Month: August 2014

Twins minor league player of the week

Stuart Turner
Stuart Turner

Ft. Myers Miracle (High A ball) catcher Stuart Turner is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. The 22 year-old Turner played in four games for the Miracle and went 6-for-13 (.462) with three doubles, a home run and five RBI. The Twins third round pick in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft is a right-handed hitter and is in just his second year of professional baseball after being drafted out of the University of Mississippi. The Eunice, Louisiana native was named the Twins best defensive catcher entering the 2014 season.

Couple of other minor league notes –

Alex Meyer
Alex Meyer

Triple-A Rochester Red Wings starter Alex Meyer was removed from last night’s game vs. Buffalo and was placed on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation. Does that kill his chances for pitching for the Twins this year? We will have to wait and see but it does not look promising.

Jose Berrios
Jose Berrios

The Twins promoted RHP Jose Berrios and LHP Ryan O’Rourke to Rochester. Berrios is expected to start for the Red Wings today in Pawtucket. 2014 has been an amazing year for Berrios who started the season at High A Ft. Myers where he put up a 9-3 record with a 1.96 ERA and was then promoted to Double AA New Britain when his record was 3-4 with a 3.54 ERA. Between the two stops he has struck out 137 batters in 137 innings. Berrios who is obviously on the fast track to Minnesota is trying to help Rochester get a wild card playoff spot.

According to Elias

Trevor Plouffe
Trevor Plouffe

Trevor Plouffe‘s solo home run in the seventh inning would not appear to be notable at first glance, especially since the Twins would muster no more offense in their 9-1 loss at Oriole Park at Camden Yards last night. That long ball however was indeed historic – it was the 10,000th home run hit by the Twins/Senators franchise. They were the last of the 16 pre-expansion franchises to reach 10,000 home runs. The Twins have contributed 7,214 of those homers while the Senators hit 2,786. By the way, Plouffe also hit Twins home run numbers 9,999 and 10,001.

Griffith Stadium
Griffith Stadium

The Washington Senators’ longtime home field, Griffith Stadium, had very distant fences and high outfield walls. One of the most remarkable statistics in baseball history: In 1945, the Senators went through the entire season of 78 home games hitting exactly one home run in their own park – and that one was an inside-the-park four-bagger! This wasn’t in 1845; it was 1945! And that 1945 team was pretty good – finishing second, one and one-half games behind the Tigers, who would go on to win the World Series.

Twins announce 2014 AFL participants

AFL logoThe Minnesota Twins have named six players that will participate in the 2014 Arizona Fall League season and will announce one additional player at a later date. The Twins players that will play for the Salt River Rafters this season are outfielders Byron Buxton, Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler as well as RHP Jason Adam, LHP Mason Melotakis, and LHP Taylor Rogers. Players do not often play in the AFL two years in a row but in the case of the Twins they will Buxton, Rosario, and Kepler back for a second try. Not because of how they played in the AFL in 2013 but because they all need more at bats this season. Buxton the number one prospect in baseball has been out most of the season with wrist injuries and now is coming off a concussion. Kepler has had various nagging injuries all season and has not played up to his potential at Ft. Myers this season. Rosario missed the first 50 games of the season due to his suspension. All three outfielders have something to prove this fall.

The Salt River Rafters roster will be made up of players from the Rockies, Diamondbacks, Astros, Marlins and Twins organizations. The team will be managed by Andy Haines and the hitting coach will be Kevin Riggs and the pitching coach will be Joshua Miller.

The six-team  league, owned and operated by Major League Baseball, will play six days per week (Monday-Saturday). As always, the AFL will be chock full of future big leaguers when the six-week league, which has established itself as the finishing school for the game’s best prospects since its inception in 1992, begins its season on Tuesday, October 7. The Fall League season runs through Saturday, November 15, with a championship game held at Scottsdale Stadium. The league’s Fall Stars Game, which will feature many of those Top 100 prospects, will be held Saturday, November 1, at Salt River Fields.

According to MLB, approximately 60 percent of AFL players will reach the Major Leagues. 14 players on the Twins current roster have participated in the Arizona Fall League. Since its inception in 1992 about 2,300 AFL players have reached the major leagues.

MLB TV will carry some of these AFL games so make sure you check it out and watch some of these young stars play this fall and maybe, just maybe you will see some of the players in the major leagues in 2015.

UPDATE AS OF AUGUST 30 – The Twins have announced that RHP Jake Reed will also join the Salt River Rafters this fall.

This Day in Twins History – August 28, 1980

Exhibition StadiumAn odd game for sure at Toronto’s Exhibition Stadium. The game officially lasted 15 innings and 4 hours and 24 minutes but the game was actually not completed until the next day August 29) when the Twins defeated the Blue Jays by a 7-5 score. The game was scheduled as a day game because the Canadian National Exhibition (Canada’s version of a state fair) was going on next door to the ballpark and as part of the event, a concert stage was erected next to the stadium for a daily nighttime concert and it was declared that no inning could begin after 5:00 PM local time. The teams played for 14 innings and were tied at 5 apiece when the curfew kicked in.

Dave StiebVerhoeven, JohnThe game resumed the following afternoon but both of the line-ups had to be modified because Blue Jays 1B Otto Velez and the Twins outfielder Bombo Rivera were injured in an auto accident after the game. Rivera was in no condition to play and Blue Jay Otto Velez was injured and out for the season. Since Toronto had used all their position players, the Blue Jays sent pitcher Dave Stieb (who was scheduled to start that day’s game for Toronto) out to left field. As often happens in these situations, the Twins scored two runs quickly in the top of the 15th and Al Williams held the Blue Jays scoreless in the bottom of the inning for a Twins win and in the process recorded the first of his two career saves. Minnesota then won the regularly scheduled game for that day (August 29) 5-2 and naturally, Dave Stieb was the losing Toronto pitcher. A strange two days at Exhibition Stadium in Toronto. John Verhoeven only won 3 games in his Twins career and this was one of them.

Box Score for August 28 game

Box Score for August 29 game

Elizabethton Twins doing well…..again

Nick Gordon
Nick Gordon
Felix Jorge
Felix Jorge

A recent issue of Twins Game Notes stated that the Rookie-level Appalachian League named its 2014 All-Star Team Friday night. Nick Gordon was named the shortstop, Max Murphy was named an outfielder, Felix Jorge was named right-handed pitcher and Ray Smith was named Manager.

Ray Smith
Ray Smith

Gordon is hitting .282 (59-for-209) with six doubles and three triples in 51 games. Minnesota-native Max Murphy (currently with Cedar Rapids) hit .378 (45-for-119) with 10 home runs and 26 RBI in 35 games and also earned Appy League Player of the Year honors. Felix Jorge (currently with Cedar Rapids) went 4-2, 2.29 ERA (63.0 IP, 16 ER) with 13 walks and 56 strikeouts in 11 starts and also earned Appy League Pitcher of the Year honors. lastly, manager Ray Smith has led the E-Twins to a record of 34-27 and in first place of the Apply League West Division. Smith is in his 21st year of managing the E-Twins and his team has won the league championship on seven occasions and lost in the championship game five more times. His team has failed to make the playoffs in only seven of his 21 seasons at the helm.

This Day in Twins History – August 25

Dean Chance8/25/1967 – Dean Chance pitches the second no-hitter in Twins history and defeats the Indians  2-1 in the second game of a double-header at Cleveland Stadium. The Indians actually scored first in this game when Chance walked Lee Maye and Vic Davalillo in the bottom of the first. Chance then struck out Chuck Hinton but Tony Horton reached on an error by SS Jackie Hernandez to load the bases. With Max Alvis batting, Chance threw a wild pitch and Maye scored the Indians first and only run. Chance then struck out Alvis and Joe Azcue flew out to end the threat. Chance then completed the game without allowing an Indian hit while striking out eight and walking a total of five batters. The Twins went on to score two runs and win this unusual no-hitter. Box Score

8/25/1970 – A bomb scare at Met Stadium delayed the Boston Red Sox vs. Minnesota Twins game forty-three (43) minutes. According to the Sporting News, a bomb scare forced a 43-minute delay in the fourth inning, but the only bomb that exploded was the homer by Tony Conigliaro off of Tom Hall in the eighth giving Red Sox 1-0 victory over Twins. A crowd of 17,697 evacuated the stands after announcement over public address system stated that a telephoned warning had been received that bomb was due to go off. The evacuation was orderly and without panic with about 2,000 fans, players, police and vendors gathered in the center-field area. The rest milled about in the parking lot. The bomb was supposed to go off at 10:30 PM so after a 27 minute wait, the game was resumed at 10:57 PM. The Sox end the game with a double play, the first out is a force at second base on a ball hit by Jim Holt and then Tony Oliva is caught in a rundown (6-5-2-5) trying to score from third. Ken Brett is the winner in relief over Tom Hall. Box Score

Bob Casey
Bob Casey

Bob Casey who was the Twins public address announcer for a long time and a Minnesota legend was at times a curmudgeon. One of the best anecdotes about him occurred during this bomb threat. “Bob,” a team official told Casey, “there’s a bomb threat, and we need to clear the stadium. So could you make some sort of announcement for people to calmly leave the stadium.” Casey assured them that it would be no problem. Moments later, he grabbed the microphone and shouted, “Ladies and gentlemen, please don’t panic but there’s going to be an EXPLOSION in 15 minutes!”

Jerry Zimmerman
Jerry Zimmerman

8/25/1978 – Major League umpires stage a one-day strike in defiance of their union contract. Semipro and amateur umps are pressed into service until a restraining order forces the strikers to return.  At Toronto at Exhibition Stadium, the Blue Jays beat the Twins 7 – 3, with two amateur umpires and two coaches officiating: Toronto coach Don Leppert was at 2B and Twins coach Jerry Zimmerman was at 3B. Since 1910, this was just the 5th time this century, and the first time since 1941, that active players or coaches have acted as umpires. The umpires will walk out again at the beginning of the 1979 season

8/25/1998 – The Twins like many teams before them, send pitcher Mike Morgan packing, this time to the Cubs and pitcher Scott Downs heads to Minnesota. Morgan pitched for 12 different ML teams (13 if you count that he was traded to the Cubs twice) between 1978 and 2002 before he finally calls it quits.

8/25/2008 – The Twins make a deal with the Texas Rangers and reacquire relief pitcher Eddie Guardado and send pitcher Mark Hamburger to Texas. Hamburger resigned with the Twins as a free agent in September 2013.

Twins minor league player of the week

Jake Reed
Jake Reed

Cedar Rapids Kernels (Low A) pitcher Jake Reed is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. Reed, a 6’2″ right-hander made three appearances for the Kernels, tossing 4.0 shutout innings with no hits allowed no walks and six strikeouts while earning two saves. The Twins fifth round pick in the 2014 First-Year Player Draft has made 18 appearances for Cedar Rapids and Elizabethton combined, going 3-0, 0.32 ERA (28.0 IP, 1 ER) with two walks and 37 strikeouts.

The 21 year-old La Mesa, California native attended the University of Oregon from 2012-14 and switched from starter to closer in his final season. Reed went 4-1 with a 1.95 ERA and 13 saves in 31 games in his first season as a reliever for the Ducks. He started 17 games in each of his first two seasons with the Ducks and went 8-4 with a 2.92 ERA as a freshman and 6-6 with a 3.50 ERA as a sophomore. Reed was a Chicago White Sox 40th round pick in 2011 but chose not to sign. The Twins reportedly gave Reed a $350,000 signing bonus, slightly under slot.

Twins score 20

The Twins beat up on the Detroit Tigers 20-6 last night at Target Field in front of 29,394 fans that had to watch 3 hours and 59 minutes of baseball if they wanted to see the games final pitch. The Twins are the first AL team this season to score 20 runs in a game and this is the most runs ever scored by the Twins in a game at Target Field.

This is the 13th time in franchise history and the eighth time in Twins team history that the team has scored 20 or more runs in a game. The Detroit Tigers have been the unlucky victims of the Twins/Senators 20 or more runs parade on five occasions, four times by the Twins and once by the Washington Senators.

The Twins previous high for runs scored in a game at Target field occurred on July 16, 2012 when they out-scored the Baltimore Orioles 19-7. The Twins have had 20 runs scored against them just three times and always on the road. The Twins lost to the Kansas City A’s 20-2 on April 25, 1961, they lost 23-6 to the Kansas City Royals on April 6, 1974 and they lost a 20-6 game to the Texas Rangers on July 25, 2011.

Rk Date Tm Opp Rslt PA AB R H HR BB LOB Attendance GmLen
1 1996-04-24 MIN DET W 24-11 60 46 24 19 3 12 9 12,189 223
2 2002-06-04 MIN CLE W 23-2 57 50 23 25 3 7 10 14,029 194
3 1994-06-04 MIN DET W 21-7 57 49 21 24 4 5 9 23,780 194
4 1994-05-20 MIN BOS W 21-2 54 44 21 22 1 7 9 20,766 188
5 1929-08-05 WSH DET W 21-5 51 41 21 21 1 6 6 132
6 2014-08-22 MIN DET W 20-6 55 46 20 20 4 9 11 29,394 239
7 2009-05-21 MIN CHW W 20-1 54 46 20 20 4 5 7 23,048 178
8 2007-07-06 (1) MIN CHW W 20-14 57 47 20 21 2 8 10 31,543 222
9 1980-04-27 MIN OAK W 20-11 52 41 20 20 0 8 8 19,859 197
10 1943-08-01 (2) WSH SLB W 20-6 56 41 20 19 0 12 12 15,579 136
11 1925-08-22 WSH DET W 20-5 55 44 20 19 3 10 8 162
12 1923-08-24 WSH CLE W 20-8 59 42 20 22 0 14 12 150
13 1915-09-29 (2) WSH PHA W 20-5 52 43 20 23 0 4 8 110
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 8/23/2014.

.

Here is what ELIAS had to say about the game: Eduardo Escobar led the Twins’ 20-hit attack, going 5-for-6 from the eighth slot in the lineup, in their 20-6 victory over the Tigers. He was the first major-league player to collect five hits, including a home run, in a game from either the eighth or ninth slot in the lineup since Detroit’s Carlos Pena generated six hits, including a pair of homers, at Kansas City back in 2004.

Eduardo Escobar
Eduardo Escobar

Escobar’s night began with a second-inning homer off Robbie Ray, and he followed with a single off Blaine Hardy, a triple off Jim Johnson, a single off Joba Chamberlain and another single off pitcher-for-a-day infielder Andrew Romine. Escobar became the second Twins player this month to get hits off five different pitchers in the same game – Danny Santana did it against the White Sox on August 3 – something no other big-leaguer has done this season.

And just to complete the story, we note that Escobar also made a pair of errors at shortstop on Friday night. The last major-leaguer with at least five hits and at least two errors in the same game was Kansas City’s Angel Berroa, who did it in a game at Cleveland in September 2003.

For the Twins, their 20-run, 20-hit performance marked just the eighth time in modern major-league history that a team had posted those exact numbers – and three of those eight games have been produced by the Twins. Minnesota went 20/20 against the Athletics in 1980 and against the White Sox in 2009.

Twins minor league player of the week

Stephen Gonsalves
Stephen Gonsalves

Cedar Rapids (Low A ball)  pitcher Stephen Gonsalves is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. The 20 year-old Gonsalves made a start on Friday against Peoria, tossing 7.0 shutout innings with three hits allowed, no walks and five strikeouts, earning the win. The Twins fourth round pick in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft has gone 2-2, 1.57 ERA (23.0 IP, 4 ER) in five starts for the Kernels this season. The 6’5″ left-handed Gonsalves was promoted from Rookie league Elizabethton in late July, where he was 2-0, 2.79 ERA (29.0 IP, 9 ER) in six starts.

Gonsalves was projected at one time to be the best left-handed pitcher in the 2013 draft but fell all the way to round four where he was selected by Minnesota. Why did he drop so dramatically? You can read the story here. The exact cost of Gonsalves’ suspension will never be known, but the 15th pick of this year’s (2013) first round earned a $2.25 million bonus, while the 33rd and final pick signed for $1.65 million. Kohl Stewart, the Twins’ pick at No. 4 overall, received a $4,544,400 signing bonus Wednesday. Gonsalves received $700,000, still far above his slot projection of $468,200.