Lookouts' Jonathan Rodriguez Named Twins' 2017 Minor League Player Of The Year

Chattanooga Lookouts Are The Twins Minor League Team Of The Year

  • Thursday, September 7, 2017
After playing briefly for Triple-A Rochester, Jonathan Rodriquez has rejoined the team for the playoffs.
After playing briefly for Triple-A Rochester, Jonathan Rodriquez has rejoined the team for the playoffs.
photo by Tim Evearitt

While the  Minnesota Twins Major League club makes a push for a playoff spot, the Minor League teams have enjoyed an incredible season at every single level. The team of the year is our own Chattanooga Lookouts, and the Player of the Year was Jonathan Rodriquez as announced by the Puckett's Pond. 

Team: Chattanooga Lookouts

The team changed night over night, with promotions, demotions, injuries, slumps, streaks, and all the other things that come along with a baseball season, but one thing remained the same for the Lookouts this season – they won.

Chattanooga won both halves of the season, with a 91-49 record overall on the season.

The next-best team in the Southern League was 15-games worse. Neither half was particularly close, either, as the Lookouts won the first half title by 5 games and the second half title by 10 games.

With shifting lineups throughout the season, the Lookouts hit .255 on the season, but they led the Southern League in scoring by a full 12 runs with 659 runs over 140 games. Chattanooga’s offense also led the league in on base, finishing with 610 walks as a team, nearly 90 more than the second-place team in the Southern League.

The jewel of Chattanooga was their pitching staff. The Lookouts frequently went six deep in quality starters, often using one out of the bullpen, and their bullpen was masterfully made up of late-inning types along with 1 or 2 long men in the bullpen as well. The team finished first in the Southern League in pitching, with a 3.09 ERA. The team also had 46 saves to lead the league, and they allowed just 75 home runs, the lowest number in the league.

With a balance of veterans and prospects in the lineup, the Lookouts used 22 hitters on the season. Thirty-three players threw a pitch for the Lookouts on the season, including two position players in a crazy 21-inning game on July 29th, where Alex Perez pitched two scoreless innings before Max Murphy threw a scoreless 21st inning and recorded the win.

Chattanooga opened their pursuit of a Southern League championship Wednesday night with a 4-3 win against Montgomery.

OFFENSIVE pLAYER OF THE YEAR: Jonathan Rodriguez

While the pitcher of the year had a few good candidates, this was incredibly easy. Rodriguez was the best performing hitter in the system throughout the year, and it wasn’t really close.

All one has to do is return to the first page of this post and look at the leader board. He led the entire system in runs, home runs, RBI, walks, and total bases. However, it’s not just that he led those categories. It’s that he was so good in other ones that he didn’t lead. Rodriguez was 5th in hits, 2nd in doubles, 3rd in batting average for those who had more than 250 plate appearances, led the system in on base for those with more than 250 plate appearances, was 3rd in slugging with those who had more than 250 PA, and 3rd in OPS for those who had 250+ PA.

Signed as a minor league free agent out of the St. Louis Cardinals system after the 2016 season, Rodriguez had shown flashes of power in the Cardinals system, but never in the same way that he did with the Twins system in 2017.

Rodriguez played the majority of the season with Chattanooga, earning recognition on the Southern League end of season awards team, as he hit .309/.414/.525 with 31 doubles and 21 home runs for Chattanooga. He struggled some in his 5 games with Rochester, but he did club one home run, bringing his season total to 22, which led the Twins system.

While a large man at 6’2? and 250 pounds, Rodriguez is notably nimble around the bag, making some very impressive plays on balls down the line and saving his fellow infielders a number of errors with excellent scoops and reaches at the position

That level of dominance made the choice of Rodriguez an easy one. Whether he’ll be back with the Twins system in 2018 or not will be an interesting offseason decision as Rodriguez will be a minor league free agent again after this season, but hopefully his positive experience in 2017 will keep him swinging for the Twins system, as he could work his way to the major leagues in 2018 if he keeps up the improvements he made in 2017.

-- Source. puckettspond.com  which also lists the player's of the year by position

Chattanooga's Zach Granite was the 2016 Southern League Player of the Year
Chattanooga's Zach Granite was the 2016 Southern League Player of the Year
photo by Tim Evearitt
Sports
Lee Softball Splits With Top Ranked North Georgia, Baseball Falls To Tusculum
  • 3/30/2024

Hailey Simco was 4-for-4 from the plate with two home runs and Laney Harris hit a three-run home run to help lead the Lee University softball team to an upset win over the #1 team in the country ... more

UTC Mens Tennis Wins 4-3 Over Wofford; Women Lose to Presbyterian
  • 3/29/2024

The Chattanooga Mocs men's tennis team scored a huge 4-3 victory over Wofford in key Southern Conference action on Friday afternoon at the Reeves Tennis Center in Spartanburg, S.C. Following ... more

Covenant Baseball Loses To LaGrange; Softball Loses Two To Visiting St. Olaf
  • 3/29/2024

The Covenant baseball team began their second CCS series of the year on Good Friday against LaGrange. The weather warmed up, but the Covenant bats were cold as the Panthers shutout the Scots. ... more