The Twins had eight players in the Arizona Fall League. Here's a quick look at how they did.
THE GOOD
Nate Roberts hit .446/.565/.662 in 65 at-bats. He won the league batting title by 42 points, the OBP title by 71 points, and the slugging title by 50 points. Obviously, he also won the OPS title, winning by 110 points.
Logan Darnell went 2-0. 2.45, 1.25 WHIP with 17 strikeouts and 5 walks in 18.1 innings.
Michael Tonkin went 1-0, 2.45, 0.75 WHIP (second in the league) in 14.2 innings.
THE BAD
Evan Bigley hit .242/.319/.371 in 62 at-bats. That’s not awful, but it’s not very good, either.
Kyle Gibson went 2-3, 5.40, 1.67 WHIP. He did strike out 28 (third in the league) and walk 8 in 23.1 innings. One suspects, in his case, that the Twins were less concerned with the results as whether he could simply stay healthy.
Caleb Thielbar went 1-0, 11.08, 2.23 WHIP. He did strike out 12 in 13 innings, but he also walked eight.
THE OTHERS
Chris Herrmann appeared in three games early in the season and went 5-for-10 with a double and two walks. He then suffered an injury to his left shoulder and did not play the rest of the season. The injury is described as “minor”. Your guess is as good as mine regarding what that means.
Dan Rohlfing took the vacated roster spot. He hit .333/.435/.333 in 18 at-bats.
WHAT IT ALL MEANS
Not much. The whole AFL season is a small sample size. It’s obviously better to do well than to do poorly. Nate Roberts presumably did himself some good; a .446 batting average, even in 65 at-bats, tends to get people’s attention. Still, nobody played enough that anyone’s opinion of them should significantly change. The point of the AFL, from a team’s perspective, is simply to get some good prospects some extra playing time. The point of the AFL, from a fan’s perspective, is that it’s some more baseball to follow, and you can’t ask for better than that.
I assume the AFL trrainninng staff is nnot the majorr-league trrainninng staff frrom each team. Therreforre, I have nno reasonn to doubt that Mrr. Herrmann's innjurry is inndeed minnorr.
why did nate roberts repeat at Beloit this season? He was too old for that level, particularly given how successful he was (302/443/446 in 2011, 299/433/427 in 2012).
It is a long leap from A ball to the majors, but he's entering his age-24 season. Could he be a credible 4th OFer?
I really don't have any idea why they had him repeat Beloit. It's not like they had a team of superstars at Fort Myers getting in his way. If they'd taken a dislike to him, though, I wouldn't think they'd have sent him to the AFL.
"Could", of course, is a loaded word. Lots of things "could" happen that probably won't. Who's the last Twin to jump from Class A to the majors, Hrbek? I'd be extremely surprised if he was with the Twins this year as other than possibly a September call-up.
Gibson's walk rate is ugly, but his strikeout rate is main thing to get out of this small sample size. I trust that way more than I do ERA or anything else in such a short time.