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
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.
I recently finished a baseball book called “The Baseball Codes” written by Jason Turbow with Michael Duca. This is not a new book, it was published back in 2011 and I ran across it at a book sale that I attend on a regular basis put on by a group called Friends of the Library of Hennepin County in Plymouth, Minnesota. Anyway, I ran across this hardcover book and bought it for the price of one dollar.
This book should not be confused with a book called “The Code” written by Ross Bernstein back in 2008 that covers the same subject matter that I also have in my library. Oddly enough, “The Code” has an image on the cover of Nolan Ryan fighting with Robin Ventura and the book that I wanted to bring to your attention “The Baseball Codes” starts out by the author saying in his introduction that his most memorable moment of the 1993 season was the Ryan/Ventura fight. A strange coincidence.
The Twins have named A- Cedar Rapids Kernels catcher Ryan Jeffers and A- Cedar Rapids Kernels right-handed pitcher Jhoan Duran as Twins minor league Player and Pitcher of the Week.
Ryan Jeffers
Ryan Jeffers, 21, played in seven games for the Kernels, hitting .423 (11-for-26) with five doubles, two home runs, six RBI and a .500 on-base percentage. Jeffers was selected by the Twins in the second round of the 2018 First-Year Player Draft out of UNC Wilmington and signed for a below slot $800,000. Jeffers started the season by playing for just over a month in 29 games with Elizabethton where he hit 3 home runs and had 16 RBI with a .458 OBP. Since his promotion to Cedar Rapids on July 24 he has played in 11 games and has 2 home runs and 9 RBI and is hitting .366. Mike Berardino recently wrote Second-rounder Ryan Jeffers laying quick claim to Twins’ ‘catcher of the future’, a good read.
Jhoan Duran
Jhoan Duran, 20, made the start on Monday at Quad Cities, pitching 7.0 shutout/no-hit innings with one walk and eight strikeouts in his first appearance in the Twins system. The 6’5″ and 175 pound Duran was acquired last week from Arizona in exchange for infielder Eduardo Escobar and is ranked as the Twins 23rd best prospect. The right-handed Duran from the Dominican Republic started in the Arizona system at the age of 17 is already in his fourth season of pro ball and won’t be 21 until January.
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 Twins have named GCL Twins right-handed pitcher Donny Breek and Double-A Chattanooga outfielder Brent Rooker as Twins minor league Pitcher and Player of the Week.
Donny Breek
Breek, 18, made two starts for the GCL Twins, going 1-0, 0.00 ERA (9.0 IP) with three hits allowed, four walks and 13 strikeouts. The Amsterdam native was signed to a seven-year deal by the Twins as a free agent last September.
Rooker, who is winning this award for the third time this season (May 20 and June 10), hit .467 (14-for-30) with four doubles, three home runs, nine RBI, six walks and a .556 on-base percentage in seven games for the Lookouts. The 23-year old is putting together a solid season at Chattanooga and in 99 games is hitting .275 with a .862 OPS with 20 home runs and 66 RBI. He has struck out 120 times. Rooker was selected by the Twins 35th overall in the 2017 First-Year Player Draft out of Mississippi State University.
The Twins have named High-A Ft. Myers Miracle outfielder Alex Kirilloff and AAA Rochester Red Wings right-handed pitcher Kohl Stewart minor league Player and Pitcher of the Week.
Alex Kirilloff
Kirilloff, the Twins 2016 first round pick (15th overall) who was in last week’s SiriusXM Future’s Game, played in five games for the Miracle, hitting .545 (12-for-22) with three doubles, one triple, one home run and six RBI. Kirilloff who won’t turn 21 until this November started the season in Cedar Rapids but after hitting .333 with 13 home runs and 56 RBI in 65 games was moved up to Ft. Myers and he has found the Florida State League to his liking. In 29 games he is hitting .370 with 3 home runs and 22 RBI in just 29 games. I would not be surprised to see him get a taste of AA ball at Chattanooga before the 2018 season winds down. A pretty impressive season for Kirilloff after sitting out all of 2017.
Kohl Stewart
Stewart, another first round pick and fourth overall in 2013 made two starts for the Red Wings, going 0-2, 1.50 ERA (12.0 IP, 2 ER) with four walks and 10 strikeouts. Stewart has been a bit of a disappointment so far in the sense that everyone expected more out of this right-hander since he was the fourth overall selection but we need to keep in mind that he is just 23 years of age. Stewart turned down a football and baseball scholarship at Texas A&M University to sign with the Twins.
The minor league report below has an article on the Twins experimenting with “Bullpenning”.
Between 1961-2017 there have been 58 players that have played at least 10 games at first base for our Minnesota Twins. However, to qualify for this list which ranks them in Baseball-Reference WAR order the player must have played first base in at least 51% of their games while wearing a Twins uniform. This eliminates players like Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew, Bob Allison and of course Joe Mauer who started playing first base later in their careers. Kent Hrbek is the Twins all-time leaders in games at first base with 1,609.
Kent Hrbek – Hrbek’s work in the field was as good as his work with a bat.
The Twins have named AA Chattanooga Lookouts outfielder/first baseman Zander Wiel and Low-A Cedar Rapids Kernels right-handed pitcher Bailey Ober minor league Player and Pitcher of the Week.
Zander Wiel
Zander Wiel played in seven games for the Lookouts, hitting .333 (8-for-24) with one double, two triples, one home run, three RBI, five walks and a .448 OBP. Wiel is in his fourth season of pro ball and has jumped up a league each season. Although he has not shown the power this year as he has in the past, he is hitting .306 which is way above his career average of .264.
We don’t get many back-to-back winners but this week we have one. Bailey Ober, who also won this award last week, made one start for the Kernels, coming on Thursday (which was his 23rd birthday) vs. Ft. Wayne, pitching 6.2 shutout innings with five hits allowed, one walk and 10 strikeouts.
I just wanted to climb up on my soapbox and take a few minutes to express my thoughts on the 2018 Minnesota Twins advertising gimmick line of “This is how we baseball”. I tried to think back of a worse Twins advertising idea over the years but none really comes to mind as being as bad as this one.
You never know when a gimmick line will catch on and get hot but I don’t think this one ever stood a chance of that. Who wants to wear a t-shirt that says “this is how we baseball” when your team plays as badly as the 2018 Twins have.
What was it intended to really tell us? “This is how we baseball” seems stupid to me but of course I am only one fan and I am sure there must be some fans out there that think this is a great catch phrase. If so, please leave a comment and tell me why you like it because I would really like to know.
If I remember correctly the Twins changed advertising firms going into this season and if so, they got took big time IMHO. Who approved this idea? Jim Pohlad should have that person fired. I do however; remain a Minnesota Twins fan in spite of this ridiculous advertising campaign.
The Twins have named AAA Rochester Red Wings outfielder LaMonte Wade and Low-A Cedar Rapids Kernels right-handed pitcher Bailey Ober minor league Player and Pitcher of the Week.
Wade played in six games for the Red Wings, hitting .391 (9-for-23) with two triples, two home runs, four RBI, two walks and a .440 on-base percentage. Wade started the season in Chattanooga where he hit .298 with 7 home runs, 27 RBI and 5 stolen bases in 171 PA’s. I should also note that he had 26 walks as compared to 20 strikeouts, a rare plus now days. So far in Rochester Wade is hitting .261 with 3 homers and 11 RBI in 109 PA’s and his walks still outnumber his KO’s. The 24-year old Wade is in his fourth season of pro ball and was a ninth round selection by the Twins in the 2015 June draft from the University of Maryland.
Ober made one start for the Kernels, coming on Thursday vs. Wisconsin, allowing one run on three hits in 7.0 innings pitched with no walks and 12 strikeouts, earning the win. The soon to be (July 12) 24-year old right-handed Ober has spent all season in Cedar Rapids and has a 5-1 record with a 4.87 era in 11 starts. The 6’8″ 215 pound Ober has 64 strikeouts in 57.1 innings but he has also given up 60 hits. The Twins 12th round selection in 2017 from the College of Charleston already has a Tommy John surgery on his resume that caused him to miss the 2015 season while in Charleston.
Sean Miller
MLB announced on July 7 that third baseman Sean Miller of the Minnesota Twins has been suspended for 50 games under baseball’s minor league drug program following second positive tests for drugs of abuse. Miller 23, was a 10th-round draft pick in 2015 and is on the roster of Chattanooga of the Double-A Southern League, where he is hitting .220
with one homer and eight RBIs in 150 at-bats. He started the season at Double-A, and batted .091 with one RBI in 10 games with Triple-A Rochester of the Triple-A International League, then was sent back down in late May.
