Minneapolis Millers

Minneapolis, MN – The Minneapolis Millers have clinched a playoff spot tonight, despite being three games under .500 at 78-81. A mostly rebuilding FL is to thank, to be sure, but a month ago the playoffs seemed like an impossibility for this team. *One Month Earlier* The date is August 31, and the Minneapolis Millers playoff hopes are fading fast. The team has just lost 9-2 to their divisional foe, the Vancouver Canadians. The Millers are just 2-6 over their last 8 games heading into September, and even worse all 8 games were against divisional opponents. With the team sitting at 59-72, the organization decided to fire manager Mike Matheny, in a hail mary attempt to salvage their season. The organization took a beating on social media, as fans and pundits alike were discouraged by th...

Higüey, Dominican Republic – Located on the far east coast of the Dominican Republic, Higüey is the capital city of the La Altagracia Province and survives almost entirely on tourism, with most residents employed at the hotel complexes in nearby Punta Cana. Paloma Gabriel is no different. The 47-year-old widow has worked in Punta Cana for nearly 20 years, forced to find a job after her husband died in a car accident when their young son, Luis, was just 14 months old. Paloma never re-married, instead focusing her energy on her career and her young son. She worked her way up from a hotel maid to today being the general manager of one of the islands most successful hotels, and it is clear her incredible work ethic was passed on to her only son. As a child, Luis Gabriel was always the fa...

Minneapolis, MN – Augusto Hernandez is almost certainly the best relief prospect you’ve never heard of. The 24-year-old Dominican left-hander has dominated between AA and AAA over the last two seasons, and has finally earned a call-up to the big league club. Last season, Hernandez posted a 1.75 ERA and saved 33 of 37 games at the AA level, striking out 99 batters in just 77 innings of work, while walking 20. That impressive performance led to Hernandez beginning this season at the AAA level. He’s continued his dominance this year, posting a 1.48 ERA while saving a perfect 23 games out of 23 opportunities. While his dominating numbers seem to suggest his future is in the back of the bullpen, scouts seem to differ and see Hernandez as more of a middle reliever. “He...

Caroline County, MD – For as long as baseball has been around, experts have always insisted the key to a championship is great pitching and defense. Teams love to score runs, but it’s often overlooked that preventing runs is equally as important as scoring them. Of course, finding great pitching is much easier said than done, although a great defense can help. With the CBL’s annual amateur draft coming to a close this evening, we can now confirm that the Caroline County Channel Cats selected pitchers with all 12 of their draft choices. “We didn’t plan on taking all pitchers, but obviously we were considerably higher on the pitching in this draft than the offense,” the team’s GM told me. “We had a few hitters we liked a lot, but we didn’...

Caroline County, MD – For as long as baseball has been around, experts have always insisted the key to a championship is great pitching and defense. Teams love to score runs, but it’s often overlooked that preventing runs is equally as important as scoring them. Of course, finding great pitching is much easier said than done, although a great defense can help. With the CBL’s annual amateur draft coming to a close this evening, we can now confirm that the Caroline County Channel Cats selected pitchers with all 12 of their draft choices. “We didn’t plan on taking all pitchers, but obviously we were considerably higher on the pitching in this draft than the offense,” the team’s GM told me. “We had a few hitters we liked a lot, but we didn’...

Juan Gutiérrez ETA: 2022 Position: OF Age: 21 DOB: 07/09/1998 Bats: R Throws: R Height: 6′ 1″ Weight: 190 lb. Drafted: 2020, 1st (12) – MIL Scouting grades: Hit: 41 | Power: 51 | Run: 81 | Arm: 64 | Field: 45 | Overall: 55 Joined the Pepperdine University Aardvarks in 06/08/2017. Is a 3 time participant in the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics All-Star Games and 2 time NAIA CC Player of the Week Award. 3 years at Pepperdine University producing a batting average of .323,on-base percentage of .374, slugging at .531, punching in 90 RBI. Gutiérrez’s average-or-better tools across the board allow him to impact the game in a variety of ways. The 6-foot-1 right-handed hitter drives the ball across the whole field with a clean and controlled stroke, and he ...

Edited: Just as I was writing about the first month of the season, news broke, Freeman to the Millers for Escobar,Bass, and Ramos. This is a huge boost to the Millers lineup and their quest for more runs.  Freeman is batting .243, .371 obp, with 10 RBI and 15 walks. What a first month of the season for the Millers. No one expected the struggle to come from the starting pitching staff through the first 9 games of the season. They were 1 and 8 with an ERA over 5 and seemingly everyone struggled.  Inside sources were quoted in saying that firing Gardenhire might of been a mistake. It was well deocumented that Gardenhire wanted more and more control over team and management which ultimately resulted in the Millers letting him go.  But after the slow start the Millers are now 9 and 14 with a te...

While the city is covered in snow and businesses are slow in Minneapolis, the Millers were busy. Harper was sent to Blood Raven’s in exchange for SP Miguel Almonte (CBL), SP Jose Chavez (A),SP Joe Chesley (AAA), RP Jordan Roberts (A) and an undisclosed amount of Richardson City’s finest bottles of liquor. At 2:00 pm Troj held a press conference to addressed the media about the trade, “Good afternoon, thanks for coming out today, I know the weather is rather unpleasant. As most of you already know, we traded Mr. Harper to the Blood Raven’s for Almonte,Chavez,Chesley, and Roberts.  Going into the off-season we felt that we loved our rotation but we wanted to see if we could improve on it either through free agency or trade. We really do like our depth at outfield and ...

With only a few games left in the St. Paul Sluggers regular season we take a look at the starting rotations and some of the relief pitchers making an impact on the team. With a record of 29-20, St. Paul is set to finish the year with a winning record and with some of the recent transactions completed they are set for another successful year next year. We talked with GM Troj about his feelings on the starting rotation and what is the future holds for the men in the rotation. “First off, great team effort in July, it was huge month for us going 19 – 8, we saw a lot of progress in all phases of the team. With respect to pitching, we added a bunch of free agents to the team when I joined. We brought players we thought had the characteristics to make the lower levels better and add ...

Late last night over few drinks GM Troj and manager Gardenhire discussed the trade deadline and the upcoming playoff push. Few hours earlier, GM Troj brokered a deal that landed the Millers the services of Jordan Zimmerman from the Curve for Bob Hunter, Javier Betancourt, and Al Moore. What has been a successful past 10 games for the Millers, going 8-2 with team era of 2.22 and a start era of 1.48, the Millers looked to improve on the their numbers. Adding Zimmerman to the rotation gives what GM Troj believes is depth against injuries or fatigue heading into the home stretch of the season. The new rotation looks like this. Season Stats Name GS W L ERA WHIP K/9 W/9 Verlander 5 4 1 2.88 1.44 4.7 4.9 Gary 22 8 6 3.47 1.27 6.4 3.5 Viera 2 1 1 2.53 1.31 11.0 5.1 Zimmerman 22 8 10 3.75 1.17 6.4 ...

Today your wanted the next your not, the current daily cycle for Bryce Harper. We caught up today with Harper after practice to ask him how how he is feeling about the current trade rumors and new management. “It’s tough, one day your wanted then your not. Then upper management says your good, your staying put, of course next day its out there again.” “I am happy here and I just trying to focus on baseball, if they want to send me out then so be it but I am here to make this team a contender.” We talked to a few from around the league and here is what they said. “Those kind of mistakes happen when a regime comes in and they don’t know the guys as well.” Another source close to the situation says, “Certainly there are some serious issues here that are in ...

Minneapolis — New GM Troj talked today about being hired and changes he hopes to bring that will bring the Millers back to top of the league. Culture, “I believe culture is one of the most important things to a well established organization. Making changes not just about money or top end talent but building strong culture from top down. Teams have built in the past based on just free agency but over looked at how that effects clubhouse and organizational structure, some succeed short term but a lot fail over the long term.  I believe and in talking with ownership, feel we all believe that we can create a strong culture in Minneapolis.” Farm System, “The farm system we have here is pretty good but I want to make it stronger. We have great pieces in place at the CBL l...