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Blog Entries posted by Steven Buhr

  1. Steven Buhr
    The month of April was not kind to Cedar Rapids Kernels infielder Jose Miranda.
     
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Miranda060618a-600x400.jpg
    Jose Miranda (Photo by SD Buhr)
     
    After hitting .284 and putting up a .824 On-base Plus Slugging (OPS) for rookie level Elizabethton in 2017, Miranda was one of several highly-regarded hitting prospects that were expected to power the Kernels’ offense in 2018, but the 19-year-old from Puerto Rico managed just a .180 batting average in 16 April games for the Kernels before the calendar mercifully turned to May.
     
    Since then, however, Miranda has not only been hitting at a respectable .262 rate, but has six doubles, a triple and four home runs among his 40 post-April hits.
     
    Being younger than almost all of the pitchers he was facing would be enough of a factor to explain the slow start with the bat, but Miranda had one more thing going against him that many of his teammates didn’t have. Unlike some players who spent their high school and/or college days playing ball in the northern areas of the United States, playing baseball in the cold was a new experience for Miranda.
     
    He’s reluctant to blame his slow start on the weather, but facts are facts.
     
    “I don’t want to say it was the weather, but maybe in part, yeah, because the first month it was pretty cold,” Miranda conceded recently. “I’m not used to the cold weather because Puerto Rico is always hot.”
     
    As the temperatures have been rising in Iowa and the surrounding area, so has Miranda’s stat line.
     
    “I’m just making adjustments day-by-day, taking it step by step,” he said, explaining his turnaround. “I don’t want to get too anxious or too frustrated by what happens, I’m just in the moment and making adjustments every day.”
     
    Kernels hitting coach Brian Dinkelman thinks the weather had something to do with the infielder’s sluggish start to the season, as well.
     
    “Over the first month, tough weather conditions, first time experiencing cold weather, so I’m sure that had a little to do with it,” Dinkelman reflected. “He’s got some confidence now. He’s been hitting the ball better the last few weeks. He’s swinging at more strikes.”
     
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Miranda060618b-600x400.jpg
    Jose Miranda (Photo by SD Buhr)
     
    Dinkelman is seeing better pitch selection from Miranda. “Especially with guys in scoring position. Not getting himself out on the first or second pitch by chasing or getting in a hole 0-1, 0-2. Been better the last month about getting good pitches to hit. When they’re in the strike zone, he does ok.”
     
    Miranda, himself, admits he has an affinity for taking a good whack at the first pitch. Even so, his aggressive approach hasn’t led to a ton of strikeouts. Through his first 213 at-bats, he’s K’d only 31 times.
     
    “Yeah, I like to battle,” Miranda explained. “Sometimes when I see a first pitch is right down the middle, I just like to swing. Take advantage of it, because sometimes it’s the best pitch you’re going to see. Maybe the first pitch is right down the middle, a fastball, then they’re going to work you with different pitches, so I like to jump at that first pitch. But if I don’t get it, then I’m going to keep battling.
     
    “And no, I don’t like striking out,” he added, emphatically. “I hate it. Since I was little, I’ve tried to battle.”
     
    Miranda has had plenty of talented hitters to watch and learn from in Cedar Rapids this season.
     
    “We’ve got a first overall here, Royce (Lewis), and other guys that are first rounders, second rounders,” Miranda pointed out. “It doesn’t matter if they’re like first 10 rounds, all the guys are super important for me, too. It’s pretty cool to play with these guys.
     
    “I like to watch every other player here. I like to watch what they do. What type of at-bats they take. What type of pitches they swing on. I admire everyone here. I admire what they do. I like everyone here. Everyone here battles. They play hard and that’s what it’s all about.”
     
    Miranda says he’s also feeling stronger as the season progresses.
     
    “I feel like the power is coming on,” he said. “I feel like I’m barreling the ball more. I’m have better swings and it’s summertime, so I think the ball is going to keep flying out.”
     
    Miranda said he’s been playing baseball since he was four years old.
     
    “When I was little I used to play in my back yard. Everybody came to my house,” he recalled.
     
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/MirandaLewis060618-600x400.jpg
    Jose Miranda and Royce Lewis, either attempting to take flight or going through pre-game warm-up drills. You decide. (Photo: SD Buhr)
     
    He was a shortstop through his high school playing days, but at the time he was drafted, scouts reportedly projected him to end up filling out and moving to third base.
     
    He played almost exclusively at second base in Elizabethton a season ago, however, and seemed to be set there through most of the first couple months of the Kernels season, while 2017 fifth round selection Andrew Bechtold was manning third base.
     
    In recent weeks, however, manager Toby Gardenhire has often swapped the two, giving Miranda time at third base, with Bechtold at second, while Lewis continues to hold down shortstop and Jordan Gore gets a lot of work in a utility role, filling in at all three positions.
     
    Dinkelman acknowledged the change in pattern, but cautioned about reading too much into it.
     
    “Just a little versatility,” he explained. “We like them both at second and third and Gore can play all three. Just to get the experience at each position, because you never know, the higher you go up the ladder and to the big leagues, what position you’re going to play. So, if you can get a little experience at each and figure out maybe what is your best position, it’ll be good for all of them.”
     
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Miranda052018-400x600.jpg
    Jose Miranda catches a throw from Ben Rortvedt before tagging out a Clinton Lumber Kings runner attempting to steal second base (Photo by SD Buhr)
     
    As for Miranda, he’s open to playing wherever the team and it’s leadership need him to play.
     
    “I kind of play wherever they want me, he said. “I do like both (second base and third base). Since I was young, I used to play shortstop, but now I’m playing more second and third and I don’t have a preference. I just want to be in the lineup!”
     
    With the 2018 draft taking place early this month, Miranda was recalling what it felt like to go through the draft process two years ago, as a 17-year-old in Puerto Rico.
     
    “It’s been one of my biggest moments in my life,” he recollected. “I was at my house with my dad and my grandma and I was watching it because I wasn’t sure if I was going to go in the second round or third round. The first two rounds are the first day, so I was kind of unsure if I was going to go in the second round. I was just watching it and hoping to get the call from my agent. And then it was like the 59th pick or something like that when my agent called me and told me, ‘you’re going to go in the 73rd pick to the Twins.’
     
    “So I was kind of nervous and anxious. I was getting a lot of messages and calls and I just wanted to watch it on TV and enjoy the moment. I got a call from the scout for the Twins in Puerto Rico, (saying) ‘Hey, good luck, I know you’re going to do well.’ I said, ‘Hey, they haven’t called me yet, let me watch it first and I will call you back.’
     
    “So, yeah, it was one of my biggest moments in my life and I enjoyed it.”
  2. Steven Buhr
    After standing in a line of about 20 people for a few minutes, a couple of guys finally got the autograph they wanted during the Cedar Rapids Kernels regular Sunday post-game autograph session. They had secured the autograph of Royce Lewis, the Minnesota Twins first round pick in the 2017 MLB amateur draft and the first pick overall.
     
    They stood for a moment and looked out at the area of right field where Lewis' team mates were spread out, some standing by themselves and some in groups of two or three players, all signing autographs for a handful of fans that had gathered around them. One of the guys asked the other, "Where's the other first rounder?"
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Kirilloff0504a2-600x401.jpg
    Alex Kirilloff (Photo by SD Buhr)
     
    That's right, the Kernels don’t have a first round pick on the field this season – they are in the enviable and rare position of having TWO of the Twins’ recent first round picks and both have been beating up on Midwest League pitchers through the first several weeks of the season.
     
    Lewis has been everything you'd hope for as a Twins fan. He has put up a.373 batting average and .849 OPS in 83 at-bats through Tuesday's game at Dayton., He carries a six-game hitting streak into Wednesday’s game. He has also hit safely in 16 of his 20 games.
     
    That’s the kind of start that has a lot of people wondering how soon the first overall pick in the 2017 draft will be promoted to Class High-A Fort Myers.
     
    Alex Kirilloff, the "other" first rounder the autograph hounds were looking for, was selected by the Twins in the first round (15th overall) of the 2016 draft and, while Lewis has rightfully been getting a lot of publicity, Kirilloff has also been making a strong case that his time in Cedar Rapids should not be an extended stay, either.
     
    Kirilloff’s OPS of .851 is almost identical to that of Lewis, but they’ve taken different paths to establishing that number.
     
    OPS is the sum of two other statistics, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, and Lewis’ .OPS is composed of nearly equal on-base and slugging percentages. Kirilloff, on the other hand, is reaching base at a .327 clip, but his slugging percentage is a robust .524.
     
    His batting average has climbed to within shouting distance of .300, and over half of his hits this season have been of the extra-base variety. Kirilloff has 12 doubles (second most in the Midwest League) and four home runs among his 30 hits. He is also taking a nine-game hitting streak into Wednesday night’s game..
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Kirilloff0506d-400x600.jpg
    Alex Kirilloff (Photo by SD Buhr)
     
    Having first round picks on the field is nothing new for the Kernels.
     
    Since they began their affiliation with the Twins in the 2013 season, fans in Cedar Rapids have watched outfielder Byron Buxton (in 2013) and shortstop Nick Gordon (in 2015), as well as pitcher Kohl Stewart (in 2014). Of course, Lewis suited up for the Kernels for the final couple of weeks of the 2017 season, as well.
     
    Buxton, Gordon and Lewis, as everyday position players, generated a lot of buzz at the ballpark, as befits a first-round pick, and Lewis continues to see a lengthy line of autograph seekers during the Kernels’ Sunday afternoon autograph sessions.
     
    Any other year, you know Kirilloff would be getting that focus from fans and media.
     
    But this is no ordinary year in Cedar Rapids.
     
    Kirilloff bats third in a lineup that not only includes Lewis and himself, the two first round picks, but also typically includes a second-rounder (C Ben Rortvedt), two Compensation “B” round picks (IF Jose Miranda and OF Akil Baddoo), a fourth round pick (OF/1B Trey Cabbage), a Twins fifth rounder (3B Andrew Bechtold), a Mariners fifth round pick (C David Banuelos, obtained in a trade) and an eighth round pick (OF Shane Carrier). On top of those “slot pick” players, outfielder Jean Carlos Arias was an international free agent that signed with the Twins for a mid-six-figure bonus.
     
    And that list doesn't even include the pitching prospects.
     
    He certainly gets his share of autograph requests, but there’s no doubt that sharing a field with Lewis and the other high-priced talent on the Kernels roster has resulted in Kirilloff playing in a broad shadow during the early part of the 2018 season, despite having one of the cleanest, most consistent and most productive swings you’re ever likely to see from a 20-year-old.
     
    Spend a few minutes talking to the 20-year-old from Pittsburgh, though, and you can tell he is not the least bit bothered by his circumstances. Quite the contrary.
     
    “It is a lot of fun,” Kirilloff responded, over the weekend, when asked his feelings about being a part of a lineup that is pretty much loaded with highly regarded position prospects. “We all have to still show up and do our jobs, but it’s a great group of guys that are even better people, as well. They’re fun to be around and an exciting team.”
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Kirilloff0506b-400x600.jpg
    Alex Kirilloff (Photo by SD Buhr)
     
    At this point, you can understand if Kirilloff is just happy to be back taking meaningful swings at the plate after missing all of the 2017 season following Tommy John surgery. It would also be understandable if he had started off this spring a bit rusty, but there’s no rust in his swing.
     
    “I had known it was not going to be easy, at first, taking a year and a half off from live at-bats,” he said. “I was expecting to take it one step at a time, to be honest. I learned a lot from spring training and kind of built on that and just continued to plug away this year. Hopefully, I can continue to build off of our start and my start, as well.”
     
    Best of all, perhaps, there have been no lingering effects from his injury.
     
    “The arm’s great. No problems. It’s been a blessing,” he confirmed.
     
    It hasn’t all been easy, though. Cedar Rapids played several games in near freezing temperatures and even occasional snow flurries during April and even had to sit through a six-day layoff caused by cold temperatures and snow. It’s not that they didn’t notice, he and his team mates just treated the inclement weather as one more part of learning to be professional ballplayers.
     
    “It was just really cold here at the beginning of the year,” he recalled. “But, all of us were expecting that, being in Iowa.”
     
    You might think that Kirilloff is anxious to quickly make up for the development time he lost by sitting out last season, but that’s not really at the forefront of his mind this spring.
     
    “Just kind of maintaining for 140 games is the biggest key for this year,” Kirilloff said, adding, “and keeping my body healthy. Staying on an even keel throughout that whole stretch is going to be big. It’s a long season.”
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Kirilloff0506e-600x400.jpg
    Alex Kirilloff signing autographs during a Sunday post-game autograph session (Photo by SD Buhr)
     
    Still, with such a hot start, you couldn’t blame Kirilloff if he got a bit antsy about whether his hot start might be earning an early promotion to Fort Myers. If that’s the case, you’d never know it.
     
    “I’m content where I am,” he said. “Wherever that takes me, I’m going to play as hard as I can, whether I’m here or wherever else.”
     
    That kind of level-headed approach to his baseball life probably wouldn’t come as a huge surprise to those who know the young man who married his wife, Jordan, just a few months after he was drafted by the Twins in 2016 and was home-schooled – not only with regard to the typical educational curriculum, but where baseball is concerned, as well.
     
    “Yeah, my dad’s been a hitting instructor and a coach my whole life,” he said, smiling. “He’s always had his own hitting facility back in Pittsburgh, so I was raised in that environment as a kid. I’d go to work with him and be around that stuff all day long. So, he’s been a pretty integral part in my career and my life. Teaching me and developing me.
     
    “He tells the story sometimes that the day I could stand up and walk, he put a bat in my hands. I kind of get a chuckle out of that.”
     
    That might certainly explain that sweet swing.
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
  3. Steven Buhr
    Imagine for a moment that you grew up in an area where high temperatures each day run between 80 and 85 degrees, year-round.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Colina2018b-600x400.jpg
    Edwar Colina (Photo by SD Buhr)
     
    You enjoy sports, especially baseball, and you can literally play ball every day, all year, if you want.
     
    You realize your dream of signing a professional baseball contract and then, one day, you’re pitching for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, a mere 2,600 miles, as the crow flies, from your home town.
     
    Then you walk out to the mound to pitch your first game of the season and it’s 37 degrees with a 15 mile per hour wind slapping you in the face.
     
    Welcome to the world of Kernels pitcher Edwar Colina, as it existed on April 7 this spring when he took to the mound for his first start in full-season professional baseball.
     
    “It was hard for me,” Colina recalled this weekend, concerning his introduction to Midwest spring weather. “It was the first time in my life that I see snow. The weather was really hard. In my home, the regular weather is 85 degrees. 85 to 90 all year. So when I came here, the first week was really hard for me. But the experience is all (part of) baseball. That’s part of the process, you know?
     
    “It was hard, because I never pitched in that weather, but you just try to compete and I think I did a good job with the weather.”
     
    Indeed he did.
     
    Colina accorded himself quite well, considering the circumstances that night, when he got the start for the Kernels’ home opener. He surrendered two runs, just one of which was earned, in four innings of work in what would become a 4-3 Cedar Rapids win.
     
    Thanks, in part, to a streak of unplayable weather that followed the Kernels across the Midwest for a week, Colina didn’t get another chance to start until more than two weeks later. In fact, he’s had only three starts this season.
     
    He gave up just a pair of hits over five shutout innings in a start on April 24, recording his first Win on the year in a game where the temperature was 74 degrees at first pitch, exactly twice what it had been in his first start. That’s pretty good, but both the weather and his performance levels were both just starting to warm up.
     
    In his start on Tuesday, May 1 (two days before his 21st birthday), it was 80 degrees in Cedar Rapids when he took the mound for the first inning. When he left the game, he not only had shut out the South Bend Cubs over his six innings of work, he’d also held them without a hit.
     
    After Jovani Moran provided three innings of no-hit relief, the pair had combined to throw the first no-hitter for the Kernels in just over five years and Colina’s record rose to 2-0.
     
    The no-hitter was a first for Colina.
     
    “That was my first no-hitter ever at any level, amateur or professional,” a smiling Colina acknowledged. “It was the first no-hitter of my life.”
     
    Whether by tradition or due to superstition, common baseball practice is to pretty much leave a pitcher alone between innings when he has something as meaningful as a no-hitter going on, but that’s not what Colina was doing on Tuesday.
     
    “No, I talked to my team mates a lot during the game,” he said. “I talked to the catcher. How we feel comfortable throwing what pitches. I just tried to be a good team mate with my position guys and I did not pay attention, really, to the no-hitter. I just tried to keep focus on the game and to help my team.”
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Colina0407d-600x400.jpg
    Edwar Colina pitches during the Kernels home opener on April 7, 2018 (Photo by SD Buhr)
     
    That comment reflects a level of maturity that extends beyond the playing field, as well. Maybe that’s because his path to professional baseball in the United States took a little different route than some Latin American players do.
     
    Typically, most of what we hear and read about concerning signings out of Latin America involve 16-year-olds getting significant signing bonuses. You won’t find any old press clippings announcing a huge bonus being paid to a young Edwar Colina, however.
     
    Colina wasn’t signed by the Twins until September of 2015, a few months after the hard throwing right-hander turned 18 years old, meaning he missed out on the sort of bonus that the most sought after foreign players are paid.
     
    If Colina was disappointed not to be signed as a 16-year-old, he didn’t let that deter him from chasing his dream.
     
    “I was not signed when I was 16,” Colina explained, “but I kept working hard for that because I love baseball. And when (the Twins offer) happened, I just took the opportunity.”
     
    In 2016, he started 13 games for the Twins’ Dominican Summer League team and began last season in Extended Spring Training before making 12 appearances (11 of them starts) for Elizabethton.
     
    Not only has he proven increasingly successful on the mound, he’s also learned the importance of assimilating into his new environment in the United States.
     
    Since arriving in this country not much more than a year ago, he’s worked hard to learn English well enough to communicate with team mates and coaches, not to mention fans and the media.
     
    While the Twins do offer their foreign-born prospects English classes, Colina credits a fellow minor leaguer from the Netherlands, Taylor Clemensia, with helping him accelerate his understanding of the language.
     
    “When I went (to the U.S.) last year, I spent a lot of time with my friend (Clemensia), he’s from Netherlands. I spent like every single day with him and he doesn’t speak Spanish. He helped me a lot.
     
    "When I moved to (Elizabethton) Tennessee, you don’t see too many people that speak Spanish there, so that helped me more. You keep practicing with the players. Every day I asked different things to somebody about whatever. You just try to hear some English and that helped me.”
     
    Again, his maturity level becomes evident when Colina discusses why he feels learning English quickly is important for more than just being able to carry on a conversation with a reporter.
     
    “You never know what would happen later,” he explained. “That’s what I said when I (came) here. Hey, you never know what happens after baseball. Probably, you’ll need your English, so I would do it quick.”
     
    With a level head and an arm that generates a mid-90s fastball, one can’t help but wonder what kind of performance Colina will be capable of once game time temperatures get up into the 85-90 degree range he’s more accustomed to pitching in back home in Venezuela.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Colina2018a-400x600.jpg
    Edwar Colina signing autographs following the Kernels game on May 6, 2018 (Photo by SD Buhr)
     
    Of course, if his performance continues to improve at its current pace, he may be pitching in much warmer temperatures in Ft. Myers, Florida, before long.
     
    “That’s what I try to do,” he acknowledged, concerning the possibility of a mid-season promotion to the class high-A level. “Try to move quick, fast as I can. I’m working hard every single day to fix my mistakes.”
     
    His manager, Toby Gardenhire, has noticed and is a big supporter of the right-hander.
     
    “He’s got plus stuff,” Gardenhire said of Colina. “He’s got a really good fastball, obviously, he runs it up there 95, 96 (miles per hour) a lot of times. He’s got a really good slider and a good change-up that he’s been working on. And the ball moves, that’s the biggest thing. He’s 95, 96 and it doesn’t go straight. He’s got a lot of sink.
     
    “So his biggest thing is, can he control it? Because he has a tendency to kind of dabble around the plate a little bit. When he’s good, he throws a lot of strikes. He’s done that the last couple of times, so hopefully he just keeps getting better with that, too.”
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
  4. Steven Buhr
    The Cedar Rapids Kernels hit the frozen ground running this season, jumping off to a 6-0 record before finally suffering their first loss of the year on Friday night against Clinton.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Sammons0413e-600x400.jpg
    Bryan Sammons delivers a pitch Friday, April 13, against Clinton (Photo: SD Buhr)
     
    Don’t say the start surprised their manager, Toby Gardenhire, though. With a lineup as full of highly regarded prospects as this Kernels roster is, he’s not going to be too surprised with short term success.
     
    “I don’t know if I’d call it surprised,” Gardenhire said on Friday before that night’s frigid game. “We’ve got a lot of guys that are doing some really good things right now. Any time you can run off a stretch like we’ve done here, it means there are a lot of people doing their job and doing a really good job of it.
     
    “That’s the nice thing about our lineup,” he continued. “We have a whole bunch of guys that are really exciting. Whether they’re going to do it on a given night, that’s the question, but we’ve had a lot of guys step up and do some pretty impressive things, so it’s been fun.”
     
    Still, even if the early success isn’t surprising, this is not exactly how the Cedar Rapids Kernels’ season was supposed to start out.
     
    You simply don’t expect four of your first 11 games (including three of your first five home dates) to be postponed due to cold and snow.
     
    Cold or not, you can’t argue with success.
     
    Cedar Rapids opened the 2018 campaign April 5 with a 2-0 shutout of the Quad Cities River Bandits in Davenport, then had the next night’s game postponed.
     
    They topped Quad Cities again, 4-3, in Cedar Rapids’ home opener on April 7. Then had another postponement the next day.
     
    They did get an entire four-game series played in Peoria during the middle of the week and it’s a good thing they did, too! The Kernels swept all four games from the Chiefs.
     
    They won the first game of the series 3-1, which means they had outscored their opponents 9-4 through the first three games they played. It wasn’t exactly a demonstration of the kind of offensive fire power that fans were expecting to see from a lineup that included two first round draft choices and often saw “slot picks” (players drafted in the first 10 rounds of the amateur draft) at all nine spots in the batting order.
     
    That all changed as the weather crawled up to more normal levels over the final three games of the series in Peoria. The Kernels scored 8, 12 and 9 runs, respectively, in those games while posting their perfect 6-0 record through Thursday.
     
    In three of those four games against the Chiefs, Cedar Rapids had to mount comebacks after falling behind Peoria. That fact wasn’t lost on their manager, either.
     
    “That’s our lineup,” the manager said. “You don’t expect that, but I would say, at this point, right now, we don’t really ever feel like we’re out of it with the group of guys that we’ve got going.
     
    “Now that changes, it fluctuates throughout the season. There’s days when you’re going to be down and think, ‘uh oh, we’re never going to come back in this one,’ but with the way the guys are playing right now and swinging, their confidence level is very high right now and that helps out a ton, too. With these guys’ confidence level right now, being down doesn’t scare them.”
     
    Alex Kirilloff, the first round pick of the Twins in 2016, had a two-home run game in the series and 2017 first overall pick Royce Lewis notched his first home run of the season during the Peoria series, as well.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Gardenhire0413a-400x600.jpg
    Kernels manager Toby Gardenhire (Photo: SD Buhr)
     
    For our purposes, we’ll just try to pretend Friday night’s 2-0 loss to Clinton didn’t happen. I’m sure the Kernels hitters would like to, anyway, after managing just a pair of singles and one walk against the Lumberkings on a frigid night in Cedar Rapids. (Games 2 and 3 of the scheduled weekend series were postponed due to cold and snow).
     
    That one forgettable game aside, it’s been a pretty impressive opening act for this group of Minnesota Twins prospects.
     
    On a team with a pair of first round picks, it might come as a surprise that outfielder Mark Contreras has led the team’s offense, so far. The Twins’ 9th round pick out of UC-Riverside is off to a hot start in the five games he’s played, with a .444 batting average and a 1.029 OPS. And that’s after an 0-3 night against Clinton on Friday.
     
    Catcher (and 2016 2nd round pick) Ben Rortvedt also went 0-3 against the Lumberkings, but Rortvedt is still hitting .400 and has a healthy .979 OPS.
     
    Obviously, this early in the season, these are all small sample sizes and it would be unwise to put much (or any, really) stock in stat lines that accumulate over just a handful of games, most of which took place in very unpleasant weather conditions.
     
    Still, that 6-1 record is looking pretty good, so far.
     
    As encouraging as the way his young lineup is playing under challenging conditions, Gardenhire is just as happy with what he’s seeing from his pitching corps.
     
    “Our starting pitching has been good,” Gardehire observed. “They’ve been able to get us into the fourth or fifth inning just about every game.”
     
    That may not seem like much and, later in the season when temperatures warm up and arms are healthy and loose, the bar will be set at a much different level. But this is April and many of these games have had game time temperatures around 40 degrees. Maybe lower.
     
    “In the beginning of the season,” the manager explained, “(getting 4-5 innings) is all you’re hoping for. Get us 75 to 80 pitches and get us into the fifth. Past the fifth is great. And they’ve been doing that just about every game and keeping it close while they do it.”
     
    Bryan Sammons, the only Kernels starting pitcher to take the mound for two starts so far, has a 0.96 ERA in those two starts, spanning 9 1/3 innings, and a WHIP of just 1.07.
     
    But four or five innings is only half the game and the Kernels have been holding opponents in check after that, as well, as Gardenhire pointed out about his relief arms.
     
    “Our bullpen has been great. They’ve just done a really good job. Guys are starting to get comfortable. This early in the season, you expect a lot more of the yips and guys being pretty nervous going out there. And we haven’t had a ton of that. We’ve had some guys go out there and be a little bit nervous, but for the most part, guys have stepped up and done really well.”
     
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    Kernels pitcher Derek Molina (Photo: SD Buhr)
     
    Three members of the bullpen, Jared Finkel, Calvin Faucher and Derek Molina, have yet to surrender an earned run. Finkel has made three appearances and Faucher a pair of them. Molina threw two scoreless innings of relief Friday night after joining the team as a replacement for Ryan Mason, who had been so effective in his three appearances that he earned a promotion to Class High-A Fort Myers.
     
    All told, ten of the fourteen pitchers who have made at least one appearance for the Kernels so far have early-season ERAs of 2.25 or lower.
     
    Of course, it’s early and nobody will claim ERA means everything (or even much) when it comes to judging a pitcher’s effectiveness, but up and down the stat list, several Kernels are striking out a batter or more per inning and walking less than half of the number of batters they are striking out.
     
    It’s an encouraging start.
     
    The Kernels have a scheduled off day on Monday, following the two unscheduled days off on the weekend. Then they head to Beloit for a three-game series against the Snappers, where temperatures are projected to run anywhere from a low of 25 to a high of 45 over those three days. Oh, and there’s a fair chance of snow on Wednesday. Of course there is.
     
    All of these postponements are going to wreak havoc on an already hectic schedule for the Kernels in May, too.
     
    They start out the month of May with series against Eastern Division clubs and will go on the road to Dayton and then Bowling Green. Their only scheduled day off in the entire month is Sunday, May 13. But since that’s the day after their series finale in Bowling Green the night of the 12th, how do you think that day is going to be spent?
     
    If you guessed a very long bus ride throughout the night and into the morning, you’d be correct.
     
    Then from May 14 through June 3, the Kernels will play 24 games in 21 days.
     
    Their make up game with Quad Cities will be on May 16. This will be a “split double header,” with the first game being the regularly scheduled noon game and the nightcap starting at 6:35. Both games will be 7-inning games, just as traditional double header games are in the Midwest League.
     
    Memorial Day weekend could be the real gauntlet for the ballclub, though.
     
    That’s the next time that Clinton is scheduled to return to Cedar Rapids and both of this weekend’s games will be made up as part of traditional double headers over the Holiday weekend. One on Saturday, May 26, starting at 5:05, and the other on Sunday, May 27, beginning at 2:05.
     
    I know it’s probably not going to be necessary, but I’m thinking I’m going to loosen up the throwing arm earlier that week. You just have to figure Gardenhire and his pitching coaches are going to be looking around for anyone who can throw the ball 60 feet by the time that Sunday evening rolls around.
     
    That’s next month’s concern, of course, so we’ll worry about that when the time comes.
     
    The next home series in Cedar Rapids kicks off this coming Friday night, April 20, and it’s a special one.
     
    Royce Lewis is the first “number one overall” draft pick to suit up for the club and the Kernels are celebrating with a “Royce Lewis Bobblehead” promotion.
     
    While the Kernels have done bobblehead promotions honoring past players with some level of frequency, this is the first time they’ve honored a current Kernels player in that manner.
     
    Only the first 1.000 fans through the gates will get a bobblehead, though, so if you want one, you probably should plan to get in line early.
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    Royce Lewis poses with his bobblehead (Photo lifted from Kernels Twitter feed, but if you don't tell them, I won't tell them, ok?)
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
  5. Steven Buhr
    Wednesday night, the Cedar Rapids Kernels and their Major League partner, the Minnesota Twins, combined to put on a terrific program for eastern Iowa baseball fans as the Twins once again included a stop in Cedar Rapids for their annual Winter Caravan in conjunction with the Kernels' annual Hot Stove Banquet.
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    Kris Atteberry (far left) tosses questions to Winter Caravan panelists (seated L to R) Brian Dinkelman, Toby Gardenhire, Jeremy Zoll, Zack Granite and Mitch Garver. (photo: SD Buhr)
     
    The Eastbank Venue & Lounge, along the banks of the Cedar River in downtown Cedar Rapids, was a new venue for the event and was a great choice (despite the predominantly purplish lighting, which resulted in a heavy blue hue in virtually every photograph I took at the event, with or without a flash).
     
    There was no shortage of both familiar and less familiar faces among the Winter Caravan panel the Twins sent to town for the evening.
     
    The program was emceed by Twins radio broadcaster Kris Atteberry, who distributed questions to the panel.
     
    Two new faces shared the stage with three that were more familiar to local fans.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Zoll2018-600x400.jpg
    Twins farm director Jeremy Zoll (photo: SD Buhr)
     
    New Kernels manager Toby Gardenhire (son of Ron Gardenhire, the longtime manager of the Twins who will be taking the reins in the Detroit Tigers dugout this season) was in attendance, as was his new boss, Jeremy Zoll. The 27-year-old Zoll enters his first season as the Twins' Director of Minor League Operations.
     
    Atteberry may have had the best line of the night, telling the crowd that his first question for Zoll was going to be the same question the bartender had asked Zoll, "Can I see your ID?"
     
    Kernels hitting coach Brian Dinkelman, who returns to the Kernels again in 2018, was joined by two other familiar faces: former Kernels Mitch Garver and Zack Granite. Both players have now made their big league debuts, finishing the 2017 season with the Twins, and will be going to spring training intent on earning spots on the Twins' opening day roster.
     
    The featured guests were made available to the media for interviews for a few minutes before the event kicked off and I had the opportunity to speak to Garver and Granite about the paths their careers had taken since their days with the Kernels.
     
    Garver played in 120 games for the 2014 version of the Kernels and hit for a .298 average. His career has steadily progressed each year since.
     
    Granite's time in Cedar Rapids was cut short by injury in 2014, but he returned in 2015 and immediately hit so well that he earned a quick promotion to Class A Advanced Fort Myers.
     
    Wanting to make the most of what time I had with each player, I asked them both the same question to kick off the interviews.
     
    If you could go back in time, knowing what you know now, and give the Cedar Rapids Kernels version of yourself one piece of advice, what would it be?
     
    "I would say relax," answered Garver.
     
    "Because when I was at this level, I put a lot of pressure on myself to succeed. Being a senior sign, kind of having that rope get a little bit shorter as my age goes up. It's like, man, I need to get promoted. I need to prove well at every level. I need to do this and that and I need to do it quickly. And I think that kind of took a toll on me.
     
    "I did have a really good learning process while I was (in Cedar Rapids), but if I could have just told myself, 'just trust the process, you're going to get there. Believe in yourself.' It would have gone a lot smoother."
     
    But would he have been concerned that might have caused his younger self to relax too much?
     
    "No, I don't think so. I've always been pedal to the metal. I want to do the best I can at everything I do.
     
    "So if I'd have known all that back then, I'd have had the same thought process, going about my work and improving, but I could have gotten (to the Major Leagues) with a little more sleep maybe."
     
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    Zack Granite and Mitch Garver (photo: SD Buhr)
     
    And what would today's Zack Granite tell his younger self to do?
     
    "Probably to grow up," he said.
     
    "I was probably a little immature, took too many at-bats too seriously.
     
    "It's a long season. I kind of didn't really know that yet. I'd never played a full season (of professional baseball) yet. There's so many at-bats in a season and if you get out or make a mistake, it's on to the next one. That's how you've got to be.
     
    "I feel like that's the only way to be successful, to clear your mind. Every at-bat is different and don't take one at-bat into the next. I did that when I was younger. I've kind of grown out of that and that's helped me along the way."
     
    Was that a tough adjustment for Granite to make, after years where you get so many fewer opportunities to bat in a season?
     
    "It took some time for me to get used to that. Even when I was at Elizabethton, it's a short season. I never really played a full season until I got to here.
     
    "My first season (in Cedar Rapids) I got hurt, so I didn't play too much. Then I came back and did pretty well and went to Fort Myers. But even in that short time I was here, I was kind of taking at-bats into the next one.
     
    "I think if I would have done that at an earlier age, took every at-bat separately, I think I would have been more successful."
     
    The Twins and Kernels will enter their sixth season as affiliates this spring. Seeing young players like Mitch Garver and Zack Granite realize the big league dream they were working so hard to achieve when they were busing around the Midwest League, then come back to town as Major Leaguers, has been one of the best aspects of the Kernels/Twins relationship.
     
    -Steve
     
    P.S. Once again, apologies for the "blue-tinted" photos. I suppose I could have spent a bunch of time editing the color out, but frankly, I just didn't feel like devoting the time necessary to do that. So let's just pretend I did it all on purpose, as an homage to the Vikings' playoff run.
     
    (This article was originally posted at knuckleballsblog.com)
  6. Steven Buhr
    Heading into their four-game series with Midwest League Western Division leaders Kane County on Thursday, the Cedar Rapids Kernels were one game under .500, trailed the Cougars by two games in the standings and were tied for second place in their division.
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
     
    After trouncing Kane County 11-2 in the series finale on Sunday to earn a split of the four-game series, Cedar Rapids was one game over .500 (at 9-8), trail the Cougars by two games in the standings and are tied for second place in their division.
     
    That sounds more mediocre than it was, in reality.
     
    Kane County, the MWL affiliate of the Diamondbacks, have some game and the rest of the division will be challenged to keep up with the Cougars if they continue playing at early-season levels, so getting that split was hard work.
     
    Still, it could have been better.
     
    The Kernels had a 3-2 lead heading to the ninth inning on Thursday, but gave up three runs to the Cougars in the ninth and fell 5-3. On Saturday, The teams were tied 3-3 headed to the final stanza, where Kane County scored the winning run.
     
    In fact, in five of their eight losses this season, Cedar Rapids has surrendered the winning run in their opponent's final inning at the plate.
     
    All those close losses don't have manager Tommy Watkins concerned, however.
     
    "The good thing is, after all those games, we responded afterwards," Watkins said on Saturday. "We’ve lost a couple of games in the ninth inning, but it happens. We’ve got a young team. We’re going to take some bumps and bruises, but I think things have been pretty good to start the season."
     
    In fact, Watkins said his team has pretty much performed at expected levels.
     
    "I didn’t have any concerns with either side of the ball. Pitching or hitting. Like I said at the beginning of the season, this is a fun team to watch up and down the lineup – pitching, defense, offense, running the bases. We’ve got some guys that can steal some bases. I really enjoy having these guys here."
     
    One player that's certainly been as much fun to watch as any position player in the league has been Jermaine Palacios.
     
    "Palacios has been swinging a hot bat and giving us a real boost at the leadoff spot," Watkins said, of his shortstop. "He’s being aggressive to balls in a zone."
     
    Indeed he is.
     
    The 20-year-old native of Venezuela is hitting .406 through Sunday and he hasn't been just slapping the ball, either. Palacios has three doubles, two triples and added his first home run of the season in Sunday's win over the Cougars.
     
    He's leading the MWL in batting average and his 1.012 OPS is ninth best in the league, but not good enough to lead his own team.
     
    That honor goes to Mitchell Kranson. His six doubles, one triple and two dingers have propelled him to a 1.045 OPS.
     
    By and large, the pitching staff has been solid, as well. There have been a couple of games where, as one Kernels pitcher told me, "none of us could miss a barrel." But those instances have been rare.
     
    Cedar Rapids continues their current homestand with a three game series against the Burlington Bees (Angels) before traveling to Peoria (Cardinals) for four games with the Chiefs beginning Thursday.
     
    I'll wrap up with a couple dozen pictures from the games on Saturday and Sunday at Veterans Memorial Stadium, as well as the traditional Sunday post-game autograph session.
     
    (It appears I've exceeded Twins Daily's limit on photos below, so if you want to see them all, you may just need to pay Knuckleballsblog.com a visit.)
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    Kernels manager Tommy Watkins hitting infield practice

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    Hitting coach Brian Dinkelman tossing batting practice

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    Domenick Carlini warms up under the watchful eyes of Kernels pitching coach JP Martinez

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    Lewin Diaz (48) and Ariel Montesino (21)

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    Domenick Carlini

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    Andrew Vasquez

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    Mitchell Kranson playing first base on Saturday

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    Mitchell Kranson took his turn behind the plate on Sunday

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    Aaron Whitefield coming in low, and safely, to 3B

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    Andrew Vasquez, Max Cordy and Colton Davis (L to R)

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    Ben Rortvedt

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    Ariel Montesino (21) takes a toss from Jermaine Palacios (4) to turn a double play on Sunday

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    Aaron Whitefield

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    Lewin Diaz signing an autograph on Sunday.

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    Jermaine Palacios got this ball out of the park on Sunday.

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    Clark Beeker

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    Shane Carrier

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    Christian Cavaness signing an autograph after Sunday's game.

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    Lewin Diaz

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    Hector Lujan

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/BeekerDiaz2017a900-600x400.jpg
    Clark Beeker with a pick-off move to first baseman Lewin Diaz

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Palacios2017b900-600x399.jpg
    Jermaine Palacios

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Kranson2017c900-600x399.jpg
    Mitchell Kranson beats a throw into 3B

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    Brandon Lopez

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    Jaylin Davis scoring as Kane County catcher can't handle a throw from the outfield.

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    Caleb Hamilton launching a home run on Sunday

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    Christian Caveness

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/BlankenhornWhitefieldAuto900-600x401.jpg
    Travis Blankenhorn (7) and Aaron Whitefield signing autographs.

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/Davis2017b900-1-600x400.jpg
    Jaylin Davis

  7. Steven Buhr
    The Minnesota Twins once again included Cedar Rapids, the home of their Class A affiliate Kernels, in their Twins Winter Caravan tour and last night's event was entertaining and about as enjoyable as any such event put on by a 100+ loss big league organization could be.
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    Kris Atteberry emcees the panel of Trevor May, Byron Buxton, Tommy Watkins, Thad Levine and Brian Dinkelman

    The venue was one of several new aspects of this year's Kernels Hot Stove event, the primary fundraiser for the organization's charitable foundation.
     
    Rather than using a large hotel ballroom to hold a sit-down dinner, the Kernels hosted a reception at the New Bo City Market, a showplace for a variety of local food merchants. All food, beer and wine available at the event was provided by New Bo vendors, giving the event a distinctively local flavor.
     
    Broadcaster Kris Atteberry did a terrific job as the emcee for the Twins Caravan portion of the program, doling out opportunities to address the gathering to five members of the Twins organization gathered on stage. They included a pair of Twins players, pitcher Trevor May and outfielder Byron Buxton, newly announced Kernels manager Tommy Watkins, new Twins General Manager Thad Levine and Brian Dinkelman, who served as the Kernels hitting coach in 2016 and, while no official announcement has been made as yet, is presumed to be serving in that capacity this summer, as well.
     
    In addition to responding to Atteberry's prepared questions from the podium and answering questions from the crowd, the Caravan participants also were available for media interviews.
     
    Here are a few highlights from one-on-one interviews, as well as the public portion of the program.
     
    Early in January, the Twins and Kernels announced that Watkins, who served as the Kernels hitting coach, under former manager Jake Mauer, from 2013 through 2015 and in the same capacity for Class AA Chattanooga last season, will get his first opportunity as a minor league manager in 2017 when he takes the Kernels' reins.
     
    Watkins said that he and farm director Brad Steil had discussed the possibility of Watkins getting a managing opportunity for the past couple of years, but no such position had opened up until last year's Fort Myers Miracle manager Jeff Smith got promoted to a coaching position with the Twins this offseason. Still, Watkins said, "I didn't know if I would get it or not."
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_0865-2-600x400.jpg
    Trevor May and Tommy Watkins react to Byron Buxton explaining how he "noodled" a catfish

    Once the assignment was officially offered, Watkins was very happy to accept. "It was just like the news I got when I was going to the big leagues. I was happy, I was nervous, I was scared, I didn't want to go. So it was a lot of things. I cried, I laughed, I called my family and told them. It was exciting news."
     
    Asked by Atteberry to tell the gathering what went into the front office's decision to offer the job to Watkins, Levine led off with tongue firmly planted in cheek. "I've got to be honest with you, I have no idea how this came to pass. This is news to me. I'll try to adjust on the fly."
     
    Levine then turned serious - and very complimentary toward the new Kernels manager.
     
    "I think that one thing you guys always hear about is that we're trying to develop players, there's a development track. But I think the other thing that we're trying to develop concurrently is staff members. Guys who have a chance, on the scouting side, to influence decision making and, on the coaching side, a chance to be Major League coaches.
     
    "One of the things that I heard when I first joined the Minnesota Twins was about the man to my right, Tommy, and I think the universal feeling was that he had a chance to be a really good hitting coach, but he had the chance to be special as a manager. So when the opportunity presented itself to give him an opportunity to pursue his career as a manager, I think everybody in the organization really endorsed him because we felt as if that's where he's going to be a difference maker.
     
    "We think he's going to have a chance to be a Major League coach down the road. We think in the short term, he has a chance to really influence our minor league players, and as a manager we think his impact could be even greater than it was as a hitting coach.
     
    "He's a special man. He's very charismatic. He knows the game of baseball. He's still trying to learn every single day. Each time I've been around him, I feel as if I've gotten to know him a little bit better. This guy's a very dynamic man. He's going to be a leader in our organization for a long time to come and he's just scratching the surface of his potential."
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_0838-2-400x600.jpg
    TC Bear made the trip to Cedar Rapids with the rest of the Twins Caravan crew

    Watkins said before the event that he's looking forward to his return to the Kernels. "It feels good. I had a bunch of different emotions but I'm excited. It feels like I've been gone for a lot longer than just a year, but it's good to be back. I enjoyed my time here and I'm looking forward to it."
     
    Asked by Atteberry to set the line on how many times Watkins will be ejected by umpires in 2017, Brian Dinkelman didn't hesitate before saying. "I set it at 3 1/2."
     
    Buxton said he's been feeling good since his hot finish to last season in September. "I've been hitting since late November, working on a few things and getting some stuff kinked out, but other than that, I feel great.
     
    "I'm just focusing a little bit more on hitting, being a little bit more consistent, using my legs, staying down through the ball, keeping my head down. Just small things to help me out in the long run."
     
    He said he didn't think there was any major change in his game that led to his strong finish to the 2016 season.
     
    "Just stop thinking. Just run out there and play baseball. Have fun, going out there and have fun with teammates. We competed, September was different for everybody, not just including me. We went out there with a different mindset to finish the season strong and carry that over into spring training and this season."
     
    Looking back at his time in Cedar Rapids as a teenager barely out of high school, he said the dream of playing big league ball has turned out to be everything he hoped for, "and more."
     
    "Not many people are able to make it up there to the bigs, so I'm very blessed and thankful to get up there. Just being able to play beside Trevor when he's up there pitching, not many people can say you've been in a big league uniform and you've been behind a pitcher like him that gives it his all and you're right there giving it your all and trying to compete for a World Series ring."
     
    For his part, May also indicated he's feeling good after having some trouble staying healthy in 2016.
     
    "I'm feeling good," said May. "I had some patterns I needed to break. In the past, I've always thought four months was enough to heal from everything in the offseason. But I've come to the realization that breaking down a muscle and building it back up again to where you want it to work just takes time."
     
    He said even little things such as posture, while standing or sitting, have been items he's focused on this offseason, with an emphasis on workouts that increase his flexibility, like Pilates and yoga, rather than weight training.
     
    "I was doing a bunch of stuff that was just exacerbating the problem 24 hours a day. Changing all those things has been a lot of work, but I'm excited to just keep doing what I'm doing into the season.
     
    "I threw a bullpen today. If I threw a bullpen when my back was tight back there, I would definitely feel some stiffness right now after I threw and I don't feel stiff at all, so I'm just taking that as a really good sign."
     
    May wasn't just trying new things in regard to his offseason workout regimen. While he did some DJing again this year, as he has in the past, he also expanded his horizons.
     
    "I actually have a new hobby," he explained. "I broadcast video games, which has been really fun. It's like having your own radio show in which you talk and play video games. I really enjoy it. I'm going to try to do it once a month on an offday during the season. I'm going to host tournaments of games I play for viewers."
     
    Asked to evaluate the state of the Twins' farm system, now that many of their previous top prospects have broken into the big leagues, new GM Levine said that the Twins front office doesn't necessarily look at the organization strictly in terms of players that have exhausted their eligibility for Rookie of the Year awards and those that have not.
     
    "I think we look at the farm system as an extension to the Major Leagues, so any guy in the Major Leagues who has two or fewer years of service is part of that next wave, that core," he said. "So I think when you include those players with your minor league players, you can really see the waves of players coming.
     
    "There's a wave in the big leagues right now, there's a wave right behind them, there's a wave that will be playing at Cedar Rapids this year. I think we're excited about the depth throughout our system, inclusive of the Major Leagues and I think if you include that young group in the Major Leagues all the way down, you could see that the future is very bright.
     
    "For a team that has the payroll that we will have, you're looking at having as many young players who can impact the game as possible and I think you've got to look at the guys who have matriculated to the big leagues when you're factoring that."
     
    The subject of the relatively public flirtation with trading second baseman Brian Dozier came up both in the interview setting and during the public Question & Answer session.
     
    Levine indicated that, while it certainly appears that Dozier will be opening the season with the Twins, he wouldn't say the door was completely closed on the possibility of moving Dozier, or any other player for that matter.
     
    "I don't know that we would talk specifically about any one trade negotiation, but I think the way Derek (Falvey) and I are going to operate is that we're not closing doors at any juncture. At that point, you are not doing your job to the fullest. Any time you close off opportunities to improve the team, I think you're doing the franchise a disservice."
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    Buxton and May did the autograph thing after the Twins Caravan program

    During the public session, Levine was asked specifically what he expected Dozier's future was with the Twins.
     
    "I think we think his future is going to be glorious with the franchise," he responded. "He's been the consummate professional throughout this process. We always approached this from the mindset of, the best the Minnesota Twins could be would be with Brian Dozier. If someone wants to blow our socks off, we'll consider talking about him. But for that fact, we see him as part of this franchise moving forward."
     
    Atteberry asked Levine to address the "stats vs scouting" issue that comes up in almost any conversation about thenew front office management. Again, the new GM mixed humor into his more thoughtful response.
     
    "When the movie Moneyball came out, everybody who was below a certain age - at that time, I would say 35, now I would say 45, just conveniently (Levine celebrated his 45th birthday in November) - you were viewed to be more of a formulaic-based decision making group vs if you were older, you were more of a scouts guy. And I think it's a bit of a misconception.
     
    "Derek and I are both guys who are going to have analytics and scouting and player development factor into every decision that we make. We're not going to focus singularly on any sort of formula to spit out a decision we're going to make.
     
    "The other big misconception I think about that movie is that anybody working in a front office looks at all like Brad Pitt. We really don't. Honestly.
     
    "So the movie did some disservices across the board, but I do think analytics plays a role in decision making, but that's all it is. It's a piece of the pie. It's not something that is going to drive us to make any singular decision. It will be something we weigh in, we factor in, but it's not going to drive our decision making."
     
    Also during the public session, Atteberry challenged Levine to demonstrate how much he knew about the two players he was sharing a stage with. Atteberry presented a few bits of trivia and asked Levine to guess which player, May or Buxton, the fact pertained to.
     
    The questions were: Which player DJ'd at his own wedding? Which one of them has the highest vertical jump and is the fastest runner in his family (and which is not)? Which has successfully noodled a catfish? And which one has a mother that kept a mountain lion as a pet for four years?
     
    The answers: May (obviously), Buxton is NOT the fastest runner or best jumper in his family (he said his dad jumps higher, his brother is faster and he has a 13-year old sister that may eventually pass them all), but Buxton did noodle a catfish. It was May's mother who kept a mountain lion as a pet.
     
    And Levine nailed every answer correctly.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_0867-2-600x400.jpg
    Two members of the "Knuckleballs" table took home door prizes. A May & Buxton signed jersey and a Twins stocking cap

    The final question from the audience asked Watkins and Buxton to relate the funniest thing that happened to them during their time with the Kernels.
     
    Suffice to say that you won't find Buxton playing baseball with ping pong balls in the clubhouse again any time soon and Watkins' days of shaving his head are over.
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
  8. Steven Buhr
    Yeah, I really should have looked at the Surprise Saguaros' schedule before I reserved my hotel for this trip. After Saturday night's Fall Stars Game and Monday afternoon's Surprise game, the Saguaros (for whom all of the Minnesota Twins AFP prospects play this fall) have no more home games while I'm in town.
     
    The game today was the first of four games that Surprise is playing in some other distant part of the Phoenix area. Just means I'll be doing a lot of driving between now and Friday. Live & learn, I suppose.
     
    The Saguaros dropped a 10-7 decision to the Mesa Solar Sox this afternoon (Tuesday). It was interesting, in that Mesa scored four runs in each of the first two innings and when the score stood 8-5 after three and a half innings, this was looking like it had the makings of a four-hour game.
     
    In the end, it wrapped up in two hours and forty-six minutes. It is not a coincidence that they use the pitch clock in this league. It really does keep the game moving.
     
    It also didn't hurt that the only two Twins prospects to take the field for Surprise, relief pitchers Mason Melotakis and John Curtiss, each worked a clean 1-2-3 inning when their turns came to toe the rubber.
     
    Tomorrow afternoon, it's over to Scottsdale. With any luck, some of the Twins' position players will be back in the lineup and maybe I'll even get to see Stephen Gonsalves get a start against Tim Tebow and the Scorpions.
     
    As always (or almost always, anyway), here are a few pictures of Twins in action today.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ArteagaAFL16a-600x400.jpg
    Ivan Arteaga

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/MelotakisAFL16d-600x400.jpg
    Mason Melotakis

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/MelotakisAFL16b-400x600.jpg
    Mason Melotakis covering first base on a ground ball to the first baseman

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/MelotakisAFL16a-600x400.jpg
    Mason Melotakis

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CurtissAFL16b-600x400.jpg
    John Curtiss

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CurtissAFL16a-600x400.jpg
    John Curtiss

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CurtissAFL16c-600x400.jpg
    John Curtiss

    All photos by S D Buhr and may not be used without permission.
     
    (Article originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
  9. Steven Buhr
    For the third year, I've made the trip top the Phoenix area to watch a little November baseball in the Arizona Fall League and, while I have no pearls of wisdom to pass along, I thought the least I could do is share a few photos during the week.
     
    The AFL consists of six teams that each use one of the Phoenix area MLB spring training sites and each big league team sends six or seven minor league prospects to participate. Representing the Twins this fall are pitchers Stephen Gonsalves, Randy Rosario, Mason Melotakis and John Curtiss, as well as shortstop Nick Gordon, outfielder Tanner English and catcher Mitch Garver.
     
    As a bonus, for the first time, every Twins representative in the AFL is also a Cedar Rapids Kernels alum.
    In addition, Ivan Arteaga is serving as the Surprise pitching coach this fall. Arteaga was the Kernels' pitching coach in 2014.
     
    After landing a bit late at the Mesa airport on Saturday, I missed the first half-inning of the AFL's "Fall Stars" game on Saturday night, but it wasn't a huge deal since Nick Gordon was the only representative in the game from the Twins organization.
     
    After the league's day off on Sunday, I got my first look at the Surprise Saguaros on Monday afternoon.
    Garver, Gordon and English were all in the Surprise lineup on Monday and reliever Randy Rosario worked a pair of solid innings on the mound.
     
    Now, here's the photographic evidence of my attendance at the game!
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/EnglishAFL16c-600x400.jpg
    Tanner English throwing a runner out at second base

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GarverAFL16a-600x400.jpg
    Mitch Garver

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GordonAFL16g-600x400.jpg
    Nick Gordon

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/RosarioAFL16a-600x400.jpg
    Randy Rosario

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/EnglishAFL16d-600x400.jpg
    Tanner English

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GordonAFL16h-600x400.jpg
    Nick Gordon

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GarverAFL16b-600x400.jpg
    Mitch Garver

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/RosarioAFL16b-600x400.jpg
    Randy Rosario

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/EnglishAFL16g-428x600.jpg
    Tanner English

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GordonAFL16c-600x400.jpg
    Nick Gordon

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GarverAFL16e-429x600.jpg
    Mitch Garver

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/AFL16-600x400.jpg
    Andy Ibanez (Rangers) awaits a throw from Garver as Brett Phillips (Brewers) slides. No, the picture doesn't involve any Twins prospects, but I just really liked the way the picture turned out!

    All photos are the property of S D Buhr. Use without permission is prohibited.
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
  10. Steven Buhr

    Never Forget

    By Steven Buhr,

    There really isn't a "category" here at Twins Daily for a post of this type (and maybe it's not appropriate here at all), but I posted this over at Knuckleballsblog.com this morning and thought I would share it here, as well. Just a few reflections on this, the 15th anniversary of 9/11.
     
    It's incredible to think that there is now almost a complete generation of Americans who have little or no direct recollection of the day the United States was attacked and thousands of people lost their lives when the two tallest buildings collapsed to the ground in New York City.
     
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Never-Forget-600x450.jpg
     
    I suppose my parents' generation felt much the same way about Pearl Harbor and all of the horrors that came about out of World War II.
     
    Of course, I remember 9/11 and as long as I have my full mental capacities, I always will. I'll remember one of our administrative assistants sticking her head into my office and telling me a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers. I'll remember doing almost no work that day as I was hitting "refresh" on CNN.com every minute or two. And I'll remember trying to reach friends who lived and/or worked in Manhattan to make sure they were safe.
     
    As much as that day, though, I'll remember what came after.
     
    I'll remember the stories of the bravery and ultimate sacrifices made by first responders that day.
     
    I'll also remember the way sports helped return a sense of normalcy to our lives, while at the same time giving us an avenue for expressing our strong resolution that, while we Americans disagree on many things, we are one people and when you come after us the way Al Qaeda did that day, we will stand together.
     
    There's a lot of talk today about how various NFL stadiums, athletes and others will be choosing to memorialize this 15th anniversary of that day. I'm sure some will be better than others, but I'm confident there will be some very touching scenes.
     
    That's all well and good.
     
    But what I would much prefer to see is a return to that sense of unity that we all felt in the aftermath of that attack. In the past 15 years, it feels like we have turned from a diverse people held together by a common pride in what our country can stand for into a population irreparably fragmented along lines defined by political ideology, race, gender and other factors.
     
    That saddens me and, in some ways, it makes me feel like we might be dishonoring somewhat those who have given their lives so that we are free to express our differences.
     
    Later today, I'll spend my day watching the Vikings on television and going to Clinton to watch the Kernels in the Midwest League Playoffs, Most of you will be doing similar "normal" Sunday things, as well.
     
    But for just a few moments, let's reflect on 9/11 - and the way we've evolved as a population over the subsequent 15 years - and consider what each of us can do to make our country something worthy of honoring those who lost their lives that day
     
    -Steve
     
    P.S. This weekend, I read an incredible recounting of 9/11 from the perspective of the people who were traveling with President Bush on 9/11. It's at Politico.com and you can find it by clicking here. It's not a quick read, but it's well worth your time. One thing that really stood out to me was just how "backward" technology was just 15 years ago, even aboard the most technologically well-equipped aircraft in the world, at the time.
  11. Steven Buhr
    With less than 40 games left in their 2017 campaign, the Cedar Rapids Kernels need a strong finish to clinch a Midwest League playoff spot, something they’ve accomplished every season since affiliating with the Minnesota Twins in 2013.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/MauerGuzman900.jpg
    Kernels manager Jake Mauer and infielder Manuel Guzman (Photo: SD Buhr)

    The Peoria Chiefs and Clinton Lumberkings finished one and two in the Division’s first half standings, automatically qualifying them for the postseason. Their Division rivals with the two best records in the second half will join the Chiefs and Lumberkings in the playoffs.
     
    If the season ended today (Monday), Clinton would have the best second half record in the West, while Cedar Rapids and Quad Cities (currently second and third in the Division) would fill out the Western half of the postseason bracket. However, Burlington and Wisconsin sit one game or less behind Quad Cities, so the race is likely to be tight over the final weeks of the season.
     
    Jake Mauer has been at the helm of the Kernels from the beginning of the club’s affiliation with the Twins. His 292-226 record with the Kernels makes him Cedar Rapids’ winningest manager in the modern era (1949-present) and places him third all-time. He’ll catch up to Ollie Marquardt in the second spot with his next win, but Mauer’s going to have to stick around a very, very long time to top Belden Hill’s 831 wins.
     
    While winning takes a back seat to player development in modern minor league baseball, the local fans definitely like to follow a winner and Mauer has given the locals plenty of success, beginning with a squad that was loaded with top prospects in the inaugural season of the Twins/Kernels relationship. That team made winning look easy – at least a lot easier than it has looked in the two-and-a-half seasons since.
     
    2016 has, perhaps, been the most challenging of Mauer’s four years of wearing number 12 for the Kernels. This year’s group is short on players you would find among “top prospect” lists published by the likes of Baseball America, MLB.com or any other group in the business of tracking minor leaguers’ paths to the big leagues.
     
    Nonetheless, in an interview late last week, Mauer was unwilling to say that the lack of blue chippers on his team makes this season his most challenging.
     
    “Each year is different,” Mauer said. “If you have a lot of high-end (prospects), you’re expected to win and if you don’t have a lot of high-end guys, you’ve got to find ways to win. It’s all part of development, it’s all part of the process.
     
    “The second year (2014), I thought we had a lot of challenges, they were comparing the ’13 team to the ’14 team and that wasn’t fair to that ’14 team.”
     
    Winning is obviously a lot easier when you’ve got a lot of those high draft choices and big money international free agents. Several of them, including first round draft choice Byron Buxton and six-figure bonus international signee Max Kepler (both now playing the outfield for the Twins) spent much of their 2013 seasons in Cedar Rapids uniforms.
     
    “You get blessed with years like ’13 where you have seven of them, eight of them. They’re all panning out at different speeds,” reflected Mauer. “You know, some of the clubs I had at Fort Myers I don’t think we had one. So it just depends on what you have.”
     
    When you’ve got a team of projected stars, a manager in Mauer’s position will generally stick with a pretty consistent lineup. “Obviously, guys that are higher end guys as a player," he said, "you’ve got to find out what they can and can’t do, that’s the nature of the beast.”
     
    Not so this season.
     
    “I wonder how many different lineups we’ve used,” Mauer pondered. “It’s probably been fifty or sixty of them, would be my guess.
     
    “Clubs like this, some of these guys that aren’t necessarily Baseball America guys get an opportunity to kind of put themselves on the map. As you can see, there’s no way to get buried on our bench here. Everybody plays.
     
    “Pitching’s a little bit different,” he conceded. “They earn (consistent playing time) a little bit more. They’re all going to get an opportunity, it’s just a matter of what they’re going to do with it.
     
    “It’s all getting these guys to understand themselves, first, in order for us to do anything - in order for them to have any impact down the road. This is the league where we start to shake out the guys that aren’t as mentally tough as others. Find out who can play every day, find out who can do what it takes. So, they’re going to get tested, they’re going to get innings, they’re going to get at-bats, get all that stuff. Then we’ll kind of look back in September at how everything unfolded.”
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/MartinezMauerDinkelman900.jpg
    (L-R) Cedar Rapids Kernels pitching coach JP Martinez, manager Jake Mauer and hitting coach Brian Dinkelman (behind screen) (Photo: SD Buhr)

    Throughout most of the first half of the season, it looked like the Kernels would easily clinch an early playoff spot by finishing in one of the top two spots in the Western Division’s first-half race, but they faltered badly during the final couple of weeks before the midpoint and ended up in third place.
     
    “You hate to say it,” Mauer commented on his squad’s late first half implosion, “but we scored the same amount of runs, but we lost two guys in the back end of the bullpen and lost probably the best starter in the league.
     
    “We weren’t necessarily blowing the doors off of anybody in the first half. It takes you a while to figure out who can step up and take those roles.”
     
    Mauer is starting to see some guys stepping up.
     
    Last week, the Kernels went on one a six-game road trip over into the MWL Eastern Division territory and came away with a perfect 6-0 record against Lake County and Fort Wayne.
     
    “We swung the bats really well,” he said of their Eastern sweep. “We rode (Luis) Arraez, (Zander) Wiel and (Jaylin) Davis, really. Other guys chipped in here and there, but those guys had a monster week. You’re scoring 6, 7, 8 runs a night, it gives you a pretty good chance to win.
     
    “(Wiel) can carry a team, which he did the last week. Jaylin Davis is probably in the same boat, he can carry a team. Arraez has been pretty consistent, but we kind of go where those three guys go. When the three of them are having a pretty good week, we’ve got a pretty good chance. If they’re not, it will be more difficult for us.”
     
    Finding pitchers to fill the holes left following promotions has been more challenging for Mauer and pitching coach J.P. Martinez. “Pitching is still kind of up in the air who we’ve got,” the manager said.
     
    “It’s so different,” Mauer said, of the Kernels’ bullpen situation. “We’re not as pitching-deep as we were last year. If we had a lead going into the fifth inning, we pretty much knew we were going to win last year. That’s not the case this year. You’ve got some guys that need to step up and take control. I’d say (Anthony) McIver has, to a point. We’ve got to find out about (Tom) Hackimer. But we still have several guys you don’t quite know what you’re going to get in given situations. We’ve got to find out.”
     
    Mauer’s clearly also looking for some improvement among his starting rotation.
     
    “(Cody) Stashak’s probably our number one (starting pitcher). (Lachlan) Wells has been good. Those two guys have been pretty good. If we can just get some of these (other) guys to take that next step, it would make the process better.”
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/WellsSenzelSilva900.jpg
    Kernels pitcher Lachlan Wells strikes out Reds first round draft choice (2nd overall) Nick Senzel July 25. Catching is Rainis Silva. (Photo SD Buhr)

    The season’s second half is shaping up to be at least a four-team dogfight with the Kernels, Burlington Bees, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and Quad Cities River Bandits playing leapfrog with one another in the standings on virtually a daily basis as they jockey for one of the coveted second-half playoff spots.
     
    “That’s our division,” said Mauer. “There really isn’t a team that’s head and shoulders above anybody. Anybody can beat anybody on a given night and I think you’re going to see that kind of as we go through. Things change, obviously, as these draftee guys (from the 2016 draft) starting to come and some of these first full season guys that tend to hit a wall a little bit.”
     
    Mauer’s working with a pair of coaches, in his fourth season with the Kernels, that he hasn’t been teamed with before. Martinez and hitting coach Brian Dinkelman are in their first seasons by Mauer’s side after coaching with the Twins’ Gulf Coast League team, where games are played on back fields at the organization’s spring training complex in front of few, if any, fans.
     
    But the manager says things are going, “good,” on that count.
     
    “(Martinez and Dinkelman) have been real good. Their first ‘real baseball’ compared to that ‘complex ball’ that’s a lot different. They’ve done a good job. For them, their first year, this is unusual to have so many different guys coming through.”
     
    Forty-nine players have already worn a Kernels jersey in 2016. It’s not unusual for fewer players than that to suit up for Cedar Rapids in an entire season.
     
    “What’s nice is that these guys know most of the kids that have come up,” Mauer added. “They’ve had them, they know what makes them tick, the things to do with them, what they need to work on.”
     
    High roster turnover, few top prospects, new assistant coaches. Those things, on their own, might make a manager’s job challenging, but last week the Twins added a little something extra to the load that Mauer and his staff have to carry. Long-time General Manager Terry Ryan was fired by the Twins ownership.
     
    “It’s unfortunate,” Mauer said of Ryan’s dismissal. “Obviously, he’s a great baseball man. He’s all I’ve ever known as a GM, other than Bill Smith, but Terry wasn’t far away (during Smith's tenure as GM). I think it came as a shock, the timing of it, to everybody. He’s done so much for us and for our organization and whoever comes in after him is going to have big shoes to fill.”
     
    As a result, Mauer and his coaches now are essentially lame ducks, uncertain whether the new GM will choose to retain them going forward. How’s that for adding a little anxiety to the manager’s life?
     
    But, as Mauer observed, the anxiety goes well beyond just he and his coaches.
     
    “It could be for scouts, all the way down to the athletic training guys and strength guys. You don’t know what’s going to happen, we don’t know who is the next guy, if they have somebody in mind, if they don’t. So, we’ll see. I’m sure they’ve got a game plan up there for what they’re going to do.
     
    “But, if you’re confident in what you’re doing and you do a good job, you can’t control that,” Mauer concluded. “This is just like we tell the players, if they look at what’s going on ahead of them or who’s doing what behind them, they can’t control that. Same with us, (we can’t) worry about who’s coming in and fret about it, and not do the task at hand. We’ve got to do the task at hand first of all and see what shakes out.”
     
    The “task at hand” for the manager and his charges is to finish the final six weeks of the season strong. How does Mauer see the remainder of the season shaping up?
     
    “We’ll see. I wish I could answer that, honestly. I have no idea. We look like a million bucks for three or four days, then we have a tough time for three or four days. It’s just kind of how it is. We talk extensively about, we need leaders to step up and to lead and to be our guys so you kind of know what you’re going to get day in and day out.
     
    “They’ll keep playing hard and they’ll keep competing and we’ll just see how it ends up.”
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
  12. Steven Buhr
    Since it was so late when I got home after last night's Midwest League All-Star Game, I was too tired to get all of the photos included in my ASG post that I would have liked to. (Sure, the margarita or 5 that I had at the game MIGHT have had something to do with my drowsiness, but there's no hard evidence of that, so I'm going with 'I was just tired.')
     
    Anyway, I decided to post several more pictures from the ASG festivities over the past couple of days in Cedar Rapids.
     
    Now, here's the thing: I discovered, after taking the first couple of pictures with my camera Tuesday night, that my carmera's battery was nearly kaput (that's a technical photojournalist term, I think), so for many of the pictures I wanted, I had to use my phone's camera.
     
    Now, here's the other thing: Because I used an app on my phone to provide yardage estimates when I was golfing earlier in the day, my phone's battery was pretty much kaput, too. Fortunately, the Kernels have one of those charging stations where I was able to pump a little extra charge into the phone midway through the game (and where I had a nice chat with a Lumberkings fan who found himself in the same predicament.)
     
    In the end, photos were taken and here are a few of them:(It does appear that I may have included too many photos for Twins Daily to show, so you may have to click on some links to see the last few - or, better yet, just click HERE to go to my blog at Knuckleballs to see them all on one page!)
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ASGCougar-600x400.jpg
    Upon arriving at the free Fanfest on Monday afternoon and pulling out my camera, I was almost immediately attacked by a cougar. He was either anxious to have his picture taken or very angry that I was taking it. I quickly snapped this shot and moved away before I could find out which was the case.

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DSC_0802-1-600x400.jpg
    A young fan takes his cuts at one of the games during Fanfest

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DSC_0813-1-600x400.jpg
    The thing about royalty is, they always seem to think they're above the rest of us somehow. The Clinton Lumber Kings mascot is, apparently, no exception.

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/MWL-Mascots900-600x400.jpg
    More than half of the Midwest League's team mascots made the trip to Cedar Rapids. This gathering is just a few of those mascots on Monday. My daughter commented after the game Monday night, "It was like Mr Shucks had a party and got to invite all his friends." I should probably add that my daughter is 26 years old. However, she is an elementary school teacher, which, I believe, adds to her appreciation for all things mascot-ish.

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/DSC_0808-1-600x400.jpg
    You think it's easy being a sports columnist? Just TRY to get a decent interview out of a mascot like the Gazette's Mike Hlas appears to be attempting to get from the Burlington Bees' mascot on Monday.

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    Before Tuesday's game, Players were available for autographs on the concourse.

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    Kernels All-Stars Luis Arraez, LaMonte Wade and AJ Murray at the autograph table before the ASG on Tuesday

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ASGcards-600x400.jpg
    On Monday evening, the Kernels hosted players, team officials, various VIPs and guests of all of the above at a social event at Cedar Ridge Vineyard & Distillery. I got my first look at the ASG card set at displays there.

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ASGchocolatefountain-600x399.jpg
    I'm not sure this chocolate fountain at the Monday social event was on the sanctioned diet list for players, but then I didn't witness a single player eating the chocolate. That's my story & I'm sticking with it.

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ASGMurrayDerby-600x400.jpg
    Kernels catcher AJ Murray got his cuts in during the HR Derby before the game on Tuesday. He didn't win, but we don't hold grudges for things like that in CR. BTW, that's my view from my season ticket seats this year, from which I'm always willing to help the umpires out with fair/foul calls down the LF line.

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    Bowling Green's Brett Sullivan was the winner of the HR Derby

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    The starting lineups for the ASG.

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    As the manager of the Western Division Champions from a year ago, Kernels manager Jake Mauer was at the helm for the Western Division All-Stars. Considering the MWL generally uses just 2 umpires for their games, seeing 6 of them out there just looked weird.

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ClayASG-600x400.jpg
    Kernels pitcher Sam Clay worked a perfect first inning for the West squad.

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/20160621_192503_HDR-2-600x400.jpg
    Kernels 2Bled off the bottom of the 1st inning for the West stars with this single down the left field line.

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ArraezASG-600x400.jpg
    Luis Arraez had a pair of hits for the West squad. Here he's fist-bumped by Kernels coach Brian Dinkelman.

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    LaMonte Wade had one hit in two at bats and was hit by a pitch. This single drove in a pair of runs for the West.

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    AJ Murray might not have won the HR Derby, but he went deep when it mattered. Here he strokes a 2-run home run for the West stars in the 7th inning.

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    It wasn't a sellout crowd, but the 4,500+ who showed up sure made it look close to being full and the weather was just about perfect.

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    If you've been to the Kernels' ballpark in prior years, you may recall the "stars" on the concourse floor honoring many of the CR baseball club alumni from John McGraw to Mike Trout. The stars are no longer on the floor, but have now been placed along the fencing along the concourse, such as this star for Chili Davis, who was with the Cedar Rapids Giants during my first season of watching minor league ball in CR, 1978.

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ASGcorn-600x400.jpg
    I confess that I did not just remain in my seat throughout the game. In addition to an occasional trip to the concourse for a margarita refill, I also found the sweet corn stand. This stuff might be just about the best thing about summer in Iowa that's not related to baseball, so I couldn't pass up the chance to combine them at the same time.

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    Eloy JImenez, of the South Bend Cubs, was presented with the Top Star Award for the game. (Yes, I mistakenly identified him as Francisco Meija in a Tweet at the time. That's what happens when you have multiple players wearing the same jersey number. My bad.)

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    No, it's not the greatest picture in the world, but the postgame fireworks were outstanding. Here, AJ Murray and Sam Clay take them in along with Kernels staff members gathered in the home dugout.

    (All photos: SD Buhr)
     
    After the game, the players and their guests gathered at the Newbo City Market for a postgame party that was open to the public, as well (for a nominal charge, of course). I didn't make that event (one party per week is pretty much my maximum these days), but I'm sure it was a great time.
     
    Again, you just don't appreciate, sometimes, how much work goes into putting on an event like this. I've had an opportunity this summer to get a small glimpse at all the preparations the Kernels staff have made, from the flowers/landscaping done outside the stadium to all of the meticulous field preparation, event planning and concession work, as well. I'm clearly biased, but I thought the staff put on a terrific event.
     
    Now we move on to the second half of the MWL schedule, with all teams starting over with a 0-0 record and the Kernels needing to finish among the top two teams in the Western Division (among those who haven't already qualified for the postseason) to reach the playoffs for their 4th consecutive season.
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
  13. Steven Buhr
    The Cedar Rapids Kernels and the city of Cedar Rapids hosted this year's Midwest League All-Star Game festivities and all four Kernels players on the Western Division roster played big roles before the festivities concluded.
     
    The Eastern Division stars notched a come-from-behind 11-10 victory in what could only be described as an entertaining ballgame.
     
    Kernels pitcher Sam Clay got the start for the West stars and notched a 1-2-3 inning in the first inning, completing it with a strikeout.
     
    Cedar Rapids' second baseman Luis Arraez led off the bottom of the second with a single and team mate LaMonte Wade reached on a hit-by-pitch to start the home half of the first. Both players came around to score, giving the West the first two runs of the game.
     
    Kernels catcher AJ Murray, who participated in the pregame Home Run Derby, entered the game about halfway through the contest and went to the opposite field for a two-run blast that put his team up 10-7 in the bottom of the seventh inning.
     
    That's probably all you need to know about the game itself, but I'll add a number of pictures from the festivities on Monday and Tuesday.
     
    A lot of work goes into putting on one of these events and big time kudos go out to the entire Kernels staff (augmented with staff from the Northwoods League's Waterloo Bucks front office) for putting on a first class show.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/MWL-Mascots900-600x400.jpg
    More than half of the Midwest League's team mascots made the trip to Cedar Rapids. My daughter commented afterwards, "It was like Mr Shucks had a party and got to invite all his friends."

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    Kernels All-Stars Luis Arraez, LaMonte Wade and AJ Murray at the autograph table before the ASG on Tuesday

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    As the manager of the Western Division Champions from a year ago, Kernels manager Jake Mauer was at the helm for the Western Division All-Stars

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    Kernels pitcher Sam Clay worked a perfect first inning for the West squad.

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/ArraezASG-600x400.jpg
    Luis Arraez had a pair of hits for the West squad. Here he's fist-bumped by Kernels coach Brian Dinkelman.

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/WadeASG-600x400.jpg
    LaMonte Wade had one hit in two at bats and was hit by a pitch.

    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/MurrayASG2-600x400.jpg
    AJ Murray strokes a 2-run home run for the West stars in the 7th inning.


    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/20160621_223422-600x450.jpg
    AJ Murray (left) and Sam Clay (11) take in the postgame fireworks with the rest of the crowd.

    (all photos: SD Buhr)
     
    (This article was posted originally at Knuckleballsblog.com)
  14. Steven Buhr
    Most of the work that Sam Clay and AJ Murray did together during their shared time at Georgia Tech was confined to the bullpen, but this season the pair of former Yellow Jackets have played critical roles together for the Midwest League Western Division-leading Cedar Rapids Kernels.
     
    Clay, a lefty who was the Minnesota Twins’ fourth round draft pick in 2014, carries a 3-1 record and a 1.10 ERA into his Wednesday night start at Burlington. He has averaged more than a strikeout per inning in his seven starts.
     
    Murray, selected by the Twins in the 14th round of last year’s draft, is carrying a .285/.394/.489 (.883 OPS) slash line as the Kernels’ primary catcher. He’s hit 11 doubles, one triple and five home runs while batting in the middle of the Cedar Rapids lineup and has thrown out 35% of runners attempting to steal a base.
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com.)
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Murray16e9x6-600x400.jpg
    AJ Murray

    That’s not bad for a guy who spent almost no time behind the plate during his college career, despite performing well enough in high school that Houston selected him late in the 2011 draft.
     
    “I caught all through high school,” Murray explained. “Then when I got to college, they converted me to a first baseman because we had Zane Evans (who was ultimately drafted by the Royals in the 4th round of the 2013 draft), who was a lot better than I was at the time. So I learned first base, but I also got to play a little bit in the outfield. It kind of made me more versatile as a player in college.”
     
    Murray certainly wasn’t disappointed when he was told the Twins had drafted him as a catcher, however. Quite the opposite.
     
    “When they drafted me as a catcher, I was very happy because I thought that was my most comfortable position and I could be the biggest asset to the team,” he recalled. “I think it’s the best position on the field, besides pitching, because you’re in every pitch. You pretty much control the game as far as being a leader out there. I love catching every day and it’s definitely a learning process.”
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Murray16a9x6-600x400.jpg
    AJ Murray

    After seeing limited time on the field behind the plate during his college career, Murray has certainly had a lot to learn about playing the position at the professional level.
     
    “I think the biggest adjustment has been calling your own game. That’s kind of been a lost art in baseball," he said. “I called my own game in high school, but when you get to college, a lot of the pitching coaches like to call the pitches. So that’s been the biggest adjustment.”
     
    The biggest adjustment maybe, but not the only thing that differentiates catching in the pros from what he has done in the past.
     
    “Learning to read hitters, learning to look at the stat sheet, look for tendencies, then fill in the game plans, which is fun actually,” he added. “JP (Martinez, the Kernels’ pitching coach) does a great job of giving us stats, getting the pitchers together, talking over game plans, hitters’ approaches and how we’re going to transfer that over to the game, so he’s the main driver in getting us ready.”
     
    His work behind the plate hasn’t gone unnoticed by fellow Yellow Jacket Clay.
     
    “As soon as he got to Elizabethton, he was far and away a much better catcher than he was at Georgia Tech,” Clay said of his battery mate. “He became unbelievable behind the plate and I love throwing to him.”
     
    Murray and his fellow Kernels went through a stretch earlier in the season when they struggled offensively. Runs were rare and that put a lot of pressure on the pitching staff. They’ve pulled out of that rut over the past few weeks and Murray’s bat has been a big reason. He is hitting .333 in May and has a .986 OPS for the month.
     
    “I’m definitely feeling more comfortable at the plate and focusing on having consistent at-bats,” Murray said, of his recent success at the plate. He’s quick to point out, however, that he’s not the only hitter in the lineup that’s making a difference.
     
    “I think a lot of it has to do with others guys on the team hitting around me. You look at our stats the last couple of weeks, we’ve put up a lot of runs. Everyone’s been hitting well, so I think it’s contagious. When you’re getting on base, it puts pressure on the pitcher, and then hitting in the middle of the lineup, hitting behind LaMonte (Wade), (Luis) Arraez, guys like that getting on base a lot.”
     
    Like Murray, Clay has also had to make some adjustments to the professional game.
     
    In college, Clay worked out of the bullpen and, in fact, he began the 2015 season as a member of the Kernels’ relief corps. Things didn’t go terribly well for Clay, however, in his first tour with Cedar Rapids, and he was sent down to Elizabethton.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/Clay16f9x6-600x400.jpg
    Sam Clay

    “Last year was a little bit of a struggle,” Clay recalled. “I started off up here in the bullpen and I had a lot of trouble finding the plate, so they kind of pigeon-holed me into throwing basically strictly fastballs and one off-speed (pitch), whichever was working for me that day, so hitters were looking for one of two pitches.
     
    “Once I got sent down, I had one or two weeks in the bullpen and then they turned me into a starter when one of our guys went down. It gave me a chance to get up there and throw all of my pitches and really learn how to pitch instead of just going up there and throwing the ball.”
     
    Clay has taken to the conversion to a starting pitcher very well. He and righthander Randy LeBlanc have combined to form a powerful left-right combination at the top of the Kernels’ rotation. Combined, the two have made 15 starts and evenly split just 10 combined earned runs surrendered. Neither pitcher has given up a home run this season.
     
    Making the switch to starting pitcher did mean some adjustments for Clay in the offseason.
     
    “They pretty much had me being a starter, so I knew that going into the offseason, what I needed to work on conditioning-wise and weight training wise,” he said. “So I really kind of got after it this offseason and just worked harder than I probably ever have.
     
    “I lived with my parents in the offseason and I would probably lift weights four times a week. I didn’t really pick up a ball, because I threw a lot of innings last year compared to what I usually would as a reliever. So I didn’t really pick up a ball until probably January and January in Georgia is pretty cold.
     
    "It probably got me ready for the first month here (in Iowa),” Clay added, with a smile.
     
    Once he was ready to start throwing, however, Clay still had challenges to overcome – such as finding someone to throw with.
     
    “Probably the first two or three weeks I was throwing I didn’t have anybody to throw with, so I was throwing long toss into a screen. Not very fun,” he remembered. “But I was lucky, I had one of my friends from high school, Jake Burnette, he’s playing for the Pirates organization (7th round pick in 2011), I got together with him and was able to throw with him for the rest of the offseason.”
     
    As minor league seasons approach their midpoints toward mid-to-late June, it would be understandable for players performing as well as Murray and Clay to start peeking at the next rung on their organizational ladder and wondering what more they need to prove to earn a promotion.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/ClayHS9x6-600x400.jpg
    Sam Clay

    Clay, however, says he knew coming into the season that he had work to do at this level and he’s not going to let his focus get drawn away from his business at hand.
     
    “I knew that I was coming back here as soon as I got to spring training because I didn’t perform that well here when I was here. So I knew I had to come out and really show what I could do - show that I could be a starter, that I could throw against these hitters.
     
    “All the Fort Myers starters are doing really well right now so it will be really tough for us to move up, but we can’t really think about them. We have to focus on ourselves.”
     
    For now, Clay, Murray and their Cedar Rapids team mates are sitting atop the Midwest League’s Western Division standings and they have four more weeks of work to do in the season’s first half. The top two teams in each division during the first half qualify for the MWL playoffs in September and earning that berth early takes a lot of pressure off for the remainder of the season.
  15. Steven Buhr
    The Minnesota Twins and their full season minor league affiliates announced those affiliates’ initial rosters on Sunday and Monday this week and the one thing that stood out about almost every roster was the number of players returning to the same level where they finished their respective 2015 campaigns.
     
    The Cedar Rapids Kernels initial roster, for example, includes 16 players that also wore Kernels uniforms last season and many of them performed quite well in the Class A Midwest League – well enough that, in most years, they’d have been promoted this spring and challenged to prove themselves at the next level.
     
    But this isn’t most years, not in the Twins organization, anyway.
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    Randy LeBlanc led the Kernels staff with 9 wins and posted a 3.03 ERA in 2015. He will be the Opening Day starter for Cedar Rapids in 2016. (Photo: SD Buhr)

    The Big League club came to spring training with few roster spots to fill. The clear strategy to fill the few spots they did have – primarily back up spots in the outfield and at catcher, along with left handed bullpen arms – was to sign a number of potential candidates to minor league contracts with invitations to the Twins’ Major League spring training, allow them to compete with whatever internal options might be candidates and open the season with whoever makes the best impression in camp.
     
    Not surprisingly, that left the Twins with a large number of extra minor leaguers left over after the big club’s Opening Day 25-man roster was announced.
     
    As a result, the Triple-A affiliate Rochester Red Wings will start the season with a roster that includes, by my count, about 10 guys who were not members of the Twins’ organization at the end of the 2015 season and the Double-A Chattanooga Lookouts have maybe five more. Most of these newcomers were signed in the offseason as minor league free agents, but that isn't the case with all of them. (Dan Palka, for example, was acquired via offseason trade.)
     
    The result was inevitable.
     
    Minor league baseball is a numbers game and it’s not all that difficult to figure out how it works for all but the hottest of an organization’s best prospects.
     
    If you’re a minor league player at the low levels of the organization, you get a couple of years to figure out the game in short-season rookie ball and, if you show some level of competency or promise of competency, you move up to Class A, the first level of full-season professional baseball.
     
    From that point on, each year, one of three things happens: The club determines that you’ve reached the level of competition at which you cannot compete and you’re released; you don’t put up stellar numbers, but you show enough promise that the club isn’t going to give up on you, so they send you back to the same level to start the next season; or you perform well enough for the club to want to see how you handle the challenge of the next level of competition and therefore get promoted to that next level.
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    Sam Gibbons posted a 7-4 record and a 2.89 ERA in 15 starts for the Kernels in 2015. He's back in Cedar Rapids to start 2016.(Photo: SD Buhr)

    Of course, there are always exceptions and nuances. Players may get a mid-season or late-season promotion to a new level and then start the following year at the same level or may suffer an injury that results in a need to repeat a level. That’s why, typically, a community like Cedar Rapids will see a handful of familiar faces each spring when the new batch of Kernels arrives.
     
    You don’t see 16 familiar faces, though.
     
    It’s a safe bet that, among that 16, there are some players that feel pretty strongly that they did enough for the Kernels a year ago that they should be busing around the Sunshine State with the Fort Myers Miracle this month rather than wearing parkas in the Kernels’ dugout. And they’re right, they should be.
     
    And I’m sure there are a similar numbers of guys in Fort Myers that think they should be in Chattanooga.
     
    It’s pretty clear, from comments made by Kernels manager Jake Mauer and some of his players this week, that this is a subject that Mauer has addressed with his team.
     
    Cedar Rapids Gazette reporter Jeff Johnson interviewed Mauer on Monday and among the manager’s comments was this:
     

    “I’m not going to lie to you. There are a number of guys in our clubhouse that should probably be up, that either pitched or hit their way out of this league. But because of strength of organization, they are here. You try to convey to them that ‘You are here, don’t feel bad. You’ve got to go after it, you’ve got to put up numbers.’” 
    The trio of players – pitchers Randy LeBlanc and Sam Gibbons, along with infielder Chris Paul – that were fed to local media for a group interview on “Meet the Kernels” Night on Tuesday were asked by Johnson about the level of disappointment that players who played well for the Kernels last season were having to start this year back in Cedar Rapids.
     
    LeBlanc, who has drawn the Opening Day start this week for the Kernels, was frank, but responded well.
     
    “I’m not going to beat around the bush, it was pretty disappointing at first,” LeBlanc conceded. “Jake’s been kind of pounding into our head, since the rosters have been set, that you can’t go into it bitter. You’ve got to just play your way out of here. Just stay positive, just be happy you made a roster, stuff like that. I definitely think (several) of us did pretty well last year, but just go out there and do our best and see what happens.”
     
    Gibbons then added, “As long as we’ve got a jersey, we’ve got an opportunity.”
     
    Unlike LeBlanc and Gibbons, Paul was a relative late-comer to the Kernels last season, joining the team near the end of the season and contributing to the team’s postseason run which ultimately ended one win short of a Midwest League championship.
     
    “It’s a little bit different for me. I came up a little bit late,” Paul said, on the subject at hand. “These guys spent the whole season – most of the season – here, so I think a lot of guys proved themselves, obviously, like Randy said. But like they said, we’ve still got an opportunity, so you’ve just got to continue to perform and prove that you should be somewhere else.”
     
    It’s clear that the, “don’t let yourselves be bitter, be glad you have a roster spot and go out and prove you deserve to move up,” message has been delivered – and it’s a very important message.
     
    You could argue that it’s not fair that many players in the Twins system didn’t get the promotions this spring that they earned with their hard work and performances last summer. But professional baseball often is not fair. (Players need only look at their paltry paychecks to be reminded of that.)
     
    And this is not a permanent situation.
     
    It’s understandable that the Twins would give most of the players they signed to minor league free agent contracts an opportunity to show what they can do in some regular season games and, while the organization is still widely heralded as having one of the best stocked minor league systems in baseball, that cycle won’t last forever.
     
    But neither will the opportunities being extended to these minor league free agents last forever. I give it a month.
     
    By the middle of May, I believe we’ll see minor league affiliate rosters that look a lot more like what most of us – and, clearly, many of the organization’s players – thought we would see. I expect those free agents will get about a month to show the Twins’ evaluators why they should keep their roster spots in Rochester and Chattanooga over guys that have come up through the system and expected to be playing at the next level this spring.
     
    Some of the new players will stick and that’s a good thing. Talent is talent, whether the player came up through the Twins’ system or somewhere else and minor league baseball is one of the purer forms of meritocracy you’ll find anywhere.
     
    This little blip in the normal process makes it more critical than ever that players follow the advice being given to them to focus on their own performances and not give in to what must be a sometimes overwhelming urge to get angry to the point of distraction.
     
    Because, just as sure as some of those minor league free agents will fail to impress and find themselves looking for other work, the same thing could happen to some players that finished strong with a Twins affiliate a year ago, but couldn’t back it up with a strong start to 2016.
     
    Every year, observers of minor league teams like the Kernels see players move up and players move down and players move out. The team you finish a season with never resembles the team you started with. It’s the reason lower level minor leagues like the Midwest League have split seasons, with division standings reset after the mid-season All-Star break.
     
    Most of the roster changes resulting from promotions and demotions don’t usually start becoming regular until June. This year, in the Twins organization, things could get interesting for many players much sooner.
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com.)
  16. Steven Buhr
    I haven't published a "Twins Top 15 Prospects List" this offseason, yet. There are plenty of other writers who do and many of them probably have better insight into who the top names should be than I do.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/BuxtonStage3-600x400.jpg
    This should be the last year that Byron Buxton's name shows up on any "Top Prospect" list.

    I didn't really make a conscious decision not to do a list this year. I just didn't get around to it, until now.
     
    (This article was originally published at Knuckleballsblog.com.)
     
    So I'm going to provide my list today, but I'm not going to focus a lot on the players individually. Instead, I'm just going to share some thoughts on the Twins' organizational depth, as a whole, and a few players that I'm anxious to follow in 2016, for a variety of reasons.
     
    Here's my list, with the levels each player played at last season, as well as their ranking, in parens, from my personal rankings a year ago.
     
    1. Byron Buxton OF - AA, AAA, MLB (2)
    2. Jose Berrios SP - AA, AAA (4)
    3. Max Kepler OF/1B - High A, AA, MLB (11)
    4. Byung Ho Park 1B/DH - Korea (NR - late 2015 FA sign)
    5. Tyler Jay SP/RP - High A (NR - 2015 draft)
    6. Stephen Gonsalves SP - Low A, High A (12)
    7. Nick Gordon SS - Low A (9)
    8. Jorge Polanco 2B/SS - AA, AAA, MLB (6)
    9. Engelb Vielma - SS High A (NR)
    10. Taylor Rogers SP - AAA (NR)
    11. Lewis Thorpe - SP Injured (NR)
    12. Nick Burdi - RP High A, AA (10)
    13. Jake Reed - RP High A, AA (NR)
    14. Kohl Stewart - SP High A (8)
    15. J.T. Chargois - RP High A. AA (NR)
     
    As always, there are a few players that, in retrospect, I can't believe there wasn't room for on this list. For example, the Twins have three catching prospects that I'm certain would easily find themselves on the Top 15 list of a number of other organizations. Stewart Turner, Mitch Garver and Brian Navarreto all have legitimate shots to become MLB starting catchers. How many other teams have three catchers you can say that about that are rising up through the ranks in consecutive levels?
     
    I don't typically put many relief pitchers on my list, but the crew of outstanding young bullpen arms that has risen to the Major League threshold has forced me to include Burdi, Reed and Chargois. Even Jay and Rogers could end up pen arms, but their rankings are based on projections as starters, especially with regard to Jay. In fact, however, as I'll explain below, this list doesn't even include every young relief arm that has a legitimate chance to establish himself as a big leaguer this season.
     
    This is all one way of saying that I think that all of the concern out there about the Twins not acquiring relief pitching on the free agent or trade market is going to turn out to be much ado about nothing. These guys are the real deal.
     
    The case of Adam Brett Walker probably deserves an entire post of its own. He's another guy that would easily be in the Top 15 of many, if not most, teams. He probably should be in this one, too, and certainly would be if there weren't so many outstanding relief pitchers that are literally on the big league club's doorstep. The strikeouts are a huge red flag, but I'm a Walker fan. I believe he will be a Major League ballplayer one day and probably a good one.
     
    Generally, you probably won't notice a lot of difference between my top 15 and anyone else's, but there's one name on the list that I think I'm higher on than most and that's shortstop Engelb Vielma, who spent his 2015 entirely with the Fort Myers Miracle in the High A Florida State League.
     
    A lot of conversations about the Twins' shortstop position go something like this: "It's great that Eduardo Escobar has established himself as a legitimate starting shortstop so he can hold down the position until Nick Gordon is ready."
     
    Occasionally, someone will point out that Jorge Polanco is ready to hit big league pitching right now and might be ready to claim the shortstop position soon. Others opine that Polanco will never have the arm to be a full time MLB shortstop.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/P4290565-2-600x400.jpg
    Nick Gordon sits atop a deep list of middle infield prospects in the Twins organization.

    Most shortstop discussions will go on for a long time before anyone brings up Vielma (if his name comes up at all). That's understandable. He wasn't a first round draft pick like Gordon or a $750,000 international free agent signing like Polanco. At 5' 11" and MAYBE 150 pounds (if he weighs in immediately after a good meal), you could be forgiven for mistaking Vielma for his team's batboy - until you see him virtually inhale any ground ball hit remotely close to him and throw rockets to first base.
     
    If baseball was an offense/defense platoon game, like football is, there's a good chance Engelb Vielma would already be the Twins' shortstop. He's that good in the field. The question has always been, "will he hit?"
     
    Well, guess what? He hit .268 in Cedar Rapids in 2014 and followed that up with a .270 clip in Fort Myers. Both Polanco and Gordon are projected to hit a bit better and both will generate more power, but if you ask me who is most likely to eventually succeed Escobar as the Twins' starting shortstop, I'll put my money on Vielma. If Gordon continues to progress, as well, Vielma will make a terrific utility infielder (or a valuable trade chip).
     
    Much has been written about how deep the Twins' minor league organization remains, despite the graduations of players like Miguel Sano and Eddie Rosario in 2015 and the likely graduations of Buxton, Berrios and, perhaps, others in 2016. Indeed, half (or more) of my Top 15 this year could spend significant time with the Twins this season.
     
    General Manager Terry Ryan made reference to the excitement of finally seeing some of these prospects graduate into being productive Twins during a Q&A session with fans during Twinsfest this past weekend. He was quick to add that he was aware that fans are tired of hearing about prospects.
     
    One couldn't help but notice the quiet, yet pronounced, nod in agreement from the man sitting to Ryan's left on the stage - owner Jim Pohlad.
     
    Pohlad has patiently watched his GM trade away fan favorites (and, according the owner, many of his own personal favorite players) and trusted that his patience will be rewarded as the club's best prospects begin to arrive. This may be the year that his patience is rewarded.
     
    In fact, it may be the first of many rewarding seasons, because the "graduating class" this season won't necessarily be limited to the names on anyone's top prospect list.
     
    Alex Meyer's name has fallen off this list, but he will almost certainly finally make his MLB debut, either in the Twins rotation or (more likely) in the bullpen.
     
    Another bullpen option not listed is lefty Mason Melotakis. When we last saw him, he was throwing his mid-90s fastball past AA hitters in 2014. He had Tommy John surgery in October of that year and the Twins were so impressed with his recovery that they felt the need to add him to their 40-man roster this offseason, rather than risk losing him to another team in the Rule 5 draft. If he's as good in March as the reports about him were in November, he could compete with the higher ranked relievers to be the first among the group to debut with the Twins.
     
    Finally, there are two players I want to focus some special attention on, because the Twins' front office certainly will be focusing on them as the new season gets underway.
     
    The careers of pitcher Kohl Stewart and outfielder Travis Harrison could be approaching crossroads.
     
    Stewart was the Twins' first round pick (5th overall) in 2013 and Harrison was a compensation round pick (50th overall) in 2011. Both were high schoolers, so you wouldn't say that the fact that they aren't being mentioned as potential big leaguers in 2016 is necessarily a big red flag, but both players have spent time higher on "top prospect" lists than where you will find them this year.
     
    Stewart has more breathing room than Harrison simply because he was chosen 46 spots higher (and paid about $3.5 million more in bonus money) than Harrison and is two years younger than the outfielder.
     
    Still, in an era where the strikeout is king, Stewart has not missed bats at the rate that scouts (and fans) would like to see. He struck out fewer than five batters per nine innings for the Miracle in 2015. As has often been pointed out, Stewart didn't focus on baseball until after graduating from high school. Before that, he spent as much time, if not more, honing his quarterbacking skills as he did his pitching mechanics.
     
    Stewart's 129 1/3 innings of work in 2015 was far and away the most time he has ever spent on a pitcher's mound in one year. At just 21 years old, there's plenty of time for him to begin to wow the organization with his stuff and move closer to realizing his enormous potential. But it might be a good idea to begin doing that in 2016 because another year of, "what's wrong with Stewart?" talk among fans - and scouts - might not be a positive thing for his career.
     
    Similarly, it's hard to believe that Harrison is still just 23 years old, because it feels like we've been discussing him forever.
     
    After signing late in 2011, Harrison debuted with Elizabethton in 2012 and has made progress one step at a time ever since. He played full seasons in Cedar Rapids (2013), Fort Myers (2014) and Chattanooga (2015), always against competition that was at least a year or two older than he was.
     
    So, if he has made steady progress up the organizational ladder and is still relatively young, why should we consider Harrison's career to be approaching a crossroads? It's not a matter of him showing signs of failure. Like Stewart, it comes down to the player not yet having met certain expectations.
     
    Harrison launched 15 home runs for Cedar Rapids in 2013 (16, if you count one walk-off "single" that left the park but wasn't credited as a home run because one of the runners on base abandoned his trip around the bases to join the team's celebration on the field) and it appeared that the Twins had found themselves a future power hitter. However, his home run totals have dropped to three and five round-trippers in the two seasons since leaving Cedar Rapids.
     
    He's very strong and has been among his team's leaders in doubles virtually every season, so it's quite possible that those doubles will begin finding the extra few feet of distance to clear the fences. If so, Harrison could quickly enter any conversation about the Twins' "outfield of the future." But the clock is ticking, because he'll be a minor league free agent after 2017 and because, let's face it, there are already a few pretty good young outfielders in the process of arriving at Target Field ahead of him.
     
    Both of these young players undoubtedly know they've reached the point where they need to show everyone just why the Twins scouts liked them enough to use very high draft picks on them as they were coming out of high school. They're both hard workers.
     
    Don't be surprised if, a year from now, we are all talking about how they both had breakout seasons and wondering how the Twins are going to find big league spots for them in the near future.
  17. Steven Buhr
    Jose Berrios has shot up the national "top prospect" rankings based on his performance the past couple of years in the Minnesota Twins organization and on Wednesday night, Berrios joined his former manager with the Cedar Rapids Kernels, Jake Mauer, and Twins farm director Brad Steil to participate in a “roundtable” discussion at the Kernels’ annual Hot Stove Banquet.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/MauerSteilBerrios-600x400.jpg
    Jake Mauer, Brad Steil and Jose Berrios talk baseball at the Kernels Hot Stove Banquet

    Before the banquet got underway, all three men were available for media interviews.
     
    ​(This article originally was posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
     
    It was the first time Berrios had been back to Cedar Rapids since he was part of a 2013 Kernels squad that was loaded with potential big leaguers, including Byron Buxton, Max Kepler, Tyler Duffey, Adam Brett Walker and many others.
     
    Berrios said he was enjoying the homecoming.
     
    “Coming here today in the afternoon, I saw things and thought, ‘I remember that.’ It’s different because now, you’ve got a lot of snow, but I remember some things. My host family, Abby (Pumroy) is coming tonight and I’m excited about that. This is where I played my first full season and I enjoyed it. My family came for my birthday in May. I enjoyed all of my year in 2013 in Cedar Rapids.”
     
    Pumroy, his host mother during his stay with the Kernels (as she is every summer for many of the Latin-American players), not only came to see Berrios at the banquet, but joined him on the stage during the roundtable to serve as interpreter, if necessary.
     
    That service wasn’t needed often. Berrios has made a lot of improvements since his time with the Kernels and that would include his command of English.
     
    In truth, his season with the Kernels was Berrios’ worst as a minor leaguer. He didn’t turn 19 until the second month of the season and notched a 7-7 record and 3.99 ERA and gave up, on average, just over one hit per inning. He struck out “just” 8.7 batters per nine innings. That’s certainly not bad, but 2013 is the only season of his young career in which he failed to top the 9 Ks per inning mark.
     
    Maturity on the mound was an issue for Berrios at times that season. There were times when an inning would start out with an error or two or maybe a couple of hits and the young right-hander would appear to lose his composure a bit, leading to crooked numbers going on the scoreboard that inning for the opponent.
     
    That’s not unusual, of course, especially in the lower levels of the minor leagues, as Mauer pointed out while talking about the progress that Berrios has made since their time together with the Kernels.
     
    “He was pretty young, obviously, when he was here,” Mauer recalled. “He came up late (in April). One thing he would do is he would always compete. Really it was probably the first time he had been hit in his life. He had struck everybody out.
     
    “Kohl Stewart went through some of that, when he was here, too. Some of those guys, that’s what they learn to do here – they start to learn how to pitch, learn how to overcome adversity. Sometimes you get yourself out of innings that maybe your defense created for you. Do I just roll over or do I compete and get through it? I think both of those guys are starting to figure that out pretty good.”
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Berrios2016-400x600.jpg
    Jose Berrios

    Berrios, who will still be just 21 years old when the 2016 season opens, agreed that he has developed a more mature approach to his craft.
     
    “I’ve matured every year,” he said. “You have to be under control in every situation. That’s what I work on every year and that’s what I’ve learned.
     
    This is the second year that Berrios has been invited by the Twins to open Spring Training with the big club in Fort Myers. A year ago, he wasn’t shy about telling people his goal was to open the season in the Twins’ rotation.
     
    That didn’t happen, of course, and Berrios ended up throwing all 166 1/3 of his innings in the minors, split between AA Chattanooga and AAA Rochester.
     
    His goals going into 2016 have not been tempered from his experience last year, however. If anything, he has taken them up a notch.
     
    “Yeah, I’m keeping the same goals,” he confirmed. “Trying to make the 25 man roster in April with the Minnesota Twins. Then keep going, work to be selected for the All-Star Game in July and then at the end of the season, maybe the Rookie of the Year.
     
    “That’s my goal, that’s what I’m preparing myself for, to make that goal. Be ready for spring training this year. I’m excited about that.”
     
    There may still be snow on the ground, but Berrios said he’s ready to get the new season underway.
     
    “Yeah, there’s too much offseason, I want to play a game.”
     
    Steil, voicing the views of the Twins front office, wasn’t prepared to predict a Rookie of the Year award for his young prospect, but he clearly is looking for good things from Berrios in 2016.
     
    “We’re looking for him to keep improving, which he’s done a nice job at every level he’s been through in our system, Steil said. “Last year, when he went from AA to AAA, he was a little shaky to start with at AAA, which is to be expected.
     
    “I think once you saw him get settled in and get comfortable, he made some adjustments and really pitched well the last month of the season. So he’s going to give some guys at spring training a run for their money when it comes to competing for a roster spot there.”
     
    While it’s too early to make any firm predictions about the Kernels’ 2016 roster, Steil did talk about what he’s expecting at this early point in time.
     
    “I think, looking at it right now, a rough idea of what kind of team we’re going to start with, I think it will be another strong pitching staff, similar to last year,” he offered. “I think as the season goes on, some of the younger hitters will get better and I think we’ve got a chance to have a better lineup than we did last year, just because of the talent that some of these guys have that are coming here.
     
    “Jermaine Palacios, a shortstop that was in the GCL and Elizabethton last year, is one of those guys. I expect LaMonte Wade will be back here to start the season. Chris Paul is another guy that will probably be back to start the season. So I think we’re going to have a few guys that can swing the bat. We should have a little bit more of a threat in the middle of the lineup than they maybe did last year.”
     
    Steil also talked about a couple of pitchers that Kernels fans saw a little of two years ago, Lewis Thorpe and Fernando Romero.
     
    Regarding Thorpe, Steil said the 20-year-old Australian lefty is, “doing very well.”
     
    “He’s probably not going to be ready to go to start the season, so he’ll probably start in extended and get stretched out and build up his arm strength.
     
    “Fernando Romero is in a similar situation,” Steil added. “A guy that pitched here briefly two years ago. He’s got a really good arm. He’ll touch 97, 98 (mph). He’s doing really well. He’s a little ahead of Thorpe, so he may be ready to go at the beginning of the year.”
     
    The Twins assigned each of the managers in their system to the same teams they led in 2015, but the departure of a couple of coaches at the AAA level meant wholesale coaching changes among most of the minor league staffs. As a result, Henry Bonilla, the Kernels pitching coach last season, is moving up to handle the Miracle’s pitching staff and Tommy Watkins, who has coached Kernels hitters for three seasons, will be in Chattanooga with the Lookouts.
     
    Mauer will be welcoming J.P Martinez and Brian Dinkelman to his staff in Cedar Rapids this season as pitching and hitting coaches, respectively.
     
    While Mauer had known Bonilla and Watkins going back to the days that they were teammates in the Twins organization, he said he doesn’t have a similar background with Martinez and Dinkelman. As Mauer was moving through the organization as a player, Martinez and Dinkelman were always a rung or two below him on the ladder. By the time they were reaching the upper levels as players, Mauer had begun his coaching career back in rookie ball.
     
    “I missed being a teammate with them, but I remember them in Spring Training and being around them last year a little bit. They’re both competitors and they both have a lot of information. They’re both really good personalities as far as they’re hard workers and they’re excited.
     
    “This is more ‘real baseball’ than what extended and Gulf Coast League are. They’ve heard a lot of the positive things that are going on up here and both played in this league. I spoke to both of them right around Christmas time. They’re both heading down to Florida early to get down there and get around some of our boys a little sooner.”
     
    Mauer indicated that one benefit of the coaching changes is that Martinez and Dinkelman have already worked some with many of the players likely to pull on a Kernels jersey this summer.
     
    “To be honest, I don’t know many of the guys,” Mauer admitted. “I’ll probably rely on JP and Brian quite a bit. They had them in instructional league and some of them in extended, so they have a feel for them. We’ll shake it out in spring training and figure out who can do what and where they all fit.”
     
    Mauer has set the expectations bar high for next season after leading Cedar Rapids to within one game of a Midwest League championship. On Wednesday, his boss expressed how impressed he has been with the Kernels’ skipper.
     
    “He and Tommy and the pitching coaches here have done a great job in our three years here, advancing a level deeper into the playoffs the last two years,” Steil said. “Especially last year, they did a great job as a coaching staff.
     
    “I don’t think that team was as talented as the first two years we were here. But they did a really good job and those players battled and they never gave up. They played good, sound baseball. They didn’t beat themselves and that was a credit to Jake and Tommy and Henry.”
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/SteilLawlessMauer-600x400.jpg
    Brad Steil and Jake Mauer chat before the Kernels Hot Stove Banquet with former big leaguer Tom Lawless, who was inducted into Cedar Rapids' baseball hall of fame Wednesday. Lawless managed the last Kernels team to win A MWL championship.

  18. Steven Buhr
    Today, I want to revisit something I wrote in a prior post. The subject (as so many things written by so many people has been) was centered around what the Twins should do with regard to Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton.
     

    Maybe you take them aside and say, “Guys, if you’re healthy in April, you’re going to be Minnesota Twins. You may perform like Kennys Vargas or you may look more like Aaron Hicks, but you’re going to stay in Minnesota. You will not be sent back to the minors. From this point forward, you are Major League baseball players. Now get to work and act like it.” 

    The thing is, you can’t wait until spring training to make this decision. It wouldn’t be fair to Trevor Plouffe. 

    If Sano is going to step in as your primary third baseman, Plouffe needs to spend some time this winter learning to play left field. Maybe he and Joe Mauer could learn together. 

    For that matter, I’d tell Sano to go out there and shag some fly balls, too, because I’m not convinced the Twins won’t discover they’re better off defensively with Sano in the outfield and Plouffe at the hot corner. 
    What's that? You say you're one of the five or so people who have read everything I've posted this offseason and you don't recall reading any of that? Well, you're absolutely correct.
     
    I offered those recommendations in October - of 2014.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Buxton2015-600x400.jpg
    Byron Buxton (Photo: SD Buhr)

    That just demonstrates that I'm never wrong with my ideas, just occasionally ahead of the curve! Eventually, conventional wisdom (and that of the Twins' front office) comes around to my way of thinking. They really should just listen to me in the first place, right?
     
    (This article originally appeared at Knuckleballsblog.com)
     
    So was I prescient or premature? Based on the reactions I received to these suggestions 14 months ago, most would say I was premature - that it was simply too soon for Sano and Buxton to be plugged into the Twins starting lineup right out of the gate in 2015.
     
    Maybe. But, with the benefit of hindsight, I'd say I'd still like to have seen what kind of results the Twins would have had if they had benefited from a full season of Sano-Buxton, rather than half a season of Sano and only enough Buxton to show eventual flashes of his potential at the end of the season.
     
    Of course, based on the reactions we see to the Twins trading Aaron Hicks and their statements concerning plans to use Sano in the outfield in 2016, a lot of fans would say I was neither prescient nor premature, but I was simply wrong then and wrong now.
     
    I've been critical of front office decisions with some regularity over the past few years (but then, who hasn't?), but I'm on board with both the trade of Hicks to fill a definite need at catcher and the plan to give Sano a look in the outfield.
     
    Maybe Hicks will become another Carlos Gomez, emerging as an All-Star performer in another organization's outfield after escaping Minnesota. But, for me, Buxton remains far more likely to become that All-Star outfielder and he's not going to reach that level by spending more time in Rochester. He needs to be told he's the Opening Day centerfielder and neither he nor the Twins should waffle from that decision, even if he opens the year a little slow. He won't disappoint.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/04/SanoST15-600x400.jpg
    As a minor leaguer in spring training, Miguel Sano wore no. 24. Will he replace the player currently wearing that jersey with the Twins? (photo: SD Buhr)

    A lot of people make a big deal of Sano's size, doubting that a guy weighing in at nearly 270 pounds has any business playing the outfield. Ordinarily, I might agree. But Miguel Sano is not your ordinary 270-pound athlete. If he can learn to take at least decent routes to fly balls and, obviously, catch the balls he gets to, I think he'll impress us. Of course, it's not a given that he'll be able to do those things. We have nothing to go on, positive or negative, to judge at this point whether he can do those things. But anyone thinking he'll be another plodding outfielder in the mold of Young, Willingham or Arcia are, I believe, going to be proven wrong.
     
    As I wrote a year ago, it wouldn't hurt for Plouffe (and perhaps even Mauer) to shag some fly balls, as well. If it does turn out that Sano simply can't field the position, there will be a need for Plan B. If Byung Ho Park transitions well from Korea to the American League, the Twins are going to need to find another way to keep the bats of both Park and Sano in the lineup every day. It seems unlikely that MLB will grant manager Paul Molitor special dispensation to use two designated hitters.
     
    There's a lot of uncertainty in all of this, but there are two things we and the Twins do know - Trevor Plouffe can play a solid third base and Joe Mauer can do the same at first base. We don't know if Sano and Park can do the same. I suspect we'll all know a lot more about who is capable of doing what by June, but for now, I'm okay with what the Twins appear to be planning to do - let the guys who have demonstrated an ability to play infield defense do so and bet on Sano's athleticism being good enough to fill the third outfield spot along with Eddie Rosario and Byron Buxton.
     
    General Manager Terry Ryan has a few things left to do this offseason to finalize his roster and if he gets overwhelmed with an offer for Plouffe, he can accept it. However, based on what we're seeing of the third base market, that seems unlikely to happen and he shouldn't give Plouffe away for a handful of magic beans.
     
    But I have no problem with him betting on Buxton and Sano making him look smart a year from now. After all, not many people have gone wrong betting on the ability of those two men to do just about anything on a baseball field.
  19. Steven Buhr
    The Minnesota Twins held a press conference Wednesday morning to introduce their newest addition to the family, Korean slugger Byung Ho Park. The hope is that Park can approach the level of production he showed in Korea and, if so, join potential stars Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton as cornerstones in a Twins everyday lineup being built to contend for the postseason for years to come.
     
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Park-press-conference.jpg
     
    By now, everyone knows how he came to be a member of the Twins. His Korean team posted him, the Twins won the bidding for the exclusive rights to negotiate with him, they came to an agreement on a multi-year deal and, on
    Wednesday, he and the Twins’ brass spoke to the media about the whole thing.
     
    The assembled media asked a lot of good questions. How will park adjust to facing better pitchers who throw better breaking balls and faster fastballs? How will he adjust to being a full-time designated hitter? What kind of fielder is he, in the event he needs to use his glove more frequently than is currently envisioned? How will he adjust to living and working in the United States?
     
    The media got very few good answers to those questions, however.
     
    That’s not the fault of Park, GM Terry Ryan or anyone else on that dias, really. The fact is, there are no good answers to most of the questions, yet. Park will need to answer those questions on the field, in the clubhouse and out and about in the greater Twins Territory community.
     
    (This article was originally published at Knuckleballsblog.com)
     
    Ryan told the media that he feels his team needs to add offense and that he expects Park to replace Torii Hunter’s offensive production.
     
    My goodness, I certainly hope he can do better than that. After all, while Hunter made significant critical contributions to the turnaround of the 2015 Twins, not a lot of those contributions were with his bat. If Park doesn’t exceed Hunter’s 2015 production, he may well be getting acquainted with upstate New York or south central Tennessee at some point.
     
    It sounds like expectations are measured, which is good. Everyone with the club has indicated they expect Park to struggle a little bit as he adjusts to Major League pitching, but that he is also expected to successfully make those adjustments. I wonder how well those limited expectations will be remembered when the strikeouts come, especially
    if wins don’t come as quickly for this team as we think they should.
     
    I’m looking forward to a full season of Park and Miguel Sano in the lineup. That’s a lot of long-ball potential that wasn’t there on Opening Day, 2015. It’s also a lot of strikeout potential, of course.
     
    Ryan was asked if he expects to make more roster moves, obviously alluding to the possibility of trading incumbent third baseman Trevor Plouffe. His response seemed unequivocal, stating that he did not expect to make additional changes to the regular lineup. “We’re going to go with what we’ve got,” he said. He added, “We’re going to move Sano to the outfield.”
     
    Things change, of course. Baseball’s Winter Meetings are coming up and it’s reasonable to expect that Ryan will get some inquiries about the availability of some of his players, including Plouffe. Maybe his unambiguous statements today are just part of a posture he’s taking to send a message to his peers that they should not expect to get Plouffe (or anyone) for peanuts.
     
    But, to me, he certainly sounded and looked like a man who believes his everyday lineup is just about set in stone.
    The additional power is good. It’s very good. I just don’t think it’s so good that it will, by itself, push the Twins over hump and propel them into the postseason. I believe that this team also needs more hitters who can get on base and contribute some extra-base hits with regularity.
     
    For that to happen, Miguel Sano cannot afford a sophomore slump. He needs to not only continue to pepper the outfield bleachers with 400-foot home run balls, he needs to continue adding 30 or 40 doubles and get on base 38% of the time. In short, he needs to be a fixture in the cleanup spot for the Twins that strikes fear into the minds of opposing pitchers and catchers.
     
    He needs to be that guy right out of the gate in 2016.
     
    Byron Buxton also needs to arrive in 2016. And by “arrive,” I mean he needs to, as Nuke LaLoosh put it, announce his presence with authority.
     
    If Buxton and Sano take control of the leadoff and cleanup spots, respectively, on Opening Day and both show the talent they have demonstrated at every minor league level (and that Sano demonstrated in half a season with the Twins this year), it will allow the rest of the lineup to easily fall into place.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/Buxton2015b-1414936-429x600.jpg
    Byron Buxton (Photo: S D Buhr)

    Mauer and Dozier become the everyday number 2 and 3 hitters. Plouffe, Park and either Rosario or Arcia (whichever claims the third outfield spot) easily slot into the 5-7 spots, while Escobar and the catcher du jour, Suzuki or Murphy, pull up the rear.
     
    In that scenario, the Twins lineup has become much “longer,” to use the buzzword currently in favor that describes a team with dangerous hitters even far down the batting order. It also allows guys like Dozier, Mauer, Plouffe and Rosario to successfully fill roles they are most suited to fill, rather than try to be something they aren't.
     
    Yes, I would have defensive concerns with any outfield that includes both Sano and Arcia in the corners. That’s a disaster waiting to happen, but I’m pretty confident that Rosario will be the winner of that battle this spring, so I’m not too concerned about it.
     
    But if Buxton can’t be Buxton at the top of that order or if Sano struggles to make consistent hard contact at cleanup, suddenly your “long” lineup isn’t really so long and you’ve got some guys hitting in spots they really aren’t best-suited for.
     
    Your leadoff hitter needs to work the count, hit for average, draw walks, find some gaps and cause all sorts of anxiety for pitchers, catchers and defenses on the basepaths.
     
    Your cleanup hitter needs to consistently drive in runs. He needs to hit home runs in bunches. He needs to be able to do more than make pitchers pay for mistakes. He needs to hit a pitcher’s best pitch for extra bases. He needs to avoid striking out so often that opposing teams don’t worry about seeing him step into the on-deck circle.
     
    If Buxton isn’t an effective leadoff man, someone else has to do that job and there is nobody currently on this roster that you could honestly say, “leadoff is his best spot.” The same is true of Sano at cleanup.
     
    Yes, Dozier could lead off. Mauer and Escobar could do it, too. But all three of those players have holes in their offensive games that make them much better suited to hit someplace other than at the top of the Twins’ order.
    It’s possible that Park will turn out to be a legitimate cleanup spot alternative to Sano. If so, that’s a bonus. But right
    now, the best the Twins show me is a few guys who could serve that role if they absolutely had to. That’s not good enough.
     
    If you have to slide Dozier and Mauer up a spot in the order and/or do the same with Plouffe and Rosario, not to mention Escobar and your catcher, suddenly that lineup doesn’t look so “long,” after all. You no longer have a lineup set up to challenge the Kansas City Royals in the American League Central Division, much less make a deep postseason run.
     
    I know that I’ve totally ignored the pitching situation and, obviously, that’s very important, too. I also am aware that the Twins will be likely be a better team with Buxton in centerfield every day, regardless of what he does with his bat.
     
    But for the Twins to become the team we all want them to be, they need Byron Buxton to be an All-Star level leadoff hitter, they need Sano to be a beast in the cleanup spot and they need those things to happen closer to April than September. They also need Park to quickly make whatever adjustments need to be made to allow him to be a significant contributor to a big league contender.
     
    No pressure, guys. Just become great and do it now.
  20. Steven Buhr
    Every minor leaguer's goal entering the season is to develop his game to the point where he earns a promotion to the next higher level in the system.
     
    Sometimes, that call comes when a player has dominated play within their league. Other times, circumstances align to create an opportunity for players to move up the organizational ladder, at least temporarily.
     
    Such circumstances allowed Cedar Rapids Kernels third baseman TJ White and catcher/first baseman Brett Doe to spend a few weeks each in the middle of this summer wearing the uniform of the Fort Myers Miracle, the Minnesota Twins’ Class high-A affiliate, one level above the Class A Kernels.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/DoeWhite2015900.jpg
    Brett Doe and TJ White (Photo: SD Buhr)

    White and Doe both got their promotion opportunities in part due to some misfortune of others, as the Miracle began to rack up injuries among their early-season regulars at the corner infield positions. Both players had been holding their own in the Midwest League when their calls came, but both were also aware that their stays in Fort Myers might be short-lived.
     
    "Yeah, Jake pretty much let us know,” White recalled last week. “He said it could be four to five days, it could be two weeks or it could be the whole the season. So we were looking to just go play and have fun with it.”
     
    For Doe, who wasn’t on the Kernels' original roster out of spring training, it wasn’t the first time this season that he’s lived with uncertainty concerning how long he’d be on a roster.
     
    "That’s kind of what I came up here (to Cedar Rapids) with, when (Jorge) Fernandez got hurt,” Doe recounted. “Once I got up here, it took me about a month and a half to unpack my bag, to actually unpack everything. So when I got there (to Fort Myers), I didn’t unpack.”
     
    At least players in a situation like what Doe and White found themselves in don’t have to try to find a short-term place to live during their time with the Miracle. Fort Myers doesn’t have a host family program similar to what exists in Cedar Rapids, but they do have an on-site Players Academy with dormitory-like housing.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/White2015a900.jpg
    TJ White (Photo: SD Buhr)

    "We both stayed at the Academy,” confirmed White. “They set it up pretty much that way. We could have found a place to live, but with our situation, the Academy was a lot easier for us.
     
    "It’s nice. They’ve got the pool tables and ping-pong tables and everything. And they feed us, so it’s not bad.”
     
    The food and lodging might be nice, but maybe the biggest benefit to having even a temporary promotion to the next higher level of minor league ball is the exposure the players got to the Class high-A game. Both Doe and White noticed significant differences in the quality of the game played in the Florida State League.
     
    "For me, we see the same velocity and stuff like that up there, but guys have a plan to get you out and they can execute that plan a little bit better,” observed Doe. “They didn’t miss as many spots – not saying guys here miss spots, but you just didn’t get as many pitches to hit. When you’re up there, I felt like, you can’t miss that pitch. If you get a pitch to hit, you can’t miss it.”
     
    "We kind of talked about it jokingly, because guys can locate their off-speed (pitches) so much more, which makes it so much more dangerous,” White agreed. “You might not see a fastball again after that first pitch, because they can control it so much better. Here, you’ll probably most likely get another fastball or two before the end of the at-bat.”
     
    Doe, who is attempting to learn the catching trade this season, after primarily being an infielder at the college level, didn’t get much time behind the plate in Fort Myers. But he’s not complaining.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Doe2015d.jpg
    Brett Doe (Photo: SD Buhr)

    "I was first base, every game,” he said. “I worked with the bullpen, to stay sharp for me, catching. But once the game rolled around, I was at first base pretty much every day, which was nice. I went from being a third string catcher here (in Cedar Rapids) at the beginning of the year to playing first base every day at high-A."
     
    The experience did cement one thing in to the minds of both players. They want to earn spots on the Fort Myers roster full time next season and getting some time there this year gives them some idea what they need to do to make that happen.
     
    “For next year, yeah I think it did,” White confirmed. “Just showed us a little bit, gave us a little taste of it and hopefully, we’ll both be starting there next year. I think that’s our plan. But just seeing the pitchers and a little bigger ballpark, so we kind of know how to approach that, as well.”
     
    "That and then just us playing, what is it today, 122 games?” added Doe. “We’ve learned a lot from that, too. We’ve learned a lot in our first full season - how to get through and be ready for next season.”
     
    Enduring the number of games in a full minor league season is no small factor for a player’s development, as White pointed out.
     
    "Last year, me and Brett both only played about 15 games, I think, all season. So this year we’re grinding through, but it’s gone well so far.
     
    On the subject of “grinding through,” the Kernels clinched their playoff spot in June by finishing second in the MWL’s Western Division during the first half of the season. The two players talked some about whether that’s made it harder or easier to maintain focus, as a team, in the season’s final few weeks.
     
    “I think as far as preparation, it can be tempting for us to sit back, as a team, and kind of be like, ‘we’re in the playoffs,’” conceded Doe. “But once the lights come on and the game starts, no one is thinking, ‘we’re in the playoffs so we don’t have to play hard.’”
     
    Doe, White and their Kernels team mates are already getting the message from their manager, Jake Mauer, that now is not the time to ease up on the throttle.
     
    "Jake kind of told us, ‘hey, we want to finish strong. All these games are going to be close.’ He said they’re going to be close ballgames and we want to be hot rolling into playoffs, not kind of stumbling in getting started.”
     
    While both Doe and White would obviously prefer to have finished out their 2015 season in Fort Myers, returning to Cedar Rapids does bring with it one benefit. While the Kernels are preparing for postseason play, the Miracle are on the verge of elimination from playoff contention.
     
    So, while those on the Miracle roster will likely be playing their final game of the season on September 6, Doe and White will be with the Kernels as they begin their quest for MWL championship rings on September 8.
  21. Steven Buhr
    We’ve reached the end of the Dog Days of Summer, that period that stretches from 20 days before Sirius (the Dog Star) is precisely in conjunction with the sun until 20 days after those bodies are in alignment.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/Gibbons2015e.jpg
    Sam Gibbons (Photo: SD Buhr)

    Those 40 or so days are typically the most cruelly hot of the summer and, coincidentally or not, the days when young professional baseball players often hit the proverbial “wall” during their first full season of pro ball. Players that are accustomed to playing anywhere from 40 to 70 games in a summer, find themselves having already eclipsed that mark by mid-June, with another 70 yet to play on the schedule.
     
    It’s when bats become heavier in a hitter’s hands and pitchers often lose velocity or some sharpness to their breaking ball due to a “tired arm.”
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/DogDays-300x140.png
    The Dog Days of Summer

    Then again, the Dog Days of Summer really is a Northern Hemisphere phenomenon, so Cedar Rapids Kernels pitcher Sam Gibbons, who hails from Geelong, Victoria, in Australia, may well be immune to the Dog Day effects.
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
     
    After a shaky start to his season, the 21-year-old Aussie didn’t really begin to hit his stride until the second week of July.
     
    As Gibbons toed the rubber in Kane County on July 12 to begin his seventh start after joining the Kernels at the end of May, he shouldered an unimpressive 5.34 ERA after giving up 21 runs (19 of them earned) in his first six starts for Cedar Rapids.
     
    The righthander gave up one run in the fourth inning of what would become a no-decision start against the Cougars that night and, from there, ran his scoreless inning streak up to 28 consecutive innings before giving up a pair of runs (one earned) in an 8-2 win over Bowling Green on Saturday night before a near-capacity home crowd.
     
    Included in that stretch was a nine inning complete game shutout on the road at Kane County on August 1. It has been the only complete game shutout twirled by a Kernels pitcher this season and only the Kernels’ second complete game this year. (Mat Batts lost a 1-0 decision despite throwing a complete seven-inning game in the nightcap of a doubleheader at Peoria in May.)
     
    Finishing the complete game meant Gibbons threw a few more pitches than normal.
     
    “Last year, we were generally around the 80-90 (pitches) mark,” Gibbons explained, “but very rarely would we go over 85. Throwing 110 pitches (in the complete game), I was feeling it the last inning, but there’s no way I was going to give in.”
     
    After that extended outing, Gibbons knew he was destined for a shorter night in his next start on Saturday.
     
    “I think I was on some sort of pitch count (Saturday), but I was cruising through the middle three through six innings pretty well and then got two outs in the seventh. Then things got a bit sticky. But, you know, things happen. It’s OK and we ended up winning, so that’s the main thing.”
     
    How has Gibbons gotten stronger as the summer heat has been at its most oppressive?
     
    “You know, I wish I could bottle it and pass it around to other guys,” said Kernels pitching coach Henry Bonilla.
     
    For his part, Gibbons said he does feel like he’s getting stronger, but doesn’t think his workload this season has been all that unusually heavy.
     
    “The thing is, I pitch in the ABL (Australian Baseball League) every year, so I have at least 30 innings before I get to spring training on my belt,” Gibbons explained.” So I’m pretty used to having a fairly deep workload.”
     
    We may not know what to credit for Gibbons’ improvement through the past several weeks, but he knew exactly who to blame for the scoreless streak coming to an end on Saturday.
     
    “I spoke to my mom (after the game) and I told her it was all her fault for making me aware of it,” Gibbons related, with a smile.
     
    Blaming mom? Wow. That's harsh.
     
    “I had to blame someone,” a laughing Gibbons reasoned.
     
    Typically, Gibbons likes to take a bit of time off in the fall after the season winds up, but things didn’t work out that way for him this past offseason.
     
    “My plan last year was to play after Christmas and the New Year,” he recounted. “Then I was asked to play on the under-23 Australian Team. so I went in November last year. That kind of interrupted things but any chance you get to play for your country is a great opportunity, so I definitely wanted to do that.”
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    Sam Gibbons shows off his form, as well as Saturday's "Jimmy Buffet Night" Kernels jersey (Photo: SD Buhr)

    Perhaps taking the extra off-season work into account, the parent Minnesota Twins held Gibbons back in Extended Spring Training when the Kernels came north to start the season, then promoted him to Cedar Rapids on May 28. He made his Kernels debut May 31. His first four starts after arriving were not pretty. surrendering 16 runs in 20 innings of work covering that initial stretch.
     
    “Obviously, I had a bit of a shaky start, but things are coming good now,” Gibbons understated.
     
    “I think after the first month, I was struggling with fastball command a bit, and not being able to throw off-speed pitches in fastball counts, where I have been now. I’ve been attacking guys, but attacking with my off-speed pitches, which is something I’ve never been able to do, really.
     
    “So, having command and just having faith that if I make a bad pitch, that I’m going to come back and make a better pitch to get weak contact or a swing and a miss. I feel that fastball command, knowing I can throw a fastball wherever I want and when I want is something that is pretty big and that will progress you through the ranks.”
    Bonilla, his pitching coach, agrees.
     
    “He just came up and he’s been a strike thrower,” the coach observed. “He’s always been a strike thrower, he’s going to throw it over and I think that’s to his credit and also to his detriment. He didn’t really locate. He just said basically, ‘somebody’s going to hit a ball at a guy. If I throw a strike, I’ll be ok.’
     
    “It worked for a while with some of the younger hitters that don’t really drive the ball, but some of these guys are prospects, they can hit the ball, or some of them are grown men. Some are 24- 25 year old men that can hit the ball far. He’s learned that the hard way.
     
    “The first couple outings he got kind of hit around. To his credit, he’s allowed himself to change. He’s going to the corners a little bit more, he’s attacking down in the zone, being more aggressive by not throwing so many strikes. He’s throwing ‘quality misses,’ is what we call it.”
     
    According to Bonilla, a lot of Gibbons improvement has come from his mentality, as much as any improvement he’s shown with his mechanics or pitch selection.
     
    “He’s trusting it,” Bonilla said. “I think one of the biggest things for him is his confidence. He’s out there confident that he can make pitches. He does it and he does it with a purpose with all of his pitches.”
     
    The coach also conceded that sometimes a little early failure greases the skids a bit for quicker improvement.
     
    “It’s hard to go away from success on the field,” he explained. “If a (hitter) is hitting .300 and we’re telling him, ‘hey, it’s not going to work when you get to the big leagues,’ he’s going to be like, ‘well, I’m hitting .300.’ If a (pitcher) is getting outs here, he’s like, ‘what do you mean it’s not going to work?’
     
    “So it’s hard for them to get themselves out of immediate success and look at four years down the future. To their credit, the ones that do are the ones that kind of take their lumps early, but you can see them kind of turn it around and stay with it and go good. And he’s one of those guys that’s been doing that. So he’s done a great job, I’m very happy with him.”
     
    Gibbons was signed by the Twins as a 17-year-old in July, 2011, but continued to play in his home country for a while and didn’t make his first appearance for a Twins affiliate in the States until the following year.
     
    “Our school (in Australia) works a bit differently, so I was actually halfway through my senior year of high school, so it was a bit different to how things are out here. It was a big thing for my mom to make sure that I finished high school.”
     
    There’s that “blame mom” thing again. How dare she do something like wanting him to finish high school before moving thousands of miles away to play baseball for a living?
     
    “I look back on it and I wanted to get over here as soon as possible,” Gibbons recalled, “but it was a slight decision, finishing high school at least.”
     
    In the end, mom won out - as moms are prone to doing.
     
    “So, I made sure I did that (finish high school) and then came over the following (extended spring training). The Twins don’t tend to like to bring Aussies over here for spring training their first year,” he explained. “Trying to wet their feet a bit, I guess, by just coming to extended and seeing how things work and then their second year, bring them over for spring training.”
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    Sam Gibbons (Photo: SD Buhr)

    Gibbons played two years for the Twins Gulf Coast League team in Fort Myers, then moved up to Elizabethton for the 2014 short season, where he teamed with many of the same guys he’s sharing the Kernels clubhouse with this season. That’s not an insignificant factor in his recent success, according to the pitcher.
     
    “I feel that the (catchers) we have on our team, they really take notice of what pitches you have and what works well for the situation. Having (Brett) Doe, Navi (Brian Navarreto) and (Alex) Real behind there, it’s pretty good,” Gibbons offered. “All three of the catchers on this team now were in E-town last year and the majority of our pitching group is the same from last year, so everyone has a good idea of what we throw and when you want to throw it.”
     
    All three Kernels catchers have been successful at controlling the opponents’ running games. Navarreto, for example, has thrown out over half of the runners attempting to steal off of him. That’s a factor Gibbons appreciates.
     
    “Having Navi behind the plate the last couple of outings has been exceptional. We’ve played together for three years now, so he’s known me pretty well. I’m pretty lucky to have him behind there pitch calling and his defensive work is immaculate.”
     
    Gibbons doesn’t appear to be exactly a high-maintenance pitcher for his catchers to have to deal with. If you find him sitting alone for a couple of hours before each start, he's probably watching a movie or listening to music, not focused on envisioning every pitch that's about to come out of his hand.
     
    “No, no, not at all,” he admitted.” I don’t really do that until I’m out on the mound going, ‘ok, let’s go and see how this goes.’”
     
    As the season winds down, Gibbons stands to play a critical role in the postseason for the Kernels. He’s thrown just over 64 innings since joining Cedar Rapids, so there shouldn’t be any concerns about the front office limiting his work just when the team needs him the most in the playoffs.
     
    When his year in Cedar Rapids wraps up, Gibbons will be headed back “down under” for the off-season. For him, that means beach time.
     
    “Back home, I live about 15 minutes from the beach,” he said. “I’m always going down there with buddies or just hanging out and kicking back. I play club ball sometimes or I practice and train with my brother. (Club ball) is like a mens’ league sort of thing that I just go down and I have some fun with my brother and my buddies that I grew up playing with.”
     
    He’s going to take a bit more time off this year before starting the real training for his 2016 season.
     
    “Definitely take off a fair chunk of the offseason and come back in mid-January at some point, I guess,” Gibbons said of his plans. “Play a bit of ABL and get a couple of starts before spring training.
     
    “I have to be in contact with (Twins farm director Brad Steil). Henry (Bonilla) and I will sit down before the season finishes and see where the innings are at and see what they want - a pitch count or innings limit sort of restriction.”
    Those limits will then be communicated to Gibbons’ ABL coaching staff.
     
    “They’re happy to have me pitch whatever that is,” he added.
     
    It’s good that the ABL coaches are so easy to work with. At least that’s one less thing Gibbons should have to blame his mom for.
  22. Steven Buhr

    Responsibility

    By Steven Buhr,

    I suppose this is what we asked for, Twins fans. Our team is playing “meaningful games” in August. Technically, they even continue to possess the second American League wild card spot (for a few more hours anyway).
     
    Entering the season, if someone had told us that our Twins would be right in the thick of the hunt for even a wild card postseason spot, I think most of us would have smiled and said, “thank you.”
     
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/TRyan2014d.jpg
     
    Some of us have had some elevated hopes for 2016 and even more would have projected 2017 as a reasonable goal to see the Twins contending for the postseason. But 2015? No, not really. There were just too many question marks and, frankly, calling some areas of the Twins Opening Day roster “question marks” would have been being generous.
     
    So, given this unexpected bonus of meaningful play in August, why don’t I feel like celebrating?
     
    To begin with, it’s not like the Twins’ hold on that final wild card spot is exactly something you’d call a death grip. OK, bad wording. Maybe that’s exactly what you would call it, as in, “they are about to lose that grip and see their season die.”
     
    The Twins enter Monday with a one game lead over Baltimore and Toronto, a three game lead over Tampa and Texas, and a 3.5 game lead over Detroit and Chicago. That’s a lot of competition and it doesn’t even include the Angels, who currently hold the first wild card spot, just one game ahead of Minnesota.
     
    Certainly, the front offices of some of those teams have already decided not to even try to compete for a spot in the league’s one-game, win or go home, wild card play-in game. Detroit and Tampa appear to be selling off parts. I’m not sure what the White Sox front office is doing, other than apparently trying to overcome the shock of discovering they’re actually not mathematically eliminated from the postseason yet.
     
    Then again, as a Twins fan, I probably shouldn’t be too critical of another organization’s inertia in the face of unexpected contention for the postseason.
     
    After all, while Chicago has only recently pulled themselves in to the hunt by winning a whole bunch of games in a row, the folks running the Twins have had an entire season to get acclimated to the fact that their guys actually have a shot at doing more than just playing meaningful games this late. And yet, the Twins front office gave no indication at the trading deadline that they had noticed.
     
    That’s not really true, of course. Twins General Manager Terry Ryan did give such indications. He indicated to the media on more than one occasion last week that he intended be active in the trade market in an effort to improve his ballclub.
     
    Then he did nothing.
     
    And no, don’t even try to claim with a straight face that adding Kevin Jepsen, the relief pitcher they acquired from the Rays for two minor league pitchers, constitutes making a serious bid to improve the Twins.
     
    Pioneer-Press Twins beat reporter Mike Berardino asked Ryan last week if the GM felt a responsibility to the current players to improve the roster. His reply:
     
    “That’s correct,” Ryan said. “That would be very accurate. I know that. There’s nobody that’s more sensitive to that than me. I know they’ve done a hell of a job of getting to this point and we’re in a good position. Now it’s my responsibility to help the cause.”
     
    Then Ryan went out and added Kevin Jepsen and – nothing else.
     
    As a result, the Twins open a four-game series with one of the teams who is nipping at their heels in the wild card standings, the Blue Jays, without the benefit of any significant help from their front office.
     
    Meanwhile, those Blue Jays have added Troy Tulowitzki, David Price and Ben Revere in the past few days. That’s a top of the rotation starting pitcher, a good-hitting veteran shortstop and a centerfielder who improves their club’s defense (and, therefore, their pitching as a whole).
     
    Maybe this was never going to be the year the Twins made a postseason run. It certainly wouldn’t help their cause that Ervin Santana won’t be available to them in the postseason, even if they found themselves there as a team.
     
    But Ryan was right. This collection of ballplayers has worked hard, exceeding everyone’s expectations, and he owed them a better result last week.
     
    I’m not suggesting he should have traded away a bunch of top prospects for rental players. You don’t mortgage your entire future on a slim chance at the brass ring in 2015. But you don’t pay lip service and then try to convince the guys in your clubhouse that adding a middle inning reliever is all you could come up with to give them a boost while their nearest competitors are making serious improvements.
     
    Making no deal at all – just saying right out loud that you don’t think this year’s club is built to not only get a wild card, but contend in the postseason once they get there – and explaining that you are not willing to give up any of your above average prospects at all in this environment would have been courageous. Likewise, making Toronto-sized mega deals that would have cost you some serious prospects would have been courageous.
     
    Taking either road would have required some real stones, because either approach would have been controversial and would have met with loud criticism from the fan base. Yet either approach would have at least been defensible.
     
    Dipping your toes in the water and giving up a couple of decent, but very young, pitching prospects for a middle reliever, but doing absolutely nothing else, is neither courageous nor defensible, in my opinion.
     
    Of course, we know that the end of the non-waiver trade deadline in July does not necessarily constitute the end of all trade opportunities. Terry Ryan can still improve this year’s Twins roster in August via waiver trades. If he does, I'll be among the first to applaud.
     
    But waiting too long to provide that help is a real concern and making deals later this month certainly won't help the Twins this week in Toronto.
     
    Ryan is sending Paul Molitor in to Toronto this week to fend off one of his club’s closest challengers and Molitor’s club is seriously outmanned. The reason is as simple as it was preventable. Molitor’s club was not given the kind of boost that the Blue Jays got from their GM last week and that was, by his own admission, Terry Ryan’s responsibility.
  23. Steven Buhr
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Kelly2015c.jpg
    Pat Kelly (Photo: SD Buhr)

    The first, last and most important job any minor league baseball player has is to work hard at improving his skills to move on up the organizational ladder to the next level. That said, when Cedar Rapids Kernels infielder Pat Kelly gets his next promotion, it may be bittersweet news for Pat and, more specifically, his family members that have been making frequent trips from Red Wing, Minnesota, to Cedar Rapids to watch Pat and the Kernels.
     
    That could become a much more difficult trip to make as Kelly's career carries him from Cedar Rapids to other stops on the Minnesota Twins affiliate list in Florida, Tennessee and New York.
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
     
    According to Kelly's father, Jim, who works in the Goodhue County (MN) Sheriff's Office, the Kelly clan has made the trip to Cedar Rapids, "about every other weekend."
     
    "My schedule, I’m off every other weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday and this particular year, the Kernels have been home when I’ve been off pretty much," the elder Kelly added. "When I first looked at it, I miscalculated and I thought, ‘I’ve got to work every weekend they’re home.’ But it turned out to be the opposite, so it worked out real good"
     
    "There’s like 25 of them here," Pat Kelly said Saturday. "My dad’s one of ten (siblings) so I have a lot of uncles. They’re all in Red Wing pretty much. I have an aunt up in Cottage Grove, Minnesota (about 35 miles from Red Wing), and that’s about the farthest they go.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Kellys2015.jpg
    Pat Kelly (in Minnesota Hero t-shirt) and some of his cheering section (Photo: SD Buhr)

    "They love coming down and coming to some games. They did that every Easter at Nebraska (where Pat played college baseball for the Cornhuskers). We’d get about 50-60 family members, they’d all make the trip down to Lincoln for Easter. It’s quite the crew."
     
    The "crew" during the most recent Kernels weekend homestand included not only family, but Cornhusker Head Athletic Trainer, Jerry Weber, whose career at Nebraska has spanned the Kelly generations. He was there when Jim was on campus as a Husker football player, as well as during Pat's baseball career there.
     
    Despite his dad's connection to "Big Red," it was no sure thing that Pat would follow in his father's footsteps to Lincoln. And there was no chance he'd follow those footsteps to the football field at Nebraska, or anywhere else.
     
    "I grew up loving baseball, basketball and football, all three, (but) baseball was always my favorite growing up. I played football, it was probably my third favorite.
     
    He said he wasn't just playing football growing up out of some kind of obligation to his dad, either.
     
    "No, I liked it, I really did."
     
    By his junior year of high school, however, football was left behind.
     
    "In tenth grade I was playing like eight quarters of football every Friday night. I was playing tenth grade games and then the varsity needed players so I would go play cornerback, running back, quarterback, like every Friday night. Then come my junior year, it was just like, it’s going to be too much.
     
    "I was doing a lot of baseball in the fall. So I gave up football. I didn’t even start my junior year. I just started doing a lot more baseball in the fall. I played basketball, I love basketball. But baseball’s always been my favorite."
     
    That focus on baseball began early, according to his father.
     
    "All baseball," Jim confirmed. "He never really gave me a break. We work 12 hour shifts (at the Sheriff's Office). I go to work at six in the morning and get home at six at night and he would be sitting on the steps with a bucket of balls, his bat and his glove and I would get in the driveway, ‘Let’s go dad.’ So we’d just go down the street to a park and he’d hit for as long as I could throw balls to him."
     
    Jim recalled it wasn't until Pat was in fifth or sixth grade that his son discovered, while looking through an old scrapbook, that his dad had played football for Nebraska. "He saw that and he said, ‘We should go to Nebraska sometime.’ I said, ‘sure.'"
     
    "Sometime" turned out to be when Pat was a freshman in high school.
     
    "He had a Nebraska schedule up and he said, ‘I want to go to watch Nebraska and Texas A&M," the father recalled. "In whatever year that was, they were ranked 4th and 5th in the country, respectively and I said, ‘alright, we’ll go.’"
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    Pat Kelly gets pregame work in at third base under the watchful eye of Kernels manager Jake Mauer (Photo: SD Buhr)

    That baseball game made an impression on Pat.
     
    "There was like nine or ten thousand people there. The game went like 16 innings long and not a fan left. Pretty cool. So from then on, I just felt like, ‘I really want to go to Nebraska.’ It ended up working out."
     
    It was the only basball game the Huskers and Aggies got in that weekend as rain washed out the scheduled Saturday and Sunday contests.
     
    "We ended up leaving early on Sunday and I think we got as far as Omaha and he said, ‘I know where I want to go to college, dad. I’m going to go to Nebraska.’ I said, ‘oh, okay.’ You know it was so early yet, but you know, let the kid dream. Why not?"
     
    Why not, indeed. Kelly ended up living his dream as a Cornhusker, earning 2nd team All-Big Ten honors his freshman year and was 1st team All-Big Ten in both his sophomore and junior seasons.
     
    Not bad, considering he nearly never had the opportunity to attend his chosen school.
     
    "It’s kind of funny though. Nebraska was one of my last recruiting letters," Pat recollected. "I was just waiting for it, waiting for it. I’d always come home from school – I didn’t play football then, so my falls were open – so I’d come home early. I remember coming home and there were two letters, North Carolina and Nebraska, and I didn’t give a crap about the other one. I was pretty excited about that."
     
    "He called me at work and said, ‘dad, I got it!’ ‘You got what?’ ‘I got the letter.’ ‘OK, let me guess,’" Jim added.
     
    "I had an amazing time at Nebraska," Pat said. "Coach (Darin) Erstad is an unbelievable guy and a great coach and did a lot for me. Yeah, I love Nebraska. I can’t wait to go back there in the offseason and go to football games and hang out there."
     
    According to Pat, It wasn't easy to leave a year early and begin his professional career. He knew it was time to move on, but it was a difficult decision to make.
     
    "Yeah for me it was," he recalled. "just because I loved Nebraska so much. It’s hard to leave those guys and the coaching staff.
     
    "At the end of the day, every kid’s goal is to be a big leaguer. You just had to look at that and obviously I had no doubt if I go back to Nebraska, it would have been a great year and we probably would have had a great team, I mean they had a good team this year. But at the end of the day, you want to be a big leaguer and you want to get that going."
     
    For Pat, getting that going meant being signed by the Minnesota Twins as their 12th round selection in the 2014 draft and heading to Elizabethton, Tennessee, last summer to begin his professional career.
     
    Nobody will confuse the environments for playing ball in Elizabethton with those in Lincoln, but Kelly didn't mind the change.
     
    "It was definitely a little bit of an eye-opener going down to E'town," Pat said of his first impressions of the community where the Twins' short-season Appalachian League affiliate is located. "I didn’t really have any expectations, to be honest. I just kind of went in with an open mind. It was fun, we made the playoffs and had a good season. Getting paid to play baseball, that’s a pretty good deal."
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    Pat Kelly (Photo: SD Buhr)

    This season, Kelly has been on the Kernels roster since Opening Day, making this his first year of enduring a full 140-game minor league schedule. Some players feel like they hit a wall, physically and/or mentally, at about this point in their first full season.
     
    "Yeah it’s kind of funny. Around the all-star break, you get half way and you’re like, ‘alright, we’re doing that again. Same thing over,’" Kelly said. "But no, I haven’t really seemed to hit that wall yet. I’m still enjoying every day with the guys and just can’t really complain. Getting paid to play baseball.
     
    "I think just the base adjustment from college to now is, here it’s every day, you play every day. In college, you didn’t play every day. You had class, you had other stuff. But now, every single day, this is your job. I think that’s just the biggest adjustment.
     
    "Even if you’re not in the lineup, you have a full day. You’re at the park from 1:30 to 10 or 11 at night. You’re still doing your work. You’re in the cage, you’re doing stuff. You’re still drained at the end of the day and then the next day, you do it again. I think that’s just the biggest adjustment for me, just getting mentally ready every day to go to work and get better."
     
    With that mentality, it's no wonder Kelly uses Florida Georgia Line's "Every Night" as his walk-up song.
     
    After Kelly hit .242 in 39 games, all at second base, for Elizabethton a season ago, he's been running closer to .220 over the season for the Kernels. He played second base through most of the season, but has been spending more time at third base since TJ White's promotion to Fort Myers.
     
    Kelly's also been faring better at the plate more recently, hitting .258 in his last ten games and carrying a four-game hitting streak into Thursday night's contest with Clinton.
     
    That stretch includes Kelly getting three hits, including a pair of doubles, in eight at-bats with his personal cheering section in the Cedar Rapids crowd last weekend.
     
    This offseason, Kelly will return to Lincoln where he'll live and work out with Cedar Rapids native (and 2014 Kernel) Chad Christensen, who is also a former Husker ballplayer.
     
    "We lived together last offseason and we’re going to live together this offseason," Kelly explained. "We do everything together and work out there."
     
    Lincoln is also much closer than Red Wing to his girlfriend's home in Kansas City, but that's probably just a coincidence.
     
    No matter how far away from his home and family in Red Wing Kelly's professional baseball career may take him, however, he'll always carry something of his home with him.
     
    Yes, the love of his family, certainly, but also the oil he uses to break in his gloves.
     
    "I oil them with oil from Red Wing Shoes in Red Wing. I always use their boot oil for my gloves and it seems to work really well."
  24. Steven Buhr
    When you ask ballplayers about their outside interests, it’s not unusual for them to express an interest in hunting. In that regard, Kernels’ pitcher Randy LeBlanc fits in with the crowd.
     
    It’s when you ask what he hunts that LeBlanc begins to vary from the norm.
     
    He’ll tell you he spent most of his offseason fishing and duck hunting, with a little deer hunting thrown in. Although, “my dad does more deer hunting than I do,” he says.
     
    After a pause though, he adds the kicker.
     
    “I’ve been gator hunting a few times. A couple of years ago, my cousin got a tag and we got one that was ten feet.“
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    Randy LeBlanc during a clubhouse card game (Photoa: SD Buhr)

    LeBlanc hails from Covington, Louisiana, though while his offseason activities might be right in line with his Cajun heritage, you’d barely know it to speak to him.
     
    “I’ve had people tell me up here that I don’t have any kind of accent,” he said. “People down south tell me I have an accent. It’s different than an Alabama accent. I’m definitely Cajun. My dad grew up in Cajun-land.”
     
    You can take the boy out of Cajun-land, but it’s not so easy, apparently, to take the Cajun-land out of the boy.
     
    In all the years the Minnesota Twins have been conducting spring training in Florida, they’ve certainly dealt with a wide variety of minor disciplinary issues with their ballplayers. Boys will be boys, after all.
     
    But this spring, LeBlanc and fellow Louisiana native (and former Kernels pitcher) Ryan Eades may have been among the first Twins farmhands to get talked to about messing with the local alligators.
     
    “Me and Ryan got in some trouble messing with some of the ones in Florida during spring training,” LeBlanc admitted with a small smile. “We had a meeting about it.”
     
    “Everybody’s so scared of them,” he added, in a way that made it sound like he couldn’t quite grasp why that would be the case.
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
     
    You can hardly blame the Twins, though, for discouraging LeBlanc from “messing with” alligators.
     
    Despite being relegated to the often anonymous role of middle relief pitcher, LeBlanc is opening eyes this summer with the Kernels. He took a string of 26 consecutive scoreless innings of relief work in to the tenth inning of Friday night’s game against the Quad Cities River Bandits, a team high for the season that he shared with one of the Kernels’ closers, Trevor Hildenberger.
     
    That string might have extended to 27 games, but for a line drive in to the outfield that was a single misplayed in to a triple. The result was LeBlanc’s first loss of the season, as Cedar Rapids fell to Quad Cities 4-3 in ten innings.
     
    As rare as the loss was for LeBlanc, almost as rare was the fact that LeBlanc worked just one inning in the game.
     
    The 6’ 4” right hander has made 19 appearances this season for Cedar Rapids and all but two of them have involved more than one inning of mound work. His 42 and 1/3 innings leads all non-starters for the Kernels.
     
    The Twins drafted LeBlanc out of Tulane University in New Orleans with their tenth round pick in the 2014 draft.
     
    Those who follow the Twins minor league organization closely know that they’ve had a pattern of drafting hard throwing college relievers with the intention of trying to turn them in to starting pitchers.
     
    The Twins have seemingly done just the opposite with LeBlanc, who was almost exclusively a starting pitcher during his college career at Tulane, but has been used only in relief roles since signing with the Twins.
     
    “I made a couple of relief appearances (in college), but other than that, I started my entire life,” he said. “I’d never done any relief, not consistent relief. Last year (at rookie level Elizabethton) was definitely the first time I’ve done that. But I was fine doing it, comfortable doing it. Whatever the Twins feel is my best role is what I want to do.”
     
    LeBlanc was drafted in the 16th round of the 2010 draft by the Florida Marlins after his senior year of high school, but chose to attend Tulane, rather than sign with the Marlins.
     
    “They made me a pretty big offer. That was before the slotting stuff,” he recalled. “It was definitely a big decision to turn down the money and go to school, but I don’t regret that for the world. I enjoyed my four years of college. It was definitely a lot of fun. New Orleans is a great city. I love it.”
     
    That’s easier for LeBlanc to say now than it might have been after his first season of college ball.
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    Randy LeBlanc (15) in a pregame ritual game of flip with other Kernels pitchers (Photo: SD Buhr)

    “I had Tommy John (elbow ligament surgery) my freshman year of college. I actually tore it in my third start. I ended up having surgery a week later and was out the rest of the year.
     
    “Came back the next year and struggled a little bit, just didn’t have quite the same stuff. I say I struggled, but it definitely could have been worse, don’t get me wrong.
     
    “Did a little better my junior year, went undrafted after that year. Had a couple of phone calls with some offers, but went back to school. I had a really good red-shirt junior year and got drafted by the Twins.”
     
    So, after four years in Big Easy, LeBlanc found himself in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in April.
     
    New Orleans and Cedar Rapids – pretty much the same thing, right? No, not so much.
     
    “When I flew up to Minneapolis to sign last year, that was the farthest I had ever been north in my life,” a smiling LeBlanc recalled. “I would assume this (Cedar Rapids) is probably the second farthest.
     
    “The games this year in Appleton, when it was snowing for two days, I’d never seen snow before. It was the first snow I’d ever seen. It’s been a trip. That was the coldest I’d ever pitched in, for sure. Man, it was cold. The wind was just howling the whole time. It was miserable.
     
    “I do a lot of hunting and fishing in the offseason, so I’m used to being out in the cold, but not snow cold, not like that.”
     
    The climate may not be familiar to LeBlanc, but if his performance this season is any indication, he’ll have no problem adjusting to pitching in Target Field someday.
     
    LeBlanc has notched a 1.70 ERA in 42 and 1/3 innings over 19 appearances for the Kernels.
     
    “I had a really good first month of April,” he recalled.”Then we started May and I kind of had a little rough stretch for about two weeks. Ever since then, I’ve had a little better command up and down in the zone and I think that’s the biggest thing.
     
    “I’ve been throwing well. A couple times, I guess, during this little streak or whatever, I haven’t had my best stuff at all. Basically, I’ve just made pitches when I’ve had to, able to get out of jams, that’s the best way to describe it. I’m not out there just dominating everybody and striking everybody out. Just making pitches when I have to.”
     
    LeBlanc is also quick to point out that he and his fellow Kernels pitchers have benefited this season from some pretty solid defensive efforts behind them.
     
    “We’ve played a ton of defense. TJ (White) and Nick (Gordon) and the whole left side of the infield, that’s where the majority of my balls go, to that side. So they’ve done an incredible job and Pat (Kelly) has done a great job up the middle.
     
    “We’ve had guys mixing all over the place at first base. Brett (Doe) has never played first base in his life and he finds himself over there and he’s doing a really good job. It definitely helps having good defense behind us.”
     
    LeBlanc uses a three-pitch mix on the mound and, like a lot of young pitchers, he came in to the season with an agenda.
     
    “Originally, coming up here, I was working on the breaking ball. It’s gotten much better. I’m throwing a slider, It’s kind of a slider or a slurve, I guess. I’ve gotten a lot of swings and misses with it.
     
    “But, I mean, I’m a sinkerball guy. I throw sinkers down and in to most people. That’s probably my best pitch; that or my change up. My change up’s my out pitch. If I need a swing and a miss, I go to my change up. But most of my success is just getting ground balls.”
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    Randy LeBlanc

    While LeBlanc isn’t unhappy with his middle relief role, he wouldn’t exactly be opposed to getting a shot at a rotation spot at some point, either.
     
    His Kernels pitching coach, Henry Bonilla, is in LeBlanc’s corner on that issue, too.
     
    “I’ve been pulling for it,” Bonilla said. “I’ve been putting that thought in their (the front office) heads that he can start, he wants to start.”
     
    His success out of the pen may be working against the righty’s chances of changing roles, however. Sometimes you don’t mess with what’s going well.
     
    “I just think he’s having so much success right now,” Bonilla added, “that you just kind of say, ‘just keep going.’”
     
    LeBlanc says all the right things when he’s asked about his role now and in the future.
     
    “I think that Henry has talked about it a little bit to some of the guys up above us making the decisions. But I’m not sure what they’re doing. I told them at the beginning of the year I’ll do whatever they want me to do that’s going to help me to move up. Whatever will get me to the big leagues, I want to do. Whatever, starting, closing, throwing relief, long relief, whatever it is. So whatever they feel comfortable with me doing, I’ll do.
     
    “They might ask me to start here in three weeks, I have no idea. I’d be fine doing that, though, I’ve started my whole life.”
     
    Many starting pitchers pick up a few miles per hour on their fastballs when they start working out of the bullpen, but LeBlanc said that’s not historically been the case with him.
     
    “It’s actually the other way around,” he said. “I threw harder as a starter. I threw harder as the games went on in college.”
     
    He has no explanation for why that might be the case.
     
    “I have no idea. It was like that in high school and it was like that in college. I don’t know, that’s the weirdest thing.
     
    “When I was getting drafted, (scouts) were like, ‘so if you threw in relief, you could throw a couple miles per hour harder,’ and I’m like, ‘yeah!’ I figured it would be around the same. Definitely not going to tell them, ‘no’.”
     
    Whatever his role may be during the second half of the Kernels’ season, he’s been a major contributor to the Kernels’ success, so far, and his pitching coach recognizes that.
     
    “He’s been doing everything we ask,” Bonilla said. “He’s been a big glue to the middle innings right now.”
  25. Steven Buhr
    One of the things the Minnesota Twins and Cedar Rapids Kernels organizations have in common is an emphasis on community service and that commonality was on display Saturday morning on Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids.
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    Jared Wilson and Michael Theofanopoulos working in the bullpen with young pitchers

    After playing a night game on Friday night, Kernels hitting coach Tommy Watkins and several Kernels players were back at the ballpark by 8:30 the next morning to conduct a Youth Baseball Camp for well over a hundred boys and girls.
     
    (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)
     
    There was a signup sheet in the Kernels' clubhouse with nine lines on it for volunteers to sign up to work the camp. Every line was filled and a couple additional players wrote their names in between the lines, giving Watkins a group of 11 ballplayers pitching in for the two-hour long camp, topped off with an autograph session.
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    Blake Schmit and Randy LeBlanc teaching campers proper fielding position

    Wandering around the field, it was really hard to tell who was having more fun, the kids or the players. Suffice to say there were a lot of smiles among the young players and the not-as-young.players.
     
    With kids as young as five years old, there was a bit of a "herding kittens" aspect to some of the groups, but each of the six stations that the campers rotated between worked on specific aspects of the game of baseball.
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    Zach Tillery with instructions for campers on proper grip and form

    In the indoor batting cage, pitcher Cameron Booser and first baseman/ outfielder Trey Vavra gave kids a chance to hit in the cage.
     
    Out on the field, Catcher Brett Doe and pitcher John Curtiss worked with kids on coming off the mound to field bunts and throw toward first base.
     
    Down in the Kernels' bullpen, Michael Theofanopoulos and Jared Wilson were working with pitching fundamentals.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/Booser-600x401.jpg
    Cam Booser gets a "pinky promise" from a young camper

    Out in right field, pitcher Zach Tillery was giving lessons on proper throwing technique.
     
    In center field, infielder TJ White and pitcher Trevor Hildenberger were teaching kids how to go back on fly balls hit over their heads.
     
    And over in left field, pitcher Randy LeBlanc and infielder Blake Schmit were teaching technique for fielding ground balls and making a throw.
     
    While the kids were learning the game from Kernels players, some of the Kernels staff gave parents an opportunity to take a tour of the stadium, from the suite and pressbox level down through the clubhouse and batting cage level.
     
    Many of those parents took the time afterward to thank Kernels staff and players for giving their kids this opportunity.
     
    Kernels General Manager Scott Wilson was also appreciative of the time put in by Watkins and the players.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/WhiteHildenberger2-600x400.jpg
    TJ White and Trevor Hildenberger working with a group of outfielders

    "You've got to think about, these guys played last night and get out of bed and be here by 8:30 to do this camp," WIlson pointed out. "Then they're probably going to go in the locker room, take a nap on the couch and then at 2:00 get back up and report for baseball and then do their jobs."
     
    The Kernels have a long tradition of community outreach and the camps are just one example. They also sponsor a summer reading program that involves Kernels players going out in to the elementary schools to read to kids and encourage them to read on their own over the summer.
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    Cam Booser and Trey Vavra talking baseball with campers in the indoor batting cage

    The Youth Camp has long been a popular program
     
    "I would say we've probably been doing this camp for about ten or twelve years," Wilson said. "It's gone through a lot of changes. We used to do a two-day camp that was four hours at a time - much more kind of intense. But with 137 participants that we had today, that's hard to try to keep focus and attention spans.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/DoeCurtiss-600x400.jpg
    Brett Doe and John Curtiss getting organized with some campers on the mound

    "The way that Tommy runs it now, I love it, because everybody rotates to little different things."
     
    Nobody is going to become a big league ballplayer just by attending the Kernel's two-hour camp, of course. But that's not really the point.
     
    The Kernels want to provide an enjoyable and affordable opportunity for some of the youngest fans in the local area to share a field with real professional ballplayers. Each camper also gets a Kernels cap and a voucher for a free ticket to a Kernels game, in addition to getting autographs from the players once the camp wraps up at the end of the morning.
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    Kernels hitting coach Tommy Watkins was directing things at the camp but pitched in with the workout stations, too

    "Although you might think that they're not getting a lot of individual instruction, it's an affordable $15 camp," Wilson pointed out. "You're getting a ball cap, you're getting a ticket and they get to spend some time with some guys and see the drills that they do on a daily basis.
     
    As Wilson went on to explain, it's very possible that some of the young ballplayers have already had a chance to meet a few of these players.
    http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/KernelsAuotgraphs-600x400.jpg
    Kernels players signing autographs after the camp wrapped up

    "All of these (players) have been involved, too, in our schools program for us. These kids probably saw them at the reading program and now they get to shake their hand, get an autograph and play catch in their world with them, even if it's just throwing the ball to them one time."
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