Yes, the Elizabethton Twins have won the championship again, their 12th Appalachian League title and ninth under current manager Ray Smith.
The Final Out of Elizabethton’s Championship Season
The E-Twins 2018 story (about 7 1/2 minutes long)
Category: General Blogging
This is a general blogging category.
Arizona Fall League just around the corner
2018 Arizona Fall League rosters were announced August 30th and the Minnesota Twins players will make-up part of the Salt River Rafters along with players from the Diamondbacks, Rockies, Marlins and Nationals. The club’s manager will be Tommy Watkins and strength and conditioning will be handled by Jacob Dean.
Players representing the Twins will be right-handed pitchers Griffin Jax and Hector Lujan, left-handed pitchers Alex Robinson and Devin Smeltzer, infielder Travis Blankenhorn, and outfielders Jaylin Davis, Luke Raley and Brent Rooker.
click on images to make them larger
Entering its 27th year, the AFL features six teams that are composed of players from all 30 Major League organizations. It offers the unique opportunity to gauge young talent against competition that usually is superior to what they experienced during the Minor League season. The rosters for this year’s AFL, are loaded with future stars. The group features 18 players ranked on MLB Pipeline’s list of the Top 100 Prospects.
Although I have not been to any AFL games the last few seasons I have attended a number of them in the past and it is a special treat to watch these young up and coming stars play ball. The price is right and often you will see more scouts than you will see paying fans. It is indeed a unique experience that I would recommend you partake in, if the opportunity presents itself.
Kennys Vargas earns post-season honors
AAA Rochester Red Wings first baseman Kennys Vargas has been named the designated hitter on the International League Postseason All-Star Team, according to the league office. The 27 year-old Vargas is batting .234 with 20 doubles, 20 home runs, 69 RBI, 39 runs scored, 56 walks and 130 strikeouts in 124 games with Rochester this season. Vargas is leading the team in hits, doubles, homers, RBI, runs and walks. He is the first Red Wing to be named the DH on the Postseason All-Star Team since Willis Otanez in 1998 and fourth since the current ballot format began in 1978.
If you are a baseball fan you will love La VIDA Baseball
Not that long ago I ran across a site called La VIDA Baseball. La VIDA Baseball is produced in association with the National Baseball Hall of Fame, celebrates the past, present and future of Latino baseball through our own lens and voice.
If you are interested in Latin Baseball and legends of the past, current stars or future up and coming Latino stars than this site is for you. They publish new articles on a regular basis and the writers are very, very good. If you are a fan of baseball than you should check this site out and bookmark it.
The Twins have had many Latino stars over the years and a lot of them have great stories written about them on this site. Here are just a few examples and there are many, many more.
ESCOBAR HUNTING FOR AN ARIZONA OCTOBER
The San Francisco Giants finally even the score against the Minnesota Twins
The Minnesota Twins picked 30th in the June 2011 draft and in round one they selected shortstop Levi Michael. The Twins signed Michael to a $1.175 million dollar bonus and sent him directly to A+ Ft. Myers in 2012. At the end of the 2017 the Twins let him go after Michael peaked with 12 games at AAA Rochester. The New York Mets signed him and he is playing in AA ball this season.
The Twins had two supplementary first round picks for the loss of Orlando Hudson and Jesse Crain and at number 50 they took third baseman Travis Harrison and signed him for $1.050 million. Harrison spent three years (2015-2017) in AA Chattanooga and the Twins let him go and Harrison is playing Independent League ball this season.
The Twins used their other (number 55) supplementary pick to take and sign RHP Hudson Boyd from Bishop Verot High School in Ft. Myers for $1 million. Boyd lasted with Minnesota just three seasons and reached A- Cedar Rapids and was sent packing in November 2014 for his off the field issues and no one has bothered to take a chance on him. No longer in pro ball.
Round 2 – Twins select RHP Madison Boer. The Twins released Boer after the 2015 season when he peaked in AA Chattanooga. Boer is no longer in pro ball.
Round 3 – Twins select LHP Corey Williams. Williams got to AA Chattanooga in 2016 but the Twins let him go and he pitched for the St. Paul Saints in 2016-2017 but is no longer in pro ball.
Round 4 – Twins selected RHP Matt Summers. Summers also reached AA Chattanooga before being released in 2015 and no longer in pro ball.
Round 5 – Twins select shortstop Tyler Grimes and in his fourth season he played at A+ Ft. Myers. The Twins let him go and he is no longer playing pro ball.
Round 6 – The Twins selected outfielder Dereck Rodriguez, son of Hall of Fame catcher Ivan Rodriguez and signed him for $130,000. In 2014 Dereck Rodriguez switched to the mound. The Twins started him out as a reliever in his first season as a pitcher but used him as a starter after that. Rodriguez reached AA Chattanooga in 2017 but left the Twins organization as a free agent after the 2017 season ended and signed with the San Francisco Giants.
The Giants had Rodriguez start the season in AAA where in 9 starts he was 4-1 with a 3.40 ERA and 53 strikeouts in 50.1 innings with just 11 walks. He was called up to the big leagues and made his major league debut on May 29, 2018 in relief and pitched 3.1 innings and allowed four runs but only one earned in Colorado. His next appearance was as a starter against the Phillies and he pitched 6 innings allowing just one run and notched his first big league win. This year Rodriguez has started 12 games and has a 2.25 ERA with a 6-1 record with 80 innings pitched and has 65 strikeouts and allowed only 61 hits. In his 12 starts Rodriguez has gone less than five innings just once. Rodriguez has been one of the most impressive rookie starters in all of baseball despite being allowed to reach minor-league free agency last fall by the Twins.
The Giants can count their found fortune later; for now, it’s enough that they’ve already received a huge contribution from Rodriguez and control him for six more seasons to come. It took 14 years but looks like the San Francisco Giants have finally gotten even for the A.J. Pierzynski trade they made with Minnesota back in November of 2003. That was the trade where the Giants acquired Pierzynski and cash for Boof Bonser, Joe Nathan and Francisco Liriano.
The only player the Twins got out of the 2011 draft that put on a Twins uniform was LHP Jason Wheeler and he appeared in 2 games throwing 3 innings before moving him to the Los Angeles Dodgers. I see no record of Wheeler pitching anywhere in 2018 so he may have put baseball in the rearview mirror.
The Twins had a terrible draft in 2011 but the Dereck Rodriguez story is a great one!
Alex Kirilloff named player of the month in FSL
Minor League Baseball announced the Player of the Month Award winners for each of the 16 leagues for the month of July. A+ Ft. Myers outfielder Alex Kirilloff led the Florida State League in average (.396), hits (40), total bases (62), extra-base hits (16), slugging (.614) and OPS (1.036) and he finished second in runs (20) and third in RBI (20). Kirilloff had 13 multi-hit games in July, including six straight, and had a 13-game hitting streak from July 13–29. He also won the Midwest League Player of the Month Award in May with Cedar Rapids. Kirilloff, 20, was selected by the Twins in the first round (15th overall) of the 2016 First-Year Player Draft out of Plum High School in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Is it possible that Kirilloff who turns 21 in November makes his first appearance in a Twins uniform in 2019? Don’t forget that he missed all of 2017 with TJ surgery and only has 635 AB’s on his professional resume.
Twins on trading spree like none seen in many a year
In the last five days of July the Falvey/Levine regime traded five experienced players off their big league roster and acquired 12 players that includes five pitchers, 4 outfielders and 4 infielders. The departed players have appeared in 2,674 games and the pitchers have notched 160 wins. The acquired players have no wins by the pitchers in the big leagues and have played in a total of 899 big league games of which Logan Forsythe has 807.
I grant you that Brian Dozier and Eduardo Escobar were both going to be free agents at the end of the season. Lance Lynn has not performed up to expectations, Zach Duke performed pretty much as expected and Ryan Pressly was probably over-worked but was a decent relief pitcher. The team itself has under-performed dramatically but to be fair I think the same can be said of the Twins “on the field” management staff.
The time is here for Falvey and Levine to step up
The Twins have just returned from a road-trip that saw them win one of nine games. If they look at the Sports page this morning they will see that they have a 35-48 record, are in third place in the weakest division in baseball and are 12 games out of first place.
The Twins have been a huge disappointment this season but these kinds of things have happened in the past and will happen again, it is baseball. Back in 1962 and again in 1963 the Twins won 91 games and then in 1964 they won 79 games before bouncing back in 1965 to win 102 games and advance to the World Series.
The young studs the Twins had back in 1982 were 60-102 and never won more than 81 games until they went to the World Series in 1987 when they won a grand total of 85 games. The 1990 Twins won 75 games before winning 95 in 1991 and again going to the World Series. I am not here to tell you that the Minnesota Twins will play in the 2019 World Series, but who knows, anything is possible.
Twins should give Paul Molitor his final ejection sooner than later
The Minnesota are coming off a 2017 season where they made an appearance in the playoffs for the first time since 2010 and finished with a 85-77 record. The Twins had such an up-beat season that Derek Falvey and Thad Levine had no choice but to sign manager Paul Molitor who was in the last year of his contract to a new deal. When the Falvey/Levine regime took over they were told by ownership that Molitor stays as the Twins skipper. With the team playing as well as it did, albeit most in the second half of the season, Falvey’s hands were tied behind his back, he had no real choice but to re-sign Molitor, probably not his first choice to manage the team under the Falvey/Levine umbrella.
In 2018 the team has played terribly in spite of several free agent starters brought in to bolster one of the worst starting pitching staff in the big leagues. Why is this team playing so poorly and inconsistently? We could probably make a long list of reasons and not all necessarily the fault of manager Paul Molitor. But, he is the manager so the responsibility it totally his, it is his job to manage the team so that it wins ball games, Molitor has not done that.
Molitor is a Hall of Fame baseball player but managing is not his thing, he is best suited to teach and not to manage. I hope that Falvey and Levine understand that and have the gonads to let Molitor go and put their own man in charge. I know that Molitor was just signed to a new 3-year deal after last season but I would bet that Falvey and Levine were not behind the big push to get that done.
Instead of starting to replace players the organization should replace the real problem here, the manager. This team needs a manager that has some bite and is willing to get this team back on the winning track by bringing a “in you face” managing style. The team need to start playing the game right and if they can’t, it should end up costing them money from their wallet or in terms of playing time.
The change in managers should take place sooner than later, Molitor should not be wearing a Minnesota Twins uniform after the All-Star break. Who should manage the team? I am not paid to answer that question but I will tell you who I would hire if I was Derek Falvey. My new Twins manager would be Ozzie Guillen, a man with experience who has been there before and a man not afraid to tell players where they stand. Besides, if the team can’t give us some excitement at the ballpark, I know that Ozzie can.
Cedar Rapids Kernels have two starters in Midwest League All-Star game
The Midwest League recently announced the rosters for the 54th Midwest League All-Star Game, scheduled for June 19th at Cooley Law School Stadium in Lansing, MI. The Cedar Rapids Kernels have two starters and two reserves selected to the team. The All-Stars were nominated and selected by the field managers of the 16 Midwest League teams.
Royce Lewis was selected as the starting shortstop for the MWL West squad and OF Alex Kirilloff was named a starting outfielder, pitchers Brusdar Graterol and Jared Finkel were selected as reserves for the MWL West squad.
