The Appalachian League starts tonight.  It's a ten-team league, with the teams divided into two five-team divisions.  Teams take the names of their parent clubs.  The teams play a sixty-eight game schedule.  The top four teams make the playoffs, which are best-of-three.

The Twins affiliate is, as you probably remember, Elizabethton.  The other teams in the West Division are the Bristol Pirates, the Greeneville Astros, the Johnson City Cardinals, and the Kingsport Mets.

The Twins are managed by Ray Smith, with batting coach Jeff Reed and pitching coach Luis Ramirez.  Assuming the roster listed at milb.com is correct, some names you might recognize include the following:

Pitchers:  Samuel Clay, Brandon Easton, Josh Guyer, C. K. Irby, Kuo Hua Lo, Miles Nordgren, and Dereck Rodriguez.

Batters:  C Rainis Silva, IF Tyler Kuresa, IF Nelson Molina, OF Austin Diemer, OF Ariel Montesino.

They open their season in Bluefield tonight.  Go Twins!