Golden Gophers – Page 396 – David Shama's Minnesota Sports Headliners

Class A Likely Again for Miguel Sano

Posted on August 6, 2012August 6, 2012 by David Shama

Twins phenom Miguel Sano is likely to play in Class A baseball again next season – just at a higher level. Twins farm system executive Jim Rantz told Sports Headliners the 19-year-old slugger, now with Beloit in the Midwest League, is probably headed to Fort Myers in the Florida State League.

Sano is the most publicized prospect in the Twins organization. Signed in the Dominican Republic for a reported $3.15 million bonus when he was 16, Sano is featured in the recently released movie Pelotero. He’s been ranked as the Twins top prospect and power hitter by Baseball America.

Sano leads the Midwest League in home runs at 22 and RBI with 84. He’s struggled, though, with his batting average, .254, and fielding at third base.

Rantz said the batting average is predictable because Sano is “very aggressive at the plate and still trying to learn the strike zone.” He is seeing a lot of breaking balls and changeups from pitchers.

“It’s pretty awesome with his home runs and RBI,” Rantz said. “He still has work to do defensively.”

Rantz said Sano’s Beloit teammate Eddie Rosario, among the organization’s better prospects, has made a successful transition this season from the outfield to second base. Rosario was injured in mid-June and was out of the lineup until the end of last month. He’s another promising hitter and has a .310 average, with seven home runs in 259 at bats.

Twins & Other Notes:

Max Kepler, also drafted by the Twins at age 16 three years ago, is maturing playing for Elizabethton, Rantz said. Rantz said the native of Germany has “grown into his body.” Kepler is hitting .275 with seven home runs in 145 at bats.

Tsuyoshi Nishioka, who was a bust as a rookie last season with the Twins hitting .226, “has made a lot of improvement with the bat” playing for AAA Rochester, Rantz said. Nishioka was playing both second base and shortstop for the Red Wings before being recalled yesterday by the Twins. Instead of media throngs from Japan following Nishioka as they did last year in Minneapolis, Rantz said one or two reporters might have followed him in Rochester.

Rantz watched Twins leading pitcher Scott Diamond in the minor leagues and said he isn’t that surprised to see Diamond’s success in his first full season of major league baseball. “He’s improved on his breaking ball and his command has been very good,” Rantz said.

New Timberwolves forward Andrei Kirilenko, 31, will be one of the franchise’s better defenders ever if healthy. Kirilenko has three times been an all-NBA first or second team defender playing for Utah. At 6-9, with long arms and athleticism, Kirilenko is a potential stopper for a Wolves team that lacks exceptional defenders among its top players. Physical problems have kept Kirilenko from playing full seasons in recent years.

David Kahn, the Wolves president of basketball operations, talked to Sports Headliners about Kirilenko’s potential impact on defense. “I am hopeful it will be really good. We didn’t have anybody who we could really put on some of these wing players, and in our conference especially there are some really big threes. There’s (Kevin) Durant, there’s Rudy Gay. There’s several of those. (Nicolas) Batum in Portland.

“So this allows us to have a really long, athletic guy to match up with them. Not that he can necessarily stop them but I think at least with Andrei’s experience and with his characteristics we can maybe at least slow them down.”

Apple Valley junior point guard Tyus Jones now has a scholarship offer fromNorth Carolina. That gives him offers that include national powerhouses Duke, Kentucky and the Tar Heels. In the last 12 months I haven’t talked to any sources who are convinced Jones will play for the Gophers.

Prep basketball authority Ken Lien emailed that Minnesota native Kyle Washington, a high school senior next season, has recent offers from Illinois, North Carolina State and Ohio State.

Brian Bobek, the Ohio State center transfer, hasn’t arrived on campus at Minnesota. He will be eligible in 2013 and have three seasons to play for the Gophers. Minnesota coach Jerry Kill recruited Bobek when Kill was head coach at Northern Illinois. “He’s a kid that grew up in Chicago and wanted to stay in the Midwest,” Kill said.

Bobek is a former Parade, Rivals and Scout high school All-American and his father played linebacker at Iowa.

The Big Ten Network sends a crew to cover all the Big Ten football programs during August. The group will be in Minneapolis on August 11 and BTN’s Gophers coverage will air beginning at 9 a.m. August 12.

Vikings owner Zygi Wilf after being asked about his team expectations: “I expect to be division champs. I want to be able to fight for the division as we always do every year, and get better for years to come. That’s always been our goal. That’s been the goal since the first day I came here.”

Bethel’s Erik Smith, Saint John’s Stephen Johnson and St. Thomas’ Michael Valesano are nominees for the 2012 Allstate American Football Coaches Association (AFCA) Good Works Team. Nominees are players who have made a difference for their communities in off-field activities.

Compughterratings.com’s Division III preseason rankings include three MIAC teams in the top 20: Bethel, No. 12; St. Thomas, No. 13 and Saint John’s No. 19. MIAC schools begin nonconference games on September 1 and league games start September 15.

World Golf Hall of Famer Lanny Wadkins, 62, asked about all the advisors used by many PGA golfers these days including sports psychologists: “…My sports psychologist is the bartender every week. They’re a lot more reliable. You know where they’re going to be.”

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Wadkins Picks Lehman to Win 3M

Posted on August 3, 2012August 3, 2012 by David Shama

Lanny Wadkins, here to be the analyst on Golf Channel coverage Friday-Sunday for the 3M Championship, told Sports Headliners he is predicting a competitive tournament that could be decided on the last hole.

Pressed for a prediction on the champion, Wadkins said: “If I had to pick someone this week I would pick Tom Lehman. He’s local. I think he would love to win here in his hometown. I think the course suits him and he’s playing exceptionally well.”

Wadkins said Lehman is an exceptional ball-striker but his putting has often been troublesome. This year Wadkins said the Alexandria, Minnesota native is “putting with more authority.” Lehman has never won the 3M.

Wadkins is curious to see how Bernhard Langer plays at the 3M Championship on the TPC Twin Cities course. Langer has been unable to hold strong starts in the last two major senior tournaments including the Senior British Open last weekend “and spit the bit the last day,” Wadkins said.

“I want to see how he rebounds. He usually comes back strong. I would like to see him get in contention again and see how he handles it.”

Whoever wins the tournament might be fighting through the competition right to the end. “I think you will see an established player win and play well here this week,” Wadkins said. “The course is in immaculate condition. If the weather holds I think it’s going to be a great week out there. I think we’ll have another really, really close tournament. It’s going to come down to the last hole again, and the 18^th is about as exciting a finish as you will get.”

Wadkins, an eight-time player on the American Ryder Cup team and a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, has back problems and isn’t playing tournament golf regularly. He’s 62.

Worth Noting

Gophers coach Jerry Kill said yesterday he will try to “redshirt as many” players as he can this season. He didn’t say when he will make a decision on who to redshirt including his quarterback group that in addition to senior starter MarQueis Gray includes sophomore Max Shortell, and freshmen Mitch Leidner and Phillip Nelson.

Kill said Nelson has a strained hamstring and his staff is monitoring that injury. The Gophers open practice on Saturday morning and the public is welcome to attend.

Charlie Strong’s Louisville team is predicted to win the Big East Conference title, according to a media poll announced this week. Strong was a candidate for the Gophers coaching job in 2007 before Tim Brewster was hired. Strong was then an assistant coach at Florida and is about to begin his third season as head coach of Louisville.

Timberwolves full season tickets have increased from 6,600 in July of last year to 8,100 at the end of last month.

A representative at the Wolves and Lynx Pro Shop at Target Center said Brandon Roy and Andrei Kirilenko jerseys are expected by State Fair time later this month. A Minneapolis Lakers cap selling for $28 is a new store item.

Timberwolves vice president Jeff Munneke is the longest tenured employee with the organization. He joined the expansion Wolves on June 20, 1988 as a ticket sales representative.

Wild broadcaster Tom Reid, who broke into the NHL as a player in 1967, said there are more personnel changes throughout the league than at any time he can remember. See nhl.com for a free agents tracking report.

The Sports Legends Foundation and Grand Casino Hinckley are sponsoring the Sports Legends Extravaganza Charity fundraising event in Hinckley September 14 -16. The event benefits the Page Education Foundation, Ronald McDonald House, Family Pathways and the Sports Legends Foundation. Celebrities expected include former Vikings Jim Marshall, Gary Larsen, Carl Eller and Alan Page. Smokey Robinson will perform on September 14 in the Grand Casino Amphitheater. There will be a celebrity golf tournament on September 15 at the Grand National Golf Club. www.sports-legends.org.

Murray’s Restaurant is closed for renovations this month and will re-open in early September. Owner Tim Murray said private dining rooms and a larger bar area are in the plans. The famous steakhouse has been a prominent part of the Minneapolis dining scene since 1946.

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Low Expectations for U Opening Foe

Posted on August 1, 2012August 1, 2012 by David Shama

The UNLV team the Gophers open the season against on August 30 is predicted to finish ninth in the 10-team Mountain West Conference, according to a poll of media who cover the league’s football teams.

The Gophers’ second opponent, New Hampshire, will be a fourth place team in the 11-team Colonial Athletic Association, according to a poll of media and coaches. Reporters covering the Mid-American Conference predict Western Michigan will finish third in the six-team West Division. The Broncos are the third team on the Gophers nonconference schedule that concludes against Syracuse, a team that is forecast by the media to place seventh in the eight-team Big East. (All polls referenced here were announced last week or this week.)

UNLV has been 2-10 and 2-11 in two seasons under third-year coach Bobby Hauck. The Rebels have finished 2-6 and 1-6 in conference standings. Mountain West media, who picked Boise State to win the league title, didn’t include any UNLV players on the 25-player preseason all-conference team.

Asked about the predicted low finish for the Rebels, Gophers coach Jerry Kill said: “I can’t control the people that we play. I can control what we do and I am more concerned about the Gophers and us getting started and getting ready to play UNLV.”

Kill has known and respected Hauck for years. Hauck was a national championship coach at Montana before taking the UNLV job.

The Gophers are in no position to disregard UNLV when the teams play in Las Vegas, or the next three nonconference teams — all of whom come to TCF Bank Stadium. Big Ten media predict a last place finish for the Gophers in the Legends Division after Minnesota was 3-9 overall in 2010 and 2011.

Kill is establishing his program in year No. 2 including academics. The team’s cumulative GPA’s for the fall and spring semesters during the 2012-13 school year have been over 3.0. The GPA’s compare favorably with Northwestern football players, a school long known as among the best in the country academically.

Kill said the plus-3.0 results aren’t something that will happen every semester. “You take 115 students; it’s hard to do that good. …I’ve been coaching for 29 (years) and most of the time you get excited if you’re about a 2.55 or 2.6 overall in football because you deal with so many numbers. Those GPA’s (fall and spring) are exceptionally high.”

Gophers and other notes:

Condolences to family members on the passing Monday night of Murray’s Restaurant owner Pat Murray who was 72. Pat was diagnosed with bladder cancer in 2011. He was a popular figure not only at the restaurant but as a civic leader in Minneapolis. “People knew what he was like. He was very dedicated professionally and personally,” his son Tim Murray said. “He loved everything about the restaurant business yet somehow juggled his time to do all he could for his kids.”

Visitation is scheduled tomorrow from 4 to 8 p.m. at Washburn-McReavy Edina Chapel. Memorial services Friday will be at St. Olaf Catholic Church downtown beginning at 10 a.m. and visitation will be one hour prior. Memorials of the donor’s choice are welcome.

Kill meets with the media tomorrow, and has several practices open to the public from August 4-8, all beginning at 10:25 a.m. at the Gibson-Nagurski Complex. The Gophers open practice on August 4.

The Big Ten Conference has a rule that athletes transferring from one member school to another can’t receive a scholarship from the new program. However, the NCAA will allow Penn State football players to transfer to Big Ten schools and receive scholarships.

Congratulations to Dick Larson, Rick Meyer, Mike Wilkinson and others who helped make possible the Murray Warmath conference room at the new fitness center at Friendship Village in Bloomington. A celebration at Friendship Village was held last week attended by former Gophers, including those from Warmath’s first team in 1954 to his last in 1971. The conference room is decorated with Warmath memorabilia including his national championship and Big Ten title teams.

The Vikings are not only an overwhelming favorite to finish last in the NFC North, but they have lost 11 consecutive division games.

Look for Charlie Johnson, moved since last season from left tackle to his more comfortable position of left guard, to possibly lead a resurgent and rebuilt offensive line that also includes rookie left tackle and No. 1 draft choice Matt Kalil.

New Vikings defensive coordinator Alan Williams worked several years for Tony Dungy. Williams said yesterday a lot of his philosophies and schemes “comes from coach Dungy.”

The Wild have sold over 3,000 new season tickets since July 4 when the signings of Zach Parise and Ryan Suter were announced.

With a likely NHL labor dispute ahead, the 2012-13 season for the Minnesota Wild and other clubs probably won’t start as scheduled. The Wild are scheduled to open the season at home October 13 against the Avalanche. By early November the NHL schedule may resume.

According to Elias Sports Bureau, last night Francisco Liriano was the first White Sox starter to make his debut the same season against the same club he was acquired from since Marino Pieretti on June 19, 1948.

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