Steven Buhr

Through May 21, the Cedar Rapids Kernels had built up an impressive 30-13 record and held a five game lead over their closest competition in the Western Division of the Midwest League. They then left town for a quick three-game road trip to Beloit after taking three out of four games from Kane County. They had no clue at that time that they not only would get swept by the second place Snappers on that trip, but would also return home and drop all three games of a series against the last place Burlington Bees. But that's exactly what happened to the Kernels as almost every part of their game seemed to fall apart at the same time over the past week. The defense not only started committing more errors than usual, but those errors seemed to come at precisely the worst possible time. The timely hitting that had almost become a trademark of the team through the first six weeks of the season disappeared as they hit safely just 13 times in 54 opportunities with runners in scoring position during their losing streak and scored just three runs in four of the six games. Perhaps most concerning, the Kernels' starting pitching rotation averaged less than five innings of work per game over the six losses. The rotation arms gave up a whopping 45 hits and 33 runs (28 of them earned) in 29 2/3 innings during that stretch of games. Kernels pitching coach Gary Lucas was asked what had gone wrong with the team's starting pitching. “I don't know. These teams that begin with the letter B, Beloit and Burlington, took it to us,” conceded Lucas, after Tuesday night's 9-4 win over Clinton. “I can't explain it. It's been a little bit of everything here. It's a bump in the road that all teams have, good and bad. Burlington's turning some things around, Beloit's turning some things around. We've got to overcome a losing streak and get back to our winning ways and hopefully this starts that process.” Tuesday's starting pitcher, Mason Melotakis, gave his team seven strong innings of work. That's the first game a Kernels starting pitcher has worked seven innings since Tyler Duffey went 7 2/3 innings in a May 18 extra-inning win over Kane County. [ATTACH=CONFIG]4212[/ATTACH] Mason Melotakis Melotakis and Duffey are two of the Twins organization's “conversion projects” this summer. Both were relief pitchers in college, but the Twins want to see if they are capable of playing a starting pitching role in the professional ranks. To be successful, both pitchers will need to refine their secondary pitches – their breaking balls and change ups - rather than just rely on their ability to throw fastballs in excess of 90 miles per hour. Melotakis feels the key for him is not letting hitters dig in against him. “I like to work in and out and make the hitters uncomfortable. I try to keep them uncomfortable and off balance in the box.” Lucas feels that Melotakis is making progress in that area. “He is always going to attack with his fastball and he's learning how to use it on both sides of the plate. The change up and the breaking ball are still a work in progress.” “I think the fact that he's using them over longer stretches, being a starter now and not a reliever, he's got to do different things with those pitches,” Lucas added. “He probably didn't use a change up much as a reliever. In fact, I know when he was with us last year he didn't. I think just staying on top of these kids and just developing touch/feel with their pitches. It's a little inconsistent right now, but hopefully with innings, it'll come. He (Melotakis) shows flashes of really being a consistent competitor with that fastball on both sides of the plate.” In addition to developing other pitches, Duffey and Melotakis will also have to throw a lot more innings over the course of a season than they have in the past. The Kernels are utilizing a six-man rotation that they hope will allow their starting pitchers to get through an entire season of rotation work without putting excessive wear and tear on their arms. It's also hoped that doing so will make the conversion process easier for pitchers like Duffey and Melotakis. But with the Kernels starting pitching struggling of late, could it be that some of these pitchers are tiring a bit as the team nears the half-way point of their season? “It's a good point. We should watch that to see at some point how they react and how their strength and how their stamina and their endurance (hold up).” Lucas said. But Lucas isn't ready to buy in to the theory already. “Both Melotakis and Duffey, the key guys that used to be relievers and now are starters, they've got durability on their side. They're strong. They're hard workers. So I think they'll be fine over the long haul. And they're on a six man rotation so they usually get an extra day. We're hoping that pays dividends as we move along.” The Kernels added Hein Robb, a lefty from South Africa who just turned 21 on May 12, to their rotation this week. Robb replaced Matt Tomshaw, who was promoted to the Fort Myers Miracle. Lucas indicated Robb would be inserted in to the rotation after Duffey, who is scheduled to pitch for the Kernels Wednesday night. That would mean Robb should make his Midwest League debut against Clinton on Thursday in Cedar Rapids. SD Buhr covers the Kernels for MetroSportsReport.com in Cedar Rapids.

One of the top ranked high school power hitters at the time, Travis Harrison was drafted by the Twins with a supplemental first round pick (the 50th overall pick) in 2011. He signed a $1.05 million bonus to join the Twins organization and bypassed a scholarship offer to play baseball for USC. There's never been much doubt about Harrison's ability to hit a baseball. The question in many minds is what his ultimate defensive position will be. Right now, the Twins are working with Harrison to develop his skills at third base for the Cedar Rapids Kernels. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Harrison2.jpg Travis Harrison Harrison is one of the top third base prospects in the Twins minor league organization, along with super-prospect Miguel Sano, who is currently playing for high Class A Fort Myers. This past Friday night, Harrison gave his Kernels team a dramatic win with a 12th inning walk-off single to beat the Kane County Cougars. It was the second consecutive walk-off victory for the Kernels, coming just one night after Byron Buxton's walk-off grand slam home run to beat the Burlington Bees. It was Harrison's second walk-off single recently. The first came when he hit what appeared to be a grand slam home run to beat the Lansing Lugnuts. However, his team mates mobbed him as he rounded second base and two of the runners ahead of him were ruled by the umpires to have abandoned their attempts to advance, leaving Harrison with a very long game winning single, rather than a home run. On Saturday afternoon, the day after his most recent game winning hit, Harrison sat down with me for an interview. SD Buhr: You're still learning to play third base. You had kind of a rough start to the season with something like five errors in the first 10 games. You seem to be looking a lot more comfortable out there lately. Are you feeling better out there? http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/HarrisonMauerPregame.jpg Travis Harrison and Manager Jake Mauer Travis Harrison: Yeah, I've been feeling good. Jake (Manager Jake Mauer) has been helping a ton and he's also made me learn that I might have a couple of errors, but they're errors being aggressive. They (official scorers) are giving me errors on tough plays, but I want to be a big league third baseman, so that's fine. But I'm not worried about the errors, I'm worried about making plays for the pitcher, making plays for the team. Just like any other infielder, if they give you an error and you're doing the best you can do, you can't control that. SDB: You've made a lot of pretty nice plays out there as well. You probably feel better about those than you necessarily feel bad about the errors? Harrison: Yeah, I mean you always want to make the routine plays first, that's your number one goal, so you focus on that. You give 100 per cent effort and you're going to make highlight plays every once in a while and those are good for the team. But first of all, you want to make the routine plays. Those are most important. SDB: The Twins have, for years, had a little trouble finding a third baseman to stick at the big league level. Is that something that gives you some motivation? The flip side of that is there are a couple of guys in the organization above you that look like they could have the potential to stick as well. Do you pay attention to what everyone else in the organization at your position is doing or do you just go out and worry about playing your game? Harrison: I just go out and play. I want to be the starting third baseman for the Twins for a long time. I mean that's the goal. I know I can do it. I just have to keep putting in the hard work and I'll get there. Following the other people? No. I know the other guys because of spring training. I know Miguel (Sano), we worked out together. Miguel's a great player. I'm just going to work my ass off and whatever happens is going to happen. SDB: You look around the Midwest League and you would be leading a lot of teams in a lot of offensive statistical categories. Here, you're one part, though one very important part, of an awfully good day-to-day lineup. Harrison: It's fun to be a part of. We're all off to good starts. We're all hitting the ball pretty well and we're all pulling for each other. No one's concerned with who has the most RBIs or anything. We're all just trying to do a job. I gotta say though, Walker (Adam Brett Walker) is stealing a lot of my RBIs, isn't he? Every time I get up there, there's no one on base! (laughing) It's fun. Walker's obviously off to a good start, Buck (Byron Buxton) is off to a good start. Everyone in the lineup really is. And so we're all just having fun, doing the best we can. Stats don't really tell you anything in baseball. Nothing really. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Harrison1.jpg Travis Harrison SDB: There's a whole sabermetric community that doesn't want to hear you say that! Harrison: Right (laughing). It's true though, ya know. For example, they saw Niko (Goodrum) had an error last night. Niko had the best game he's had all year at shortstop last night! It's stuff like that. So, they get on you about numbers things, things like that. It's just not the story, so we don't worry about that kind of stuff. SDB: You've had, at least that I've seen, two walk-off singles. This one was a little different than the last time. Harrison: This one was a real single (laughing). Yeah, those are fun. The only non-fun part about it is getting drenched with ice in the shower. Buck had to go through it the night before and they got me last night, but yeah it's exciting. Just goes back to pulling for each other. Just trying to get it done. We're not a bunch of selfish guys, we're just trying to win for the team. SDB: You might be responsible for one lesson that the entire team has learned. After Buxton's grand slam the other night, everybody came to home plate and waited for him instead of chasing him around second base. So there's a lesson learned. I don't know if you're responsible for teaching it to them, but somebody did, right? Harrison: (laughing) Right, that was good. With Buck's, we were down by three so they didn't have a choice. SDB: You're not going to tell me those guys ran around chasing you because they knew it didn't matter if your run counted or not. You don't really believe anybody was thinking like that. Harrison: No, we were all just super excited. They weren't trying to steal anything away from me. I was excited, I was jumping up and down. It didn't matter. When they told me it was a single after the game, I wasn't really worried about it. SDB: Tell me a little about yourself in high school. Were you a mulit-sport guy or did you pretty much stick to baseball? Harrison: No, I stuck to baseball. I played with APD Academy all through high school. It's a big baseball academy out in southern California. I started at a really young age and I stuck with that. I played basketball in middle school. Never played football, even though I went to a big football school. I stayed away from that. It was all baseball. I tried to focus on that. I've always played golf. Golf's fun. I enjoy that. SDB: That was going to be the next question. Away from the ballpark, what sort of things do you enjoy doing? Harrison: I love playing golf. I'm a big golfer. I love playing the guitar. I like things that kind of take me away from playing baseball and things that I can just relax and just focus on that. I'm not a big video game guy. I've always gotta do something. So when I'm out on the golf course, I feel like I'm not even thinking about baseball. I'm just away from it. Like, sometimes if I'm going through a slump, I go out and play a round of golf in the morning just to reset. SDB: The coaches don't mind that? This is old school, but there was a time when coaches discouraged players from golfing because they didn't want it screwing up the player's swing. Harrison: Everyone tells me that. I think of it as two totally different sports. I've been swinging a baseball bat since I was three or four years old, so I'm not going to forget how to do that. I don't even think about that. They're both hand-eye coordination. I think if it gets in your head, that's when you might get screwed up. Once you get to know the golf swing, there's actually a lot of similar things that go on between a golf swing and a baseball swing. Obviously, the ball's down but it's never really bothered me, it's always relaxed me and it's got me focused again. SDB: I read somewhere that the Twins wanted you to show more power this year, rather than spraying the ball to all fields. That seems contrary to the Twins past hitting philosophy, in my mind. Is that what they wanted to see you do more of this year? Harrison: I think so. I mean they want me to hit the ball hard and hit the ball out of the park and hit doubles and that kind of thing. I don't go up there thinking, “try to hit a home run.” I think, “try to hit a hard line drive.” I know home runs are going to come. Home runs are about selecting a pitch you can drive out of the yard instead of taking one you can hit to right field for a single. And I'm learning that, slowly. I've hit some home runs this year and I've hit a lot of doubles and so that's going well. SDB: I think you've got the same number of home runs this year that you had all of last year. Harrison: Yeah, I should have more! (laughing) SDB: At least one! Harrison: (smiling) So yeah, it's going good. Post-script: Harrison hit a home run in Sunday's game and another in Monday's game. On Tuesday, the Kernels had a Charity Golf Outing. I can't say I know for sure, but I'm guessing Harrison participated. - SD Buhr SD Buhr covers the Kernels for MetroSportsReport.com in Cedar Rapids.

One of the top ranked high school power hitters at the time, Travis Harrison was drafted by the Twins with a supplemental first round pick (the 50th overall pick) in 2011. He signed a $1.05 million bonus to join the Twins organization and bypassed a scholarship offer to play baseball for USC. There's never been much doubt about Harrison's ability to hit a baseball. The question in many minds is what his ultimate defensive position will be. Right now, the Twins are working with Harrison to develop his skills at third base for the Cedar Rapids Kernels. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Harrison2.jpg Travis Harrison Harrison is one of the top third base prospects in the Twins minor league organization, along with super-prospect Miguel Sano, who is currently playing for high Class A Fort Myers. This past Friday night, Harrison gave his Kernels team a dramatic win with a 12th inning walk-off single to beat the Kane County Cougars. It was the second consecutive walk-off victory for the Kernels, coming just one night after Byron Buxton's walk-off grand slam home run to beat the Burlington Bees. It was Harrison's second walk-off single recently. The first came when he hit what appeared to be a grand slam home run to beat the Lansing Lugnuts. However, his team mates mobbed him as he rounded second base and two of the runners ahead of him were ruled by the umpires to have abandoned their attempts to advance, leaving Harrison with a very long game winning single, rather than a home run. On Saturday afternoon, the day after his most recent game winning hit, Harrison sat down with me for an interview. SD Buhr: You're still learning to play third base. You had kind of a rough start to the season with something like five errors in the first 10 games. You seem to be looking a lot more comfortable out there lately. Are you feeling better out there? http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/HarrisonMauerPregame.jpg Travis Harrison and Manager Jake Mauer Travis Harrison: Yeah, I've been feeling good. Jake (Manager Jake Mauer) has been helping a ton and he's also made me learn that I might have a couple of errors, but they're errors being aggressive. They (official scorers) are giving me errors on tough plays, but I want to be a big league third baseman, so that's fine. But I'm not worried about the errors, I'm worried about making plays for the pitcher, making plays for the team. Just like any other infielder, if they give you an error and you're doing the best you can do, you can't control that. SDB: You've made a lot of pretty nice plays out there as well. You probably feel better about those than you necessarily feel bad about the errors? Harrison: Yeah, I mean you always want to make the routine plays first, that's your number one goal, so you focus on that. You give 100 per cent effort and you're going to make highlight plays every once in a while and those are good for the team. But first of all, you want to make the routine plays. Those are most important. SDB: The Twins have, for years, had a little trouble finding a third baseman to stick at the big league level. Is that something that gives you some motivation? The flip side of that is there are a couple of guys in the organization above you that look like they could have the potential to stick as well. Do you pay attention to what everyone else in the organization at your position is doing or do you just go out and worry about playing your game? Harrison: I just go out and play. I want to be the starting third baseman for the Twins for a long time. I mean that's the goal. I know I can do it. I just have to keep putting in the hard work and I'll get there. Following the other people? No. I know the other guys because of spring training. I know Miguel (Sano), we worked out together. Miguel's a great player. I'm just going to work my ass off and whatever happens is going to happen. SDB: You look around the Midwest League and you would be leading a lot of teams in a lot of offensive statistical categories. Here, you're one part, though one very important part, of an awfully good day-to-day lineup. Harrison: It's fun to be a part of. We're all off to good starts. We're all hitting the ball pretty well and we're all pulling for each other. No one's concerned with who has the most RBIs or anything. We're all just trying to do a job. I gotta say though, Walker (Adam Brett Walker) is stealing a lot of my RBIs, isn't he? Every time I get up there, there's no one on base! (laughing) It's fun. Walker's obviously off to a good start, Buck (Byron Buxton) is off to a good start. Everyone in the lineup really is. And so we're all just having fun, doing the best we can. Stats don't really tell you anything in baseball. Nothing really. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Harrison1.jpg Travis Harrison SDB: There's a whole sabermetric community that doesn't want to hear you say that! Harrison: Right (laughing). It's true though, ya know. For example, they saw Niko (Goodrum) had an error last night. Niko had the best game he's had all year at shortstop last night! It's stuff like that. So, they get on you about numbers things, things like that. It's just not the story, so we don't worry about that kind of stuff. SDB: You've had, at least that I've seen, two walk-off singles. This one was a little different than the last time. Harrison: This one was a real single (laughing). Yeah, those are fun. The only non-fun part about it is getting drenched with ice in the shower. Buck had to go through it the night before and they got me last night, but yeah it's exciting. Just goes back to pulling for each other. Just trying to get it done. We're not a bunch of selfish guys, we're just trying to win for the team. SDB: You might be responsible for one lesson that the entire team has learned. After Buxton's grand slam the other night, everybody came to home plate and waited for him instead of chasing him around second base. So there's a lesson learned. I don't know if you're responsible for teaching it to them, but somebody did, right? Harrison: (laughing) Right, that was good. With Buck's, we were down by three so they didn't have a choice. SDB: You're not going to tell me those guys ran around chasing you because they knew it didn't matter if your run counted or not. You don't really believe anybody was thinking like that. Harrison: No, we were all just super excited. They weren't trying to steal anything away from me. I was excited, I was jumping up and down. It didn't matter. When they told me it was a single after the game, I wasn't really worried about it. SDB: Tell me a little about yourself in high school. Were you a mulit-sport guy or did you pretty much stick to baseball? Harrison: No, I stuck to baseball. I played with APD Academy all through high school. It's a big baseball academy out in southern California. I started at a really young age and I stuck with that. I played basketball in middle school. Never played football, even though I went to a big football school. I stayed away from that. It was all baseball. I tried to focus on that. I've always played golf. Golf's fun. I enjoy that. SDB: That was going to be the next question. Away from the ballpark, what sort of things do you enjoy doing? Harrison: I love playing golf. I'm a big golfer. I love playing the guitar. I like things that kind of take me away from playing baseball and things that I can just relax and just focus on that. I'm not a big video game guy. I've always gotta do something. So when I'm out on the golf course, I feel like I'm not even thinking about baseball. I'm just away from it. Like, sometimes if I'm going through a slump, I go out and play a round of golf in the morning just to reset. SDB: The coaches don't mind that? This is old school, but there was a time when coaches discouraged players from golfing because they didn't want it screwing up the player's swing. Harrison: Everyone tells me that. I think of it as two totally different sports. I've been swinging a baseball bat since I was three or four years old, so I'm not going to forget how to do that. I don't even think about that. They're both hand-eye coordination. I think if it gets in your head, that's when you might get screwed up. Once you get to know the golf swing, there's actually a lot of similar things that go on between a golf swing and a baseball swing. Obviously, the ball's down but it's never really bothered me, it's always relaxed me and it's got me focused again. SDB: I read somewhere that the Twins wanted you to show more power this year, rather than spraying the ball to all fields. That seems contrary to the Twins past hitting philosophy, in my mind. Is that what they wanted to see you do more of this year? Harrison: I think so. I mean they want me to hit the ball hard and hit the ball out of the park and hit doubles and that kind of thing. I don't go up there thinking, “try to hit a home run.” I think, “try to hit a hard line drive.” I know home runs are going to come. Home runs are about selecting a pitch you can drive out of the yard instead of taking one you can hit to right field for a single. And I'm learning that, slowly. I've hit some home runs this year and I've hit a lot of doubles and so that's going well. SDB: I think you've got the same number of home runs this year that you had all of last year. Harrison: Yeah, I should have more! (laughing) SDB: At least one! Harrison: (smiling) So yeah, it's going good. Post-script: Harrison hit a home run in Sunday's game and another in Monday's game. On Tuesday, the Kernels had a Charity Golf Outing. I can't say I know for sure, but I'm guessing Harrison participated. - SD Buhr SD Buhr covers the Kernels for MetroSportsReport.com in Cedar Rapids.

By the end of the coming weekend, the Twins will have reached the one-quarter mark of the season with 40+ games under their belts. It’s as good a time as any to reflect upon how some of the decisions made by General Manager Terry Ryan in building the team’s roster have turned out. As a team, the Twins have been hovering over the .500 mark most of the season and, after Monday night’s win over the White Sox, they are one game over the break-even point. Over the weekend, Ryan told 1500ESPN that .500 wasn’t what he was looking for out of this team, that he wanted them to be contenders. It’s great, of course, for your team’s GM to say that kind of thing, but I think most fans would have been pretty satisfied with the prospects of a .500 year out of this Twins team. This article was originally posted Tuesday, May 14 at Knuckleballsblog.com. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/TerryRyan.jpg Terry Ryan (Photo: Knuckleballs/Jim Crikket) You also have to consider that those words were coming out of the same mouth that, last November, told TwinsDaily’s John Bonnes that the Twins would be pursuing one of the “pretty darn good” pitchers on the free agent market last season and then went out and made Kevin Correia and Mike Pelfrey the cornerstones of the team’s free agent class. In that same interview, Ryan also told Bonnes that he felt the free agent pitching market was, “thin,” when most of us felt there was a pretty solid group of middle-to-upper-half of the rotation arms available. Now, looking back over the first six weeks of the season, is it possible Terry Ryan was right? Back on November 20, I posted an article at Knuckleballs in which I shared my wish list of free agent pitchers for Ryan and the Twins to pursue. Other fans and writers were naturally sharing their own advice for the Twins GM about the same time. Let’s see how our suggestions have been panning out compared to the guys Ryan actually signed for the Twins. Not many of us were suggesting the Twins should (or even could) sign Zack Greinke, who eventually signed a six-year deal for $159 million with the Dodgers. Greinke was actually off to a decent start until he broke his collarbone (or rather, Carlos Quentin broke Greinke’s collarbone). Maybe Greinke will bounce back and pay dividends on his deal with the Dodgers, but I’m not sorry the Twins didn’t try to outbid the Dodgers for his services. I argued in my post that the Twins should go ahead and pursue not one, but two of the other big dogs among the free agent pitching class, Anibal Sanchez and Edwin Jackson. Sanchez is one guy who is putting up the kind of numbers you would hope for, so far, as his 2.05 ERA , 1.082 WHIP and 66 strikeouts in 52.2 innings would attest. However, he eventually re-signed with the Tigers (5 years/$88 million), so there’s certainly doubt as to whether he and his agent would ever have even considered a move to Target Field. Jackson, on the other hand, is not exactly earning his 4 year/$52 million contract with the Cubs. Yes, he’s striking out almost one batter per inning pitched, but otherwise, his 6.02 ERA and 1.569 WHIP are pretty close to what the Twins are getting out of Mike Pelfrey (6.03/1.689)… and Ryan is on the hook for about $48 million less than Theo Epstein owes Jackson. The third pitcher on my wish list was Joe Saunders. I felt the Twins needed another lefty in the rotation and while he wasn’t likely to be a headliner, Saunders looked to me like a good bet to be a solid middle of the rotation pitcher for the next couple of years. When he eventually signed with the Mariners for just one year and $6.5 million, I was pretty certain the Twins would regret not outbidding the M’s for Saunders’ services (though I recall there was some talk about Saunders not being interested in pitching for the Twins, regardless). Saunders has pieced together a 3-4 record despite a 5.51 ERA and a 1.521 WHIP. He’s struck out exactly as many hitters (20) as Correia has for the Twins, but has walked more than twice as many batters. Correia’s ERA (3.09) and WHIP (1.200) are certainly looking better than Saunders’. So maybe my ideas, outside of Sanchez, weren’t as good as I thought they were (and apparently not as good as the ideas Ryan and his staff were having at the time). But what about the other pitchers on the market last off season? With all of the talent we thought was out there, surely there must have been several pitchers that have turned out to make the GMs who signed them look smart. Many of the best options, like Sanchez, were re-signed by their 2012 clubs or, in some cases, had options picked up by their teams. But there were still a number of pitchers generating buzz among the Twins faithful. There was some chatter about Dan Haren, who ended up with the Nationals on a one-year deal for $13 million. He’s put up a 5.17 ERA and a 1.487 WHIP while striking out 27 batters in 38.1 innings over seven starts. That’s not real impressive to me, but hey, he does have a 4-3 record if that’s what you’re in to. Brandon McCarthy was also a hot commodity in the blogging world. He got a two-year deal from the D’Backs totaling $18 million. For that, he’s accumulated a 5.63 ERA, a 1.542 WHIP, and has gone winless. I’ve read that McCarthy has been “unlucky,” as reflected in a higher than average batting average on balls in play (BABIP). That’s fine. But if you buy that, you need to also give a couple of the Twins (such as Pelfrey and, to an even greater degree, Vance Worley) pitchers the benefit of the same doubt for their “bad luck.” Ryan Dempster got beat up a bit by the Blue Jays on Sunday, but I don’t think the Red Sox are doubting their two-year/$26.5 million investment too much, so far. He’s got a 3.75 ERA, even after giving up six earned runs to the Jays in five innings of work. His 1.146 WHIP is certainly competitive, but it’s his 61 strike outs in 48 innings that’s perhaps more impressive. Again, I don’t think there was ever any chance Dempster would sign with the Twins since he likely had more than enough suitors from among contending teams. Shawn Marcum, though, was certainly a guy that a number of Twins fans thought might be obtainable by the club. Marcum signed a one-year deal with the Mets for just $4 million. It turns out the Mets may have overpaid. Marcum has put up a nasty looking 8.59 ERA to go with a 2.045 WHIP. He’s thrown only 14.2 innings covering three starts and one relief appearance. Were you one of the fans touting Joe Blanton as a possible Twins rotation addition? If so, you might want to keep it to yourself. Blanton signed with the Angels for $15 million over two years and has repaid them with a 0-7 record covering eight starts. His 6.46 ERA and 1.870 WHIP would indicate his record is not terribly misleading. It’s starting to look like Terry Ryan’s assessment of the pitching market as “thin” might have actually been pretty accurate, isn’t it? But certainly there must be some success stories, right? Of course there are. If, while the rest of us were laughing at the absurdity of the Royals signing Jeremy Guthrie to a 3 year/$25 million contract, you were actually going on the record saying it was a shrewd move certain to pay dividends, give yourself a pat on the back. Guthrie is 5-0 with the Royals and while he’s not striking a ton of hitters out (30 Ks in 47.1 innings), he’s put up a 2.28 ERA and a 1.183 WHIP in his seven starts for the Royals. He’s gone at least six innings in every start and has one complete game shutout of the White Sox to his credit. Oh yeah, and the Royals are three games above .500 going in to Tuesday night’s games, 1 ½ games behind Division leading Detroit. Of course, Guthrie isn’t the only free agent pitcher making his GM look wise. Carlos Villanueva and Scott Feldman were among the pitchers Epstein added to the Cubs and it’s pretty clear that neither of them are primarily responsible for the Cubs being six games under .500. Villanueva sports a 3.02 ERA and a 1.007 WHIP, but has only one win in seven starts to show for his efforts. Feldman’s ERA is even lower, at 2.53 and his WHIP is a very respectable 1.148. He’s actually gotten enough support to put up a 3-3 record. Maybe I’m wrong, but I just don’t recall a lot of wailing about Terry Ryan allowing Villanueva and Feldman to slip through his fingers. And before you credit Theo Epstein for being so much more brilliant than Terry Ryan, take a look at what Epstein and the Cubs are getting in return for outbidding Ryan for the services of Scott Baker this season. Baker’s next pitch in a Cubs uniform (if he ever makes one) will be his first. There are probably a few more pitchers worth checking in on that are escaping me at the moment. But from the looks of things, I’m starting to think Correia and Pelfrey weren’t such bad ideas after all. I’m not convinced Correia will continue to perform at the levels of his first few starts, but I do think that as Pelfrey continues to work out the post-TJ-surgery kinks, he may actually improve as the year goes on. Even with the benefit of perfect hindsight, I’m not 100% sure I’d jump for joy at those free agent signings, but I certainly like the way they’ve turned out so far a whole lot better than most of the other options.

By the end of the coming weekend, the Twins will have reached the one-quarter mark of the season with 40+ games under their belts. It’s as good a time as any to reflect upon how some of the decisions made by General Manager Terry Ryan in building the team’s roster have turned out. As a team, the Twins have been hovering over the .500 mark most of the season and, after Monday night’s win over the White Sox, they are one game over the break-even point. Over the weekend, Ryan told 1500ESPN that .500 wasn’t what he was looking for out of this team, that he wanted them to be contenders. It’s great, of course, for your team’s GM to say that kind of thing, but I think most fans would have been pretty satisfied with the prospects of a .500 year out of this Twins team. This article was originally posted Tuesday, May 14 at Knuckleballsblog.com. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/TerryRyan.jpg Terry Ryan (Photo: Knuckleballs/Jim Crikket) You also have to consider that those words were coming out of the same mouth that, last November, told TwinsDaily’s John Bonnes that the Twins would be pursuing one of the “pretty darn good” pitchers on the free agent market last season and then went out and made Kevin Correia and Mike Pelfrey the cornerstones of the team’s free agent class. In that same interview, Ryan also told Bonnes that he felt the free agent pitching market was, “thin,” when most of us felt there was a pretty solid group of middle-to-upper-half of the rotation arms available. Now, looking back over the first six weeks of the season, is it possible Terry Ryan was right? Back on November 20, I posted an article at Knuckleballs in which I shared my wish list of free agent pitchers for Ryan and the Twins to pursue. Other fans and writers were naturally sharing their own advice for the Twins GM about the same time. Let’s see how our suggestions have been panning out compared to the guys Ryan actually signed for the Twins. Not many of us were suggesting the Twins should (or even could) sign Zack Greinke, who eventually signed a six-year deal for $159 million with the Dodgers. Greinke was actually off to a decent start until he broke his collarbone (or rather, Carlos Quentin broke Greinke’s collarbone). Maybe Greinke will bounce back and pay dividends on his deal with the Dodgers, but I’m not sorry the Twins didn’t try to outbid the Dodgers for his services. I argued in my post that the Twins should go ahead and pursue not one, but two of the other big dogs among the free agent pitching class, Anibal Sanchez and Edwin Jackson. Sanchez is one guy who is putting up the kind of numbers you would hope for, so far, as his 2.05 ERA , 1.082 WHIP and 66 strikeouts in 52.2 innings would attest. However, he eventually re-signed with the Tigers (5 years/$88 million), so there’s certainly doubt as to whether he and his agent would ever have even considered a move to Target Field. Jackson, on the other hand, is not exactly earning his 4 year/$52 million contract with the Cubs. Yes, he’s striking out almost one batter per inning pitched, but otherwise, his 6.02 ERA and 1.569 WHIP are pretty close to what the Twins are getting out of Mike Pelfrey (6.03/1.689)… and Ryan is on the hook for about $48 million less than Theo Epstein owes Jackson. The third pitcher on my wish list was Joe Saunders. I felt the Twins needed another lefty in the rotation and while he wasn’t likely to be a headliner, Saunders looked to me like a good bet to be a solid middle of the rotation pitcher for the next couple of years. When he eventually signed with the Mariners for just one year and $6.5 million, I was pretty certain the Twins would regret not outbidding the M’s for Saunders’ services (though I recall there was some talk about Saunders not being interested in pitching for the Twins, regardless). Saunders has pieced together a 3-4 record despite a 5.51 ERA and a 1.521 WHIP. He’s struck out exactly as many hitters (20) as Correia has for the Twins, but has walked more than twice as many batters. Correia’s ERA (3.09) and WHIP (1.200) are certainly looking better than Saunders’. So maybe my ideas, outside of Sanchez, weren’t as good as I thought they were (and apparently not as good as the ideas Ryan and his staff were having at the time). But what about the other pitchers on the market last off season? With all of the talent we thought was out there, surely there must have been several pitchers that have turned out to make the GMs who signed them look smart. Many of the best options, like Sanchez, were re-signed by their 2012 clubs or, in some cases, had options picked up by their teams. But there were still a number of pitchers generating buzz among the Twins faithful. There was some chatter about Dan Haren, who ended up with the Nationals on a one-year deal for $13 million. He’s put up a 5.17 ERA and a 1.487 WHIP while striking out 27 batters in 38.1 innings over seven starts. That’s not real impressive to me, but hey, he does have a 4-3 record if that’s what you’re in to. Brandon McCarthy was also a hot commodity in the blogging world. He got a two-year deal from the D’Backs totaling $18 million. For that, he’s accumulated a 5.63 ERA, a 1.542 WHIP, and has gone winless. I’ve read that McCarthy has been “unlucky,” as reflected in a higher than average batting average on balls in play (BABIP). That’s fine. But if you buy that, you need to also give a couple of the Twins (such as Pelfrey and, to an even greater degree, Vance Worley) pitchers the benefit of the same doubt for their “bad luck.” Ryan Dempster got beat up a bit by the Blue Jays on Sunday, but I don’t think the Red Sox are doubting their two-year/$26.5 million investment too much, so far. He’s got a 3.75 ERA, even after giving up six earned runs to the Jays in five innings of work. His 1.146 WHIP is certainly competitive, but it’s his 61 strike outs in 48 innings that’s perhaps more impressive. Again, I don’t think there was ever any chance Dempster would sign with the Twins since he likely had more than enough suitors from among contending teams. Shawn Marcum, though, was certainly a guy that a number of Twins fans thought might be obtainable by the club. Marcum signed a one-year deal with the Mets for just $4 million. It turns out the Mets may have overpaid. Marcum has put up a nasty looking 8.59 ERA to go with a 2.045 WHIP. He’s thrown only 14.2 innings covering three starts and one relief appearance. Were you one of the fans touting Joe Blanton as a possible Twins rotation addition? If so, you might want to keep it to yourself. Blanton signed with the Angels for $15 million over two years and has repaid them with a 0-7 record covering eight starts. His 6.46 ERA and 1.870 WHIP would indicate his record is not terribly misleading. It’s starting to look like Terry Ryan’s assessment of the pitching market as “thin” might have actually been pretty accurate, isn’t it? But certainly there must be some success stories, right? Of course there are. If, while the rest of us were laughing at the absurdity of the Royals signing Jeremy Guthrie to a 3 year/$25 million contract, you were actually going on the record saying it was a shrewd move certain to pay dividends, give yourself a pat on the back. Guthrie is 5-0 with the Royals and while he’s not striking a ton of hitters out (30 Ks in 47.1 innings), he’s put up a 2.28 ERA and a 1.183 WHIP in his seven starts for the Royals. He’s gone at least six innings in every start and has one complete game shutout of the White Sox to his credit. Oh yeah, and the Royals are three games above .500 going in to Tuesday night’s games, 1 ½ games behind Division leading Detroit. Of course, Guthrie isn’t the only free agent pitcher making his GM look wise. Carlos Villanueva and Scott Feldman were among the pitchers Epstein added to the Cubs and it’s pretty clear that neither of them are primarily responsible for the Cubs being six games under .500. Villanueva sports a 3.02 ERA and a 1.007 WHIP, but has only one win in seven starts to show for his efforts. Feldman’s ERA is even lower, at 2.53 and his WHIP is a very respectable 1.148. He’s actually gotten enough support to put up a 3-3 record. Maybe I’m wrong, but I just don’t recall a lot of wailing about Terry Ryan allowing Villanueva and Feldman to slip through his fingers. And before you credit Theo Epstein for being so much more brilliant than Terry Ryan, take a look at what Epstein and the Cubs are getting in return for outbidding Ryan for the services of Scott Baker this season. Baker’s next pitch in a Cubs uniform (if he ever makes one) will be his first. There are probably a few more pitchers worth checking in on that are escaping me at the moment. But from the looks of things, I’m starting to think Correia and Pelfrey weren’t such bad ideas after all. I’m not convinced Correia will continue to perform at the levels of his first few starts, but I do think that as Pelfrey continues to work out the post-TJ-surgery kinks, he may actually improve as the year goes on. Even with the benefit of perfect hindsight, I’m not 100% sure I’d jump for joy at those free agent signings, but I certainly like the way they’ve turned out so far a whole lot better than most of the other options.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels are sporting a 25-11 record through the first six weeks of the Midwest League season. That's good for a .694 winning percentage. How good is that? Over the course of a Major League 162 game season, a team would have to win 113 games to match that winning percentage. The Kernels are 12-2 at home and 13-9 on the road.They are 16-7 at night and 9-4 in day games. They've beaten right-handed starting pitchers at a 19-8 rate and have a 6-3 record when opponents have started lefties against them. The Twins' Class A affiliate in the Midwest League is, to say the least, off to a good start. They have a 4 1/2 game lead over the Quad Cities River Bandits (Astros) and Beloit Snappers (Athletics), who share second place in the MWL Western Division with just over a month left to play in the first half of the MWL season. Offensively, the Kernels lead the MWL in slugging percentage (.440) and OPS (.792). They are third in the league in batting average (,269) and lead the league in total bases (525) and RBI (204). Actually, they are at or near the top of the league in almost every offensive category. The team's pitching has, overall, been pretty much a middle-of-the-pack staff in most statistical categories, but they have given up just 159 runs, which is 63 fewer runs than their offense has scored and that's a pretty nice run differential. But nobody is unbeatable so if we dig in to the statistics a bit, can we figure out how an opponent might go about conquering the juggernaut that is the Kernels? We've already determined that the Kernels are winning most of their games at home and on the road, in night games as well as day games and against right-handed starting pitchers and lefties. What else can you try? Here are just a few suggestions: Score first. The Kernels have only a 2-4 record when opponents get on the board first. That's right, only six times have opponents scored first, while the Kernels have plated the first run in 30 games and they are 23-7 in those games. Hold the Kernels to less than four runs. Once the Kernels put that fourth run on the board, they are tough to beat. They are 20-2 when they score four runs or more and just 5-9 when they score three or fewer runs. Don't mess up in the field. When opponents have made one error or more, the Kernels are 22-9. When opponents play an error-free game, the Kernels are just 3-2. Figure out how to get the same number of hits as the Kernels. When Cedar Rapids has outhit their opponents, they are 17-5 and when the Kernels are outhit by their opponents, they've still won more than they've lost (7-5), but in the two games where opponents have exactly the same number of hits as the Kernels, the team is just 1-1. Hit home runs. The Kernels are just 8-7 when an opposing batter has hit a home run. But you'd better keep the Kernels hitters in the park because they are 15-4 when a Kernels batter goes yard. If that all seems a bit too complicated for you, there's one other option. Just wait until the second half of the season and hope that the Twins' front office promotes most of the players that have been bashing the ball all over the Midwest League Kernels notes After spending the past two weeks on the road, the Kernels opened a seven-day (eight-game) home stand on Tuesday night with a 5-4 win over the visiting Burlington Bees (Angels). They will make up an April rainout with the Bees with a doubleheader Wednesday evening, starting at 5:30 at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids. [ATTACH=CONFIG]4075[/ATTACH] Byron Buxton On Tuesday night, Adam Brett Walker hit a grand slam home run and Byron Buxton turned a muff by Bees' outfielder Chevy Clarke in deep center field in to a four base error as Buxton flew all the way around the bases to score following Clarke's error. You can check out an interview with Walker and the game story here. In addition, the Kernels made several roster changes on Tuesday, including the addition of catcher Michael Quesada, who joined the Kernels after completing a 50-game suspension for failing a drug test. Metro Sports Report's Jim Ecker interviewed Quesada before Tuesday's game and you can read that interview here. SD Buhr covers the Kernels for MetroSportsReport.com in Cedar Rapids.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels are sporting a 25-11 record through the first six weeks of the Midwest League season. That's good for a .694 winning percentage. How good is that? Over the course of a Major League 162 game season, a team would have to win 113 games to match that winning percentage. The Kernels are 12-2 at home and 13-9 on the road. They are 16-7 at night and 9-4 in day games. They've beaten right-handed starting pitchers at a 19-8 rate and have a 6-3 record when opponents have started lefties against them. The Twins' Class A affiliate in the Midwest League is, to say the least, off to a good start. They have a 4 1/2 game lead over the Quad Cities River Bandits (Astros) and Beloit Snappers (Athletics), who share second place in the MWL Western Division with just over a month left to play in the first half of the MWL season. Offensively, the Kernels lead the MWL in slugging percentage (.440) and OPS (.792). They are third in the league in batting average (,269) and lead the league in total bases (525), runs scored (222) and RBI (204). Actually, they are at or near the top of the league in almost every significant offensive category. The team's pitching has, overall, been pretty much a middle-of-the-pack staff in most statistical categories, but they have given up just 159 runs, which is 63 fewer runs than their offense has scored and that's a pretty nice run differential. But nobody is unbeatable, so if we dig in to the statistics a bit, can we figure out how an opponent might go about conquering the juggernaut that is the Kernels? We've already determined that the Kernels are winning most of their games at home and on the road, in night games as well as day games and against right-handed starting pitchers and lefties. What else can an opponent try? Here are just a few suggestions: Score first. The Kernels have only a 2-4 record when opponents get on the board first. That's right, only six times have opponents scored first, while the Kernels have plated the first run in 30 games and they are 23-7 in those games. Hold the Kernels to less than four runs. Once the Kernels put that fourth run on the board, they are tough to beat. They are 20-2 when they score four runs or more and just 5-9 when they score three or fewer runs. Don't mess up in the field. When opponents have made one error or more, the Kernels are 22-9. When opponents play an error-free game, the Kernels are just 3-2. Figure out how to get the same number of hits as the Kernels. When Cedar Rapids has outhit their opponents, they are 17-5 and when the Kernels are outhit by their opponents, they've still won more than they've lost (7-5), but in the two games where opponents have exactly the same number of hits as the Kernels, the team is just 1-1. Hit home runs. The Kernels are just 8-7 when an opposing batter has hit a home run. But you'd better keep the Kernels hitters in the park because they are 15-4 when a Kernels batter goes yard. If that all seems a bit too complicated for you, there's one other option. Just wait until the second half of the season and hope that the Twins' front office promotes most of the players that have been bashing the ball all over the Midwest League. Kernels Notes: After spending the past two weeks on the road, the Kernels opened a seven-day (eight-game) home stand on Tuesday night with a 5-4 win over the visiting Burlington Bees (Angels). They will make up an April rainout with the Bees with a doubleheader Wednesday evening, starting at 5:30 at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids. [ATTACH=CONFIG]4074[/ATTACH] Byron Buxton On Tuesday night, Byron Buxton turned a muff by Bees' outfielder Chevy Clarke in deep center fieldeep in to a four base error as Buxton flew all the way around the bases to score following Clarke's error. You can check out the game story here. In addition, the Kernels made several roster changes on Tuesday, including the addition of catcher Michael Quesada, who joined the Kernels after completing a 50-game suspension for failing a drug test. Metro Sports Report's Jim Ecker interviewed Quesada before Tuesday's game and you can read that interview here.

Wednesday, May 8, was supposed to be a big night for fans that follow the top minor league prospects in professional baseball. Quad Cities shortstop Carlos Correa, selected with the No. 1 pick overall by the Astros in last June’s amateur draft, was set to go head-to-head against Kernels’ center fielder Byron Buxton, chosen as the No. 2 pick overall in the same draft by the Twins. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Buxton1.jpg Byron Buxton (Photo: SD Buhr) According to MiLB.com, it was the first time two position players of high school age were drafted in the first two spots in over 20 years. As a result, it is almost inevitable that Correa and Buxton will be compared closely to one another throughout their careers. But thanks to a pitch that hit Correa in the hand a week ago and put him on the River Bandits Disabled List, their first match up on the same field will have to wait. The question is, for how long? Correa was placed on the Bandits’ 7-day Disabled List on Friday, May 3, which would make him eligible to be reactivated for this Friday’s series finale with the Kernels. However, there’s been no indication from the team that they intend to do so. After this series, the Kernels and River Bandits are scheduled to face one another next on June 5 in Cedar Rapids. Then again, if Buxton continues to perform at current levels, there is legitimate reason to question whether he will still be wearing a Kernels uniform at that point. If Correa and Buxton don’t face one another this season, it’s unlikely they’ll match up again in a regular season game until they wear Big League uniforms for the Astros and Twins. The two organizations have no high-A, AA or AAA affiliates playing in the same league. How rare would an early meeting of No. 1 and No. 2 picks from the same draft be? Only three times have the top two picks in the draft made their full-season debuts in the same league in the same season. It hasn’t happened in the Midwest League since the No. 1 pick in the 1983 draft, Tim Belcher*, opened the following season with the Madison Muskies and No. 2 pick Kurt Stillwell was in a Cedar Rapids Reds uniform. It’s not difficult to understand, then, why many fans have looked forward to seeing Correa and Buxton on the same field this season. Though we may not see Buxton and Correa share a ball field this week, we can take a look at how their first years of full-season professional baseball have compared so far. There’s no doubt that Buxton is off to the better start. While there is already considerable speculation concerning how soon the Kernels’ center fielder might be promoted to the next level in the Twins’ minor league organization, there has been little, if any, such speculation where Correa is concerned. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Buxton31.jpg Byron Buxton (Photo: SD Buhr) Five weeks in to the season, Buxton has played in all but one of the Kernels’ 29 games and has the second highest batting average in the Midwest League at .373. Correa was having some trouble staying on the field for the River Bandits even before his current stint on the Disabled List. He has already missed 11 of Quad Cities’ 29 games and is hitting just .221 on the year. Buxton leads the MWL with a .488 on-base percentage and also leads the league with a .647 slugging percentage. Combined, that puts his OPS (on-base plus slugging) at a league-high 1.135. Of Buxton’s 38 hits, 15 (or almost 40 per cent) have been for extra bases. He has seven doubles, three triples and five home runs. Buxton has walked more times (24) than he has struck out (21) and has stolen 13 bases in 17 attempts. Correa has reached base at a .384 clip and is slugging just .397, for a .781 OPS. He has three doubles and three home runs. Correa has drawn just 15 walks while striking out 23 times. He has one stolen base and has been caught stealing once. Five very early weeks in the professional careers of these two prospects mean very little, of course, in terms of predicting their ultimate success or failure as Major League ballplayers. If both men stay with their current organizations long term, fans should eventually have plenty of opportunities for side by side comparisons at the Major League level, now that Correa’s Astros are in the American League. Regardless of whether Correa is activated in time to face Buxton and the Kernels this week, fans in Cedar Rapids should get their first opportunity to see the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft on June 5 when the River Bandits make their first appearance of the season at Veterans Memorial Stadium. Whether Byron Buxton will still be around to greet him remains to be seen. -SDB *As long time Twins fans know, Tim Belcher had been selected No. 1 by Minnesota in the 1983 draft and did not sign. He then was drafted No. 1 by the Yankees in the subsequent January 1984 Secondary Draft and ended up with the Athletics organization as a Free Agent Compensation selection a month later. SD Buhr covers the Kernels for MetroSportsReport.com in Cedar Rapids.

Wednesday, May 8, was supposed to be a big night for fans that follow the top minor league prospects in professional baseball. Quad Cities shortstop Carlos Correa, selected with the No. 1 pick overall by the Astros in last June’s amateur draft, was set to go head-to-head against Kernels’ center fielder Byron Buxton, chosen as the No. 2 pick overall in the same draft by the Twins. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Buxton1.jpg Byron Buxton (Photo: SD Buhr) According to MiLB.com, it was the first time two position players of high school age were drafted in the first two spots in over 20 years. As a result, it is almost inevitable that Correa and Buxton will be compared closely to one another throughout their careers. But thanks to a pitch that hit Correa in the hand a week ago and put him on the River Bandits Disabled List, their first match up on the same field will have to wait. The question is, for how long? Correa was placed on the Bandits’ 7-day Disabled List on Friday, May 3, which would make him eligible to be reactivated for this Friday’s series finale with the Kernels. However, there’s been no indication from the team that they intend to do so. After this series, the Kernels and River Bandits are scheduled to face one another next on June 5 in Cedar Rapids. Then again, if Buxton continues to perform at current levels, there is legitimate reason to question whether he will still be wearing a Kernels uniform at that point. If Correa and Buxton don’t face one another this season, it’s unlikely they’ll match up again in a regular season game until they wear Big League uniforms for the Astros and Twins. The two organizations have no high-A, AA or AAA affiliates playing in the same league. How rare would an early meeting of No. 1 and No. 2 picks from the same draft be? Only three times have the top two picks in the draft made their full-season debuts in the same league in the same season. It hasn’t happened in the Midwest League since the No. 1 pick in the 1983 draft, Tim Belcher*, opened the following season with the Madison Muskies and No. 2 pick Kurt Stillwell was in a Cedar Rapids Reds uniform. It’s not difficult to understand, then, why many fans have looked forward to seeing Correa and Buxton on the same field this season. Though we may not see Buxton and Correa share a ball field this week, we can take a look at how their first years of full-season professional baseball have compared so far. There’s no doubt that Buxton is off to the better start. While there is already considerable speculation concerning how soon the Kernels’ center fielder might be promoted to the next level in the Twins’ minor league organization, there has been little, if any, such speculation where Correa is concerned. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Buxton31.jpg Byron Buxton (Photo: SD Buhr) Five weeks in to the season, Buxton has played in all but one of the Kernels’ 29 games and has the second highest batting average in the Midwest League at .373. Correa was having some trouble staying on the field for the River Bandits even before his current stint on the Disabled List. He has already missed 11 of Quad Cities’ 29 games and is hitting just .221 on the year. Buxton leads the MWL with a .488 on-base percentage and also leads the league with a .647 slugging percentage. Combined, that puts his OPS (on-base plus slugging) at a league-high 1.135. Of Buxton’s 38 hits, 15 (or almost 40 per cent) have been for extra bases. He has seven doubles, three triples and five home runs. Buxton has walked more times (24) than he has struck out (21) and has stolen 13 bases in 17 attempts. Correa has reached base at a .384 clip and is slugging just .397, for a .781 OPS. He has three doubles and three home runs. Correa has drawn just 15 walks while striking out 23 times. He has one stolen base and has been caught stealing once. Five very early weeks in the professional careers of these two prospects mean very little, of course, in terms of predicting their ultimate success or failure as Major League ballplayers. If both men stay with their current organizations long term, fans should eventually have plenty of opportunities for side by side comparisons at the Major League level, now that Correa’s Astros are in the American League. Regardless of whether Correa is activated in time to face Buxton and the Kernels this week, fans in Cedar Rapids should get their first opportunity to see the No. 1 pick in last year’s draft on June 5 when the River Bandits make their first appearance of the season at Veterans Memorial Stadium. Whether Byron Buxton will still be around to greet him remains to be seen. -SDB *As long time Twins fans know, Tim Belcher had been selected No. 1 by Minnesota in the 1983 draft and did not sign. He then was drafted No. 1 by the Yankees in the subsequent January 1984 Secondary Draft and ended up with the Athletics organization as a Free Agent Compensation selection a month later. SD Buhr covers the Kernels for MetroSportsReport.com in Cedar Rapids.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels have ripped through nine straight wins as they head in to a two-week long road trip, but it hasn't come without a little drama. Take this past Saturday, for instance. Most of you have probably already read or heard about the strange finish to that night's 8-7 Kernels win, but for those who haven't here are the basics of what you need to know: Adam Brett Walker hit a game-tying three-run home run with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning to send the game in to extra innings. In the bottom of the 11th inning, the Kernels loaded the bases and Manager Jake Mauer sent Travis Harrison to the plate to pinch hit. Harrison had been the only Kernels player to have started every game this season up to that point and Mauer had told Harrison earlier in the game that he wouldn't be used unless the game was on the line. If you’ll pardon the quality of the video from my phone, I’ll share what happened next: [video=youtube;nGsS2lsjR14] Niko Goodrum, the runner on third base, trotted in to score the winning run, the other two runners, Dalton Hicks and Walker, apparently did not complete their advancement to home before peeling off and joining the celebration in the infield. It appears both eventually did make their way to home, ahead of Harrison. Whether Hicks and Walker crossed the plate in the correct order is certainly open to question. Great Lakes manager Razor Shines clearly is getting in the ear of the plate umpire by the time Harrison crosses home plate. In the end, the umpires ruled that while Goodrum scored the winning run and everyone else at least successfully advanced one base, Harrison and the other two runners abandoned their efforts to advance at some point. The result is that Harrison was credited with a walk-off RBI single, not a grand slam HR, and the Kernels won 8-7, rather than the 11-7 score that a couple thousand fans thought it was when they left the ballpark. Theark. The odd finish didn't seem to bother the Kernels too much as they went on to sweep a three game series with Lansing Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, to lift their winning streak to nine games. If the Kernels start their road trip with another W, they'll earn a dinner in the nearby Amana Colonies, compliments of the Kernels Board of Directors. Even if they earn the dinner, they'll have to wait a while to collect, however, since their next home game isn't until May14.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels have ripped through nine straight wins as they head in to a two-week long road trip, but it hasn't come without a little drama. Take this past Saturday, for instance. Most of you have probably already read or heard about the strange finish to that night's 8-7 Kernels win, but for those who haven't here are the basics of what you need to know: Adam Brett Walker hit a game-tying three-run home run with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning to send the game in to extra innings. In the bottom of the 11th inning, the Kernels loaded the bases and Manager Jake Mauer sent Travis Harrison to the plate to pinch hit. Harrison had been the only Kernels player to have started every game this season up to that point and Mauer had told Harrison earlier in the game that he wouldn't be used unless the game was on the line. If you’ll pardon the quality of the video from my phone, I’ll share what happened next: [video=youtube;nGsS2lsjR14] Niko Goodrum, the runner on third base, trotted in to score the winning run, the other two runners, Dalton Hicks and Walker, apparently did not complete their advancement to home before peeling off and joining the celebration in the infield. It appears both eventually did make their way to home, ahead of Harrison. Whether Hicks and Walker crossed the plate in the correct order is certainly open to question. Great Lakes manager Razor Shines clearly is getting in the ear of the plate umpire by the time Harrison crosses home plate. In the end, the umpires ruled that while Goodrum scored the winning run and everyone else at least successfully advanced one base, Harrison and the other two runners abandoned their efforts to advance at some point. The result is that Harrison was credited with a walk-off RBI single, not a grand slam HR, and the Kernels won 8-7, rather than the 11-7 score that a couple thousand fans thought it was when they left the ballpark. Theark. The odd finish didn't seem to bother the Kernels too much as they went on to sweep a three game series with Lansing Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, to lift their winning streak to nine games. If the Kernels start their road trip with another W, they'll earn a dinner in the nearby Amana Colonies, compliments of the Kernels Board of Directors. Even if they earn the dinner, they'll have to wait a while to collect, however, since their next home game isn't until May14.

Cedar Rapids Kernels outfielder JaDamion (J.D.) Williams is in his fourth season with the Minnesota Twins organization. He was drafted by the Twins in the 10th round of the 2010 amateur draft. After a very productive 2011 season at Rookie League level Elizabethton, where he hit .324, Williams hit only .237 for the Beloit Snappers a year ago and accumulated an on-base percentage of .311. In his second year in the Midwest League, Williams is off to a much better start for the Kernels. Hitting out of the ninth spot in Manager Jake Mauer's batting order, Williams spent most of the first three weeks of the season with a batting average approaching .300. Perhaps more impressively, he was reaching base at about a .450 rate. He's also hit four doubles and three home runs, leading to a slugging percentage sufficient to put his OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) near the 1.000 mark. Those numbers are almost certainly not sustainable, but they reflect a new, more aggressive, approach to hitting this season. Williams sat down for an interview over the weekend to discuss his first few weeks in Cedar Rapids and his role, thus far, with the Kernels. SD Buhr: This is your second season in the Midwest League. Is there anything specifically different about how you feel going in to this year as opposed to starting last year in Beloit? J.D. Williams: Just the fact that I’ve had a year here in this league and I’ve learned a lot more. A lot more of a mature player, mature of a hitter and fielder. Learning from different guys. Our hitting coach Tommy Watkins, this is my second year working with him. Guys such as (Twins minor league hitting coordinator) Bill Springman, those guys just teaching me not necessarily the athletic side of the game but baseball mentality. Just learning to be a baseball player, not just running around. SDB: Was it disappointing to find out you were going to be coming back to the Midwest League or was that something you were pretty much prepared for happening this year? JDW: I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but like they say, as long as you got a jersey on, somebody likes you. I didn’t do what I wanted to do here (in the Midwest League) last year, so it doesn’t bother me that I’m back here. I’m playing a lot better this year, so it is what it is. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Williams11.jpg SDB: Did the Twins give you anything specific to work on? Did they say, “this is what we really want you to work on going in to the season. That’s what you're going to have to do to advance.”? JDW: Basically, they wanted me to cut down on my strikeouts put the ball in play a lot more because I can run but you cant steal first base, like they say. So, I think I’m doing a lot better at that this year. I’m walking a lot more, not just going up there swinging at every pitch I see, opposed to like I was doing last year. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/WilliamsBuxton.jpg JD Williams watches Byron Buxton as he waits his turn for batting practice SDB: They probably don’t exactly encourage you to run a lot with Byron Buxton coming up behind you, though. JDW: (Laughs) He talks to me a lot. He tells me he’s going to give me a few pitches to run. We’ve got our little sign for when I’m gonna run and whatnot. So we work on that a lot, try to get each other a couple of bases. SDB: Growing up, did you have a favorite player, someone you wanted to be like? JDW: Growing up I liked to watch Brandon Phillips. That was back when I was an infielder and I’m an outfielder now. Of course, I like Denard Span and those guys. Michael Bourne, Juan Pierre, those guys that can run, get on base, steal a couple of bases. I want to be just like those guys. SDB: Is there anything about coming to Cedar Rapids that you've found different than what you expected it to be? JDW: Yeah, I love the atmosphere here, the stadium, the people. It’s a lot bigger than Beloit, obviously. Just a lot louder atmosphere. It’s fun playing here. Much more fun team this year, the guys, everything is different this year. SDB: You’re making a statement at the bottom of the order. There’s a cliché about the number nine guy being a second leadoff hitter, but that’s not just a cliché with the way you’re getting on base. JDW: That’s what Jake told me at the beginning of the season. He told me I was probably going to bat ninth and I told him that didn’t bother me at all. If Buxton’s doing a great job at the top of the order, I’ll score a bunch of runs batting in front of Buxton so I’m not gonna argue with that at all. Basically, like I said, we’re just having fun, man. I enjoy hitting in the nine hole in front of those guys. SDB: Is there anything that Twins fans and Kernels fans don’t know about you that you’d like the fans to know about you? JDW: I’m not sure what they know about me yet (laughs), probably not a lot, yet. I’m going to try to change that in the future though, you know? Let these guys know who I am. Not many people know who I am. Williams and his Kernels team mates are off to a very good start, leading the Midwest League's Western Division by two games over Quad Cities through the first 20 games of the year. If they keep it up, Kernels fans will be getting to know him much better. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Williams2.jpg JD Williams with some pregame stretching

Cedar Rapids Kernels outfielder JaDamion (J.D.) Williams is in his fourth season with the Minnesota Twins organization. He was drafted by the Twins in the 10th round of the 2010 amateur draft. After a very productive 2011 season at Rookie League level Elizabethton, where he hit .324, Williams hit only .237 for the Beloit Snappers a year ago and accumulated an on-base percentage of .311. In his second year in the Midwest League, Williams is off to a much better start for the Kernels. Hitting out of the ninth spot in Manager Jake Mauer's batting order, Williams spent most of the first three weeks of the season with a batting average approaching .300. Perhaps more impressively, he was reaching base at about a .450 rate. He's also hit four doubles and three home runs, leading to a slugging percentage sufficient to put his OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) near the 1.000 mark. Those numbers are almost certainly not sustainable, but they reflect a new, more aggressive, approach to hitting this season. Williams sat down for an interview over the weekend to discuss his first few weeks in Cedar Rapids and his role, thus far, with the Kernels. SD Buhr: This is your second season in the Midwest League. Is there anything specifically different about how you feel going in to this year as opposed to starting last year in Beloit? J.D. Williams: Just the fact that I’ve had a year here in this league and I’ve learned a lot more. A lot more of a mature player, mature of a hitter and fielder. Learning from different guys. Our hitting coach Tommy Watkins, this is my second year working with him. Guys such as (Twins minor league hitting coordinator) Bill Springman, those guys just teaching me not necessarily the athletic side of the game but baseball mentality. Just learning to be a baseball player, not just running around. SDB: Was it disappointing to find out you were going to be coming back to the Midwest League or was that something you were pretty much prepared for happening this year? JDW: I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but like they say, as long as you got a jersey on, somebody likes you. I didn’t do what I wanted to do here (in the Midwest League) last year, so it doesn’t bother me that I’m back here. I’m playing a lot better this year, so it is what it is. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Williams11.jpg SDB: Did the Twins give you anything specific to work on? Did they say, “this is what we really want you to work on going in to the season. That’s what you're going to have to do to advance.”? JDW: Basically, they wanted me to cut down on my strikeouts put the ball in play a lot more because I can run but you cant steal first base, like they say. So, I think I’m doing a lot better at that this year. I’m walking a lot more, not just going up there swinging at every pitch I see, opposed to like I was doing last year. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/WilliamsBuxton.jpg JD Williams watches Byron Buxton as he waits his turn for batting practice SDB: They probably don’t exactly encourage you to run a lot with Byron Buxton coming up behind you, though. JDW: (Laughs) He talks to me a lot. He tells me he’s going to give me a few pitches to run. We’ve got our little sign for when I’m gonna run and whatnot. So we work on that a lot, try to get each other a couple of bases. SDB: Growing up, did you have a favorite player, someone you wanted to be like? JDW: Growing up I liked to watch Brandon Phillips. That was back when I was an infielder and I’m an outfielder now. Of course, I like Denard Span and those guys. Michael Bourne, Juan Pierre, those guys that can run, get on base, steal a couple of bases. I want to be just like those guys. SDB: Is there anything about coming to Cedar Rapids that you've found different than what you expected it to be? JDW: Yeah, I love the atmosphere here, the stadium, the people. It’s a lot bigger than Beloit, obviously. Just a lot louder atmosphere. It’s fun playing here. Much more fun team this year, the guys, everything is different this year. SDB: You’re making a statement at the bottom of the order. There’s a cliché about the number nine guy being a second leadoff hitter, but that’s not just a cliché with the way you’re getting on base. JDW: That’s what Jake told me at the beginning of the season. He told me I was probably going to bat ninth and I told him that didn’t bother me at all. If Buxton’s doing a great job at the top of the order, I’ll score a bunch of runs batting in front of Buxton so I’m not gonna argue with that at all. Basically, like I said, we’re just having fun, man. I enjoy hitting in the nine hole in front of those guys. SDB: Is there anything that Twins fans and Kernels fans don’t know about you that you’d like the fans to know about you? JDW: I’m not sure what they know about me yet (laughs), probably not a lot, yet. I’m going to try to change that in the future though, you know? Let these guys know who I am. Not many people know who I am. Williams and his Kernels team mates are off to a very good start, leading the Midwest League's Western Division by two games over Quad Cities through the first 20 games of the year. If they keep it up, Kernels fans will be getting to know him much better. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Williams2.jpg JD Williams with some pregame stretching

There is no shortage of great story lines through the first three weeks of the Cedar Rapids Kernels' inaugural season as the Minnesota Twins Class A affiliate in the Midwest League. To begin with, the Kernels (12-5) sit atop the MWL Western Division standings, with a one-game lead over the Quad City River Bandits (Astros). Cedar Rapids has had success both at home (5-2) and on the road (7-3). The biggest story of the first three weeks of the MWL season has undoubtedly been the weather. The Kernels have played only 17 games at this point and that's more than 10 of the other 15 MWL teams have played. Today (Wednesday, April 24) was supposed to be the first scheduled off-day of the Kernels' season. With all of the weather-related postponements and cancellations, it will instead be the seventh day Kernels players will have not played baseball since Opening Day. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Buxton21.jpg Byron Buxton Understandably, the early attention on the field has been focused on center fielder Byron Buxton, the Twins' #1 draft pick a year ago. Buxton got off to an amazing start with the bat, but it was inevitable that he would cool off. He has just three hits in his last 15 At-Bats over the Kernels most recent four games. That's dropped his Batting Average all the way down to... .404. He's reached base at a .514 rate and has two doubles, two triples and two home runs to assemble a 1.128 On-Base Plus Slugging percentage (OPS). He also has seven stolen bases. If this is the worst "slump" Buxton has to go through, he's going to have a fun season. But Buxton isn't the only Kernels hitter putting up impressive numbers. First baseman Dalton Hicks has put together a pretty good start of his own, as well. His .310 Batting Average is backed up by seven doubles and a team-leading three home runs. Drew Leachman went hitless in five At-Bats on on Opening Night and spent the next couple of weeks on the Disabled List after banging up his shoulder in that first game. Leachman has nine hits in 21 At-Bats for a .429 average since being reactivated, with a double, a triple and four RBI in five games. In addition to Buxton, Hicks and Leachman, there are five additional Kernels hitting at .270 or better: Niko Goodrum is hitting at a .288 clip with five doubles and a .383 On-Base Percentage (OBP). Jorge Polanco has four doubles and a home run, along with 11 RBI, to go with his .281 Batting Average. Adam Walker also has a .281 average and 11 RBI to go with his two doubles, one triple and two home runs. Travis Harrison shares the team lead in doubles with Hicks at seven and has a pair of home runs, as well. He's hitting .271 on the season. J. D. Williams is hitting .270, but he's parlayed three doubles and a pair of home runs, along with 11 walks, in to a .429 OBP and an OPS of .942. That's some pretty good work, especially coming from the guy who's held down the #9 spot in the batting order most of the young season. Perhaps the biggest Kernels news this week was the debut of Jose Berrios, one of the top starting pitching prospects in the Twins organization. Berrios threw five innings on Monday night against the Burlington Bees. He struck out five Bees hitters, but also gave up seven hits and walked a pair. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Berrios2.jpg Jose Berrios If Berrios, who will still be just 18 years old for another month, was a bit over-excited for his first start, it would be understandable. He had trouble getting his fastball down in the strike zone the first couple of innings, but finished strong enough to be credited with the Win in the Kernels' 8-4 win over Burlington. Berrios' fastball reportedly hit 96 mph early in the game, but one scout's radar gun consistently recorded it at 91-93 mph during his last two innings of work. However, it's possible that his breaking ball was more impressive. It had a late, sharp, break that buckled more than one set of Bees' knees. In the end, Berrios may turn out to be the biggest pitching story this season for the Kernels, but a number of his fellow pitchers are setting a pretty high standard for him to meet. Tyler Duffey hasn't been able to repeat the seven-perfect-innings performance of his first start of the season, but he's continued to pitch well. Through 19.2 innings of work covering three starts, he's put up a 2.29 ERA, striking out 17 while walking only three hitters. He's also put up a 0.661 WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched). Mason Melotakis has put up a 2.84 ERA in his three starts, racking up 11 strikeouts in just 12. 2 innings of work and Hudson Boyd, while struggling with control at times, has also managed to miss bats. Boyd has struck out a dozen hitters in 14 innings during his three starts. David Hurlbut appears to be the pitcher bumped from the rotation to the bullpen to make room for Berrios (though that could change with the promotion of Taylor Rogers to Fort Myers this week). Hurlbut has put up a 3.00 ERA and a 0.933 WHIP in 15 innings of work during four appearances (two of them starts). The weather situation has left Brett Lee, who started the season penciled in as the Kernels sixth starting pitcher in a six-man rotation, with just one start in the first three weeks of the season. He's made two other appearances in relief roles. Regardless of how he's entered the game, however, Lee has kept his opponents from scoring. He's sporting a perfect 0.00 ERA over eight innings of work, while striking out seven hitters without surrendering a walk. Steven Gruver has posted a 0.64 ERA in his four appearances, three of which came out of the bullpen, while the other came as an emergency starter. That start was necessitated by weather forcing the Kernels to play seven games in a period of just four days. Gruver has struck out 16 hitters and walked just two in 14 innings. Gruver, along with Tyler Jones, Tim Atherton, Manuel Soliman and Chris Mazza, have anchored a very effective Kernels bullpen. Gruver, Jones, Atherton and Mazza have all struck out more than a hitter per inning of work. Manager Jake Mauer's group of Kernels are off to a very good start, made even more impressive by the conditions in which they've had to play and the effect the weather has had on their schedule. It should be really interesting to see how things come together when the weather turns warm and the fans start to fill up the ballpark. SD Buhr covers the Kernels for MetroSportsReport.com in Cedar Rapids.

There is no shortage of great story lines through the first three weeks of the Cedar Rapids Kernels' inaugural season as the Minnesota Twins Class A affiliate in the Midwest League. To begin with, the Kernels (12-5) sit atop the MWL Western Division standings, with a one-game lead over the Quad City River Bandits (Astros). Cedar Rapids has had success both at home (5-2) and on the road (7-3). The biggest story of the first three weeks of the MWL season has undoubtedly been the weather. The Kernels have played only 17 games at this point and that's more than 10 of the other 15 MWL teams have played. Today (Wednesday, April 24) was supposed to be the first scheduled off-day of the Kernels' season. With all of the weather-related postponements and cancellations, it will instead be the seventh day Kernels players will have not played baseball since Opening Day. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Buxton21.jpg Byron Buxton Understandably, the early attention on the field has been focused on center fielder Byron Buxton, the Twins' #1 draft pick a year ago. Buxton got off to an amazing start with the bat, but it was inevitable that he would cool off. He has just three hits in his last 15 At-Bats over the Kernels most recent four games. That's dropped his Batting Average all the way down to... .404. He's reached base at a .514 rate and has two doubles, two triples and two home runs to assemble a 1.128 On-Base Plus Slugging percentage (OPS). He also has seven stolen bases. If this is the worst "slump" Buxton has to go through, he's going to have a fun season. But Buxton isn't the only Kernels hitter putting up impressive numbers. First baseman Dalton Hicks has put together a pretty good start of his own, as well. His .310 Batting Average is backed up by seven doubles and a team-leading three home runs. Drew Leachman went hitless in five At-Bats on on Opening Night and spent the next couple of weeks on the Disabled List after banging up his shoulder in that first game. Leachman has nine hits in 21 At-Bats for a .429 average since being reactivated, with a double, a triple and four RBI in five games. In addition to Buxton, Hicks and Leachman, there are five additional Kernels hitting at .270 or better: Niko Goodrum is hitting at a .288 clip with five doubles and a .383 On-Base Percentage (OBP). Jorge Polanco has four doubles and a home run, along with 11 RBI, to go with his .281 Batting Average. Adam Walker also has a .281 average and 11 RBI to go with his two doubles, one triple and two home runs. Travis Harrison shares the team lead in doubles with Hicks at seven and has a pair of home runs, as well. He's hitting .271 on the season. J. D. Williams is hitting .270, but he's parlayed three doubles and a pair of home runs, along with 11 walks, in to a .429 OBP and an OPS of .942. That's some pretty good work, especially coming from the guy who's held down the #9 spot in the batting order most of the young season. Perhaps the biggest Kernels news this week was the debut of Jose Berrios, one of the top starting pitching prospects in the Twins organization. Berrios threw five innings on Monday night against the Burlington Bees. He struck out five Bees hitters, but also gave up seven hits and walked a pair. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/Berrios2.jpg Jose Berrios If Berrios, who will still be just 18 years old for another month, was a bit over-excited for his first start, it would be understandable. He had trouble getting his fastball down in the strike zone the first couple of innings, but finished strong enough to be credited with the Win in the Kernels' 8-4 win over Burlington. Berrios' fastball reportedly hit 96 mph early in the game, but one scout's radar gun consistently recorded it at 91-93 mph during his last two innings of work. However, it's possible that his breaking ball was more impressive. It had a late, sharp, break that buckled more than one set of Bees' knees. In the end, Berrios may turn out to be the biggest pitching story this season for the Kernels, but a number of his fellow pitchers are setting a pretty high standard for him to meet. Tyler Duffey hasn't been able to repeat the seven-perfect-innings performance of his first start of the season, but he's continued to pitch well. Through 19.2 innings of work covering three starts, he's put up a 2.29 ERA, striking out 17 while walking only three hitters. He's also put up a 0.661 WHIP (Walks + Hits per Inning Pitched). Mason Melotakis has put up a 2.84 ERA in his three starts, racking up 11 strikeouts in just 12. 2 innings of work and Hudson Boyd, while struggling with control at times, has also managed to miss bats. Boyd has struck out a dozen hitters in 14 innings during his three starts. David Hurlbut appears to be the pitcher bumped from the rotation to the bullpen to make room for Berrios (though that could change with the promotion of Taylor Rogers to Fort Myers this week). Hurlbut has put up a 3.00 ERA and a 0.933 WHIP in 15 innings of work during four appearances (two of them starts). The weather situation has left Brett Lee, who started the season penciled in as the Kernels sixth starting pitcher in a six-man rotation, with just one start in the first three weeks of the season. He's made two other appearances in relief roles. Regardless of how he's entered the game, however, Lee has kept his opponents from scoring. He's sporting a perfect 0.00 ERA over eight innings of work, while striking out seven hitters without surrendering a walk. Steven Gruver has posted a 0.64 ERA in his four appearances, three of which came out of the bullpen, while the other came as an emergency starter. That start was necessitated by weather forcing the Kernels to play seven games in a period of just four days. Gruver has struck out 16 hitters and walked just two in 14 innings. Gruver, along with Tyler Jones, Tim Atherton, Manuel Soliman and Chris Mazza, have anchored a very effective Kernels bullpen. Gruver, Jones, Atherton and Mazza have all struck out more than a hitter per inning of work. Manager Jake Mauer's group of Kernels are off to a very good start, made even more impressive by the conditions in which they've had to play and the effect the weather has had on their schedule. It should be really interesting to see how things come together when the weather turns warm and the fans start to fill up the ballpark. SD Buhr covers the Kernels for MetroSportsReport.com in Cedar Rapids.