Parker Hageman

Ask Minnesota Twins’ new catcher Jason Castro on the down low if he is tired of being approached about pitch framing and he will roll his eyes, smirk, and sigh. Castro has had no shortage of questions from the media about that narrative. Search “Castro” and “framing” on Twitter and you will see all sorts of commentary on the subject. Even before his first regular season game in a Twins uniform, he has been billed as a potential staff savior -- finally giving the team a backstop capable of tipping the odds in the pitcher's’ favor. Everybody wants to know his secret and how he learned what he did in order to be at the top of his craft. You’d think he would be sick of talking about it by now. He might very well be. Nevertheless, despite already explaining his background in triplicate, he happily walks you through his journey again.His first point, however, is that he doesn’t consider it framing. To Castro, “framing” sounds intentionally misleading -- like an act on a little league field where a youth catcher tries to yank a ball that crosses over the empty batter’s box back over the plate, hoping the high school-aged umpire who gets paid hourly has a momentary lapse of judgement. No, Castro doesn’t think of what he does as framing. He says it is simply receiving the ball the right way, which is to say, a skill an exemplary catcher should possess. While Castro was with the Astros, the organization called their catchers together for an internal meeting and let them know that the nerds upstairs found something useful, something that they felt would give their team an edge. He says he wasn’t all too familiar with the concept at that time but the data and the added value it could provide made sense. “You’d always as a catcher try to be quiet and receive the ball, it was a new way how to look at how to catch a baseball,” Castro said walking through how his former organization presented their argument. At Stanford University, Castro said he developed and improved other core attributes for a catcher -- throwing out runners, blocking pitches, and general game calling abilities. The art of receiving was not one of those pillars. Now the Astros wanted him to add what they felt was a vital part of a catcher’s game. They had new technologies available and new ways to measure the contributions. Houston’s coaches showed the catchers tips and tricks that would, in theory, help obtain a few more strikes outside of the zone but, more importantly, keep pitches in the zone from being wrongly called balls. While stealing strikes was an added benefit for the upgraded receiving techniques, the Astros’ main focus was not losing any strikes. “Keeping strikes in the strike zone,” he explained. “Not doing anything to the pitch to take away from its quality. If it is on the corner and it is breaking one direction, you are trying to counteract the break so it doesn’t, by the time you catch the ball, pull your arm out of the zone.” Houston’s efforts worked. From 2009 through 2011 the Astros had an in-zone called strike percentage right at the league’s average. In terms of overall framing statistics, they were just outside of the top ten among all MLB teams. In short, they were actually pretty decent during a time before baseball put added emphasis on the practice. Good, not great. Over the last three seasons, meanwhile, Castro and the Astros have overtaken baseball as one of the game’s premiere receiving teams. Their in-zone called strike percentage was the second-highest in the game, just behind Buster Posey and the San Francisco Giants, and their overall framing runs rate was the fifth-highest. Download attachment: Catching Stats.JPG What is the secret? Castro says it is planning and thinking ahead of the pitcher. “When these guys throw 90-plus, 95-mile per hour sliders with really late, sharp break and if you are not preparing to catch the ball in a certain way, when you do catch it it is going to pull your glove out of the zone and it’s just how to think about how to counteract that force.” There are people who will say that “framing” is overrated, overvalued, influenced by the pitcher, influenced by the umpire, doesn’t exist, or is waiting to be corrected by robots. Some will argue that if the pitch crosses the agreed upon confines of the strike zone, it shouldn’t matter what the catcher is doing. A strike is a strike and a ball is a ball. Whatever the outside sentiments might be about the statistic, within the current state of affairs receiving the ball correctly is a very real skill. Castro says he can feel when he is doing it right and when he is off. “In the game you can tell if a pitcher makes a really good pitch and it's diving out of the zone and you catch it correctly to counteract the sink, you’re trying to stop the movement as soon as possible without taking you with it, you can feel when you do it right and when you are able to keep that ball in the zone and not let it pull you out.” As the Giants and Astros have topped the leaderboard in that area, the Minnesota Twins have floundered at the bottom of the rankings, costing their pitching staff numerous strikes each season. Castro’s mindset is vastly different than the previously signed free agent catcher. When Kurt Suzuki was signed, he was asked about his thoughts on the increasing emphasis on pitch framing. “I don’t put too much stock in that,” Suzuki said in 2014. “Don’t get me wrong, I think that has a lot to do with it but at the same time what a pitcher does has a lot to do with it. If he’s all over the place he’s obviously not going to get those borderline calls, not matter how good you make it look. If you are around the plate consistently, you are going to get those calls.” Castro, on the other hand, was a lot less inclined to place the blame on his battery mate. “There’s a general execution of a pitch helps the way a catcher receives it a lot,” Castro says. “If he’s generally around where you are trying to set up, it makes our job a lot easier. If they are spraying the zone a little bit more and you have to be reactive instead of being able to anticipate that makes it a lot more difficult.” http://i.imgur.com/d8nifEl.gif ESPN/TruMedia’s heat map comparison of Castro, Cervelli, Posey and Suzuki. Red is good, blue is bad. This year’s pitching staff has been giving Castro’s work strong reviews so far. Trevor May, who recently suffered an unfortunate UCL tear that will take him out the remainder of the year, said he enjoyed working with Castro this spring. "He adjusts where he sets up, based on the count and what he's looking for, and based on your stuff and how it moves,” May said. “Honestly, as a pitcher that gives you a lot of confidence, knowing that if he wants the ball a little off the plate or he wants the ball to come back over the plate or if he wants the outer-third for a strike you can tell based on how he's setting up and what he's calling. It's very clear. And he's a big target, he looks like Joe [Mauer] back there. So that's always nice." Castro’s stature is somewhat of a hindrance for a catcher in the modern framing-centric era. Like May said, Castro is a big target. Mauer, at six-foot-five, struggled to get strikes called in the lower portion of the strike zone (something of a real problem for a staff that boasted sinker ball pitchers). At six-foot-three, catchers of Castro’s size are typically thought of as an issue, especially given the southward expanding strike zone. That said, Castro’s numbers suggest that he has been above average in that department, even with his size. That’s because, he says, he is mindful of his physique and he works particularly hard to ensure he is giving the umpire the best view of the strike zone. “I’m a bigger catcher, so I figured it is something even more important for me to position myself to give the umpire a better lane to see the pitch,” he says. “That definitely helps. You can definitely tell when you are set up on one side of the plate and your pitcher misses, you can tell when you probably blocked the umpire from see where the pitch really crossed. For bigger guys, it’s something to take into account.” It was not that long ago when finding a catcher with strong “framing” skills was a hidden value, something that data-savvy teams could exploit by acquiring backstop artists on the cheap. That’s no longer the case. When the Pittsburgh Pirates identified Russell Martin as a potentially strong receiver, they landed him on a two-year, $17 million contract - a fairly modest price for a decent two-way catcher. After he was credited as a key instrument in rejuvenating the Pirates’ pitching staff, Martin was wooed away from the Steel City to Toronto, where he was given a five-year, $82 million deal. The Pirates pivoted and traded left-handed reliever Justin Wilson to the Yankees for Francisco Cervelli. Cervelli proved to be another gem with the glove and contributed moderately with the bat as well. For that, he received a three-year, $31 million extension. By that comparison, at around $8 million a year, Castro has been a veritable bargain. The Twins stress that Castro’s addition goes beyond how many strikes he can keep or steal. His defensive contributions are not one dimensional. “I think everything was made exclusively around his pitch-framing, but we signed Jason with the idea that he had a number of other attributes outside of that,” Twins’ Chief Baseball Officer Derek Falvey told Twins Daily. “He does that well, no question, but leadership in the clubhouse, game planning, how he prepares a pitching staff, how he thinks about advance information, all those things he does exceptionally well and he’s impacting our guys here.” Falvey also acknowledged that the organization is working diligently at improving the measurables of all catchers in the system. There is a chance that Castro will also be able to help bring along other catchers like Mitch Garver, who made significant improvements in the minor leagues last year. “It’s a process,” says Castro. “It’s like anything else when you make a change it’s not going to be night and day, it’s going to be incremental and you just have to work at it until it becomes second nature.” Click here to view the article

Interesting. I wonder how long Burdi's been doing the Baseball Ranch program.

He had mono last year as well which delayed his return in 2016.

This has been the argument for several years since the Oakland A's began trying to accumulate fly ball oriented hitters to combat the sinker. I've pointed this out on Twitter but because hitters have started to gear their swings for sinkers and two-seamers, pitchers have had greater success sneaking fastballs up in and above the zone: https://twitter.com/ParkerHageman/status/780958325676445696

They couldn't afford me.

To be clear, Kepler isn't trying to hit ground balls in his at bats. He's trying to hit line drives which is lifting the ball. It is hitting the ball in the air. The chop method -- swinging down on the ball -- has been one of those topics discussed ad nausem among hitting guys for quite some time. It has seemed that the trend has shifted away from that line of thinking. Here's a good summary on it from Cole Figueroa, a former Pirates prospect turned Rays analyst (emphasis mine): Here's another thing: Watching Kepler's swings in action, I don't actually thinks his bat path is a chop. When you see him hit home runs, he gets the barrel behind the ball and launches upward -- similar to the picture used for the cover of this article. Hitters have all different types of feels for their swings. In Kepler's case, he feels like he is getting in the right path when you tries to chop.

Exactly, which, you know, I said...

Well actually successful changeups are found to be more about movement than they are about speed differential... http://twinsdaily.com/topic/23603-inside-the-game/?p=533242 Here's former pitcher and current Red Sox pitching analyst Brian Bannister on the subject: Watching Hughes' changeup behind home plate yesterday, you could definitely see decent movement. It seemed like more than a show-me pitch.

When Minnesota Twins outfielder Max Kepler breaks down his swing, the description veers away from the game’s growing infatuation of making contact under the ball. “I try and stay on top, get the bat head to stay through the zone as long as possible,” Kepler described. “Whenever I’m in doubt, I try to hit long ground balls to level my swing back out. I’m the complete opposite of what I hear people saying now days.” What are people saying now days? The increasing cage wisdom is to lift the ball, get underneath the pitch, elevate and celebrate, right? Shouldn’t he be working on getting that ball up and out of the park? Asked about that, Kepler just shakes his head. “Complete bogus,” he says. “I believe in what Barry Bonds says, that’s just stay on top and through the ball. Look what he did. That just proves everyone wrong.” Just down the line in the Twins’ clubhouse sat new acquisition Jason Castro. Castro, somewhat unknowingly, helped launch a revolution in the way professionals view hitting. It was watching Castro transform his swing from the bench that inspired teammate J.D. Martinez to look closer at a swing’s components. “I used to always think, ‘Hit down on the baseball.’ But then I realized that’s not what everyone else is doing,” Martinez told Fangraphs.com’s Eno Sarris. Martinez was injured with the Astros when he saw video of Castro’s revamped swing plane. That begat the search for video of other players’ swings. Ryan Braun, Albert Pujols, Miguel Cabrera. All of the game’s top hitters were swinging (among other things) with a slight uppercut. “I received a little bit of instruction prior to that point of my career,” Castro said about the time he made his adjustments as an Astro. “Really having someone breaking down the swing and how the swing is supposed to work, from just a conceptual point on what you are trying to accomplish, I started to understand that a little more on a fundamental level.” For Castro, that fundamental understanding involved creating more lift. Creating lift and hitting the ball in the air is not new - dating back to instruction supplied by Ted Williams in his seminal book, “The Science of Hitting” -- but with the advanced studies involving StatCast data, baseball has a better understanding of the value created by optimal launch angles and exit velocity. With video, you can marry what that swing looks like and the results. The 2016 National League MVP Kris Bryant said that his father would install targets around the top of the batting cage in order to encourage young Kris to elevate the ball. The practice has certainly paid off for Bryant, who has one of the highest average launch angle in the game. It is the reason he has hit 39 home runs in 2016. On the American League side, Donaldson took to the MLB Network studios to spread his gospel of hitting. “If you are a 10 year old and your coach tells you to get on top of the ball,” the Blue Jays third baseman said, “tell him no.” Donaldson also recently tweeted a video of him taking short toss swings in the cage and trying to rifle the ball through the netting near the top. His caption? “Just say NO...to ground balls.” Kepler stresses that with his swing he is not trying to hit ground balls -- he’s going for line drives. “I’m not trying to hit ground balls. I’m trying to backspin the ball, trying to chop it,” he says as he demonstrates, firing his bottom hand in a diagonal line from his shoulder down at an imaginary pitch. “And the ball goes. It’s harder to catch a ball that’s back-spinning when you lift it. It just goes.” The chop part of his statement is the line that can make some hitting instructors cringe. Fangraphs.com’s Travis Sawchik recently profiled hitting coach Doug Latta and the players he has worked with, such as Marlon Byrd and Justin Turner, who reinvented their approach and careers by moving away from chopping wood. Other players have followed suit. Kepler’s process is interesting because, according to StatCast data, he hasn’t been producing a high-level launch angle rate -- at least not like the classic power hitting profiles like Bryant (19.8), Chris Carter (18.8), or even Josh Donaldson (12.9). His launch angle numbers fall behind even teammate Byron Buxton (14.3). Baseball Savant said that Kepler had an average launch angle of 8.7 degrees. Baseball Savant launch angle GIF show the difference in contact put in play between Max Kepler, Miguel Sano and Wil Myers. Note the amount of contact by Kepler that falls below 0 degrees. That equals ground balls. What is also interesting is the hitter one place ahead of him on the launch angle rankings is the Padres’ Wil Myers (8.8). Why is that interesting? Myers seems to share the same affinity of staying on top of the ball as Kepler. “I try not to be one when I hit it but a lot of players will get up under the ball so they don’t hit into the ground,” Myers told MLB Network’s Harold Reynolds. “I feel like that creates bad habits and I like to stay off the tee and stay down through the ball.” The lackluster launch angle numbers aside, both Kepler (17) and Myers (28) have showed plenty of pop in their bats, thanks to solid exit velocity figures. Or, in simple ball guy terms, they hit the ball on the screws. In short, while Myers and Kepler might not share the same hitting philosophy as guys like Bryant or Donaldson, their process has led to decent results at a young age. Kepler says the mindset -- staying on top and through the ball -- helps put him in the best position for him to make what he believes is optimal contact: a line drive that carries up and into the overhang at Target Field. All players have different cues and feels that help them create their swings. What they tell themselves and what actually happens can be two totally different events. Brian Dozier says he tries to drive the ball through the center field wall. Dozier, of course, pounds more balls about five feet inside the left field foul pole than anyone in the game. Byron Buxton says he tries to drive the ball to second base during batting practice but as September showed, Buxton is completely capable of turning on the ball and driving it into the air. For Kepler, trying to get himself to hit ground balls only is useful to him when he feels when he is out of whack and struggling. The results he wants to see are pearly white baseballs disappearing into the right field stands. “Bonds told me just try to hit hard ground balls, hit the ball through the pitcher’s forehead,” he says. “Try to find your bat path because once it is level and you’re comfortable with it, you are going to square balls up and they are going to go where you want it.” View full article

The wind was blowing in hard from center field. That probably helped his velocity.

Man, it sounded real bad. I'm very surprised he came out unscathed.

The Minnesota Twins had a scheduled off-day on Tuesday but Phil Hughes made an appearance on Bill Smith Field over at the minor league side, throwing to an assortment of minor league hitters, including prospect Travis Harrison. Harrison was the unfortunate recipient of a Hughes’ fastball to the hand. The 24-year-old right-handed hitter had called time prior to the two-strike offering only to have a fastball buzz up and in after he reset. Harrison left the field for further examination. Observers said that the top of his hand was immediately swollen. Hughes said it was an accident and was apologetic afterwards. **Be sure to sign up for Twins Daily’s Write Of Spring email newsletter. In addition to the content found at TwinsDaily.com, you will have access to a unique weekly column as well as special edition notebook section** “Neil’s been really harping on us this spring and change eye levels and back guys off the plate and 0-2 situation I thought it would be a good idea to go up-and-in and I felt really bad about that, to be honest,” Hughes said afterwards, saying that Harrison had attended his mother’s high school in Orange County so the pair have spent time together. “I really hope he’s all right.” The Twins clearly don’t want to injure any member of their organization, Hughes executed the pitch well. Because of Hughes’ elite command, hitters have often become too cozy in the batter’s box in his starts. Plus, if his velocity doesn’t rebound to pre-surgery levels, he will need to make some changes to keep opponents from sitting fastball. Therefore, the coaching staff has wanted to see Hughes move more feet. “Sometimes that it’ll happen this year because Phil Hughes has a reputation of throwing a lot of strikes -- and that’s a good reputation to have -- but you also want to make sure you make people uncomfortable too while remaining aggressive,” Neil Allen said. The Harrison incident was the only blip on an otherwise over-matching performance from Hughes. His fastball reached 91 according to one radar reading and his pro-grade cutter appeared to be an otherworldly pitch to some of the minor league bats. However, the real focus for Hughes was to throw a healthy dose of changeups. “It was a good opportunity to throw a ton of changeups, that was kind of the plan today,” Hughes said of his strategy. “A lot of times you get in the big league spring training games you get caught up in the competitiveness of everything and trying to just get outs, but today I really did throw as many changeups as I could just to get a nice feel for it.” Since at least 2010, when he was pitching for the New York Yankees, Hughes has attempted to add a changeup to his arsenal, to no avail. According to ESPN/TruMedia’s database, Hughes threw just 14 changeups in his 2014 season, 104 in 2015, and 24 in his 12 starts last year. Why the renewed emphasis on the changeup for Hughes? “A lot of times if you are a guy who is really firm, like Phil throws a hard cutter, he throws a hard four-seam and two-seam fastball, he throws a hard curveball,” Allen said. “A changeup is simply going to throw their timing off like that.” Overall, Hughes was satisfied with the outing. "Sometimes you don’t have the luxury of doing stuff like this. Sometimes you go into these spring games, the adrenaline ticks up and you want to just get outs but here it is nice just to throw all my pitches." Click here to view the article

In walk-off fashion, the Minnesota Twins defeated the St. Louis Cardinals 2-1 in extra innings. After several innings of stranding runners in scoring position, the Twins finally got on the board in the bottom of the ninth when infielder Ehire Adrianza drove home Leonardo Reginatto with a single to right. An inning later, catcher Chris Gimenez stroked a solid single back up the middle in the tenth to sent the winning run home. Notable performances include Kyle Gibson, who worked an efficient four innings, limiting the Cardinals to just one run on two hits. Joe Mauer reached base in all three of his plate appearances, landing his first base hit of the spring and adding two walks. Byron Buxton had two hits, including a double down the left field line. More notes from Monday at the park... **Be sure to sign up for Twins Daily’s Write Of Spring email newsletter. In addition to the content found at TwinsDaily.com, you will have access to a unique weekly column as well as special edition notebook section** ** Chris Gimenez was the recipient of a half-hearted infield celebration following his walk-off single in the tenth. Gimenez is in the running for the backup catcher position. Having caught in four spring games, he has received strong reviews for his in-game defense from several of the pitchers he has handled, including Jose Berrios and Trevor May. Reading between the lines, it appears that the Twins would like to see him win the job. ** Paul Molitor said that the team is going to be more aggressive with their defensive alignments in the outfield, using different positioning for their alignment. “We’re trying to look at all the data we had last year on position and we’re trying to make some adjustments to that,” Molitor said. “For example, when you have a three run lead in the fifth I’m more worried about the bloop, not the double. A guy smokes one over your head, he does, but I’m trying to keep baserunners off, trying to protect leads.” ** Byron Buxton went 2-for-3 on Monday, driving a double down the left field line and reaching on a bunt hit in the third. “I don’t know how much bunting is going to be a part of his game,” said Molitor. “I think it still will be, it should be, but as his offensive prowess grows there might be times you’d rather see him drive that run instead of creating that first-and-third.” It was pointed out that Buxton displayed power last September and the double later in the game would have likely scored Escobar or at least put two runners in scoring position with one out. “Kirby Puckett bunted a lot as a rookie but when he started hitting 30 homers he didn’t bother much.” ** Buxton made a fantastic diving catch in the third inning on a low line drive that looked like it was destined to be a single. “He would have caught that standing up incredibly had the wind not been blowing out there,” Gibson said. “He’s awesome out there, he tracks about everything down.” Gibson said Buxton brings a welcome mindset to the position, always expecting himself to make every play. In his first outing of the spring, Gibson said he surrendered a double which Buxton later apologized for not catching at the wall. “I’m the one who gave up a laser,” Gibson laughed. ** Gibson’s ongoing mechanical transformation is still a work in progress, the right-hander admitted after third outing of the spring. There are times when he says he fights against reverting back into his old delivery but says he is developing a strong feel for the new one. “I’m never trying to be out there thinking about my delivery but if you are not feeling your delivery or you are not feeling when you are out of sync or what's going on when you are out of sync, you are going to hit your head against the wall throwing ball after ball after ball,” Gibson said. ** Glen Perkins continued his rehabilitation, throwing another bullpen off the mound at Hammond Stadium on Monday. Perkins said that he is still not yet throwing sliders in his program. “You ask him how he’s feeling and he gets a big smile,” said Molitor. “And that’s good.” ** Reliever Ryan O’Rourke says he has seen some good indication that his weighted ball training program is providing some early dividends. He said that he was typically topping out at 88-89 at this point in his season but this year he’s been up to 91. ** Phil Hughes will make a backfield appearance on Tuesday at the camp, throwing in what will be a four inning intrasquad contest. Hughes last pitched on Friday and should be looking to reach at least three innings. ** After a scheduled off-day on Tuesday, the Twins will play Team USA as they prepare for the World Baseball Classic. Trevor May will make his third appearance of the spring, coming off his 2.1 innings in Clearwater on Saturday. May said that one of his focuses this coming outing will be on using his changeup in different situations. Click here to view the article

At this point, it is Chris Gimenez.

The Minnesota Twins won just one of seven games against the Toronto Blue Jays in 2016. Spring training results are meaningless overall but a convincing 6-2 win over the Blue Jays travel squad at Hammond Stadium might just inspire the organization to do better during the regular season, right? Maybe? No? Probably not. Miguel Sano highlighted the day with a two-run blast in the third. Max Kepler finally came alive and tagged two doubles. Outfielder Drew Stubbs pushed the total to six with a two-run double in the eighth. Ervin Santana scattered five hits but didn’t allow a run to score and the bullpen assortment limited the Blue Jays to just three hits over six innings. Hector Santiago will make his second start for the Twins on Sunday against the Washington Nationals in West Palm Beach. Tyler Duffey will also get some innings, hoping to improve upon his last outing where he allowed six runs in the 19-0 debacle against Tampa Bay. More notes from Saturday in camp…** Ervin Santana, the Twins’ first pitcher to crack the three inning mark this spring, said he was working on his changeup, trying to get comfortable throwing it to both lefties and righties. In his outing, he said he threw about ten changeups. Santana’s slider is his out pitch but the changeup helps keep hitters off-balance and off his slider. In 2016, he threw his changeup as 8 percent of his mix while opponents hit .352 off of it. Since it is a feel pitch, however, it takes some time to get it down. Santana said he doesn’t shy away from opening up his entire arsenal during spring training games, something that he said some pitchers avoid at times. In the third, he threw several changeups up-and-away but continued to dispatch that pitch. “There are some people who go out there and pitch and they don’t have the feel for one type of pitch so they don’t throw it anymore,” Santana said. “I don’t. I just keep throwing it.” Molitor agreed with that mindset. “What I liked is that even though he didn’t quite have a good feel for it, he kept throwing it.” ** Miguel Sano hit a rocket of a home run to left center field. Sano had been struggling this spring simply to make contact. On Friday, Molitor said that the Twins’ third baseman was having some troubles picking up the spin of the baseball and had been fooled on breaking stuff. On the other hand, Sano was just a tick off of the fastball in his swing, Molitor believed. With a 3-0 count in the third, the Twins gave Sano the green light and he pounded a fastball over the left-center field fence to put the team up by three. After relaying the green light sign to third base coach Gene Glynn, Molitor said he turned to Joe Mauer before the 3-0 pitch and asked if Mauer thought Blue Jays pitcher Mark Bolsinger would throw a slider in that situation. Sano hit the home run on the fastball and Mauer replied “He should have.” “He likes to swing 3-0, he tells me all the time,” Molitor said. “He’s in scoring position in the box.” Molitor said that he enjoyed that Sano flashed a short, compact swing on the ball rather than some of his more wild, pull-heavy ones. ** Molitor was asked if that was the first time this spring he’s given the green light on 3-0. Molitor said that he has given the sign several times but he felt that only a few of the hitters have taken the opportunity to swing. “It’s one of those things that you hopefully find out who is fearlessly there,” Molitor said. “You can’t worry about the time where you pop it up or roll it over, you just try to have a plan and execute it.” The Twins haven’t shown much of a tendency to swing during 3-0 counts in the past. Last season they had 115 plate appearances with 3-0 counts. They swung at just 4.9 percent of pitches seen. Only Texas and Colorado watched more pitches go by. ** Max Kepler’s spring has been slow but Molitor was happy to see the two doubles in his first two at-bats. “He got a little feedback today,” said Molitor. “He smoked the ball, a couple of balls to right field.” ** Catcher Mitch Garver -- Twins Daily’s 11th ranked prospect -- put on an impressive display during batting practice prior to Saturday’s game. The right-handed hitter deposited multiple balls onto Hammond Stadium’s berm in left field. In the sixth inning, he smacked a hard grounder which hit the third base bag giving him an easy double and later walked and scored on Drew Stubbs’ double in the eighth. In over 500 at-bats in 2015, Garver hit just four home runs. Last season he hit 12 home runs split between Chattanooga and Rochester. It was with the Lookouts that Garver was able to turn on the power. “Working with Doug Mientkiewicz last summer really did me well,” said Garver. “He and I clicked instantly and we worked together on the same page all season. He gave me a few tips and some pointers. He was really trusting and patient guy, so he understands what it takes to improve your numbers in the minors.” Garver has been praised for his offensive side of the game but one Twins official said the organization was very happy with the work Garver had put into his defensive side. According to their Trackman data, Garver made noticeable improvements in his receiving game after working with new first base coach Jeff Smith. ** Ryan Pressly finished off the game in the ninth, using a mix of fastball, slider and big curve. While the radar gun at Hammond showed him sitting 94 and 95, when he was in a 3-2 count to the Blue Jays’ Reese McGuire, Pressly reached back and blew a 97 mile per hour fastball past the swinging Jay. 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Southern like Brian Dozier? They do have Rudy Hernandez on staff as an assistant hitting coach.

The Minnesota Twins top the Philadelphia Phillies 4-3 on Friday behind solid pitching performances and a pair of home runs from middle infielders. Trevor May and Jose Berrios, both battling for a rotation spot, limited the Phillies to just one run, while Jake Reed, Aaron Slegers, Stephen Gonsalves, and JT Chargois turned in zeros in their appearances. Only Buddy Boshers was roughed up in his lone inning of work. Offensively, the Twins were lifted by home runs for two infielders, Danny Santana and Tommy Field. Outfielder Zack Granite drove home two on a single in the seventh inning to put the Twins ahead for good. The Twins are back home at Hammond Stadium on Saturday. Ervin Santana will take on the Toronto Blue Jays in his second start of the spring. More notes…** Trevor May fared well in his second spring start. The first batter he faced was Cesar Hernandez who May got ahead 0-2 but then misfired with a fastball up and clipped Hernandez in the shoulder. Hernandez ended up coming around to score on a sac fly by Odubel Herrera. May said later that he felt that the transition from the windup to the stretch threw him out of whack for a few batters. He recovered and allowed one single while striking out two Phillies. May said that last season he went away from the windup because he was told by Torii Hunter and Paul Molitor that he was tipping his pitches. Prior to starting his windup, he would close his glove around the ball in his hand and hold it lower in the pocket when he threw his breaking balls and leaving it unclenched when throwing his fastball. May says he has since corrected this and hasn’t had any more issues. “He was doing certain things on certain pitches,” Molitor said after his outing. “If I can see them when I’m not really trying to study that stuff then you know it’s somewhat flagrant.” How is it that Molitor still picks up on these things even when he’s not on the field? “Old habits die hard.” ** Berrios struck out four over two innings but admitted he struggled in his first inning of work. He went deep into counts and walked two. While he didn’t want to use it as an excuse, Berrios said the transition coming in from the bullpen was challenging and didn’t feel fully ready in that initial inning. The Twins would like to see better command out of Berrios, have him avoid rushing his delivery and strive for more efficient innings. ** Miguel Sano struck out in three of his at-bats, albeit the first of which he appeared to check his swing. During Jose Berrios’ post-game presser, Sano sidled up behind the reporters. Berrios was then asked if he thought he could strike out Miguel Sano. Sano shook his head and replied “Everyone can strike me out.” Molitor was not concerned about Sano’s performance so far this spring which has included seven strikeouts in ten plate appearances. “I don’t think he’s recognizing spin great yet,” he said. “He's had some good swings at fastballs, just maybe a tick late. He’s got the right approach, trying to stay inside instead of trying to hit everything to left field.” ** Eddie Rosario made back-to-back long distance bus rides to Sarasota and then Clearwater. “The schedule doesn’t always work out,” Molitor said. “I told myself I’m not going to be overly concerned about who goes on what trip. It’s about getting time for them to play. Got some at-bats yesterday, center field today, might play right field on Sunday.” Molitor said that the Puerto Rico team was contemplating using him as a right fielder so the Twins manager obliged and will give him some reps on the other side of the field. He added that it was a good opportunity to try outfielders in other places in the event of an in-season injury. Rosario, who has been given limited exposure versus left-handed pitching in his major league career, faced the Orioles’ side-arming lefty Donnie Hart and the at-bat went pretty much as you would expect. ** Molitor shared his thoughts on how things are working out with the new members of his coaching staff. Click here to view the article

From what I understand, Molitor has never been resistant to anything new. He might not be aware of everything available but he definitely listens to the ideas.