Seth Stohs

Reminder, you can now adopt prospects at will. Just jot down here which players you have adopted. We'd love to have every minor leaguer have his own forum so that we can post updates. For instance, Trey Vavra hasn't been picked up. He was hitting .372 with a (1.098 OPS) coming into today. He had 7 hits over the last two games. That should be somewhwere. I'd love to see a page for everyone. Keep adopting!

They are both really hard workers and really good baseball players, very knowledgeable of the game.

Trey Vavra got the day off on Monday. On Tuesday, he went 3-5 including a big three-run homer that jump-started a big offensive game for the Cedar Rapids Kernels. On Wednesday night in Wisconsin, Vavra went 4-4 in the Kernels win. As you’re reading this, he is hitting a robust .372 with seven extra base hits in his 11 games. Trey Vavra is the son of Minnesota Twins bench coach Joe Vavra and the younger brother of Ft. Myers infielder Tanner Vavra. You’ll find out below that his family support is very important to his development.It has been a long and winding road to professional baseball for Vavra. It’s been a good story to this point since he signed with the Twins after being their 33rd round draft pick in 2014. Treysen Vavra was born about a month before the Minnesota Twins won the World Series in 1991 and grew up in Menomonie, Wisconsin. He played baseball and hockey growing up. In fact, he was leaning toward playing hockey rather than baseball after high school. “All through the summer, I was deciding whether I was going to play hockey or baseball,” Trey said, “I decided I was going to play hockey. I had a whole bunch of Juniors teams that I had the opportunity to go play for. I had it all lined up to go to Alaska to play. That was kind of the route I was looking to go to. Then Tanner got red-shirted, so I decided I’d go play baseball. Tanner was playing at Madison Area Technical College. They had been teammates in hockey, but the two had not been teammates often in their youth baseball. So it was a good opportunity for both of them. “For hockey, we were teammates all the way up. Two years in a row, I got to play on varsity with him. For baseball, I was a sophomore. He was a senior. I just got called up for playoffs, so not much there. Obviously I was the little brother tagging along. If someone didn’t show up, I’d play outfield, but that’s when we were little.” Trey Vavra played in two NJCAA World Series at Madison, finishing third (with Tanner) and then fourth. Both years, he was named the Most Outstanding Defensive Player and to the All-Tournament team. Following his two years of junior college, Vavra accepted a full-ride scholarship to Division I Eastern Illinois. He played every game and hit well. In fact, he was named the team’s MVP. However, he wasn’t drafted. The school proved not to be a great situation for him on the baseball field. A straight-A student, there were also academic reasons that he decided to transfer following that school year. During his summers, he played in the Northwoods League, for the Duluth Huskies. “It was awesome. I got to stay at my aunt in Superior. That was incredible. Obviously she is a huge supporter of me.” Four of his teammates were playing at Florida Southern, a Division II school in Lakeland, Florida. That’s where Vavra decided to spend his final year of baseball eligibility. The school also gave him the opportunity to graduate with a degree that year. He explained, “I went to Eastern Illinois. I was under the impression that I could get out of school in two years because I was a straight-A student. First academic meeting, I learned that was not the case. I lost most of my credits when I transferred there,” He continued. “So then I went to Florida Southern and I got all those credits back. If you get A’s in all your credits, they transfer universally. I didn’t know that at the time.” Vavra graduated a year ago with a degree in Business Administration. The Florida Southern decision was also good for Vavra on the baseball field. The head coach for Florida Southern is former big leaguer Lance Niekro, the son of former Twins pitcher, Joe Niekro, and the nephew of Hall of Fame pitcher Phil Niekro. Lance Niekro spent parts of four seasons with the San Francisco Giants and is still just 36 years old. Vavra recalls, “Phil was at all of our games, all of our home games.” But it wasn’t just the Niekro family that sat in the stands of Florida Southern games. “One of the assistant coaches was Colin Kaline. Al Kaline is his grandpa. The Tigers are right there in Lakeland. He came to all of our games. Charley Manuel came out to scout most of us for the Phillies. We had all of those guys there. ” Vavra played well. He led the conference in most offensive categories including hits, doubles and home runs. He began to hear from a lot of scouts early in the season. When draft day came in June of 2014, he wasn’t sure where he would go or when. Was he expecting to still be there when the Twins picked in the 33rd round? “No! They projected me to go anywhere from 15 to 20, somewhere in there. As a senior, I kind of expected to go around the 20th round. It didn’t work out.” Though his dad and brother were in the Twins organization, he wasn’t necessarily expecting to be taken by the Twins. “I actually didn’t talk to the Twins nearly as much as the other teams. After those rounds passed, I was just looking to get picked so that I could keep playing and didn’t have the Indy ball route. I just wanted to keep playing and very thankful that the Twins picked me up.” Trey Vavra signed quickly and was assigned to the Elizabethton Twins. He adjusted well to pro ball and had a terrific season with the E-Twins. In 50 games, he hit .319/.392/.454 (.846) with 20 doubles and a home run. It was important for him to succeed right away and know that he belonged. He said, “Everyone is a top-tier player. For me, as a 33rd round pick, I was trying to just fit in, rather than be The Man at first. At this level, everyone is the same. Once you’re drafted, it’s what you do with your opportunity. That’s the biggest thing I had to overcome, just to go out there and play.” He was able to learn under the tutelage of the veteran coaching staff at Elizabethton. Manager Ray Smith was in his 28th season on the Elizabethton coaching staff, 21 of them as manager. Hitting Coach Jeff Reed was in his 13th season as the Elizabethton hitting coach. Vavra had not met either of the former big leaguers previously, but he said he learned a tremendous amount from each. “Those are two great coaches to start out with. Jeff was out there every day working with me. I couldn’t thank him enough. We got into a routine, and he helped me not just hit the ball the other way, or hit the ball pull side, but drive the ball. He told me to not get some complacent hitting singles, but drive the ball.” Vavra has played several positions defensively. In college, he mainly played first base and third base and also got some time in the outfield. With Elizabethton, he played first base and left field. He knows that being able to play different positions will be important to his playing career. Following the Elizabethton season, he was invited to the Twins Florida Instructional League where he added another position to his resume. “I played 3B and 1B in college, spotty outfielder once in a while. I’d never caught before, in a game, before Instructs. That’s kind of the new project. I don’t really care as long as I get to hit.” In fact, he believes that his defensive versatility helps him on the offensive side of the game, especially on the bases. “Playing out there, playing all the different positions, it helps me offensively too. What they’re doing. How they’re playing me. What’s a tough throw for the left fielder if he’s going to the gap? Be more aggressive on the base paths.” Hitting is what Trey Vavra likes to do the most. How does he describe himself as a hitter? “That’s my thing, is to stay in the gaps. I’ve been taught that all the way up. Work off the other side. If the guy comes up, you can pull the hands. I just try to stay the other way, drive the ball the other way, up the middle, left-center. If the guy tries to run one in on me, I can still react in.” THE VAVRA FAMILY Treysen Vavra is the middle child of Joe and Lesa Vavra. Tanner is the eldest son, currently an infielder with the Miracle. Terrin is the youngest, a senior in high school who, as one might expect, is quite a baseball player. As you know, Joe has held several jobs within the Twins organization including third base coach and hitting coach of the big league club before being named the team’s bench coach by manager Paul Molitor. Lesa Vavra has been a huge influence on her boys and their paths. She did it all for the family. According to Trey, “Mom was the taxi. She’s the rock, for sure. My dad’s gone pretty much nine months out of the year. She always keeps us positive. It’s crazy how much she’s done for us. She keeps all of our schedules straight. When I was in college, she had her iPad watching me in college, listening to Tanner’s game and watching Terrin’s game. Or vice versa. In high school, we all played three sports, so she led all of our stuff for that.” He continued, “My mom was our hitting coach when he’s (Dad) not there. It’s kind of funny. She’s the one getting all the phone calls and then he gets the fun ones. When we played well, we called him.” Joe was always a good ear for the boys, but he has also let them be themselves. “The one thing I would say, from him, is he always says ‘Hit the ball hard. Drive the ball.’ That always stuck with me. If you’re struggling, it’s real easy to just flip the balls and get your hits rather than drive the ball hitting line drives. Nothing mechanical with him. He doesn’t talk to us any about mechanics because he’s not here. It’s just ‘Be on time and go out there and drive the ball.’” It is also very clear that Trey really looks up to and admires his older brother, Tanner. “In terms of what he’s done for me, talk about a story of never letting anything get in your way. Talk about a worker. He set the tempo for how to act as a professional for me. Not even as a professional, but as a college player, and how you work. Like I said, I was going to play hockey so I went the route to go ‘play’ baseball. He was like ‘No, you don’t just play. You’ve got to work at it.’ That’s helped me a lot. I can’t say enough good things about him.” Likewise, Tanner is very proud of Trey. “Trey is a great kid, and a great brother. He's a good person and a good ball player. Off the field he is a simple guy. He will probably be fishing with Max Murphy and never has given anyone problems. On the field, he is simply going to give his best every play and going to try to find a way to win. He is a competitor and a good teammate. They don't come much better than him.” Regarding their youngest brother, Terrin, Trey beams with pride. “He’s the best of the three of us. What hurts him is he’s in the middle of nowhere in Wisconsin. Exposure-wise, it’s tough. He’s got a dozen-and-a-half D1 offers right now. He throws 90 off the mound in high school, plays short, bats left-handed. He’s going to find a spot somewhere.” LOOKING FORWARD Trey Vavra is off to a terrific start with the Cedar Rapids Kernels. Through his first 11 games, he has hit .372/.400/.698 (1.098) with three doubles, a triple, three home runs and 11 RBI. If there were a Player of the Half-Month of April, he would likely be the front-runner. His hitting coach this year with the Kernels, Tommy Watkins, is really impressed with Vavra and his approach at the plate. “Vavra has an idea. He’s a baseball guy, been around the game. He knows how to handle the bat. He’s very easy to work with. He has a plan. For him, it’s just fine-tuning.” Vavra doesn’t like to make statistical goals for his season. “I try not to put any numbers out there because you can either trap yourself getting to that number or if you pass that number. So I’m just trying to stay on the path that I was on last year and continue to drive the ball. Obviously we want to win the whole thing. It’s pretty early, but we’ve got a good group of guys. Hopefully we can keep winning.” On the current Cedar Rapids Kernels’ roster, you will find that 17 players were drafted in 2014. “A lot of these guys are from E-Town last year, and we played together in the playoffs with them. You know what guys can do and what guys can’t do. You start playing off that. You have guys from last year’s team like (Zach) Granite and (Zack) Larson. Larson is our middle of the lineup guy. Granite’s a guy that’s going to steal a lot of bags and get on base and create some havoc out there. I’m pretty excited about it.” He concluded by saying, “That’s what we have to do, just go out there and stay on the path, try not to get to up or too down.” It’s early, but there have already been a lot of “ups” in Trey Vavra’s professional career. Hopefully he’ll continue to take professional at-bats, drive the ball and then make adjustments. That’s the key for every ballplayer, whether a first round pick, or a 33rd round pick. He’s on a good team with close teammates and coaches who are very supportive and encouraging. As you read above, he also has some very strong family support. He’s certainly a player that Twins fans can cheer for. Click here to view the article

Corrected.

It might be made up, but every time I've been excited about the prospects at certain levels and thought it would automatically make that team a winner, I've been wrong. If Buxton and Sano were hitting as they hopefully will, I think that this team will win more and more. I don't think there is a direct correlation between prospects on a roster and winning percentage.

Very kind of you to say. thank you!

Teams full of prospects rarely win in their leagues. They're very talented, but teams that play more veteran-types are the teams the often win games. That said, I fully expect this team and their talent, to make some adjustments and start putting up more numbers.

At some point, yes. I'm not there yet, but it is a fair question at this point.

At some point, I think you just go to Aaron HIcks. If they're convinced that he isn't the guy, I'd advocate a trade for someone like Drew Stubbs of the Rockies. He's a gold-glove caliber centerfielder, right-handed, a ton of power and speed, and strikes out a ton... He's making almost $6 million this year and the Rockies are hardly playing the 30-year-old. It's too much for what he brings, but the defense would be a good thing. And hey, they have the $6 million thanks to the Santana suspension. I'd still probably advocate for Hicks, even though he's not doing much offensively... unless you could get Stubbs (or someone like him) without giving up much in terms of prospects.

Three teams struggled to do anything on offense on Tuesday, but the Cedar Rapids Kernels remained hot and picked up another big win… in the snow in Wisconsin. The Red Wings played two games, each started by a pitcher from the University of Kentucky. Both pitched very well. One big streak came to an end for a Lookouts pitcher. It was a full schedule and more in the Twins farm system. Read all about it below.RED WINGS REPORT Game 1 – Rochester 0, Syracuse 1 Box Score There is no way around it. Alex Meyer really struggled in his first two starts, primarily with his control. His third start was supposed to be on Monday night, but rain postponed it until Tuesday afternoon as part of a doubleheader. Meyer struggled early. Over the first two innings, just 12 of his 25 pitches were strikes, and yet he did not allow a run. In fact, he did not allow a single run over his six innings. He gave up just two hits. He walked three and struck out a career-high 11 batters. Of his 96 pitches, 55 of them were strikes (57.3%). However, the Red Wings bats were unable to do much against Syracuse starter A.J. Cole, who threw six shutout innings. Former Twins draft pick Evan Meek tossed a scoreless seventh. The Red Wings managed just six hits in the game (double what Syracuse had). Reynaldo Rodriguez went 2-3 with his second double of the season. A.J. Achter came on in the bottom of the 7th and threw just one pitch. It was a strike, and third baseman Jason Martinson ended the first game with a solo home run. Game 2 – Rochester 2, Syracuse 0 Box Score Meyer’s former college teammate at Kentucky, Taylor Rogers, was summoned to make the Game 2 start. The lefty was very good again. He too worked six scoreless innings for the Red Wings. He gave up just four hits, walked one, hit one and struck out six. 62 of his 90 pitches were strikes (68.9%). Michael Tonkin came on for the ninth to protect a two-run lead. He walked one batter but got through the inning unscathed to record his fourth save of the year. As they did in the first game, the Red Wings had six hits. Aaron Hicks was 1-2 with a walk. Doug Bernier added a double. The two RBI came in the third innings on RBI singles from Argenis Diaz and Eddie Rosario. The split keeps the Red Wings at .500 on the season, at 6-6. CHATTANOOGA CHATTER Chattanooga 1, Mississippi 4 Box Score Tyler Duffey started this game with three shutout innings. That gave him a career-high 16.2 scoreless innings. However, he gave up a single run each of the next four innings. In totally, he was charged with four runs on eight hits and two walks in seven innings. He struck out two. Nick Burdi came on for the eighth inning. He got the first two batters out. He then gave up two hits and a walk before ending the inning with a strikeout. Unfortunately, the Lookouts were not able to do anything on offense. They had just two hits, doubles by Miguel Sano and Carlos Paulino. Dalton Hicks and Byron Buxton each walked twice. The Lookouts are now have a 6-5 record. MIRACLE MATTERS Ft. Myers 0, Palm Beach 4 Box Score Kohl Stewart made his third start of the year. Through six innings, he had allowed just two runs. However, he was charged with two more runs in the 7th inning. His full line reads, four runs on six hits and two walks in 6.1 innings. He struck out two. Brian Gilbert came on to get the final two outs of the seventh frame and then pitched a scoreless eighth inning. The Miracle had seven hits and six walks in the game. Logan Wade went 3-4. Marcus Knecht was 1-3 with a walk. Aderlin Mejia walked twice. The Miracle drop to 5-8 on the season. KERNELS NUGGETS Cedar Rapids 10, Wisconsin 1 Box Score Despite playing in sub-40 degree temperatures, the Kernels bats were hot in this game. With no score in the top of the third, Trey Vavra came to the plate with two on and belted his third home run of the year. The three-run blast was his third home run of the season. The Kernels added a single run in the sixth inning when a Brian Navarreto sacrifice fly scored T.J. White, who had doubled. In the seventh inning Zach Granite doubled and later scored on a Zack Larson single. Larson scored on a Trey Vavra triple, and Vavra scored on a TJ White single. When Nick Gordon singled in a run in the 8th inning, it gave the Kernels an 8-1 lead and also meant that all nine Kernels starters had at least one hit in the game. A Max Murphy RBI groundout followed by an RBI single off the bat of Vavra, and the Kernels had a 10-1 lead. Vavra led the offense, going 3-5 with a triple, a home run and five RBI. Larson went 3-4 with a walk. T.J .White was 2-5 with his third double. Zach Granite hit his fourth double and stole his fourth base. Of course, pitching is still a very important part of the team, and on this night the Kernels got another strong start from lefty Mat Batts. In 6.2 innings, he gave up one run on three hits. He walked one and struck out six. He left the game with two outs in the seventh and no runs allowed. Right-hander Miles Nordgren came on and hit a batter and gave up an RBI single before getting the final out of the inning. He pitched scoreless eighth and ninth innings to finish it out. And as the game finished, the temperatures were in the low-30s, and there was a wintry mix of snow, rain and sleet blowing horizontally. With the win, the Kernels improve to 9-4 on the season. TWINS DAILY PLAYERS OF THE DAY Twins Daily Minor League Pitcher of the Day – Taylor Rogers, Rochester Red Wings Twins Daily Minor League Hitter of the Day – Trey Vavra, Cedar Rapids Kernels SUNDAY’S PROBABLE STARTERS Rochester @ Syracuse (12:05 CST) – LHP Jason Wheeler Chattanooga @Mississippi (11:00 am CST) – RHP JO Berrios Ft. Myers @ Palm Beach (5:35 CST) – RHP Aaron Slegers Cedar Rapids @ Wisconsin (6:35 CST) – RHP Zach Tillery Please feel free to ask any questions and discuss the Tuesday games. Click here to view the article

And Poulson fits that Who Cares What Age He Is category too. It's about getting them ready when they're ready. Its not about letting age dictate where they should be. Arms are too important.

Jeremy might have some better insight into this, what the scouts saw, etc... However, if you look at the Twins drafts in recent years, they have gone for velocity. They definitely do not seem to look at stats in the college level much. You'll see them drafting guys that threw 45 innings, walked 32 and struck out 60 with a 6.48 ERA (making up numbers). Mechanics (sometimes) can be taught, but you can't teach velocity. I'm guessing they saw a guy in Booser who did throw hard, left-handed and you take a chance.

I agree with this. I think the most important thing is for him to get through a complete season healthy and then enjoy a regular offseason program rather than rehab and such.

I'll disagree with this as well. He had a solid season in Ft. Myers last year (or 2/3 of a season due to injury), and he had a terrific AFL season (better than Rosario)... It's good to have him up there. He was only in FM to start the season because he got hurt late in Spring Training so they wanted to ease him back a bit.

I believe that if or when the Miracle need an outfielder, he would be the first called up. He would be there now if not for being hurt the majority of last year. They really talk about, and you can see it when you watch him, his professional at bats. He takes a lot of pitches, doesn't expand the zone, but when it's a strike, he can hit a bit. Little power, but a ton of speed. Not sure if you read the article I wrote on him about a week ago in Cedar Rapids, but speed and plate discipline are his calling cards.

Like so many, I just don't think Age matters with him. He's pitched so little that they simply have to do what is right for him. As he acknowledges, he's still learning how to pitch. Does it really matter if he gets to the big leagues as a 24 year old or a 26 year old? If he's able to stay healthy and can maintain his upper-90s fastball while improving that slider and changeup, he can be a huge asset out of the bullpen.

I feel like I wrote this somewhere yesterday, but I would imagine that he will play all three OF positions, 1B and DH... He can play 5 out of 6 days and not play the same position. All those guys can get a day off here and there. Harrison and Hicks aren't moving up to AAA at this point, and Harrison and Walker aren't going to Ft. Myers at this poitn. THey'll play them all.

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.