Steven Buhr

Actually, 81 games was a couple of weeks after the MWL All-Star break. They play 140-game seasons (actually, two 70-game "half-seasons") in the MWL. Trout got promoted to A+ a couple of weeks in to the second half. Likewise, a suggestion to send Buxton to AA for "3+ months" would mean doing so by Memorial Day, since minor league schedules wrap up at the end of August. No way the Twins would or should do that with any player, even Buxton, imo.

Picking nits, but there was a late official scoring change in the CR game that resulted in all 3 runs off of Tyler Jones being earned. A rocket off of Harrison's glove was originally scored E5 and well after the game ended changed to a single. As a result, all runs off of Jones were earned, even though the hit came after Jones had left the game. That's just one example of why this was one of the stranger games I've been to in a while. The Kernels batted around in the 7th inning, scoring 5 runs... on no hits. (4 straight walks and a couple of infield errors can do that to you.) Oh, and Byron Buxton is good at baseball. I still think the Twins will likely leave him in CR for a couple of months... but I'm less certain every day. If you really want to see him play in CR, don't wait too long.

Nice piece of writing. Shucks, it was "the bees' knees." Thanks... but don't call me "Shucks." HE'S Shucks... Mr. Shucks:

Bad, I know... it was just too easy

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

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

If Fort Myers needs an outfielder already, I think it's much more likely the Twins would send up Williams or Leachman, both of which are in their second season in the MWL, than rush Buxton up.

New Britain won 17-1 tonight (Apr 18) and James was right in the middle of things. He went 3 for 3 (all singles) with 3 walks and 3 runs scored. And as long as we're in a mood for threes, he also stole his 3rd base of the season. His total number of stolen bases last year? Yep... 3 (he was also caught stealing 3 times last year; he hasn't been caught stealing yet in 2013). Wouldn't it be cool if he was now hitting .333? But no... he's up to .364 on the year.

Ironically, given the weather situation the Kernels have dealt with, it's quite possible Berrios ended up throwing more innings in EST the past two weeks than he would have for the Kernels. Of course, the weather in EST was a bit warmer (and that's no small consideration, I imagine).

The Kernels and Twins officially announced this morning that Berrios is joining the Kernels from EST and Josue Montanez is returning back to EST. In addition, Drew Leachman has been reactivated from the DL and P Matt Tomshaw has been placed on the DL. Story link below from Kernels.com: Jose Berrios joins Kernels from Extended | Cedar Rapids Kernels News This returns the Kernels roster to a mix of 13 position players and 12 pitchers. (Montanez had originally replaced Leachman when the latter went on the DL after the Opening Day game.)

Looks like the forecast for today and tonight in Peoria isn't much better than it has been in CR. Friday and Saturday look more optimistic for the Kernels playing some baseball, though. Speculation is that Berrios will get a bullpen session in tonight and then his first start for the Kernels on Saturday (perhaps as part of a doubleheader if tonight's game gets washed out?). No official word on a corresponding roster move, but you'd imagine Josue Montanez, who came up to take Drew Leachman's spot when he got injured, might go back to EST. Leachman should be coming off the DL any time now, too, so that would require another spot to be cleared for his return.

Kernels game officially cancelled

Lee and pitching coach Gary Lucas were both pleased with his two-seem fastball last night. On Monday, the Rattlers ripped CR pitching when they went inside. Lee kept his fastball away. He ended up with something like 10 ground outs and I want to say just 3 or so fly ball outs. In fact, I think through about 4 innings every out was a K or GO. Lee also thought his changeup was working very well. He topped out about 89 on the stadium radar gun (on a cold damp night), but at this point, I'm not sure how reliable that reading is. Historically, we've been told it's about 2 mph slow, but this week we heard of scouts saying the Wisconsin pitcher's readings Monday night (up to 99 mph on the board) were faster than anything the scouts were getting on their guns. So who knows? With Berrios arriving, you kind of figure Lee may head to the bullpen. Over the course of a full-season summer, though, a lot of guys will see time in both roles and I expect he will be one of those guys.

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It is. In fact, Drew Leachman, who went on the DL after banging up his shoulder Opening Day, should be ready to play by now, too. Josue Montanez, who was called up from EST to take Leachman's spot on the roster and give Jake Mauer an extra pitcher, would probably be a candidate to head back to EST. Berrios' arrival would likely push Brett Lee back to a bullpen role. While he certainly demonstrated last night that he's capable of being a starter, he's still probably considered the "6th starter" in the rotation.

Woke up to thunderstorms in Cedar Rapids this morning. Apparently they're going to stick around all day and, if anything, intensify by tonight. After seven games in the past four days, it looks like the Kernels will get another weather-day before hitting the road for Peoria. CR and Wisconsin are not scheduled to play again in the first half of the season so it's unlikely the game would be made up. That would leave both the Kernels and Timber Rattlers two games short of a full schedule in the first half of the season.

James Beresford is a 24 year old middle infielder for the New Britain Rock Cats, out of Glen Waverly, Australia. The lefthanded hitting Beresford is listed at 6' 1" and just 170 pounds, but reports are that he put on some bulk this past offseason and may be playing closer to 185 pounds this summer. In 2012, Beresford split time pretty evenly between SS and 2B and so far in 2013, he's been primarily playing 2B for New Britain. After notching just two hits in his first five games of the season, James has gone on a tear the past three games, going 7 for 12 with a pair of doubles and his first two RBI of the year. The hot streak has him hitting .321. James scored the winning run Tuesday night on a wild pitch.

After having four straight games postponed by weather last week, the Cedar Rapids Kernels found themselves playing a lot of baseball in just a few days' time. The Kernels played back-to-back doubleheaders in Clinton on Saturday and Sunday. Midwest League rules prohibit a team from playing doubleheaders on three straight days, so they played a single game against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Monday night, despite having two games in Wisconsin postponed a week ago. Tuesday night, it was another pair of games. That's a lot of games to find pitching for. Manager Jake Mauer had planned to use a six-man rotation, but with postponements resulting in seven games being scheduled over the course of just four days, he and pitching coach Gary Lucas could have found themselves a couple of starting pitchers short. It could have been a recipe for disaster. There was one disaster among those games but, ironically, the disaster came on the one night that only one game was scheduled. Monday night, the Kernels got what Mauer called, "an old fashioned (butt) kicking." The Kernels dropped that game to Wisconsin 14-2. But the Kernels had swept Saturday's doubleheader in Clinton, split the Sunday twinbill with the Lumber Kings and wrapped up the seven-game stretch with a doubleheader sweep of the Timber Rattlers Tuesday night. After all of that, the Kernels found themselves a half-game ahead of Quad Cities atop the MWL Western Division standings. Byron Buxton also sits atop the League, among its hitters, with a .474 batting average, a .556 on-base percentage and a 1.292 OPS. He has to settle for just the second-highest slugging percentage (.737) in the league. Buxton sat out the first game of Tuesday's doubleheader after taking a pitch off of his upper forearm in Monday night's loss. But he came back to get three hits (two of them in the Kernels' eight-run first inning) during the nightcap. Buxton's not the only Kernels hitter off to a hot start. In fact, Dalton Hicks was named the MWL's first Player of the Week for 2013. Hicks' slash line is .341/.426/.732 for an OPS of 1.157, good enough for third in the league through Tuesday's games. Hicks is also one of five MWL hitters leading the league in home runs, with three, and has also hit a MWL-leading seven doubles. Jorge Polanco has contributed a .317/.349/.463 line, with one home run and three doubles. As a team, the Kernels lead the MWL with a .759 OPS and have hit nine home runs. Not to be outdone, the pitching staff is also leading the MWL with a 2.56 ERA (though they do have to share that honor with the South Bend staff). That six-man rotation Mauer talked about before the season started hadn't exactly worked out the way he expected. The sixth man in that rotation, Brett Lee, didn't get his first start until the first game of Tuesday night's doubleheader. Until then, he'd been limited to a couple of one-inning "stay sharp" relief appearances. Lee came through big time, though. He threw six innings of shutout ball. Steven Gruver, who found out earlier in the day Tuesday that he would become the "seventh starter" in the Kernels rotation, likewise came through for the Kernels, throwing four shutout innings in Game 2 Tuesday. Tyler Jones and Tim Atherton pitched equally well in relief roles. Jones got his second save with an inning of shutout work in Game 1 and Atherton threw three innings, giving up a single run on two hits, to earn the "W" in Game 2. All told, in the 14 innings of work Tuesday night, the four Kernels pitchers struck out 12 Timber Rattlers and walked exactly zero hitters. How could things get any better? Well, we may be about to find out. The Cedar Rapids Gazette's Kernels beat reporter, Jeff Johnson, tweeted late Tuesday that Jose Berrios is expected to join the Kernels from Extended Spring Training on Thursday. If so, Berrios would likely meet the Kernels in Peoria for the beginning of a week-long road trip.

After having four straight games postponed by weather last week, the Cedar Rapids Kernels found themselves playing a lot of baseball in just a few days' time. The Kernels played back-to-back doubleheaders in Clinton on Saturday and Sunday. Midwest League rules prohibit a team from playing doubleheaders on three straight days, so they played a single game against the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers Monday night, despite having two games in Wisconsin postponed a week ago. Tuesday night, it was another pair of games. That's a lot of games to find pitching for. Manager Jake Mauer had planned to use a six-man rotation, but with postponements resulting in seven games being scheduled over the course of just four days, he and pitching coach Gary Lucas could have found themselves a couple of starting pitchers short. It could have been a recipe for disaster. There was one disaster among those games but, ironically, the disaster came on the one night that only one game was scheduled. Monday night, the Kernels got what Mauer called, "an old fashioned (butt) kicking." The Kernels dropped that game to Wisconsin 14-2. But the Kernels had swept Saturday's doubleheader in Clinton, split the Sunday twinbill with the Lumber Kings and wrapped up the seven-game stretch with a doubleheader sweep of the Timber Rattlers Tuesday night. After all of that, the Kernels found themselves a half-game ahead of Quad Cities atop the MWL Western Division standings. Byron Buxton also sits atop the League, among its hitters, with a .474 batting average, a .556 on-base percentage and a 1.292 OPS. He has to settle for just the second-highest slugging percentage (.737) in the league. Buxton sat out the first game of Tuesday's doubleheader after taking a pitch off of his upper forearm in Monday night's loss. But he came back to get three hits (two of them in the Kernels' eight-run first inning) during the nightcap. Buxton's not the only Kernels hitter off to a hot start. In fact, Dalton Hicks was named the MWL's first Player of the Week for 2013. Hicks' slash line is .341/.426/.732 for an OPS of 1.157, good enough for third in the league through Tuesday's games. Hicks is also one of five MWL hitters leading the league in home runs, with three, and has also hit a MWL-leading seven doubles. Jorge Polanco has contributed a .317/.349/.463 line, with one home run and three doubles. As a team, the Kernels lead the MWL with a .759 OPS and have hit nine home runs. Not to be outdone, the pitching staff is also leading the MWL with a 2.56 ERA (though they do have to share that honor with the South Bend staff). That six-man rotation Mauer talked about before the season started hadn't exactly worked out the way he expected. The sixth man in that rotation, Brett Lee, didn't get his first start until the first game of Tuesday night's doubleheader. Until then, he'd been limited to a couple of one-inning "stay sharp" relief appearances. Lee came through big time, though. He threw six innings of shutout ball. Steven Gruver, who found out earlier in the day Tuesday that he would become the "seventh starter" in the Kernels rotation, likewise came through for the Kernels, throwing four shutout innings in Game 2 Tuesday. Tyler Jones and Tim Atherton pitched equally well in relief roles. Jones got his second save with an inning of shutout work in Game 1 and Atherton threw three innings, giving up a single run on two hits, to earn the "W" in Game 2. All told, in the 14 innings of work Tuesday night, the four Kernels pitchers struck out 12 Timber Rattlers and walked exactly zero hitters. How could things get any better? Well, we may be about to find out. The Cedar Rapids Gazette's Kernels beat reporter, Jeff Johnson, tweeted late Tuesday that Jose Berrios is expected to join the Kernels from Extended Spring Training on Thursday. If so, Berrios would likely meet the Kernels in Peoria for the beginning of a week-long road trip.

Steven Gruver now listed as Game 2 starting pitcher for the Kernels tonight.

I'll stick with my 2012 adoptee, James Beresford.

I believe there is historically very little movement of AAA affiliations. Last fall, I think it essentially came down to the Twins either getting Rochester to sign on for 2 more years or ending up in Las Vegas, which, by most accounts, is just about the last place you want as your AAA affiliate. Rochester re-signed with the Twins not so much because they love being a Twins affiliate, but because they, too, had no better options. Those running minor league teams understand their roles as developers of talent. But they also have to at least break even financially and that means they need a product to market to fans. So, yes, fielding a competitive team matters. It also wouldn't hurt to have players in the minors become accustomed to winning so they aren't satisfied with less when they reach Minnesota.