Seth Stohs

In a move that is rather surprising, Twins Daily has learned the 2012 first-round draft pick Byron Buxton and supplemental first-round pick Jose (J.O.) Berrios have been promoted to short-season Elizabethton. Buxton, an 18-year-old outfielder from rural Georgia, was the #2 overall pick in this June's draft. He signed a $6 million signing bonus and reported to Ft. Myers. He missed about ten days with a hamstring injury, but has been playing well of late. In 27 games with the GCL Twins, Buxton is 19-88, hitting .216/.324/.466 (.789). He has four doubles, three triples, four home runs and 14 RBI. He has also stolen 14 bases. Berrios, an 18-year-old right-hander from Puerto Rico, was the first of two supplemental first round picks the Twins had in the 2012 draft. He has been terrific for the GCL Twins. In eight games, he has thrown 16.2 innings. He has given up just seven hits, walked three and struckout 27 baters. He is 1-0 with four saves and a 1.08 ERA. [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK] Buxton and Berrios will join the Twins other second-round pick in Elizabethton. Right-hander Luke Bard also recently started pitching for the E-Twins after signing and doing some rehab work in the GCL. Also, the two Twins supplemental draft picks from the 2011 draft, 3B Travis Harrison and RHP Hudson Boyd are playing for the E-Twins. The Elizabethton Twins find themselves in a familiar place a top the Appalachian League West Division. They are currently 29-14 and 5 1/2 games ahead of Johnson City and Greeneville. (Check out this site for more "Cards" of top 2012 draft picks)

The weather has certainly been a factor in Beloit the first three days of this trip. The first two days, it was so hot. Temperatures hovered in the mid-90s and humidity was quite high. On Saturday, however, the weather was a little different and that crazy humidity finally burst into some impressive thunderstorms. Would there be baseball, or would we have to make a tough decision about whether to stay for a doubleheader on Sunday? (Note- we had already decided we would!) Saturday morning started out well with some high-quality blog writing (my opinion, maybe not yours). [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]At noon, Travis, Jeremy, Jed and I went to Jerseys for lunch. I have to admit that the steak sandwich is pretty great. It was fun because it was just four guys, sitting around a sports bar, chatting about the state of the Twins, players in the Twins farm system and other deep questions like Will Jeff Bagwell get into the Hall of Fame and what would we do with Stephen Strasburg down the stretch? Although it was quite warm and the clouds were gray and the wind was picking up, it had not yet rained. However, I had received notice that the Snappers would not be having batting practice and weren’t arriving at the ballpark until 5:00. It was no surprise as the weather reports certainly indicated that some severe weather was headed our way. What it also meant was that we had a couple more hours to kill. We all agreed that a movie would be the best way to do that. So, we went over to the Luxury Theatre, and when we saw that the movie Ted was playing, we all unanimously agreed that it was the one we must see. And we were not disappointed. The four of us laughed most of the movie. Certainly not a cutesy teddy bear movie. That’s for sure. But it was one of the better comedies I have seen in a long time. Plus, there is a baseball connection in the movie as arguably the most emotional moment occurred at Fenway Park! Well, throughout the movie, we could hear thunder and pouring rain outside the theatre’s walls. When we got out of the movie at around 4:20, it was still raining, sometimes even quite hard. We went back to the hotel where we met the infamous Jim Crikket of Knuckleballs fame. He had driven to Beloit from Cedar Rapids and noted that the dark clouds followed him the whole way. We all sat around until about 5:30 when the rain pretty much stopped. We headed over to the field. I was impressed. When we got to Pohlman Field, the grounds crew and the front office had just pulled the tarp off the infield and the field looked really good. Other volunteers were working furiously, toweling off the seats that were soaked from the rain. Again, the Snappers work with a smaller group and what they were able to do to get the field ready to play was remarkable! I talked briefly with Dallas Gallant. The team had all worked out in the morning together. The pitchers had just gone on the field a half-hour earlier to run through another pre-game stretch and their daily work. For the first time, I ventured down the third base line, past the dugout. There is a picnic area that I thought required a special ticket to go into, but it didn’t. During the warm ups, I went out there and was able to get some really good pitchers. I talked to Tommy Watkins and AJ Pettersen down the line. Yes, the below picture of AJ does show him wearing a catcher’s mitt. As he wrote recently at Twins Daily, when he is not in the lineup, he enjoys being a bullpen catcher. I met Justin Rinaldi and his brother Vincent Rinaldi. They are the young guys behind Rinaldi Photos. You’ll definitely want to check out their work here. Also, they will be at the Snappers games the next three days and likely will post many more pictures. They now are traveling the Midwest League taking photos and they are really good. And then it was time to start the game. When you see my July Twins minor league pitchers of the month, you will certainly see Jason Wheeler. The lefty from Loyola Marymount went 4-0 with a 2.03 ERA in five starts. His first August start technically started out shaky as he gave up two runs on three hits in the first inning. However, box scores alone don’t tell you that two of the singles rolled through the right-side of the infield and the other was a well-placed bunt single. After that inning, Wheeler was great. He went a total of eight innings and gave up only those two runs. He gave up a total of six hits and one or two of the other three were of the bloop variety. Wheeler gets the loss in the 2-1 defeat at the hands of the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers, but he was very impressive. Again, at 6-8, Wheeler stands out. He does not throw hard, likely topping out at 90 at this time. But he has terrific control of his fastball, a very good curveball, and a changeup, and an occasional slider. In this contest, he struck out ten batters. In general, he kept the opposing hitters completely off balance. 2012 10th round draft pick DJ Baxendale came in and pitched a 1-2-3 ninth frame in which he struck out the side. He pitched for Arkansas in the College World Series and then quickly signed with the Twins when his team was eliminated. He has now pitched in nine games out of the bullpen between Elizabethton and Beloit. He he pitched ten innings and given up three hits, walked on and now has struckout 22 batters. He has kind of a deceptive, three-quarters delivery and has a very sharp slider to go along with a plus-fastball. Kennys Vargas provided the offense. In the 2nd inning, he drilled a fastball probably 410 feet, just to the left of center field for his 7th home run in 12 games with the Snappers. He rounded the bases, and he even did the David Ortiz, point-to-the-sky when he touched home plate. Seriously, the resemblance to Big Papi are uncanny. Miguel Sano had a double down the right field line. He might have been able to get a triple on it but was held up at second. Sano is such a big man. Once he gets going, he can fly around the bases. There are little parts of his game that are often forgotten about, or people don’t know or hear about, because all we hear about are the home runs and the strikeouts. Like yesterday, I mentioned his incredible arm. Today, it’s his speed. He can really move quickly. Eddie Rosario was held to just one hit in this game. He played second base and actually was a part of two double plays. One was on a bounding ball up the middle that he fielded, stepped on second and threw to 1B. The second was on a line drive that he threw to first to get the runner who strayed too far from the bag. Another day, another game in which Nate Roberts was on base half of the time. He had a solid single up the middle, and later he had a long at bat that resulted in a walk. One of the highlights for me was in the middle innings, I was going to go walk around. I like standing next to the Snappers dugout, by the on-deck circle once in a while because you get a great view of the hitter. While I was standing there, someone asked if I was Seth. I turned and said, “Yes, I am.” I knew who it was, but he introduced himself as Matt Tomshaw, who the night before pitched a great seven innings. Since he pitched yesterday, he was in charge of filming today’s game which means that he had a list of things that he was supposed to get video for throughout the game. The Snappers pitchers and a couple of their hitters as well. Anyway, he was between duties and it was very nice of him to come up and say hi. It was nice chatting with a guy who has obviously risen up in the eyes of prospect guys like myself since being a late-round draft pick just a year ago. Following the game, we talked to AJ a little bit. Wang-Wei Lin came over to say hi again. He’ll be in the lineup again on Sunday. A few other players came over and shook hands. Later, Miguel Sano was walking through the crowd, and as you can imagine, several were asking for his autograph, or to get a picture with him. I have read several places that he can be a difficult sign, but in the three days that I have been here so far, he has been signing quite a bit. Frankly, he seems much more relaxed and seems to enjoy it a little bit. He has acknowledged us each day. As he was finishing up, he came over to shake AJ’s brother’s hand, and then he came over and extended his hand to me and we shook hands. At that time, we went and sat down and enjoyed a tremendous fireworks display. The crowd was announced at just over 2,200 people which was great to see. With that, we have one more game to see here in Beloit. This afternoon at 2, the Snappers will again play the Timber Rattlers. Lefty David Hurlbut will be on the mound for the Snappers. It is Prince Fielder “Beast Mode” bobble arms day today at Pohlman Field so there should be a nice attendance today. Also, the weather isn’t supposed to be quite so unbearable, maybe into the low 80s! A great day for a ball game. When the game finishes this afternoon, Travis and I will be back on the road, headed back as far as the Twin Cities tonight. Then tomorrow morning, an early departure for home. So, I likely won’t get to a Day 4 report until maybe Monday. So, be sure to check out my Twitter feed for updates throughout the day and going forward. However, I do need to give a huge Thank You to Chrissy Scaffidi, the Snappers Director of Media and Public Relations, who has helped us out tremendously throughout our time here. As busy as she is, she’s made time for us and been remarkably helpful to us. GM Matt Bosen also spent some time with us over the first three days which is very appreciative. Again, as the Snappers are working with a six-person front office, and those six have so many duties beyond whatever is in their job description, their support of myself and Twins Daily has been very much appreciated. I can’t encourage Twins fans from the Twin Cities or anywhere enough that it is well worth it for you to make the trek to Beloit. It isn’t that far… I guess it’s about 13 hours each way for me, but it’s likely well less than that for you to make a trip. The baseball is good. This is a good product that they’re putting on the field. There are great prospects. There is some serious talent. The atmosphere at Pohlman Field is awesome, and the players and coaches are so accessible and for the most part, very personable. The team is going to be in the playoffs in September, and tickets are already available for that. IF you are at all able, I would certainly encourage a trip to Beloit to see the Snappers. And now, here are several pictures from Saturday: Pohlman Field at Night! Jason Wheeler pre-game Eddie Rosario, Miguel Sano, Kennys Vargas AJ Pettersen Drew Leachman Kennys Vargas and Miguel Sano Miguel Sano Kennys Vargas Wang-Wei Lin Nate Roberts Miguel Sano National Anthem (Matt Koch Catching) Kennys Vargas

Day 2 in Beloit was a good day. Then again, it was a Friday and I wasn’t at work and it was a day all about baseball. How could it be bad?! In today's blog, I'll talk about the Snappers 8-1 win over Brian Buchanan and the Kane County Cougars. There are a lot of observations on players before and during the game and much more. This if a fun team to watch with a lot of good players and people! [PRBREAK][/PRBREAK]Woke up fairly early and wrote yesterday’s Day 1 blog. Realized that it is now August which means that I need to write up my July minor league hitter, starting pitcher and relief pitcher of the month blogs. That means, doing quite a bit of research online. Expect to see those written over the next few days, and I was quite surprised for some reason at all of the very strong hitting during the month. Maybe it is something about the bats warming up as the temperatures continued to rise? That said, there were plenty of very good pitching performances for the month as well. Anyway, there is not a ton to do in Beloit. I’m sure there are things, but I haven’t really found there. We did go to lunch at Applebees, and I definitely recommend the Sizzlin’ N’Allins Skillet!! From there, we went shopping for shoes. I haven’t bought shoes in a long time. My sandals are two years old and have no more sole. My work shoes both have cracks in the bottom from over-use. So, although it took us a while to find Payless, I got two pairs of sandals and new work shoes! Alright, you probably couldn’t care less about my shopping experiences in Beloit, so let’s talk about baseball-related things. We left for the ballpark at about 3:15 but had to make a quick Walmart stop. My car had a temperature gauge in it and as we drove to Walmart, it read 100 degrees. That number got up to 102. Now, as we drove by the bank and later listened to the radio over the speakers at the ball park, it said they reached 95 degrees. Either way, it was incredibly hot. When we arrived at the ballpark, we were again greeted by Chrissy Scaffidi. The Snappers work with a staff of six in their front office, and it is remarkable how hard they work. The grounds crew is incredible and have the field looking great. GM Matt Bosen, in his first year in that role after several previous years in other roles, coordinates it all and does it well. He spent a good 20 minutes chatting with us again on Friday afternoon about all kinds of topics. But he also worked with the grounds crew before, after and even during the game. When we arrived, the Snappers were all on the field. And everyone was working on something. They ran a big round of infield and outfield. Then the pitchers came to the field and they worked through some Pitchers Fielding Practice, but it also turned into another full round of situational infield where manager Nelson Prada would hit the ball anywhere on the field to see where people would go based on runners on base and outs and such. It was very well run. Tommy Watkins walked around the field encouraging players and giving pointers. Gary Lucas talked to the pitchers who were fielding their position, covering first base or backing up a base. Then came batting practice. Again, I can watch BP all day. The first group included Nate Roberts, Wang-Wei Lin, Eddie Rosario, Miguel Sano and Kennys Vargas. With Roberts and Lin, it was line drive after line drive. Rosario hits the ball so well, and it’s remarkable, his ability to wait on a pitch and drive everything the opposite way. His bat speed is incredible, and despite his size (probably 5-9, maybe 175 pounds), he is able to generate incredible power to all fields. Sano just hits everything hard in batting practice. Yes, he can hit a few out to dead center field or over the scoreboard in left center, but he works on his swing and hits a lot of line drives. He is just a good all-around hitter, or will be. Vargas is still a little more raw. He has amazing power potential, but he does have a long swing. That said, he does work on staying short to the ball and taking a single to left. He definitely works. During batting practice, the infielders do their work between pitches, getting ground balls from fungo hitters. I’ve likely said it before, but watching AJ Pettersen play shortstop is really something to see. He has very good range, but great hands. He also transfers the ball from glove to throwing hand remarkably quickly and makes a strong accurate throw to first or to second. When you have two raw, works-in-progress in Sano and Rosario at 3B and 2B, respectively, it’s got to be nice to have such a steady glove in the middle of the infield. Before the game, as players were starting to head to the field, it was great to get to meet reliever Dallas Gallant. People told me how nice and polite the kid was, and that was all quite true. I have talked to him via Twitter several times while he was rehabbing from his Tommy John surgery. Consider that he had the procedure done last April. He came to minor league camp in March and although his bullpens were closely monitored, he was pitching at 100% by the start of Extended Spring Training. He pitched in a handful of games at Elizabethton, but quickly moved up to Beloit. He’s excited and happy to be playing at this level. He pitched in last night’s game and I’ll get to more on that in a bit. One of the things I’ve enjoyed about my Beloit trips is the people. The front office people have been great, but so have the fans. There are a couple of families that I won’t mention by name, but who are at every game and who come over and chat every day. It’s great, and I feel almost at home in Pohlman Field thanks to these people. Last night was pretty neat because no less than three people came up to me during the course of the game and introduced themselves to me. One gentleman said he came from about 40 mile south of Beloit to see the game. Another brought his son and came from 40 miles north of Beloit. It was fun to talk to them and hear about how much they enjoy Twins Daily. I hope a few more people come out to the ball park tonight, and definitely feel free to come up and say hi! Alright, to the game, right? Matt Tomshaw got the start for the Snappers. He was coming off of a really rough start, but he has been very good since the Twins drafted him very late in the 2011 draft. The lefty doesn’t throw particularly hard, but he has good control. It took an inning or two, but his curveball is very good. Just as important, he seems to throw it at different speeds. Bert Blyleven is always talking about adding and subtracting from pitchers and Tomshaw does that well. His curveball was good and actually made his fastball look faster than it was. He apparently has a six-pitch mix that includes a version of a knuckleball which he threw a few times. He gave up just one run over seven innings. Very impressive. Dallas Gallant came in for the eighth inning, and was very impressive. He throws really hard, probably mid-90s. But he also threw a slider that was very sharp and appeared to break quite late. He told me later that he normally throws that pitch at 84-85, but it was ‘only’ at 81-82 last night. Well, again, with it’s sharp break, it was a very impressive pitch. He pitched an easy 1-2-3 inning. Corey Kimes came in for the 9th inning. It was his Midwest League and Snappers debut after starting the season in Extended Spring Training and then starting for the Elizabethton Twins. Last week, he pitched five shutout innings and was promoted immediately following the game. He is a big kid, but doesn’t throw remarkably hard. He looked a little nervous, but threw the ball well. He did walk a batter, but the game ended on a very nice 5-4-3 (Sano to Rosario to Vargas) double play. Speaking of Sano’s defense. He did not have any errors, but it wasn’t exactly smooth. I mentioned yesterday that watching him field ground balls at 3B and SS before the game, in batting practice or infield practice, he can do it. You can tell he’s been a shortstop his whole life. In the game, it doesn’t always translate. However, he is knocking the ball down, picking it up, and using a remarkably strong arm to still get hitters out at first. I don’t think I can over-state just how strong his arm is. Will he be a future third baseman in the big leagues? I can’t honestly answer that now, but I do 100% agree with keeping him there as long as possible. His arm is just so incredible. Sano was 2-5 last night. He had two RBI singles, struck out twice and then grounded into a double play in the 8th frame. From sitting right behind home plate, you can see the work he has put in to stop swinging at breaking pitches, those sliders down-and-away. Not every time, but the pitch recognition is happening. On the double play, however, he was a little slow to get out of the batter’s box after the swing. Not a lack of effort, just seemingly a footwork thing. But, he hustled down the line and showed great speed. In fact, he beat the relay throw to first by at least a half step, yet he was called out. Clearly a bad call and from his spot in the third base coach’s box, manager Nelson Prada yelled, “That wasn’t even close! That wasn’t even close! That wasn’t even close!” The third time he said it, the umpire tossed him from the game. I kid you not, that is all he said before being tossed. Now, at that point, he ran out to shallow left field where he let the umpire know a little more about how he felt about his call. It may be good that we were unable to hear all of his words at that point. The music was playing on the speakers by then but, wisely, Three Blind Mice was not the song selected! Eddie Rosario had yet another three hit game. In four games since his return from injury, he has three, three-hit games and is 11-20 (.550) during that stretch. It’s just incredible. Stephen Wickens was a late-round pick last year as a four-year college player. He is a Canadian but went to Florida Gulf Coast. He went 3-5 and has been hitting very well since coming up from Elizabethton. He can play both middle infield positions. Last night, he was the DH and went 3-5 with two doubles. Nate Roberts is an incredible lead-off hitter with an uncanny ability to get on base. He isn’t a big guy, but he is hitting .295 with a .438 on base percentage. He takes great at bats and really knows the strike zone. He is happy to get hit by pitches. He then is fast enough to steal bases as well. He’s a perfect leadoff hitter and just a solid offensive player. This is a very fun team to watch. The offense is pretty strong. The pitchers may not be the big prospects or big names, but they are getting the job done, and that bullpen has some huge arms that are very intriguing going forward. Following the game, I was able to talk to Drew Leachman. He was the Snappers best hitter for much of early July, but he’s been in a bit of a slump of late. He was 1-3 in this game with a walk. He came through with a clutch, RBI single in the 7th frame that really broke the game open. It was a nine-pitch at bat in which he fought off some very tough pitches. I told him that it looked like a huge weight came off his shoulders when that ball dropped in and he was standing at 1B. A group that included Twins Daily contributor Jeremy Nygaard, Dallas Gallant, AJ Pettersen and his brother Josh went to Applebees, watched the Olympics and had a great time. One thing I guess I didn’t realize was that Pettersen and Gallant played together in Hyannis in the Cape Cod League. Lots of stories were told. It was a lot of fun! There are a lot of really good people in the Twins organization. Got back to the hotel room about 12:05, and I think I was sleeping by about 12:09. I don’t think I woke up even once until after 7 a.m. Tonight, the Snappers are scheduled to play Wisconsin. There is a chance for a thunderstorm and its highest likelihood for hitting is between six and nine o’clock tonight. If it were to be rained out tonight, it would be too bad because they have a fireworks show after the game, and those are cool! On Sunday, it is Prince Fielder bobblehead day. Fielder played in Beloit in 2002 and 2003.