safe weekend.





Twins Talk



Tampa Bay 5 Minnesota 3

• The Twins came out on the short end of a very competitive game last night with the Rays 5-3. The Twins had their chances early in the game, but could not get runners in as they left 8 guys on base for the game. Scott Baker was once again solid for 5 innings only giving up a solo homerun to Carl Crawford. However, once again as his pitch count rose so did his pitches and he gave up a backbreaking 3 run homerun to Evan Longoria to would supply all the runs the Rays would need in the game. In all Baker allowed 4 runs on 7 hits in 5.2 innings of work and drop his record to 2-6 on the year. Baker was masterful for 5 innings and then the roof collapsed the Twins will need to figure why that is happening because it happens almost every start. Sean Henn came in for Baker and got an out. Jesse Crain then came into the game and pitched 1.1 innings and gave up a run on 2 hits while walking a batter and getting a strikeout. Jesse Crain has been one of the more disappointing players on the Twins as his 7.36 era will attest to. Hopefully, Crain can get it going as the Twins really need him to pitch effective innings. Jose Mijares and Matt Guerrier combined to get 2 outs in the 8th to keep us close but it was not meant to be on this night.

• The Twins had many chances against Rays starter James Shields especially early in the game as they left 5 guys on in the first 3 innings of the game. Shields then got into a groove and they didn't hit him much until the 8th inning when they scored 2 runs to pull within 4-3. They then had a guy on 2nd with 1 out, but then Joe Crede and Brendan Harris struck out to end the rally. Joe Mauer got back on track after a Joe Mauer type of slump as he went 3-5 in the game to bring his average up to .417. Justin Mourneau had another big game with a 2-4 night to bring his average up to .346 and drove in his 45th run of the year. Michael Cuddyer hit his 9th homerun of the season in addition. Joe Crede and Brendan Harris also added hits.


• Today, the Twins face the Rays in game 2 of the series as the Twins send Francisco Liriano to the hill to face Rays phenom David Price.


• Transaction: After the game the Twins placed SS Nick Punto on the Disabled List with a sore groin and recalled 2b Alexi Casilla from AAA Rochester. The plan is for Casilla to play 2nd and Brendan Harris to play SS with Matt Tolbert moving to a utility role in Punto's absence.

Rochester Wrap

Rochester 5 Lehigh Valley 3

• The Red Wings got back on the winning track with a big 5-3 victory over Lehigh Valley last night. Matt Macri was the hero blasting a game winning 3 run homerun in the top of the 9th for the Red Wings. It was Macri's 4th homerun of the season and drove in his 14th, 15th, and 16th runs of the year. Justin Huber also contributed 2 hits including his 4th homerun of the year a two run shot in the top of the first inning. David Winfree also contributed two hits to bring his average up to .267 on the year. Jason Pridie, Tommy Watkins, Jose Morales, and Dustin Martin also contributed a hit.

• Brian Duensing continued his role of good pitching as of late as he pitched his 3rd straight quality start. In those starts in 21 innings Brian has only given up 4 earned runs which is a 1.71 era in those games. In this outing Duensing went 7 innings and only gave up 3 runs and scattered 10 hits along with a walk and 3 strikeouts. With the 3 runs allowed Duensing's era is down to 4.09 on the season. This is the Brian Duensing we are used to seeing in that he keeps the team in the game and allows the team to come back and get a win. Mike Gosling came in relief to pick up the win for the Red Wings. Unbelievably his record right now is 7-1 on the season. Part of that is luck and part of that is when you come in the game you are allowing the team time to come back to give yourself a chance to get the win. In this one Gosling went 2 innings and gave up no runs on no hits and struck out 3 batters. With the 2 perfect innings Gosling now has an era of 4.22
• Tonight, the Red Wings continue their series with Lehigh Valley with Jason Jones getting the start for Rochester.
• Transaction: With Alexi Casilla being promoted by the Twins Rochester filled his spot on the team by promoting 2b Steve Tolleson from the New Britain Rockcats.

New Britain Business

Binghamton 6 New Britain 0

• The Rockcats had a stinker after winning 9 of their last 11 against Binghamton last night as they lost 6-0. Jeff Manship was good once again as he had his 2nd straight quality start for the Rockcats. With the hitters shut down he needed to be perfect and he wasn't quite that but still very good. Manship went 7 innings and gave up 3 runs on 8 hits along with 2 walks and 2 strikeouts. Jeff Manship needs to be the ace of this staff and it looks like he is starting to get it together and with the hitting for New Britain if he puts an outing like this every time he will win his fair share of games. Jose Lugo came in after Manship and gave up 3 runs in only 1/3 of an inning. Anthony Slama then came on and his struggles continued even though he did not give up any runs he gave up 2 hits and a walk although he did have a strikeout in only 2/3 of an inning. Zack Ward finished it off with a scoreless inning. Hopefully that is the start of some better pitching by Ward who was so good last year and has been so bad this year.

• The Rockcats could not do a lot with the bats last night as they only mustered 3 hits on the night. Sometimes you just have to tip your hat to the pitcher who is sometimes better than the hitters. Last night was one of those nights were there was nothing the Rockcats could do offensively. All they could get was singles by Brian Dinkelman and Jeff Christy along with Rene Tosoni's 7th double of the year. With Tosoni's hit his average now is .252 on the season.
• Tonight, the Rockcats try to get the bats going as they continue their series with Binghamton as Jay Rainville gets the start for New Britain.

Fort Myers Minutes

Fort Myers 3 Tampa 0

• The Miracle got back on the winning side of things after an embarrasing loss the night before the Miracle played much better winning the game 3-0 over the Tampa Yankees. Deolis Guerra was the story as he pitched 6 shutout innings for the Miracle. In his 6 innings Guerra gave up 5 hits along with a strikeout. After that strong outing Guerra's era for the year is now 4.47. Those are the kind of outings that we expect out of Guerra every time and if he can string a few of them together he may get promoted to New Britain before the year is out. Steve Hirschfeld came in relief and did what he normally does for the Miracle pitching 2 perfect shutout innings along with a strikeout. Hirschfeld's era is now a very good 1.07 on the season. I would really like to see Hirschfeld get some starts in the second half after the June callups to see what he can do. Alex Burnett came in relief and pitched the ninth to pick up his 4th save of the year.

• The Miracle hitting attack were once again led by 2 guys that have gotten it done all year long and that is Chris Parmalee and Ben Revere. Parmalee went 2-4 with his team high 27th rbi. Revere did what he always does and thats get atleast 2 hits. He went 2-4 with his 21st rbi of the year along with 21st stolen base of the year. He should steal 40 bases for the second consecutive year and eventually he will be doing that for the Twins. Chris Cates also had a hit and drove in his 13th run of the year. Deibinson Romero once again went 0-4 to bring his average down to .201 on the year. This slump is unlike anything I have ever seen in the month of may he is hitting .155. If you look deeper he is 1 for his last 35 at the plate to bring his average from .269 down to .201. Hopefully he can figure this out and fast.
• Tonight, the Miracle begin a series against fellow first place Brevand County with David Bromberg scheduled to pitch.

Beloit beat

Beloit 15 Kane County 2

• The Snappers won their season high 2nd game in a row with a big victory over first place Kane County 15-2. The Snappers also put up a season high 18 hits in the win. The Snappers were led by Ozzie Lewis who went 3-5 with his 3rd homerun of the year along with a career high 6 rbi's to bring his season total up to 18. James Beresford went 3-4 at the plate to bring his average up to a very good .314 on the season. Juan Richardson added 3 hits to get his average up to a very good .294. Alex Soto also had a big game as he had 2 hits including his team leading 5th homerun of the year along with his 18th and 19th rbi's of the year. Angel Morales, Ramon Santana, and Michael Harrington all contributed 2 hits apiece.

• If not for all the hitting the story of the game would be Brad Tippett who was awesome on the mound once again. Tippett had his 2nd consecutive quality start and brought his record to a very good 5-1 on the year. Tippett went 6 strong innings giving up a run on only 5 hits along with no walks and 7 strikeouts. The 6 strong innings brought his team low era down to 2.79 on the season. Brad Tippett is overlooked by way to many people but he is been Beloits best starter all year long and continued that once again. Steve Blevins came into the 7th and went 1 solid inning giving up an unearned run on 2 hits along with a strikeout. Blake Martin and Danny Rondon pitched the last 2 innings without giving up a run to finish the game.
• Tonight, the Snappers continue their series with Kane County as Michael Allen tries to send the Snappers to their 3rd straight victory.