Bob Sacamento

His hit tool is considered better than Stu's was in college and scouts like his swing better but still I get the comp as both are elite defenders. I think Twins fans forgot/don't know how good behind the plate Turner is.

I wanna say near there but like 91-93 topping 94/95. Mixed with that change of his that is so devastating, it's similar to Gonsalves.

Well Cooper Johnson is the most advanced defensive HS catcher in the draft along w having good hit tools. Right now his glove is far better than his bat. He was the Team USA 18u catcher and all reports that he has tremendous work ethic and is a great team leader. So of you're looking at catchers, who are staying catchers, he's one to follow. Here's video I took of Cooper at the 2015 WWBA Championship https://youtu.be/xwX1N9JoV48

So are they!! To me (and Fernando) he seems ready to go and get an assignment to Cedar Rapids. I asked him what was holding him back and he didn't know - he feels his velo is back up to where it should be and he's locating his pitches as well as he was before his injuries. Romero has been hitting 98 for little over a month now. Not sure if they are going to stretch him out or only keep him in short relief outings to start with.

The Twins Extended Spring Training schedule is in full swing and over the weekend (4/29-4/30) they played against their crosstown rivals the Boston Red Sox. The two clubs faced off in split squad action, I kept most of my attention to Virgil Vasquez's club, which featured four lefties pitching on the day in Alex Robinson, Andrew Vasquez, Cameron Booser, and Anthony McIver. It also had a strong starting lineup: SS Gorge Munoz DH Roberto Gonzalez 2B Travis Blankenhorn 3B Trey Cabbage LF Jean Carlos Arias 1B Kyle Kendrick C Jhon Alvarez CF Lean Marrero RF Aaron Whitefield DH Robert Molina The biggest surprise with the lineup was seeing Blankenhorn at 2B, as it seems like the organization is moving him all around the field to find his best position. He made a couple of good plays at second, and he appears to have the footwork and range to make it a viable option. His draftmate and former roommate, Trey Cabbage, has started to come into his own as the club batted him in the cleanup spot and he rewarded that in the first inning with a sac fly that put the Twins up 1-0. Of the two, Cabbage is the better defender at the hot corner; he could probably play a little SS if he had to as well. Outside of Cabbage's sac fly the offense was held quiet for most of the day. On the pitching side, it was my first time seeing Alex Robinson in game action and he held his own. In 2 innings, Alex only gave up two singles, 1 run, no walks, and struck out one. His fastball was sitting 88-94 mph (avg 91), his curveball 78-82 mph (81 avg), and slider 85-87 mph (86 avg). I talked to him afterwards, he felt good, stated he was working on throwing his offspeed for strikes and locating his fastball. The gem of the day had to go to lefty reliever Andrew Vasquez, the 2015 32nd round pick out of Westmont College was just downright filthy. In two innings, Andrew gave up no hits, no walks and struck out six and he only needed 26 pitches to do so. Of course 19 of those 26 pitches were curveballs that the Red Sox hitters just couldn't touch. The two relievers after Andrew didn't fair as well in Cameron Booser and Anthony McIver. Booser threw two innings with his fastball at 93-98 mph and a changeup 84-85 mph. In the stands, I sat with rehabbing pitcher Fernando Romero who had just thrown on Thursday, where he's sitting 95-98 mph with ease. He said he feels great and is ready to get called up from extended ball. In the other game, Jovani Moran started the game and had a decent lineup behind him as well in SS Alex Perez 2B Ariel Montesino 1B Lewin Diaz 3B Amaurys Minier LF Brad Hartong C Rainis Silva RF Roni Tapia CF Tyree Davis DH Ruar Verkerk Yet they still couldn't muster out a run. Probably the biggest news though was that Lewis Thorpe who threw on Saturday, his fastball was 88-92mph. He did get nailed by a comebacker to the mound but stayed in the ballgame **Pictures and Video will be up as soon as TD's database is up and working**

Slick fielder playing 2B/SS, good bunter, has a good plate approach.

Lewis Thorpe threw 2 innings on Saturday against the EXST BoSox hitting 89-92mph. Looked good for some of his first live game action. He did take a liner to his calf but seemed alright.

Thorpe still has a while (month or two) but Romero has been looking good since the end of spring training, hitting 98mph with his fastball!!

Out of my own selfish reasons, I hope you are wrong as I have FSL AllStar game (at Hammond) and was hoping to see him start the game!

If it's his right ankle, he's been nursing that since spring training. I watched as the Miracles' trainer Alan Rail was showing an FGCU intern the proper taping for an inversion sprain, they had taped it up nearly everyday towards the end of camp. With his catching load, not exactly something you want to play around with.

I'm guessing I'm probably the best option for EXST as I live here and try to make it to a game a week. I'll just post my article in here then

Exactly, I don't know if any of you have looked at upcoming free agent starting pitchers for 2017 but it's Strasburg then followed by Brett Anderson, in other words its really really weak. Even the trade market is thin - Sonny Gray (maybe), Andrew Cashner, Tyson Ross, Charlie Morton. So if Nolasco can somehow stay healthy and pitch even just average than he can help out a team this year and next, there will be a suitor(s).

Nick Gordon has looked real good thus far in 2016 as he's spraying the ball all over the field and using his wheels to his advantage. He's got a high BABIP right now but with his speed he's more likely to keep it up although it's going to regress. My biggest grip is the lack of walks he has so far but I gotta say I'm happy to see him make so much contact this early as it'll help build his confidence; so it's a decent trade off. This kid has everything to be the best SS in Twins history albeit that's not saying much given Minnesota's blackhole at SS.

No doubt that's what you do with failed starters, it's just a developmental process vs how soon do you get a return on your investment. What Ryan has done is interesting in that by drafting college relievers (Duffy, Jay, etc) theoritically they have low miles on their arms, they should climb the system fast and if they aren't able to be stretched out you have a RP ready for the show sooner than most. I'm not saying it's a good strategy just interesting as the game is becoming more and more reliever dominated. I wouldn't be surprised in 10-20 years that a starter only goes thru a lineup twice before a RP is brought in becomes the standard.

I saw Manning throw at the Perfect Game WWBA in Jupiter, FL last October. Kid had nasty stuff 76-78 slider/curve with a fastball 91-94 mph and was named MVPitcher for the tourney. In his first game, he threw two innings of the EvoShield No-hitter striking out all six batters before coming back to pitch five innigns three days later in the championship game. His dad is former NBAer Rich Manning. I talked to Deron at the event, as he was watching several big HS arms, said "he liked what he saw". In fact, Deron had a front row seat to watch Josh Lowe with the Braves Scout Team at the WWBA too. Low had the fifth highest exit velocity at the tourney, so he hits the ball really really hard. He also made a couple of good plays at third and showed off a CANNON of an arm at the hot corner.

It's an interesting strategy that's for sure, but with escalating contracts all around baseball especially the large influx in RP free agency, we might see more and more of it.

Cabbage is one of my favorite players in the system, if not the favorite. Good kid, great stroke, has the athleticism to stay at 3B with a strong accurate arm. And I'll also add in one of the old scout lines, "Did you see his dad?" - in that Trey's dad is very muscular so one can envision what a few more years of growth does to Cabbage's frame. One thing I want to add is that one would think these two, Blankenhorn and Cabbage, who are competing for the same position would have a little animosity towards each other but that is the furthest from the truth. The two former roommates, hang out and hit the town together on their down time.

You should see them in person!!!!

I just got to mention that in the Bottom of the 4th, TJ White tried tagging from second on a deep flyball to right from Swim when the Manatee RF Clint Coulter threw an absolute ROPE on the money to gun down White at third. Needed a perfect throw to get him and it was! Video of it is circulating somewhere...

Last I saw, Thorpe was still here in Fort Myers rehabbing, he's been on the Twins' TJ protocol which is pretty regiment from the sounds of it - certain benchmarks of when to throw, how to throw, how many to throw, what to throw, etc. The good news is he is at least throwing on flat ground at this point. Hope to see him throw in an extended spring game soon.

I don't know who that was on the mound the other night but that was NOT the Kohl Stewart I saw last year, that looked like the kid I saw pitch in a couple GCL games in 2013. Everything he threw had nasty movement and he seamingly threw it where ever he wanted Just shows that ST means nothing, as the last time I saw him pitch he was 91-93 throwing a sinker and only flashed a few of his high octane fastball even though you could see he still had it. His mechanics looked repeatable throughout the night something I can't saw the last start he had in Ft Myers I saw. My bigger questions out of this are: Can he keep this up? Why was velo so low last year - out of design or injury? Because after the one start, it looks like Kohl was either pitching not at 100% in 2015 and still pitched through it learning how to pitch instead of throw OR that the organization wanted him to harness his pitching ability and work on developing a sinker knowing that he had high velo in his back pocket. I don't know and I doubt we find out because Kohl is as tight lip as they come. Hopefully with further success he'll start being happier. Either way, Kohl gives his last start a "Thumbs Up"