Twins 7, Concordia 5
Posted on February 26th, 2008 – 12:36 PMBy Joe Christensen
FORT MYERS, FLA. — Randy Ruiz and Tommy Watkins each hit home runs, as the Twins defeated Concordia University 7-5 on Tuesday in a six-inning tussle at the Lee County Sports Complex.
Kevin Mulvey pitched two scoreless innings for the Twins, and Twins pitcher Nick Blackburn tossed two scoreless innings for Concordia.
The Golden Bears struck for four runs in the third inning against Twins reliever Philip Humber, who gave up a two-run homer to junior catcher Chris Herbert and a two-run double to senior third baseman Jake Waldman.
The Twins trailed 5-2 before making their comeback.
44 Responses to "Twins 7, Concordia 5"
Thanks for the update. Don’t know if it is good or bad news.
its bad news for the fact that “the 3rd overall pick humber still cant pitch”
hopefully we can make this trade a steal by making humber what he was ment to be…
anyone remember when he was untouchable????
Hmmm. Concordia gets 4 runs off Humber in the third. But the Tigers don’t have the hitters that the Golden Bears have.
the golden bears are part of our system right?
or if not tell me who concordia is…
lol
respectable D-II college in Minnesota.
i dont think we should read too much into this. These are the first innings of the year for the pitchers. I am guessing they were throwing a lot of fastballs and very little breaking pitches.
Even D-II schools face guys who can throw 88-90 MPH, so these guys arent going to be intimidated by a 90-92 MPH fastballs, many of which were probably left over the middle of the plate.
If we are goin to get down on the pitchers, for not being able to pitch, then we have to annoint Watkins and Ruiz as great prospects because they had a good day.
Humber won’t have to worry about the Tigers for a while.
Until September, his problems will be the Syracuse Chiefs and the Buffalo Bisons.
plus, you have a bunch of DII guys who are highly motivated and want to make an impression and to knock off an MLB team versus an MLB team playing AAA prospects.
i see….
well i think blackburn and mulvery with guerra will be a great froup of guys in 2 years.. with baker liriano also and possibly boof and humber…
you never know.. humber may become the number 1 pitcher he was supposed to be
group not froup lol
I think it’s pretty certain that Humber isn’t the same guy who was picked #3. He didn’t come off the surgery very well and the Mets may have pushed him a little too much. Maybe the Twins can make something out of him, though. They have good people in the pitching department
A bit of over reaction to anyone that is mad about Humber giving up runs today.
My only question about the whole scrimmage is, does Concordia use metal bats in this?
no clue.. about the bats.. good question
Humdog = david west
Hope there is power in Fort Myers…
Did they keep Gomez out to spare fans the reality of it all?
Yoke, yes… per another blog site… Concordia used metal bats. Not saying it was the only reason Humber gave up a few runs, just answering your question.
A bit of over reaction to anyone that is mad about Humber giving up runs today.
A bit of over reaction in general. The Twins could’ve won 16-0 and you still would’ve heard complaints that it was “only a D-II school.”
It’s a warmup game. Nothing more. Heck, a minor leaguer took Roger Clemens deep one or two years ago…remember?
I thought I would throw this out their since Mulvey pitched today.
Dan Szymborski who compiles the ZiPS projections said this about Mulvey’s projections:
ZiPS really likes Kevin Mulvey, which puts him on my Antacid Watch List next year as I’ll probably follow him daily in a hope I can telepathically force him to make me not look like an idiot. I’ve lucked out the last two notable occasions (projecting Maine to have an ERA half a point better than Benson at the time of the trade and then Rich Hill at 12-8, 3.65 for this season).
IF he makes it to the big leagues here is his Minnesota ZiPS projections:
9-9 W-L, 4.47 ERA, 137 IP, 156 H, 11 HR, 36 BB, and 61 K.
Evidently,his minor leagues numbers translate fairly well.
What exactly is “ZiPS”? Those look like one season’s worth.
ZiPS is a projection system by Dan Szymborski.
The ZiPS projections are free (Microsoft Excel).But not sorted by teams.
From what I have read his projection system is one of the better ones.
What’s confusing me is if they’re just 2008…
Because yeah, if he’s not ready for the majors (as those numbers indicate) he likely won’t be pitching in the majors in 2008.
To me it seems like it’s projecting the obvious. A minor league player isn’t ready for the majors…which is why he’ll likely still be in the minors this year.
Where’s the box?
i heard that humber threw a ball. but then he threw a strike. but then he threw another ball.
oh no — he’s terrible and the season is lost.
With only a little tongue in cheek, why are we dinking with Livan when we have Mulvey?
And Slowey
And Blackburn
And Humber
And Duensing
And Manship.
Because, in the aggregate, these guys can be the equivalent of the inning-eater thing — going up and down from AAA.
Manship, Duensing, and Humber aren’t that ready for it yet; but chances are they’ll be ready by late summer.
And Slowey and Blackburn are definitely ready.
T,
These are projections for 2008…IF he was to pitch for the Twins.By the number of innings projected he would be brought up later in the year.
For a 23 year old, these projections are not that bad.
T, now you’re confusing ME. You said:
“…if he’s not ready for the majors (as those numbers indicate)”.
What numbers? A 4.47 ERA isn’t being ready for the bigs?
If Livan gets a 4.47 ERA, everyone will say the Twins are geniuses for signing him.
there may be no reason to play the season with all the projections out there. save a lot of money paying players if they played the game on a computer. i’m convinced that no one knows what will happen until about oct. 1 so lets play a few games before we throw in the towel or commit suicide.
there may be no reason to play the season with all the projections out there. save a lot of money paying players if they played the game on a computer.
That’s actually a good idea. I once put together a Twins team in MVP 08 (all existing players) that went 140-22 or something absurd like that in a fully simulated season.
That was WITH contracts enabled.
Needless to say I had the MVP, Cy Young, RoY, and Playoff/Series MVP.
T, now you’re confusing ME.
Me bad. I misread those.
t: eating a hot dog and drinking a beer sitting in front of the computer isn’t as much fun as sitting outside in the sun…oh wait we play inside the dome. sorry not much difference.
gobbledygookguy,
Good point…these are only projections.
Also, pitcher’s are harder to project.But, SABERMETRICS and projections have value and can help teams evaluate players and how they can expect them to perform…IMO.
I think the Twins will go with their 13 best position players:
OF:
Young, Kubel, Gomez, Monroe, Cuddyer.
IF:
Lamb, Punto, Everett, Harris, Morneau, Tolbert.
C:
Mauer, Redmond.
steve,
IMO you are taking a flyer on Tolbert.
He was unranked in the top 30 Twins prospects by Baseball America and is a one-position player (2B).
I’d take Watkins (more versatility), Macri (versatility) or Pridie (closer to MLB ready.
steve,
I see Tolbert played SS today, so the Twins are trying to develop his versatility.
I think Macri is one to watch. Maybe not right away, but in Sept. he could be doing things
Tolbert played a lot of SS in college and lower minors, so he has experiece there
i wouldn’t mind seeing more of Morales, the catcher, and seeing if his bat is as good as last year. Even that means having the dreaded 3rd catcher. Otherwise, I think Watkins has the lead right now, having been here before
Oh Boy!!!
But given a preference, Morales would play every day in the minors, i’d just like to see his bat.
So what you’re saying is that the Twins pitchers gave up 12 runs today.
Encouraging (and yes I’m just being sarcastic.)
Give us more detail on Humber, and Mulvey and the other pitchers please.
Warm-up game = Guys getting their work in and told to throw all one pitch and not worry about location.
cmathewson,
I agree the main purpose is “tuning up”. But, IMHO, every pitcher has their own particular tuning needs and I can’t imagine a situation in a game condition where location is not a concern.
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