Rochester (AAA) first baseman/designated hitter Kennys Vargas is the Twins minor league Player of the Week. Vargas played in eight games for the Red Wings, hitting .391 (9-for-23) with two doubles, one home run, eight RBI, nine walks and a .563 on-base percentage. Vargas has hit .274 (96-for-350) with 11 doubles, 15 home runs and 50 RBI in 105 games this season at three levels (Minnesota, Rochester and Chattanooga).
Tag: Rochester Red Wings
Help is on the way, or is it?
The Twins plan to add eight players to the roster now that the Rochester Red Wings season has ended. The team plans to recall LHP Logan Darnell, RHP Michael Tonkin, C Josmil Pinto, C/OF Chris Herrmann and OF Aaron Hicks. Additionally the Twins will select the contracts of RHP Lester Oliveros, RHP A.J. Achter and INF Doug Bernier.
Also joining the Twins will be Triple-A hitting coach Tim Doherty from September 2-14 while Red Wings Manager Gene Glynn will be with the Twins from September 15-28.
Not much to get excited about here, just think how different things could have been had Byron Buxton. Miguel Sano, and Alex Meyer not been injured this year. Then again maybe we would not have seen Danny Santana and Kennys Vargas step up in the way they have so far this year. It will be interesting to see if Hicks has improved, he did well in New Britain and in Rochester for a while before he cooled off. When Rochester was making a push for a wild-card spot late in the season Hicks was not always a regular in that line-up.
Twins minor league player of the week
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 –
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.
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.
Twins minor league player of the week
Rochester (AAA-International league) outfielder Daniel Ortiz is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. In six games with the Red Wings, he hit .455 (10-for-22) with three doubles, a home run, and five RBI. Ortiz, a left-handed batter also walked twice and scored seven runs to go with a .500 on-base percentage. The 24-year-old Cayey, Puerto Rico-native was selected by the Twins in the fourth round of the 2008 First Year Player Draft out of Benjamin Harrison (PR) High School and signed for a $253,000 bonus.
Twins minor league player of the week
Rochester (AAA – International League) infielder Doug Bernier is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. The 34-year old played in seven games for the Red Wings, hitting .370 (10-for-27) with one double, two home runs, 10 RBI, five runs scored and drew two walks. Bernier was acquired by the Twins as a minor league free agent February 1, 2013. He appeared in 33 games for the Twins last season, hitting .226 (12-for-53).
Bernier was originally signed by the Colorado Rockies as an undrafted free agent in 2002. Although Bernier has only seen big league action with the Rockies and Twins in a total of 35 games, he has also spent time with the Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees organizations.
Twins minor league player of the week
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
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.
Twins Minor League Player of the Week
Rochester (AAA – International League) right-handed pitcher Yohan Pino is the Twins Minor League Player of the Week. The 29-year-old Pino made two starts for the Red Wings, going 1-0, 0.82 ERA (11.0 IP, 1 ER) with four walks nine strikeouts and a 7.0-inning complete game shutout vs. Pawtucket on Thursday. The Turmero, Venezuela native has made four appearance (2 starts) for the Wings this season, going 2-0, 0.59 ERA (15.1 IP, 1 ER) with six walks and 12 strikeouts. Pino’s fastball is in the mid-to-high 80’s and he has great curveball and slider. Pino suffered a foot injury in 2008 and he has not been the same pitcher that once threw a no-hitter in 2007.
Pino, a right-hander was originally signed by the Twins in 2004 and spent parts of six seasons in the Twins system before being the PTBNL in a trade that helped the Twins acquire right-handed pitcher Carl Pavano in August of 2009. Pino also spent time in the minor league organizations of the Blue Jays and Reds before he was resigned by the Twins this past offseason and was invited to Spring Training.
Barely a week left in spring training and things are not looking good
The Twins announced yesterday that RHP Vance Worley, who posted a 13.50 ERA in spring training, was sent outright to Class AAA Rochester on Friday. In order to send Worley to AAA Rochester, Worley has to clear waivers, which he did. That means that every team in baseball passed on Worley, who finished third in National League Rookie of the Year voting in 2011 with the Phillies and was last year’s Opening Day starter for the Twins. Was does that tell you about the 26 year-old Worley if no team in baseball is willing to take a chance on the guy that was 3rd in ROY voting just a couple of years earlier when pitchers are in such demand? Are the Twins wasting a AAA roster spot and possibly delaying some others pitchers development by having Worley there? If I was the Twins I would have the “Vanimal” on a very short and tight leash.
Twins GM Bill Smith traded outfielder Ben Revere to the Phillies in order to acquire Worley and minor league pitcher Trevor May in December 2012. The only saving grace from this trade is if May becomes a decent starting pitcher for Minnesota in the near future.
We were at Tuesday’s game when Worley had his last start this spring for the Twins and it was a pitiful performance as the Tampa Rays pounded the Twins to a tune of 11-3. Worley lasted just 2 and 2/3 innings and gave up 11 hits (including 6 doubles) and walked 2 while giving up 7 earned runs. If I remember correctly there was not a blooper in the bunch, the Rays were crushing the ball. As I said earlier, the Twins lost that game 11-3 and we left after 7 innings with the Twins trailing 8-1 and we hardly ever leave games early. The Twins had 8 hits and 9 walks in that game and could only muster 3 runs, that is some bad baseball. When we attended a rained out game against the Cardinals earlier this month we were able to send in our $10 parking ticket for a refund, I wonder if I should send in my parking ticket for this game to Dave St. Peter and see if I can get a refund because of the Twins poor play that night? Maybe I will.
The other day acting GM Rob Antony made some strong comments about outfielders Aaron Hicks and Alex Presley not stepping up this spring to earn the centerfield starting job and the lack of hitting by free agent signees Jason Kubel and Jason Bartlett. I applaud Mr. Antony for saying what is on his mind and being honest about the state of this ballclub and I wish more of the Twins organization were as honest. I really expected this team to play close to .500 ball this year (and I still think they can) but based on what I have seen todate the team and its fans could be in for a long season. We all know that spring training means next to nothing as far as team regular season wins are concerned but the Twins play does send a message to Twins fans on what they should expect this season. Spring training is winding down and has about a week to go, the Twins had better start playing some better baseball soon if they want to see fans butts in the Target field seats this year.
The team started off spring training full of optimism in spite of GM Terry Ryan’s cancer diagnosis but the Miguel Sano injury seemed to drain the life right out of this team and its staff. Now is the time for manager Ron Gardenhire to step up and show his stuff by playing what he thinks is his best line-up and getting this team ready for some real baseball. The Twins strategy should be simple, the best players get the jobs and if they don’t cut the mustard then it should be “next man up” until this team starts to show some life and energy. Twins fans deserve to watch a team that wants to play and to win!
Twins announce 2013 Minor League Player & Pitcher of the Year
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 .