TWINS TRIVIA is hopefully a fun and informative site that will help you to better enjoy the Minnesota Twins and their wonderful history. “History never looks like history when you are living through it” – John Gardner, former Secretary of Health
Week 12 finds AA Wichita Wind Surge outfielder Trey Cabbage and High A Cedar Rapids Kernels pitcher Louie Varland named as the Twins minor league Player and Pitcher of the week.
Trey Cabbage was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 4th round of the 2015 MLB June Amateur Draft from Grainger HS in Rutledge, TN.
Cabbage started the season by playing 40 games in High A Cedar Rapids before being bumped up to AA Wichita on June 28th. This past week he played six games for the Wind Surge, hitting .300 (6-for-20) with two doubles, two home runs, six RBI, four walks and seven strikeouts. You can follow him on Twitter at @Treycabz
A couple of hours before the Twins were to take on the Los Angeles Angels at Target Field yesterday afternoon the Twins front office announced that they had struck a deal with the Tampa Bay Rays. The Twins were sending arguably their best hitter 41-year-old DH Nelson Cruz to Tampa Bay along with minor league right-handed relief pitcher Calvin Faucher and in return Tampa sends Minnesota two minor league right-handed pitchers, Joe Ryan and Drew Strotman.
Week 11 has the Minnesota Twins naming AAA St. Paul outfielder Brent Rooker and AA Wichita right-handed pitcher Jordan Balazovic as their minor league Player and Pitcher of the Week.
In week 10 we have High-A Cedar Rapids Kernels outfielder Michael Helman winning this weeks Minnesota Twins minor league position player of the week. Helman was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 11th round of the 2018 MLB June Amateur Draft from Texas A&M University (College Station, TX). Helman reportedly signed for a $220,000 signing bonus.
The 25-year-old Helman played in six games for the Kernels, hitting .409 (9-for-22) with one double, two home runs, four RBI, one walk, a .458 on-base percentage and a 1.186 OPS. The right-handed hitting Helman started his career as a second baseman and had appeared there in a few games but is primarily being used in the outfield in 2021. On the season Helman has an average slash line of .217/.310/.411.
In week 9, the Minnesota Twins have named AAA St. Paul infielder Jose Miranda and Low-A Fort Myers right-handed pitcher Sawyer Gipson-Long as the Twins minor league Player of the Week and Pitcher of the Week — both repeat winners. This starting to be a habit for Miranda.
Miranda
Jose Miranda split the week between the AAA St. Paul Saints and AA Wichita Wind Surge, earning the promotion to St. Paul on Monday. In his Triple-A debut on Tuesday vs. Omaha, he went 5-for-6 with one double, three home runs and six RBI. He combined to hit .407 (11-for-27) with two doubles, four home runs and 11 RBI in six games. The Manatí, Puerto Rico native was selected by the Twins in the second round (73rd overall) out of Leadership Christian Academy in Guaynabo, PR. This is actually the fourth time that Miranda has been the Twins Player of the week in 2021. MLB now has Miranda listed as the 16th best Twins prospect in their MLB Pipeline. For those of you that have not heard, Yes, Twins prospect Jose Miranda is the cousin of Lin-Manuel Miranda — the famous actor and playwright. No, Jose Miranda hasn’t seen his cousin’s best-known work, “Hamilton.”
Dwight Leroy Siebler was born in Columbus, Nebraska on August 5, 1937, as the third of four children of William and Viola Siebler. Dwight Siebler passed away on June 16, 2021 in Omaha, Nebraska at the age of 83.
Double AA Wichita infielder Jose Miranda and Double AA Wichita right-handed pitcher Josh Winder (WINE-der) have been named Twins minor league Player and Pitcher of the Week. About time that Wichita posted some new roster pictures on their web site.
Week eight has AA-Wichita Wind Surge infielder Jose Miranda as the Twins minor league position player of the week for the third time this season. He previously won the award in weeks one and five. Miranda was drafted by the Twins in the 2nd round of the 2016 MLB June Amateur Draft from Leadership Christian Academy (Guaynabo, Puerto Rico).
Minnesota Twins fans and the team itself had such high expectations going into 2021 and yet as we approach the midway point in the season we find the team floundering badly at 31-42. The season opened on April 1 and the team reached their high-water mark for the season on April 8 when they were three games over .500 with a 5-2 record. Since then it has been one step forward and two steps back.
Derek Falvey
So how do you explain this? How does a team that everyone expected to be a serious contender and pretty much a playoff lock in 2021 play such terrible baseball that it is basically unwatchable? Where do you start? Like in most businesses you have to start at the top.
Week seven brings us AAA – St. Paul Saints catcher/first baseman Tomás Telis as the Twins position player of the week. Telis was originally signed as a FA by the Texas Rangers in 2007. The 30-year-old Telis has 122 games of big league experience, 24 with Texas and 98 with Miami. Telis signed with the Twins as a FA in January of 2019 and has been in the Twins system since then. You can’t really consider Telis a prospect but he is a back-up should the Twins need one. Telis is a catcher but has expanded his repertoire to include first base and has even played a couple of games at second and third base. Telis has played in over 1,000 minor league games, a handy man to have around.
Telis played in six games for the Saints this week, hitting .391 (9-for-23) with one double, three home runs, five RBI, three walks and a 1.288 OPS. The 30-year-old has played in 39 games for the Saints this season, hitting .271 (42-for-155) with four doubles, one triple, six home runs and 21 RBI.
This week week we have another Jordan as the Twins pitcher of the week and this time it is Jordan Balazovic. Balazovic was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the 5th round of the 2016 MLB June Amateur Draft from St. Martin SS (Mississauga, ON) . The 22-year-old right-hander is currently rated as the third best prospect in the Twins minor league system by MLB.
In the past 10 years, there have been five pitchers drafted and signed in the top five rounds of the Draft out of Canada. Only one, the Braves’ Mike Soroka, has made it to the big leagues. Balazovic, signed as a thin, projectable high school right-hander as a fifth rounder in 2016, has the chance to be the next.
MLB Pipeline
This past week Balazovic made his last start for the AA – Wichita Wind Surge on Tuesday vs. Springfield, pitching 4.1 scoreless innings with two hits allowed, one walk and eight strikeouts. Balazovic has only made four starts this season and pitched a total of 14 innings. It would be nice to see Balazovic get some innings under his belt as he has under 250 total innings in pro ball since 2016 with none in 2020 due to COVID.
Jim “Mudcat” Grant was born on August 13, 1935 in Lacoochee, Florida, a small town of about 500 people in central Florida. According to the Cleveland Indians, Mudcat Grant died peacefully in Los Angeles, California on June 11, 2021. Jim Grant was 85 years old.
