Minor League Report...December 19, 2009

by roger13 on Dec 19, 2009 9:24 AM EST

Good morning from balmy Denver. Hey, it has been over 50 degrees every day since our arrival on Wednesday.

The only Twins transaction this week was the announcement that they received relief pitcher Chris Province as compensation for Boof Bonser. Most reports indicate that Province has a very good sinker, but needs to work on a second pitch to have a legitimate chance at a major league career. Province, who is the all-time saves leader at Southeast Louisiana University, had a 2-4 record with 1 save, 2.60 ERA, 1.31 WHIP and 55K/32BB at AA Portland (Eastern League) last summer. He allowed only three home runs in 79.2 innings.

Province, who was on the same Mesa AFL team this fall as the Twins prospects, had a 0-2 record and 2 saves in 13.0 innings with a 3.46 ERA and 9K/5BB.

It was also reported that Philip Humber signed with the Kansas City Royals. That means that Deolis Guerra is the lone remaining prospect from the Santana trade...not including John Rauch and J.J. Hardy who were obtained in trades for Kevin Mulvey and Carlos Gomez.

Last year's Caribbean Champion Aragua Tigres are having a difficult winter. They are currently in sixth place (out of eight teams), 11.5 games out of first place in the Venezuelan Winter League. It is now the time of year when most of the lower level prospects have been replaced by players with major league experience. Yangervis Solarte and Wilson Ramos are the lone Twins prospects playing regularly as neither Jason Pridie nor Dustin Martin saw any action this week.

Ramos continues as one of the league's top hitters at .348/.411/.597 with 11 home runs and 47 RBI in 191 at bats. As the level of pitching improves, Ramos has continued to hit well in his last ten games at .275/.370/.625 with 4 home runs, 5 walks and only 5 strikeouts. Solarte has been the Tigres regular left fielder of late and the 22 year old is hitting a respectable .313/.380/.446. Former Twin prospect Yohan Pino pitched a solid 5.0 innings in last night's 4-3 win to even his record at 3-3 with a 3.88 ERA.

Over in the Dominican Republic, Escogido holds a 2.5 game lead in first place. Francisco Liriano made his third start of the winter in Wednesday's 6-0 win, pitching 5.0 shutout innings with 3 hits and 6K/1BB. Alexi Casilla is a reserve middle infielder for Gigantes (fourth place, 3.0 games behind Escogido), with only 1 at bat this week.

More veterans are also reporting to the Puerto Rico Winter League, including Danny Valencia. Valencia has appeared in five games for Mayaguez, going 4-18 with 3 walks and 4 runs scored (.222/.333/.222). Nelvin Fuentes is one young prospect who continues to see action for Mayaguez, primarily as a left handed specialist. Fuentes has appeared in 9 games, 6.1 innings, 5.40 ERA and 2K/6BB. There are two veterans on the Mayaguez roster that we are familiar with, Craig Monroe and Randy Ruiz.

With Christmas Eve only five days away, will Joe Mauer have a nice present from Bill Smith under his tree?

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Comments

Solarte

He’s like Dinkelman or Portes. He hits well but has no position. I’d think he’d be at AA but they have a full outfield.

by b1 on Dec 19, 2009 9:59 AM EST reply actions

Solarte

is nowhere near the hitter Dinkelman or Portes are, AND he doesn’t have a position… if he is healthy in 2010, he could be in Ft. Myers, if he’s still around.

by SethSpeaks on Dec 20, 2009 1:25 AM EST up reply actions

I'll take your word on that

It just seem the Twins like to keep him around.

by b1 on Dec 20, 2009 1:20 PM EST up reply actions

Roster filler

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Dec 20, 2009 2:47 PM EST up reply actions

Fun, fun, fun

When Johan’s contract ends with the Mets, it will be fun to see what kind of coresponding production the Twins will have received from all the avrious pieces involved in the player movement from the trade, comarped to Johan’s own work — and, yes, we ultimately have to look at the overall $$$ amount spent.saved.

Visit www.TwinsCards.com and check out "rosters" to see my collection!

by rosterman on Dec 19, 2009 10:49 AM EST reply actions

Apples to apples

You’d have to compare the pieces we got to Santana’s performance in 2008, since there we no reasonable chance for us to sign him. Johan wanted to leave.

by Adam Peterson on Dec 19, 2009 6:28 PM EST up reply actions

+ the draft picks

I’d rather have Hardy and Rauch than two late first round draft picks. So the only question is, would Santana have put us over the top in 2008?

"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot

by cmathewson on Dec 19, 2009 10:29 PM EST up reply actions

That'll always be the tough Question

With how good the team was overall that year I still think what it might have been like to put one of the top 5 pitchers in the league on that team. The extra wins he would have brought over Livan Hernandez might have made the Twins trade for a piece or two along the way to strengthen up the bullpen as well as the infield. ahhh what could have been.

Peyton's good but have you ever heard of Jeff George?

by halfchest on Dec 19, 2009 10:35 PM EST up reply actions

Livan in the abstract

versus reality…I’ll be the first to say Livan simply did not pitch very well, by just about any metric on the face of the earth, in 2008. However, the Twins were 14-9 in the 23 games Livan started that year. How many additional wins would Johan have provided, considering that Twins scored 0, 2, 7, 2, 2, 1, 5, 4, and 3 runs in the nine losses? At least one, especially considering we traded Livan with two months left, but I doubt we would have made a trade for a piece or two down the stretch. You have to consider that we would have spent a bunch more money on Santana’s salary.

We also need to consider that Gomez provided good value overall during the 2008 season. Sure, it turned out that Span was ready when he came up to replace Cuddyer, but without Gomez that year, what would we have done when Cuddyer went down? Pridie in CF?

by Adam Peterson on Dec 20, 2009 7:44 AM EST up reply actions

Personally ...

I think the whole Santana thing would have been just one big distraction. It would have been a miserable season and I could easily see the team doing much worse than they did.

by sploorp on Dec 20, 2009 6:15 PM EST reply actions

If Ramos played for the Mets...

Would he be pencilled in as their starting catcher?

As per the top 50 prospects, next year is looking to be a fun year to watch Twins affiliates, as just about every team will have a top notch prospect playing for them.

by Han Joelo on Dec 21, 2009 12:07 AM EST reply actions