Seth Stohs

I 100% agree... the only thing that we have is that these guys were all drafted in the first five rounds of the draft (except Baxendale, but he was an exception). If they're in college and drafted lower than that, they most likely will need to move a little bit slower. All of these guys were drafted after their junior year of college, so they were all approximately 21 (with some plus-minus to it). I would say that all of the pitchers included were from good to very good baseball programs.

It varies. Without going back in again, most of them got a few innings either in ET or Low A that first year. Kyle Gibson signed late and had the forearm issue, so he didn't. A few of each. The point really is just that Sands got to AA in his first full season as a pro... Lots of Twins pitchers have done that over the years.

Sometimes narratives, baseball or other, get into circulation, and once they do, it seems that they are hard to get rid of. I have probably (unfortunately) started some, and I am sure that I have passed along some without doing any research. Of course, I think we all agree that a little data to either support or disprove any narrative should help. Today I am going to address one of those narratives and let you decide.The Narrative: The former Twins front office leadership was slow to push pitchers up the ladder, especially in their first full professional season. The 2019 Case: In 2019, Twins right-handed pitcher Cole Sands made his professional debut. He had been the Twins fifth-round draft pick in 2018 out of Florida State. After being drafted, he was shut down. He began the 2019 season in Cedar Rapids. He went 2-1 with a 3.05 ERA. After eight starts and just 41 1/3 innings with the Kernels, he was promoted to Ft. Myers. With the Miracle, he made nine starts and went 5-2 with a 2.25 ERA in 52 innings. He ended the season with one start at Double-A Pensacola in which he gave up two runs in four innings. He threw a total of 97 1/3 innings in his first full season. I have seen it written or spoken about in a few places over the last couple of years that under the previous regime, the Twins would likely not have pushed a college pitcher like Sands quite as quickly. Is that true? Is that a fair critique? Obviously there is no perfect way to analyze this. Pitcher development (like hitter development) is very much dependent upon the individual. However, I wanted to go back several seasons and find out if the previous Twins regime had any (or many, or lots, or no) cases that fit the model that we saw in 2019 with Cole Sands. What are those qualifications to meet? So I went back through all of the Twins drafts from 2001 through 2019. I looked for these two things from each pitcher drafted out of college. If, in his first full professional season, the pitcher did one or both of them, I included him. Did the pitcher reach AA (or AAA)? Sands made one start at AA, orDid the pitcher pitch at three or more levels? Sands pitched at Low-A, High-A and AA.With that, let’s take a look at the Twins history this century. CURRENT REGIME (2017-2019) Cole Sands (5th round, 2019) - Pitched at three levels. Reached AA in 2020.PREVIOUS REGIME Tyler Jay (1st round, 2015) - Pitched at two levels, High-A and AA in 2016..Nick Burdi (supp 1st, 2014) - Pitched at two levels, High-A and AA in 2015.Jake Reed (5th round, 2014) - Pitched at two levels, High-A and AA in 2015.DJ Baxendale (10th round, 2012) - Pitched at two levels, High-A and AA in 2013.Pat Dean (3rd round, 2010) - Pitched at three levels, Low-A, High-A and AA in 2011.Logan Darnell (6th round, 2010) - Pitched at three levels, Low-A, High-A and AA in 2011.Kyle Gibson (1st round, 2009) - Pitched at three levels, High-A, AA and AAA in 2010.Billy Bullock (2nd round, 2009) - Pitched at two levels, High-A and AA in 2010.Carlos Gutierrez (supp 1st, 2008) - Pitched at two levels, High-A and AA in 2009.Matt Garza (1st round, 2005) - Pitched at four levels, High-A, AA, AAA and MLB in 2006.Kevin Slowey (2nd round, 2005) - Pitched at two levels, High-A and AA in 2006.Brian Duensing (3rd round, 2005) - Pitched at three levels, Low-A, High-A and AA in 2006.Glen Perkins (1st round, 2004) - Pitched at two levels, High-A and AA in 2005.Scott Baker (2nd round, 2003) - Pitched at three levels, High-A, AA and AAA in 2004.Jesse Crain (2nd round, 2002) - Pitched at three levels, High-A, AA and AAA in 2003.Adam Johnson (1st round, 2000) - Pitched at three levels, AA, AAA and MLB.CONCLUSIONSWhile this doesn’t dispute the studies done five years or so ago stating that the Twins were among the slowest, if not the slowest, to promote pitchers to the big leagues, this does show that the previous Twins regime was not afraid of pushing college pitchers quickly through the lower levels of the minor leagues. In fact, it happened most years. This isn’t a scientific study. I have done nothing more than a quick search of Twins draft picks in Baseball-Reference, so it’s possible that I am missing something. Please feel free to let me know. Click here to view the article

On Tuesday (March 17), Dick Bremer's Game Used: My Life in Stitches with the Minnesota Twins will be released. It will be available at bookstores around the Midwest. At Hammond Stadium in Ft. Myers, I had the privilege to interview Bremer on the book, and his life as a Twins fan, and nearly 40 years as the voice of the Twins on TV.The 2020 season will be Dick Bremer's 37th season covering the Minnesota Twins on TV. It also marks the 60th season that the Twins will be play in Minnesota. To mark the occasion, Bremer has been working with Triumph Books on an autobiography of sorts. In his typical self-deprecating way, he wrote about his life with 108 "Stitches" or short stories, most of which somehow tie back to the game of baseball. I truly enjoyed chatting with Dick Bremer in the press box at Hammond Stadium earlier this month. His passion for the Twins comes through very clearly. His passion for the history of this organization overflows. His pride in working with some of the great players in Twins history over his career behind the mic, from Harmon Killebrew, to Tommy John, to Bert Blyelven, Roy Smalley and now Justin Morneau. If you are a fan of the Minnesota Twins and watch them on TV regularly, and if you enjoy the history of the organization, the book is a Must Read, and I think that this podcast is a Must Listen. Earlier this month, Bremer celebrated his birthday. He was born just a couple of years before the Twins moved to Minnesota. He grew up admiring Bob Allison. He wrote about growing up in west-central Minnesota and getting to a couple of games each year. Even when his family moved to Missouri, he was able to listen to Twins games late at night on the radio and remained a Twins fan even though the talented Cardinals were much closer. His family returned to Minnesota. He went to St. Cloud State. There are some fun stories from his years in Cedar Rapids that Kernels fans will certainly enjoy. He's got a bunch of stories about the team in the Metrodome. There are stories of the 1987 and 1991 Twins and the players we all remember so fondly. Sure, there were some lean years too, but there were still some fun stories. There are also some emotional stories from Bremer's life that he shared. The book is comprised of 108 short stories, making it great for the coffee table, or for a bathroom reader. So again, on Tuesday, March 17, Dick Bremer's Game Used: My Life in Stitches with the Minnesota Twins will be available at bookstores around the Upper Midwest as well as wherever you get your books online (where they are already available for pre-order). Join me in this fun, recent conversation with Dick Bremer about the book and about his life with the Minnesota Twins. We even talked about the 2020 Twins, though please note that this conversation took place just over a week before news came out about the delayed started to the season. If you haven't listened to a previous Get to Know 'Em podcast, this is the one to listen to. You can subscribe to the Get to Know 'Em podcast on iTunes. or follow Libsyn for new episodes here as well. Please leave ratings or feedback. And did you know that you can listen to the Get To Know 'Em podcast by asking Alexa to "Listen to the Get To Know 'Em Podcast." PAST EPISODES Episode 1: Get to know Niko Guardado (Actor and son of Eddie Guardado) Episode 2: Get to know Pat Dean, Brent Rooker Episode 3: Get to know Royce Lewis, AJ Achter Episode 4: Get to know Devin Smeltzer Episode 5: Get to know Jaylin Davis, Tyler Wells Episode 6: Get to know: Travis Blankenhorn, LaMonte Wade Episode 7: Get to know: Matt Wallner (and Ten Minutes with Tyler Wells) Episode 8: Get to know: Caleb Hamilton, Austin Schulfer, Nick Anderson Episode 9: Get to know: Andy Young, Billy Boyer (and Ten Minutes with Tyler) Episode 10: Get to know: Wesley Wright (Twins Pro Scout) Episode 11: Get to know: John Manuel(Twins Pro Scout) Episode 12: Get to know: Marshall Kelner(Mighty Mussels broadcaster) Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Not registered? Click here to create an account. To stay up to date, follow Twins Daily on Twitter and Facebook. Click here to view the article

I watched them too... Loved seeing the stars. Loved when they would get interviewed and provide such corny responses. Loved that there were an ump. They were so fantastic.

Thorpe is in Ft. Myers. His parents were here for a couple of weeks but left to go back to Australia today. I don't know if he ever reports to minor laegue camp. 40-man guys have 3 days to report to minor league camp, and I assume he's done what he needed to do. Thorpe has a lot to prove to people right now. I can see all of those scenarios being possible for Larnach, Kirilloff and Lewis. Le'ts just hope they can get on the field soon and start playing.

"Pitch to Contact" got a bad rap because of the pitchers involved, in my opinion, not because of the philosophy. The philosophy was about getting ahead and throwing strikes, not about throwing it right down the middle of handing curveballs right over the middle of the plate. I also look at the Twins starting rotation: Berrios: Sits 93-95, touches 96... Maeda is low-90s. Hill may not be any more than 90. Pineda is low 90s. Odorizzi is low 90s but touches 94, sometimes 95. Dobnak is low 90s. Smeltzer may touch 90. Thorpe is low 90s. My point is that I think that the Twins do throw a little harder, though that really just comes from Berrios and a little bit from Odorizzi. It's just that these guys are better pitchers now than some of the guys that Anderson worked with after Radke (who was 89-90) and Johan (who was mostly low-90s, but touched 94, maybe 95) and such. I think it's as much just about having good pitchers with good pitchers. Now the bullpen, it is about guys with velocity much more now than ever... But it's also about throwing strikes like Stashak.

I also have Justified among my Top 5 binge-able shows... I'll have to give that some thought... maybe come up with a Top 10 or something... But Justified was fantastic.

I think I binged the first 5 seasons of The Walking Dead... It's been much harder watching from week to week. But definitely season 1. The first few series were great. Now I watch it mostly out of habit, but it's still OK.

While in Ft. Myers, I chatted with Ft. Myers broadcaster Marshall Kelner in the Hammond Stadium press box on the team's scheduled off day. Kelner is a Minnesota native who has worked in several minor league cities in his young professional career. We discussed growing up as a Twins fan, going into broadcasting, his influences and all those Twins prospects that have played at Hammond Stadium in recent years.Marshall Kelner grew up in Minnetonka and went to Blake High School. He played baseball as a kid but knew early on that he would not reach the big leagues as a player. He listened to Twins Hall of Famer John Gordon call games and knew that is what he wanted to do. He headed west, attended and graduated from USC, and jumped into the world of minor league baseball. Kelner is a great storyteller, and you will hear that in this podcast. His first jobs were quite interesting. Hear about him playing blackjack with Jose Canseco and crazy independent ball travel. Find out who his broadcast influences are. In Minnesota, we are blessed with some good ones, and several have been willing to help out Marshall along the way. And we talked Twins prospects. So many of the Twins top prospects have played at Hammond Stadium the last couple of seasons. Find out a little more about Lewis, Kirilloff, Larnach, Duran, Balazovic and several other Twins minor leaguers. You can subscribe to the Get to Know 'Em podcast on iTunes. or follow Libsyn for new episodes here as well. Please leave ratings or feedback. And did you know that you can listen to the Get To Know 'Em podcast by asking Alexa to "Listen to the Get To Know 'Em Podcast." PAST EPISODES Episode 1: Get to know Niko Guardado (Actor and son of Eddie Guardado) Episode 2: Get to know Pat Dean, Brent Rooker Episode 3: Get to know Royce Lewis, AJ Achter Episode 4: Get to know Devin Smeltzer Episode 5: Get to know Jaylin Davis, Tyler Wells Episode 6: Get to know: Travis Blankenhorn, LaMonte Wade Episode 7: Get to know: Matt Wallner (and Ten Minutes with Tyler Wells) Episode 8: Get to know: Caleb Hamilton, Austin Schulfer, Nick Anderson Episode 9: Get to know: Andy Young, Billy Boyer (and Ten Minutes with Tyler) Episode 10: Get to know: Wesley Wright (Twins Pro Scout) Episode 11: Get to know: John Manuel(Twins Pro Scout) Please share your thoughts in the comments below. Not registered? Click here to create an account. To stay up to date, follow Twins Daily on Twitter and Facebook. Click here to view the article

I couldn't figure out a good way to 'sneak' in Hamilton. Ha!

Last month, Twins Daily ranked infielder Jose Miranda as the Twins #20 prospect. Last week, he arrived in Ft. Myers for his fourth spring training. Twins Daily caught up with the slugger to discuss several topics including being drafted, his strengths, what he’s working on, and his world-famous cousin.Along with his work in preparation for his 2020 baseball seasons, Jose Miranda also got to spend a little time with his cousin, Lin-Manuel Miranda. Yes, the same Lin-Manuel Miranda who won awards for his Broadway play In the Heights and later gained international renown for writing and starring in the immensely popular play Hamilton. According to Jose Miranda, “My dad is his dad’s cousin.” While they have only met and conversed a handful of times (the 40-year-old Lin-Manuel grew up in New York but frequently visited Puerto Rico), they had a nice chat this past offseason. “He’s friendly, humble. If you see him, you would never guess he was famous like that.” Photo by Hannah Gaber-USA TODAY “I like music. Not into singing or doing some instrumental, but I like reggaeton, music in Spanish.” Jose Miranda then added, “Sports was my primary thing since growing.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Jose Miranda grew up in Puerto Rico. He was born in the village of Manati in the north central part of the island. He said he spent one semester of his ninth grade year with his mom in Miami. He returned to Puerto Rico and attended Leadership Christian Academy in Guaynabo, a city just south and west of San Juan and just east of Bayamon. Miranda became well-known as a baseball prospect nationally. He had a pretty good sense of where he might be drafted, and thought he knew which teams were most likely to select him. “I was expecting to go in the second round or the third round. I had communications with three or four teams. I think the Twins weren’t the favorites. I thought I was going to go to the Phillies or the Blue Jays. They were talking to me more.” A lot of times, teams will know who they want and then try to act as if they are uninterested, hoping that the player will get to them. The Twins were thrilled that Miranda was still available when they made their first of two straight Competitive Balance picks after the second round of the 2016 draft. As Twins Hall of Famer Brad Radke said that night, “With the 73rd selection of the 2016 MLB Draft, the Minnesota Twins select Jose Miranda, a shortstop from Leadership Christian Academy, Puerto Rico.” Of that night, Miranda noted, “That was my first goal. I worked so hard for that. I wanted to be in the first few rounds. My senior year, I was just working out, working out, working out, working out, playing, playing, and then I got called, and my dream came true, and now my dream is to get to the bigs.” Because of uncertainty in where he might be drafted, the Miranda family did not have a big party. The first two rounds and the Competitive Balance picks are made on the first night of the draft. The third round through the tenth round picks are made on Day 2. So Miranda was at home with his dad and his grandma. However, news of his selection traveled quickly. “My phone blew up. Texts from everyone. Twitter. Instagram.” One pick later, the Twins selected outfielder Akil Baddoo with the 74th pick, the fourth straight high school hitter that the Twins drafted that year. The Twins had drafted outfielder Alex Kirilloff with the 15th overall pick. Their second-round pick was catcher Ben Rortvedt. The group remains close. “We communicate, and we talk a lot. We’re friends.. I talk more with Akil Baddoo, but I talk to every one of those guys. They’re super cool, and they like to work.” ------------------------------------------------------------------ There is a pride that you hear in the voice of players who grew up in Puerto Rico. And the Twins have drafted and signed many players from Puerto Rico. In talking to Jose Miranda, it is quite clear he is proud to be from Puerto Rico. “For me, if I was born again, I’d want to be born in Puerto Rico. It’s my island. It’s where I grew up. I love it. My family is there. It's such a small island. Everyone is rooting for you when you’re here. I love it. ” The Puerto Rican players will often get together for dinners or just hang out and talk about baseball. Having that support from the players who have made it to the big leagues and from the island is motivating. “It’s a motivating thing because we know they were here before. They went from the minors, from rookie ball to the bigs. They tell us, you’ve got to trust the process, and if you do things right, you will get promoted to the bigs. One day, you’re going to play up here with us. That’s the main goal. Jose Miranda has been moving up the Twins organizational ladder one level at a time. Following the draft, he played 55 games for the GCL Twins. In 2017, he played in 54 games for the Elizabethton Twins and hit .283 with eight doubles and 11 home runs. He moved up to full-season ball in 2018. He played in 104 games with the Cedar Rapids Kernels. He hit .277/.326/.434 (.760) with 22 doubles and 13 home runs. He ended the season with 27 games in Ft. Myers where he helped the Miracle to the Florida State League championship. He began 2019 with the MIracle. In 118 games, he hit .248/.299/.364 (.663) with 25 doubles and eight home runs. Statistics in the Florida State League always have to be taken with a grain of salt, especially with a 21-year-old. “It’s pretty hard. Sometimes you hit some balls that you think are going to go or they’re going to fall, but they get there and they catch them. Sometimes you get frustrated, but it just is what it is. It’s a tough league, but you have to live with it.” That’s where a player needs more than just tools and physical strength. It’s where players can get challenged with the mental aspects of the game. “Just got to stay hard in your mind, strong. Just stay positive. Keep working. You’ve just got to keep working, and you can’t stop working.” Starting pitchers Jordan Balazovic and Dakota Chalmers were promoted from Ft. Myers to Pensacola for their playoff run. Jose Miranda was the lone hitter that was promoted for the Southern League playoffs. He went 3-for-5 with a double in his one regular season game. Then in five playoff games for the Blue Wahoos, Miranda hit .368/.429/.526 (.955). “I think I had a little more confidence going into the offseason. In my mind, I was like, at least I finished in Double-A. It was a little jump. It was at the end, but I finished at Double-A.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------- In his career, Miranda has split time between third base and second base, with an occasional game played at shortstop. However, he has begun to play more third base. While his third base-second base mix was about 50/50 in 2018, he played third base nearly two-thirds of the time in 2019. Most scouts believe that is the position he is most likely to play. For his part, Miranda doesn’t mind playing either position. “I feel comfortable at both. If you can tell me now which one I want to play, I don’t have an answer right now. I like to play both, or all three. I like to play shortstop too. But right now it’s more third and second. Whatever they want me to play, I’ll play it.” ----------------------------------------------------------------- 2020 will be a big year for Jose Miranda. Following the season, he will be Rule 5 draft-eligible if he is not added to the Twins 40-man roster. To prepare for the season, he really worked hard. “First of all, I was working on my body because I wanted to lose some weight. Last year I felt a little sloppy, a little slow. So I told my trainer we had to work on my weight to get a little faster, to gain a little agility. And then my swing, and my swing mechanics.” When asked for his goals, he didn’t mention numbers and statistics. “One of my main goals is just to stay healthy for the whole year. Stay healthy, and then control what I can control.” Off the field, Miranda has some very exciting news as well. He will soon become a father. “We’re having a baby. Super exciting.” Miranda’s girlfriend is due in April. She is in Puerto Rico but hopefully about a month after the baby is born, mother and child will come to the States to be with Jose. A big year indeed! Click here to view the article

Not unless there are about three injuries, but he and Larnach have made it known to all involved that they just might be ready to contribute when needed.

The Twins aren't worried about AAAA guys getting ready for the season. They all know how to do that, and some of them will be released before the season starts. The players optioned today need to get innings, need to get consistent at bats. They can do that in the minor league camp, intrasquad games, etc. The regulars for the Twins need to start getting more consistent time. The veteran non-roster guys can play in a limited role. The young non-roster types (Lewis, Kirilloff, Larnach, Jeffers) probably will be re-assigned soon as well so that they too can get themselves ready for games.

The stats don't matter for Chacin. More important in the evaluation is likely the Trackman stuff, the velocity, movement, arm angles. The Twins are likely evaluating for themselves what he's got left and that won't (necessarily) be determined by the numbers.

Jeffers bats right handed.

Is the theory of trusting college pitchers more than high school pitchers a new thing? It's certainly what the Ryan-led teams did. High School hitters. College pitchers. And... we definitely should not be dismissing Cleveland as a competitor in 2020.

Arraez isn't that small. He's grown, and he's put himself in really good shape. He's strong, though I don't expect he'll ever hit more than 10 homers in a season, by any means. And, we forget about the 2019 ball which probably helped Arraez to a couple of extra homers.

1.) BIrthdays: Dobnak (Jan 1995), Smeltzer (Sept 1995), Thorpe (Nov 1995) So the difference in their age isn't a big deal. Dobnak is the oldest, but he just turned 25 in January. I do think some people are selling him short... and maybe selling this Falvey/Cleveland/Pitcher Development thing short. Dobnak may not have a ton of strikeouts, but why can't he be the Twins version of one of those Cleveland starters. That also, said, I have no problem with him being a long relief option out of the bullpen. But I'd say that for any of them. They all have a little more in them, potentially. They all could also work out of a bullpen role at this stage. First, because they're old enough and close enough, and second, the team is in Win Now mode... So the thinking is naturally a little different now than it would be if the team was a 4th place team. 2.) Colina has been a starter all along, so he's got a 3rd pitch, but it's (like every starting pitcher) the pitch that will likely determine if he is a starter or reliever long-term. He's also young enough that he should go to Pensacola to start the season as a starter. There is absolutely no rush as he doesn't have to be added to the 40-man until after this season. 3.) He'll get some time there, but there's generally little need for it with Polanco, Arraez and Adrianza. Gonzalez can play the four corners as he gets healthy. Good coverage.

Yeah, the story is amazing, no doubt, but it almost takes away from the fact that he is a really good pitcher. He really is. There have been several articles on TD over the offseason to that fact. It's fun to see him doing so well this spring.

After the Minnesota Twins made him their ninth-round pick in the 2018 draft, Willie Joe Garry Jr. struggled in his professional debut. Since then, he’s literally been one of the first to the ballpark and his work started to pay off for him in 2019. After another offseason of work, he hopes to take his game to another level in 2020.Willie Joe Garry, Jr. grew up in Pascagoula, Mississippi. It is a city right on the Gulf of Mexico with about 23,000 people. It is just east of Biloxi. It was there that Garry grew to love the game of baseball. He tried playing other sports. Following a practice this past weekend, he said, “I played football when I was younger. I was alright. Basketball? I was not good at all.” But even in baseball, it wasn’t obvious that he would eventually become a professional ball player. Pascagoula High School is now a 6A school after spending years as a 5A school. As a freshman, he was unable to play because of a knee injury. His sophomore season, he was still quite small. He said that he was about 5-2 and just 130 pounds. ‘I pitched though. I was a pretty good pitcher. I threw pretty hard for my size.“ He started growing some, and as a junior, he started the season as the team’s center fielder. “I got into a slump so I got snatched out of the lineup. Went to right field. Still slumped, so I got benched. ” From that point forward, however, things have been on the rise, including Garry’s prospect status. “I came back in the playoffs and got hot.” Then as a senior, he was the team’s starting center fielder all season. He had committed to playing baseball at local community college Pearl River, but when the Twins selected him in the ninth round, it wasn’t a real difficult decision for him to sign. “It was something me and my parents had talked about prior (to the draft). We talked about it once we got the call. It wasn’t really tough because I really wanted to play professional baseball. I knew I would be able to grow and build, and if I could start out earlier, that would be better. Coming in young, I felt like that would be an advantage for me. Being a young guy. Being around the older guys. Being on the same workout plan as them, but starting out earlier. That was our key point. That’s what made it a little earlier too.” While Mississippi isn’t the noted baseball hotbed in the same way that Georgia preps are, Garry came from a strong class. “The competition in Mississippi is … JT Ginn (1st round, Dodgers). Joe Gray (2nd round, Brewers). Konnor Pilkington (3rd round, White Sox). Dexter Jordan (16th round, Astros). A bunch of guys drafted from that same class. I felt the competition was pretty good. We never really faced any… you had a couple of teams that didn’t have too many guys. Usually when our team played a team, we saw their #1 guy, and I feel like that helped a lot.” Willie Joe Garry, Jr. was the Twins ninth round pick in 2018. One other Mississippi player drafted that year was Regi Grace, a right-handed pitcher that the Twins took in the tenth round. “I’d heard about him. I was in 5A. They were in 6A. My school went to 6A. We never played with or against each other until the summer going into the draft. We ended up playing together.” He continued, “We got SnapChat. We started texting. We just started hanging out a bit.Then we got here. We started getting a close bond. Then ninth round,10th round. We had the same flight up to Minnesota when we got drafted. Then we became roommates. Now we’re really good friends. Still roommates right now.” That first season in the GCL after he signed was a rough one for Garry. In 33 games, he hit just .160 with four doubles. He had 28 strikeouts in 95 plate appearances and felt almost over-matched. “I feel like I’m still growing, still getting stronger and stronger every day. From the first year, not really showing any power, really not making much contact. So that’s what I was working on in that offseason, making contact, hard contact. It was good to see the work from the offseason transfer into the season.” When the season finished, he went to work. Garry, Jr and Grace were among the first players to arrive at the Twins minor league academy just days after the calendar turned to 2019. “The transition from the year before to last year was really good. It was something I worked on, like catching the balls up front because I was getting blown up by fastballs throughout the whole season my first year. So working on that velo, catching up to that velo. And then to see it work out in-game the very next season, that was really good for me. I needed that. I built a lot of confidence, so then I could put a little extra on my swing. Started putting a few out. Start getting some extra base hits. Stopped worrying about swinging through balls. Just play. That’s what I went back to.” In 55 games with the Elizabethton Twins, he hit .228 with six doubles, three triples and five home runs. There is still room for improvement, of course, but Garry took major strides in 2019. The goal is to keep that momentum going into 2020. At Elizabethton, he had the opportunity to play for manager Ray Smith who has spent the past 34 seasons with that team, including 27 of them as manager. He was drafted by and spent parts of three seasons with the Twins in the early ‘80s. E-Twins hitting coach Jeff Reed was a first-round pick with the Twins, got traded and spent 17 seasons in the big leagues. That’s a lot of experience and a lot of knowledge. “So much knowledge. I learned so much. Not even from drills and things, just from listening to them. Sometimes I wasn’t even in the conversation. Just standing to the side listening to them, the things they were saying. I tried to put some of those things into my game because they coached Buxton and all these guys. They go way back. Listening to them, taking the things that they say and trying to put them into my game helped a lot too. Not even the physical things, but the mental parts. The approach after a strikeout, things like that. Coming in knowing you can take your walks. Not trying to do too much.” So again, he and Regi made that early January trek to Ft. Myers to keep working. ““I feel it paid off last year so we did it again.” That work began in the weight room. “A lot of my effort, early in the morning has been to gain weight in the weight room. Still trying to gain weight.” Garry, Jr. continued, “175 last year. I’m up to 189, cracking 190. I hit 190, I’ll start rocking some Double-XL shirts.”. It’s all part of the process for the kids drafted out of high school or internationally. They have to mature physically and mentally. So, what does he consider his strengths on the baseball field? “I feel like even though I’m small, strength is a part of my game. I feel like I have a plus arm. I’m working on power. Consistency. I can show some flashes of power. I can go oppo if I need to. I can to do center or right.So I’m trying to get that consistency. Being able to use the entire field is something that he thinks is important. “I don’t want to cut off one side of the field. Get those doubles on the left side. Get those doubles on the right side. Maybe let a couple fly on the right side. Doesn’t matter how far or what side of the field.” As for goals for 2020? They’re never too far from Garry’s mind, or his eyes. “They’re on the screen saver of my phone. I look at them every day.” Better utilizing his speed is one area that he would like to work on. “I really want to move around the base paths this year. Stolen bases. Turning those singles into doubles by stolen bases, reading dirt balls. Show a little more power. But really I want to keep learning and take my game to the next level.” Where will that happen? There is a chance that he will return to the E-Twins, but it’s also possible that he gets an opportunity to start the season in Cedar Rapids. If that is the case, he will need to continue to make adjustments, this time while adjusting to the cold temperatures of the MIdwest League in April. That said, if his ultimate goal is to reach the big leagues and play at Target Field, acclimating to the temperatures will be a must. When I saw Willie Joe Garry one year ago in Twins minor league camp, he stood out to me as one to watch.His athleticism was impressive. He had good speed. He was thin, but he had some pop. And, I had heard about his work ethic. And again, he is one of the players this spring that has stood out to me again as one to watch. Click here to view the article