Minor Leagues

The Twins drafted 42 players in the June draft this year. A total of 1,216 players were selected in the 40 rounds of this year's draft. Brady Anderson, a right-handed pitcher from Florida Gulf Coast University, did not hear his name called. Needing a few arms to fill the GCL roster, the Twins called on Anderson.

Anderson answered the call and pitched great throughout the rest of the summer. He started with the GCL Twins. In 27.2 innings, he went 2-0 with a 0.98 ERA, a .072 WHIP and a 25/2 K/BB rate.

When the Cedar Rapids Kernels needed a starter, they had Anderson skip Elizabethton and jump right to the Midwest League. He continued to pitch well, going 3-1 wit ha 2.62 ERA in six starts. He also made a start for the Kernels in the playoffs.

Recently, we caught up with the right-hander to learn a little more about him.

This spring, Michael Tonkin essentially had a golden ticket. Being out of options, the Twins had to either break camp with Tonkin on the 25-man roster or lose him to waivers.

Being young, cheap and having been effective in brief cameos with the Twins the prior three seasons, it was an easy choice. Tonkin has stuck on the big club all year, but one has to wonder how much longer he'll remain in the organization.

The 6-foot-7 righty didn't exactly earn his way onto the Opening Day roster, as he gave up seven earned runs in eight innings pitched in the Grapefruit League, and he hasn't done much to impress since. It's not likely that Tonkin would have stuck on the major league roster the entire season if he still had an option year to burn. After all, this is a guy the club optioned to Rochester ten different times over the last three seasons.

But is there any reason to be optimistic about Tonkin's future?

The Minnesota Twins have developed a reputation for encouraging an archaic hitting philosophy to their prospects in the minor leagues. As other organizations have embraced big swings with big movements and working with them to bring out their best, hitters who have entered the Twins system get the cookie-cutter swing treatment: foot down early, head still, swing down.

More and more there have been players in the system who have eschewed those methods only to see their production improve. There are examples of great swing transformations within the Twins’ minor league system that should be highlighted and, much like Max Kepler's in Chattanooga a year ago, Cedar Rapids’ Zander Wiel’s is one of them.

While Brian Dozier’s incredible in-season turnaround has drawn all the attention, Wiel’s improvement at the minor league level is no less impressive.

Sadly, the Minnesota Twins minor league season came to an end the other night when Cedar Rapids lost in the Midwest League playoff's second round. In the last couple of weeks, we have handed out several season-ending Twins minor league awards. For the first time, we are also unveiling our Twins Daily Twins Minor League all-star team.

Our Twins Daily minor league report writers were asked to vote for a catcher, first baseman, second baseman, third baseman, shortstop, three outfielders, a DH, a left-handed starting pitcher, a right-handed starting pitcher, a left-handed reliever and a right-handed reliever.

They say pitching and defense wins games at playoff time and that certainly was the case in Clinton Monday night, where the Cedar Rapids Kernels and Clinton Lumber Kings not only needed 11 innings to determine a winner, but just as many innings just to see a run tallied.

In the end it was Clinton taking the 1-0 win in the deciding game 3 of the West Division series and advancing to the Midwest League’s Championship series against the winner of Tuesday night’s deciding game between West Michigan and Great Lakes.

If the Cedar Rapids Kernels are going to return to the Midwest League Championship Series for the second consecutive year, they’re going to need to do it the hard way – with a win on the road in a series-deciding game 3.

The Kernels fell hard on Sunday night at Clinton, dropping game two of the series 6-1 to the Lumber Kings. The same two teams will play Monday night in Clinton with the winner moving on to the MWL’s championship series against either West Michigan or Great Lakes.

Kernels starting pitcher Sam Gibbons was touched for all six Lumber King runs, all earned, in four innings of work. Most of the damage came in a four-run Clinton fourth inning, topped off by a bases-clearing double off the left-centerfield wall by Chris Mariscal.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels spotted visiting Clinton a pair of runs in the first inning of the opening game in their 3-game Midwest League Western Division championship series on Saturday, but after that it was all Kernels as they clobbered the Lumber Kings 9-3.

Kernels starter Brady Anderson worked through trouble in each of the first three innings, giving up seven hits, walking a pair and surrendering all three of the runs Clinton would score on the night.

With a 3-1 win on Thursday night, the Twins’ Class A affiliate, the Cedar Rapids Kernels, have advanced to the second round of the Midwest League’s playoffs for the third consecutive season. Cedar Rapids swept the first two games of the three-game series over the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers.

The Kernels have qualified for the playoffs all four years that they’ve been affiliated with the Twins and all four seasons under manager Jake Mauer.

Over the past week, we have handed out the Twins Daily Minnesota Twins Minor League Awards. Today, we conclude our series of “Of The Year” awards with the minor league Hitter of the Year. As always, there were some terrific seasons throughout the system. There are several players who received votes from our minor league writers that “just” get honorable mention. There are several more who just missed the list and deserve recognition too. Continue on to find out who our choice was for 2016 Twins Minor League Hitter of the Year.

Here is a quick reminder of our previous 2016 Twins Daily Minor League award winners:

Short Season Hitter of the Year- Lewin Diaz, Elizabethton Twins
Short Season Pitcher of the Year - Huascar Ynoa, GCL Twins
Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year - Trevor Hildenberger, Ft. Myers Miracle/Chattanooga Lookouts
Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Year - Stephen Gonsalves, Ft. Myers Miracle/Chattanooga Lookouts

The best thing a team can do in a playoff game is jump out to an early lead. However, if said lead is blown a couple of innings later, the new best thing a team can do is put up a five-spot in the very next half inning. That’s what the Kernels did in Wednesday night’s Game 1 of their Midwest League Round 1 playoff series in Appleton, Wisconsin, against the Wisconsin TimberRattlers.

I think it would be fair to say that the biggest issue for the Minnesota Twins in 2016 (and well, since like 2011) has been starting pitching. As the majority of the Twins hitting prospects have reached the big leagues, most of the top prospects in the Twins system are starting pitchers. There is a lot of talent and most of them had very good seasons in 2016. Today, we hand out our award for 2016 Minnesota Twins Minor League Starting Pitcher of the Year.

In recent years, baseball fans have seen how important a bullpen can be for a team to reach their ultimate goal. The Kansas City Royals rode a dominant back end of the bullpen to a World Series title last season. The Yankees traded away the likes of Aroldis Chapman and Andrew Miller for a king's ransom before the trade deadline.

Relief pitching can make the difference between a team contending in October or being sent home early.