Down On The Pond: Miguel Sano, and the Playoffs

Welcome Pond fans, join me in congratulating Twins uber prospect, Miguel Sano, on his selection as the Midwest League’s Prospect of the Year. On wednesday, Sano was selected to the MWL All-Star team along with fellow Beloit Snapper Corey Williams (LHP, 4-4, 3.47 ERA in 47 appearances (62.1 innings), giving up only 55 hits (5 HR) and 33 walks to go with 68 strike outs.). Miguel Sano hit .260/.375/.520 (BA/OBP/SLG) this season for the Twins low-A affiliate, and led the Midwest League in HR (27), RBI (99) and was third in slugging percentage.

The Blue Jays top prospect Kevin Pillar (Lansing Lugnuts) was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the Midwest League, and his coach, John Tamargo Jr. was selected as the MWL’s manager of the year after leading the Lugnuts to the first-half division title and an overall record of 81-53.

The Elizabethan Twins (Rookie) just finished off the Danville Braves (ATL affiliate) in the first round of the Appalachan league playoffs, taking the series 2-1. The E-Twins now head to the Championship series against the Burlington Royals (KC affiliate). Game 1 of the series is tonight at 7 ET. The E-Twins have been lead this season by future Twins stars and recent draft picks including position players Candido Pimentel, Travis Harrison, Max Kepler, Byron Buxton and Nicko Goodrum. Stars from the mound this season for E-Twins include Hudson Boyd, Angel Mata, Brett Lee, Joshua Burris, Tyler Herr and Corey Kimes among others. Unfortunately, even those of you with the MiLB.TV package won’t be able to tune into the game. If you are lucky enough to live in the North Carolina area, head over to Burlington and catch a glimpse of the future of the Twins organization.

The Beloit Snappes will begin their playoff run later this week (Sep 7) with a game against the Clinton Lumberkings, in Clinton, IA, before coming home to Beloit for 2 more in a best of 3 series. If Sano and the Snappers can make it through the first 2 rounds of the playoffs they’ll play for the Midwest League Championship starting on the 13th of September.

Unfortunately for the Twins High-A affiliate, the Ft Myers Miracle, the post-season will not be in their future. The Miracle finish the season with 2 games against the Charlotte Stone Crabs (Tampa Bay Affiliate). The Miracle were lead this season by Oswaldo Arcia, Josmil Pinto and Daniel Santana. Twins 2011 first round draft pick, Levi Michael, also plays for the Miracle but hit just .248/.339/.314, however he is almost 2 years younger than most of the players on his team and in the Florida State League. Taking the rubber this season for the Miracle were future big leaguers (fingers crossed!) Pat Dean, Madison Boer (who struggled a bit since his call up from Beloit), Tom Stuifbergen, A.J. Achter, Ricky Bowen and Matthew Hauser.

In AA, the Twins Affiliate New Britain Rock Cats had three players selected to the Eastern League All-Star Team, LHP Andrew Albers, RHP B.J. Hermsen and C Chris Herrmann this year, and the Cats will need all three to perform the last 3 games of the season as New Britain finishes the season out against the New Hampshire Fisher Cats (TOR). The Rock Cats will need some help to make it to the post-season, they find themselves 2 games out of the last play-off spot currently held by the Reading Phillies (PHI). The Rock Cats will need to sweep and hope the Phillies drop all three of their remaining games against the Portland Sea Dogs (BOS) so they have a chance to fight for the Eastern League Championship. In addition to their All-Stars, the Rock Cats fans were treated to awesome seasons from , Chris Colabello (1B), Aaron Hicks (OF), and Oswaldo Arcia (RF) who continued to play well after his promotion to AA. Colabello ad Hicks were among league leaders in many offensive stats this year for New Britain. Toeing the rubber in AA this year in additon to Hermsen and Albers, David Bromberg, Bruch Pugh, Luis Perdomo, Dakota Watts and Bobby Lanigan all have ERA’s under 4 with 30+ innings pitched this season.

The Rochester Red Wings have been eliminated from playoff contention, but they’re not done playing winning baseball in 2012. The Twins AAA Affiliate are currently a game under .500 with three games remaining. If the Red Wings can sweet Syracuse to end the season they’ll finish their first winning season since 2008. The Red Wings saw many of their players get a chance to go up and play with the big league club and were lead by offensive performances by Darin Mastroianni, Chris Parmelee, Matt Carson and Sean Burroughs, names that are all familiar to Twins fans across the country. Pitching in Rochester this year had some pleasant surprises, Liam Hendriks, Esmerling Vasquez, Jeff Manship, Cole De Vries and Samuel Deduno. Out of the pen things were a little less spectacular, but Tyler Robertson, Casey Fien, Althony Slama and Luis Perdomo all found success.

Look for all these names and more in the years to come, and dont forget to visit Down on the Pond for your minor league news and notes.
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