Single-A Cedar Rapids pitcher Stephen Gonsalves is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. Gonsalves made one start for the Kernels on April 23 at Wisconsin, tossing 7 shutout innings with one hit, one walk and 11 strikeouts (a career high), earning the win; it was his second straight double-digit strikeout total. Gonsalves fanned 10 in 7 innings April 17 versus Peoria. He has made three starts for the Kernels this season, going 2-0, 0.90 ERA (20.0 IP, 2 ER) with two walks and 30 strikeouts. The San Diego native was drafted by the Twins in the fourth round of the 2013 First-Year Player Draft out of Cathedral Catholic High School in San Diego.
Gonsalves was also the Twins minor league player of the week last August and you can read what I wrote about him at that time by going here. There is a nice link in that story explaining why Gonsalves dropped to the fourth round in the 2013 draft allowing the Twins to snap him up. Gonsalves just might be a diamond in the rough for Minnesota and I would look for Gonsalves to be moving up a rung on the Twins minor league ladder soon.
MiLB.com did a story on Gonsalves that you can view here. Stories about Twins and other teams prospects show up daily and you can read them by checking out our “Down on the Farm” links box on the right hand side of this home page.