Beyond the Box Score II: Anatomy of a Rock Cats Loss




The Battery: Brett Jacobson and
Chris Herrmann going over
details before the game

  I stayed for all 12 innings of last night's 3-2 loss to the Akron Aeros. It was a picture-perfect night for baseball, but by hour 4 of baseball, the crowd was probably only 100 in number. If there's one takeaway from this game -- one reason New Britain lost -- it's simply a result of an almost complete failure to drive in runners in scoring position. Despite the fact that the Rock Cats tallied 14 hits in the contest, they scored only 2 runs, and most glaringly, they were 2-for-14 with runners in scoring position. Yes, there were some hard line drives that were caught, and some smashed grounders that just failed to make it past the Akron infielders, but mostly this team just couldn't get a base hit when it mattered.

Brett Jacobson had a solid start. He allowed 2 runs in 5 and 1/3 innings. His control was very good up until he tired. Notably, Jacobson struck out 6, including the side in the second inning. He had walked only one going into the 6th inning, but then quickly unraveled after recording one out in the 6th. After he walked two consecutive batters, that was it for him. He must have been on a pretty short leash. In all honesty, though, after looking fine in the 5th, he looked gassed in the 6th. The stadium radar gun had his fastball around 92, and I saw it register at 93 a couple times. His curveball was effective tonight, as well. Bobby Lanigan was good out of the bullpen, allowing no hits in 2 and 2/3 innings. Bruce Pugh was wild, walking 2 in 2 innings, but he didn't allow a run. Although he didn't pitch badly, Luis Perdomo took a tough loss: a single, stolen base, and another single scored what would turn out to be the winning run for Akron in the top of inning 12.

Player of the Game: Minnesota's Own
Nathan Hanson, who dramatically
raised his batting average last night

The Rock Cats' offense was a mixed bag. Let's start out with the star performer last night, Minnesotan Nathan Hanson. He was 5-for-6, and was a home run away from the cycle. Hanson is now batting a respectable .274 on the year. In the bottom of the 10th, with one out, Hanson hit a long fly ball to left field. In many ballparks this might have been a home run. At New Britain Stadium, though, where the wall is approximately 15 feet high all the way around, this resulted in a triple after it hit about 10 feet high on the wall. Hanson was at third, and represented the winning run, with only one out. Unfortunately, Chris Colabello -- who actually is leading the entire Eastern League in RBIs -- grounded out to the pitcher, and after Chris Herrmann was intentionally walked, Mark Dolenc took a called third strike to end the threat.

The other "problem" -- if you can call it that, is that, aside from Hanson's double and triple, there were no extra base hits. The Rock Cats have several players capable of hitting home runs and doubles at any given time, but the team couldn't get big hits, especially hits that would have cleared the bases, when it counted. Deibinson Romero did have 2 hits, as did Rene Tosoni. Tosoni, however, is only batting .210 thus far on the season for New Britain. Australian prospect James Beresford had a single in 5 trips, and is batting .286 on the year.

James Beresford bats in the 2nd inning

The Rock Cats finish up a week-long homestand this weekend, playing a series against the Erie Seawolves, the Tigers' affiliate. After losing 2 of 3 to the Aeros, who own the best record in the Eastern League, the Rock Cats are in 3rd place, but are just 2 games back of the Trenton Thunder, who currently sit atop the division. This would be a good weekend for New Britain to pick up some ground at home, before the team hits the road again. The weather is supposed to be great this weekend, so I would expect big crowds at the ballpark.

Rock Cats Lose 4th Straight

Thanks, Google Image search!

Every Wednesday evening, I write a recap of all the Twins minor league action, which you can find at TwinsDaily. Take a look if you haven't already. Here's what I wrote about last night's Rock Cats game:

NEW BRITAIN 4, AKRON 6
Starter Brett Jacobson allowed too many hits tonight -- 10 in 4 and 1/3 innings. He gave up 5 runs, striking out 1 and walking 1. Out of the bullpen, Daniel Turpen pitched 1 and 2/3 scoreless innings, striking out 1. Bruce Pugh struck out 2 in an inning of relief. Luis Perdomo gave up 1 run in the 8th inning, striking out 2, walking 2, and giving up a single.
The Rock Cats scattered 9 hits tonight. James Beresford had 2 singles, Rene Tosoni had a solo home run (his first of the season at AA), Chris Herrmann had 2 hits, and Matt Rizzotti, Deibinson Romero, Shawn Roof and Evan Bigley each had singles, as well. Beresford, Tosoni, Bigley, and Minnesota's own Nathan Hanson had RBIs tonight. The Rock Cats did walk 6 times in this game, so at least that was encouraging.

Here's the link to the box score.

A couple additional things I didn't mention in that write-up. First, as I noted yesterday morning, infielder James Beresford is leading the team in batting average. After 2 hits last night -- line drives to center field and left field -- he's up to .282. It's nice to see at least one player on the team inching closer to .300.

Second, the Rock Cats had the bases loaded with only 1 out in the 5th inning, but were unable to plate a run (reminds me a little of recent Twins teams). Evan Bigley struck out and Matt Rizzotti popped out to end the threat. That ended up being their best chance all night.

Third, with last night's loss, the Rock Cats fell into a tie for second place, 1 game behind the Trenton Thunder (Yankees affiliate).

Finally, there have been some suggestions, mostly on TwinsDaily, that first round pick and top Twins prospect Aaron Hicks should be converted to a pitcher. Hicks is 22, is in his first season at AA (being one of the younger players is the Eastern League), and is doing all right. Defensively, he could play center field for the Twins tonight and not be out of his element. Offensively, he's not there yet. But I don't think we should start the crazy talk of converting a speedy outfielder with raw power into pitcher. Most professional baseball players -- especially outfielders -- can probably throw a baseball 90 miles per hour. And yes, Hicks did pitch in high school. If you're a high school baseball coach, and one of your players has the ability to throw 90, you have to have him pitch: high school athletes can't hit a good fastball. But to suggest to Hicks that he should become a pitcher, after not having pitched in 4 years, seems insane to me. Let me reiterate: he's 22 years old. That is still very young for where he is. Don't let Bryce Harper and Mike Trout fool you -- most players don't make the major leagues until their mid-20s, even first round draft picks (heck, something like 40 percent of first round picks never play in a single major league game). Hicks needs a chance to develop as an offensive threat, not a complete re-shifting of his professional career.

New Britain is back in action tonight, as they try to avoid a sweep at the hands of the Aeros.

Thursday Rock Cats Report: A Game That Got Away

After collecting 4 hits in consecutive games,
Rock Cats catcher Chris Herrmann couldn't tripilicate
the feat yesterday.

Every Wednesday night I write a recap of all the happenings in the Twins minor league system for TwinsDaily. You can find last night's recap here. Here's what I wrote about the Rock Cats' loss to the Binghamton Mets:

New Britain 1, Binghamton 8Today's game was quite a test for the Rock Cats, facing top Mets pitching prospect Zack Wheeler. He routinely hits 97 with the fastball, and probably won't be too long for AA. He looked good against New Britain this afternoon, throwing 8 innings and allowing 2 hits and 1 run. But David Bromberg, starting for the Rock Cats, also had a solid performance, going 6 strong innings, striking out 8, walking 3 and giving up just 1 run on 4 singles. Blake Martin relieved Bromberg, tossing a scoreless 7th and walking 1 batter. He gave up 1 hit to lead off the 8th before being removed in favor of Luis Perdomo. Then things got ugly. Perdomo walked one, but the Mets scored twice following a sacrifice bunt, a single, and a Danny Lehmann throwing error. Brett Jacobson threw 2/3 of the 9th, issued 5 walks and gave up 5 runs (2 earned) -- a 3-run home run and a bases-loaded walk. Bobby Lanigan came on to get the last out in the 9th, which he did after hitting a batter with the bases loaded to bring in the Mets' 8th run (charged to Jacobson). Martin ended up with the loss. To sum up: starting pitching was good; the bullpen wasn't.

There wasn't much offense to speak of for the Rock cats. Minnesota's own Nathan Hanson had an RBI single in the 5th to score Aaron Hicks, who had walked and stolen second (stolen base #13 for Hicks). Reversing a recent trend, Chris Herrmann did not get 4 hits today, but he did coax a walk out of Wheeler. Danny Lehmann had a double.

Here's the link to the box score.

There isn't much time to dwell on this ugly loss, though. The team plays bright and early today -- 10:35 a.m. to be precise. Two recent AA call-ups, B.J. Hermsen for the Rock Cats and Jenrry Mejia for the Mets, will face each other. A win today would give New Britain 3 of 4 in this series. Going into today's game, New Britain has a 1.5 game lead in their division.

Don't forget to check back for more updates later!

The Rock Cats and Pitching

In each of his 4 starts since joining the Rock  Cats,
B.J. Hermsen has gone over  6 innings.

Yesterday, I reviewed some notable hitting prospects for the New Britain Rock Cats. The team is now 10 games over .500 and is in first place with a 1.5 game lead over the Reading Phillies. So although the offense has been scoring plenty of runs, the pitching has also kept this team in games.

Today I thought I would take a look at the Rock Cats' pitching. Keep in mind that Lucas French, Lester Oliveros and Deolis Guerra have all been promoted to AAA Rochester, so less than 2 months into the season, the Rock Cats have lost 3 of their most consistent arms. With that being said, let's see how a few of the pitchers are doing:

First, some starters:

Logan Darnell: 5-2, 4.53 ERA, 51 and 2/3 innings, 35K, 16 BB, 1.37 WHIP.

Steve Hirschfeld: 3-4, 3.14 ERA, 49 and 2/3 innings, 37K, 14 BB, 1.39 WHIP.

Andrew Albers: 1-1, 4.31 ERA, 48 innings, 37 K, 4 BB, 1.35 WHIP.

David Bromberg: 1-1, 3.94 ERA, 29 and 2/3 innings, 26 K, 12 BB, 1.31 WHIP.

B.J. Hermsen: 2-1, 2.57 ERA, 28 innings, 16 K, 2 BB, 0.86 WHIP.


And now some of the bullpen arms:

Daniel Turpen: 3-1, 5.56 ERA, 22 and 2/3 innings, 4 saves, 24 K, 4 BB, 1.19 WHIP.

Luis Perdomo: 3-2, 2.45 ERA, 22 innings, 1 save, 22 K, 9 BB, 1.23 WHIP.

Bobby Lanigan: 1-2, 2.49 ERA, 21 and 2/3 innings, 3 saves, 22K, 3 BB, 1.11 WHIP.

Caleb Thielbar: 1-0, 2.61 ERA, 10 and 1/3 innings, 1 save, 7 K, 3 BB, 1.45 WHIP.

There you have it. As a group, there are no major standout performers -- no guys with a 1-point-something ERA or massive strikeout totals. But if you look a little deeper, some of the stats are pretty impressive: BJ Hermsen has been very good so far, and you have to like his control. In fact, I would say that, as a team the Rock Cats have shown good command of the strike zone. Perdomo, Lanigan and Turpen all have been striking out close to 1 batter per inning while exhibiting good control. And new Rock Cat (and Minnesota's own) Caleb Thielbar has been solid out of the New Britain bullpen thus far.

Finally, I'm going to dig a little deeper on Daniel Turpen. In two rough performances this season (most recently on Monday night), he allowed 4 runs and 6 runs. In those outings he pitched a combined 4 and 1/3 innings. In his other 18 and 1/3 innings pitched, he has allowed only 4 total earned runs -- good for an ERA right around 2. Not to imply that you can simply "take away" bad outings, but when we're dealing with relatively small sample sizes, it's important to at least note a couple factors that are contributing to Turpen's interesting stat line.

The Rock Cats play a noon game today, and a 10:35 a.m. game Thursday, so be sure to check back for updates!

Twins No-Hit by Weaver; Rock Cats Keep Winning

It was a late night, and an awful night, to be a Twins fan. I'm curious at the end of the season -- with the benefit of hindsight -- if Jered Weaver's no-hitter against the Twins will be viewed as just another bad memory from a bad season, or whether it's going to be remembered the symbolic indictment on the state of affairs of the Twins' pitching, hitting, front office and field management.

Instead of dwelling on that, I'll give you a Rock Cats update. They won last night, as they have done often this season, and are now 17-9. I wrote Wednesday's Minor League Daily report for TwinsDaily (check it out here), and here's what I mentioned about New Britain's performance:

"NEW BRITAIN 5, HARRISBURG 4

New Britain has been involved in many close contests lately. Tonight, they eeked out a victory against the Harrisburg Senators. Chris Colabello, an 8-year independent league baseball player until 2012 (primarily with the Worcester, MA Tornadoes), had a great night offensively. He went 2-for-5 for New Britain, with his 5th home run of the year, a 3 run shot in the third inning with two outs. Wilkin Ramirez and Pedro Florimon each had two hits, including a double, Estarlin De Los Santos picked up 2 singles, Evan Bigley had a run-scoring single and a walk, and Nathan Hanson had a sacrifice fly. Definitely a team effort on offense. De Los Santos stole his 5th base of the season. Aaron Hicks was 0-for-3 with a walk, was caught stealing, and is batting .268 on the year.

Andrew Albers got the start for New Britain tonight. The bad: he gave up 3 home runs and 4 runs on 7 hits. The good: he lasted 6 innings, issued 0 walks, and struck out 5. The bullpen was better, though. Bobby Lanigan pitched 2 and 1/3 innings, gave up 0 runs, allowing 3 hits and striking out 1. Luis Perdomo picked up the win tonight (2-2), tossing 1 and 2/3 innings, allowing 1 hit and striking out 1."

If you're ready to officially jump off the Twins' bandwagon this season, or are just sick of them, I can't blame you. I'll always be a fan -- win or lose -- but I'm certainly paying less attention to the Twins than I was a few weeks ago. I wholeheartedly recommend throwing your support behind the Rock Cats. Thus far, they have the best record of any of the Twins affiliates, and have already had 2 players (Lucas French and Deolis Guerra) bumped up to AAA. Get to know the names and faces now -- you'll probably be seeing several of these guys in Minnesota -- both out of necessity and on their own merit -- in the next year or so.

Rock Cats' Winning Streak Pushed to 5

The New Britain Rock Cats defeated the Portland Sea Dogs tonight 10-5. Despite the lopsided score, this game actually took 11 innings to produce a winner. The sides were knotted at 5 runs until the Rock Cats exploded for 5 runs in the 11th inning, and then shut down the Sea Dogs in the home half to secure the victory.

For all the runs tonight, New Britain only accumulated 9 hits (they also walked 5 times). Big producers tonight included shortstop Pedro Florimon, who hit his first home run of the year, and drove in 2 runs. Chris Colabello had the most important hit of the night: a 3 run game-tying home run (his second of the season) in the top of the ninth inning with two outs. On the evening, Colabello also had a double and a 4th RBI. Quite a night for the first baseman! Right fielder Evan Bigley had 3 singles and a walk tonight, in 4 at-bats, and also scored 2 runs, pushing his batting average to .311. Deibinson Romero, Estarlin De Los Santos and James Beresford also had hits for the Rock Cats. New Britain sent 10 men to the plate in the decisive 11th inning.

Lefty Andrew Albers got the start for New Britain, lasting 5 innings, and giving up 8 hits, 4 earned runs, and striking out 4 while issuing no free passes. The bullpen, however, was better. Although reliever Brett Jacobson gave up a run in one inning of work, Blake Martin pitched a scoreless 7th, and Luis Perdomo and Daniel Turpen each pitched 2 scoreless innings, with Turpen picking up the win in extras. Aaron Hicks was hitless tonight, but did have an outfield assist, nailing a Sea Dogs runner at third base. Martin (on a pickoff) and Florimon each committed their first errors of the season.

This is now the 5th consecutive win for the Rock Cats, pushing their impressive record to 9-3. They are also undefeated on the road, which is good for any team looking to gain confidence early in the season. They'll be back in action tomorrow night -- same time, same channel.

4/13/12 Rock Cats Report

My stock minor league picture until I make it to
another Rock Cats game next week

Just a quick note tonight. The Rock Cats continued their good play, beating the New Hampshire Fisher Cats 6-1 in convincing fashion. Importantly, they played error-free baseball.

Notables: Starter Steve Hirshfeld went 5 innings, striking out 4 and giving up only 2 hits. He walked 2 along the way. Luis Perdomo pitched 2 innings, giving up the only New Hampshire run, but struck out 2. Lester Oliveros and Daniel Turpen both pitched scoreless innings.

On offense, first baseman Chris Colabello had both a double and a home run in three at-bats, with 4 RBIs. If you're looking for a player of the game, it's definitely him! Catcher Chris Herrmann was 3-for-5 with 2 doubles, and Aaron Hicks was 1-for-3 with a double and a walk. Hicks and Herrmann each had a stolen base, also. In my opinion, Herrrmann, a returning Rock Cat, has got to be the front-runner for the Mauer back-up in 2013.

Rock Cats fans, we're looking at a good team here. A good mix of power, speed and pitching. This team is 6-3 going into Saturday's action, and hopefully they can keep it going.