Seth Stohs

Maybe it was because Hall of Famer Rod Carew threw him some batting practice before the game, but third baseman Bryan Haar had one of those special games that players dream about... by the end of the 2nd inning. He went 2-3 with two home runs and seven RBI. The Cedar Rapids Kernels won a 9-5, rain-shortened game at Perfect Game Field on Saturday night. The game had a 31-minute rain delay in the early innings, but after another 30-minute delay in the top of the 7th, the game was called. Three hours later, it’s still raining in Cedar Rapids. Following the game, Haar said that he hadn’t had a game like this in a long time. “It’s been since high school that I hit two home runs in one game.” In the first inning, Zach Granite led off with a solid single up the middle. One pitch later, Engelb Vielma doubled down the right field line. One batter later, Haar came up and launched one. He said, “I got an offspeed pitch the first at-bat, so it went to left center.” In the bottom of the 2nd inning, the Kernels cleanup hitter did just that. With the bases loaded, he had a long at-bat that ended with a long home run to dead center field, just out of the reach of a leaping LumberKings’ center fielder Aaron Barbosa. Haar acknowledged he wasn’t sure if the ball was caught. He said, “I thought he caught it. Oh man, I got nervous for a second.” His approach at the plate with runners on base was certainly sound. He said, “(With) guys in scoring position, I tried to get a pitch up, especially with the wind blowing out tonight. I tried to drive it to the middle of the field.” I don’t know if Bryan Haar is a superstitious, but getting to replicate his pregame from Saturday each day would be great. He told the story: “I was hitting off the tee before the game, and (Rod Carew) had to get loose before the first pitch. He was like, ‘Alright, step in there.’ I took about ten swings off of him, and it was pretty cool. It was a great experience.” For the record, Rod Carew threw a strike to Kernels infielder Tanner Vavra for the game’s First Pitch. Haar was very much knowledgeable of who Rod Carew is and his place in Minnesota Twins history, and in Major League Baseball’s history. It was not the first time he had met the Hall of Famer. (Side Note – Twins Daily was able to interview Carew, and that will be posted here in coming days.) Catcher Bo Altobelli hit his first home run of the season, a solo home run to lead off the 2nd inning. Vielma went 1-2 with a walk and the double was his tenth. Ryan Eades got the start for the Kernels. He had a quick 1-2-3 inning in the first frame. He looked impressive. His fastball sat between 90 and 92 and touched 94 early in the game. He showed a slider at 83, and a changeup at about 82. His curveball was in the low-to-mid 70s. All four of those were quality pitches. He gave up one run in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th innings and then two runs in the fifth inning. He has the pitches, but he seemed to make a bad pitch or two each inning that came back to haunt him. But, he lasted through the first rain delay and then through five innings to record his fifth win. He gave up five runs (4 earned) on seven hits. He walked none, hit one and struck out five. Brandon Bixler worked 1.1 scoreless innings before the rains came. He struck out two. KERNELS NUGGETS I had the opportunity to chat with reliever Todd Van Steensel after the game. He absolutely loves being a closer. His high leg kick is a bit of a timing mechanism for him. However, he will be working on shortening up somewhat when there are runners on base to help against the running game.

It took a little longer than usual to get to Cedar Rapids, but it was worth the travel because we were treated to a terrific game on Friday night. We saw the best start at this level from one of the Twins top pitching prospects and we saw some offense, followed by a tight game at the end. The drive took a little longer because of some scary, torrential rainfall we encountered north of Cedar Rapids. We drove out of it about 20 miles north of Cedar Rapids. When we got to the ballpark, the terrific Kernels grounds crew was putting on the tarp and the rains came. This was at 4:30, and it rained hard for an hour, and yet, due to the work of the grounds crew, the game started on time at 6:35. Lewis Thorpe with his mother, Lynette, after the game. Minutes before the game, I was approached by a kind gentleman who spoke to me with an Australian accent. He introduced himself as Lewis Thorpe’s dad and introduced me to his wife, Lewis’s mom. We had a nice chat. They have been in the States for two weeks and will be here for another week. The couple had intended to fly to Ft. Myers but were forced to change their plans when Lewis was promoted to Cedar Rapids. The Kernels haven’t had a lot of home games of late, so the Thorpes have traveled across the Midwest League. They said they are loyal listeners of the Twins Hangouts podcast and that they listened to it the entire 16-hour flight from Australia to the US. I asked if that was just one episode? They will be around for another week. Thorpe’s mom is really looking forward to celebrating the Fourth of July in the USA. They witnessed their son’s best performance with the Kernels. The line doesn’t look great. Thorpe was charged with three runs on four hits. He walked two and struck out three in 5.1 innings. He got out the first five batters that he faced. Then he gave up a long home run. Starting in the third, he gained control of his curveball and really mixed his three pitches very well. The first strikeout came on a changeup at 82 mph. Then next came on a curveball at 75. The third came on a fastball at 92. Aside from the home run, there wasn’t a lot of hard contract. The second run came when a ground ball took a horrible hop and bounced over the head of first baseman Bo Altobelli. All in all, an impressive showing for the young Australian making his fourth start in the Midwest League. His manager, Jake Mauer, thought he looked much better than he did in his first three starts. “He looked more comfortable than he has, whether it was nerves or trying to fit in or trying to do too much. I thought he trusted his stuff much better tonight. He used his changeup, which is a pretty good pitch. I think he took advantage of their aggressiveness.” His catcher, Alex Swim, agreed, “We got through the lineup once with fastball and changeup, and then we started mixing in curveball/slider. He was on point. Everything was good, sharp.” Thorpe was just happy with a positive result in this start after his first three were rough. “In the first two innings, I wanted to pound the fastball. Then I brought the curveball out in the third inning, and I think that helped me a lot to establish my pitches. Curveball was better. Slider was good, nice and firm down in the strike zone.” He was quick to give credit as well. “It was good. I had a little change in mechanics. (Pitching coach) Ivan (Arteaga) helped me a lot. Everything was working, so it was great.” Thorpe explained that the mechanical change involved his non-throwing arm. The change appears to have increased his velocity and control. According to Arteaga, in his previous starts, his fastball was averaging 89 and touched 90. In this start, he was sitting 92 and touched 94. According to Arteaga, “We actually worked on some stuff the last two weeks, tweaking his mechanics to make sure he can compete. The competition is different than what he has been facing before. The strike zones are tighter, and the hitters are more experienced. He’s an 18 year old kid throwing to kids who are 22, 23, 24. He’s still a work in progress.” He continued, “When he (added his changeup), then he was able to compete and showed everybody what he can do. He’s resilient. He’s smart. He wants to go out and compete, and he really showed today what he’s all about. I’m really happy about that.” Arteaga said he was very pleased with Thorpe’s performance, though he did acknowledge that he will talk to Thorpe about the fact that he threw first-pitch strikes to just eight of the 22 batters he faced. But Mauer hopes this is the start of something bigger for the lefty. “He’s going to be just fine. Hopefully this is something we can continue to build off of.” Arteaga agreed, “I think he did good today. I think he can be better.” Thorpe said that in Extended Spring Training, he was being limited to 65 to 75 pitches. He went over 80 pitches in this game and said it felt good. Though things got interesting late, fellow Australian Todd Van Steensel got the final five outs for his seventh save. Mauer would like to get him more save opportunities. “He’s been really good for us all year. Just trying to get him opportunities when we actually have the lead. He goes out there, and three punch outs. Three of the five outs were strikeouts and we’ll take that any day of the week.” Jon Murphy got the Kernels on the scoreboard in the bottom of the third inning when he launched a solo home run well beyond the fence in left centerfield. In the fourth inning, Chad Christensen singled and advanced to third on a couple wild pitches. He scored on a triple to right center by Jason Kanzler who scored one batter later when Alex Swim singled to left center. In the fifth inning, Bo Altobelli led off with a double. Two outs later, he was on third base and Tanner Vavra drove him in with an infield single. Next, Chad Christensen doubled down the left field line to score the speedy second baseman. He advanced to third on the throw to the plate and then scored the Kernels’ sixth run on a wild pitch. Thorpe was very good. Alex Muren replaced him and was charged with two runs on four hits over two innings. Todd Van Steensel came on and got a strikeout with the bases loaded for the second out of the eight inning. However, on an 0-2 pitch, he threw a 58-foot curveball that got by Alex Swim and cut the Kernels lead to one. One pitch later, he closed out the eighth. He worked a perfect ninth and the Kernels four-game losing streak ended. And for Thorpe, it’s great that his family can be here to see him. “It’s good to have them here. It feels a little bit like home having them here.” KERNELS NUGGETS: I had the chance to catch up with outfielder Zach Granite after the game. The speedster missed over two months with a shoulder injury sustained in the third game of the year. There was an issue with his humerus (which isn’t very funny) and he had shoulder impingement. He told me that he wasn’t able to raise his left (throwing) arm up above his shoulder. He returned to the Kernels recently and said he’s having a blast. He’s still working out some of the rust, but he’s getting there. Mitch Garver is currently on the 7-day disabled list after suffering a concussion. On Thursday, he was catching and the batter foul-tipped a pitch. Garver told me that it hit the facemask squarely, and with enough force that the mask cut his chin and he needed six stitches. He was told that he was on the ground for 60 seconds before getting his bearings. The team immediately took him out. Jake Mauer made the comment earlier that it is a requirement to put him on the disabled list with the concussion. Garver said he is feeling much better and will be able to start working out again on Saturday. Mauer and Garver hope he will need no more than the seven days. Fernando Romero – When we asked Jake Mauer about Fernando Romero, he immediately said that he didn’t think he would pitch again this year. He added that they know he has bone chips in his right elbow, and they suspect it will be more. He is going to travel to Minneapolis and see Dr. John Steubs. He will most certainly have surgery to remove the bone chips, and while in there, the doctor will be able to determine if Tommy John surgery is going to be necessary. Nick Burdi did arrive at the Kernels ballpark on Friday afternoon. Mauer said before the game that he wouldn’t pitch Friday, but there is a chance he could pitch as early as Saturday.

Earlier this week, I looked at the first-half leader board for the Minnesota Twins' minor league hitters. It gave good insight into which players had the best first half, and maybe who we should be looking for in the second half. Today, I'm going to go over the leader boards in a handful of pitcher statistics to take a look at who has been leading the way in the first half. Because with pitchers there are starters and relievers, I had to pick an arbitrary cut-off line for each. Nothing scientific about it, I went with 60 innings pitched for starters and 30 innings pitched for relievers. Just nice, round numbers, but my method cut off a couple of guys who just missed a category. For instance, Red Wings left-hander Aaron Thompson is sitting at 29.2 innings right now. Fair or not, he's not included here. Also, several pitchers spent time both starting and relieving. I went with which category they had more of. For instance, Matt Summers made six starts and has now pitched in 13 games as a reliever, so I counted him among the latter. Tim Shibuya recently was put in the Miracle rotation, but spent most of the first half in the bullpen, so I included him in the relievers. Let's get started with the arbitrary stats that get lots of glory, but as we all know, are dependent on other things: WINS 1.) Yohan Pino - Rochester - 9 2.) JO Berrios - Ft. Myers - 8 2.) Trevor May - Rochester - 8 4.) Sean Gilmartin - New Britain/Rochester - 7 4.) Taylor Rogers - New Britain - 7 4.) Jason Wheeler - Ft. Myers/New Britain - 7 Sure, it's one of 'those' stats, but this is a pretty impressive list of guys who have pitched well this season. SAVES 1.) Lester Oliveros- New Britain - 12 2.) Tyler Jones - Ft. Myers - 9 3.) Hudson Boyd - Cedar Rapids - 6 3.) Todd Van Steensel - Cedar Rapids - 6 3.) Madison Boer - Ft. Myers - 6 Oliveros has pitched great and has now been promoted to Rochester. INNINGS PITCHED 1.) Taylor Rogers - New Britain - 92.1 2.) Jason Wheeler - Ft. Myers/New Britain - 85.1 3.) JO Berrios - Ft. Myers - 83.1 4.) Sean Gilmartin - New Britain/Rochester - 81.0 4.) Pat Dean - New Britain - 81.0 Innings pitched shows that guys are being efficient in their pitches because pitch counts are very closely monitored. It's an underrated stat in that teams are very conscious from year-to-year how many pitches are thrown. To be fair, Trevor May is at 79.2 innings and Tyler Duffey and Kris Johnson are at 79.1 innings. So this is a ranking that could flip-flop from day-to-day depending on who is making a start. ERA (Starters - 60 IP min.) 1.) Yohan Pino - Rochester - 1.92 2.) JO Berrios - Ft. Myers - 2.05 3.) Matt Tomshaw - Ft. Myers - 2.37 4.) Kohl Stewart - Cedar Rapids - 2.53 4.) Jason Wheeler - Ft. Myers/New Britain - 2.53 6.) Kris Johnson - Rochester - 2.72 I added a 6th in this category just because there are so many quality performers. ERA (Relievers - 30 IP min.) 1.) AJ Achter - New Britain/Rochester - 1.47 2.) Brandon Peterson - Cedar Rapids/Ft. Myers - 1.67 3.) Cole Johnson - New Britain - 2.25 4.) Edgar Ibarra - Rochester - 2.36 5.) Tim Shibuya - 2.82 This group has been impressive all season, generally mirroring their career success. WHIP (Starters - 60 IP min.) 1.) Yohan Pino - Rochester - 0.93 2.) JO Berrios - Ft. Myers - 1.06 3.) Matt Tomshaw - Ft. Myers - 1.10 4.) Kohl Stewart - Cedar Rapids - 1.13 4.) Trevor May - Rochester - 1.13 WHIP (Relievers - 30 IP min.) 1.) AJ Achter - Rochester - 0.74 2.) Brandon Peterson - Ft. Myers - 0.96 3.) Cole Johnson - New Britain - 1.00 4.) Tim Shibuya - Ft. Myers - 1.02 4.) Lester Oliveros - New Britain/Rochester - 1.02 I like looking at WHIP, especially for relievers. It's just a look at how many base runners a pitcher has allowed per inning. For a reliever, especially, ERA can be misleading in that you don't consider inherited runners scoring, etc. K/9 (Starters - 60 IP min.) 1.) JO Berrios - Ft. Myers - 10.6 2.) Alex Meyer - Rochester - 10.5 3.) Trevor May - Rochester - 9.2 4.) Yohan Pinto - Rochester - 9.0 5.) Sean Gilmartin - New Britain/Rochester - 8.9 6.) Logan Darnell - Rochester - 8.2 K/9 (Relievers - 30 IP min.) 1.) Brandon Peterson - Cedar Rapids/Ft. Myers - 12.8 2.) Lester Oliveros - New Britain - 10.7 3.) Cole Johnson - New Britain - 10.0 4.) AJ Achter - Rochester - 9.4 5.) Josue Montanez - Cedar Rapids/Elizabethton - 9.1 Obviously we all like strikeouts. They do help predict future success, at least in part. Mainly it marks the quality of "Stuff" and its hit-ability. The Twins do have some guys who can miss some bats, and several of them are in the upper levels. BB/9 (Starters - 60 IP min.) 1.) Matt Tomshaw - Ft. Myers - 1.4 2.) Aaron Slegers - Cedar Rapids - 1.5 3.) Tyler Duffey - Ft. Myers/New Britain - 1.8 4.) Sean Gilmartin - New Britain/Rochester - 2.0 5.) Pat Dean - New Britain - 2.1 6.) Jason Wheeler - Ft. Myers/New Britain - 2.1 BB/9 (Relievers - 30 IP min.) 1.) Tim Shibuya - Ft. Myers - 1.1 2.) Alex Muren - Cedar Rapids - 1.5 3.) Brandon Peterson - Cedar Rapids/Ft. Myers - 1.9 4.) AJ Achter - New Britain/Rochester - 2.7 5.) Cole Johnson - New Britain - 2.8 Focus on control and throwing strikes are obviously very important to the Twins. The Twins have several starters and a couple relievers that really have good control. The question sometimes can be about command within the strike zone, and not being too hittable. But if you look at the K/9 and the BB/9, it's good to see some on both lists. STRIKEOUTS 1.) JO Berrios - Ft. Myers - 98 2.) Alex Meyer - Rochester - 83 3.) Trevor May - Rochester - 81 4.) Sean Gilmartin - New Britain/Rochester - 80 5.) Taylor Rogers - New Britain - 75 Just for fun, I thought we would end with the raw strikeout numbers. It certainly indicates, along with his other numbers, just how good Berrios has been this year. SUMMARY As much as at any time in the past, the Twins do have a handful of starters and relievers who are putting up some hopeful numbers, and it is fun see. How many will be able to maintain their production over the 2nd half? How many will receive 2nd half promotions? How will they adjust to a new league with better competition? Well, we shall find out!