Scott Diamond pitched into the 7th inning and gave up just a single run, but was left with a no decision thanks to a Twins offense that could only manage one run of support. After the 13 inning game was over the Twins had walked 15 times (compared with just 2 walks), but they managed to score a couple in the top of the 13th to take their first game in three days.
I didn’t see the end of the game, because of sleep and things like that, but it seemed like Scott Diamond and Chris Colabello (game winning RBI) were the BOD candidates. Colabello needs something to get him started at the MLB level, and maybe winning the BOD will give him a bump.
Episode 46 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
This week my brother returns for a long journey at sea with the US Coast Guard and Cody and I clap for him. We talk about Clete Thomas, Drew Butera (known fondly to us as the Boat Anchor), and we drink way too many beers.
This might be the most enjoyable show I have ever recorded.
So I know JC is off on Kernel duty so apparently that leaves me the only one here to do this – my apologies for lateness and lack of comment as I’m sick as a dog and will be here if I can but probably not for long.. stupid west coast ball.
At any rate – this is a far more intimidating team to me than the Angels who I considered beatable after their appearance here in Minnesota. I’ll be happy with any win we can pull off in Safeco! Even with the fact that we have fences moved in for our hitters this year, the pitching in Seattle is a true challenge.
I know the Twins ended up losing, because that’s what the box score says, but I didn’t see a single pitch. Iwakuma, predictably, shut down the Twins. Woe is me.
You have probably already heard but just in case you have been under a rock called “working for a living” or some other extremely valid reason to be away from the social media round the clock news cycle, Joe Mauer & his wife, Maddie, welcomed their twin little girls into the world about 3:30 this morning. Their names are Maren Virginia and Emily Teresa and from the sounds of things, all is well and good.
Joe has been place on the Paternity list and is scheduled to be back with the team at the latest by Saturday. Drew Butera has been called up to sit on the bench in his absence…
Day games are still complicated even when they are on the west coast so no, I doubt I will get to follow along but I’m sure hoping for a sweep! That would be a great morale boost for the team and fans alike before we head off to tackle the more intimidating (to me) Mariners. I hope the boys give TDOW another great game!
Ah well… if you’re only going to get 2 hits off of Weaver, you’re probably not going to win the game. Sounds like Mike Pelfrey had a nice outing, though, so that’s encouraging. – JC
With just 40 games remaining in their regular season schedule, now seems like a good time to step back and take a look at the state of the Cedar Rapids Kernels.
It’s almost laughable to even question whether or not the affiliation switch from the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim to the Minnesota Twins has been good for Cedar Rapids. Of course it has, by pretty much every measurement.
The Kernels have already qualified for the Midwest League postseason by virtue of their second place finish in the first half of the season and fan interest is up.
Attendance is up some, but even more telling, the fans who show up for games are enthusiastically engaged in what’s happening on the field. That has not always been the case at Veterans Memorial Stadium the past few years.
It certainly didn’t hurt that one of the Twins’ top prospects, Byron Buxton, got off to such an incredible start this spring. He drew fan and media interest from well beyond the local community.
But even after the inevitable promotion of Buxton to the Twins’ Class high-A affiliate at Fort Myers in June, the Kernels have continued to win games. That may come as a surprise to those so blinded by Buxton’s aura that they didn’t notice the Kernels roster included a number of other very talented players.
Jonathan Murphy
Of course, Buxton isn’t the only Kernels player the Twins have rewarded with a bump up in playing level. The Kernels have seen about a dozen players, in total, promoted to Fort Myers already this season.
The Twins, as an organization, have a reputation for being conservative with their promotions. They historically have preferred to see most players spend at least an entire season, if not more, at most minor league levels.
No doubt, Kernels officials were hoping that trend would continue. In past seasons, the Angels seemingly couldn’t wait to promote players as soon as they demonstrated any level of productivity in a Kernels uniform.
Among position players, Buxton was the only key offensive contributor to be lost to promotion until J.D. Williams and Dalton Hicks were bumped up to Fort Myers about a week ago.
It’s not easy to replace players found in the top 10 of most Midwest League offensive statistical categories like Williams (on-base percentage, OPS), Hicks (home runs, RBI, slugging pct., OPS) and Buxton (almost everything), but players brought in to Cedar Rapids by the Twins to replace the departing hitters have done well.
Max Kepler
Max Kepler joined the Kernels once he completed rehabilitating his injured elbow in Fort Myers. He arrived four days before Buxton was promoted and he has hit for a .263 average. Thirteen of his 31 hits have been for extra bases.
Jonathan Murphy is hitting .333 in the 17 games he’s played since his arrival at the beginning of July and Joel Licon has performed well in a utility infielder role since he joined the team in early June.
It’s too early to know for certain how well Mike Gonzales will fill in for the departed Hicks, but the big first baseman has four hits in his first eight at-bats as a Kernel. Gonzales hit .289 and stroked 15 home runs for the Beloit Snappers in 2011. He missed much of his 2012 season in Fort Myers and after starting this season again with the Miracle, a wrist injury has sidelined him for the past several weeks.
On the pitching front, the Kernels lost Taylor Rogers before most fans even got to know him. He made three unimpressive starts for the Kernels before being moved on to Fort Myers. Jose Berrios, a supplemental first round draft pick in the 2012 First Year Player Draft and one of the top pitching prospects in the Twins organization, essentially took Rogers’ spot in the Kernels rotation.
The subsequent promotion of Tyler Duffey in early June left a much more significant hole at the top of the Kernels’ rotation. Duffey carried a 2.78 ERA and a 0.943 WHIP through nine starts when he left Cedar Rapids.
Josue Montanez initially worked from the Kernels bullpen after his promotion to Cedar Rapids in June, but has shown some potential since joining the rotation about a month ago.
Perhaps even more critically, the Kernels have seen four important members of their bullpen earn promotions. Matt Tomshaw and Manuel Soliman had contributed a total of 59 innings of work over a combined 30 appearances before they were promoted. Last week, the Twins elevated Steve Gruver and Tyler Jones, who had combined to provide a formidable left-right relief combination late in games.
Reliever Alex Muren has been relatively effective since arriving from extended spring training in early May, and the early returns from more recent additions Madison Boer, Dallas Gallant and Tim Shibuya are encouraging.
But the bottom line in baseball is all about wins and losses.
The Kernels were 44-28, for a .611 winning percentage, with Buxton on the roster. Since his promotion four games in to the second half schedule, the Kernels are 17-9 (.654) and they are leading the MWL West Division by three games over first half champion Beloit.
It’s certainly too soon to know what effect losing the four players promoted a week ago will have on the team’s fortunes. However, the Kernels have won five of the first six games played (all on the road) since Hicks, Williams, Jones and Gruver got their well-deserved promotions.
On Tuesday, the first member of the Twins’ draft class of 2013 was promoted to Cedar Rapids when seventh round pick Brian Gilbert was added to the Kernels’ roster.
Roster turnover is just a fact of life in minor league baseball. When the local team starts out winning a lot of games, it’s probably because a lot of players are performing very well and players that perform very well deserve promotions to the next level in the organization.
One way to measure the strength of an organization is to look at how a minor league team performs after a number of their best players are promoted. If the new players perform well and the team continues winning, that’s a very good sign.
So far, that’s what we’re seeing in Cedar Rapids. That bodes well, this season, for the Kernels and for the Twins in the long run.
The Twins just know how to win. Simple as that folks. The Twins are just at the beginning of a string of 20 games against teams with records under .500, so they should play pretty competitive baseball for the next few weeks. It will be fun while it lasts, as they run into the Tigers and Indians for what seems like two straight weeks after this is over.
Should be fun tonight with Kyle Gibson on the mound.
EDIT: Joe Mauer was a late scratch from the lineup and is headed back to Minnesota because his wife’s water broke. The babies were not due for another month, so let’s hope everything is okay for the Mauers.
What a finish! For the 2nd night in a row the Twins almost give one away in late innings. Tonight the Twins did give up the lead in the 9th, but stormed back in the 10th, capping things off with a Chris Herrmann grand slam to put the Angels away.
I was long asleep, but Herrmann certainly gets BOD for his 3-5 night with RBI after not expecting to start tonight.
arrgghh.. the bane of my blogging existence – west coast baseball.
I’m sure that any number of west side knuckleballers are ecstatic with each visit to the left coast because at least then they get prime time baseball instead breakfast games or some such idiocy. So, TallDrinkOfWater and Twink – these games are for you. I gotta figure out how to get teach one of you how to put up the box score when the games are over and I’m passed out in the other room…
ANYWAY.. back to baseball!
So the lineup looks a little different than you’re used to seeing.. that Bernier kid (no clue how to SAY that properly) that no one knows except the minor league geeks is batting second. I don’t know if it’s the start times or the younger and younger kids in the lineup that is making me feel old but.. yeah.
Woohoo!! I’m so glad that TDOW got to see a great game of baseball in which HER team won!! The Twins aren’t always so good at doing that for their fans – especially fans in far flung areas of the country…
That being said, while I really really really TRIED to stay awake for the whole game, I just couldn’t do it. My husband managed to see the end though and TDOW kindly came back to the chat and gave her revelations of game end as well. But from what I’m hearing, (I made it through the 6th inning) things continued to the end much like they were in the first half.
Deduno had a ROUGH first inning that had us all terrified of what the progress of this game was going to be like but we managed to get out of that only giving them 1 run – he owes SOMEONE a steak. But after that, he “settled down” into his ridiculously wild self and had them chasing balls all over. He had 5 BB and 5 Ks in his 7 innings and while I never really appreciate those numbers being the same that way, for him it might be just the way the numbers end up looking but can’t really describe how effective his pitching actually was the way the boxscore does. He’s definitely improved/matured into a SOLID starting pitcher and is likely the one I trust the most these days to give us a good game of baseball – for that he gets a beverage of his choice on us.
Joe Mauer also continued to do his Mauerly thing getting three hits and all the while catching Deduno which is getting to be an art-form. Mind you, they are doing a pretty good job behind the plate of making that art look easy and instinctive. He also gets the beverage of his choice – a tall glass of Land O’Lakes milk perhaps?
I was especially proud of the lineup full of young kids – wow do we have a lot of young guys getting their first taste of big league ball in this batting order. Especially Bernier who made his MLB debut among family and friends because he grew up just a couple hours away. I’m sure he made them very proud with his first hit and a couple really nice plays at short stop! I’m always impressed with solid fielding when a guy comes up. Colabello and Hicks also did well getting solid hits and even a run but the real ‘new kid’ story of tonight was Clete Thomas. This kid is really starting to grow on me! SOLID hitting including the game’s only Homerun, a double, 2 Runs 2 RBI and a couple LOVELY catches that brought a tear to the eye. For that, he was voted the BOD! I believe it’s his first! Congrats Clete Thomas!
Episode 45 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
This week on the podcast, Cody and Eric break down the Twins’ recent series wins against New York and Cleveland, recap their 1st half Twins MVPs, and contemplate the future of Ron Gardenhire.
Down on the Pond they talk about Low-A Cedar Rapids Kernels’ RHP Dallas Gallant, and they even try and give away a “Magic in Minneosta” DVD, listen up for details.
To close out the show the two talk Beers from Around the World and then go Around the League, finishing with a couple of BOLD predicitons for the 2nd half.
The Twins have an opportunity to gain a series sweep over Cleveland today, but they’re likely to need a better start out of Scott Diamond than they’ve been getting out of him in his past two starts. He does seem to do a bit better at home than on the road, so maybe that’s a reason to have some hope.
Diamond’s battery mate will be Chris Herrmann, who’s getting a rare start behind the plate for the Twins.
