Gibson/Benson
Win Minors Awards
On Monday, the Twins announced
the recipients of their minor league award winners. Kyle Gibson was named the Jim
Rantz Minor League Pitcher of the Year Award
Winner. Joe Benson was named the
winner of the Sherry Robertson Award as top Minor League hitter. Both
Gibson and Benson will be guests on tonight’s SethSpeaks.net
Weekly Minnesota Twins podcast which begins at 10:00 central time.
From the Twins Official Press Release:
Benson, 22, began the season at Double-A New Britain and batted
.251 (94-for-274) with 20 doubles, seven triples, 23 home runs, 49 rbi, 65 runs scored, 14 steals and 39 walks in 102 games
with the Rock Cats. He was transferred to Single-A Ft. Myers on May 17 and
batted .294 (25-for-85) with 11 doubles, one triple, four home runs, 13 rbi, 16 runs scored, five steals and eight walks in 21
games with the Miracle, before being promoted back to New Britain on June 16.
He combined to bat .259 (119-for-459) with 31 doubles, eight triples, 27 home
runs and 62 rbi in 123 games
this season.
The 6-foot-1, 211-pounder was the Twins Minor League Player of the
Week for May 15-21, batting .423 (11-for-26) with three doubles, three home
runs and six rbi in seven
games. He was also named Twins Minor League Player of the Month for June,
batting .312 (29-for-93) with 10 doubles, three triples, five home runs and 14 rbi in 26 combined games between Ft. Myers and New Britain.
Benson was the Twins second round pick in the 2006 First-Year Player Draft out
of Joliet Catholic Academy High School in Illinois.
Gibson, 22, combined to go 11-6, 2.96 ERA (152.0 ip, 50 er) with 39 walks and 126
strikeouts in 26 starts between Single-A Ft. Myers, Double-A New Britain and
Triple-A Rochester this season. He held opponents to a .242 (136-for-563)
batting average. The right-hander went 5-0 with a 1.62 ERA (39.2 ip, 7 er) with 35 strikeouts in
May and was named the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Month. Gibson was also
named the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Week for April 24-May 1, after
going 1-0 with a 0.64 ERA (14.0, 1 ip), including a
complete-game one-hitter on April 29 at Jupiter.
The 6-foot-6, 210-pounder was named Florida State League Player of
the Week for May 2 and was also named to the 2010 Eastern League All-Star team.
Coming into the 2010 season, Gibson was rated as the top pitching prospect
(third best prospect overall) and as having the best slider in the Twins
organization by Baseball America. He was drafted by the Twins in the 1st round
(22nd overall) of the 2009 First-Year Player draft out of the University of
Missouri.
The Sherry Robertson Award, named in honor of the Twins first farm
director, was established in 1970 to recognize the Twins top minor league
performer each season. Beginning in 2002, the award began recognizing the Twins
Minor League Player of the Year while an additional award was created to
recognize the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Year. This award was named in
honor of current Twins Minor League Director and Twins Hall of Famer, Jim Rantz. Past winners of the Sherry Robertson Award include
Butch Wynegar (1974), Kent Hrbek (1981), Gene Larkin
(1986), Paul Sorrento (1989), Denny Neagle (1990),
Marty Cordova (1992), LaTroy Hawkins (1993 and '94),
Todd Walker (1996), David Ortiz (1997), Doug Mientkiewicz
(1998), Michael Restovich (1999), Michael Cuddyer (2001), Lew Ford (2002), Joe Mauer
(2003), Jason Kubel (2004), Alexi Casilla
(2006) and Brian Buscher (2007), while J.D. Durbin
(2002), Jesse Crain (2003), Scott Baker (2004), Francisco Liriano
(2005), Matt Garza (2006) and Kevin Slowey (2007)
have won the Jim Rantz Award.
Both Benson and Gibson, along with the Twins other 2010 award
winners, will be recognized at the Sixth Annual Diamond Awards dinner, which
will be held on Thursday, January 27, 2010, beginning at 5:30 p.m. at Target
Field.
Congratulations to both very deserving
winners. Tuesday night’s
SethSpeaks.net Weekly Minnesota Twins Podcast will begin at
10:00 central time, so be sure to tune in. There will be plenty of talk on the
2010 Twins, the playoffs and more. As always, we welcome your questions or
comments in the chat room, or call in at 347-202-0548.
Any thoughts on the Twins’ choices, or any questions you would want me to ask either
player? Leave comments
here, or feel free to e-mail me.