GCL Twins

2007 GCL Twins News

Twins OK with 2-14 Ward

BY KELSIE SMITH
Pioneer Press

Two days remain until this season's July 31 trade deadline, marking one year since Zach Ward became a Twin.

When the Twins acquired Ward in a trade with Cincinnati for right-handed starter Kyle Lohse, the right-hander was 7-0 in 18 starts for the Reds' Class A affiliate Dayton Dragons. Ward had a 2.29 earned-run average in 114 innings, holding opposing batters to a .188 average.

Ward stayed in the Midwest League after the trade, moving to Minnesota's Class A Beloit Snappers. There the righty went 1-4 in six starts with a 5.93 ERA and a .250 batting average against.

This season Ward, 23, is stationed with the Fort Myers Miracle, the Twins' Class A advanced club. Ward is just 2-14 in 20 games (14 starts) with the Miracle, but it seems that ugly record isn't all his own doing.

"(Thursday) night we were winning 3-0, he was pitching and we got suspended (because of rain)," said Twins director of minor leagues Jim Rantz, "So that's the way his luck is going.

"He's got good stuff. He's one of those pitchers who seems to not get the run support and just pitches good enough to get beat. He doesn't deserve the won-loss record he's got because at the beginning of the year that club was struggling to score runs."

Fort Myers has the worst batting average in the Florida State League (.234) and, entering Friday's game, had scored the fewest runs (379).

In a start on July 21, Ward threw eight innings, allowed just two unearned runs and struck out nine batters but still got the loss. On July 5, his six shutout innings were for naught, as the Miracle bullpen gave up two runs in the eighth and Fort Myers lost 2-1.

Despite an ugly record, Ward's 3.09 ERA is tied for eighth in the Florida State League, and his 1.18 WHIP (walks plus hits per inning pitched) ranks fifth.

"We have a good, young arm that I think is still on his way up," Rantz said. "I'm sure he's not happy record with his won-loss (record), but we still like his stuff. We still think he's a guy that's going to pitch higher in the organization."

Lohse is 6-12 with a 4.58 ERA for the Reds this season, and his name is being mentioned in trade rumors.

Backstop blues: The minor league catching ranks are thinning.

Earlier this month the Twins decided to shift Caleb Moore, the team's fourth-round pick in 2005, from catcher to pitcher, moving him from Fort Myers to Beloit, where he has thrown one scoreless inning in relief.

To take Moore's place with the Miracle, the organization moved Allen De San Miguel from Beloit to Fort Myers, where, in his first game, he broke his pinky finger, which required surgery in Minnesota.

Meanwhile, in Elizabethton, backstop Rodolfo Palacios had to leave the team for knee surgery, which also brought him to the Twin Cities.

"We took it in the chin," Rantz said.

Briefly: Class AAA Rochester is hovering on the International League playoff bubble. Entering Friday's game, the Red Wings were a half-game back from the wild-card spot and three games out of first place.