Tag: GCL Twins

Twins Minor League Player of the Week – Leonardo Reginatto

Leonardo Reginatto

This weeks Twins Minor League Player of the Week is Rochester Red Wings (AAA) third baseman Leonardo Reginatto. In 7 games the 27 year-old Reginatto hit .391 (9 for 23), with 3 doubles and scored 4 runs. Reginatto has played 81 games for Rochester this season appearing at third base and second base and has hit .296 in 260 at bats with 3 home runs and 36 RBI. Reginatto was a non-roster Twins spring training invitee this year.

Reginatto, a Brazilian native was originally signed by the Tampa Rays as a non-drafted free agent in February 2009 and signed with the Twins as a minor league free agent in  December 2015. 

Twins Minor League Report 082917

 

Minor Matters

Double-A Chattanooga Manager Jake Mauer has been named the Southern League Manager of the Year. Mauer is the first Lookouts manager to win this award since Jayhawk Owens in 2004.

Southern League Postseason All-Stars have been announced and the Twins will be represented by four players from Double-A Chattanooga: infielder Nick Gordon, outfielder Edgar Corcino, designated hitter Jonathan Rodriguez and relief pitcher Gabriel Moya.

Rookie-Level Elizabethton recently clinched their Division Title and will open the playoffs on Saturday against Greenville or Johnson City. Elizabethton currently has a record of 41-26. This marks their 12th time in postseason play since 2003.

GCL Twins also recently clinched a playoff berth and will open their postseason play on Sunday (opponent TBD).

Former Twins outfielder Riccardo Ingram passes away

Riccardo Ingram
Riccardo Ingram

Former Minnesota Twins and Detroit Tigers outfielder Riccardo Ingram passed away after a lengthy battle with brain cancer at the age of 48 on March 31. Ingram was born in Douglas, Georgia on September 10, 1966.

Riccardo Ingram was a fourth round selection by the Detroit Tigers in the 1987 June amateur draft and made his major league debut with the Tigers on June 26, 1994 in Oakland-Alameda County Stadium as a pinch-runner for Cecil Fielder as the Oakland A’s beat the Tigers 10-5. Ingram appeared in a dozen games for the Tigers that season and then left the Tigers organization as a free agent after the 1994 season and signed with the Minnesota Twins. Ingram’s time with the Minnesota Twins in July of 1995 was brief and he appeared in just four games and had one hit and one RBI in eight at bats. Ingram left Minnesota after the 1995 season and spent 1996 with the San Diego Padres AAA Las Vegas Stars team before retiring after the season ended.

Ingram was offered and accepted a minor league coaching position with the Twins organization after retiring as an active player and spent the next 18 seasons coaching and managing in the Twins system. Ingram managed the GCL Twins, Fort Myers Miracle, and the New Britain Rock Cats and was well liked by his players and members of the Twins organization. alike Ingram was apparently a great story-teller and fun to be around. In 2009 Ingram suffered from severe headaches and was diagnosed with a brain tumor, the prognosis was grim as doctors gave him just a year to live. Ingram battled the brain tumor for a year before returning to coaching in the Twins system. Ingram was a coach for the Fort Myers Miracle in 2014 but as the year progressed he learned that his cancer had returned.

“Every year, he used to meet with our pitchers,” said Eric Rasmussen, who was Ingram’s pitching coach with the Miracle in 2005 and is now the Twins minor league pitching coordinator. “He’d gather them all together, and he’d say: “You have got one job to do. Throw the ball over the plate.” “And then he’d leave.”

Before becoming a professional baseball player, Ingram was a star football and baseball player at Georgia Tech and is a member of the Georgia Tech’s Sports Hall of Fame. He was the first Georgia Tech player to be named the Atlantic Coast Conference’s male athlete of the year. He was an All-Atlantic Coast Conference defensive back in 1986 before leading the Yellow Jackets to the 1987 ACC baseball championship.

Riccardo Benay Ingram is survived by his wife, Allison, and their two children – Kacey and Kristen. RIP Riccardo Ingram, you will be missed.

Miracle win it all!

Miracle are 2014 championsOn Monday, September 8, the Ft. Myers Miracle won the first Florida State League Championship in team history three games to one over the Daytona Cubs. Jason Kanzler‘s two-run homer in the eleventh inning propelled the Fort Myers Miracle to the Florida State League Championship in a 4-2, extra inning win over the Daytona Cubs at Jackie Robinson Ballpark in game four on Monday night. The Miracle under manager Doug Mientkiewicz finished the season with an 87-58 overall record and were 4-1 in the playoffs. Outfielder Adam Walker led the 2014 Miracle with 25 home runs and 94 RBI while hitting .246. The pitching staff was led by Matt Tomshaw, Brett Lee, and Jose Berrios who had a combined 30-14 record.

Minnesota’s longest-running Minor League full season affiliate, the Miracle began an association with the Twins in 1993. The 1993 team finished with a 55-79 record under manager Steve Liddle. Players on that team that went on to play in Minnesota were pitchers Brad Radke, Dan Naulty, Scott Watkins, catcher Damian Miller and outfielder Brent Brede.

The team has drawn nearly 120,000 fans in each of the last seven seasons. The Miracle have been top-four in the Florida State League for individual game average attendance every year since 2005. As expected, the Twins and single-A affiliate Ft. Myers Miracle have agreed to extend their Player Development Contract for four years, through the 2018 season.

This is the first league championship that a Twins minor league team has won since the Elizabethton Twins won the Appalachian League title in 2012 and also the first league championship that a minor league team has won under Brad Steil who became the Twins Farm Director after the 2012 season. The last Twins A-Ball team to win a league championship were the 1987 Kenosha Twins (82-58) who were managed by Don Leppert.

Twins minor league teams finished the 2014 season with a combined record of 409-354 for a .536 winning percentage. Of the Twins seven minor league clubs, only the 23-37 Gulf Coast League Twins posted a losing record. 2014 marked the third consecutive season that Twins farm teams have won more games than they lost.

You can learn more about the Twins minor league teams going back to 1961 on our Twins Minor League History page.

A little of this and a little of that

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
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?

Chuck KnoblauchBrian 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?

Twins Farm System logoThe 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 .

Some GCL news

Jeremias Pineda

GCL Twins outfielder Jeremias Pineda was named to the 2012 GCL All-Star team and earned League MVP. Pineda hit .365 (70-for-192) with nine doubles, four triples, one home run, 25 RBI and 23 stolen bases in 52 games between the GCL Red Sox and GCL Twins. Pineda was acquired from Boston for Danny Valencia on August 5. Pineda actually played all four infield positions for the GCL Twins this season. Pineda was joined on the GCL All-Star team by GCL Twins infielder Anderlin Mejia, who batted .324 with one home run and 20 RBI for the GCL Twins this season. Mejia was also the toughest player to strike out in the GCL, fanning just once every 14.77 plate appearances. The 20 year-old Mejia is in his third Twins minor league season. The GCL Twins finished the season out of the playoffs at 33-27.

Former Minnesota Twins catcher (2001-2003) Tom Prince guided the Pirates to their first GCL championship since they joined the league in 1968. After qualifying for the playoffs as the Wild-Card team, the Pirates shut out the Cardinals, 1-0, to advance to the Finals. Prince’s club then won two straight from the Red Sox to win the league title. Prince, who has piloted the Pirates since 2007, was also named the GCL Manager of the Year in 2008, after leading his club to a league-best 37-18 record and the South Division title. Prince has been managing in the minor leagues since 2005.