After paying a visit to one former Twins center fielder in Washington over the weekend, the Twins play host to another one tonight as Ben Revere and the Phillies begin a series in Minnesota.
Aaron Hicks is now on the Disabled List and Oswaldo Arcia is back with the club and manning left field while Josh Willingham slides in as the DH. Clete Thomas is the best option Gardy could come up with to play center field in Hicks’ absence.
That was a pretty slick win. Maybe it just comes as such a total surprise to me when the Twins get a really impressive start from a member of their rotation. PJ Walters earned our kudos and some baked goods for 7.1 innings of work.
But after the Phillies tied the game up at 2 in the top of the eighth, Justin Morneau came through with a two out RBI single to put the Twins back up 3-2 in the bottom of the eighth and set up Glen Perkins for a save.
For that game winner, the Chat group elected Morneau our BOD for the game.
Hall of Famer Paul Molitor was in Cedar Rapids over the course of most of the past homestand in his capacity with the Twins organization.
Molitor was gracious enough to answer some questions last Thursday, the first day of his stay in Cedar Rapids, as well as a few follow-up questions Monday afternoon after the final game of the Kernels’ homestand.
I used several excerpts from the Thursday interview in an article posted at MetroSportsReport.com last week, but there was so much good material that I couldn’t fit in to that article. So, I’m sharing all of Molitor’s comments here.
First off, I asked Molitor to describe his formal role these days with the Twins organization.
Molitor: Titles are overrated a little bit. Technically, part of the player development team. I’m the Minor League Coordinator for Baserunning and Infield Play. It’s an opportunity for me to travel around the system and help try to teach, along with the staff on each club and I do focus on those two areas but invariably get involved with some of the hitting aspects.
Our hitting coordinator for minor leagues does an incredible job, considering you have to try to put a hit plan together for about 200 guys.
One of the things I enjoy, in addition to the teaching is that a lot of these guys are transitioning from wherever their roots have brought them from and it’s a process of evolving from sometimes teenagers in to men and so there’s mentoring involved, too. Just how to help these guys develop an understanding of the professional life style. We try to do what we can to try to help them progress in those areas, too.
Paul Molitor (4) observing Kernels C Jhonatan Arias (23) take batting practice
I mentioned that a lot is made about players having to transition to using wood bats and asked Molitor if he thought that was toughest thing about transitioning to the professional game for young players.
Molitor: Some of the collegiate kids have had a chance to play in wood bat leagues in the summer time.
A lot of times it’s a big transition just from maybe never having left home, particularly maybe never left your country and you have to try to claw your way in to professional ball and learn a system that particular organization teaches.
We don’t try to overwhelm them. We let them play a little bit in the beginning til we kind of get a feel for who they are and what they do, what they do well and what we need to improve on. But the transition can be tough, depending on the guy’s experience.
The college guys are usually better at understanding how to carry themselves and how to go about their business day to day.
Another change is that very few of these kids have played in seasons where there’s 140 games so it’s understanding how to maintain and prepare yourself to withstand the rigors of a professional season.
I asked if playing baseball in the upper midwest in April was difficult for players entering their first season of “full season” professional baseball.
Molitor: The guys from warm climates, whether its Florida, California, Texas or the Dominican or Puerto Rico, you throw them up here in April and it’s not only a culture shock, but the weather is something they really never had to play in those type of conditions.
So that’s a process. We see a lot of guys that haven’t had that experience start a little bit slower, just adapting to the weather itself.
I jokingly pointed out that Byron Buxton is a southern guy that didn’t seem to take long to adjust.
Molitor: He’s just a rare individual with a skill set that’s off the charts.
I saw him last year in instructional ball for a little bit and you could see the rawness of a high school kid, but somehow this winter I think he put a lot of time in to conditioning and preparation. He was much more advanced this spring than I expected him to be and he’s been able to carry it undoubtedly in to the first 9-10 weeks of the season.
You know, he’s got things to work on I’m sure. I’m looking forward to seeing him now compared to even two months ago. Over the next five days. I’ll be watching particularly how he handles himself on the basepaths.
On a professional grading scale of 2-8, he’s an 8 runner and I haven’t for the past three decades seen many players that can compete with him in terms of just raw speed. Now how he can translate that in to base stealing is going to be the key.
Obviously, this year he’s had over 30 attempts. He’s been caught some, but he’s been fairly successful for a young guy and probably in some ways, in this league, he’s been outrunning the ball.
There’s two parts of base stealing: The mechanical, finding the best way to get your body to accelerate from a standstill position; and then there’s the mental side of understanding how they’re trying to slow you down and picking good pitches, good counts, reading pitchers pick-off moves, all those type of things.
A lot of times, when you get caught is when you should learn the most. Whether you didn’t get a good jump or you ran on a pitch out or you didn’t anticipate the guy going home or you were tentative. There’s a lot of ways to learn to get better. So it’s a process. The more you do it, the better you get at it.
We’re glad to see he’s out running. At least not having fear in athat area to this point.
Paul Molitor hitting ground balls to Kernels 3B Travis Harrison
I asked Molitor for his thoughts on Kernels third baseman Travis Harrison, who is still somewhat learning the position.
Molitor: Ive been around him some, mostly spring traning and instructional ball. I’m sure there’s some adaption for him going on.
He has relatively good hands. I think his footwork is something that needs to be improved. Being so close in proximity to home plate, you don’t have a lot of time to react to get your body in position to catch the ball. The better he can get control of his feet and be in the right spot, his hands are going to be OK.
Throwing, he’s had some issues at times with consistency. He’s a little bit mechanical, but I think he’s learning that if he doesn’t try to guide the ball and throws it, he’s better off.
So those are areas where we expect young kids to make errors and just like the baserunning, when you make mistakes, you figure out why and hopefully you can make adjustments.
I asked for Molitor’s thoughts concerning the defensive progress at third base of Harrison, as compared to Miguel Sano (this was a couple of days prior to Sano’s promotion to AA).
Molitor: I think that’s a fair question.
We’re all hoping that Sano, who’s a little farther along in the organization and in growth, in terms of getting close to the Major Leagues. Not unexpectedly, he made a ton of errors last year, his first year of being a third baseman in a full season and it was a plethora of mistakes.
It was misreading balls, it was rushing balls, it was throwing balls he shouldn’t have thrown. Trying to force an out when it wasn’t there.
But having seen him twice already this year, he’s made maybe a dozen errors so far and a lot of them are similar things.
But he’s been very diligent and asking for extra work and trying to correct mistakes.
I’m hoping his future is as a third baseman.
Travis, it’s a little bit early to see how it pans out. A lot of times, you can play three or four years in the minor leagues and then you get to the Big Leagues and there’s no room in that position and all of a sudden you’ve got to maybe transition. So you kind of hope that you get these guys a little bit more well-rounded. As far as their strength position, you want to try to see them develop that the most.
After the game on Monday, a Kernels win that was broadcast back to the Twin Cities on Fox Sports North, I asked Molitor about his impressions after having spent five days with the Kernels in Cedar Rapids.
Molitor: Well it was good to see them bounce back after three tough losses.
I feel like we got some things accomplished with some of the infielders defensively.
It was good to see (Candido) Pimentel back out there today. He had a better day. He still had one play where he got a little anxious about turning his back to the runner and he didn’t keep his eye on the ball and that’s kind of one of the things he’s got to work on is just catching the ball and understanding the speed of the baserunners on the play.
And then with baserunning, we had some guys out working on their jumps today and they’ve been aggressive trying to steal, so I’m pleased with that.
But yeah, I had a lot of fun seeing these guys and kind of seeing where they’re at at this point in the season and hopefully I’ll get a chance to get back and see them again.
Since Molitor had indicated he would be working with Byron Buxton on his base stealing, I asked if we should blame him for Buxton being picked off first base during Monday’s game (yes, I was kidding).
Molitor: You can blame me for that if you want. The (pitcher) did a nice job of holding the ball. I think he kind of built a little tension. The longer the guy holds it, you really have to concentrate on staying relaxed and he might have given him a little bit of a balk move, but that’s, again, learning time.
A hitter can help your baserunner out when he’s holding the ball. Call a time out, things like that. But that’s how you learn.
I asked for Molitor’s impression of Jorge Polanco, specifically whether he thinks Polanco can stick at shortstop.
Molitor: You know, I’ve seen him a fair amount and his arm’s probably competent at short but I still think he probably profiles a little better at second base in the long run.
Working on his footwork a little bit. He can get a little false step on his breaks to the ball and it seems like balls you think he might have a chance to get he comes up a little bit short. So we’ll try to improve his range a little bit and give him a chance.
At 19, it’s certainly too early to close the book on any one position.
Offensively, he’s just getting a little bit stronger and he’s got nice loose hands at the plate and being a switch hitter is generally to his advantage.
But I keep trying to keep them versatile in the middle of the field and hopefully one of the positions will pan out. But I have a feeling probably second base in the long run.
Since we had discussed third baseman Travis Harrison earlier, I asked if he had any final impressions of Harrison.
Molitor: He’s got a great attitude about work ethic and he wants to get better.
I think the main thing for him is going to continue to work on his footwork so his range is competent to stay over there, too. But his throwing’s improved. He’s a lot more accurate. I think he’s comfortable over there.
He’s still feeling for positioning a little bit. Sometimes I catch him maybe not quite in the right spot. There’s a reason you are where you are on every pitch and I think he’s learning that and trying to take some pride in it.
It was a pleasure to talk a little baseball with Paul Molitor and I appreciate him taking the time to answer questions. I think the thought he put in to his comments clearly demonstrates just how seriously he takes his work with the Twins’ young players and how much he enjoys doing what he’s doing. – JC
Twins fans in the Twin Cities and across Twins Territory got an opportunity to see the organization’s Class A affiliate Cedar Rapids Kernels Monday afternoon as the game was carried on Fox Sports North (A rebroadcast is scheduled for 6:30 if you missed it).
The Kernels put on a good show for the cameras, topping the visiting Kane County Cougars (Chicago Cubs affiliate) 6-2.
For many Twins fans, it was their first opportunity to see the Kernels in action and, more specifically, their first opportunity to see uber-prospect Byron Buxton in action.
Buxton did not disappoint.
Maybe some fans were impressed with his three hits on the day, falling just a home run short of hitting for the cycle.
But for anyone who isn’t that easy to impress, he also had a pretty amazing diving catch near the wall in deep left-center field.
For those of you who aren’t fortunate enough to get FSN on your television (and welcome to my world, by the way), here’s a little taste of what you missed. This is Byron Buxton with a triple to right-center field.
It was Buxton’s last at-bat of the day for Cedar Rapids. The question is, how many more at-bats will Buxton have in a Cedar Rapids uniform? The Midwest League first-half ends this Sunday and the All-Star game is the following Tuesday.
I’m going to brave the elements a bit and head to the Kernels game tonight and MLB has not yet posted the Twins/Royal;s lineups. If another one of the Knuckleballs crew stops by after they’ve been posted, perhaps they’ll be able to add them here.
In the mean time, I’m going to open up the Chat window for anyone inclined to stop by for conversation during the game as the Twins go for their third straight shutout! – JC
Well, the Kernels won 14-5 and Byron Buxton went 5-6 with 2 singles, a double and 2 triples. I have NO idea how the Twins performed, but looking at the box score, I see PJ Walters gave up 3 runs and none of them were earned runs. That is not usually good.
I’ve never been someone that pays an enormous amount of attention to the MLB First-Year Player Draft. Most years, I would glance at a few writers focusing on who the Twins might draft in the first round, but the draft itself just held little interest for me.
I suppose, like many people, it just seemed to me that it was going to be several years before I would ever see any of the young players drafted in a given year put on a Twins uniform, so there was little point in spending much of my time on the draft.
Byron Buxton
I’m coming around, though, and, yes, it has a lot to do with the Twins now being affiliated with my local minor league team, the Cedar Rapids Kernels.
During their last several years as an Angels affiliate, it just seemed to me that the parent organization seldom sent many of their top prospects to Cedar Rapids right away (if at all). That may be unfair, I don’t know. I honestly never looked up whether my perception of things was backed up by facts.
But I do know this: Players drafted by the Twins in the 2012 First-Year Draft have played critical roles in putting the Kernels atop the Midwest League Western Division Standings with less than two weeks before the end of the first half of the season.
How critical? I”m glad you asked.
Infielder Joel Licon, who joined the team from extended spring training just this week, and pitcher Christian Powell, who is expected to join the Kernels Wednesday from extended spring training, are the ninth and tenth players drafted last summer to suit up for the Kernels this season. While Kernels fans haven’t had a chance to get to know Licon and Powell yet, the other eight members of the 2012 draft class have made significant impacts. Consider:
I’m not sure where the Kernels would be without those bats this season, but they’d have been a lot less fun to watch. But if that’s impressive, check out these pitchers:
Clearly, anyone who might want a sneak peek at who is likely to be playing big roles for the 2014 Cedar Rapids Kernels should pay close attention to who the Twins pick with the 4th overall pick in the first round of the draft on Thursday and any college age players drafted in the following 15 rounds or so.
Jose Berrios
Of the ten players listed above, only first round picks Buxton and Berrios were selected following their senior seasons of high school baseball. The others all had at least some amount of college experience prior to being selected and signed by the Twins.
The Twins’ brass have their work cut out for them to replace that kind of productivity with the Kernels from the draft class of 2012.
Of course, most players drafted this week won’t wear a Kernels uniform next year. More will likely arrive in Cedar Rapids the following year during the 2015 campaign.
Eleven of this year’s Kernels were selected by the Twins in the 2011 draft. That list includes third baseman Travis Harrison, catcher Tyler Grimes and eight pitchers who have toed the rubber at some point during the season as a member of the Kernels pitching staff.
With the addition of Powell, 21 of the 33 players who will have worn a Kernels uniform this season were drafted by the Twins in the past two years and several more could still arrive in Cedar Rapids this summer as promotions and injuries create roster openings.
Of course, Kernels fans may not have to wait until 2014 to get a look at some of this year’s draft talent. Under the terms of the current Collective Bargaining Agreement, players with college eligibility remaining must be signed by July 15. That’s much earlier than under the agreement in place before last year, which makes protracted contract negotiations almost impossible.
As a result, some of the players selected in this week’s draft may have an opportunity to be assigned to Cedar Rapids before the end of this season. Last year, the Twins sent a handful of pitchers from their 2012 draft class to their Midwest League affiliate, the Beloit Snappers, to help the Snappers during their playoff run.
The first and second rounds of the 2013 MLB Amateur Draft will be broadcast on the MLB Network and streamed live on MLB.com Thursday evening, beginning at 6:00 CT. Rounds 3-10 will be streamed on MLB.com beginning Friday afternoon and rounds 11-40 will be streamed on MLB.com beginning Saturday afternoon. – JC
Still no Justin Morneau in the line up today. Joe Mauer takes a turn at first base.
I’m hopeful that we’ll start seeing the Scott Diamond we all hoped we would see one of these starts and it would be nice if it came soon… today would be good.
Let’s see if our guys can salvage a series win over the M’s.
I’ve got some chores to take care of this afternoon, but I hope to be back to catch at least some of the game. – JC
Wow. It’s so much more fun to be on the side administering the beating than the one on the receiving end, isn’t it?
I admit my attention was elsewhere during most of this game, but it seemed like whenever I checked in someone was getting an extra-base hit for the Twins!
It does make for a bit of a challenge to decide who the BOD should be. Six Twins hitters had multiple hits. Three different guys doubled and four guys homered. There was even a triple thrown in there.
Then on the other hand, Scott Diamond and the bullpen throw a shutout!
It was all way too much to sort through so I just decided to go with Brian Dozier. Don’t ask me why, but 3 for 4, a double, a home run, a couple of runs scored and a pair of ribbies isn’t a bad day’s work.
Through May 21, the Cedar Rapids Kernels had built up an impressive 30-13 record and held a five game lead over their closest competition in the Western Division of the Midwest League.
They then left town for a quick three-game road trip to Beloit after taking three out of four games from Kane County. They had no clue at that time that they not only would get swept by the second place Snappers on that trip, but would also return home and drop all three games of a series against the last place Burlington Bees.
But that’s exactly what happened to the Kernels as almost every part of their game seemed to fall apart at the same time over the past week.
The defense not only started committing more errors than usual, but those errors seemed to come at precisely the worst possible time.
The timely hitting that had almost become a trademark of the team through the first six weeks of the season disappeared as they hit safely just 13 times in 54 opportunities with runners in scoring position during their losing streak and scored just three runs in four of the six games.
Perhaps most concerning, the Kernels’ starting pitching rotation averaged less than five innings of work per game over the six losses. The rotation arms gave up a whopping 45 hits and 33 runs (28 of them earned) in 29 2/3 innings during that stretch of games.
Kernels pitching coach Gary Lucas was asked what had gone wrong with the team’s starting pitching.
“I don’t know. These teams that begin with the letter B, Beloit and Burlington, took it to us,” conceded Lucas, after Tuesday night’s 9-4 win over Clinton.
“I can’t explain it. It’s been a little bit of everything here. It’s a bump in the road that all teams have, good and bad. Burlington’s turning some things around, Beloit’s turning some things around. We’ve got to overcome a losing streak and get back to our winning ways and hopefully this starts that process.”
Tuesday’s starting pitcher, Mason Melotakis, gave his team seven strong innings of work. That’s the first game a Kernels starting pitcher has worked seven innings since Tyler Duffey went 7 2/3 innings in a May 18 extra-inning win over Kane County.
Mason Melotakis
Melotakis and Duffey are two of the Twins organization’s “conversion projects” this summer. Both were relief pitchers in college, but the Twins want to see if they are capable of playing a starting pitching role in the professional ranks.
To be successful, both pitchers will need to refine their secondary pitches – their breaking balls and change ups – rather than just rely on their ability to throw fastballs in excess of 90 miles per hour.
Melotakis feels the key for him is not letting hitters dig in against him. “I like to work in and out and make the hitters uncomfortable. I try to keep them uncomfortable and off balance in the box.”
Lucas feels that Melotakis is making progress in that area. “He is always going to attack with his fastball and he’s learning how to use it on both sides of the plate. The change up and the breaking ball are still a work in progress.”
“I think the fact that he’s using them over longer stretches, being a starter now and not a reliever, he’s got to do different things with those pitches,” Lucas added.
“He probably didn’t use a change up much as a reliever. In fact, I know when he was with us last year he didn’t. I think just staying on top of these kids and just developing touch/feel with their pitches. It’s a little inconsistent right now, but hopefully with innings, it’ll come. He (Melotakis) shows flashes of really being a consistent competitor with that fastball on both sides of the plate.”
In addition to developing other pitches, Duffey and Melotakis will also have to throw a lot more innings over the course of a season than they have in the past.
The Kernels are utilizing a six-man rotation that they hope will allow their starting pitchers to get through an entire season of rotation work without putting excessive wear and tear on their arms. It’s also hoped that doing so will make the conversion process easier for pitchers like Duffey and Melotakis.
But with the Kernels starting pitching struggling of late, could it be that some of these pitchers are tiring a bit as the team nears the half-way point of their season?
“It’s a good point. We should watch that to see at some point how they react and how their strength and how their stamina and their endurance (hold up).” Lucas said.
But Lucas isn’t ready to buy in to the theory already.
“Both Melotakis and Duffey, the key guys that used to be relievers and now are starters, they’ve got durability on their side. They’re strong. They’re hard workers. So I think they’ll be fine over the long haul. And they’re on a six man rotation so they usually get an extra day. We’re hoping that pays dividends as we move along.”
The Kernels added Hein Robb, a lefty from South Africa who just turned 21 on May 12, to their rotation this week. Robb replaced Matt Tomshaw, who was promoted to the Fort Myers Miracle.
Lucas indicated Robb would be inserted in to the rotation after Duffey, who is scheduled to pitch for the Kernels Wednesday night. That would mean Robb should make his Midwest League debut against Clinton on Thursday in Cedar Rapids.
You know what? Winning baseball games is FUN! I hope the boys remember that. Today was a good day – Correia gave it up a couple times but he showed signs of returning to the workhorse guy we had in April. It really was a relief to have a starter at least go 6 innings again! Just for not sucking, I decided to grant Correia a beer on the house. It is Miller Park after all.
I’m granting a beer to Ryan Doumit for actually knocking in the winning RBI, Parmelee for the Homerun and an RBI and to Pedro Florimon for going 2 for 4. (Can you tell that I’m trying to encourage them to keep this kind of activity up?)
ALSO getting a beer on the house is the umpiring Crew Chief – for overruling that idiot Angel Hernandez on yet another absolutely ridiculous bad call. Thank heaven that someone can see even if it took a video review.
But after a bit of discussion which I think we only did for the fun of it, today’s BOD went to Joe Mauer – again – for getting 3 Runs (our entire lead) and in general being awesome at the plate with a Homerun and 2 Walks. Keep it up, Big Man. – CB
Once again, the Twins will attempt to put an end to their current losing streak this afternoon.
Just because the Twins haven’t been winning baseball games, it doesn’t mean they’ve been doing nothing at all, however. The folks in charge have been playing musical chairs with the Twins active roster and their 40-man roster, as well.
The upshot of all the changes is that the Twins have two new members of their rotation. Sam Deduno started last night’s loss and PJ Walters is on the hill against the Tigers this afternoon.
The Twins needed to clear space on their 40-man roster for Walters and the odd man out turned out to be outfielder Joe Benson. Benson was a 2nd round draft pick by the Twins in 2006. He has been struggling at the plate for the past year or more and now he will get an opportunity to start over with the Texas Rangers organization. We wish him the best of luck.
Meanwhile, in the Big Leagues, manager Ron Gardenhire has put out a particularly odd line up against the Tigers today.
It’s not like the Twins went out and beat the crap out of the Tigers, of course. In fact, the only inning they scored in was the first inning when Mauer, Willingham, Morneau and Parmelee did some damage in building up a quick 3-0 lead.
Typically, there’s no way a lead like that would stand up for the Twins, but PJ Walters made the most of his first appearance in the Big Leagues this season, going six strong innings and giving up just two runs. The bullpen did their jobs to nail down the Twins win.
The far-too-rare Quality Start by a member of the Twins rotation gives Walters our Boyfriend of the Day award.
PJ Walters (photo: Leon Halip/Getty Images North America)
A 6:08 start time? Seriously? What’s up with that? Is there a prize for starting two minutes before every other game in the Eastern Time Zone?
Weird starting time aside, it’s pretty hard to look at these line ups side by side and see a lot of reason to hope the Twins will win a game in this series. On the other hand, neither Diamond nor Porcello tend to walk many guys, so maybe the game will at least be relatively fast-paced.
Speaking of the Twins’ line up, where the heck is Oswaldo Arcia? Has he started a game at all since last week? I guess I just don’t get the logic of having a kid on the roster if he’s just going to sit.
I’m not sure where to even start to rant about this game.
Josh Willingham hit two home runs.
The Twins have won none of the three games in which Willingham has hit more than one home run as a Twin.
Jared Burton had never gotten more than four outs in any appearance as a Twin.
He has now. However, he didn’t get that fifth out until he had given up the lead to the Tigers.
According to a Tweet from Jim Mandelaro out in Rochester, PJ Walters has been told he’s being called up by the Twins to pitch this weekend.
I wish him well. We’ve seen some bad pitching in a Twins uniform over the last couple of years, but I can’t recall a Twins pitching staff any worse than this one. I’d like to give the front office the benefit of the doubt and say it couldn’t have been predicted. However, pretty much nobody who ISN’T a part of the Twins organization is surprised.
It would just be nice if those inside of the organization begin to act like they’ve noticed now. Maybe promoting Walters and Sam Deduno are indications that realization has begun to occur.
