Down on the Farm: AA Report

New Britain Rock Cats (28-24)
2nd Place -- Eastern League Northern Division

Rock Cats Season Stats

Starting Pitchers
1.) Jesse Floyd - 10 starts, 1 RA [2 starts]
2.) Brad Baker - 8 starts, 3 RA [1 start]
3.) Tristan Crawford - 7 starts, 1 RA [1 start]
4.) Kyle Waldrop - 4 starts [1 start]
5.) Ryan Mullins - 1 start [1 start]
Suspended - Anthony Swarzak

Who's Hot: Tristan Crawford, who had been struggling quite a bit this year, had a great start this week, going 7 innings and giving up just a hit and a walk while striking out 9 runners. That dropped his ERA from 5.02 last week to 4.04 this week, along with a 1.43 WHIP and a 25-12 K-BB ratio in 35.2 AA innings of work. In fact, it was a solid week for most of these guys (the exception is listed below), with Jesse Floyd getting two starts and going 11 innings, allowing 3 earned and 3 unearned runs on 10 hits with 5 walks and 11 K's; Brad Baker going 7 innings and giving up just 1 run on 4 hits and a walk with 5 K's; and Ryan Mullins making his AA debut, going 6 innings and giving up 2 runs on 6 hits and 2 walks along with 7 K's.

Who's Not: Kyle Waldrop has yet to find his groove since being called up from Ft. Myers a couple of weeks ago. This week, he lasted just 4.2 innings, and gave up 5 runs on 9 hits and 3 walks while picking up 5 K's. That brings his season ERA to 5.09, with a 1.52 WHIP and a 12-9 K-BB ratio. Every day brings us a little closer to Anthony Swarzak's return (by my count, Swarzak -- who was suspended for 50 games on April 21 -- is only about 4 or 5 days away from being eligible to return to the team). I'm not sure what the Twins plans are for Swarzak when he comes back, but if he's stayed in shape I imagine that it will only be a short stretch before he's back in the rotation. If Waldrop doesn't pick it up, he could perhaps find himself back in Ft. Myers when Swarzak comes back.

Relief Pitchers
1.) Tim Lahey - 20 RA [3 RA]
2.) Jay Sawatski - 20 RA [3 RA]
3.) Danny Powers - 16 RA [2 RA]
4.) Brian Forystek - 10 RA, 3 starts [1 RA, 1 start]
5.) J.P. Martinez - 11 RA, 1 start [1 RA]
6.) Frank Mata - 6 RA [2 RA]

Who's Hot: Frank Mata seemed to settle in this week, going 3 innings and giving up just 1 hit to lower his AA ERA to 4.00 with a 1.44 WHIP in 9 innings over 6 games. Tim Lahey also had a reasonably solid week, going 5.2 innings and allowing 2 runs (1 earned) on 4 hits and 2 walks with 4 K's. That brings his season ERA to 3.55 with a 1.48 WHIP and a 29-18 K-BB ratio over 33 innings.

Who's Not: J.P. Martinez didn't see his ERA suffer any, but his one performance this week (after being reassigned from AAA Rochester on May 30) saw him go 1.1 innings while allowing 6 unearned runs (yes, 6 unearned runs) on 2 hits and 2 walks with 2 K's. His season ERA is still a sterling 1.29 because those runs didn't count -- but man, I bet his manager wasn't too thrilled.

Catchers

Just a reminder that the numbers listed for a player's position totals will NOT add up to the number of games played. In some cases, the number will be higher, because a player will have played at multiple positions in one game. In other cases, the number will be lower, because this list does not keep track of things like pinch hit and pinch run appearances if the player never plays in the field.

1.) Kyle Geiger - C(26), DH(3) [C(5)]
2.) Jeff Christy - C(1) [C(1)]

Who's Hot: Well, how about a shout-out for Jeff Christy, who was promoted from High A Ft. Myers pretty much exclusively because of the catching shortage at AAA Rochester, which saw Jose Morales get hurt, which then had a domino effect throughout the organization. Christy has only played once so far with the Rock Cats, but he took advantage of the situation by going 1-for-2 in his debut.

Who's Not: Kyle Geiger went 3-for-17, which dropped his batting average to .301 with an .854 OPS. He's got to be a bit upset that his significantly better offense didn't get him promoted over Korey Feiner (who's hitting just .224 in AA this season), but that should tell you something about how the Twins feel about Feiner's catching skills. Besides, Feiner will be back down as soon as Morales is healthy, so it's really just a short-term issue anyway. Who knows -- that could have played a role in the Twins decision, if the team didn't want to disrupt Geiger's routine.

Infielders
1.) Brian Buscher - 3B(32), DH(14), 1B(1) [3B(4), DH(3)]
2.) Trevor Plouffe - SS(44), DH(2) [SS(7)]
3.) Felix Molina - 2B(39), SS(2), DH(2) [2B(7)]
4.) Brock Peterson - 1B(35), DH(7) [1B(5), DH(1)]
5.) David Winfree - 3B(16), DH(16), 1B(7) [DH(3), 3B(2), 1B(2)]
6.) Luke Hughes - 2B(14), DH(5), LF(5), 3B(2), 1B(1) [2B(1), 3B(1), LF(1)]

Who's Hot: Trevor Plouffe had a great week at the plate, going 11-for-27 to raise his season average to .279 with a .762 OPS. He's also shown a little power, hitting 4 homers so far this season along with a team-leading 17 doubles. On the downside, he had 4 errors this week (3 in one game!), and now has an absolutely astounding 14 so far this season. Egad! Luke Hughes saw limited action, but went 2-for-6 and is also hitting .279 -- so I guess I'll throw him on this list as well.

Who's Not: While there were a number of so-so performances this week (Buscher, 7-for-26; Winfree 7-for-26; Molina, 7-for-27), the only really bad week belonged to Brock Peterson, who went 4-for-21 to lower his batting average to .253 with a .757 OPS.

Outfielders
1.) Garrett Guzman - LF(40), DH(2) [LF(6)]
2.) Brandon Roberts - CF(36), DH(1) [CF(5)]
3.) Matt Allegra - RF(40) [RF(5)]
4.) Rashad Eldridge - CF(15), RF(11), LF(5) [CF(2), RF(2)]

Who's Hot: Believe it or not, Brandon Roberts had a great week, going 9-for-17 to raise his average to .252. He also seems to have reclaimed his starting Center Field job from Rashad Eldridge. I don't know whether the plan was to play him every day or not, but in his first start this week he had 2 hits. Then he picked up 2 more the next day, and 1 the day after that, and just kept getting playing time. Good for him -- his disappearance as a prospect, while not on par with the hugely disappointing season being put up right now by Denard Span, was certainly troublesome. Now, it looks like he just might be on the way back. Matt Allegra also had a decent week, going 5-for-16 to bring his average to .273 on the year.

Who's Not: Rashad Eldridge went just 2-for-14 and is now hitting .234 on the season. Garrett Guzman, meanwhile, went 5-for-24 and is hitting .269 for the year.