Down on the Farm: High A Report

The Twins High A team is the Ft. Myers Miracle.

Starting Pitching

1.) Kevin Slowey - 4-1 / 1.10 ERA /81.2 inn /92-7 K-BB
2.) Anthony Swarzak - 3-3 / 4.29 ERA / 65 inn / 69-29 K-BB
3.) Justin Jones - 1-1 / 2.96 ERA / 27.1 inn / 17-10 K-BB
4.) Brian Duensing - 0-1 / 5.14 ERA / 7 inn / 7-1 K-BB
5.) Danny Powers - 2-1 / 3.90 ERA / 27.2 inn / 26-8 K-BB
DL - Kyle Aselton - 4-2 / 4.56 ERA / 49.1 inn / 44-26 K-BB

With Kyle Aselton on the disabled list, Danny Powers picked up a start last week. Brian Duensing, just promoted from low-A at the time of the post last week, has struggled thus far for Ft. Myers and will probably be going back down when Aselton comes off of the disabled list unless he can turn it around quickly. Worse, Swarzak (.31), Jones (1.49), and Powers (2.47) all saw their ERA's ballon this week.

The good news comes from Kevin Slowey, who somehow managed to lower his ridiculous ERA from 1.19 to 1.10. The suggestion from media sources is that Slowey will be promoted when the Miracle end the first have of their split season schedule, on June 21. There seems to be no reason not to promote him, since he's been dominant this season. Nick Blackburn is the AA pitcher most likely to lose his spot in the rotation when Slowey is promoted.

Relief Pitchers
1.) J.P. Martinez - 1-2 / 3.35 ERA / 37.2 inn / 41-17 K-BB
2.) Ryan Callahan - 2-3 / 3.38 ERA / 32 inn / 27-13 K-BB
3.) Chris Schutt - 2-1 / 3.60 ERA / 20 inn / 25-14 K-BB
4.) Colby Miller - 2-2 / 4.29 ERA / 21 inn / 11-12 K-BB
5.) Tim Lahey - 3-0 / 5.09 ERA / 35.1 inn / 26-13 K-BB
6.) Jose Mijares - 0-5 / 5.12 ERA / 31.2 inn / 35-18 K-BB
7.) Josh Hill - 3-2 / 6.75 ERA / 34.2 inn / 21-13 K-BB
DL - Angel Garcia - 2-1 / 2.93 ERA / 15.1 inn / 13-9 K-BB

There were some big improvements from some of the pitchers at the bottom of this list, with Colby Miller (.62), Tim Lahey (.31), Jose Mijares (.34) and Josh Hill (.64) all reducing their ERA's by respectable margins. On the downside, closer J.P. Martinez had a rough week, seeing his ERA more than double from 1.44 to 3.35.

Catchers

1.) Kyle Geiger - 49 games / .250 BA / 0 HR / 16 RBI
2.) Korey Feiner - 41 games / .198 BA / 0 HR / 10 RBI

Not much to report here. Both saw slight increases in their batting average, and both picked up a couple of RBI.

Infielders

2B/SS - Alexi Casilla - 61 games / .318 BA / 0 HR / 26 RBI
IF - Luke Hughes - 48 games / .234 BA / 2 HR / 20 RBI
3B - Jose Leger - 17 games / .239 BA / 0 HR / 3 RBI
IF - Brock Peterson - 48 games / .301 BA / 6 HR / 27 RBI
SS - Trevor Plouffe - 57 games / .199 BA / 0 HR / 12 RBI
IF - Matt Tolbert - 35 games / .316 BA / 4 HR / 24 RBI
DL - Dave Winfree - 6 games / .320 BA / 0 HR / 6 RBI
DL - Johnny Woodard - 23 games / .181 BA / 2 HR / 8 RBI

So after placing him on both the AA and high A rosters for the last 10 days or so, I finally realized today that Jose Leger is now an infielder with Ft. Myers. Please ignore the fact that I have him listed as being with New Britain. Alexi Casilla continues to play solid baseball, which is good since Trevor Plouffe is looking more and more like a B.J. Garbe-like bust. Looking into my crystal ball, I don't see promotions in the future of any of these players this season, but Casilla is positioning himself to play for New Britain next year.

Outfielders
1.) Justin Arneson - 36 games / .196 BA / 0 HR / 8 RBI
2.) Deacon Burns - 53 games / .205 BA / 1 HR / 13 RBI
3.) Garrett Guzman - 60 games / .265 BA / 7 HR / 45 RBI
4.) Jeremy Pickrel - 50 games / .265 BA / 3 HR / 26 RBI
DL - Erold Andrus - 20 games / .200 BA / 2 HR / 17 RBI

Not much to say about this bunch, except that this wasn't a great week for any of them. Even Guzman, who has been having by far the best season of the bunch, saw his batting average drop 11 points this week.