It’s another early-afternoon game north of the border.
But the big Twins news since Saturday’s game is that Glen Perkins will be joining Joe Mauer at the MLB All-Star Game next week. Perkins was named to the team by manager Jim Leyland to replace White Sox pitcher (and former Twin) Jesse Crain.
Mauer, from St. Paul, and Perkins, from Stillwater, have known one another since Little League and now they’re going to the Big Apple to play in the Big League All-Star Game. How can these players possibly describe that?
“It’s an awesome deal,” said Mauer.
“It’s pretty neat,” said Perkins.
Are these guys from Minnesota or what?
OK, so those aren’t the ONLY words the players used to describe their feelings, but I think those excerpts pretty much said it all in perfectly concise Minnesotan language.
It will be fun to see the two friends represent the Twins at Citi Field in New York. It will also be fun to see some other former Twins, such as Michael Cuddyer and Carlos Gomez, participate in the game.
But, for now, we’ve got this little matter of the Blue Jays. Scott Diamond is on the hill for the Twins.
I won’t be around to join the chat today. My family tells me there’s a birthday in the family this week, so we’re getting together to celebrate that this afternoon. – JC
I have no idea what happened in this game beyond what I see in the boxscore. Diamond wasn’t good. His relief wasn’t any better (at least until Casey Fien finished up in the 9th) and Justin Morneau was pulled for a pinch-hitter in the 8th inning. Not sure what that’s all about. – JC
and this time we are facing one of my favorites.. RA Dickey!
I don’t begrudge this man one bit of the success he has achieved since he left our team and still wish we’d kept him around. I think he doesn’t really miss us all that much though. I’m just hoping we can figure out how to do more hitting today than we did yesterday – and THEN actually get RUNS once we have those base-runners!!
That’s not too much to ask is it? I mean, hitting is fun but RUNS are so much more exciting if you ask me. And I REALLY wouldn’t argue with breaking the losing streak.. Sorry RA, as much as I like you, I still would rather win the game. 😉
Woohooo!!! The losing streak is OVER! And with a shutout no less!
I am pretty sure that Gardy should have some smiles on his team now! Let’s hope the boys remember how much fun this is and keep it up for a bit. Clearly they weren’t having much issue with the knuckleball (sorry Dickey) – especially Dozier & Parmelee. But additionally, Pelfrey did quite well for himself in his return from the DL. Let’s hope that he can keep it up as well!
Arcia left the game after getting a knuckleball to the hand – they do tend to move about in unexpected ways. Reportedly it’s just a bruise.
But to recognize some really nice performances today, we are awarding both Parmelee and Pelfrey our heartiest congratulations and some lovely Canadian beer to toast each others’ efforts to get the Twins back on track today! The boys in uniform aren’t the only ones that need to remember this is a game and we should be smiling more just because it’s baseball. But thanks for the reminder of why we like this sport!
The big prize goes to Brian Dozier with some SERIOUS offensive totals today including a BEAUTIFUL homerun! I really like how he’s settling into 2B and the top of the order.
Whatever Canada.. you have your own thing going I guess. I’m pretty easy to please because I took the motorcycle to work today and even WORKING today didn’t bug me because I’m in such a good mood. But I will admit that a Twins win could IMPROVE that mood – especially since I sat through yesterday’s Yankees series final. Just sayin…
I’m going to miss the start of the game since I’m flying solo at home today and the puppy needs a walk. But I’ll catch up with you as soon as we get back!
There were some good moments in the game though and Florimon is getting better and better defensively. Granted, he set a pretty low bar to exceed early on but he is making some really great moves upon occasion!
Cedar Rapids Kernels hitting coach Tommy Watkins knows his way around a minor league field, having spent parts of 11 seasons as a player in the Minnesota Twins minor league system. Toward the end of the 2007 season, he got to live the dream of every player who ever put on a minor league uniform when he was called up to the Big Leagues by the Twins.
Tommy Watkins hitting ground balls to third baseman Travis Harrison
Since 2009, Watkins has been coaching in the Twins minor league organization and this season is his fourth as the hitting coach for the Twins’ Class A affiliate in the Midwest League (the first three coming with the Twins’ then-affiliate, the Beloit Snappers).
Watkins recently sat down and talked about his role with the Kernels and more.
Jim Crikket: This is the first year in Cedar Rapids for you and the team after spending a few years in Beloit. How do you feel things are going here?
Tommy Watkins: Things are going great here. The people are amazing, just like the people in Beloit were pretty amazing. But things have jumped off here pretty well.
The facility is one of the best in the league, especially in our division. In the other division, you’ve got a lot of the newer parks, but we’ve got one of the best parks in our division and we get a lot of Twins fans, which is fun.
For me, the (batting) cage is right outside the clubhouse so if the guys want to get some extra work, we can go right out and get right to it. It’s been fun.
JC: Describe the work you do as the hitting coach. I’ve been told the organization puts a plan together for all the players in the minor leagues. How do you go about implementing that plan with the hitters?
Watkins: Everybody’s different. We have a hit plan that we stick to throughout the organization, but each guy is different with the drills they like to do or things they need to work on. So, like I said, we’ve got a hit plan over the whole minor leagues. Bill Springman (Twins Minor League Hitting Coordinator) put that together for everybody. And then we go through and we get individual hit plans for each guy.
JC: That sounds like a lot of work.
Watkins: It’s a lot of work, but I’m only dealing with twelve or thirteen guys at a time, so it’s not too bad.
JC: I understand the Twins have implemented some kind of “balance” program for the players in Cedar Rapids and Fort Myers. A program Jim Dwyer (the hitting coach for the Fort Myers Miracle, the next level up the Twins organizational chain) recommended. How’s that going?
Watkins: I think it’s good. The guys all take it pretty serious. I just think it’s training your brain. Just like we go out and take BP every day, they get on that balance board to train their brain. It helps with a lot of things, concentration being one of them I think, for me. I’ve even heard a couple guys talk about getting on it to help their golf game to focus and train your brain.
Jimmy (Dwyer), he got in to it big time last year. Just to see the guys do those exercises, he saw a change in their on-field stuff. It’s just like anything, you’ve got to train your body and you’ve got to use your brain to play and I think it helps you focus more.
We’ve even had guys in the dugout doing it during Batting Practice.
JC: I’ve heard that you sometimes serve as a translator for some of the guys from Latin America. I’d think it must be tough as a coach to communicate with players that don’t speak English. Are you bilingual?
Kernels Hitting Coach Tommy Watkins
Watkins: I like to call it Spanglish. It’s not really Spanish. It’s English mixed with Spanish. All of our guys speak (English) enough. The Twins do a good job of giving the guys classes during spring training and instructional league.
I went down to the Dominican and we had an English teacher down there. So, the Twins do a really good job of trying to help these guys learn English. I think it’s a big part of development and making it to the Big Leagues is learning how to speak the language.
The Twins gave me Rosetta Stone in Spanish. I’ll use it on the bus. It’s pretty good. But I think you learn a lot more by actually dealing with people and talking to people.
JC: During a game, fans can see you motioning to players in the field, moving them around some. Do you have particular in-game responsibilities?
Watkins: I think me and Jake (manager Jake Mauer), we work together on moving the defense around, depending on the batter, depending on the pitcher. We keep a book on what they (opponents) do, so it kind of helps us plan for how we play them defensively. That’s one of the things I do with defense.
When it’s late in a game, we’ll play a guy back in “no doubles,” I’ll let them know that. Or throwing the ball to the cutoff man or whatnot. Just those kind of details.
Hitting wise, I just try to watch their at-bats and see if I can help them out with anything. With approach or maybe a swing they took. A lot of times just trying to see what they were thinking and just get some feedback from them.
The guys are good to work with, all of them. We just talk a lot about approach. I ask them what they see and tell them what I see and try to fix whatever it may be.
JC: Do you get video of your hitters’ at-bats to review with them?
Watkins: We get video of a couple guys every night. Maybe we’ve got a lefty pitching (against us) and we’ll get all the right handed hitters that day. We’ll put it on the video and guys can go back there and take a look at it, analyze it. I have my iPad and sometimes I like to get video on that. They’ve got the video any time they need it. I think they also send it out within the organization so they can see it, too.
JC: You made it to the Major Leagues for a bit as a player with the Twins. Now you’re in your next career as a coach. Is it your goal to work your way back up to that level?
Watkins: I love the coaching part of it and coaching in the Big Leagues is a goal of mine. That’s what I want to shoot for, whether it be managing, coaching third base, first base, whatever it may be. I would love to have a chance to get up there and coach in the Big Leagues.
JC: Just as an observer, the guys seem to really like working with you. It’s got to be easier to coach a guy that you have some sort of rapport with.
Watkins: Yeah it is. We’ve got a bunch of good guys on the team and they get along with each other just as well as they get along with the staff.
JC: They see how you turned Byron Buxton from a nobody in to a prospect like that. It really gives you instant credibility, right? (question posed with a smile and tongue firmly in cheek)
Watkins: (Laughing) Yeah, yeah, right.
JC: That has to give your resume a pretty good shot. “I was Byron Buxton’s hitting coach.”
Watkins: I thank him. He might be able to help me out a lot!
No, but Buxton’s got tremendous talent, as everyone can see. You know, I just tried not to mess him up. When he left, I was like “alright, good.” I was joking with Jim, “hey, Dwyer, don’t mess him up.”
He was a fun guy to watch, man. Easy to coach. You’d suggest something to him, he’d listen and try to work on it. What was good about him was that he could apply it.
A couple times, he’d go 0 for 2 and he’d say, “what am I doing?” I’d say, “you’re alright, you’re OK.” Then the next two he’d hit right up the middle by the pitcher.
I just try to keep all the guys happy and just try to make them feel comfortable. I think that’s the biggest thing. Being comfortable, confident and just trusting in your ability.
There’s a part of me that hopes all of you have something better to do on this holiday than hang out on your computer and chat online about the Twins game with the Yankees, but we’re going to open up the GameChat, just in case.
Babs and Eric are, I believe, planning on attending the game in person. My plans are a bit uncertain at the moment, but there’s a pretty good chance they include spending at least a little bit of time at the ballpark in Cedar Rapids. Game time here isn’t until 5:00 though and it’s looking like a sell-out, so I may have to find a hole in the fence to sneak in through.
Here’s today’s lineup as the Twins try, once again, to win at least one lousy game from the Yankees. Oswaldo Arcia has moved in to the number 3 spot in Ron Gardehire’s batting order. That’s interesting.
Cedar Rapids Kernels middle infielder Niko Goodrum was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the second round of the 2010 First Year Player Draft and spent the past two years playing for the Twins short season rookie league team in Elizabethton.
Niko Goodrum
The 21 year old switch-hitter from Georgia got off to a good start with the Kernels, most often batting second in Manager Jake Mauer’s batting order, behind lead off hitter Byron Buxton. He was named to the Midwest League’s Western Division All-Star team.
On June 2, Goodrum collided with Kane County catcher Willson Contreras and came away with a concussion that sidelined him on the team’s Disabled List right up until the final day of the first half of the Midwest League season on June 16. His activation that day allowed him to participate in the MWL All-Star Game on June 18.
A few days ago, Goodrum talked about his season, so far, his injury and a number of other topics.
Jim Crikket: You’ve now played in about the same number of games you played in an entire year of rookie league ball. Have you been able to tell a difference in the full season of a Midwest League season, compared to the short season rookie leagues?
Niko Goodrum: You’ve got more games and if you’re in a slump, there’s no way to stretch it out (in short season). So that’s better. Body wise, there’s more on your body in a full season, but I don’t really feel a big difference between the rookie ball and the full season. They say it’s a big jump, but my body’s holding up well.
JC: You got of to a pretty good start to this season and then you had the issue over in Kane County. Exactly what happened there?
Goodrum: I was on first base and stole second base. Jorge Polanco was up and hit a line drive to left field. Jake (Manager Jake Mauer) rounded me around third base so I’m headed home. But then the catcher was up the line so it was either just stop or, if I try to slide, he’d probably end up dogging me or something. My first reaction was try to run him over. He kind of punched me in my chin. I don’t remember contact at all. I didn’t feel anything. I was down. I woke up and I was just strapped on to a cart.
JC: How long after that did it take before you felt like you could be playing?
Goodrum: I had headaches for probably three days after I had the concussion. But after that, when I started back to activities, I felt like “I’m ready to play,” but it was just a long process they had to do with concussions. Sending paperwork up to Minnesota and MLB so they can clear it, so it was a long process but I felt like I could play after the headaches went away. I felt ready to go.
JC: I recall you were hoping to get cleared a day or two earlier than it actually happened.
Goodrum: They told me I was going to be cleared on Saturday so we were just waiting for Saturday to come and then they told me they didn’t hear anything back from them. Then once the game finally started, that’s when they ended up telling them I’m cleared to play. So I ended up getting cleared for Sunday.
JC: The team struggled a bit while you were out of the line up. That had to be kind of tough to sit and watch while the lead in the standings dropped from five games, four games and so on. And there was nothing you could do about it.
Niko Goodrum
Goodrum: Yeah, it was. It was tough watching and knowing I can’t do anything to help them. Not even a chance I could get in to maybe play defense or pinch hit or run or something. There was nothing. So it was tough watching and seeing my team go down like that.
JC: Tell me about the All-Star Game experience. That must have been a good time.
Goodrum: It was fun. Being around guys from other teams. The atmosphere. The home run derby was fun, watching that. Playing in front of ten thousand people was fun. Just the atmosphere. It was just great, a great time, I had a good time, yeah.
JC: With Byron Buxton’s promotion, your role has changed perhaps a little bit. You’ve had some opportunities to bat lead off. Do you take a different approach when you lead off or do you just try to get on base?
Goodrum: Yeah, just get on base. That’s all I’m worried about is trying to get on base.
JC: I know your father was in Cedar Rapids early in April. Has your family been back up to see you play? How do they follow how you’re doing with the Kernels?
Goodrum: Most of my family does it online, they look at the game play-by-play online. All my family came up to the All-Star Game to see me play.
My dad hasn’t been back up yet, but my mom and my brother and my girlfriend, they came up to CR to see me play. They’ve been up here a couple times.
JC: Tell me about your hobbies and interests off the field. What do you like to do away from the ballpark?
Niko Goodrum
Goodrum: Sometimes I play video games, go to movies. Chill. I’m pretty much at Tyler Grimes’ house, me and JD (Williams) are pretty much over there hanging out. But we don’t really do too much.
JC: You’ve been in Cedar Rapids for over three months now. What’s been the best part of the Cedar Rapids experience so far?
Goodrum: New city, it’s always fun playing in front of new fans. It’s a great field, great stadium. A great coaching staff, so it’s always good.Overall, it’s a big jump from Elizabethton, city-wise, so all around, it’s good.
JC: Have you set any specific personal or team goals for the rest of the year?
I wish I felt better about the Twins’ chances of avoiding being swept out of their own ballpark by the Yankees this week, with PJ Walters going up against Captain Cheeseburger, CC Sabathia.
Josh Willingham had knee surgery, so we won’t be seeing him back until at least mid-August some time.
Finally, I have to agree with our friend YankeeFan (see the comment section from the GameChat for game 2 of this series), I loved the creativity the Twins showed in coming up with their retirement gift for Mariano Rivera… a “rocking chair of broken dreams,” made out of broken bats.
(photo: Jim Mone/Associated Press)
Ok, whether we want to or not, it’s time to move on to tonight’s game. – JC
The big news out of the Twins today was that Josh Willingham has been added to the 15-day Disabled List with a bum knee, and that youngster Aaron Hicks has been reinstated from his rehab stint in Triple-A to fill Hammer’s roster spot. Hicks is starting in centerfield and hitting 8th tonight, but don’t worry Twins fans, Clete Thomas is still available off the bench.
Well, that went about how Twins/Yankees games go. The Twins perform well for a while, and then they get Yankee’d. Twins will need to win back to back games now just to earn a split. Good luck, Twinkies!
Minnesota Twins super-prospect Byron Buxton led the Cedar Rapids Kernels through a pretty amazing first half of their Midwest League season. They led the league’s West Division almost from wire to wire.
Almost.
But on Sunday, June 16, the Kernels gave up a late lead to the Peoria Chiefs and sealed their fate as the Division Runner-Up.
That was the last day that Buxton wore his Kernels home whites on Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium.
After returning from the MWL All-Star Game, Buxton boarded the team bus for the trip to Wisconsin. There, the team swept a four-game series with the Timber Rattlers and did so under the watchful eye of Twins General Manager Terry Ryan.
On that same bus, during the trip home to Cedar Rapids, Kernels Manager Jake Mauer got a phone call from the Twins front office and then told Byron Buxton he was being promoted to the Fort Myers Miracle.
You could understand if the Kernels, without the statistical leader of their offense, had needed to take a step back and regroup. Nobody would have been surprised if they had lost a few games as they searched for a new leadoff hitter and a new center fielder. After all, you can’t just replace a guy who many consider perhaps the top minor league prospect in baseball.
What the Kernels have done instead, however, is continue winning.
Since Buxton’s promotion, the Kernels have swept a four-game series with the Burlington Bees and a three-game series over the Peoria Chiefs. Heading in to Tuesday night’s game at Beloit, the Kernels are 11-0 in the second half of their MWL season.
Yes, it has been an eventful couple of weeks since that gut-wrenching meltdown during the final series of the season’s first half.
Max Kepler gets a secondary lead off first base
It certainly didn’t hurt that the Kernels finally welcomed outfielder Max Kepler to the roster to start the second half of the season.
Kepler, another of the Twins’ top prospects, had been slated to open the season with the Kernels but an elbow strain in March kept him in Fort Myers for extended spring training.
Kepler has only four singles in his 44 at-bats since joining the team. Then again, he also has five doubles, a triple and three home runs. That’s good enough for a .659 slugging percentage over an admittedly limited sample size.
The German native has also helped fill Buxton’s shoes defensively. He’s not likely to make the jaw-dropping defensive plays that Buxton seemed to make almost every other game in the outfield, but Kepler has the speed to cover plenty of outfield grass.
JD Williams
Niko Goodrum and JD Williams have both spent time filling Buxton’s shoes at the top of the Kernels’ batting order. Goodrum’s sporting a second-half on-base percentage (OBP) of .362, which isn’t bad, but check out Williams’ second half slash line: .462 BA/ .517 OBP/ .731 SLG/ 1.248 OPS.
Goodrum’s primary middle infield partner, Jorge Polanco, has hit .375 and put up an OPS of .969 since the All-Star break.
Dalton Hicks hasn’t homered yet in the second half, but he’s hitting .306 with five doubles.
Travis Harrison leads off third base
Travis Harrison has a pair of home runs and six doubles since his All-Star Game appearance. He’s hitting .371 and has a 1.214 OPS.
Adam Brett Walker has a pair of home runs, as well, to go with his .303 batting average.
The second half success hasn’t been limited to the hitters, either.
The next earned run that Tyler Jones or Steve Gruver give up will be the first an opponent has put up against the two bullpen arms. In fact, opponents have a grand total of one hit off the two pitchers, combined, since the All-Star break.
Jose Berrios has made just one start since the break, but he went seven innings in that start and struck out nine hitters without a single walk, while giving up just five hits.
Brett Lee has struck out 12 over the 13 innings that have comprised his two starts this half.
Christian Powell is sporting a 2-0 record and a 0.69 ERA over the 13 innings he’s thrown during his first two starts of the second half.
And just in case the Kernels players needed a reminder of what it is they’re putting in all this work for, they got a visit this week from Twins starting pitcher Mike Pelfrey, who drove down from the Twin Cities with his family to make a rehab start for the Kernels on Monday night.
Mike Pelfrey warms up in the bullpen before his rehab start in CR
The plan was for Pelfrey to work five innings or throw 75 pitches, whichever came first.
But after throwing just 54 pitches through five innings, Pelfrey went back to the mound for the sixth.
“We got there in the fourth and the fifth and they said, ‘hey you’re done.’ I said, ‘hey I want to go back out for one more.’ I was just starting to get the command of my fastball back, which is very important to have to succeed, obviously, at the Big League level.”
As Pelfrey freely admitted in an interview before the game, his season didn’t get off to the kind of start he and the Twins hoped it would. But, as Kernels pitching coach Gary Lucas said after the game, “It was fun to watch him. Man, what a pro. What a good pro he is,” said Lucas. “To see how he handled himself and how he interacted with the guys on the bench. Pretty cool.”
It was a pretty cool night for the Kernels organization and their fans, as well.
Mike Pelfrey addresses the CR media (including a scruffy looking blogger in a faded ballcap)
According to Kernels General Manager Doug Nelson, a typical Monday crowd at this point in the season is about 1,500 fans. The Kernels drew 2,246 to see Pelfrey pitch, with a sizable portion of that total coming from “walk up” ticket sales. That extra 746 fans may not seem like a lot to those accustomed to seeing Major League attendance totals, but that’s several thousand dollars of extra revenue that the Kernels wouldn’t have had if the Twins hadn’t sent Pelfrey to Cedar Rapids for his rehab start.
Nelson indicated before the game that the topic of rehabilitation assignments had come up last September when the Twins and Kernels were discussing a possible affiliation agreement. While the Twins made no specific promises, they did tell the Kernels that they were comfortable with the facility in Cedar Rapids from a player-safety standpoint and that rehab assignments here would be simply a matter of schedules and timing working out.
With Pelfrey’s appearance, the Twins have now equaled the total number of rehab assignments that the prior Kernels affiliate, the Angels, sent to Cedar Rapids during the entire 20-year relationship between that organization and the Kernels. Angels pitcher Ken Hill joined the Kernels for a rehab stint in 1998.
The Kernels ballboy and the home plate umpire might have had the toughest challenge getting through Pelfrey’s appearance.
Plate umpire and Kernels ballboy switch out MLB balls for MWL balls between innings
Pelfrey brought a supply of Major League baseballs with him to use in Cedar Rapids, which meant every half inning, the ballboy and plate umpire had to completely switch out the umpire’s supply of baseballs to allow Pelfrey to use Major League balls and the Peoria pitchers to use the Midwest League versions they are familiar with.
By winning their tenth straight game this past Sunday, the Kernels earned a free dinner from the team’s Board of Directors. By tradition, the Board treats the team to dinner at the Ox Yoke in the Amana Colonies whenever they reel off 10 straight wins. No date has been set yet, but it’s something the Kernels players are looking forward to.
That’s especially true of Kepler, the German native. The restaurant specializes in traditional German food, something Kepler said he hasn’t had in awhile.
While the team will have to wait for an evening they can fit a trip to the Amana Colonies in to their busy schedule to collect on that meal, they tasted the benefits of Pelfrey’s appearance immediately after the game.
According to Nelson, Pelfrey treated his temporary Kernels teammates to prime rib for their postgame meal in the clubhouse.
