formerly33

Okay ... I want to make a suggestion. I, too, am going to get all my players up. I had only planned to adopt Tyler Jay, Luke Westphal, and Todd Van Steensel this year, and fortunately they're all Fort Myers pitchers, but it's overwhelming to have to take a dozen or nothing. I'm still going to make sure all the Fort Myers pitchers get covered, but I'm going to go about that my own way unless TD ownership objects. Fort Myers pitchers still belong to me and are my responsibility. However, anyone who wants to adopt one of them is welcome to do so. I have created pages for Luke Westphal, Todd Van Steensel, and Kohl Stewart so far, and I'm taking Tyler Jay, too, but the following are still available: Luke Bard Raul Fernandez Brian Gilbert Stephen Gonsalves Trevor Hildenberger Felix Jorge Yorman Landa Alex Muren Randy Rosario Keaton Steele I will continue to create pages for these players, so if you want to adopt them you'll have to step in now. ETA: I'd be more than happy to take all of Fort Myers if that's what it takes to keep Adopt a Prospect going. It's my favorite feature of TD, and it's going to be a sad day when it's gone.

Clearly biased. They wanted Dozier to hit a go ahead home run.

And the referees for the Wild game.

Except, of course, when an opportunity for Abad joke arises.

Yeah. Trail Mix is a funky obstacle course where they mix in random weirdness with your M&M's.

What game are you watching? The Nats have been batting when the Twins pitch thus far on my stream.

JIMMER?!

Nationals announcer: "And DREW!!!! - into the glove of Dozier. ER!!"

I wonder why you fail to specify that the young woman was also evil and the old woman was also beautiful. Ageist.

As much as I hate the puppymonkeybaby, I have to admit it stuck in our minds. Not bad marketing, that.

Yeah ... it was all fine and dandy to get that infraction point, but it was pretty pricey ... I had a couple posts deleted, and I even had to promise not to troll anymore. I enjoyed the warning while it lasted, but I'm not sure if I'm going to be buying any more in the near future. I rate it three stars.

Hey! Why didn't I get this treatment?

Like this? http://img.pandawhale.com/39316-Pretty-Please-gif-Despicable-M-kUou.gif

Yeah ... sane ... sane09 ... sane16 ... sane17 ... why?

Not on Spotify.

I have the house almost completely to myself ... what should I listen to? Twins game is off limits. I'm not listening to the crap they've been putting out lately ... if they want to hit the charts, they better start performing some of their bestsellers from a decade or more ago. I have the Ramones on right now. I'd turn on Nirvana, but my sisters stalk me on Spotify, and the sound quality on YouTube is terrible. As much as I appreciate the Ramones, they're too cheerful. I prefer Kurt Cobain's cynical morbidity.

Cute bookends.

Which of these erroneous words have you ingested thus far?

Todd Van Steensel, a 25-yr-old closer from Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, is a right handed closer for the Fort Myers Miracle. Interestingly enough, this is not his first shot at affiliated baseball; indeed, it is not even his second but rather his third chance to play professionally here in the States. Todd’s baseball career began as a fashion conscious 7-yr-old who signed up for tee-ball because he liked the way the uniforms looked. He had a talent for the game and worked hard, and on January 23, 2009, he was signed by the Philadelphia Phillies. He played a year at the Rookie level, posting a 2-1 record with 29 strikeouts in 29.1 innings pitched. However, his ERA was terrible at 5.83, and the Phillies released him the following spring. Todd Van Steensel (left) and Adam O'Neill, Aussie players who signed with the Phillies and Mets in '09 | Image courtesy of Troy Bendeich That offseason Todd returned to Australia to play winter ball and work out some more, going 0-1 with a 7.94 ERA for the Sydney Blue Sox in the 2010-2011 ABL, and on June 6, 2011, he was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Minnesota Twins. Once again, things didn’t go too well as he posted a 5.68 ERA over 57 innings. As luck would have it, he picked up 5 wins and only 2 losses. However, it was sheer talent rather than luck that collected 58 strikeouts over those 57 innings. It was during the 2011/2012 ABL season on the Blue Sox that Van Steensel rediscovered himself on the mound, striking out 25 in 21.2 innings while posting a much improved ERA of 3.32. That spring he was released by the Twins, and he went to Europe to play for the Corendon Kinheim in the Dutch Major Leagues. During his time there, he struck out 9 over 9.2 innings with an ERA of 2.79. His stint was cut short by a non-field related injury in July which sent him back to Australia to sit out the rest of the season. Playing winter baseball once again for the Sydney Blue Sox during the 2012-2013 season, Todd made 15 appearances from the bullpen, allowing 7 earned runs over 18 innings for a 3.50 ERA, striking out 23, and walking 10. Once again, baseball scouts expressed an interest in the Aussie pitcher, and when the Twins decided to give him another chance and presented him with an offer to another contract, Todd jumped at the opportunity to return to the organization and signed to a minor league deal on February 6, 2014. In 2014 at Cedar Rapids, Todd’s lifelong desire to be a closer was fulfilled as he closed out 18 games in 23 appearances, posting a 1.30 ERA, and picking up 8 saves whilst striking out 45 and walking a miniscule 9 batters. In July he was promoted to High A, and he went on to win the Florida State League Championship with the Miracle that year after picking up a win and a save in 16 games in the regular season, hurling 23.2 innings in relief and allowing only 15 hits. He ended the season with an impressive 1.39 ERA on 2 teams. In 2015, Todd pitched for Fort Myers and picked up 13 saves in 16 opportunities, a 2-4 record, 81 strikeouts, and a 2.32 ERA and 1.29 WHIP in 66 innings. Always a fan of former MLB pitcher Dontrelle Willis, Van Steensel has modeled his mechanics after Willis’s unconventional pitching style which included a high leg kick and exaggerated twisting motion. Although he has toned the mimicry down over the years, the motions are still quite apparent, even in pictures. Todd's delivery | Image courtesy of Rinaldi Photos via Flickr

Kohl Stewart, a 21-yr-old right handed pitcher, turned down a football and baseball scholarship at Texas A&M after being drafted 4th overall by the Minnesota Twins in the 2013 First-Year Player Draft following a tremendous season at St. Pius X High School in Houston, Texas, in which he posted a 5-1 record with an 0.18 ERA and clubbed 10 home runs, earning honors to the 2013 Gatorade Texas High School Player of the Year award. http://stmedia.startribune.com/images/17_DRAFT060514STEWART_30044192.JPG Kohl Stewart delivers a pitch during a game with the Elizabethton Twins in 2013 | Image courtesy of startribune.com Drafted for his potential, Stewart was raw and definitely a project going forward. Though he has good stuff with a 60 fastball, plus slider, and additional curve and changeup which show potential of being Major League average, his strikeout numbers have been a topic of continued concern over the past few years, especially given the quality of his pitches. In his defense, he has had an injury riddled pro career, struggling with a shoulder injury which landed him on the disabled list in each of his first two years and spending another three weeks on the DL early in the 2015 season due to right elbow inflammation. However, although he remained healthy the rest of last season, his ability to miss bats showed little to no sign of improvement. With 24 strikeouts in 20 innings pitched in Kohl's first year of affiliated baseball, his strikeouts per nine stood at 10.8 at the end of the year after pitching in the Appalachian and Gulf Coast Leagues. That number was to drop to 6.4 the following year in Cedar Rapids (meanwhile, his previous BB9 of 1.8 rose to 2.5), but he maintained a 2.59 ERA and earned a promotion to Fort Myers. The following year his SO9 dropped to a glaring 4.9, and once again his BB9 rose, this time to 3.1. Despite this, restricting his opponents to softly hit groundballs led to a decent ERA of 3.20. In his career playing professional baseball, he has consistently allowed little hard contact and draws more than two groundouts for every fly out, and in his 253.2 innings in the minors, he has allowed only 7 home runs. This year, Kohl is already showing improvement in the strikeout department after just three games at Fort Myers. It's a small sample size, but it could be the beginning of a breakout year for the young pitcher. In his first game of the season, he went 6 innings, walking 1 and striking out 7. During his next start, he went another 6 innings and struck out 6. On the 20th, he went 5.1 innings before things began to fall apart in the 6th, resulting in 3 earned runs, but he picked up 8 strikeouts. That equates to a slash line of a 1-0 record, 2.60 ERA, 21 strikeouts, and only 3 walks in 17.1 innings pitched. Kohl is still young and doesn't need to be added to the 40-man roster until after the 2017 season and then has three additional option years, so the Twins can allow him plenty of time to develop at his own pace. He ended 2015 going deeper into games than he had at any other point since being drafted, and if he can stay healthy this year and control his pitches for more strikeouts, we can look forward to seeing him in Chattanooga by the end of the season. Most of all, it's important to remember that he's still a 21-yr-old in High A who has already suffered drawbacks to his career in the form of injuries. No need to panic - yet. http://www.captivephotons.com/Events/Miracle/Players/Kohl-Stewart/i-MZXHQNn/2/X3/Miracle%20v%20Bradenton%2004-08-2016%20-%20DD5_9450_71938-X3.jpg Image courtesy of captivephotons.com

Nunez 2B Mauer RF Sano 3B Park 1B Escobar SS Rosario LF Suzuki C Gibson P Buxton CF Just a thought. Note to Hrbowski:

I'm amphibious. I write with both hands. http://s.myniceprofile.com/myspacepic/715/71560.gif

And ... and ... 100% of the bat R/throw R players get indentations in their hand when they try to write on the opposite page of a spiral notebook.

In which case you always murder the Snickers bar so someone else can't have it.

Wa-wa-wait a minute now, buddy. Who mentioned murder? You're blowing things way out of proportion. Obviously, I was talking about shooting with a paintball gun. Smh.