May 2018 – Knuckleballs

Talking Hitting with “Dink”

Posted on 31 May, 2018 by Jim Crikket

When Brian Dinkelman hung up his spikes as a player after the 2013 season, a defensive shift with three infielders on one side of second base was still a relative novelty being employed occasionally by the Houston Astros and perhaps one or two other teams at the Major League level.

Brian Dinkelman talks hitting with Royce Lewis during batting practice. (Photo: SD Buhr)

Less than five years later, “Dink” is in his third season as the Cedar Rapids Kernels’ hitting coach and he and Kernels manager Toby Gardenhire are seeing the infield shift deployed several times on a nightly basis – both against their team’s hitters and by their own infielders.

The times, they are a changin’.

Any regular observer at Class A Midwest League games would likely tell you that the Quad Cities River Bandits probably employ shifts more than any other team in the league. It’s not a coincidence that Quad Cities is the Class A affiliate of the Astros.

The Seattle Mariners’ MWL affiliate, the Clinton Lumber Kings, on the other hand, play a comparatively normal infield alignment against virtually every opposing hitter.

The Kernels fall somewhere in the middle of those extremes, but the shift is something that has clearly been an increasingly apparent part of their defensive strategy over the course of Dinkelman’s tenure as the club’s hitting coach.

And that’s fine with him.

“I don’t think it’s a bad thing for baseball.” Dinkelman said in an interview during his club’s latest homestand, “Because teams are studying other teams and they’re playing the chances of where they think the hitter’s going to hit the ball, where his tendency to hit the ball is. Now, if that gives your team an advantage to play your players in that sort of position, then I’m all for it, because you’re looking for any advantage for your team to be better than the other team.”

It may just be part of the natural cycle of teams trying to find the best way to win a baseball game, but infield shifts certainly have given hitting coaches like Dinkelman one more thing to think about as they help the next generation of position players to achieve their big league dreams.

So far, though, it’s not causing a dramatic change in how he and the Twins are teaching the art of hitting a baseball.

“We’ve addressed it a little bit,” he said. “I don’t think we’re going to change the way that we approach it or our swing, to try to hit around the shift. Some guys just are not able to do that with their swing. I’d rather have a guy who can hit the ball hard and hit it right through the shift. Because if you hit the ball hard enough, you’re still going to be able to hit the ball through the shift, for the most part, most of the time.”

Lou Boudreau, as the manager of the Cleveland Indians, famously implemented the infield shift to try to contain Red Sox Hall of Fame slugger Ted Williams, but even Boudreau admitted later that his hope was that the shift would get into Williams’ head.

Whether or not that strategy worked against Williams is open to debate, but Dinkelman indicated that, as they’ve begun implementing the shift themselves, the Kernels have seen evidence that the mental aspect of facing the shift can’t be discounted.

“Where guys fall in trouble, and we’ve seen it even here at this level, is whenever they see a shift on, guys try to manipulate their swing to try to hit it where the guys aren’t and they end up making just weak contact or swinging and missing.

Brian Dinkelman and Toby Gardenhire (Photo by SD Buhr)

“Toby and I talked about that. You see (an opposing hitter) swing and he’s trying to shoot it the other way because he sees that everybody’s on (the other side of the infield) and that’s just not part of his swing and he can’t do that. So that’s kind of an advantage for us because he’s taking a swing that he doesn’t want to take.”

If that’s the case, would it make sense then to coach players to make that kind of swing a regular part of their game, in order to beat the shift? Are we on the verge of returning to the days where every hitter is coached to, “use the whole field?”

Not necessarily, but some attempt to broaden a player’s range is only logical, given the current defensive trends.

“There are still guys that use the whole field and there are still a handful of guys who are more one side of the field oriented,” Dinkelman explained. “If we can work on them to try to get them to use, say even the middle of the field, so it doesn’t have to just be all pull side. If they use the middle of the field, then their shift that (opponents are) playing against them won’t be as extreme and it’ll still open up a few more holes in the infield.”

And what about bunting? Bunting has become a favorite target for ridicule from some of the more ardent supporters of more statistical metrics-based strategies who argue that giving up an out almost never improves a team’s chances of scoring runs.

But would bunting more, especially into an almost open side of the infield, make bunting once again become a more important skill?

“I think it is,” Dinkelman agreed. “I think that bunting still needs to be used if it’s the right situation in the game. If a guy’s leading off an inning and you need a baserunner or two and they’re playing a shift on you, giving you the whole left side of the infield for a bunt, I’m all for that. Because if you start bunting, they’re going to have to make an adjustment (to their shift) if you keep getting hit after hit.”

It’s not a strategy that they’re going to encourage every hitter to employ, however.

“Now, if you’ve got a guy who is a complete home run threat, then I’ll probably want to let him go ahead and swing the bat. Because if he hits a home run, that’s one run for us, where if he bunts and just gets a single, it may not do us a whole lot of good.

“I think it depends on the player, but I think the bunt is still part of the game, if that’s part of your game, a way to get on base to help produce offense for our team, then I’m all for it.”

This season, the Twins have entrusted millions of dollars’ worth of highly regarded young hitting prospects, including successive first round picks Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff, to Dinkelman’s tutelage.

While Lewis, Kirilloff and infielder Jordan Gore have been producing at the plate with batting averages staying above .300 and only rare and short periods of anything that could be considered close to a slump, many of the other hitters in the lineup have been slower to come around.

After the Kernels’ 16-hit onslaught in their 15-4 win over Wisconsin on Wednesday, Cedar Rapids sports the fourth highest team batting average in the league. But taking away the stats of Lewis, Kirilloff and Gore, you’re left with a team batting average of just .234.

Granted, if you take away three .300+ stat lines from any team, the remaining team BA isn’t likely to be terribly strong.

Regardless, however, Dinkelman remains bullish on the rest of his offensive unit.

“They’re all making progress, they’re all learning the game,” he said.

“The thing with our roster is we’re so young. We work on things, work on approach and set up, stuff like that. Try to help get them through a daily routine of being a professional baseball player. But they’re coming along nicely.”

Nine of the 13 position players on the Cedar Rapids roster are 21 years old or younger and, even after Jacob Pearson’s 20^th birthday party on June 1, three will still be teenagers.

These guys weren’t facing 94 mph fastballs and 86 mph sliders from every pitcher who stepped out of an opponent’s bullpen before they put on a Kernels’ uniform for the first time. But that’s what they’re getting accustomed to seeing in today’s Midwest League.

“These guys are new to this league or to pro baseball, so it takes a little bit of adjustment to get used to it, but they’re coming along,” Dinkelman said. “We’re about two months in now, so I think they’re starting to get the feel or understanding of a daily routine and what they’re going to face daily from the opposing team.

“It’s not always about the numbers right now at this level, it’s more about your mindset and making progress and building that routine so as the season goes along or as the seasons go on, you have that to fall back on.”

Kernels: Will Offense Suffer As Prospects Move Up?

Posted on 23 May, 2018 by Jim Crikket

When this season was in its infancy, I had a lot of high expectations for the 2018 Cedar Rapids Kernels. I was not alone, of course, since the Kernels’ opening day roster was filled with big-bonus position players, highlighted by 2017’s first-overall draft pick, Royce Lewis, and the Twins’ 2016 first round pick, Alex Kirilloff.

Unlike some, though, I was freely effusive with my high expectations. I told more than one person that I felt the 2018 roster had the potential to be every bit as good as, if not better than, the Kernels’ class of 2013 that included Byron Buxton, Jorge Polanco, Max Kepler and a number of other very talented position players.

With Cedar Rapids sitting in fiftth place in the Midwest League’s Western Division last week, one of the people who had heard me express my early season optimism approached me during what was turning out to be a lopsided loss to Quad Cities and, in so many words, asked me, “what happened?”

It’s a fair question and I think I may have even surprised myself with my answer. I said I still believe what I said at the outset about this roster is true. There’s a lot of talent on the Cedar Rapids roster.

Like their big-league parent club, the Kernels have been treading water at or near the .500 mark. On the surface, that would seem inconsistent with having something I would have referred to (and did refer to) as a “loaded roster” to start the season.

Having two first round picks should be enough to keep just about any Class A roster at or above the .500 mark and that’s pretty much what Lewis and Kirilloff have done. After Wednesday’s win over Kane County, the Kernels’ record stands at 21 wins and 20 losses, good enough for fourth place in their Division, a game and a half behind Clinton, Peoria and Quad Cities, who are in a virtual three-way tie for the Division lead with about a month left in the season’s first half.

Under MWL rules, the top two teams in each division at the end of the first half of the season automatically qualify for the postseason, so the Kernels have just over four weeks to pass at least two of the teams ahead of them in the standings to clinch one of those automatic playoff spots.

With Kirilloff and Lewis both hitting above .300, it wouldn’t be at all surprising to hear that one or both is being promoted to the Ft. Myers Miracle at any time. If and when those promotions occur, the Kernels’ chances of qualifying for the postseason would obviously take a serious hit.

The two first-rounders have accounted for a disproportionate amount of Cedar Rapids’ offense. If you remove their hits and at-bats from the club’s totals, the Kernels would have a .231 team batting average, which would be just two points above the Great Lakes Loons, who currently rank 16^th among the 16 MWL members in team batting average.

Seven of the 12 current position players on the roster have batting averages below .234 and seven have an OPS below .700. Two players are hitting below .200 and have an OPS below .500.

So why would I remain bullish about the 2018 Kernels?

One of the by-products of having a roster of position players that have gotten off to a slow start is that not too many of them are going to be promoted to the next level any time soon. Outside of Kirilloff and Lewis, it’s hard to identify anyone among the current position players that one could honestly say has earned himself a shot at the next level.

And most of these guys are still very young.

Lewis is still 18 for a couple more weeks and Kirilloff is just 20, but they aren’t the only hitters still unable to legally buy a beer around here.

Catcher Ben Rortvedt and outfielder Jean Carlos Arias are each just 20 years old while infielder Jose Miranda and outfielder Akil Baddoo (recently placed on the Disabled List) are just 19. Newly arrived outfielder Jacob Pearson is also still 19, though just until his June 1 birthday.

Trey Cabbage, David Banuelos and Shane Carrier come in right at 21 years old.

Among the club’s position players, only Andrew Bechtold (22), Ben Rodriguez (23) and Jordan Gore (23) would likely be considered above the average age for this league.

And here’s the thing about MiLB leagues that split their seasons into two halves – often the teams that finish the season the strongest are those that have young talent that start slow enough that they don’t get promoted, leading to less than average turnover in their ranks. Those players often develop into a competitive unit by the end of the summer.

The Twins have a lot of bonus money tied up in this unit of position players and it would seem unlikely that they would release or demote a 19 or 20 year old ballplayer that they’ve invested heavily in just because he’s gotten off to a slow start in Cedar Rapids.

A year ago, the Twins sent 23 different position players to Cedar Rapids during the course of the season. Thus far, among the team’s hitters, only the 12 current position players plus Akil Baddoo (now on the Disabled List) and previously promoted outfielder Mark Contreras have suited up for Cedar Rapids.

It’s not difficult for me to envision a scenario where, even should Lewis and Kirilloff get their promotions, the rest of the current group of position players is largely left intact to develop together through most of the rest of the season.

Yes, it would have been a bonus to have Wander Javier in line to replace a promoted Lewis, but his season-ending labrum surgery means that won’t be happening. (Javier will still just be 20 years old when he likely makes his Kernels debut in 2019.)

Players that demonstrate they’re ready for new challenges get promoted. That’s what minor league ball is all about. Fans in Cedar Rapids have had a rare opportunity to watch two of the most promising young prospects in the Twins’ system play for the Kernels this spring and those players have certainly not disappointed. The result is that one or both could be promoted to the next level at any time.

While the rest of the everyday lineup have not been as productive with the bat as Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff so far, several of them have been picking up the offensive pace.

Jordan Gore has hit .371 in his last 10 games, Jean Carlos Arias his hit .324 over his most recent 10, Jose Miranda has hit .294 over the same stretch, while Akil Baddoo, Ben Rortvedt and Trey Cabbage have each hit .250 or better in their last 10 games for Cedar Rapids.

The “new guy,” Jacob Pearson, even had a pair of hits in his first game as a Kernel on Wednesday.

Minor league baseball is what it is, and that means players will come and go. But this group of Kernels hitters is not just a two-man unit. The lineup has offensive talent up and down the batting order and I think we’ll continue to see plenty of runs scored by the home team at Veterans Memorial Stadium this summer.

Kernels win over Clinton – Photos

Posted on 21 May, 2018 by Jim Crikket

Just a handful of action photos from the Cedar Rapids Kernels 6-1 win over the Clinton Lumber Kings on Sunday, May 20, 2018.

Jordan Gore slides into third base safely to complete a first-inning triple. (Photo by SD Buhr)

The camera bag was already packed up by the time Alex Kirilloff lined a home run to right field in the ninth inning, but here he’s lifting a sacrifice fly in the first inning, driving in Jordan Gore. (Photo by SD Buhr)

Andrew Bechtold with an easy throw to first base. (Photo by SD Buhr)

Brusdar Graterol turns to make an attempted pickoff throw to first base. (Photo by SD Buhr)

Shane Carrier lifts a sacrifice fly to right field, and then… (Photo by SD Buhr)

… Ben Rodriguez slides in safely under Clinton catcher Ryan Scott’s tag.on that Carrier sacrifice fly. (Photo by SD Buhr)

Jose Miranda catches a throw from Ben Rortvedt before tagging out a Lumber Kings runner attempting to steal second base. (Photo by SD Buhr)

Trey Cabbage gets a secondary lead off second base. (Photo by SD Buhr)

Conference on the mound between (L to R) pitching coach Cibney Bello, catcher Ben Rortvedt and pitcher Brusdar Graterol. (Photo by SD Buhr)

Andrew Bechtold slides into second base safely after the throw from Clinton catcher Ryan Scott sails into the outfield. (Photo by SD Buhr)

Updated Guide for the Out-of-Town Kernels Fan

Posted on 10 May, 2018 by Jim Crikket

A little over five years ago, as the Minnesota Twins were just beginning their era of affiliation with the Cedar Rapids Kernels, I posted an article here with some basic information about the Cedar Rapids area, for the benefit of fellow Twins fans who might be considering a trip to watch Byron Buxton and his friends play some baseball that summer.

Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium, home of the Cedar Rapids Kernels (Photo by SD Buhr)

I’ve been hearing from various contacts that the upcoming Memorial Weekend could see another significant influx of baseball fans visiting the area and, once again, I’ve been asked for some suggestions concerning what might be worth checking out (besides the baseball games, of course) while you’re in the area.

That being the case, I went back and re-read that 2013 article and it surprisingly held up pretty well, with a couple of possible exceptions.

My family and I don’t spend every Friday at Bushwood Sports Bar & Grill like we did back in 2013. It might be unkind to blame the arrival of grandkids into our lives for this, but facts are facts – we haven’t been as regular at Bushwood as we were before we were blessed to have Jack, Erik and Lily enter our lives. Still, I remain a regular at Bushwood and it remains my favorite before-or-after the game establishment.

I still don’t know much about what hotel you should stay at because I still don’t stay at hotels here. The DoubleTree Hilton, downtown on First Avenue (which is the main local artery through town), is definitely my first recommendation, if you can get a decent rate or if the rate isn’t all that important to you (in which case, Lucky You!).

But, if you are a member of another hotel chain’s frequent stay club, I’m sure you can find plenty of options where you can earn reward points (or use those points you already have built up).

One reason that the DoubleTree has risen to the top of my hotel recommendation list is that, since it re-opened following an extensive remodel job in 2013, a significant number of pretty good new independent local restaurants have opened up downtown within about a two block walk of the front of the DoubleTree.

So, assuming you want more than just my recommendation concerning Bushwood, here are a few options.

Downtown

I’ll use the DoubleTree Hotel as a reference point for directions, but Cedar Rapids has on-street parking downtown if you aren’t staying downtown. Also, there’s no charge for on-street parking after 6:00 PM week nights or any time on the weekends.

La Cantina (a block west of, and across the street from, the DoubleTree) is still my preferred Mexican restaurant in the area, though there are plenty of others that are good as well. I’m far from an expert on what constitutes “authentic” Mexican food, though, so take that into account. I almost always do the seafood enchiladas at La Cantina, along with a margarita or three.

If you walk out the front door of the DoubleTree and walk one block south on Third Street, you come to Second Avenue. There’s an area about a block to a block and a half long that has at least half a dozen restaurants and bars that are worth your while.

There are a couple that I haven’t tried yet, myself, but here are several that I have eaten at and I don’t hesitate to recommend each of them, depending on what you’re looking for.

Need Pizza is good. They have the usual pizzas, but also various more eclectic styles, including gluten free crusts and less common toppings like artichoke hearts, clams, mashed potatoes and vegan cheese. They also have a very lengthy craft beer list.

Rock Bar American Grill is in that same block. They have a hot beef sandwich I like on their lunch menu and I’m a fan of the Cajun chicken pasta on the dinner menu. They also have a mechanical bull, just in case you’re one of those people who have never done that, but always wanted to try.

Grin N Goose is one I just finally got around to trying for the first time in the past month. I had the Cajun grilled tenderloin. (Have you noticed yet that I have an affinity for Cajun food?) I always look for new menu items that sound interesting to me and I certainly found one here on their appetizer menu. The Man Candy is made up of eight strips of crisp bacon that have been treated with some sort of sugar/jalapeno coating. It’s really, really good (though undoubtedly NOT good for you), but also has a pretty solid kick to it.

Brick’s Pub is also on Second Avenue and is your basic sports bar with a good selection of craft beers.

The Quarter Barrel Arcade & Brewery is also on Second Avenue but a few blocks further east than the grouping of places listed above. Honestly, all I’ve ever had here was a couple of beers while I watched a Twins game, but I hear the pizza is good. The “gimmick” here is the large selection of old school arcade machines they have on site.

Dublin City Pub is an Irish restaurant on First Street that I’ve liked when I’ve been, though it has been a couple of years for me, I think. It’s maybe six or seven blocks from the DoubleTree.

There’s a downtown Farmers Market that, while I can’t give much of a personal reference, I’m told is generally well worth the time to visit and I believe that it opens for the first time this summer on Saturday morning of Memorial Weekend. It is just two blocks south of the DoubleTree at Third Avenue and Third Street.

NewBo (New Bohemia) and Czech Village Districts

These areas are 12 blocks south of the downtown DoubleTree, but there are a few places well worth checking out.

NewBo Market was one of my recommendations from the 2013 article. It’s kind of a smaller (and indoor) version of a farmers market with a lot of local vendors. The NewBo Market is at the intersection of Third Street SE and 12th Avenue SE.

Also at that same intersection, you’ll find three establishments to consider.

Parlor City Pub & Eatery is my favorite restaurant in the NewBo area. It has a good menu and a large craft beer selection. They also have live music.

Chrome Horse Saloon (South) is in the cement bank-looking building (it’s actually located in an old bank). I haven’t eaten at the Chrome Horse in several years, but it was a favorite of some of my staff members for department lunches back before the big 2008 flood. Then, it was located in the building across the street on the remaining corner of this intersection, where an establishment called Brewhemia now is located. I have not yet patronized Brewhemia.

The Pig & Porter is in the NewBo area, as well. I haven’t given that a try yet. I’ve heard both positive and less-positive things about it. I understand they have a Sunday brunch of some sort and their thing is basically a “farm to table” limited menu.

Lion Bridge Brewery is my “go-to” craft brewery in the area. It’s a few blocks west of NewBo, on the west side of the Cedar River, in Czech Village. It’s a local craft brewery with a limited, but very interesting, food menu that is tailored to match their beer selections.

North Side

If you’ve opted to stay at a hotel on the north side of Cedar Rapids, I still highly recommend Third Base Brewery, which is on Blairs Ferry Road NE, maybe a mile or so east of the cluster of hotels off of I-380 at the Blairs Ferry or Collins Road exits. I’m partial to the southwest eggrolls and several of their own craft beers brewed on site.

There’s a Chrome Horse Saloon location on Blairs Ferry Road, as well. Again, I haven’t tried this particular location. It was relocated here from the NewBo area after the 2008 flood.

The north side is also where my favorite steak restaurant is now located. The Butcher Block Steakhouse used to be on First Avenue across the street from Coe College, but is now located on the north side of town at C Avenue NE and Boyson Road NE. Reservations aren’t required, but might be a good idea.

Papa Juans/Stefano’s is a combination Mexican/Italian restaurant in the strip mall at the intersection of Blairs Ferry Road NE and Center Point Rd NE. Papa Juans was, for a long time, our favorite Mexican restaurant. I’m really not sure what the whole idea was about adding an Italian menu, but they didn’t ask my opinion when they did it.

Southwest/Ballpark Areas

If you stay in one of the hotels at the 33rd Street Exit off of I-380, there are all sorts of fast food chain restaurants right there, but not a lot of local places

One that I do like in that area, though, is Pei’s Ohana. Pei’s has a Chinese lunch buffet that I really like and also claims to have a traditional sushi bar and a Korean menu.

Just a few blocks north of Pei’s on Sixth Street SW is Riley’s Café, one of my two favorite breakfast diners. There are actually four Riley’s Cafe locations around town, including one a few blocks east of the DoubleTree downtown. Riley’s is owned by the same family that owns the Butcher Block Steak House on the north side of town.

Further north (probably another 15 blocks or so) of Riley’s is The Breakfast House, which I included in the 2013 list of favorites. It remains my top choice for breakfast in Cedar Rapids. It’s a small, old-school diner with great food at a reasonable price.

Leonardo’s (or “Leo’s” to the locals) is on 16th Avenue SW, not all that far from Veterans Memorial Stadium, home of the Kernels, and their pizza remains my favorite in town. Turn over your Kernels ticket stub and you’ll probably find a $2.00-off coupon for a Leo’s pizza. So with one trip to Leonardo’s you get good pizza AND you get to feel good for patronizing a long-time Kernels sponsor.

The Union Station Bar & Grill is also on 16th Avenue SW, relatively near the ballpark. I haven’t been to Union Station in a while, but I always found it perfectly acceptable as a neighborhood bar and grill. The one thing it does have going for it that not a lot of other places on this list do is pool tables. If you want to play some pool, Union Station is your place.

If you’re like me, sometimes you either get to the ballpark early and just want a beer and/or a bite to eat or the game ends and you just want one more beer. Even those of you who have been to a Kernels game before may not have noticed it, but the Stadium Lounge sits directly across the street from the ballpark’s right field wall. It’s a no-frills neighborhood bar where you won’t find a bunch of craft beers or an extensive food menu, but you will find domestic beers and bar food at a no-frills price. (No, I didn’t forget to include a link to their website. They don’t have a website.)

Not Quite In Cedar Rapids

If you’re willing to drive just a few miles southwest of Cedar Rapids, there are a couple more places you might want to look into.

First, the Amana Colonies are maybe 15-20 minutes southwest of Cedar Rapids on Hwy 151. Main Amana has several “family style” restaurants, as well as various shops.

Cedar Ridge Winery & Distillery is similarly maybe 15 minutes south of Cedar Rapids. Take I-385 to the Swisher Exit. Better yet, turn on your GPS and follow the directions. Cedar Ridge has some excellent wines and spirits and usually has live music on weekend evenings. I’m not sure what their Memorial Weekend schedule is, however, so you might want to check that ahead of time.

If you’d like to give the wine a try (or maybe one of their whiskeys), you might check the bar vendor stand behind section 110 at the Kernels ballpark. I’m sure it was Cedar Ridge Distillery booze that I was adding to my hot chocolate during those frigid ballgames at the beginning of the season. Chances are, “Woody” is working that stand. Tell him I said “hi.”

Speaking of the ballpark, if you spend some time checking the beer selections at each of the multiple beer stands along the concourse, you’ll find an increasing number of craft beers, including several from Iowa breweries. Of course, if you’re feeling homesick, there’s a Surry option, as well.

Finally, I can’t write all of this without recommending my favorite menu item at the ballpark. It’s the grilled tenderloin available at the Strike Zone food stand. There are a lot of good food options if you take the time to look for them, but I keep coming back to the grilled tenderloin.

Golf

My summers since retirement are pretty much a steady diet of grandkids (and other family, too, of course), baseball and golf. On the off chance you are bringing your sticks to town, I’ll just mention a couple of golf options.

There are four municipal courses. If you’re a beginner, I suggest Twin Pines. Ellis Park, Gardener Park or Jones Park are a little more challenging and all the courses are pretty well kept up.

My favorite course to play locally lately is Hunters Ridge in Marion. Bent grass fairways and a challenging course for any level of golfer. Checking online for tee times will sometimes uncover a pretty good discount.

The Amana Colonies Golf Club is probably the most challenging course around and is very picturesque.

Field of Dreams

No article would be complete without a suggestion that you consider a side trip to the Field of Dreams movie site near Dyersville, Iowa. I’d like to give a personal recommendation, but I have to admit that I’ve never visited the site. But I know many who have.

By the way, the Kernels, along with the three other Iowa minor league teams (Clinton Lumber Kings, Quad Cities River Bandits and Des Moines Cubs) all pitched in this spring to help repair the field after vandals caused thousands of dollars of damage.

So, that’s it. I hope you found plenty of ideas for what you might want to do in the Cedar Rapids area when you come in for a ballgame.

Just promise me you won’t get so wrapped up in all the other stuff that you forget to show up for the baseball games!

Alex Kirilloff: More Than Just the “Other” Kernels First Rounder

Posted on 9 May, 2018 by Jim Crikket

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?”

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 (15^th 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..

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.”

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.”

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.

Edwar Colina: From Chilly Home Opener to No-Hitter

Posted on 7 May, 2018 by Jim Crikket

Imagine for a moment that you grew up in an area where high temperatures each day run between 80 and 85 degrees, year-round.

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.”

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.

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.”