Bob Sacamento

One scout does go on record saying of all the prospects in SL, he was the most MLB ready. The question of him playing CF in the future rests will his shoulder elsewise he's in a corner spot (LF>RF). The SL top 10 5 years ago, pretty impressive: 1. *Giancarlo Stanton,of, Jacksonville (Marlins) 2. *Dustin Ackley, 2b, West Tenn (Mariners) 3. *Michael Pineda, rhp, West Tenn (Mariners) 4. *Mike Minor, lhp, Mississippi (Braves) 5. *Brett Lawrie, 2b, Huntsville (Brewers) 6. *Dee Gordon, ss, Chattanooga (Dodgers) 7. *Devin Mesoraco, c, Carolina (Reds) 8. *Brett Jackson, of, Tennessee (Cubs) 9. *Chris Archer, rhp, Tennessee (Cubs) 10. *Matt Dominguez, 3b, Jacksonville (Marlins)

Just for giggles, here are Jeter and Gordon's lines in LoA at age 19: Gordon:. .277/.336/,360/.696 in 120G, 481AB, 1HR, 39BB, 88K, 25/33 SB Jeter: .295/.376/.394/.770 in 128G, 515AB, 5HR, 58BB, 95K, 18/27 SB Not too bad considering Gordon sucked it up until it warmed up in June in his first taste of playing in cold weather regularly. Nick will start the 2016 year in Ft. Myers (High A) and could see AA by season's end.

You want the truth? Because I don't think you can handle the truth Poulson's command was shaky at best just as it has been for most of this year in ExtST, GCL and now Instructs. The velocity is usually 93-97mph (avg ~95), he just doesn't seem to know where it's going. Sadly, the longer the year went on the worse it seemed like he was getting. It got to the point where he was strickly throwing fastballs because the slider wasn't even viable. He's a good kid and I root for him but it looks like a really big uphill battle. Plus side is even with his age, he still has very little innings on his shoulder. The other flamethrower in camp this summer has been 6'8 Johan "Flaca" Quezada, kid hits 97-98mph routinely and pops 100 every now and then. His issue is the same too as he doesn't have much control but with so many moving parts it's hard to keep his delivery repeatable. I've got about an hour's worth of video on him cumulatively and from a kinesiology standpoint, the issues are erratic release point and inability to keep a consistent stride and plant foot. He's still got time on his side and tall lanky pitchers usually take longer to keep control over their body/mechanics.

Synopsis on Jose Berrios: -looks like a strong #3 starter -improved changeup this year -changes speeds and locates very well -bulldog on mound -throws too many strikes -FB +, CH avg/+, SL -/avg

Synopsis of Kepler: -shortens swing with two strikes -goes opposite way -future power still developing -CF best position (plus speed, good routes, average arm) -plus bat speed plus approach and recognition at plate Without some wheeling and dealing, Twins OF is looking like it's going to get crowded real quick.

Ceder's hop is definitely exaggerated, his control is spotty. Here is video I shot of Ceder over the weekend

Just to give you an idea, here is a little blurb from Jeter's report nearly 20 years ago: “Besides plus tools, Jeter understands the strike zone, runs the bases intelligently and has leadership skills. He has outstanding range and agile feet. Jeter decreased his errors from 56 to 25 this year, but then made 11 in 16 AFL games … He makes lazy throws on easy plays, something the Yankees believe he will grow out of with experience.” And of his brother Dee, 5 years ago: "He has plus bat speed and while he’s primarily a fastball hitter, he has shown he can adjust to breaking pitches. Though he hits balls hard consistently, Gordon lacks power and his approach isn’t designed for it, so he’ll likely max out at 10 homers per year. He comes to the plate with an aggressive mentality … and needs to learn to see more pitches. He carries that same aggressiveness with him on the bases and in the field as well. ”

LOL that was exactly who I was thinking of when he was pitching as I've heard statheads talk about the added extension and thus added perceived velocity because he's releasing the ball even closer to plate

It was another beautiful weekend for baseball in sunny Southwest Florida. The baseball gods were smiling down as there was a rematch of last weekends pitching prospect phenoms of Stephen Gonsalves of the Twins vs 17 year old wunderkid Anderson Espinoza. Before the matchup, I got a little video of Gonsalves warming up in the bullpen where he appeared a little wild. After his two innings of pitching, where he showed off his plus changeup that upticked his 90-92 mph fastball and the feel of a good curveball (~74 mph). When I asked about his bullpen warmups, he said he wasn't feeling the slider so scraped it for the outing. When asked to order his comfortability with his pitches Stephen said usually it's a FB/CH/SL/CV order as his curveball is a fourth pitch offering that he's working on to give the hitters another look. As soon as Instructional League is over with Gonsalves said he'll shut it down pitching wise until January when he'll start long tossing and by February he'll be ready for his bullpen sessions, in the meantime he'll be ramping up his workout schedule. Making an appearance over the weekend was Twins' masher Adam Brett Walker II, he's only gotten bigger since I saw him in Spring Training, truly a monster. Walker was impressive at the plate working deep counts, making pitchers work while taking his big cuts. Adam left the game on Friday after four at bats with slight soreness in his wrist but was good enough to play on Saturday while maning leftfield at Fenway South. He got to face some advanced pitching in BoSox prospects Anderson Espinoza, Logan Allen, and Michael Kopech before he heads out to the Arizona Fall League to face even better competition. Another prospect in town getting some reps before the AFL was righty power reliever Jake Reed. Reed looked real good at times in his one inning outing showing off a nasty slider with a hard 95mph fastball yet having a little command issues. Yet one Twins prospect got the lion's share of the praise from the 20 or so scouts that were on hand this weekend, and that would be SS Nick Gordon. Gordon sat out on Friday but played SS and batted second on Saturday. The scouts I talked to raved about Nick, one AL East scout echoed the same sentiments I heard from BoSox coach Joe Oliver in that Nick's going to be better than his older brother Dee. The comp that the scout put on him might be unfair but should make Twins' fan overjoyed was that of pinstripe legend Derek Jeter. The scout elaborated for me that Gordon has all the tools across the board (he's going to stay at SS, can get on base, can steal, can hit and has some pop that he'll grow into), has great leadership, and great overall makeup. Other tidbits from Instructs, Mike Cederoth has a very "unique" delivery if you've never seen it, where most pitchers push off the rubber, Mike takes a little hop and actually pushes off an inch or two in front of the rubber. The Red Sox players/coaches were shouting from the bench that "he's cheating" but the umpire said he was within the guidelines of "the book". By doing so, Cederoth is able to increase his extension and release point which in turn makes that 93 mph look like it's 95 mph. Lamonte Wade shows an advanced approach at the plate, working counts and puts good wood on the ball often; keep on eye on him. Tyree Davis is itching to get on the ballfield and from the sounds of it might be ready for the last week of Instructs. If you don't know, Davis injured his elbow and elected for rehab for the torn joint instead of surgery. Tyree has bulked up while he's been off the field, adding 20 lb of muscle; he wants to play winter ball but is unsure if he'll get the okay from management. Yorman Landa saw some game action that had his fastball at 94-95mph and threw for two innings. Pitchers on Friday included Stephen Gonsalves (2IP start), Yorman Landa (2IP), Alex Robinson, Logan Lombana, and Johan Quezada. Pitchers on Saturday included Sam Clay (4IP start), Brandon Poulson, Jake Reed, Mike Theofanopoulos, Mike Cederoth, and Rich Condeelis. I'll be back next weekend as the Twins wrap up their Instructional League play and players either head home for the winter or off to Arizona, Mexico, Australia or the Caribbean for more playing time.

It was another beautiful weekend for baseball in sunny Southwest Florida. The baseball gods were smiling down as there was a rematch of last weekends pitching prospect phenoms of Stephen Gonsalves of the Twins vs 17 year old wunderkid Anderson Espinoza. Before the matchup, I got a little video of Gonsalves warming up in the bullpen where he appeared a little wild. After his two innings of pitching, where he showed off his plus changeup that upticked his 90-92 mph fast and the feel of a good curveball (~74 mph). When I asked about his bullpen warmups, he said he wasn't feeling the slider so scraped it for the outing. When asked to order his comfortability with his pitches Stephen said usually it's a FB/CH/SL/CV order as his curveball is a fourth pitch offering that he's working on to give the hitters another look. As soon as Instructional League is over with Gonsalves said he'll shut it down pitching wise until January when he'll start long tossing and by February he'll be ready for his bullpen sessions, in the meantime he'll be ramping up his workout schedule. Making an appearance over the weekend was Twins' masher Adam Brett Walker II, he's only gotten bigger since I saw him in Spring Training, truly a man-child. Walker was impressive at the plate working deep counts, making pitchers work while taking his big cuts. Adam left the game on Friday after four at bats with slight soreness in his wrist but was good enough to play on Saturday while maning leftfield at Fenway South. He got to face some advanced pitching in BoSox prospects Anderson Espinoza, Logan Allen, and Michael Kopech before he heads out to the Arizona Fall League to face even better competition. Another prospect in town getting some reps before the AFL was righty power reliever Jake Reed. Reed looked real good at times in his one inning outing showing off a nasty slider with a hard 95mph fastball yet having a little command issues. Yet one Twins prospect got the lion's share of the praise from the 20 or so scouts that were on hand this weekend, and that would be SS Nick Gordon. Gordon sat out on Friday but played SS and batted second on Saturday. The scouts I talked to raved about Nick, one AL East scout echoed the same sentiments I heard from BoSox coach Joe Oliver in that Nick's going to be better than his older brother Dee. The comp that the scout put on him might be unfair but should make Twins' fan overjoyed was that of pinstripe legend Derek Jeter. The scout elaborated for me that Gordon has all the tools across the board (he's going to stay at SS, can get on base, can steal, can hit and has some pop that he'll grow into), has great leadership, and great overall makeup. Other tidbits from Instructs, Mike Cederoth has a very "unique" delivery if you've never seen it, where most pitchers push off the rubber, Mike takes a little hop and actually pushes off an inch or two in front of the rubber. The Red Sox players/coaches were shouting from the bench that "he's cheating" but the umpire said he was within the guidelines of "the book". By doing so, Cederoth is able to increase his extension and release point which in turn makes that 93 mph look like it's 95 mph. Lamonte Wade shows an advanced approach at the plate, working counts and puts good wood on the ball often; keep on eye on him. Tyree Davis is itching to get on the ballfield and from the sounds of it might be ready for the last week of Instructs. If you don't know, Davis injured his elbow and elected for rehab for the torn joint instead of surgery. Tyree has bulked up while he's been off the field, adding 20 lb of muscle; he wants to play winter ball but is unsure if he'll get the okay from management. Yorman Landa saw some game action that had his fastball at 94-95mph and threw for two innings. Pitchers on Friday included Stephen Gonsalves (2IP start), Yorman Landa (2IP), Alex Robinson, Logan Lombana, and Johan Quezada. Pitchers on Saturday included Sam Clay (4IP start), Brandon Poulson, Jake Reed, Mike Theofanopoulos, Mike Cederoth, and Rich Condeelis. I'll be back next weekend as the Twins wrap up their Instructional League play and players either head home for the winter or off to Arizona, Mexico, Austraila, or the Caribbean for more playing time.

There were ample opportunities for the scouts to see him in GCL, I know I was there as much as they were. On BAs' podcast, Ben Badler was just talking about how he relied on the scouts who are at these spring training complexes more so than the coaches who don't get a chance to see everyone in the league like in the Appy League. That probably accounts for some of the discrepancy in ratings more so than anything else.

Cederoth aka "Cedar" is in the Instructional League and throwing, not sure what his injury was but I'll ask tomorrow if I I see him.

I swear I've seen Poulson throw more often this year than the Twins scouts have, he pitched at least once a weekend in ExtSp, GCL, and now Instructs. He's throwing pretty much 90+% FB with velocity 90-96mph avg 93mph, he's having difficulty controlling it. The slider is his breaking ball and he can throw it 87mph but its usually a ball. The octane thrower in camp now is 6'8 Johan Quezada who hits 98-99mph regularly, he's wild just not as much as Poulson.

I might be biased but Kohl Stewart is the antithesis of Jose Berrios, who probably has the best stuff in organization yet is also extremely coachable and an amazing person to boot. On Kohl, I've heard the stories from Twins' fans who live in Iowa (when he played at Cedar Rapids) about how he'd blow off player-fan meet and greets before the game (a staple of minor league ball), was cantankerous to be around, and I've had a few not so warm encounters with him myself albeit he was better in Fort Myers. Still the most telling was an unnamed coach (believe it or not they do read boards) telling me Kohl's "hard headed" and that seemed like it was being nice. Seems like he would have been a perfect replacement for Manziel at Texas A&M

Usually in Low levels there isn't much of an issue with shaking of signs as it's often coming from the dugout depending on the team. Of course there are always pitchers who think they know better than their catcher or manager, I'm not saying Kohl is one of them but I'm definitely not saying otherwise. Personally after the last two years of seeing how he interacts with staff, coaches, and fans, he comes off as pretty arrogant and him being humbled with failure might not be a bad thing.

Well I nominate one of you guys to tell him, because he's going to be pissed off returning to Fort Myers to start 2016 despite his numbers warranting it.

His biggest test will be in AA next year with the more advanced pitching prospects, as long as his D stays stellar and OPS around .600 he'll keep climbing up the system and the more pitches he sees the more likely he'll improve his contact and walk rate. He's posted a ~.315 BABIP over last two seasons in A ball leagues I'm interested in seeing if he keeps that up.

He started to hit the ball more in the air than on the ground and that made big difference in the number of hits tht fell, he also appeared to square more up on the ball. I saw every club this season, some more than others Cards, Yanks, StoneCrabs (Rays), so yes this is warranted but I wouldn't read too much into it. Honestly, his ceiling is probably a .270/.330/.330/.660ish line with gold glove defense at SS but that's everything right, still his glove will continue him along the organizational ladder. Utility guy is more likely but a great guy to have on the bench of a MLB club

Synopsis on Vielma: -Best defense in system -soft hands, plus arm -no power -good bunter -good speed, improved instincts over last year

If you base it off the old 20-80 scout grade (50 is MLB avg), currently Kohl's FB is 55, SL 45, CH 50, CV 50, command 40. Gonsalves FB 55, SL 40, CH 50 CV 35, command 40. My personal grades on the two.

It's not a swing and miss pitch at this point and doesn't look like its' going to be. Of his four offerings the slider is used the least and is the least effective.

Well you might want to tell Stephen that's why he's in Instructs because when I asked him, he seemed pretty much clueless why he was back after the season he just had. But yes, Gonsalves' slider and curveball are lagging behind his FB-CH. There is also the worry that he needs to build up better stamina and strength to go further into ballgames

Having seen the Miracle in action weekly this year, Stewart's stuff is better but just isn't playing up. Synopsis of Stewart: -K rate one of worst in minors -generates lot of groundballs -looks like back of rotation starter -FB, sinker, changeup all lead to groundballs -pitch sequencing needs to improve .

It's that time of year again, where the minor league season is winding down but new life and a new season are just around the corner. Just like adolescence, the Instructional League is often an awkward yet still pivotal period in a player's development process. The bulk of the players who are in the FIL are new to the organization; they were taken in the 2015 draft and just got their feet wet in the GCL and short season Elizabethon. Pretty much they were coached on the fly. Now in the FIL the coaching staff gets to work in depth with the players and their deficiencies. Of the 44 players in camp, 16 of them were drafted this year. The new draftees aren't the only ones in camp. The rest of the roster is comprised of players who missed time due to injuries, players getting ready for AFL/winterball, players working on new position and pitchers working on new pitches. Then there are the headscratchers. A player who had a great season, reached career highs, has been to Instructs before and seemingly doesn't have much to work on. Over the past four seasons of watching Instructs, I've seen the light bulb go on in quite a few players and make amazing strides in their game. I've seen Jose Berrios further develop his changeup, I've seen "roving coach" Paul Molitor show off his abilities to inspire, I've seen Derek Rodriguez the hitter and Derek Rodriguez the pitcher, I've seen Adam Brett Walker work on his bunting, and it goes on and on. During the past week, I was fortunate enough to see a Camp Day in addition to two games against the Red Sox. Camp Days are often various offensive, defensive, baserunning and pitching drill sessions broken up into groups sets. When I showed up the offensive players in camp (minus a few playoff-bound players) were participating in various slide drills. Instructor Joel Lepel was in charge and had Jermaine Palacios as his lead example for every technique. Lepel always picks a few players out and razzes them more than others. The day's pick was Kolten Kendrick or as Joel referred to him as "Cottontop", the meaning could be several different choices but we'll just go with Kolten's hair looks like a red cottonball. The slide difficulty slowly progressed from straight hands up, to sliding past the bag with extended arm, to barrel-rolling, and finally breaking up a double play. Visually, it was appealing as the player's starting points were staggered off in domino fashion, starting to run as the other descended for his slide.Catcher Robert Molina took the sliding serious enough that he split his pants, literally. Afterwards, the players took to the batting cages. Later on, Twins took on the Red Sox at JetBlue Park where the game was highly attended by nearly 20 scouts, everyone from Twins' front office members, Scouting Director Deron Johnson, lead scout Mike Radcliff, as well as scouts from the Rays, Astros, MLB.com and Yankees. Fernando Romero started the game going two innings before being relieved by Brandon Poulson for two and then flamethrower Johan Quezada. Of the bunch, Romero looked the sharpest, locating his fastball while Poulson and Quezada were both erratic yet also popping 98 mph. I swear I've seen Poulson throw every weekend this summer, he shows off a high octane fastball but he doesn't know where it's going most of the time and his slider's even worse. It got bad enough at times that he was strictly throwing fastballs. Still the organization sees enough raw talent that they've kept him around despite his numbers. Johan Quezada is another strong arm in camp who is still growing into his body and frame, yet still throws up big velocity numbers. On several outings in the GCL, Quezada showed a fastball that hit 100mph and a slider in the upper 80's. As one would expect, with all the moving parts to a 6'6 and still-growing physique, repeating his delivery has been a problem. The hitting side was lackluster for the most part, but Nick Gordon collected a couple of hits, and Zander Weil took a charge into the deepest part of the park for a fly out. In the field, Flash Jr. displayed extremely quick hands and a strong accurate arm while covering plus lateral ground. Gordon has a first step in the field that allows him to have plus range. Jorge Fernandez was behind the plate and threw out a couple of baserunners with his strong, accurate arm. The lineup consisted of CF Christian Caverness, SS Nick Gordon, DH Jermaine Palacios, 1B Zander Weil, C Jorge Fernandez, DH Brian Navarreto, LF Lamonte Wade, RF Daniel Kihle, 2B Sean Miller, 3B Luis Arraez. Rafael Valera was the warmup catcher for the weekend, just trying to reps as he put it. On Saturday, the small crowd was treated to a special matchup of Twins top pitching prospect Stephan Gonsalves and Red Sox phenom Anderson Espinoza. Both held the opponents scoreless for two innings and looked good. Deron Johnson came away saying he was impressed with what he saw from Gonsalves in his brief stint where he walked one and as he put it "picked off his first baseman". Stephan has a good move to first and Kolten Kendrick was not expecting it. After the game and the trainer got to stretch him out , I talked to the big lefty about his year and what he's doing for Instructs. According to the Catholic Cathedral HS grad, the key to his season was his changeup. Going into this year, Gonsalves threw his change maybe 10% of the time. After working with coaches last year in Instructionals, he started to feel more comfortable with the offering and threw it 27% of the time this year. That impressed me, not only seeing his change take a step forward but also that he knew exactly how often he threw it this year which tells me they stressed it in his exit interview at the end of the regular season. The biggest question I think both of us had was, what is he doing in instructionals. He's not working on a new pitch, he hit career highs in innings pitched already; the consensus that the two of us drew was that he's just getting further stretched out for next year. All in all, I'll be back next weekend as the Twins and Red Sox will once again take on each other! Image courtesy of Bob Sacamento View full article