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
A+ Ft. Myers Miracle infielder Royce Lewis and Ft. Myers Miracle right-handed pitcher Edwar Colina have been named Twins minor league Player and Pitcher of the Week.
Royce Lewis at 2019 Futures game
Lewis, who played in the SiriusXM Futures Game at Progressive Field last Sunday, played in four games for the Miracle late this week, hitting .353 (6-for-17) with two home runs, three RBI and two walks. The 20-year-old Lewis is in his third season of pro ball after having been selected first overall in 2017 by Minnesota. Lewis appeared in 46 games for Ft. Myers last season and has spent all of this season with the Miracle. It is fair to say that Lewis has struggled at times this year hitting only .235 with a .285 OBP and a .649 OPS but he seems to be showing improvement. A handful of players from the 2017 draft have already had a cup of coffee in the big leagues with their parent clubs but with the way Lewis has played this season he has little to no chance of seeing a September call-up.
Edwar Colina
Colina made the start on Wednesday versus Daytona, pitching 7 shutout innings with three hits allowed, no walks and eight strikeouts. The 22-year-old Venezuelan right-hander started the season with the Miracle and in ten starts has 4-2 record with a nice 2.34 ERA. In 61.2 innings Colina has given up only 53 hits and struck out 61 batters. Colina has improved his control this season and has a nifty 4.07 SO/W ratio. The Minnesota Twins signed free agent RHP Edwar Colina to a minor league contract on September 29, 2015.
The Twins A+ Ft. Myers Miracle beat the Daytona Tortugas by a score of 8-5 on September 10th in Game 4 of the Florida State League Championship to clinch the series 3-1. The Miracle scored five runs in the third inning and took a 5-3 lead thanks to a three-run home run by Ryan Costello. Edwar Colina was the starter and winner for Ft. Myers, allowing three runs (none earned) on three hits and four walks with six strikeouts over 6.2 innings. In the four game series, Travis Blankenhorn hit .538 (7-for-13) with a double, four RBI and five runs scored while Royce Lewis hit .294 (5-for-17) with five RBI and five runs scored.
This marks the Ft. Myers Miracle first FSL Championship since 2014. The Miracle are the second Twins affiliate to win a championship this year, the first being Rookie League Elizabethton Twins, who won the Appalachian League title on September 5.
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.
Ft. Myers Miracle (High A) right-handed pitcher Yorman Landa is the Twins minor league Player of the Week. Landa made three relief appearances for the Miracle, pitching 4.0 scoreless innings, with two hits allowed, no walks, five strikeouts and two saves. Landa who is in his sixth season in the Minnesota organization has appeared in 10 games for the Miracle, going 2-1, 2.77 ERA (13.0 IP, 4 ER) with two saves, four walks and 13 strikeouts. The 21-year-old was originally signed by the Twins as an undrafted free agent September 9, 2010 out of Santa Teresa, Venezuela.
Ft. Myers (High A) infielder Nick Gordon is the Twins minor league Player of the Week. Gordon played in six games for the Miracle, hitting .444 (12-for-27) with five doubles, one home run, four RBI, five runs scored, one walk and two stolen bases. Gordon spent 2015 with Cedar Rapids (Low A), hitting .277 (133-for-481) with 23 doubles, seven triples, one home run, 58 RBI, 79 runs scored and 25 stolen bases. The 20-year-old is the younger brother of Dee and the son of Tom “Flash” Gordon and was drafted by the Twins in the first round (5th overall) of the 2014 First-Year Player Draft out of Olympia (FL) High School and was signed by Minnesota for $3,851,000. Gordon entered the season as the Twins fourth best prospect by Baseball America.
Ft. Myers (High A) left-handed pitcher Mat Batts (Harrison Mathis Batts) is the Twins minor league Player of the Week. Batts made one start for the Miracle on Friday at Brevard County, allowing one run on five hits in 7.0 innings pitched with no walks and five strikeouts, earning the win. Batts combined to go 7-4, 1.89 ERA (95.0 IP, 20 ER) with 19 walks and 93 strikeouts in 16 starts between Cedar Rapids (Low A) and Ft. Myers.
The Winston-Salem, North Carolina native was drafted by the Twins in the 17th round of the 2014 First-Year Player Draft out of the University of North Carolina-Wilmington where he was named Colonial Athletic Association Pitcher of the Year in 2013 and 2014. At Mount Tabor High School, Batts was named first-team All-State as a senior and set a school record by throwing a perfect game and a no-hitter in consecutive games.
Ft. Myers (High A) right-handed pitcher Aaron Slegers is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. Slegers made one start for the Miracle, tossing a complete game shutout on May 24 vs. Brevard County, allowing three hits, no walks and nine strikeouts, earning the win. The 6-foot-10, 245-pounder has made eight starts for the Miracle, going 3-2, 2.59 ERA (48.2 IP, 14 ER). The 6’10” workhorse has pitched seven innings or more in three of his last five starts, going 2-1 with a 1.59 ERA over that stretch. Slegers has limited opponents to a .204 average with 18 strikeouts in 26 innings this month. The Scottsdale, Arizona native was drafted by the Twins in the fifth round of the 2013 First-Year Player Draft out of Indiana University and signed for a reported $380,000.
Previous winners of Twins POW this season are right-handed pitcher Tyler Duffey, left-handed pitcher Stephen Gonsalves, outfielder Byron Buxton, infielder Trey Vavra, infielder Miguel Sano and first baseman/outfielder Max Kepler.
Chattanooga (AA) 1B/outfielder Max Kepler is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. Kepler played in seven games for the Lookouts, hitting .500 (12-for-24) with three doubles, two home runs, nine RBI, four walks and a .571 on-base percentage. Kepler who throws and bats left-handed is only 22 years old but is in his sixth season of baseball in the Twins system.
Kepler started 2015 with the Ft. Myers Miracle after a Flexor Pronator Strain in his throwing arm this past March delayed his preparation for 2015. Kepler was bumped up to Chattanooga after just 6 games with the Miracle. Max who splits time between 1B and they outfield where he can play all three positions has been tearing the cover off the ball this year, in 28 games and 113 plate appearances Kepler is hitting a team leading .349 with a .946 OPS and has six steals in seven attempts. Kepler knows how to run the bases and has nice speed for a guy that goes about 6’4″ and 220. Kepler was signed by the Twins as an undrafted free agent out of Germany in 2009. Congratulations to my favorite player in the Twins minor league system.
Everyone expected the Chattanooga team to be strong this season and now three out of the last four weeks a Lookouts player has been the Twins player of the week. Previous winners of Twins POW this season are right-handed pitcher Tyler Duffey, left-handed pitcher Stephen Gonsalves, outfielder Byron Buxton, infielder Trey Vavra and infielder Miguel Sano.
Ft. Myers Miracle (High A ball) catcher Stuart Turner is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. The 22 year-old Turner played in four games for the Miracle and went 6-for-13 (.462) with three doubles, a home run and five RBI. The Twins third round pick in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft is a right-handed hitter and is in just his second year of professional baseball after being drafted out of the University of Mississippi. The Eunice, Louisiana native was named the Twins best defensive catcher entering the 2014 season.
Couple of other minor league notes –
Alex Meyer
Triple-A Rochester Red Wings starter Alex Meyer was removed from last night’s game vs. Buffalo and was placed on the disabled list with shoulder inflammation. Does that kill his chances for pitching for the Twins this year? We will have to wait and see but it does not look promising.
Jose Berrios
The Twins promoted RHP Jose Berrios and LHP Ryan O’Rourke to Rochester. Berrios is expected to start for the Red Wings today in Pawtucket. 2014 has been an amazing year for Berrios who started the season at High A Ft. Myers where he put up a 9-3 record with a 1.96 ERA and was then promoted to Double AA New Britain when his record was 3-4 with a 3.54 ERA. Between the two stops he has struck out 137 batters in 137 innings. Berrios who is obviously on the fast track to Minnesota is trying to help Rochester get a wild card playoff spot.
Seems to be some validity to the complaining that the Twins best paid player Joe Mauer isn’t hitting with runners on base. Joe Mauer had the go-ahead single in the ninth inning for Minnesota on Monday, after he entered the game hitting .171 (7 for 41) in Late Inning Pressure Situations. Over the past six seasons (2008-2013), Mauer hit .339 in LIPS, the highest in the major leagues among players with at least 100 plate appearances.
The Ft. Myers Miracle the Twins High-A team is now calling JetBlue Park their new home for the rest of the regular season and the playoffs as Hammond Stadium undergoes the second phase of their two-year remodeling effort. It will be interesting to see what Hammond Stadium will look like next spring.
The Cedar Rapids Kernels the Twins Low-A club and the Minnesota Twins extended their player-development contract (PDC) through the 2020 season. Another nail in the coffin for those that had hopes of St. Paul landing a Twins minor league affiliation in their new ballpark that is being built.
Minneapolis provided MLB with free rent and discounted services for the All-Star FanFest at the Minneapolis Convention Center when the Twins hosted the 2014 All-Star game.
Ron Davis – Twins pitcher from 1982 – 1986 (courtesy of the Minnesota Twins)
Twenty eight years ago today the Twins traded closer Ron Davis along with minor league pitcher Dewayne Coleman to the Chicago Cubs for relievers George Frazier and Ray Fontenot and shortstop Julius McDougal. Davis was the Twins closer from 1982 until he was traded in 1986. Davis saved 108 games for the Twins but it was the games that he didn’t save that made Davis one of the biggest villans in Twins history. Here is a piece about Davis in the LA Times. The Twinstrivia interview with Ron Davis can be found here.
In the last three weeks Terry Ryan and Rob Antony have been busy house-cleaning and they have cut about $8 million from the Twins payroll. First the Twins traded DH/1B Kendrys Morales to the Seattle Mariners for RHP Stephen Pryor. Then they traded outfielder Sam Fuld to the Oakland A’s for LHP Tommy Milone. Then RHP Kevin Correia was sent out to La La land where he will pitch for the Dodgers and the Twins will receive a PTBNL or cash. Their latest trade has outfielder/DH Josh Willingham headed south to the Kansas City Royals in exchange for minor league RHP Jason Adam. Here is what a KC blog site called Cover the Bases had to say about the deal. Are there still more trades on the horizon? You never know but if I was Jared Burton I might not be too quick to send out my clothes to the dry cleaners. Joe Mauer is now the oldest position player on the team, Wow!
Jim Merritt
A lot is being made of King Felix Hernandez and his run of history making starts this season where he has pitched seven innings or more and allowed two runs or fewer. There is even talk of him as a serious MVP candidate. Have any Twins pitchers had a nice run like that? Turns out that Jim Merritt had 11 games in a row back in 1967. This is actually a pretty amazing run by Hernandez, since 1961 there have only been 10 pitchers that have had a streak of 10 games or more that fit this criteria. Check out the list, there are some pretty good pitchers here.
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Streaks of seven innings pitched and two or fewer runs allowed since 1961
Take a moment to check out Bob Gibson‘s numbers in the table above, they are absolutely incredible. His streak was 11 games long, his record was 11-0 and he had 11 complete games with 8 shutouts and a total of three runs allowed. No wonder Cardinals catcher Tim McCarver said that Gibson was the luckiest pitcher ever, he only pitched when the other team was not hitting.
The Minnesota Twins are still on track to have over 2.3 million fans at Target Field this summer. I think as the cooler weather approaches, the state fair gets in full swing and school begins, the attendance will fall off and the Twins will be around the 2 million mark but that is still an amazing mark for a team that has played as badly as the Twins have for the last four years.
So what about Ron Gardenhire and his staff? I think they are history within a week of the season ending. Who will be the Twins new skipper, it won’t be anyone currently associated with the Minnesota Twins today. Who would I like it to be? I think the Twins should swing a deal with the Marlins and bring Mike Redmond in as the Twins manager in 2015. The man had done well with the players he has been given. Will it happen? Nooooooo
