Jeff Johnson

His full name is Daniel Zebulon Matthews, but the Cedar Rapids Kernels starting pitcher goes by the first name Zebby. He’s been awesome the first month of the Midwest League baseball season and appears to have a promising future.

Here’s the second edition of Eastern Iowans In The Minors and Majors. It’s a look at Gazette-area players and how they are doing in affiliated professional baseball. Four pitchers are in the majors in Mitch Keller (Pirates), A.J. Puk (Athletics), Keaton Winn (Giants) and Colin Rea (Brewers).

The Iowa baseball team plays a three-game Big Ten Conference series at home this weekend against last-place Northwestern. The Hawkeyes still could win the league’s regular-season championship but also still could finish out of the top eight and out of the conference tournament.

Right-handed relief pitcher Ricardo Velez took a circuitous route to affiliated professional baseball. He doesn’t have the biggest fastball, but throws five different pitches to keep hitters’ timing off. He has five saves in five opportunities this season for the Cedar Rapids Kernels.

Cedar Rapids Kernels outfielder Willie Joe Garry Jr. saved his father’s life by performing CPR on him in 2016. Garry Jr. was 15 years old at the time and had just become CPR certified a month before Willie Joe Garry Sr.’s cardiac episode.

Though he’s got one now, Cedar Rapids Kernels infielder Jay Harry decided not to hire an agent as he went through the Major League Baseball Draft process last year. The Minnesota Twins selected the former Penn State player in the sixth round, and he made an impression with five hits in big league spring training games.

Cedar Rapids Kernels starting pitcher John Klein picked up the win Wednesday night against Beloit. Always a catcher, he didn’t really being throwing regularly until going to Iowa Central Community College in Fort Dodge, where his pitching coach was Jonas Lovin, who’s one of his pitching coaches now in professional baseball.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels gave out 1,000 replica rings celebrating their 2023 Midwest League championship Tuesday night at Veterans Memorial Stadium.

The Minnesota Twins generally have had a grip-it and rip-it offensive philosophy, one that has trickled down to their minor league affiliates. But Cedar Rapids Kernels Manager Brian Dinkelman said an emphasis this season for his players has been to have better two-strike approaches in order to avoid a cavalcade of strikeouts. The Kernels’ K numbers are indeed down in the very early going of the Midwest League season.

The Iowa Hawkeyes baseball team beat up Rutgers, 15-5, Saturday afternoon, setting up the possibility of a weekend series sweep for the first time this Big Ten Conference season and the second time this season overall.

Here is the first 2024 edition of Eastern Iowans in Professional Baseball. This is a list of guys from Eastern Iowa or the University of Iowa playing in the major leagues or affiliated minor league baseball. There are four big leaguers right now in pitchers Mitch Keller (Pirates), Keaton Winn (Giants), Colin Rea (Brewers) and A.J. Puk (Marlins).

Marcus Morgan was a four-sport athlete at Iowa City West High School. He could have played Division I in basketball, football or baseball. But Iowa baseball coach Rick Heller ultimately won the multi-sport recruiting war, and Morgan is coming off his best starting pitching performance of the season last weekend at Ohio State.

The Cedar Rapids RoughRiders failed to qualify for the United States Hockey League playoffs this season. But with the league drafts upcoming and the possibility of several returnees, the club seeks a quick turnaround.

The Iowa Heartlanders concluded their season over the weekend on a high note. They beat Kansas City, 7-4, before a franchise-record crowd of 4,878. They still finished last in the Central Division, last in the Western Conference with a 27-37-6-2 record.

A second-round draft pick of the Minnesota Twins last year, Luke Keaschall has been limited to designated-hitter duty early this Midwest League season because of an arm problem. But he played second base Sunday as the Cedar Rapids Kernels beat Dayton, 4-2, and did just fine. His offensive output continued to be just fine as well.