Stacey King
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Most of Twins' top prospects struggling early with Chattanooga Lookouts
On the opening night of the season for the Chattanooga Lookouts, touted reliever Nick Burdi allowed four walks and a single in the ninth inning as a 3-0 lead in Montgomery turned into a 4-3 loss.
It's been that kind of start for some of the top prospects for the Minnesota Twins who have begun this season at the Double-A level.
Burdi, the No. 7 organizational prospect according to Baseball America, had an 0-1 record and a 54.00 earned run average after his April 9 debacle. He has regrouped somewhat and is now 1-2 with a 7.50 ERA but has been hampered by nine walks allowed in six innings of work.
"Nick was just behind at the start of the season," Lookouts manager Doug Mientkiewicz said. "He missed a lot of spring training and had a pretty bad cut on his shin. I take the blame for probably throwing him out there too soon, but he's going to be one of our horses, and we had to get him out there and get him some innings.
"He's having to work through it. I had him last year, and his first outing is always his worst one for some reason, but we're going to need him a lot in these next couple of months."
The Lookouts are seven games into a 10-game road trip and will be back at AT&T Field on Thursday night, when they host Jacksonville.
Chattanooga began this season with five of the top eight prospects in the Twins organization, including starting pitcher Jose Berrios. Rated the No. 3 Twins prospect by Baseball America, Berrios has held his own with a 1-1 start and a 3.94 ERA, and he has racked up 23 strikeouts in 16 innings to rank third in the Southern League and first among those with three starts.
"Berrios pitched in Double-A last year and did quite well, and he was in major league camp this spring," Twins player development director Brad Steil said. "He impressed people on our major league staff, so we're looking for him to take that next step in his development and perform well again in Double-A. Then, hopefully by the end of the year, he'll be knocking on the door in Minnesota.
"He will run his fastball up into the mid 90s, and he also has a good changeup and a pretty good curveball."
Center fielder Byron Buxton is the top Twins prospect and the top prospect in all the minors now that the Chicago Cubs have called up third baseman Kris Bryant from Triple-A Iowa. Buxton had a two-run home run in Saturday night's loss at Tennessee but is hitting just .190 through 15 games.
Miguel Sano, Chattanooga's third baseman, is the No. 2 organizational prospect and is batting .173 through 15 games. Sano has shown flashes of power, collecting a grand slam among his three home runs, but has struck out 16 times.
"We go into moments where we're really susceptible to a strikeout," Mientkiewicz said. "We give away a lot of at-bats. We've chased some balls out of the zone, and these guys are better than they've shown."
Shortstop Jorge Polanco, the No. 8 organizational prospect, is hitting .270 with three homers and eight RBIs.
"Jorge Polanco is always consistent," Mientkiewicz said. "He doesn't try to do too much."
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