FCL ORIOLES1 1, FCL TWINS 0 AT ORIOLES
The game's lone run scored in the eighth on a single and three errors.
The Twins had five hits, but no one had more than one.
John Klein struck out three in three shutout innings, giving up one hit and one walk.
Owen Griffith pitched two shutout innings, giving up three hits.
Jeferson Lopez pitched three innings, giving up an unearned run on three hits and striking out two.
DSL TWINS 9, DSL MARINERS 2 AT MARINERS
The Twins scored five in the first on three singles, an error, three walks, and a wild pitch. For the game they had nine runs on five hits eleven walks, and three hit batsmen.
Starter Ledwin Taveras pitched three innings, giving up two runs on four hits and striking out five.
Eduardo Soriano struck out eleven in five shutout innings, giving up one hit.
Jose Ojo struck out two in a scoreless inning, giving up a hit and a walk.
WHERE THEY STAND
St. Paul is 40-28, in first place in the International League West, a half game ahead of Iowa.
Wichita is 27-35, in fourth place in the Texas League North, 12.5 games behind Arkansas and Tulsa. They are 3.5 games behind third-place Springfield.
Cedar Rapids is 37-26 and has clinched first place for the first half. They are six games ahead of Peoria and Quad Cities.
Fort Myers is 32-31, in third place in the Florida State League West, 10.5 games behind Clearwater. They are two games behind second-place Bradenton.
The FCL Twins are 5-5, tied for second in the FCL South with the Red Sox. They are 3.5 games behind the Pirates.
The DSL Twins are 3-8, in eight place in the DSL South, five games behind the Phillies White. They are a half-game behind the seventh-place Cardinals.
TODAY'S TILTS
10:00 DSL Phillies Red at DSL Twins
11:00 FCL Orioles at FCL Twins
5:30 Fort Myers (Miguelangel Boadas, 0-2, 5.63) at Tampa
6:05 St. Paul (Simeon Woods Richardson, 0-5, 8.08) at Toledo
6:35 Beloit at Cedar Rapids (Cory Lewis, 2-0, 0.90)
7:06 Arkansas at Wichita (Aaron Rozek, 1-3, 6.14)
"Today's Tilts" have now been added.
At least some teams in the org can actually win.
The question is whether those records bode well for the big club's near-term future or no.
So far, we haven't seen a lot from guys like Garlick and Larnach. The Twins are in significant need of some corner OF help.
I don't know that there's any correlation between minor league winning percentage and future major league success. The minor leagues are supposed to be about developing players for the majors. You'd always rather win than lose, at any level, but an organization's goal isn't (or at least shouldn't be) to win the Midwest League or the International League. The goal is to win in the major leagues.
Of St. Paul's top ten most used batters by plate appearances, half are age-27 or older. That roster is stacked with journeymen, not hitting prospects. Good for the record, I suppose. Not so much for the pipeline.
In (somewhat) contrast, AA Wichita has a losing record. Their top ten most-used batters has one 26-year old, three 25-year olds (including Seth Gray, who has spent time in StP) and four who are age-23 or age-22. Not young, exactly, for that level. But not old, either.
I have hopes for Yunior Severino. He strikes out a lot (80:23 K:BB in 247 PA in Wichita this year), but has shown good power. He's played mostly 3B this year, with some 2b, but has had some LF appearances in the past.
At Cedar Rapids, 20-year old Kala'i Rosario is slashing 284/396/517. He might be the corner OFer who is closest to being an impact prospect for promotion to the big club. (Small sample, however, as he hit only 239 /320/408 in Ft Myers last year).
Wouldn't it be nice to have a young prospect make it big early again?
I've always thought this was a good strategy in the minors as long as you aren't blocking any meaningful prospects. The reality is that most teams don't have meaningful prospects at many positions in their minor league system. As a rule, I would think that having better veteran players around is more likely to impart better habits in the prospects that you do have on those teams.
Oh, I don't disagree with that strategy. I'm just lamenting the lack of near-ready, genuine corner OF prospects in the pipeline.
It's probably time to move on from Max, and we also need an everyday LFer. I'm looking for options. Larnach may be able to deliver league-average value in the Majors, but I have my doubts. And we need some quality right-handed bats. Garlick is not an answer.
Yeah, I wasn't really disagreeing, just trying to be positive.
Unlike garlic, which is often a good answer.