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Todd Bertram Van Steensel, a right-handed closer for the Fort Myers Miracle, has had a somewhat rocky minor league career but was given a second chance with the Minnesota Twins when they signed him to a minor league deal on February 6, 2014. His parents were both born in India, but Van Steensel, now 24 years old, was born on January 14, 1991 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, where he also spent his growing up years. He is currently listed as 6'1" and 190 lb. on his MILB profile. Though he has always dreamed of being a closer, it wasn't until last year that he was finally able to fulfill that dream in the minors, earning 9 saves out of 10 opportunities for Cedar Rapids and Fort Myers. He was originally signed by Philadelphia on January 23, 2009, and he played a year at the Rookie level, where he went 2-1 in 12 games, posting a 5.83 ERA over 29.1 innings pitched and picking up 29 strikeouts and only 8 walks for the 2009 GCL Phillies before being released the following spring. "Seeing double ... Aussie baseball players Todd Van Steensel (left) and Adam O'Neill who have signed contracts with the Phillies and the New York Mets." | photo by Troy Bendeich That offseason he returned to Australia to play winter ball and work out some more, and on June 6, 2011, he was signed as a non-drafted free agent by the Minnesota Twins after going 0-1 with a 7.94 ERA for the Sydney Blue Sox in the 2010-2011 ABL. He started 10 out of 13 games for the 2011 Elizabethton Twins, where he went 5-2 with a 5.68 ERA. However, he struck out 58 in just 57 innings pitched, coming in 9th place in strikeouts in the Appalachian League. Todd played for the Australian national baseball team in the 2011 Baseball World Cup. The youngest player on the team, he made only one appearance, closing out a blowout 14-0 loss to Cuba in which he surrendered 4 runs on as many hits in 1.1 innings. He had a 3.32 ERA in 11 games for the 2011-2012 Blue Sox, striking out 25 in 21.2 innings. That spring he was released by the Twins, and he went to Europe to play for the Corendon Kinheim in the Dutch Major Leagues. In his first start he went 2.2 innings, giving up 1 hit and striking out 6 while walking none. Over the season, he gave up 3 runs on 10 hits in 9.2 innings, walking only 1 batter and striking out 9. However, Van Steensel suffered from a non-field related injury in July of that year and returned to Australia to sit out the rest of the season. Playing winter baseball once again for the Sydney Blue Sox in 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. Unfortunately I can't find much about him besides stats, but it seems that his fastball velocity improved that winter, and he had scouts for the Cincinnati Reds, Boston Red Sox, Arizona Diamondbacks, and Detroit Tigers interested in him. But it was the Twins who decided to give him another chance that year, making an offer to another contract, and Todd jumped at the opportunity to return to the organization, signing to a minor league deal on February 6, 2014. Van Steensel has always been a big fan of former MLB pitcher Dontrelle Willis, who was known for his unconventional pitching style which included a high leg kick and exaggerated twisting motion. Todd began modeling himself after Willis when he was about 16, and while apparently he used to look a lot like him, he's calmed it down over the years. But it's still quite obvious, even from just looking at his pictures. Todd's delivery | photo by Justin Rinaldi, Rinaldi Photos via Flickr In 2014 at Cedar Rapids, Todd closed out 18 games in 23 appearances, posting a 1.30 ERA and picking up 8 saves while striking out 45 and walking a miniscule 9 batters, and all this while holding opponents to a .189 average. 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. His strikeout to walk ratio decreased as he gave 15 batters free rides to 1st base and struck out 26, but all things considered, that's nothing to bat an eyelash at. He ended the season with a 1.39 ERA over 2 teams. This year Van Steensel has played in 16 games at Fort Myers and is currently 1-2 with 4 saves out of 6 opportunities. He has allowed just 24 hits over 29.1 innings pitched, and he already has 42 strikeouts whilst walking 17. Todd's story, while not necessarily the dream story for any aspiring baseball player, is a fun one to read about, made even more entertaining by his corny outlook on life and silly personality. Apparently when he was 7 years old, he signed up for tee-ball since he liked the uniforms; now he gets to wear one full time. He is also very active on Twitter, so if you enjoy reading tweets by a goofy bullpen pitcher who has maybe just a little too much time on his hands and an unhealthy obsession with Taylor Swift (who he claims to have converted to be a Twins fan - which I might add is most unlucky since she always gets her World Series predictions wrong), you might want to check that out. On top of that, he used to keep a blog called "The Clubhouse Chronicles," but he hasn't updated that for over a year. Twitter: @toddvs35

You come across lots of interesting stuff when you do research on the internet. For instance, I was putting my sleuthing skills to work to try to find everything of importance about Todd Van Steensel, the prospect I'm working on putting a page together for Adopt a Prospect. Now I know that Wiki isn't a reliable source and really shouldn't be used for references in papers of any kind, but I decided to check it out anyway since you never know what you might run into out there. And I'll repeat that - you never know. First I read through the article and found some slight amusement out of the fact that a certain Australian baseball fan (or I at least assume it to be an Aussie) has a somewhat more descriptive way of depicting a brawl than most people I know of: Now that isn't the end of my story, either. After laughing a little over that, I scrolled back up, planning on not giving the page a second thought - when an even greater gem caught my eye. It isn't something that would be approved of by Wikipedia's mod squad, but I can't help it and I feel no inclination to start an account to change it.

Maybe God heard that if the Royals play today, they'd win, and he started to cry. Voila - rain delay.

I shouldn't post while we're not in first place, but we might be by the time the night is out. I keep checking to see if there are any headlines about the Twins on MLB, but this is all I get: America's team? The rags-to-riches Royals No squad has captivated MLB fans like the Royals, favorites who maintain an underdog feel. Okay, we haven't captivated MLB fans...yet...but talk about an underdog feel. How can you be an underdog if you've got the headlines, day in, day out? I think if MLB posts something about the Twins being in contention later on this season, the general populace will say, "What? Weren't they in last place just the other day?"

Silly Canadian....still can't get your U's right.

C.O.N.C.U.R.

Aw, don't worry about it. DH's don't have to hit for power. Just be glad that at least Nunez makes up for it with something; he has a slightly better lifetime batting average than Bautista and this year is .387 to Jose's .232, and, while Bautista has over 4 times as many at bats, Nunez has 57 stolen bases to Bautista's 51. And yes, he doesn't have quite as large of a percentage of RBI as Bautista this year, but if he was batting behind Josh Donaldson every day, who knows? Maybe that's why Mollie stuck him behind Doz.

Kilometers per what?

FTFY.

Ha. I wasn't talking about the game. I meant to quote Ash's post. You know, that one post. The one when he was quoting one of my posts. You know.

Oh, THAT time.

ashburyjohn, on 29 May 2015 - 10:33 PM, said: My conscience tells me not to like this.

What one time?

Except when Donaldson hit it. And of course Chris. Question: Should I remove Josh from my All Star Ballot since he's evil, or should I leave him on since he was able to do good against the mighty Twins?

Edit: I see you edited that before I had time to show you what color Staffer really is. :/

I didn't mean that in a totally sarcastic way. I meant that Stauffer couldn't have done worse, and if somebody had to get the loss, I'd rather have it go to him than Perk. But I liked the way it came across as sarcastic.

Don't get me wrong here. I wasn't criticizing anybody, and I love bashing the front office. If I showed you all the letters I've written in my time (without actually sending them) to Terry Ryan...well, you'd get bored with all the repetition. And I won't be stopping now. Everyone has a right to complain...and you're right, everyone has the right to cheer. But it is interesting that you make that point. If I thought that fans couldn't be critical of bad moves when the team was winning (which, I'll repeat, they can be), I would also think that fans couldn't be supportive of good moves when the team was bad. I'd just be like, "What are ya'll excited about? It ain't gonna help." Or something like that. I didn't mean that in a negative way, and I didn't want anyone to take it as an insult. I'm sorry if it came across that way.

I wish it was Stauffer on the mound.

WAAAAAAAAAAIIILLL. I blame myself.

I have a sickening feeling in my bones coming into this inning............

Buehrle looked guilty after striking out Doz.

Is Stringer Bell everybody?

Uh, visions of Blue Jays grounding out?

This is something that could turn into quite the crowd chant.