TWIN’S MINOR LEAGUE UPDATE

Some quick notes from down on the farm…

*Piggybacking off my story about Luke Hughes, the Twins are apparently picking the right guys out of Australia. All joking aside, there are obviously some pretty good ballplayers that are making their mark, including Liam Hendriks, also from Perth, who is off to a very impressive start for the Twin’s Class A affiliate, Beloit. In four starts, the 21-year old right-hander has 26 strikeouts in 22 innings pitched, including a 0.41 ERA and allowing just one run on seven hits and two walks. Sounds like we may be hearing from this undrafted free-agent as the season progresses.

*The slow-starting Aaron Hicks, the top prospect in all of the Twins minor league system, has caught fire over the past 10 games, batting .514 (19-37) with three home runs, five stolen bases and 10 walks. He is now hitting .299 on the season. So much for relying on April stats. Just goes to show that you need to have a bigger sample size than one month to determine who the real players are.

*Twins 2009 first-round draft pick Kyle Gibson, a consensus top-10 draft pick before suffering a stress fracture in his forearm, gave Twins fans a glimpse of the future last night. The 22-year old right-hander tossed a one-hitter for the Class A Fort Myers Miracle, all with only 91 pitches. He walked one and hit one, as well as allowing an apparently cheap infield hit over a dominating performance in which he faced the minimum 27 batters. Gibson is now 2-1 with a 1.76 ERA in five starts, including a 2-0 record with a 1.00 ERA and 22 strikeouts since his opening night performance. Looks like he may be finding his way into the Twins rotation sooner rather than later.