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
Chih-Wei Hu (Photo credit to Becky Evans/Cedar Rapids Kernels)
Cedar Rapids Kernels (Low A – Midwest League) pitcher Chih-Wei Hu is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. In two starts for the Kernels, he went 2-0, allowing one run in 12.0 innings, five hits, two walks and 14 strikeouts. The Taichung, Taiwan-native is 4-0, 1.50 ERA (30.0 IP, 5 ER) with 29 strikeouts and six walks in five starts for the Kernels this season. T
The 20-year-old right-hander was signed by the Twins as an undrafted free agent in August of 2012. Only in his second season of pro ball, Hu has a career record of 7-0 with a 1.96 ERA and a 0.84 WHIP. He has been a starter in 13 of his 20 games and he has struck out 84 batters in 82.2 innings. The man has not lost a game since he started pitching professionally, he was named Midwest League Pitcher of the Week last week.
Hudson Boyd (KCRG-Gazette photo by Kaitlyn Bernauer)
Hudson Boyd of the Cedar Rapids Kernels a 21 year-ol right-handed pitcher has been suspended indefinitely by the parent club Minnesota Twins.“He broke team rules,” said Manager Jake Mauer. “Made bad decisions. I don’t know how long he is going to be suspended for, but he’s going to be out for a little bit here.” Boyd is a first-round supplemental pick (55th overall) of the Twins in the 2011 draft who signed with Minnesota for a million dollar bonus out of Bishop Verot High School in Fort Myers.
“I’d probably better not say anything,” Boyd said, when asked about his suspension.“He’s got to take care of some things, get some things in order,” Mauer said. “Really, unfortunately, it’s just about a guy being young. Not thinking things through. Hopefully he’ll come out of this and look at this as just a bump in the road to where he wants to get to.” The length of Boyd’s suspension will be determined by Twins farm director Brad Steil.
Boyd is in Cedar Rapids for a second consecutive year. The Twins have had Boyd start during his first two years in pro ball but this season Boyd has been used strictly in relief and has a 4-2 record with a 4.53 ERA, a 1.49 WHIP and has 35 strikeouts in 43.2 innings. Boyd has seven saves to his credit this season.
Boyd has had weight issues in the past and the Twins have been working with Boyd to keep his weight under control. Earlier this spring there were rumors floating around that Boyd had stated that he would not report to Cedar Rapids if he had to repeat a season there but he still gets his mail in Cedar Rapids and it doesn’t look like he will have to change his address in the near future.
The Twins second round pick in this years June amateur draft was right-handed pitcher Nick Burdi. The 6 foot 4 inch 215-pound Burdi used primarily as a closer for the University of Louisville had a 0.49 ERA with 65 strikeouts in 37 innings as a junior for Louisville this past season. He recorded 18 saves in 32 games.
The Twins originally drafted Burdi in 2011 in the 24th round out of Downers Grove South High School in Illinois, outside of Chicago, but he went to school instead. Burdi’s fastball has been clocked above 100 miles per hour.
According to the Louisville Courier-Journal Burdi was upset that it took 46 picks to have his name called, telling reporters after the draft that he was “pissed” and would enter professional ball with a chip on his shoulder. Burdi signed with Minnesota on June 24th for $1.218 million (per Baseball America) and was assigned to the Twins Cedar Rapids Low-A team.
Nick Burdi
Burdi made his first appearance with the Kernels this past Sunday when he entered the game against the Clinton LumberKings in the top of the ninth with his home team leading 4 to 0. Burdi walked the first four batters he faced and was relieved by Jared Wilson who proceeded to give up four hits and a walk and when the smoke cleared the LumberKings had put a “7” on the board and the shucked Kernels ended up losing the game 7-4.
Burdi’s line for the game? Zero innings pitched, four walks, four runs, all earned and an ERA of infinity. A game I am sure that Burdi will never forget. Hopefully the man with a chip on his shoulder will take this game for what it was, a learning experience. Good luck in the future Nick, your humble pie is on the way.
Cedar Rapids (A – Midwest League) pitcher Todd Van Steensel is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. The right-handed pitcher made three appearances, recording two saves while striking out five over 3.1 scoreless innings. In 15 appearances this year for the Kernels, the 23-year old Van Steensel has posted a 1.11 ERA (24.1 IP, 3 ER) with 31 (11.5 KO/9) strikeouts and six walks. Van Steensel was signed by the Twins as a minor league free agent in 2010 out of Sydney, Australia but was released after the 2011 season only to be resigned this past off-season. You can find a story that www.kcrg.com did about a month ago on Van Steensel here. Another story on Van Steensel, this one by the Australian Baseball Digest.
Adam Brett Walker
Twins prospect Adam Brett Walker who is currently with the Ft. Myers Miracle participated in the Florida State League Home Run Derby last night and won the title. Walker scored 36 points in the final round of the All-Star Home Run Derby to take the crown. Walker entered the All-Star break with 14 homers and 52 RBI in 64 games. In the actual All-Star Game, the Twins outfield prospect went 3-for-5 with a home run and a double. Adam Walker was the Twins minor league player of the week three weeks ago and you can see that posting here.
Ft. Myers (High A – Florida St. League) outfielder Adam Walker is the Twins
Minor League Player of the Week. In seven games for the Miracle, Walker hit .345 (10-for-29) with three home runs, two doubles and 12 RBI.
In 2013 Walker played in Low-A Cedar Rapids and in 508 at bats hit .278 with 27 home runs with 109 RBI and was not caught once in 10 stolen base attempts. Walker did strikeout 115 times but that is not too bad if you put up those kind of power numbers.
Adam Brett Walker II is 6-foot-4 and 225 pounds of raw power. The physicality runs in the family. He is the son of Adam Walker, who played running back for the Minnesota Vikings in 1987. His mother, Glynis, was a national champion high jumper and volleyball player at Carthage College. Former All-Star infielder Damion Easley is his second cousin . cousin. Walker averaged 13.6 home runs a season and stole 40 bases in 41 attempts during his three years at Jacksonville University. The 22-year-old right-handed batter was drafted by the Twins in the third round of the 2012 First-Year Player Draft out of Jacksonville University and signed for a reported $490K.
This weeks Twins Minor League Player of the Week is 19-year-old Cedar Rapids Kernels (A-Midwest League) infielder Engelb Vielma. Vielma played in seven games for the Kernels, hitting .423 (11-for-26) with two doubles, one triple, three RBI, one walk and a .444 on-base percentage.
It seems like everybody that comes from Venezuela is a shortstop and this scrawny looking 5’11” and 157 pound switch-hitting Maracaibo, Venezuela native that the Twins signed as a non-drafted free agent in 2011 fits that same mold. Vielma played in the Dominican Summer League in 2012 and moved up to the Gulf Coast Twins in 2013 and had a 6 game cup of coffee stay with Elizabethton Twins late in 2013. Certainly not a power hitter by any stretch of the imagination Vielma has no home runs and has hit .251 in 483 career plate appearances. It’s the glove they say that makes Vielma stand out but yet when you look at his stats he has 38 errors in 122 games.
We have a trivia question for you. Prior to the 2014 season only six players in big league history have gotten 1,000 or more hits in both the NL and AL, two of these players once wore Twins uniforms. Can you name them?
Cedar Rapids (A – Midwest League) catcher Mitch Garver is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. In seven games for the Kernels Garver hit .400 (8-for-20) with three doubles, four home runs, six RBI, six runs scored and five walks. The Twins ninth round pick in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft is in his second full season in the Twins system, the Albuquerque native spent last season at Rookie-Elizabethton, hitting .243 (49-for-202) in 56 games.
Outfielder Byron Buxton has been named the 2013 Sherry Robertson Award winner as the Twins Minor League Player of the Year and left-handed pitcher Andrew Albers has been named the 2013 Jim Rantz Award winner as the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year.
Byron Buxton
Buxton, 19, hit .334 (163-for-488) with 19 doubles, 18 triples, 12 home runs, 77 RBI, 109 runs scored and 55 stolen bases in 125 games this season between Low-A Cedar Rapids and High-A Ft. Myers. In the field playing primarily center field, Buxton committed two errors in 306 chances and was credited with 9 assists. The right-handed hitting Buxton was named Midwest League MVP as well as the top minor league prospect at midseason and Minor League Player of the Year by Baseball America. Buxton was the Twins first round pick (second overall) in the 2012 June Amateur draft.
Andrew Albers
Albers, 27, began the season at Triple-A Rochester and went 11-5 with a 2.86 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP (132.1 IP, 42 ER), allowing 124 hits with 32 walks, 116 strikeouts and three complete games (one shutout) in 22 starts. The left-handed Canadian native was named to the Triple-A All-Star game. At the time of his promotion to Minnesota in August, he ranked first in the International League in strikeouts, tied for second in wins, third in innings pitched and fifth in ERA. With the Twins, Albers went 2-5 with a 4.05 ERA and a 1.18 WHIP in 10 games (all starts). Albers struck out 25 and walked just 7 batters in 60 innings.
Buxton becomes the 44th winner of this award (since 1970) and Albers becomes the 12th winner of this award (since 2002). The 2012 award winners were Oswaldo Arcia and B.J. Hermsen.
Congratulations to both Byron Buxton and Andrew Albers on a job well done.
Baseball America announced today that Byron Buxton is the 2013 Minor League Player of the Year joining Joe Mauer (2003) as the only Twins players to be so honored. The Twins second overall pick in the 2012 draft from Appling County High in Baxley, Georgia is on the fast track to Minnesota. A few days ago the Twins announced that Buxton will be joining the Twins contingent of players heading for the Arizona Fall League where he will join infielders Eddie Rosario and Max Kepler along with pitchers Trevor May, Alex Meyer, A.J. Achter, and Zach Jones playing for the Glendale Desert Dogs.
Buxton started the season at low Class A Cedar Rapids and was promoted in late June to high Class A Fort Myers, Buxton hit a cumulative .334/.424/.520 with 49 extra-base hits, 55 stolen bases and a sparkling 76-to-105 walk-to-strikeout ratio in 125 games. He led the minors with 18 triples, finished second with 109 runs scored, one behind Marcus Semien of the White Sox and 12th in stolen bases. Even more impressive, Buxton ranked sixth in the minor league batting race, 10th in hits (163) and seventh in on-base percentage, despite being a full year younger than any other member of those top-10 lists.
Twins minor league attendance numbers
I enjoy the work that Ballpark Digest does and check their site every day, as a matter of fact I have their RSS feed going to this site whenever they publish anything new. This past Monday they published their 2013 minor league attendance totals and averages for every team as well as how they ranked over all. They also have affiliated attendance by league. Check them out, they are interesting to look at and see how the Twins minor league teams rank.
September Call Ups
The Minnesota Twins announced on September 8th that they have recalled infielder Eduardo Escobar, outfielder Chris Parmelee, left-handed pitcher Scott Diamond and right-handed pitchers Michael Tonkin and Cole De Vries from Triple-A Rochester. Additionally, the Twins have selected the contracts of catcher Eric Fryer and right-handed pitcher Shairon Martis from Rochester. To make room on the Twins 40-man roster right-handed pitcher Sam Deduno and outfielder Wilkin Ramirez have been transferred from the 15-day disabled list to the 60-day DL.
Kevin Chapman‘s wild pitch scored Ryan Doumit with the go-ahead run in the 12th inning of the Twins’ 9-6 win at Houston. The last time Minnesota won a game in this manner was on September 20, 1984, when the White Sox’ Bert Roberge wild-pitched home Tom Brunansky in the 13th inning at the Metrodome.
Ron Gardenhire
The Twins are now 8-7 in extra-innings this season. Since the start of the 1961 season, the Twins have an all-time extra-inning record of 384-345-2. Twins Manager Ron Gardenhire seems to like extra-inning baseball and has a career-record of 107-72, a .598 winning percentage since he took the managers job in 2002. Gardy is just 7 wins short of getting 1,000 wins as a manager, I think he is going to get it soon. A real nice achievement!
Did you know that prior to the Twins retiring Bert Blyleven‘s number 28 that it was the lowest number that no MLB team had retired?
Brian Dozier hit home run number 17 last night and is the all-time Twins leader in home runs hit by a second baseman in a single season. Dozier now has 51 extra base hits this season, the only Twins second baseman with more are Chuck Knoblauch with 53 in 1994 and 1995, Todd Walker with 56 in 1998 and the leader is Chuck Knoblauch with 62 in 1996.
The Twins finished August having struck out 291 times in 30 games, the highest total of strikeouts by any team in one month in major-league history. That works out to 9.7 strike outs per game. When you attend a Twins game be sure to hold on to your hat cause there is a lot of whiffing going on.
Only one player in Twins history has won the Twins team triple crown by leading the team in home runs, RBI, and average, who was he?
The Twins seven minor league teams finished the 2013 regular season with a 411-345 record, good for a .544 winning percentage. Not too shabby at all. The AAA-Rochester Red Wings at 77-67, the High A-Ft. Myers Miracle at 79-56 and the Cedar Rapids Kernels at 88-50 are all play-off bound. The only teams with losing records were the AA-New Britain Rock Cats at 66-76 and the Rookie league GCL Twins at 28-32. The Rookie league Elizabethton E-Twins finished their season at 37-31, good for third place. The DSL (Dominican Summer League) Twins finished in fourth place with a 36-33 record. Since 2000, the Twins minor league teams have had a losing record twice, in 2010 and 2011. If you are interested in learning more about the Twins minor league history, stop by http://wp.me/P1YQUj-1jd .
