Tag: Justin Haley

Twins Minor League Player of the Week – Nik Turley

Nik Turley

This weeks Twins Minor League Player of the Week is also today’s Minnesota Twins starting pitcher against the San Francisco Giants, left-hander Nik Turley. The 6’5″ Turley will be the fourth Twins pitcher to make major league debut this season following Randy Rosario, Jason Wheeler and Justin Haley. 

Turley tied a Southern League record with the  Chattanooga Lookouts (AA) by striking out eight straight batters on April 25 vs. Tennessee and also set a Frontier Field record by striking out 15 batters in just 6.0 innings in his last start on June 6 for the Rochester Red Wings (AAA) while allowing just 4 hits. The 15 strikeouts were the most by a Red Wings pitcher since 1988.

Between Chattanooga and Rochester, Turley struck out 84 of 204 total batters faced (41.2%). He struck out 45 of 86 total batters faced (52.3%) with the Lookouts.

The now 27-year old Turley was a 50th round selection (1,502 overall) by the Yankees in 2008 and has played in the minor league systems of the Yankees, Giants, Red Sox and the Twins as well as an independent league team. Turley is the first 50th round draft pick to reach the majors since Efren Navarro in 2011, and one of just three 50th round selections
to reach the major leagues since 2000 (also: Jarrod Dyson in 2010). 

In his 10th minor league season Turley has a 48-45 record with a 3.50 ERA. Turley changed the grip on some of his pitches this spring and seemingly has turned his career around. Nik has stated that former Yankee pitcher Bob Turley is a distant relative.

Red Wings pitcher Nik Turley called up to Twins after 15-strikeout game

Twins Minor League Report 06112017

 

What just happened?

Here is what the May 29 Twins GameNotes say about yesterdays game:

The Twins lost to the Rays yesterday by a score of 8-6 in 15 innings, losing the three-game series two games to one. At six hours and 26 minutes, the game marked the longest game in Target Field history and the second-longest game in the history of the Twins (longest: six hours and 36 minutes on May 7, 1995 at Cleveland). The loss to Tampa was Minnesota’s longest game by innings since April 24, 2016 at Washington (16 innings). The Twins/Rays game was the longest game in the major leagues this season (previously: 6:05 by New York-AL at Chicago-NL on May 7).

It marked the Twins first loss in which Minnesota led in the ninth inning (previously 25-0).

Twins pitchers struck out a season-high 17 batters, their most since recording 19
strikeouts August 19, 2007 vs. Texas.

Mauer

Joe Mauer drew three walks to pass Kent Hrbek for second on the Twins all-time list
(840), trailing Harmon Killebrew (1,321). Mauer hit his 133rd career home run, moving him past Jacque Jones for 11th place on the Twins all-time list. He recorded a season-high
four hits and reached base a career-high seven times, becoming the second Twin ever
to reach base seven-plus times in a game, joining Rod Carew (8 times on May 12, 1972
vs. Milwaukee).

Some other facts about the loss to Tampa yesterday:

The announced crowd for the game was 28,951, Twins manager Paul Molitor guessed about 1,500 stayed to watch what turned out to be a bitter ending for Minnesota.

Twins used nine pitchers tying a franchise record equaled on five other occasions.

The total pitch count for the Rays and Twins was 553 pitches (289 by Minnesota).

With a burnt out bullpen the Twins made two moves this morning, putting Justin Haley on the 10-day DL and sending Kennys Vargas to AAA Rochester. The Twins called up pitchers Drew Rucinski and Jason Wheeler who has yet to make his big league debut.

Box score for Twins vs Rays game on May 28, 2017

According to ELIAS

Haley fans six in first save

Haley

Justin Haley recorded six of his 10 outs via strikeouts, earning his first major-league save in the Twins’ 11–5 win at Detroit. The last pitcher to collect at least six strikeouts in any save was the Royals’ Danny Duffy, also at Detroit on Sep. 20, 2015 (6 SO in 4 IP.) That also happened to be Duffy’s first (and to date, only) save in the majors. Haley is the 21st reliever to strike out six-or-more batters in his first big-league save since the statistic became official in 1969. Only one of the previous 20 went on to save as many as 90 games. That was Tom “Flash” Gordon, who fanned six in two-and-one-third innings for Kansas City at Texas in 1989. Gordon finished his career with 158 saves, although he wouldn’t earn more than one in a season until 1997.

Bill Campbell is the Twins all-time leader in this category getting 15 saves between 1973-1976 by pitching 3 or more innings in a game for the save.

How many starters does a MLB team really use?

Twins beat-writer Phil Miller wrote in past Sunday’s edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune that the Minnesota Twins could have as many as 12 different pitchers fighting for the five spots in the Twins 2017 starting rotation. Keep that number 12 in the back of your mind as you read this. Here are the pitchers Miller listed as possible starters in 2017.

TWINS STARTING ROTATION CANDIDATES

Ervin Santana (R), 34: 7-11 last season, but his 3.38 ERA was 10th-best in the American League.

Phil Hughes (R), 30: Missed most of last season because of thoracic outlet syndrome. Gave up league-high 29 home runs in 2015.

Kyle Gibson (R), 29: Fourth year in rotation (98 starts), but ERA rocketed to 5.07 in 2016.

Hector Santiago (L), 29: Acquired from Angels last season. Another starter who gives up lots of home runs.

Jose Berrios (R), 22: Team’s top young pitching prospect has been bombed in majors (8.02 ERA).

Tyler Duffey (R), 26: In 26 starts last season his 6.43 ERA was worst among pitchers with more than 130 innings.

Trevor May (R), 27: Back injury hampered him last season, when he was a reliever. He wants to start.

Adalberto Mejia (R), 23: Picked up from Giants in Eduardo Nunez trade last season. In 566 minor league innings he has 487 K’s.

Nick Tepesch (R), 28: Had 39 starts for Texas in 2013-14. He missed 2015 because of shoulder issues; he’s on a minor league deal.

Ryan Vogelsong (R), 39: Grizzled veteran has 179 starts in 12 seasons; 3-7, 4.81 ERA for Giants last year.

Justin Haley (R), 25: Proven starter in Class AAA was picked up in the Rule 5 draft, meaning he’s likely to make the team.

Stephen Gonsalves (L), 22: Twins minor league pitcher of the year in 2016; was dominant at Class AA Chattanooga.

It would be nice to have quality over quantity but one has to play with the cards they are dealt or the starters they might have. In 2016 the American League teams used 157 different starters an average of 10.47 starters per team. The Toronto Blue Jays used only seven starters in 2016 while the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim sent 15 different starters to the mound. The Twins marched out 11 different pitchers to start their games in 2016.

The National League teams used 176 different starters in their quest for wins and that comes out to an average of 11.73 starters. The St. Louis Cardinals and San Francisco Giants only required eight starters each while the Atlanta Braves had double that, they needed 16 starters to get through the season. 

The Twins have used as many as 13 different starters in 1962 and 1995 and as few as six starters in 1972 but they only played 154 games that year. If you look at the Twins average number of starters used over the years per season you end up with 9.68 so even though the battle for the starting rotation will take place this spring and there will probably be five winners by Opening Day, there is no assurance they will be starting games at Target Field come September. Starting pitchers will be lost due to injury, performance, trades, and personal reasons so the more pitchers the Twins have ready to start big league games the better. The message to the pitchers who won’t be Twins starters on Opening Day is to hang in there because your turn is coming, be ready.

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