Tag: Adam Walker

Twins minor league player of the week

Alex Meyer pitching for New Britain in 2013
Alex Meyer pitching for New Britain in 2013

Rochester (AAA-International League) right-handed pitcher Alex Meyer is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. Meyer made one start for the Red Wings on April 23 at Pawtucket, tossing 6.2 scoreless innings with three hits allowed, three walks while tying a career high with 11 strikeouts, his third career double-digit strikeout performance. The Greensburg, Indiana native has gone 0-0, 3.48 ERA (20.2 IP, 8 ER) with eight walks and 24 strikeouts in four starts for the Wings this season. The 6″9″ 24-year-old was acquired by the Twins in late November of 2012 in exchange for Denard Span and is ranked as the club’s top pitching prospect by Baseball America.

 

Twins Minor Leaguer Hinojosa suspended

Jonatan Hinojosa batting during spring training 2014
Jonatan Hinojosa batting during spring training 2014

The Office of the Commissioner of Baseball announced today that Minnesota Twins Minor League infielder Jonatan Hinojosa has received a 50-game suspension without pay after testing positive for metabolites of Nandrolone, a performance-enhancing substance in violation of the Minor League Drug Prevention and Treatment Program in effect prior to the recent changes to the Program. The suspension of the 21-year-old Hinojosa who is currently on the roster of Single-A Cedar Rapids of the Midwest League is effective immediately.

Hinojosa spent his first three seasons playing in the Dominican Summer league where he hit .147, .186, and .174 with zero home runs and had 28 stolen bases. Last season Hinojosa played for the Gulf Coast League Twins and hit .236 again with no home runs in 48 games. This season Hinojosa appeared in just one game for Cedar Rapids and was hitless in 3 at bats.

Walker’s skills, passion led to career in baseball

There is a nice piece about Ft. Myers Mircale outfielder Adam Walker that you can check out here.

Nice way to spend a Saturday afternoon

I spent Saturday afternoon at Hammond Stadium going back and forth between fields 2 and 3 where I watched the Twins Ft. Myers Miracle and Cedar Rapids Kernels take on the Orioles Frederick and Delmarva teams. I focused mainly on the Ft. Myers and Frederick game but I was also able to watch the other game because the fields are so close together.

Jose Berrios started for the Miracle and pitched 3 scoreless innings and was followed on the mound by Tyler Duffey and David Hurlbut. Duffey pitched well but Hurlbut got knocked around pretty good in his couple innings of work.  The Twins however; were up big by the time Hurlbut took the mound and the Twins ended up winning 7-3.  The starting line-up for the Miracle had Mitch Garver catching, Dalton Hicks at first, Logan Wade at second, Ryan Walker at short, Travis Harrison at third, Max Kepler in left, Zack Granite in center and Adam Walker in right. Catcher Bryan Santy hit the games only home run, a long blast well over the left field fence.

A couple of observations from the game. Right fielder Adam Walker is a big guy and he hit 27 home runs for Cedar Rapids last season but today his play in RF left something to be desired. There were several balls hit to right that he seemed to pull up on and let the ball drop in front of him for singles that could have been caught with a better jump on the ball. First baseman Dalton Hicks is listed at 6’5″ and 228 and I am not sure when they last had Hicks step on a scale because the man has to be at least 250 and a case could be made that he could have easily stretched his long single into a double had he hustled down the line a little more. Later in the game manager Doug Mientkiewicz moved Travis Harrison from 3B to left field and Joel Licon came in to play third. Harrison continues to struggle in the field (although not in this game) and the Twins are trying to find a position for Harrison because he has some pop in his bat. I think you will see more and more of Harrison playing a corner outfield spot rather than the “hot corner”.

Joel Licon being helped off the field
Joel Licon being helped off the field

I mentioned Joel Licon because an inning or so later he ended up getting beaned but fortunately the ball seemed to catch mostly helmet. Licon started heading to first base but stopped about half way there and dropped to one knee. After a couple of minutes Licon left the game but he looked dazed as he sat on the bench. Hopefully Licon will be OK and not suffer any concussion symptoms but when that ball hit his helmet the loud bang got everyone’s attention from both fields.

I took a number of pictures during the game and will try to get them posted on Monday.

The hardest workers at Hammond Stadium so far are the construction workers

I went out to Hammond Stadium again this morning and hung around for a couple of hours talking baseball with other fans and watched some of the early arrivals hit and take some infield. Not much going on as yet. Some of the players I recognized today that were participating in early workouts of one variety or another were Trevor Plouffe, Jason Bartlett, Miguel Sano, Nate Roberts, Adam Walker, Lewis Thorpe, Wilkin Ramirez, Kyle Gibson, Jared Burton, Mike Kvasnicka, AJ Pettersen, and Amaurys Minier. These players and others that I did not recognize were working under the tutelage of some minor league coaches and Joe Lepel. After hitting, some of the infielders including Jason Bartlett and Miguel Sano took some infield on field 4 practicing their fielding and working on turning double plays. It was interesting watching Bartlett and Sano doing some of these infield drills on their knees. All in all there is not much going on out at the ballpark as yet with no players having officially reported. I would however expect that more players will arrive over the week-end and that the action will pick up next week. The people working the hardest at Hammond Stadium these days are probably the construction workers that are trying to getting things ready for the start of spring training. I took some more pictures today primarily of the ball players and I have uploaded them to the “2014 Spring Training” link you can find on the right hand side of this page. I will be out there again early next week and I will keep you updated on what I see going on at Hammond Stadium..

Twins Minor League Player of the Week

Adam Walker
Adam Walker

Cedar Rapids Kernels (Single-A) outfielder Adam Walker is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. In five games, Walker, 21, batted .455 (10-for-22) with one double, one triple, four home runs and 13 RBI’s. In 2013, Walker, a Milwaukee, Wisconsin native who is playing for his first full season team is hitting .310 with 14 runs scored, six home runs and 25 RBI’s in 19 games.

After he was drafted by the Twins in the third round of the 2012 Draft from Jacksonville University, the 6’4″, 225 pound right-handed hitting outfielder shared the Appalachian League lead with 15 homers for Rookie-level Elizabethton. He hit three more in the postseason, none more important than a game-tying three-run blast in the bottom of the ninth inning of the decisive Game 3 of the Championship Series against Burlington, a contest the Twins won on Dalton Hicks‘ walk-off grand slam. Previous winners this season include right-handed pitcher Tyler Duffey in week 1 and infielder Miguel Sano in week 2.

By the way – Each of the Twins four minor league affiliates have won their last three games.

 

Aaron Hicks
Aaron Hicks

According to Elias – Aaron Hicks finally stroked his first major-league extra-base hit, a two-run double in the eighth inning of the Twins’ 7-2 home win over the Rangers yesterday. Hicks thus ended a streak of 64 straight at-bats without an XBH to start his career, the second-longest by any Twins position-player since the team relocated from Washington in 1961. Catcher Tom Tischinski didn’t record more than a single in any of his first 90 big-league at-bats in 1969 and 1970.

Starting tomorrow, the Twins will begin their longest road trip of 2013, playing 10 games in 11 days with stops in Detroit (April 29-May 1), Cleveland (May 3-5) and Boston (May 6-9). So far in 2013 the Twins are 6-6 at home and 4-4 on the road.

Max Kepler update – Star prospect Max Kepler remains on the shelf in Ft. Myers with a left elbow strain and remains shutdown for another month. Kepler, who has never suffered any serious injuries in his short career is reported to be chomping at the bit to start playing some baseball but the Twins are not going to put a young prospect like Kepler at risk of long-term injury. Having said that, there is discussion about sending Kepler to Cedar Rapids and have him DH even if he can’t play in the field.

This might be fun to watch!