Seth Stohs

I watched three games in Cedar Rapids last week, and Cameron Booser was the man on the mound to close out two of the Kernels wins. The left-hander has a big fastball, hitting 96 mph with regularity and even touching 99 mph. He threw a sharp slider and tested out a changeup that could be very good. Booser looked every bit the part of potential, dominant closer. Things haven’t been easy for the 22-year-old. He’s accumulated injuries but is finally healthy and pitching well. He not only has an interesting story, but he has become one of the more intriguing pitching prospects in the Twins organization. Image courtesy of Seth Stohs Cam Booser was born in 1992 and grew up in Tacoma, Washington. He enjoyed baseball, but it wasn’t his favorite sport. On the football field, he played linebacker. He played a little receiver, tight end, but spent most of his time on the defensive side of the ball. “Football was a passion growing up, but injuries just kind of took me out of it really. My dad was my biggest coach.” The injuries were not insignificant either. ““I had knee surgery in high school. I broke my back in high school.” Injuries, unfortunately would become a theme for Booser. He turned his attention from the gridiron to the baseball diamond. However, it wasn’t on the pitcher’s mound initially. “I got into baseball, and really liked it, fell in love with it a little bit. Grew up as a hitter. Went to college as a hitter.” He continued, “I actually didn’t start pitching until I got to college. My first few starts, I had a little elbow soreness and thought that was just a normal thing for a pitcher to have. Ended up being a tear in my elbow, in my UCL.” Booser had Tommy John surgery after his freshman year at Oregon State and missed his entire sophomore season as well. He transferred to Central Arizona where he threw 19.2 innings in 2013. He went undrafted, but the Twins signed him late that year. “I signed about the second-to-last week of August in 2013. I really just went down to Ft. Myers to check out the facility, meet a few people, the coaches, and kind of see how everything works.” At the end of his first spring training (2014), Booser experienced some elbow tendinitis. His season was delayed by about six weeks. When healthy, there wasn’t space on the Cedar Rapids roster for him, so he went to Elizabethton and pitched well. He struck out 42 batters in 31.1 innings. He walked 14 and was really still just learning how to pitch. Following the season, he went to the Twins Florida Instructional League. He became one of the better stories of the fall. It was reported that he was throwing very hard, touching 99 mph at times. However, following Instructs, it was back to the operating table for Booser. “I just had a scope surgery back in November, in the elbow. They took out some bone fragments. They just cleaned it out a little bit, got some debris out of it.” After seemingly every athlete’s surgery, we read the same thing. The player had “successful surgery.” For Booser, his Tommy John surgery did not go well, or at least did not go as it should have. “The Tommy John didn’t exactly go as planned. There have been some setbacks ever since Tommy John. We always thought it was tendinitis or some inflammation. Then after getting MRIs and x-rays, found that there was quite a bit of debris in there, bone fragments and bone chips. It really shouldn’t have been there from the Tommy John, but it was. Surgery didn’t exactly go as planned, but it happened. I got the scope. Dr. Steubs up in Minnesota did it, and it feels fantastic.” He had the scope in early November and was back to throwing by about February 1st. Now he is excited to get to learn how to pitch. Booser said that because of all of the injuries, he “never really had that time to learn that much. You can learn as much as you want watching videos, but you’ve got to do it in a game.” Booser is already 22, but he knows that he is still young enough to learn. He is just learning from anyone and everyone. Of course, a lot of the instruction comes from Kernels pitching coach Henry Bonilla, who was also his pitching coach last year in Elizabethton. “I worked with Henry Bonilla last year and I learned an incredible amount. Now I can translate everything that he taught me, now that I’m healthy, and work on those things and take time every day to work on those things. He knows how to relate his job to every single guy, and he doesn’t just have one way of thinking. He can look at a guy, look at how they throw, watch them in a game and the next day have answers for you on what to do better or what he thought about. He’s incredibly knowledgeable. He’s one of the best I’ve ever worked with.” But just as much as learning from his pitching coach, Booser learns a lot by observing his teammates as well. “I’m working with guys on the team, guys like (Stephen) Gonsalves who is two years younger than I am but knows a lot more than I do. He’s very knowledgeable about how to pitch. He’s a guy who is 20 years old and giving me insight on how to do it. He’s one of my good buddies so I talk about him a lot. He’s 20 years old and he’s logged 500 innings in his life, and I’m barely breaking 100 so far.” As it relates to working out of the bullpen, he added, “I’m kind of tweaking my mechanics a little bit, but then also, watching how some guys like (Randy) LeBlanc, or (C.K.) Irby, or (Trevor) Hildenberger, how they attack certain guys.” Booser has really taken to the bullpen role. His competitive fire – maybe from his football days – is allowed to come out. “Closer is the role they would like me to throw, I think, from conversations we’ve had. It’s a role I like, pressure situations, late in the game. It’s what I would want to be doing. After surgery, I just kind of stayed in the bullpen, felt more comfortable out there. I kind of felt more comfortable throwing every day rather than every fifth day. Personally, everybody’s a competitor, but I really like to compete so being able to come into that pressure situation late in the game is what I thrive on.” Booser is blessed with a big arm. He throws the upper-90s fastball and has a good slider that can be devastating to left-handed hitters. He’s also working on developing a third pitch, a changeup. “I’ve been working on it for quite some time, but with injuries, it’s hard to go up on the mound every day and work on pitches. Last year, it was hard to develop pitches and work on mechanics when it hurt to throw a baseball. So now this year in the offseason I really worked on developing a changeup to the best that I could. But primarily fastball, slider. As a reliever, you can kind of get away with having just two pitches.” As you would expect, his number one goal for 2015 is to remain healthy. However, when asked about his goals, Booser returns to his baseball and pitching education. “Everybody wants to be a dominant pitcher, but learning how to stay down in the zone, learning when to throw what pitches, just learning how to be a good pitcher. Yeah, it’s nice to throw hard, but everybody can catch up to 95, 96, 97 if you throw it every single pitch. So knowing when to throw it, or knowing when to throw a slider or a changeup. Everybody wants to get promoted. If you do your job, it will take care of itself.” He expanded upon his thoughts, “You might be able to get away with getting guys with fastballs, but if you get to High-A Ft. Myers, those guys are grown men. They’ve seen it all before. You can’t get away with that. No one is Aroldis Chapman. No one throws 105. So you can’t get away with that every single pitch. For me, the adrenaline gets doing a little bit, and you overdo it a little bit, and then you leave fastballs up. You do that every pitch and that’s not going to go well. They’re straight and they’re in their wheelhouse as hitters. Learning to get the ball down.” For right now, he’s enjoying the process, and he’s enjoying being a part of this year’s Cedar Rapids Kernels team. “I would say probably 85 or 90 percent of this team is last year’s E-Town team. Aside from the returners in (Zack) Larson and (Zach) Granite. (Max) Murphy was there. Gonsalves was in E-Town. We’ve got a lot of guys that are really close together, and it’s a great group of guys, and there’s a lot of talent here too.” Booser has gone from a relative unknown, signed as an undrafted free agent, to one of the more intriguing pitching prospects in the entire Twins system. He’s got a big fastball, a humility to know that he has a lot to learn, and a willingness to work very hard to get there. Hopefully he will be able to stay healthy, and if so, he will have a chance to move up quickly. View full article

He'll have to wait until tomorrow as the Red Wings game tonight has been postponed.

I think Kepler plays all over. He can play all three outfield positions and first base, so he can play 5 out of 6 days and not play the same position. That allows the Harrison, Buxton, Walker, Hicks, Gonzales group to all play about 5 out of 6 days too.

and also by the guys who are highly-rated, so it's generally been a good start! Rogers, Duffey, Berrios, Dean, Baxendale, Gonsalves, Eades... the list goes on and on.

Those would also be non-good numbers and hurt future success... Like those three, we always hope that they will make the adjustments and all four are talented enough to do that.

I'm not worried about the One Walk as much as I'm concerned about 15 strikeouts in 35 plate appearances. And, I'm not really worried about that small sample... but to be successful, he'll likely have to be below 30% K rate. It's at 43% right now. Again, small sample, but we all know that's the one number that probably matters most to his development.

The home runs are certainly encouraging, as is the .303 batting average. That said, the 1 walk to 15 strikeouts in 35 plate appearances continues to create cause for concern. He's just so strong.

He is at Extended Spring Training. I believe he was listed as being on the DL through parts of spring training. So, could be working to get to 100%

Not based on two starts, cuz that's silly, but I agree with this thought. His track to the big leagues is as a reliever. That said, there's value in extending him because he'd be a long man in the big leagues.

There were a couple of really rough starting pitching performances on this night, but there was one that was very good. One of the prolific power hitters in the Twins farm system went deep a couple of times. On Saturday, there were five Twins minor league games. In a bit of a riddle, all four affiliates lost on Saturday, although they went 1-4 on the day. Read below for the scores and highlights from today’s action.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 3, Pawtucket 13 Box Score It was a rough game for the Red Wings on Saturday afternoon in Rhode Island. Baseball America ranked Pawtucket team as the most talented minor league team in baseball. On this day, they were certainly very good. Mark Hamburger made the start for the Red Wings. He gave up three runs through the first four innings. He began the fifth with two runners on base before he was replaced by Stephen Pryor. The reliever allowed both of his inherited runners to score on a three-run homer. Pryor began the sixth inning by allowing a walk and another home run. After a walk and a single, Pryor gave up a third home run and the game was well out of reach. Lester Oliveros got the team out of the sixth inning. Ryan O’Rourke came on for the seventh. He issued a leadoff walk but got the next two batters out. Two runs scored on back-to-back doubles. The Red Wings got creative in the eighth inning, bringing in first baseman Brock Peterson to pitch. He got a strikeout and a walk before giving up a single and a walk. However, he got a ground ball back to himself to end the inning. The Red Wings managed just six hits in the game. Eric Fryer had two of them. Jose Martinez had an extra base hit, his second double. Brock Peterson hit his second home run of the season. Infielder Nate Hanson was activated from the disabled list and got two at-bats in his season debut. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Game 1 – Chattanooga 5, Birmingham 11 Box Score Not the way that the Lookouts wanted to start their doubleheader. Minor league Rule 5 pick Greg Peavey made his second start of the season. It didn’t go well. He was charged with 11 runs (10 earned) on 13 hits in just 2.2 innings. He was replaced by Adrian Salcedo who was able to restore order. Salcedo went the next 3.1 innings without allowing any more runs. He gave up two hits, walked one and struck out two. Dallas Gallant pitched a scoreless seventh inning. Adam Brett Walker had a big game. He went 2-4 and hit his third and fourth home runs of the season. Miguel Sano went 2-2 with two walks. Travis Harrison went 2-4 with two doubles. He now has four doubles on the season. Game 2 – Chattanooga 1, Birmingham 0 Box Score The Lookouts took an early lead in the bottom of the first inning of Game 2. Jorge Polanco and Dalton Hicks singled, and with two outs Travis Harrison singled in Polanco to give the Lookouts a 1-0 lead. That was all the run support that DJ Baxendale would need. The right-hander gave up just three hits over six shutout innings. He walked three, but he also struck out eight. He left a 1-0 lead to Zack Jones who gave up a leadoff single, but then retired the next three batters, two of them on strikeouts, to record his second save. Baxendale improved to 2-0 and maintained his 0.00 ERA. He now has 12 strikeouts in 12.1 scoreless innings. Dalton Hicks went 2-4, half of the Lookouts hits in the game. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 5, St. Lucie 7 Box Score Ethan Mildren made the start for the Miracle. He was charged with five runs (4 earned) on six hits in 4.1 innings. He left the game having allowed three runs. However, he left the game in the fifth inning with two runners on. Alex Muren came on and served up a three-run homer. He retired the next five batters that he faced. Brian Gilbert gave up a run on two hits and two walks in two innings. He struck out two. Madison Boer struck out three in a scoreless ninth inning. Max Kepler went 2-4 with a walk and a double. Alex Swim went 2-4 with a walk. Marcus Knecht went 1-2 with three walks. For the second straight game, Jason Kanzler homered. The Miracle are now 4-6 on the season. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 3, Burlington 4 Box Score After six games at home, the Kernels made the first of three commuter trips to Burlington. It was a close game throughout, but the Kernels fell 4-3. Michael Cederoth was charged with four runs on six hits over six innings. He walked two and struck out six. He struggled early, giving up three runs in the first two innings, but he settled down well after that. Randy LeBlanc came on and threw two scoreless innings. He gave up two hits, walked none and struck out one. The Kernels had six hits in the game, two of them were off the bat of T.J. White. Tanner Vavra hit his second double and the Kernels cut the Bees lead to 3-2 in the third inning when he hit a two-run single. Tanner English drove in the other run with a sacrifice fly. The Kernels are now 7-3 this year. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – DJ Baxendale, Chattanooga Lookouts Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Adam Brett Walker, Chattanooga Lookouts SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Pawtucket (12:05 CST) – LHP Pat Dean Birmingham @ Chattanooga (1:15 CST) – RHP Alex Wimmers St. Lucie @ Ft. Myers (3:05 CST) – RHP Ryan Eades Cedar Rapids @ Burlington (2:00 CST) – RHP Felix Jorge Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Saturday games. Click here to view the article

Just don't expect perfection. That's the key. They all need to adjust. As you said, some will, some won't. Reed and Burdi will be just fine when they throw strikes. Sano and Buxton will be just fine. It is a big step...

Power and pitching have a way of getting noticed, in the big leagues or in the minor leagues, or frankly any level of organized baseball. On Friday night in the Minnesota Twins minor leagues, there were some big home runs (to go with Trevor Plouffe’s extra-innings, walk-off blast), but there were a couple of very strong pitching performances as well. Continue reading to find out all of the details about Friday night in the Twins farm system.RED WINGS REPORT Rochester 4, Pawtucket 6 Box Score It was a matchup of left-handers in Pawtucket on Friday night. The Red Wings sent Jason Wheeler to the mound to face Paw Sox top pitching prospect Henry Owens. The Red Wings’ bats were able to touch up Owens for four runs on three hits and six walks in just 4.2 innings. On the other side, Wheeler gave up two runs on five hits and two walks in five innings. He struck out four. Lester Oliveros came on and gave up one run, while striking out two, in his inning. AJ Achter was charged with two runs on two hits and a walk in his inning. Michael Tonkin gave up a solo home run in the eighth inning. The big hit off of Owens was a grand slam by Eddie Rosario. It was his first AAA home run. Doug Bernier had two hits. Reynaldo Rodriguez and a single and walked once. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 4, Birmingham 6 Box Score After being rained out on Thursday, JO Berrios finally made his second start of the season on Friday night. The good news? He struck out nine batters. However, he went just 4.2 innings and gave up three runs on eight hits, three walks and a hit batter. He needed 107 pitches and just 60 of them were strikes. Jake Reed came on and was charged with one run on two hits in 1.1 innings. Nick Burdi went the next two innings and was charged with an unearned run on one hit and one walk. He struck out two. DJ Johnson gave up a run on three hits in the ninth inning. In the third inning, Miguel Sano came up with the bases loaded and launched his second home run of the year. The grand slam gave the Lookouts a 4-2 lead at the time. However, the Lookouts had only six hits. Levi Michael and Jorge Polanco each had a single and a walk in the game. The Lookouts defense did not help the cause either. They totaled four errors, two of them were throws by Miguel Sano. The Lookouts are now 5-2. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 7, St. Lucie 0 Box Score On Thursday, Jason Kanzler had a bunt single to end his 0-23 start to the season. As you would expect, he busted out in style on Friday night. In his first at-bat, he gave the Miracle a 2-0 lead with a long, two-run homer. He added a double later in the game as well. His game ended a little early though. In the 6th inning, the Miracle started with a single, an error and a walk to load the bases. After two strikeouts, Jason Kanzler came to the plate. He went around on a check swing. At least, that’s what the home plate ump said, and called. Kanzler objected vehemently and was immediately ejected. Chad Christensen was called on to replace him, and he singled to right to score two more runs. Another run scored on a balk and the Miracle had a three-run sixth inning. The Miracle added another run in the 7th inning to give them their seventh run. Of course, an even more important story for the team occurred on the mound. Chih-Wei Hu started and threw seven shutout innings. He gave up just two hits, walked one and struck out ten for the Win. He had a three-ball count just twice in the game. Tim Shibuya and JT Chargois each threw a scoreless inning to complete the shutout. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 5, Peoria 1 Box Score It may not show from the final score, but this was quite the pitcher’s duel through most of the game. The Kernels were able to break their losing streak thanks to a big eighth inning. Lefty Stephen Gonsalves got a no-decision, but he pitched very well. He gave up one run on five hits and a walk in his seven innings. He recorded ten strikeouts. Through his first two starts, he has given up two runs on ten hits in 13 innings. He has just one walk allowed and has struck out 19 batters. (I was a guest on the Talk 2 Contact podcast this week and predicted Gonsalves as the Minor League Pitcher of the Year in 2015. Hear who the others predicted for their minor league pitcher and hitter of the year.) Gonsalves was replaced by Zach Tillery who pitched two scoreless innings in relief to improve to 2-0 on the season. Max Murphy led the offense. He went 3-4 in the game. Tyler Kuresa had a 2-4 night. However, the big hit came from a guy who was getting a night off. Trey Vavra came up with two runners on base in the eighth inning of a tie game. He launched his second home run of the season, a three-run blast to give the Kernels a 5-1 lead. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Chih-Wei Hu, Ft. Myers Miracle Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Trey Vavra, Cedar Rapids Kernels SATURDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Pawtucket (12:05 CST) – RHP Mark Hamburger Birmingham @ Chattanooga (5:15 CST) – RHP Greg Peavey St. Lucie @ Ft. Myers (5:05 CST) – RHP Ethan Mildren Cedar Rapids @ Burlington (6:30 CST) – RHP Michael Cederoth Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Friday games. Click here to view the article

The Adopt-A-Prospect 2015 is now open... Take a player or two... If you haven't already, be sure to get your initial profiles now if you haven't already...

Update: WxMan17 - DJ Baxendale SD Buhr - James Beresford curt1965 - JO Berrios Steve Lein - Nick Burdi Hrbowski - Byron Buxton 2wins87 - Michael Cederoth Peanutsfromheaven - JT Chargois JunkWaxTwins - Ryan Eades Jeff Reboulet - Tanner English ashburyjohn - JJ Fernandez tyomoth - Mitch Garver MinnFan4Life - Stephen Gonsalves lightfoot789 - Niko Goodrum RollingOaks - Nick Gordon gunnarthor - Travis Harrison curt1965 - Aaron Hicks nicksaviking - Dalton Hicks JaleelWhiteFanClub - Chih-Wei Hu Hrbowski - Zack Jones ashburyjohn - Felix Jorge blue chipper - Max Kepler Jeff Reboulet - Yorman Landa Joe Mulligan - Zack Larson James - Brett Lee Joe Mulligan - Trevor May markos - Alex Meyer teekz - Levi Michael AM. - Amaurys Minier TJG - Max Murphy Shane Wahl - Brian Navarreto scottz - Greg Peavey TheDean - Brandon Peterson milldaddy35 - Jorge Polanco Bill Tanner - Jake Reed bulldozier14 - Eddie Rosario Shane Wahl - Adrian Salcedo nytwinsfan - Miguel Sano Dance with Disco Dan - Kohl Stewart Stringer Bell - Alex Swim nate10s - Stuart Turner Shane Wahl - Adam Brett Walker always 33 - Luke Westphal Secondary User - Jason Wheeler

Haha!! Fair point!

For what it's worth, the Twins Low A affiliate had 5 cameras to get video from each game. The Oakland A's Low A affiliate had 0 cameras (that I saw) at the games. A little perspective is important.

That's my fault. I added the team name for the players of the day. I don't know why I put "Theo" with Chattanooga. I chatted with him in Cedar Rapids like 3 days ago. I'm not the smartest person ya'll will ever meet.

Earlier this week, I enjoyed the three-game, home-opening series in Cedar Rapids. It’s always enjoyable to watch the young players develop and see their improvement and success going forward. On Monday afternoon, I was able to enjoy a twenty-minute one-on-one interview with Kernels manager Jake Mauer. We discussed many topics (and some will be written in future articles), but today, here are some of his thoughts on advanced statistics, shifts, platoons and more.When I got to Perfect Game Field at Veteran’s Memorial Stadium on Sunday, hours before the Kernels home opener, I went to the press box and overlooked the field. The grass was perfectly green. The lines were chalked. The gigantic scoreboard in right centerfield looked amazing. The Kernels players were down the right field line, and the Kernels coaches were near the dugout, fungoes in hand, clearly eager to start their new season. I went down to the field and was greeted by the manager Jake Mauer and hitting coach Tommy Watkins. I recognized the Kernels’ new pitching coach, Henry Bonilla. However, there was another young man in uniform, holding a fungo and fitting in with the coaches. I asked Tommy Watkins who it was. He replied, “That’s Chris Glynn, Gene’s son. He’s going to be interning with us this summer. He’ll be in charge of video, but he also wanted to help hit fungoes and is willing to throw some batting practice.” The Low-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins had never really had a person responsible for video. From time to time, you would see one of the starting pitchers in the stands taking video of the team’s hitters or the pitcher, but it wasn’t really a formal process. Talking with Chris following one of the Kernels games, he said he loves what he’s doing. For that game, he had to upload and sync five cameras. He did the video for the Rochester Red Wings a year ago. He played college baseball and loves that he can stay in the game and be a valuable part of the team and the players’ development. He just enjoys being at the ballpark every day. He said that the players are already taking advantage of the video. That the Twins were encouraging it, even at their lowest full-season affiliate was encouraging. I thought I would ask Mauer about video but also about how the team is using other advanced statistics and methods. Regarding how Mauer envisions his players utilizing the video, he said, “We’re going to try to monitor it a little bit. You don’t want guys in there just looking at their home runs. Also, you don’t want guys to get overloaded with info or they turn robotic. You still have to go out and play. It’s a useful tool where we can look at different things and look at tendencies and be able to make adjustments.” The use of defensive shifts has overtaken major league baseball. However, Mauer said that you won’t see much of it with the Kernels, and for good reasons. “We’ll move guys somewhat. We don’t throw the ball where we want to enough to do an all-out shift. You do it to a point, but nothing to the point you would see a big league club do.” That fact was on display on Tuesday night. Left-handed hitting Zach Granite came to bat for the Kernels. For some reason, the Beloit Snappers – now an affiliate of the Oakland A’s – had the third baseman playing up to protect against a possible bunt, but then they had the shortstop play right behind second base. That led to a huge opening on the left-side of the infield. First, Granite typically uses the whole field. As important, and to Mauer’s point, all four pitches in the at-bat were on or off the outside corner. As you would expect, Granite lined a single to left field, right about where the shortstop would normally position himself. In the Midwest League, there typically will not be much advanced scouting and the sample size used for shifting is very small. However, I think that Mauer’s point about the pitchers not always having the control to pitch to the shift is the bigger issue. What about platoons? How much will matchups come into play at this level? “It depends on the guy. It depends on the situation,” Mauer said, “Rookie ball, here, even Ft. Myers, they’re still so young. They’ve got to get at-bats. They’ve got to get experience. You’re not going to worry about matchups. Nick Gordon is going to play pretty much whether it’s a left-handed or right-handed starter. We’re not going to worry about it. Zach Granite the same way. We hit two lefties first and second. They’re going to bring a lefty in. That’s fine, but they’re going to have to see lefties. They’re going to have to play and get that experience.” In talking with both Jake Mauer and Tommy Watkins, they are all ears when it comes to statistical analysis, video and the like. There’s a sense that it is there and we want to use every piece of information that we can. However, there is a line there. How do you translate all the data? How much is too much. The key is not getting overwhelmed by it all. “We’re exposed to a lot more statistical information. Video and things that we have access to that we never did, even in AA, AAA, we didn’t have it. It’s starting to work its way down which I think is good too because a lot of these guys get exposed to it here. There’s a right and a wrong way to look at it. You can get overwhelmed by the information. You can look at it, but it’s not necessarily a Bible. It’s a tendency. Sometimes these young guys take it as a Bible. They go out there. This guy throws 60% breaking ball and he’s throwing all fastballs“ That’s where Glen Perkins and his dream-job-of-the-future (shaping statistical analysis to help players) comes in, right? It is encouraging to see that these things are being discussed and some are being implemented even at the Low-A level. Click here to view the article

Correct... it's two starts in a league that he did have some success in last year, so it's way too early to give up on him as a starter.

I agree... but Mauer fully understands that at that level, pitchers need to work in such situations to find out how to get out of situations... It's all part of the development process and important.

Mark Hendrickson is the oldest at 28 years old... although, he did spend a few seasons in the NBA before turning to baseball full time.