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11/01/2007 12:27 PM ET
Brian Buscher and Kevin Slowey named 2007 Twins' Minor League Player and Pitcher of the Year
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Minneapolis/St. Paul -- The Minnesota Twins announced today that third baseman Brian Buscher has been named the 2007 Sherry Robertson Award winner as the Twins' Minor League Player of the Year and righthanded pitcher Kevin Slowey has been named the 2007 Jim Rantz Award winner as the Twins' Minor League Pitcher of the Year.
Buscher, 26, batted .309 (117-for-379) with 58 runs, 28 doubles, 14 home runs and 59 rbi in 103 games (63 with New Britain in the Eastern League and 40 with Rochester of the International League). He was named the Twins Minor League Player of the Month for June after batting a combined .342 (38-for-111) with 22 runs, four doubles, seven home runs and 20 rbi in 32 games split between New Britain and Rochester. Buscher had his contract selected from Rochester on July 27 and appeared in 33 games for the Twins , going 20-for-82 (.244) with two home runs and 10 rbi.
The 6-foot, 200-pounder was selected by the Twins from the Giants in the Rule-V Minor League Draft on December 15, 2006 and made his Major League debut July 27 at Cleveland, going 2-for-4. The third baseman was originally drafted by San Francisco in the third round of the 2003 First-Year Player draft out of the University of South Carolina.
Slowey, 23, was 10-5, 1.89 (133.2 ip, 28 er) allowing 110 hits with just 18 walks and 107 strikeouts in 20 starts for Triple-A Rochester. The righthander tossed five complete games, including a 9.0 inning, three-hit complete game shutout on July 17 at Syracuse. He was named the Twins Minor League Pitcher of the Week for the week ending May 25, after going 2-0 with a 1.80 ERA (15.0 ip, 3 er) with 13 strikeouts and two walks. Slowey was named to the International League Postseason All-Star team as the starting pitcher.
The 6-foot-3, 197-pounder was named the International League Pitcher of the Year after posting a league-low 1.89 ERA. He became the first Twins pitcher since Brad Havens (Toledo) in 1984 to earn the honor. Slowey had his contract selected from Rochester on June 1 and made his Major League debut that night in Oakland, allowing one run in 6.0 innings. He finished the season 4-1, 4.73 (66.2 ip, 35 er) in 13 games (11 starts) with the Twins.
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 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 1994), Todd Walker (1996), David Ortiz (1997), Doug Mientkiewicz (1998), Michael Restovich (1999), Michael Cuddyer (2001), Lew Ford (2002), Joe Mauer (2003), Jason Kubel (2004), David Winfree (2005) and Alexi Casilla (2006), while J.D. Durbin (2002), Jesse Crain (2003), Scott Baker (2004), Francisco Liriano (2005) and Matt Garza (2006) have won the Jim Rantz Award.
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