Minor Leagues

The Twins scored 18 runs. The two Twins minor league affiliates that have been very good this year both got shut out. The Red Wings got a good start. But most surprising, the Kernels had an offensive outburst, scoring eight runs. As impressive, three Kernels pitchers struck out 20 batters in nine innings. And, frequent Minor League Report star Luis Arraez made his major league debut late in the Twins game and recorded his first big-league hit, a double.

Apparently, those pushups paid off. A day after causing some controversy when he did pushups on the field after hitting a double, Royce Lewis muscled his first home run of the season. Come see what else happened across the system Friday night.

How do you define success?

When the subject is a minor league baseball team, that can sometimes be a thorny question.

By most traditional measurements, you’d have to twist yourself into a few knots to come up with a way to describe the first six weeks of the Cedar Rapids Kernels’ 2019 campaign as a success.

A couple of Twins minor league sluggers did some impressive slugging on Thursday night. One prospect has started hitting homers since a promotion. The other doubled his home runs production on the season. And a birthday boy put together about as good a series as a player can.

In Part 1 yesterday, we introduced you to former Twins minor league coach Frank Jagoda who took over as the Director of USA Baseball’s 18U program. Today I’m going to write about USA Baseball and some Minnesota connections. Over the years, several players from Minnesota have represented Team USA. Two Minnesota players have been invited to the Player Development Pipeline League this year. We will introduce you to them as well.

As minor league spring training was about to start, Frank Jagoda left what he called an “opportunity of a lifetime” to work for an organization in which he gets to wear the USA across his chest again.

Nick Gordon started the year on the injured list, but he was off to a hot start since returning to Rochester. In eight games, he had gone 12-for-34 with five doubles, five RBI, and three stolen bases. Unfortunately, he ended up back on the injured list with a left adductor strain. It’s an important season for Gordon, so it’s tough to see him back on the IL.

There were lots of other transactions on Tuesday including some prominent players in the organization.

While only three of the Minnesota Twins four full season affiliates were in action on Monday, two of them had doubleheaders on the schedule thanks to the weather that’s been wreaking havoc seemingly every day so far this season. A pair of starting pitchers had solid outings, including one who set a personal strikeout record, and a top prospect hitter finished his day with four hits. An under-the-radar reliever also continued an impressive scoreless streak to start 2019.

To find out who those players were, and how the rest of your favorite Twins prospects performed on Monday night, read on!

Happy Mothers Day! The Midwest League and the Florida State League did not have games scheduled on Mothers Day. Pensacola was in Chattanooga, but the rains came and wiped out their game. The weather in Rochester, NY, was not good, but they were able to get their game in. Find out how Miguel Sano, Lewis Thorpe and the Red Wings did. Also, who were the choices for Twins Minor League Hitter and Pitcher of the Week?

Unfortunately, there were no wins to be had in the Twins minor league system this Saturday but that does not mean that there was nothing to be excited about. Specifically, there was quite the start from a young left hander who could be on the major league team very soon. Read all about it and more as I take you through this journey.

Luke Raley is raking in his first taste of Triple A. Acquired from the Dodgers at last year’s trade deadline, Raley has made an excellent early impression with his new org. He smashed his seventh home run of the season in a big three-hit game for the Red Wings. Come check out what else happened around the minors.

Unfortunately, rain won the night in both Rochester and Ft. Myers, but there were still two games played on Thursday night. The Blue Wahoos and the Kernels got strong pitching and some big offensive performances on their way to wins.