Category: General Blogging

This is a general blogging category.

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. 

Dereck Rodriguez

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

Alex Kirilloff credit Getty Images

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. 

Continue reading Twins on trading spree like none seen in many a year

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. 

Continue reading The time is here for Falvey and Levine to step up

Twins should give Paul Molitor his final ejection sooner than later

Paul Molitor

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. 

Ozzie Guillen

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.

Royce Lewis
Alex Kirilloff
Brusdar Graterol
Jared Finkel

 

Congratulations to Eddie Rosario

Eddie Rosario’s bat that hit the third home run is headed the the Twins archives. Credit-Dan Hayes

 

Congratulations to Minnesota Twins outfielder Eddie Rosario on becoming the first Minnesota Twins player in franchise history to hit three or more home runs in a game on two occasions.

Rosario did it for the first time on June 13, 2017 at Target Field against the Seattle Mariners and again less than a year later on June 3, 2018 again at Target field but this time the Cleveland Indians were the victims.

The Minnesota Twins and their predecessor Washington Senators have never had a player hit more than three home runs in a game but their players have hit three home runs in a game on 11 occasions and as mentioned earlier, Rosario is the only player to do it more than once.

Before the Washington franchise moved to Minnesota for the 1961 season, two Senators players had hit three home run in a single game, Jim Lemon on August 31, 1956 at Griffith Stadium against the New York Yankees and Goose Goslin on June 19, 1925 against the Cleveland Indians at Dunn Field. Lemon played for the Minnesota Twins from 1961-1963.

Twins opponents have hit three or more home runs in a game against the Twins a total of 26 times and no player has done it more than once.

List of franchise players who have hit 3 or more home runs in a single game

Ft. Myers Miracle have four players named as All-Stars

Florida State League All-Stars were announced yesterday and the Ft. Myers Miracle will have four representatives. Left-handed pitcher Andrew Vasquez, infielder Travis Blankenhorn and outfielders Jimmy Kerrigan and Jaylin Davis.

Andrew Vasquez is 0-1 with a 0.66 ERA in 15 relief appearances, 30 strikeouts and eight walks in 27.1 innings pitched. Vasquez was selected in round 32 of the 2015 June amateur draft.

Jimmy Kerrigan is hitting .289 with six home runs and 21 RBI in 40 games. Kerrigan was signed by Minnesota as a minor league free agent in July 2017.

Jaylin Davis is hitting .273 with four home runs and 11 RBI in 42 games with five outfield assists. Davis was a 24th round selection in the 2015 June amateur draft by the Twins.

Travis Blankenhorn (2nd All-Star selection – Midwest League in 2017 with Low-A Cedar Rapids) is hitting .255 with six home runs and 22 RBI. Blankenhorn was a Twins 3rd round pick in the 2015 June amateur draft.

Andrew Vasquez
Jimmy Kerrigan
Jaylin Davis
Travis Blankenhorn

click on images to make them larger

Falvey and Levine should DFA Molitor

Paul Molitor

Should Derek Falvey and Thad Levine be looking for a new manager for the Minnesota Twins? I know, I know, they signed him to a new deal after last season right after the Twins made the playoffs after a seven-year absence.

I can’t believe that Paul Molitor is their guy, and they in essence had no choice but to sign Molitor or get run out-of-town. The Twins are playing terribly, way below expectations in spite of good starting pitching. The bullpen started out decent but Molitor’s bullpen management quickly put an end to that.

You can’t put all the blame on Molitor but you can’t get rid of the players so the easiest thing to change is the manager. This team needs new leadership before the problem gets even more serious. The team doesn’t look like it is having fun or even takes the losses very seriously. Come on now, eight walk-off losses in 50 games, that is crazy.

Too many injuries? Every team has injuries, you just need to know how to manage them. Miguel Sano has been terrible so far and I think a part of that is because of Jorge Polanco being out due to suspension and not much can be done about that. Sano and Polanco are best buddies from way back and when I watched them this spring they were like joined at the hip, if you saw one you saw the other.

Derek Falvey and Thad Levine

Falvey and Levine aren’t blameless in this fiasco this year either. If Polanco is out, and Nick Gordon is tearing it up in AA and now hitting well in AAA why not bring him up and see what he can do and see if he can kick-start this anemic offense? It obviously is not breaking any barriers to bring up a guy from AA with little to no time in AAA.

Having said all this, Falvey and Levine deserve a chance to determine their own fate and that is difficult to do if you don’t have “your guy” managing your team. I know that Paul Molitor was a heck of a ballplayer, is in the Hall of Fame and is a local boy made good but that does not necessarily make him a good manager. Thank him for his service and let’s move on. Baseball is about winning, if you can’t do the job, its next man up. I am waiting to see of Falvey and Levine will “man up”.

 

Not all first round picks are born to be stars

For some baseball fans the MLB June Amateur Draft is one of the highlights of the season. They can’t wait to see who their favorite team drafts and then can’t wait to see that player wear their favorite team colors. Who knows, maybe their team just landed the next great baseball superstar, but few consider the fact that even first round selections can turn out to baseball “duds”.

If you pick a player in round one you expect him to be a bona-fide big league star, an All-Star type of player. Sadly, a lot of them will not meet those expectations for one of many different reasons.

The 2018 June Amateur Draft is just around the corner so it is time to take a look at the Minnesota Twins previous first round selections for the last ten years and see how they are doing.

 

The Minnesota Twins have had 18 first round selections in the last ten years (2008-2017). 

  • Three of the picks are playing for the Minnesota Twins at this time. Gibson, Buxton and Berrios
  • One of the picks is playing for another big league team. Hicks
  • One of the picks was selected in the Rule 5 draft, pitched briefly in the big leagues but was returned to the Twins minor league system. Bard
  • Seven of the picks are in the Twins system and still have a shot at wearing Twins colors at some point in the future. Lewis, Rooker, Kirilloff, Jay, Gordon, Stewart and Bard
  • Three of the picks are no longer with the Minnesota organization and are playing in the minors elsewhere. Michael, Harrison and Wimmers
  • Four are no longer playing pro baseball. Boyd, Bashore, Gutierrez and Hunt

 

Twins first round picks for last 10 years

2017 – Royce Lewis (shortstop) – First pick overall out of high school. Has been at Cedar Rapids (Low A) all season and is hitting .315 with a .368 OBP in 124 at bats with one home run and 13 stolen bases in 14 attempts. Signing bonus – $6.725 million

2017 – Brent Rooker – (outfielder) – 35th selection overall out of college. Has spent the season in Chattanooga (AA) and is hitting .233 in 163 at bats with four homers and 20 and has struck out 53 times. Has shown power in the past but no so much this year. The Twins seem to be grooming him to play first base. Signing bonus – $1.935 million

2016 – Alex Kirilloff – (outfielder) – 15th overall pick out of high school. Missed all of 2017 with TJ surgery and has played with Cedar Rapids all of this season hitting .325 in 151 at bats and a slick .959 OPS. Signing bonus – $2,817,100 million

2015 – Tyler Jay (LHP) – Selected sixth over all out of college. Pitched as a starter in 2015 and 2016 and strictly a reliever since. Injuries have plagued Jay and last season he pitched a total of just 11.2 innings for three different teams. He also pitched in the AFL where he threw 9.2 innings and had a 5.59 ERA. This year in AA Chattanooga he has thrown 14 innings striking out 9, walking 5,  has allowed 16 hits and has an ERA of 1.93. Signing bonus – $3,889,100 million

2014 – Nick Gordon (shortstop) – Selected fifth overall out of high school. The son of Tom “Flash” Gordon is in his fifth season of pro ball and was just promoted to AAA Rochester after hitting .333 in AA Chattanooga with 7 stolen bases, 10 doubles and 5 homers in 162 at bats. I would expect to see him put on a Minnesota Twins uniform at some point this season. In my opinion with Jorge Polanco suspended and the team hitting poorly why not bring Gordon up and see if he can provided a spark? Signing bonus – $3.851 million

2013 – Kohl Stewart (RHP) – Selected fourth overall out of high school. Finished the 2017 season in AA Chattanooga and is calling it home again this season. Has a 3-1 record but sports a 4.70 ERA with 36 strikeouts and 41 hits in 38.1 innings. Injuries has also plagued Stewart in his career. He is going to need a breakout season real soon…. Signing Bonus – $4.544 million

2012 – Byron Buxton (outfielder) – Selected second overall out of high school and has been with the Twins off and on since his big league debut in June of 2015. Great outfielder with speed to burn but hitting has been sub par. For a second overall pick you have to consider him “disappointing” so far. Signing bonus – $6 million

2012 – Jose Berrios (RHP) – Selected 32nd overall out of high school in Puerto Rico and debuted with Minnesota in 2016. Berrios is having a great season in 2018 with the Twins. Looks to be the ace the Twins hoped he would be. Signing bonus – $1.55 million

2012 – Luke Bard – (RHP) – Selected 42nd overall out of college and has had some injury issues including TJ surgery that caused him to miss all of 2014. Selected by the Angels as a Rule 5 selection last November and pitched 11.2 innings with 13 strikeouts in the bigs but was returned to Minnesota in late April and is pitching in AAA Rochester and I would not be shocked to see him at least get a cup of coffee with the Twins in 2018. Signing bonus – $1.227 million

2011 – Levi Michael – (shortstop) – Selected 30th overall out of college and was released by Minnesota after the 2017 season and currently playing AA ball in the New York Mets system. Signing bonus – $1.175 million

2011 – Travis Harrison – (Third Baseman) Selected 50th overall out of high school and released by Minnesota after the 2017 season and currently playing in an Independent league. Signing bonus – $1.050 million

2011 – Hudson Boyd (RHP) Selected 55th overall out of a Ft. Myers high school and signed for one million dollars and was released by Minnesota in 2014. Boyd had many issues including his weight, booze, and attitude. A major flop! Signing bonus – $1 million

2010 – Alex Wimmers (RHP) – Selected 21st overall out of college. Pitched in a total of 24.2 innings for the Twins between 2016 and 2017 and posted a 1-3 record with a 4.38 ERA but those 19 walks were horrific and he is now in the Marlins system where at last look he had a 9.82 ERA. Signing bonus – $1.332 million

2009 – Kyle Gibson (RHP) – Selected 22nd overall out of college. Debuted with Minnesota in 2013 and has been in the starting rotation since 2014. Signing bonus – $1.8 million

2009 – Matt Bashore (LHP) – Selected 46th overall out of college. Missed all of 2010 with TJ surgery and released by the Twins after the 2011 season. Bashore pitched a total of 18.2 innings in the Twins minor league system before the organization gave up on him and out of baseball after the 2012 season. Signing bonus – $751,500

2008 – Aaron Hicks (outfielder) – Selected 14th overall out of high school and opened the season in Minnesota as the starting center fielder in 2013. Hitting woes caused the Twins to give-up on Hicks and trade him to the New York Yankees for catcher John Ryan Murphy in November 2015 but he too turned out to be a dud and was sent packing to Arizona. Hick is still playing with the Yankees in a semi-regular role. Signing bonus – $1.78 million

2008 – Carlos Gutierrez (RHP) – Selected 27th selection overall out of college and advanced as high as AAA in the Twins system before he moved on to the Cubs in 2013 but left pro ball after that season. Signing bonus – $1,290 million

2008 – Shooter Hunt (RHP) – Selected with the 31st pick overall out of college and didn’t get higher than high A in Ft. Myers before moving on to a different career after the 2011 season. Signing bonus – $1.080 million

Continue reading Not all first round picks are born to be stars