MWLFan

April 25th-Start I am going to write about a oddity for a Twins fan, good starting pitching. Not awesome or eyepopping, but good. Wednesday Jason Wheeler picked up his second victory Wednesday with six innings of 10 hit (8 singles-2 doubles), 2 K, 0 BB and 3 earned run pitching. Wheeler was helped by the GIDP and picked off a runner in order to keep more from crossing the plate. The Snappers held it close until the sixth when they put three runs in breaking the 3 to 3 tie. Wheeler stats sit at 21 innings, 1.38 WHIP (24 hits and 5 walks), 12 strikeouts, and 3.00 ERA. The Beloit record sits at 10-10 and have won a couple in a row, with Sano not contributing.

When the idea of adopt a Prospect came up my first choice was Jason Wheeler for several reasons. First he is a impressive young man to talk to, second my wife thought he was a nice boy, third he met Harmon Killebrew and my son is named for Harmon, and fourth he is a member of the Snappers. So a bit about the 6 foot 8 inch, 265 pound left handed throwing young man from Torrance, California. Jason comes from a family of athletes, mom and dad both played college basketball and his older brother Ryan plays in the Diamondbacks organization and is currently in AAA with the Reno Aces. So Jason has the pedigree. Jason played college ball at Loyola Marymount University, as did his Snapper team mate Matt Koch, and some Twins fans may have seen him play for the St. Cloud River Bats of the Northwoods League where he was named 2010 Pitcher of the Year with a 8 and 1 record, 1.35 ERA and 74 strike outs. He was 6-4 with a 3.84 ERA his last year with the Lions before the Twins drafted him in the 8th round in 2011. (That may make him a qualify him as one of us. I have to check the rules.) Jason was a Junior at LMU when he left for the Twins but will graduate this fall with a degree in business law. If the whole pitching in the Majors and making a lot of cash thing doesn't work out he might end up a sports agent, we will try not to hold that against him on this blog. With three games started under his belt at Beloit this year Jason is 1-0 with a 2.40 ERA, 1.27 WHIP, 10 K's and 5 walks in 15 innings. The nom de plume I threw out has nothing to do with his velocity or style of pitching, I just have a soft spot in my heart for baseball of the 1920's-1930's when such names where common place. Depending on the wacky southern Wisconsin weather Jason should take the mound in the next couple of days against Bowling Green. I have yet to see him pitch but it looks like he charts a good game, once he has some gloves to keep those California fingers warm. Good luck Jason, we will be keeping a eye on you.

C-Butera (his stats are pretty good at AAA) 1B-Colabello 2B- Rosario 3b Sano SS- Santana OF- Morales OF-Carson OF-Danny Ortiz (Gotta to throw another Sanpper on.) SP- Diamond RP Guerra

I am going to write about a oddity for a Twins fan, good starting pitching. Not awesome or eyepopping, but good. Wednesday Jason Wheeler picked up his second victory Wednesday with six innings of 10 hit (8 singles-2 doubles), 2 K, 0 BB and 3 earned run pitching. Wheeler was helped by the GIDP and picked off a runner in order to keep more from crossing the plate. The Snappers held it close until he sixth when they put three runs in breaking the 3 to 3 tie. Wheeler stats sit at 21 innings, 1.38 WHIP (24 hits and 5 walks), 12 strikeouts, and 3.00 ERA. The Beloit record sits at 10-10 and have won a couple in a row, with Sano not contributing.

I am going to write about a oddity for a Twins fan, good starting pitching. Not awesome or eyepopping, but good. Wednesday Jason Wheeler picked up his second victory Wednesday with six innings of 10 hit (8 singles-2 doubles), 2 K, 0 BB and 3 earned run pitching. Wheeler was helped by the GIDP and picked off a runner in order to keep more from crossing the plate. The Snappers held it close until he sixth when they put three runs in breaking the 3 to 3 tie. Wheeler stats sit at 21 innings, 1.38 WHIP (24 hits and 5 walks), 12 strikeouts, and 3.00 ERA. The Beloit record sits at 10-10 and have won a couple in a row, with Sano not contributing.

When a team loses the blame game starts up. Bill Smith, Terry Ryan, Gardy, the Minor League managers, Vavra, Anderson, Big Fella, Sid, or whoever. In the end the buck does stop with the owner, they have the ultimate power to make changes to the direction and the culture. So I do expect a more focused discussion on the Pohlad family and their stewardship of the Twins to come up. So instead of just throwing cr#p on the wall and seeing what gets a reaction my challenge to people is who would be better? I remember at one time people thought Glen Taylor could save the Twins. Would you prefer a Zygi type of out of state owner, how about a gang of of six or seven, a corporation, or is there some person that you think would make all the right moves as a owner to set a culture of winning in place. My take on it is I have no issues with the Pohlads beyond the drop in payroll this year. But considering that I think the biggest need this team has is quality starting pitching and seeing what was out there for FA's that would probably come to Minnesota in the last 7 months or so I am not foaming at the mouth. Now if in the next year this is not addressed through trades in the minors for a top side Arm or plucking a prime Starter from the FA market, then I will wondering WTF are they thinking. So what ideas are there for regime change? (Realizing of course this will not happen, but part of the joy of this site is it's venting.)

When a team loses the blame game starts up. Bill Smith, Terry Ryan, Gardy, the Minor League managers, Vavra, Anderson, Big Fella, Sid, or whoever. In the end the buck does stop with the owner, they have the ultimate power to make changes to the direction and the culture. So I do expect a more focused discussion on the Pohlad family and their stewardship of the Twins to come up. So instead of just throwing cr#p on the wall and seeing what gets a reaction my challenge to people is who would be better? I remember at one time people thought Glen Taylor could save the Twins. Would you prefer a Zygi type of out of state owner, how about a gang of of six or seven, a corporation, or is there some person that you think would make all the right moves as a owner to set a culture of winning in place. My take on it is I have no issues with the Pohlads beyond the drop in payroll this year. But considering that I think the biggest need this team has is quality starting pitching and seeing what was out there for FA's that would probably come to Minnesota in the last 7 months or so I am not foaming at the mouth. Now if in the next year this is not addressed through trades in the minors for a top side Arm or plucking a prime Starter from the FA market, then I will wondering WTF are they thinking. So what ideas are there for regime change? (Realizing of course this will not happen, but part of the joy of this site is it's venting.)

Thanks for the update. Always good to read something about BiG 10 BB. My uncle played on the Gophers in 56 and 60 and my boss has a nephew on the Boilers. So I am was kind of watching for Brad Schrieber, looks like he is shut down for the year. Question for you, what do you think of some of the proposals I have heard about Big 10 baseball looking for alternatives to the NCAA? Becoming like a summer wooden bat league,playing some pro clubs here and there.

Fly out to Rosario, Grounder back to Dempster and then another fly out ot Lin and we are done. 8-11-1 for the Snappers and 0-9-1 for the White Caps. Winner Shibuya. Ortiz 3 for 5 with a double and 4 RBI's. Rosario 2 for 5 with a double and RBI, Lin 2 for 3 with 2 walks and 2 runs and a stolen base. Listening to Detroit themed sports radio, could be Grand Rapids, whine about Leyland and the Tigers. They don't seem happy or satisfied. The Tigers record must be what 2-15?

Ortiz singles Rosario to 3rd. Rhodes and Koch strike out swinging. Clint Dempster coming on for the Snappers in the 9th

Rosario double. 6-13 in series.

Sano strike outs for the 3rd time. Looking.

Nelvin Fuentes in Achter out. Faces four got four outs on a Koch passed ball and batter reaching. Some good glove the last couple of innings by Lin and Ortiz in the Sanppers outfield. West Michigan announcers now impressed with Snappers defense, at least in the outfield.

Lin gets on base for fourth time today-where has that been this year-Grimes bounces out to end the inning. Announcer having just a little too much fun with Lin's name. "Wang-Wei Lin doing things the right way today."

Seth I liked that one too. Got a chuckle from it. It sounds better then it writes.

Achter controls the White caps in full inning of work. Think one guy got on. I had my head in a spreadsheet so I missed a couple of batters. Still no runs for the Caps.

Either the Tigers have a bunch of flame throwers on the White Caps or the Radar Gun is calibrated slightly high. All the White Cap pitchers are throwing in the 95-98 mph range.

Wild Pitch-Ortiz to 3rd. Rhodes flys to center

Ortiz- clears the bases on a double-Sano scores all the way from 1st. 8-0 Snappers.

Rosario pops to SS on first pitch.

Sano walks-doesn't sound like he got much to hit. Rosario next.

Lin walks and Bryant doubles off the glove of the White Cap outfielder and it rolls to the wall. Williams and Peterson scores and Lin to 3rd. Here comes Sano-New pitcher. Snappers up 5-0.

Announcer-Snappers "poised to have ducks on the pond as their mashers come up." Gotta love A ball.

Williams and Peterson with 1 out singles. Second hit for the former Gopher today.

Shibuya- 5 2/3 8 hits 0 runs 1 walk 5 K's leaves with bases loaded.