Daniel Turpen

If Daniel Turpen ever makes it to the majors, it will have to be considered an unconventional, winding, but well-earned path. Turpen, now pitching out of the bullpen at AA New Britain, is already playing with his fifth organization. In this case it's a positive: twice teams have traded him straight-up for a major league player.

Born: 8/17/86 Throws: R Bats: R Ht: 6'4" Wt: 245

The burly reliever was born in August 1986 in McMinnville, Oregon, just southwest of Portland. He went on to pitch for the McMinnville High School and wound up an Oregon State Beaver where he was part of the back-to-back national championship squad, certainly giving him some extra recognition.

In the 2007 draft, Turpen was selected in the eighth round by the Giants. In the midst of their World Series run in 2010, San Francisco dealt Turpen to the Red Sox for reliver Ramon Ramirez. Boston then left Turpen unprotected in the Rule V draft where the Yankees swooped in and selected him. Given a chance to compete for a major-league roster spot with the Yankees, Turpen turned in a mediocre Spring Training performance and was returned to Boston. His stay was brief as he was almost immediately traded to the Rockies for catcher Michael McKenry.

After seeing success with Colorado's AA affiliate, Tulsa, in 2011, Turpen offered the following statement, according to Oregonlive.com: "I'm happy where I am now." Hopefully he wasn't too happy in Tulsa, because he was right back on the move after the season, when the Twins received Turpen as the Player-to-Be-Named-Later in the Kevin Slowey deal.

What do the Twins, Rockies, Red Sox, Yankees, and Giants all see in the right-hander? Turpen describes himself as a gamer who "gets after hitters" and "doesn't need to throw the perfect pitch." He relies on keeping the ball down to induce grounders.

CAREER MINOR LEAGUE STATS
W-L: 20-16 ERA: 3.24 IP: 308 WHIP: 1.36 BB/9: 3.39 K/9: 7.01 HR/9: 0.38 BB/SO: .48

Judging by over 300 innings in the minors, the stat that jumps to me is the low home run rate. The BB/K ratio seems a little on the high side, but so far in 2012 he has yet to walk a batter while fanning nine.

He has earned the win in each of his two most recent appearances, going two innings in each. He has also been entrusted to finish games this season, earning a save April 14 @ New Hampshire.

Unfortunately, it wasn't a great day for Danny as he took the loss for the Rock Cats in a 7-3 home defeat to Portland.

Turpen came into the game in the top of the 7th, with New Britain staked to a 3-2 lead, and promptly struck out the final two hitters to end the inning.

Turpen came back out for the 8th and did a great job working out of a big jam after back-to-back singles to start the inning, inducing a timely double-play followed by a pop-out to escape unharmed.

But then came the ninth, and things unraveled very quickly.

Pop-out.
Double.
Single + Error by Turpen.
Single.
Single.
Strikeout.

And in came Bobby Lanigan to try to finish off Portland. His outing was just as shaky, as three more runs crossed the plate in the ninth, all charged to Turpen.

It seems somewhat unusual to me that Turpen was brought in to pitch the final 2 2/3 innings, throwing 34 pitches. The biggest positive is he allowed no walks or home runs yet again. Certainly looking like he could become a nice fit at Target Field in the future.

Tweeted this Sunday night:

Last year, RH RP Daniel Turpen walked 35 and struck out 33 in 59.2 IP. In 14 IP so far this year, he has 0 walks and 14 strikeouts.

We gave away Kevin Slowey for this guy. Just another terrible trade for the Twins.

Turpen pitched a scoreless, drama-free 12th inning on Tuesday night to close out the Rock Cats' 6-1 extra-inning win over Harrisburg.

He allowed a hit, but struck out two and walked none.

Quite impressive numbers by Turpen so far with 16 Ks and no walks. If he spent the offseason working on his control, I'd say it was a huge success.

Daniel Turpen finally proved he is human this season when he walked his first batter of 2012 Tuesday night. It was still a time to celebrate, however, as he fanned two and earned the win in New Britain's victory over Binghampton when his offense plated three runs in the top of the ninth.

Turpen's 2012 numbers are great all-around. 3-1, 2 saves, a 2.76 ERA, 17:1 K/BB ratio, and opponents batting a mere .207 in 16.1 IP. I would argue Turpen's performance warrants a call up to AAA by late summer.

Turpen's season numbers just took a serious hit after Monday's implosion vs. Binghampton. Big T gave up six earned runs in just two innings, seeing his season ERA skyrocket to 6.46. He also walked two, doubling his season total to 4, and finally allowed his first home run.

The good news is this is one isolated poor outing. Everything up until Monday showed he was nothing short of dominating. It's too bad, most people will look at the stats and see a 6.46 ERA when that certainly doesn't tell the whole story.

Turpen continues to come into ballgames with the expectation to pitch 2 innings. In his four June appearances, he was worked 2 innings in three of them, and 1.2 in the other.

In 7.2 innings of work this month, Turpen has put up some respectable numbers: 3 ER, 6 H, 7 K, 5 BB, 1 HR.

His season ERA sits at 5.45 and again, most of that goes back to his dreadful May 21 outing when he gave up 6 ER.

It's tough to gauge where he's headed. His numbers are very middle-of-the-pack. Just guessing, but a promotion to AAA doesn't seem like it's on the immediate horizon.

the way MN likes to keep average non-deserving players a shot in AAA.....nothing is out of question

Nice little run to close out June for Turpen, who has now thrown 9 2/3 consecutive scoreless innings over his last five outings. During that time, he has fanned 8 while walking 2, lowering his season ERA back down to 4.43.

Turpen earned a spot on the Eastern League Eastern Division All-Star team and wound up pitching the final out in the top of the ninth inning, then seeing his team score the winning run in the bottom half of the inning. For that one batter's worth of work, Turpen received the win in the game!

I was a little surprised Turpen made the All-Star team given he's a relief pitcher with an ERA of 4.70, but as I've mentioned before, that number is a bit inflated due to a couple rough outings.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Fanatic Jack

We gave away Kevin Slowey for this guy. Just another terrible trade for the Twins.

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Slowey was terrible in the first place. He had no trade value, so Turpen was probably the best guy that they could get.

Wait, Fanatic Jack had a knee jerk reaction that turned out to be wrong?

I do miss the opportunity to see Slowey get lit up every five days or perhaps be a grossly overpaid AAA pitcher.

Turpen was promoted to Rochester in late July, and so far his line would suggest he has struggled a bit in his first taste of AAA. In 7 games spanning 10.2 innings, Turpen has 2 saves, but a 7:8 BB:K ratio to go with a 5.06 ERA. However, opponents are hitting just .244 against him. Truth be told, Turpen's numbers would look a lot prettier if not for a single poor outing against Columbus in his second AAA appearance where he was knocked around, allowing 4 ER in 2 innings.

Either way, congrats to AA All-Star Turpen on his promotion! I bet we'll see him in spring training for the Twins next season.

That would be great, I look forward to Bert saying it's Turpen Time.