6/11 AAA Minor League Report

Posted by Jeremy on June 13, 2009 under Minor League Ball today | Be the First to Comment

Milwaukee Brewers OF prospect Cole Gillespie hit his 4th HR of the season and drove in two runs yesterday.  I had high hopes for the former Oregon State Beaver last season as he flew under the prospecting radar for most of last season.  Much of that was due to the fact that he played for the star-studded Hunstville Stars team last year that boasted the talents of Matt LaPorta, Mat Gamel, Alcides Escobar, Angel Salome, and Michael Brantley.  Still, Gillespie had a well rounded stat line, hitting .281 with 14 HR 79 RBI 17 SB 38 doubles and 73 runs scored.  He doesn’t have any standout tool, but he does everything well and has an enormous baseball IQ.  This season has been a disappointment since Gillespie moved to AAA, hitting just .202 with his 4 HR and 20 RBI.  His plate discipline has been solid (28 BB/43 K), but he doesn’t seem to be driving the ball with much authority against AAA pitchers.  My initial projection of him as an everyday corner outfielder at the major league level is starting to look a little too generous.  There’s still quite a bit of potential there for him to be an effective, offensively minded 4th outfielder though.

Non-flashy Twins pitching prospects seem to grow on trees, and 23 year old Villanova alum Kevin Mulvey fits the bill perfectly.  The ‘06 second rounder tossed a seven hit shutout Thursday walking one and striking out seven for his third win of the season.  Mulvey can bump his fastball up to 94 MPH on occasion, but normally moves it around the strike zone at 87-91 MPH while mixing in a sharp slider and serviceable curve and change.  This season, Mulvey has gone 3-3 with a 3.61 ERA and 28 BB/59 K in 72.1 IP.  The main positive in his game has been his increased ability to force groundball outs.  Last year, Mulvey was a flyball pitcher forcing just 0.79 GO/FO while being touched up for 16 HR.  This season has been quite different, though, as Mulvey has nearly doubled his GO/FO ratio to 1.53 which has limited his HR’s allowed to just five. 

Long term, Mulvey’s stuff should limit him to a ceiling as a #3 or 4 starter.  There’s been some conjecture that he could be called up to serve a long reliever/spot starter role, but recent callup Anthony Swarzak has seemed to handling things quite capably.  The Twins are starting to improve their level of play, as the offense has kicked into full gear.  Mulvey’s arm could be a valuable asset either in the bullpen or rotation at some point this summer.

AAA Player of the Day—KEVIN MULVEY

 

Other Notable Performances

Hitting:

• Angel Salome—3-5 R RBI
• Cole Gillespie—1-4 HR(4) 2 RBI
• Alcides Escobar—1-4 R BB 2 SB(24)
• Max Ramirez—2-3 2B BB
• John Raynor—2-5 2B 2R RBI SB(6)
• Cameron Maybin—2-5 2B 2 RBI
• Brett Hayes—2-4 2 2B 2R 3 RBI
• Ben Copeland—2-4 HR(2) RBI
• Jesus Guzman—1-5 HR(9) 2 RBI
• Sean Rodriguez—2-5 2B RBI R
• Brandon Wood—1-5 HR(13) 2 RBI
• Mike Carp—2-4 RBI R BB
• Dan Putnam—1-4 HR(3) 2 RBI
• Chris Nowak—3-4 2B 3B 4 RBI
• Dustin Martin—3-5 R RBI 2 SB(16)
• Jason Donald—1-4 R SB(6)
• Drew Sutton—1-4 2B R 2 RBI
• Wellington Castillo—2-4 HR(2) RBI

Pitching:

• Jack Egbert—6 IP 4H ER BB 3K L (4-1)
• Drew Carpenter—7 IP 6H ER 4K W (5-0)
• Kevin Mulvey—9 IP 7H ER BB 7K W (3-3)
• Sean O’Sullivan—6 IP 5H 2 ER 3 BB 5K W (5-2)
• James Simmons—5 IP 4H ER BB 4K