Tag: Eduardo Escobar

Twins minor league players of the week – Larnach & Duran

Ft. Myers Miracle Trevor Larnach (9) bats in the third inning of a baseball game against the Palm Beach Cardinals at Roger Dean Chevrolet Stadium in Jupiter, Fla., Sunday, May 5, 2019. (Gordon Donovan)

Ft. Myers Miracles (high A) outfielder Trevor Larnach and Ft. Myers Miracles right-handed pitcher Jhoan Duran have been named Twins minor league Player and Pitcher of the Week.

In five games for the Miracle, Larnach hit .524 (11-for-21) with two doubles, two
home runs, seven RBI, four runs scored and a 1.427 OPS. The 22-year-old Larnach was drafted by the Twins 20th overall in the 2018 First-Year Player Draft and this marks his second POW honor this season (also May 12).

Larnach raking at a Miraculous rate

 

Jhoan Duran – credit Bill Parmeter of Ft. Myers Miracle

The right-handed throwing Duran made one start for the Miracle coming last Sunday at Daytona, allowing two runs (1 earned) on two hits in 6.0 innings pitched with 14 strikeouts (23 batters faced). Although Duran has an 0-5 record this season with the Miracles, he has started nine games and pitched 42.1 innings allowing just 31 hits and a 3.61 ERA. Duran has struck out 52 but also walked 15 batters.

The 21-year-old was acquired by the Twins at the trade deadline last season from Arizona, in exchange for Eduardo Escobar.

Duran hits new career heights for Miracle

 

Twins Minor League Report, 6-2-19

The only Minnesota Twins minor league team with a losing record at this point is the 20-31 Rochester Red Wings.

Jake Odorizzi is American League Player of the Week

Jake Odorizzi

Major League Baseball announced yesterday that right-handed starter Jake Odorizzi was named American League Player of the Week. Odorizzi claimed his first career weekly award, the first for a Twins player since Eduardo Escobar for the week ending June
11, 2018, and the first by a Twins pitcher since Francisco Liriano for the week ending May 8, 2011.

  • Odorizzi went 2-0 in two starts last week without allowing a run over 13.0 innings pitched, permitted six hits and five walks with 15 strikeouts across the two outings.
  • His back-to-back scoreless starts were the first time the former first round draft pick (2008 by Milwaukee) accomplished the feat since July 22-August 3, 2016, when he had a career-best three straight scoreless starts.
  • A full list of Twins AL Player of the Week award winners can be found on page 234 of the Twins 2019 Media Guide.

And he goes down swinging!

Harmon Killebrew

We all know that strikeout rates are up all across baseball for the last few years but today we will look at Minnesota Twins batters and their strikeout rates going back to 1961. We used B-R’s amazing Play Index to find what we were looking for.

The top two all time Twins leader in strikeouts are Harmon Killebrew with 1,314 and Joe Mauer with 1,034. Mauer? What the heck? Longevity can do strange things to numbers and the devil is in the details.

Continue reading And he goes down swinging!

Twins minor league players of the week – Trevor Larnach & Jhoan Duran

The Twins have named A- Cedar Rapids Kernels outfielder Trevor Larnach and Single-A Cedar Rapids right-handed pitcher Jhoan Duran as Twins minor league Player and Pitcher of the Week.

Trevor Larnach

In six games for the Kernels, Larnach hit .391 (9-for-23) with two doubles, one home
run, three RBI, three walks and six runs scored. The California native was drafted by the Twins 20th overall in this past June’s draft. The 6’4″ left-handed hitting Larnach started playing pro ball in Elizabethton and moved up to Cedar Rapids after 18 games. The Twins are expecting Larnach to move up the Twins system quickly.

Jhoan Duran

Duran made two starts for the Kernels, going 1-0, 0.66 ERA (13.2 IP, 1 ER) with three walks and 19 strikeouts. Duran, who earned this award earlier in the month, was acquired at the trade deadline from Arizona in exchange for infielder Eduardo Escobar. The 6’5″ 20-year-old right-hander has started five games for the Kernels since the Twins acquired him and has a 2-1 record but that is deceiving. He has allowed just 16 hits in 32 innings while striking out 41 and walking 7. Duran has an ERA of 2.25 and a 0.719 WHIP. The guy is tearing it up! WOW! Duran could be a steal.

 

Twins Minor League Report 082718

Twins minor league players of the week – Jose Miranda & Prelander Berroa

The Twins have named A+ Ft. Myers Miracle infielder José Miranda and GCL Twins right-handed pitcher Prelander Berroa as Twins minor league Player and Pitcher of the Week.

Jose Miranda

The 20-year-old Jose Miranda played seven games for the Miracle, hitting .320 (8-for-25) with two doubles, one home run, four RBI and a .414 on-base percentage. Miranda plays primarily second and third base but has played some shortstop. Miranda was selected by the Twins 73rd overall in the 2016 First-Year Player Draft and signed for a reported $775,000. Bats and throws right-handed. Miranda also was the Twins player of the week back in June when he was with Cedar Rapids.

Prelander Berroa

 

 

 

Prelander Berroa, an 18-year-old Dominican right-hander made one start for the for the GCL Twins on Thursday vs. GCL Orioles, pitching 5.0 shutout innings with one hit allowed and nine strikeouts. Berroa has not allowed an earned run in his last three starts, games he which he pitched 5,4 and 5 innings. Berroa was signed as a 16-year-old undrafted free agent in July of 2016 for a reported $200,000 and started pitching in the Twins minor league system in 2017.

Twins Minor League Report 081818

Shortstop Royce Lewis and outfielder Alex Kirilloff were named to the 2018 Midwest League Postseason All-Star Team. Outfielder Ernie De La Trinidad who came over from Arizona in the Eduardo Escobar trade and is now playing with the Ft. Myers Miracle also made the same All-Star team.

If you are a baseball fan you will love La VIDA Baseball

Not that long ago I ran across a site called La VIDA Baseball. La VIDA Baseball is produced in association with the National Baseball Hall of Fame, celebrates the past, present and future of Latino baseball through our own lens and voice.

If you are interested in Latin Baseball and legends of the past, current stars or future up and coming Latino stars than this site is for you. They publish new articles on a regular basis and the writers are very, very good. If you are a fan of baseball than you should check this site out and bookmark it. 

The Twins have had many Latino stars over the years and a lot of them have great stories written about them on this site. Here are just a few examples and there are many, many more.

ESCOBAR HUNTING FOR AN ARIZONA OCTOBER

TWINS’ ROSARIO WAS ALWAYS AN EARLY OVERACHIEVER

La Vida Voices: Tony Oliva’s Journey

Twins minor league players of the week – Ryan Jeffers & Jhoan Duran

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.

 

Twins Minor League Report 080518

 

 

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

Is the value of a two out RBI truth or myth?

According to the most recent (06/14/18) issue of MLB Weekly Notes, the Milwaukee Brewers have a MLB best 46% (126 out of 274) of their total RBI coming with two out. The first place Brewers have the best record in the National League at 42-27. The 40-29 Atlanta Braves have the second most wins in the NL and they also have the second best NL percentage of two out RBI at 43.2%. The San Diego Padres have the third best NL percentage of two out RBI at 41.7% but they have a 34-38 record and are last in the NL West.

In the American League the best two out percentage of RBI is 44.4% and belongs to the AL West fourth place Oakland A’s who have a 34-36 record. The only other team in the top five MLB percentages of two out RBI of 40% or more belongs to none other than our Minnesota Twins who sit at exactly 40%. The Twins offense has been anemic this season and their record stands at 30-36 and the team is 11th in the AL in runs scored. The third highest team in the AL in two out RBI is the 22-47 Kansas City Royals at 38.8% and only the Baltimore Orioles with a 19-49 record have fewer wins in MLB than the Royals.

Continue reading Is the value of a two out RBI truth or myth?

Twins walk-off wins – 1961-2017

Twins walk-off King
Harmon Killebrew

In the past 57 seasons the Minnesota Twins have walked off their opponents 403 times. Kirby Puckett leads the Minnesota Twins in career walk-off’s wins by delivering the winning run in some manner 11 times, it might have been on a hit, walk, HBP, error or a sacrifice. Second on the list is Harmon Killebrew. I guess that is why these guys are Hall of Fame players.

The Twins have walked off their opponent with a single a total of 196 times. Rod Carew  did it seven times and is the leader in this category and it has been done five times by Alexi Casilla, Harmon Killebrew, Brian Harper, Larry Hisle, Kent Hrbek and Jacque Jones.

The Twins have hit 108 walk-off home runs and Justin Morneau leads the pack here with five and is followed Gary Gaetti, Harmon Killebrew, Kirby Puckett, Tony Oliva and Kent Hrbek with four each. One was an inside the park job by Tim Teufel.

The Twins have walked off their opponents with doubles 35 times and Kirby Puckett did it 3 times, the following players each did it twice, Cristian Guzman, Rich Reese, Tony Oliva, Eduardo Escobar, Shannon Stewart, Glenn Borgmann  and Tom Brunansky.

The Sacrifice Fly has led to 25 Twins walk-off wins with only Zoilo Versalles and Cristian Guzman doing it more than once.

The Twins have walked-off opponents 12 times on an opposing team error.

The Twins have walked-off their opponent 11 times when they drew a bases-loaded walk. 

The Twins have had six walk-off triples and no one has more than one.

The Twins have celebrated a walk-off win six times after a simple ground out.

The Twins have two walk-off wins via getting hit by a pitch (Paul Molitor and Max Kepler).

The first player to deliver a walk-off win was Zoilo Versalles and the most recent to do it is Byron Buxton.