July 10, 2011; Phoenix, AZ, USA; USA pitcher Kyle Gibson throws a pitch during the 2011 Futures Game at Chase Field. Mandatory Credit: Jerry Lai-US PRESSWIRE

Two Minnesota Twins prospects were honored today by being named to the 2012 Arizona Fall League Top Prospects Team.  The team is comprised of 22 players representing 15 organizations.

Kyle Gibson is a Twins starting pitching prospect whose return from Tommy John surgery has been highly anticipated.  Many consider his return a success, although his six starts had split results.  His first three games, all home games for the Peoria Javelinas, covered 13 innings during which he gave up one earned run on 13 hits with 2 walks and 19 strikeouts.  The final three games, all of which were away games for the Javelinas, were markedly different.  Gibson pitched 10.1 one innings and gave up 13 earned runs on 18 hits with 6 walks and 9 strikeouts.

Gibson went 3-2, with a 5.40 ERA and 28 strikeouts in 23.1 innings pitched in the AFL. He went 3-0 with a 0.69 ERA in his three home starts.

— Minnesota Twins (@Twins) November 26, 2012

The other Twins’ player to make the AFL Prospects Team was outfielder Nate Roberts.  If you’ve caught anything about the AFL, you’ve probably seen his name., and hopefully you read Michael Longoria’s “Bright Futures” article on Roberts.  Roberts had a hot bat this fall and ended the season with a .446 batting average in 65 at-bats, with an on-base percentage of .565.  To put Roberts’ OBP in context, Joe Mauer is considered an on-base machine, and www.mlb.com shows that he ended the 2012 season with a major league leading .416 OBP.  Mauer owned that stat over a significantly higher number of at bats (545), but Roberts’ effort was enough to make him the AFL leader by a significant margin; the next AFL player in line had a .494 OBP.

The successful fall season of two Twins prospects certainly won’t erase the memory of a bad 2012 for the Big Club, but it does give some hope for the future.  Particularly, the (at least partial) success of Gibson bodes well for a Twins team that likely expects him in the starting rotation for at least part of the 2013 season.

Twins related news and notes from the minor leagues

Chris Herrmann played only 3 games before he was taken off the roster after suffering a minor injury. In his 3 games Herrmann was 5-for-10 with 2 walks, a double and only 1 strikeout.

Dan Rohlfing replaced Herrmann on the roster and saw action in 5 games in Arizona and went 6-for-18, knocking in 5 RBI during his limited playing time.

Kyle Gibson made 6 starts in Arizona and finished the short season with a 5.40 ERA, 28 strikeouts, and only 8 walks in 23.1 innings. Gibson started the AFL with very impressive numbers through his first 3 starts, giving up only 1 run in 13 innings, but struggled as the season wore on giving up 6, 4, and 3, runs in his last three starts. For Kyle Gibson the main objective of going down to Arizona was to log some innings on his surgically repaired arm and by that measure it was a huge success. Gibson will likely compete for a starting spot in the Twins rotation in spring training and could be up with the Twins very early in the season, especially if Terry Ryan and the front office do not bring in any starting pitching talent this off-season.

Evan Bigley played 16 games for the Javolinas and scraped out 15 hits (including 4 doubles and 2 triples) and 7 walks, but he also struckout 16 times. Bigley hit only .242/.319/.371 while in Arizona, but the AFL is an offense heavy league. Bigley hit .268 in AA last season before getting a promotion to AAA where he struggled, hitting .207/.235/.321 in 39 games. It will be interesting to see what happens to Bigley going forward; the Twins organization is staked with OF depth and it will be difficult to find playing time for Bigley if he can’t make things happen with the bat.

Michael Tonkin posted a 2.45 ERA to match Bigley, making 10 appearances out of the Javolinas bullpen and 14.2 total innings. Tonkin gave up 4 runs, all of them earned. Tonkin had not given up a single run until his last 2 appearances of the year, giving up 1 and then 3 runs to finish his time in the AFL. His line for Arizona includes 7 K’s and 3 walks and only 8 hits surrendered (including 1 HR). Tonkin started the season in low-A Beloit before moving up to Ft Myers in 2012. He posted a 1.38 ERA in Beloit and a 2.97 ERA in Ft Myers and struck out more than a batter an inning at both levels, ending the season with 97 strikeouts and only 20 walks in 69.1 innings of work.

Logan Darnell made 9 appearances, including 2 starts in 18.1 innings. He gave up only 5 runs and finished the short season with a 2.45 ERA, 5 walks and 17 K’s. Darnell pitched for AA New Britain in 2012 where he struggled a bit, giving up 22 HR in 28 games; he finished the 2012 season with a 5.08 ERA.

Caleb Thielbar was the only real blemish amongst the Twins players sent to Arizona. He pitched 13 innings and surrendered 21 hits (3 HR), walked 8, gave up, struck out 12 and gave up 16 runs (all earned), earning himself an 11.08 ERA. Woof.

Nate Roberts’ performance in the AFL was quite surprising, in 19 games he hit .446/.565/.662, and lead lead the league in all three of the slash categories (AVG/OBP/SLG)! He knocked in 15 RBI and hit 3 homeruns and 5 doubles; he struck out just 7 times and took 12 walks. And best of all, Nate grew a fantastic mustache, much better even than the caterpillar Delmon Young was sporting up in Detroit. Nate Roberts played for low-A Beloit last season where he hit .299/.433/.427 and had likely already earned himself a 2013 promotion to high-A. Roberts was old for the league and will be 24 when the 2013 season begins so he will need to continue to impress and move up through the system quickly.

Once again congratulations to the Peoria Javolinas and especially to members of the Twins organization lucky enough to spend a few weeks down in Arizona this winter.

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Twins related news and notes from the minor leagues

This year the Twins sent Evan Bigley (AAA right-fielder), Logan Darnell (AA Left-handed starting pitcher), Kyle Gibson (AAA Right-handed starting pitcher), Chris Herrmann (AA catcher who made his MLB debut late this season), Nate Roberts (Low-A outfielder), Caleb Thielbar (AAA Left-handed reliever) and Michael Tonkin (High-A Right-handed relief pitcher).  Let’s take a closer look at how each of the Twins selections have faired after a couple of weeks in Arizona.

Kyle Gibson has been the most impressive of all the Twins prospects in the AFL, and maybe the most impressive in the AFL. Gibson has made three starts and is 3-0 with a shiny .069 ERA and 19 strike-outs in 13 innings of work. 14 games into the young AFL season Gibson leads the league in innings pitched and strike-outs and of the 35 pitchers who have logged more than 7.0 innings, only Seth Blair (St. Louis) and C.J. Riefenhauser (Tampa Bay) have given up less earned runs. If Gibson continues to pitch like this well and his arm continues to progress from surgery it will be hard to keep him out of the Twins rotation next spring.

Nate Roberts has been the Twins brightest star on the offensive side of the game. Roberts has seen action in 6 games and is 9 for 17 w/ 3 extra-base hits and 5 walks, his slash line is an impressive .529/.640/1.346!!! Obviously this is a small sample size, but things look bright for Nate Roberts who will most likely start next season in high-A Ft Myers after repeating a second season in low-A Beloit.

Chris Herrmann has also done well at the dish down in Arizona, but in an even smaller sample size. Herrmann has only played in 3 games so far, but is 5 for 10 in limited action. Herrmann is hampered by the Javelinas’ roster which also contains uber catching prospect Mike Zunino (SEA) and fellow catcher Tommy Joseph (PHI).

Update: Chris Herrmann has injured his left shoulder and has been replaced by AA catcher  Dan Rohlfing. The injury is to his non-throwing shoulder and is believed to bemild in nature. Rohlfing started the season in Ft Myers before moving up to New Britain and hit .235/.295/.311 across both leagues in 2012. Thanks to Twins prospect guru, Seth Stohs of Twins  Daily, for the news.

Michael Tonkin has had four appearances for the Javelinas this season and has yet to give up a run, earned or otherwise, in his 5.1 innings of work while striking out 4 and walking just a single batter. Tonkin struck out almost 13 batters per 9 between low/high-A in 2012 and his ability to get out high-caliber batters in the AFL is very good news. It will be interesting to see if Tonkin has earned a promotion to AA to start 2013 or if he starts in high-A where he posted a sub-3.00 ERA in 30+ innings.

Logan Darnell has also appeared in 4 games for Peoria and has done well for himself. Darnell spent all of 2012 w/ AA New Britain where he made 28 starts and logged 156 innings but was less than spectacular striking out well under a batter per inning and giving up nearly 1.3 HR/9. In his 6.2 innings of work in the AFL Darnell has given up only 2 runs (both earned) and 7 hits to go with 5 K’s and 2 BB’s.

Caleb Thielbar has been, to be nice, less than spectacular. In 5.1 innings of work Thielbar has given up 8 runs (all earned) and has a fancy 13.50 ERA to show for it. The good news is that although he gave up 4 runs in each of his first 2 appearances, he’s kept batters in check during his last 3 appearances allowing only a single hit and no walks in 3.0 innings of work. Thielbar, who started the year in Ft Myers before getting called up to AA New Britain  and eventually AAA Rochester had a strong season and finished w/ a 2.43 ERA between all three levels, helped in large part to 12.1 innings in Ft Myers where he gave up only 1 run (unearned). It will be interesting to see what Thielbar’s future is with the Twins, who picked up Thielbar from the Saint Paul Saints after the 2011 season.

Evan Bigley rounds out the Twins seven selections to the AFL, and his performance has been unimpressive to date. In 7 games of work Bigley has managed to hit only 5 for 29, has struck out 6 times and has yet to take a walk. His slash like is scary bad, .172/.241/.441. Bigley hit .268 for the Rock Cats before getting moved up to AAA to join the Red Wings where he hit just .251/.289/.409. Bigley will need to turn things around in a big way if he wants to stay in the Twins organization as anything other than an organizational guy, especially as the Twins farm system is full of high-value OF prospects. This may be Bigley’s last big chance to impress the brass in Minnesota.

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