Trey Cabbage: Kernels’ Road Warrior

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Trey Cabbage says he absolutely does not hate Cedar Rapids.

He may be hitting like he hates his team’s home town, but he insists that doesn’t mean he hates the city.

“Honestly, I don’t,” he claimed, with a smile, during an interview late last week. “I want to get out of here, but not because it’s Cedar Rapids. It wouldn’t matter if it was California, North Carolina or wherever, it’s just to move up to the next level.”

Trey Cabbage (Photo by SD Buhr)

But sometimes it sure seems like he’s hitting like he has something against the town he’s been playing home ballgames in since about this time a year ago.

It’s not unusual in professional baseball for players to hit a little better at home than they do on the road or even a bit better than usual in one or two opponents’ ballparks.

As Cedar Rapids Kernels manager Toby Gardenhire explains, “Sometimes you see the ball better in different ballparks, sometimes with different backdrops, just different settings.”

But Cabbage, the Twins’ 21-year old 2015 4th round draft pick, has taken things to a very unusual extreme this season.

Through Monday’s game, he’s played in 67 games for the Kernels and put up a .257/.331/.447 split and a .778 OPS. He’s also been on a roll this month, hitting .375 in his last ten games.

The overall numbers are what they are, but it’s the home/road split that’s eye-popping.

In 36 home games, he’s hit just .218, gotten on base at a .279 rate and slugged .353 for a .632 OPS. He’s hit a pair of home runs among his ten extra-base hits on Perfect Game Field at Veterans Memorial Stadium in Cedar Rapids. That includes a 3-hit game on Monday afternoon in a home series finale against Lake County that included a pair of two-baggers.

But in his 31 road games for the Kernels, he’s hit .299, reached base at a .384 clip and slugged .551, giving him a road OPS of .935. That’s 178 points higher than he’s put up at home.

Maybe he just really likes wearing grey uniform pants?

“It’s not the grey pants,” he claimed. “I guess, on the road, as soon as (batting practice) is over it’s like food – stretch – game. Here (at home games), there’s a little bit more time to sit down, so I don’t know if my body gets a little bit more lackadaisical or whatever. I go out there with the same intensity every game. I don’t know what it is.

Trey Cabbage watches what will become a double to the left-centerfield wall (Photo by SD Buhr)

“Me and Jordan (Gore) were talking during the (MWL) All-Star break, and I said, ‘Man, I don’t know what it is, I just like playing on the road.’ I guess with people, not really booing us, but kind of heckling us a little bit more. There’s almost a little bit of a chip on your shoulder.”

Last Thursday, however, Cabbage found a solution to his home woes, at least for one night. He went 4-for-4 with a home run (just his second round tripper at home, compared to five he’s smacked on the road this season) in a 6-2 win over Ft. Wayne.

“The first 4-hit game I’ve ever had in my life,” he said the next day. “I don’t know what I did, but I’m going to try to do the same thing today as I did yesterday. I put my socks on the same way, I’ll eat the same stuff. I’m a little superstitious.”

A superstitious baseball player? Imagine that.

Cabbage claims he’s not really that superstitious, but he does have certain routines that he follows consistently.

“Like going up on deck I do the same thing,” he explained. “I do the Happy Gilmore swing, I push my helmet to my forehead, tap it twice and then fix my bill. Then I do a top hand swing drill that I’ve done with (Elizabethton Twins hitting coach) Jeff Reed in E-Town. And then from then on, it’s just timing up the pitcher, but that’s my one thing I try to do every at-bat, every time I go on deck, I do that little routine.

Kernels manager Toby Gardenhire (left) and Trey Cabbage with a batting practice discussion. (Photo by SD Buhr)

“It’s funny because I look in behind (the backstop fence) and sometimes you’ll see people like, ‘look at this guy on deck, what the heck’s he doing?’”

Maybe those fans should start heckling him like a visiting player, instead. It’s just a thought.

His manager has been seeing consistency in more than just his on-deck circle routine, however, and Gardenhire has liked what he’s seen.

“He’s been very consistent all year and that’s one of the things going into the year that we talked to him about,” Gardenhire said. “In the past, he’ll be going along and something doesn’t go right and he wants to change things, then he wants to change it again and he wants to change it again.

“At some point, you’ve got to get where you’re consistent with things so you can let it play out a little bit. That’s what we talked to him about this year, was being consistent with his approach, be consistent with the things he does.  And he’s done a really good job all year of that.”

A lot has been said and written this season about the game of professional baseball becoming a contest where “three true outcomes” dominate the game. For better or worse, with the way pitchers are ramping up velocities and throwing more breaking balls, it has been becoming a game of strikeouts, walks and home runs. It’s all about fastball velocity and exit velocity (the speed at which the ball comes off the bat).

Cabbage, at 6’ 3” and just a bit over 200 pounds, may be exactly that type of player as his game evolves and his body continues to develop.

“He’s a big, strong guy and he’s got a big beard now, so he doesn’t look young, but he’s young,” his manager said. “He’s probably still got a ways to go with some things, but he’s improved a lot. He’s going to strike out some. He’s a big power hitter guy. That’s what power hitters do, strike out some. But he’s also going to light some fastballs up and that’s what he’s done this year. It’s been good to watch, it’s fun.”

When he talks hitting philosophy, Cabbage certainly sounds like a guy intent on being a power hitter.

“I don’t worry about manipulating the ball,” he said. “That’s what I was doing early in the season, that’s when I was late, swinging and missing or fouling balls off that I should be hitting.”

What Cabbage has been doing lately when he makes contact could hardly be described as manipulating the ball with his bat.

Trey Cabbage (Photo by SD Buhr)

“Baseball, it doesn’t ever really even out from hard hit balls getting caught to bleeders falling in, but I would rather be out by hitting the ball hard right at somebody or somebody running it down and making a great play than saying, ‘well, I was trying to inside-out that ball because it was outside.’

“If you hit to get hits, then you’re trying to be perfect. If you’re hitting to get hits, it’s basically hitting to not make outs, which is when you start manipulating, changing the swing, changing the approach, in between pitches, during an at-bat, in between at-bats.

“I just go up there trying to make hard contact. I’d rather play with that and take my chances, than flipping balls over. Usually guys with higher exit velos and more barrels, they’re going to hit for a higher average than a guy that’s just up there trying to flip balls. Now, obviously with two strikes, you’ve got more of a defensive mindset, just trying to make contact, but if it’s an optimal count, you try to do damage.”

Cabbage has been doing his share of damage in the second half of the season and is one reason his team has been sitting at or near the top of the Midwest League’s Western Division second-half standings.

But Gardenhire also likes what he’s been seeing of Cabbage’s defense.

Trey Cabbage (Photo by SD Buhr)

“I’ve really been pleasantly surprised with how good he is in the outfield,” the skipper said. “He’s very athletic out there. He’s got a good arm. He moves to the ball really well.

“You know, sometimes that’s tough to do for a guy that’s coming from the infield to the outfield. He was a third baseman and we put him at first some, but when we put him in the outfield, he moved around really well out there, so he can do that for sure. I’ve been impressed with that.”

Now, we just need to get him to be as impressive at home as he’s been on the road.

I still think they should make him wear grey uniform pants at home.

Gore and Dobnak Leading By Example

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After the Cedar Rapids Kernels finished batting practice on a warm, humid July 4 afternoon, two of the most productive players on their roster agreed to sit down and talk about the season.

Jordan Gore and Randy Dobnak go through Kernels pre-game workouts on July 4, 2018 (Photo by SD Buhr)

One, an infielder, has been hitting over .300 with an on-base percentage around .400 virtually all season. (And three days after the interview, his bags were packed for Chattanooga, where he’d been promoted to join former Kernels manager Tommy Watkins’ Lookouts.)

The other, a starting pitcher, is 6-2 on the season and leads the Kernels in innings pitched.

Unless you’re a pretty serious student of the Minnesota Twins’ minor league system or a Kernels season ticket holder, there’s a chance you’ve never heard of either of them.

Jordan Gore was selected by the Twins out of Coastal Carolina in the 17th round of the 2017 draft and Randy Dobnak never got a post-draft call at all after completing his college career at Alderson Broaddus University in West Virginia. They made the most of their college days on and off the field, both making the Dean’s List regularly at their respective schools.

Gore started his college career at South Carolina before transferring to Coastal Carolina in his hometown of Conway, SC, where he underwent Tommy John surgery and ended up sitting out the Chanticleers’ NCAA championship season in 2016. Having to sit out that championship season wasn’t as tough for Gore as one might think.

Jordan Gore (Photo by SD Buhr)

“Honestly you can say so,” Gore said, “but I’ve said this time and time again. That was best group of guys that I’ve ever been around as far as pulling for each other, working hard, all around good personalities and good people. It was probably better for me to sit back and watch how they did it. They taught me a lot about how to play the game the right way.

“I’ve got nothing but love for everybody at Coastal. I tell you what, it made me a lot better person and a player.”

Dobnak pitched for Alderson Broadus University in Philippi, West Virginia, where he had a career 26-12 record and set a Great Midwest Athletic Conference record with 284 career strikeouts.

You wouldn’t fault Gore, a shortstop by trade, if he had been more than a little troubled by the fact that he was drafted by an organization that also used the first overall pick of the 2017 draft to select a guy who plays the same position. But Gore says he wasn’t concerned at all at the prospect of trying to work his way up through the Twins farm system virtually in tandem with top prospect Royce Lewis.

“Honestly, I was just happy to get the call because after my last (college) game it kind of hit me, man this could be the last time I lace my spikes up,” Gore said, concerning his draft position, “and Royce is a great guy. It’s great to be playing with him. It’s a lot of fun.”

Gore didn’t exactly follow the draft moment by moment, waiting to hear his name called, but admits being relieved when it was over.

“I tried to keep my mind off of it,” he recalled. “I tried to just stay away from thinking about it too much. When I finally did get the call, it was a lot off my shoulders because you can try not to think about it as much as you want, but it’s always going to be there.”

While Gore had to be patient on draft day, Dobnak wasn’t all that surprised that he didn’t get a call when the draft had been completed.

Randy Dobnak (Photo by SD Buhr)

“Being in the mountains of West Virginia, there were a few teams that were talking to me or my coaches,” he explained. “But when they’d try and come see me play, we’d get rained out, snowed out. too cold. So, I didn’t really know what to expect (on draft day).”

Not being drafted didn’t mean Dobnak was ready to call it a career, however. He used a connection made in his freshman year of college to land a spot on the pitching staff of the Utica Unicorns, an independent minor league team in a four-team league about an hour outside Detroit, Michigan.

“I played there for like a month. I had played with (the manager’s) son. He was my catcher my freshmen and sophomore year (of college). After a freshman year tournament, we were all out to eat and his dad was like, ‘I want you come play for my team once you graduate.’ Three years later, I’m like, ‘Alright, let’s do this thing.’”

A few weeks later, he signed with the Twins and he spent the rest of last summer in Elizabethton and Cedar Rapids.

Dobnak put up a combined ERA of 2.43 and a WHIP of 0.96 in six appearances (four as a starter) at the two 2017 stops and has followed that up with a very solid first three months with the Kernels this summer. In 14 appearances (11 of them as a starter), he has a 3.74 ERA and has struck out 49 batters, while walking just 13.

He has averaged seven innings of work in his last five starts for the Kernels.

At the time of his promotion to Chattanooga on July 7, Gore was hitting .307 with a solid .770 OPS and had a .333 average and 1.044 OPS in the month of July. While splitting infield time with Royce Lewis, Andrew Bechtold and Jose Miranda, Gore has made 33 appearances at second base, 23 at shortstop, five at third base and even made one late-game mop up appearance on the mound for Cedar Rapids.

On a team seemingly filled with very young talent, Gore and Dobnak have stood out as 23-year-olds and their manager, Toby Gardenhire, has appreciated the level of effort and leadership they’ve brough to the field, as well as the clubhouse.

“He’s been great,” the manager said of Dobnak. “He grabs the ball and goes out there and does whatever you want him to do.  He works really hard every day, shows up ready to go. He’s the epitome of the guy that you want on your team. He doesn’t say much, he just goes out there and does his job every day.

“His skill level has been great, he’s done a great job, but the big thing for us is that he’s very professional with everything that he does. When you have this many young guys on a team like we do that you’re trying to teach how to be professionals, then you need guys like him where you can say, ‘Hey you see how Dobnak does this? You see what he does? You see how he goes about his business? That’s the way it needs to be. That’s how you have to act.’

“So, aside from the fact that he’s doing great, which is all credit to him and how hard he works, he’s just a great person. He’s a great leader for us.”

Gardenhire offered a similar strong endorsement for Gore.

Jordan Gore (Photo by SD Buhr)

“Gore’s the same way,” his manager said. “He’s ‘game on.’ He’s funny, but the way he goes about his business, the way he goes out and gets it every day – when you put him in the lineup, you know what you’re going to get from him. You’re going to get effort. Dives all over the place and will do anything to win baseball games.

“You would think that with baseball players in professional baseball, you’re going to have a whole group of guys that just want to try to win games, that will do anything for the team, but it’s not always like that. That’s a taught trait. You either have something in you that says ‘Hey, I’ll do whatever it takes to win this game’ or you have to learn that. He’s one of those guys, he just has it. That’s what he wants. He wants to win and he’ll do anything.

“I always call those guys dirtballs. He’s driving all over the place. You’re not going to see him with his uniform clean for very long in a game. That’s one of those things, again, when you have a whole bunch of young talented guys like we have, to have a guy like that who shows them the way. They see him diving all over the place. He’s mad when we lose and he gets fired up. They see that and it starts to kind of rub off on them. That’s what you want.”

A couple of relatively unheralded players on a team stocked with highly-regarded younger prospects could be forgiven if they felt some pressure to perform well enough to get noticed by their front office, but neither Gore nor Dobnak sounded like that was the case for them.

“I don’t think it’s pressure,” Gore said. “Speaking for myself, I come out here and want to work hard. This is fun for us! I mean it’s the best job in the world, right?

“Yep,” concurred Dobnak.

“I mean, come on, who wouldn’t want to come out here and work hard?” asked Gore, “because when you work hard, you tend to play well. It makes it a lot more fun.”

Neither player is concerning himself too much with what’s going on with the Twins’ affiliates at the higher levels, however.

Randy Dobnak (Photo by SD Buhr)

“I check out the scores and see how some of the guys I know are doing,” conceded Dobnak. “I just think if you prove to your coaches or front office that you’re good enough to move up, they’ll move you up. But all the guys, they work hard. They all work the same. You go out there and do whatever you’ve got to do. Compete.”

“I try not to think about (promotions), I’ll be honest with you,” said Gore. “I’m around a great bunch of guys every day and it’s a lot of fun. It doesn’t really pop into your head much. We’re just out here trying to win and we’ve been doing that here lately.”

Given that Gore earned a promotion three days after those comments, his approach obviously worked for him.

One thing that comes through in virtually every conversation you have with any of this group of Kernels is how much they enjoy their teammates. It’s a close group, but even in the tightest of clubhouses, there will be differences. Gore and Dobnak are not completely in agreement in one aspect of the game.

Dobnak’s Twitter profile includes a reference to the hashtag #BanTheDH. Gore doesn’t sound ready to give away the at-bats he gets on days he DHs.

“Let the pitchers hit,” said Dobnak.

And why? “Because it’s more fun for the pitchers. When you grow up, you pitch, you hit, you play the infield!”

It’s all about the pitchers, right Jordan?

“No offense to the pitchers out there, but you’re probably giving up an out every time,” a smiling Gore responded.

“I’m just kidding,” the professional hitter in the conversation added. “We’ve got a lot of good athletes on the (pitching staff), I’m sure they could probably pick up a stick and hit it.”

Happy Birthday, Moneyball (and Damn You!)

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Happy birthday, Moneyball!

Yes, as Yahoo’s Jeff Passan alerted us via Twitter over breakfast this morning, Michael Lewis’ seminal baseball book, Moneyball, was released 15 years ago today.

I have to admit, I was picturing the entire SABR community simultaneously Skyping and toasting Lewis and his book, each member raising a glass of their favorite obscure local craft beer. It made me chuckle.

Moneyball’s birthday seems like a good day to discuss the state of baseball, today, given that Passan argues that the book, “set into motion the most significant changes in baseball since Jackie Robinson integrated the game in 1947.”

Wow, right?

So, let’s talk about the changes (and potential changes) to the game of baseball that we can could credit (blame?) Moneyball for.

Before we do that, though, a few personal recollections of Moneyball, the book.

I read it not too long after it came out. I didn’t rush out to buy it the day it was released or anything, but I’m pretty sure I read it within a few months of its release.

I enjoyed it. It didn’t cause an immediate seismic shift in my feelings concerning conventional baseball strategy, but I thought the points that A’s General Manager Billy Beane made were worth considering.

Sometime later, I remember reading that the film rights to the book had been purchased and I tried to imagine how anyone would be able to make a commercial movie out of a book about the application of statistical analysis to baseball. Yes, bringing Brad Pitt on to star as Beane would get a few fannies in the seats, but still.

It turned out my skepticism was well founded as Hollywood had some trouble coming up with a usable script. Then Aaron Sorkin (“The West Wing,” “SportsNight,” “A Few Good Men,” et al) was reported to be taking on the task of doing re-writing the teleplay. At that point, I knew I would have to see the movie, not because I’m much of a Pitt fan, but because I’m a huge Sorkin fan.

Sorkin managed to fictionalize the underlying story enough to make it be entertaining without losing the underlying point of the book, in my opinion, but I know some feel otherwise. Regardless, by the time the movie came out to critical acclaim in 2011, most MLB teams were already subscribing to most of Beane’s philosophies, anyway.

Anyway, let’s get back to talking about changes to baseball that may be directly or indirectly traced to Moneyball and also a bit about what some see as inevitable future changes that we might as well blame Moneyball for, as well, while we’re at it.

Passan traces the current focus on “three true outcomes” to Moneyball, as well as defensive shifts, current bullpen usage and the significant spike in pitching velocity.

I’ll let you decide for yourselves whether Lewis’ book about Beane’s Oakland A’s is responsible for those and other changes. In truth the Moneyball reference is just something I’m using as a hook to get your attention (how’s that for honesty?). I just want to talk about the changes themselves, whether they’re good or bad for the game and what, if anything, should be done about them.

I also want to bring in topics that Jayson Stark brought up in his piece at The Athletic last week, specifically, expansion and resulting realignment.

Look, I’m kind of old school. I’m one of those “fat old white men” that are responsible for everything wrong with baseball (and the country in general, I suppose) according to… well… seemingly everyone  who ISN’T a fat old white man.

I’d have probably been perfectly happy if Major League Baseball still had the ten teams in each league that existed during my childhood in the 1960s. But I was fine with putting a team in Kansas City and thought their stadium was really cool the first time my family went to a game there. I still think so.

I was OK with the designated hitter rule. Maybe that was because it meant I got to see one of my boyhood heroes, Tony Oliva, extend his career a bit longer than his knees would have allowed had the Twins been required to find a defensive spot for him.

Divisional play and pre-World Series postseason games? Sure, no problem. After all, my Twins won the first couple of AL West titles in seasons that they would have otherwise had virtually no chance to prevent Baltimore from winning the pennant without a playoff system. Of course, they couldn’t prevent that outcome, anyway, as it turned out, but the Twins won SOMETHING anyway in 1969 and 1970,

I’d have probably appreciated that even more had I known it would be another 17 years before they’d do it again.

All of this is by way of pointing out that I have not been universally opposed to changes to the MLB game.

In fact, changes for the sake of making the game more competitive and to improve/broaden fan interest (aka “make more money”) is about as woven into the fabric of the game as any of the rules governing the game, so let’s just stop using “tradition” as an excuse for rejecting any and all suggestions concerning potential changes.

MLB has tried best-of-9 World Series. They’ve tried having two All-Star Games. Some changes worked better than others. Some changes took far too long to make (desegregation, for example).

So, let’s go down the list of changes Passan and Stark have written about and this one fat old white man will tell you what I think of each.

Defensive shifts: I’m pro shift. If you’ve got data, it would be stupid not to use it to prevent runs. I’m against adopting a rule requiring two infielders on each side of second base, but if baseball decides that’s what’s needed to bring more offense back into the game, I wouldn’t whine too loud about it.

I’d like to think, though, that hitters could and would make adjustments to beat the shifts, causing teams to shift less and, thus, correcting the trend over time.

That said, I’ve had people inside baseball that I respect tell me that making such an adjustment isn’t quite that simple. Maybe Wee Willie Keeler could, “keep my eyes clear and hit ‘em where they ain’t,” but it’s unlikely Keeler saw too many 95-100 mph fastballs in the 1890s.

I think if most fans had to step into the batters box to face a 95+ mph fastball, they’d wet themselves.

Hell, I wouldn’t want to try to CATCH a ball thrown at me that fast. Which is why I don’t often criticize a catcher who occasionally doesn’t get in position to block one of those throws that a pitcher doesn’t deliver on a straight line to the catcher’s mitt.

Pitching: Just a few years ago, I was talking to a couple of Twins pitching prospects who had spent time with the Cedar Rapids Kernels and I mentioned something about the scoreboard pitch speed indicator not working. One of them chuckled a little at the reference to what he somewhat derisively termed the “talent meter.”

That conversation took place at a time when pitch “velo” was starting to generate a lot of discussion.

Now, as Passan cites, the average fastball velocity in the big leagues has risen from 88.9 mph in 2003, when Moneyball was released, to 92.2 mph today.

If the young pitching coming through Cedar Rapids is any indication, that trend is not going to be reversing any time soon. It seems very rare to see any pitcher – starter or bullpen arm – who isn’t hitting at least 92 mph on that “talent meter.”

I was a pitcher (well, as long as my high school coach isn’t likely to read this, I’m going to continue claiming that, anyway), so I’ve tended to side with pitchers in just about any pitcher vs. hitter debate. But we are soon going to be watching games where the average fastball is going to be nearing 95 mph.

You can’t tell me that pitch velocity alone isn’t largely responsible for less hitting and, thus, the proliferation of the three true outcomes – a strikeout, a walk or a home run (if you DO get your bat on one of those things squarely, it’s likely to travel some distance).

That gets us to…

Pace of Play: The “three true outcomes” thing is what’s slowing the game down. Not much you can say will change my opinion of that. Two of those three outcomes take a long time to accomplish and can get pretty tedious. That is not good for baseball.

Changing the rules to require just three balls for a walk and two strikes for a strikeout would speed things up, but would just get to those two potential boring outcomes faster. Likewise, changing the rules to make the strike zone bigger or smaller would also just get to one of those outcomes sooner. No thanks.

No, the increase in velocity has shifted the advantage to the pitcher too far. We need something to bring more doubles and triples into the game.

Here’s what I think: Let’s move the rubber back a foot. Maybe it would only take six inches. I dunno. Someone smarter than me could figure out the right distance. But give the hitters just a little more time for their brains to send the communication to their bodies concerning whether or not to swing.

Right now, hitters are just guessing. I was taught by my coach-father to read the spin on the ball, identify the pitch, then make the decision concerning whether to swing or not.

There is no way a human can take the time to do that on a 95 mph fastball. They have no choice but to guess.

But 60 ‘ 6” is what the distance has always been! We can’t change that!

Of course we can. Baseball lowered the mound in the 60s. Why? Because the then-current-height gave pitchers too much of an advantage and hardly anyone was able to hit .300. Sound familiar?

Personally, I think it’s the one rule change that could get more action back into the game while minimizing all other aspects of the game. Just do it, already.

Umpiring: Implement the technology to call balls and strikes electronically. I’ve had it with strike zones that change from umpire to umpire, from pitcher to pitcher and even based on count. (Take a look at the differences between what’s called a strike on 0-2 counts vs. 3-0 counts. It’s absurd and there is NO justifiable reason for it.)

We’ve given the umpires and their union long enough to get it right. Maybe it comes back to the velocity thing, again. It’s tough to accurately judge where today’s fastballs are crossing the plate. Fine, but that’s an argument for using technology, not for defending an outmoded system.

When the game was invented, the best technology available to determine a strike from a ball might have been to put a guy behind the catcher to make that call. That is no longer the case. Make every pitcher and every hitter use the same strike zone.

Expansion and realignment: It’s hard to believe that, in less than two decades, we’ve gone from Bud Selig pushing contraction to Rob Manfred strongly considering expansion.

I’m not really convinced there are two more communities in North America that would successfully support a MLB franchise. I’ve looked at Stark’s list of potential cities and I’m not optimistic about any of them. They are:

Portland
Charlotte
Nashville
Montreal
San Antonio/Austin
Las Vegas
Mexico City

Frankly, I find more reasons why teams might NOT succeed in each of those locations than why they would, but if baseball becomes convinced, I would say, “go for it.”

32 teams are better than 30. It just is. The scheduling issue alone makes this true.

I kind of liked intrer-league scheduling when it was first introduced. Now, not so much. There’s just no way to make scheduling a handful of inter-league games fair for everyone. It screws up competitive balance and that’s not a good thing.

Stark writes that eventually we’ll see an alignment based on geography. Well, maybe most of us fat old white men will be dead by then, but our kids will see it.

I’m good with that. Adopt the designated hitter across the board and give us eight four-team divisions (four divisions in each league).

Stark throws out a couple of possible scenarios for realignment. There are problems with both, but they’re starting points.

One has the Twins with the Cubs, White Sox and Brewers. The other, which tries to largely keep the current AL and NL intact, lumps Minnesota with the Tigers, White Sox and Indians. Not ideal, perhaps, but I understand they can’t build a system with, “what is best for Twins fans?” as it’s starting point, so I wouldn’t get bent out of shape with either alignment.

In the end, here’s where I come down:

I would love for some of my grandkids and their kids to love baseball as much as I do. Whatever it takes to make that happen, I’ll try to be open to.

If some of the changes are hard to swallow, I’ll simply do what I always do – blame someone else.

Damn you, Moneyball. (See how easy that is?)

Jose Miranda Heating Up With the Weather

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The month of April was not kind to Cedar Rapids Kernels infielder Jose Miranda.

Jose Miranda (Photo by SD Buhr)

After hitting .284 and putting up a .824 On-base Plus Slugging (OPS) for rookie level Elizabethton in 2017, Miranda was one of several highly-regarded hitting prospects that were expected to power the Kernels’ offense in 2018, but the 19-year-old from Puerto Rico managed just a .180 batting average in 16 April games for the Kernels before the calendar mercifully turned to May.

Since then, however, Miranda has not only been hitting at a respectable .262 rate, but has six doubles, a triple and four home runs among his 40 post-April hits.

Being younger than almost all of the pitchers he was facing would be enough of a factor to explain the slow start with the bat, but Miranda had one more thing going against him that many of his teammates didn’t have. Unlike some players who spent their high school and/or college days playing ball in the northern areas of the United States, playing baseball in the cold was a new experience for Miranda.

He’s reluctant to blame his slow start on the weather, but facts are facts.

“I don’t want to say it was the weather, but maybe in part, yeah, because the first month it was pretty cold,” Miranda conceded recently. “I’m not used to the cold weather because Puerto Rico is always hot.”

As the temperatures have been rising in Iowa and the surrounding area, so has Miranda’s stat line.

“I’m just making adjustments day-by-day, taking it step by step,” he said, explaining his turnaround. “I don’t want to get too anxious or too frustrated by what happens, I’m just in the moment and making adjustments every day.”

Kernels hitting coach Brian Dinkelman thinks the weather had something to do with the infielder’s sluggish start to the season, as well.

“Over the first month, tough weather conditions, first time experiencing cold weather, so I’m sure that had a little to do with it,” Dinkelman reflected. “He’s got some confidence now. He’s been hitting the ball better the last few weeks. He’s swinging at more strikes.”

Jose Miranda (Photo by SD Buhr)

Dinkelman is seeing better pitch selection from Miranda. “Especially with guys in scoring position. Not getting himself out on the first or second pitch by chasing or getting in a hole 0-1, 0-2. Been better the last month about getting good pitches to hit. When they’re in the strike zone, he does ok.”

Miranda, himself, admits he has an affinity for taking a good whack at the first pitch. Even so, his aggressive approach hasn’t led to a ton of strikeouts. Through his first 213 at-bats, he’s K’d only 31 times.

“Yeah, I like to battle,” Miranda explained. “Sometimes when I see a first pitch is right down the middle, I just like to swing. Take advantage of it, because sometimes it’s the best pitch you’re going to see. Maybe the first pitch is right down the middle, a fastball, then they’re going to work you with different pitches, so I like to jump at that first pitch. But if I don’t get it, then I’m going to keep battling.

“And no, I don’t like striking out,” he added, emphatically. “I hate it. Since I was little, I’ve tried to battle.”

Miranda has had plenty of talented hitters to watch and learn from in Cedar Rapids this season.

“We’ve got a first overall here, Royce (Lewis), and other guys that are first rounders, second rounders,” Miranda pointed out. “It doesn’t matter if they’re like first 10 rounds, all the guys are super important for me, too. It’s pretty cool to play with these guys.

“I like to watch every other player here. I like to watch what they do. What type of at-bats they take. What type of pitches they swing on. I admire everyone here. I admire what they do. I like everyone here. Everyone here battles. They play hard and that’s what it’s all about.”

Miranda says he’s also feeling stronger as the season progresses.

“I feel like the power is coming on,” he said. “I feel like I’m barreling the ball more. I’m have better swings and it’s summertime, so I think the ball is going to keep flying out.”

Miranda said he’s been playing baseball since he was four years old.

“When I was little I used to play in my back yard. Everybody came to my house,” he recalled.

Jose Miranda and Royce Lewis, either attempting to take flight or going through pre-game warm-up drills. You decide. (Photo: SD Buhr)

He was a shortstop through his high school playing days, but at the time he was drafted, scouts reportedly projected him to end up filling out and moving to third base.

He played almost exclusively at second base in Elizabethton a season ago, however, and seemed to be set there through most of the first couple months of the Kernels season, while 2017 fifth round selection Andrew Bechtold was manning third base.

In recent weeks, however, manager Toby Gardenhire has often swapped the two, giving Miranda time at third base, with Bechtold at second, while Lewis continues to hold down shortstop and Jordan Gore gets a lot of work in a utility role, filling in at all three positions.

Dinkelman acknowledged the change in pattern, but cautioned about reading too much into it.

“Just a little versatility,” he explained. “We like them both at second and third and Gore can play all three. Just to get the experience at each position, because you never know, the higher you go up the ladder and to the big leagues, what position you’re going to play. So, if you can get a little experience at each and figure out maybe what is your best position, it’ll be good for all of them.”

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

As for Miranda, he’s open to playing wherever the team and it’s leadership need him to play.

“I kind of play wherever they want me, he said. “I do like both (second base and third base). Since I was young, I used to play shortstop, but now I’m playing more second and third and I don’t have a preference. I just want to be in the lineup!”

With the 2018 draft taking place early this month, Miranda was recalling what it felt like to go through the draft process two years ago, as a 17-year-old in Puerto Rico.

“It’s been one of my biggest moments in my life,” he recollected. “I was at my house with my dad and my grandma and I was watching it because I wasn’t sure if I was going to go in the second round or third round. The first two rounds are the first day, so I was kind of unsure if I was going to go in the second round. I was just watching it and hoping to get the call from my agent. And then it was like the 59th pick or something like that when my agent called me and told me, ‘you’re going to go in the 73rd pick to the Twins.’

“So I was kind of nervous and anxious. I was getting a lot of messages and calls and I just wanted to watch it on TV and enjoy the moment. I got a call from the scout for the Twins in Puerto Rico, (saying) ‘Hey, good luck, I know you’re going to do well.’ I said, ‘Hey, they haven’t called me yet, let me watch it first and I will call you back.’

“So, yeah, it was one of my biggest moments in my life and I enjoyed it.”

Talking Hitting with “Dink”

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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.

Brian Dinkelman (Photo by SD Buhr)

“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 20th 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?

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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.

Royce Lewis (Photo by SD Buhr

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.

Alex Kirilloff (Photo by SD Buhr)

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 16th 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.

Jordan Gore (Photo by SD Buhr)

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

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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

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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!

SB

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

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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?”

Alex Kirilloff (Photo by SD Buhr)

That’s right, the Kernels don’t have a first round pick on the field this season – they are in the enviable and rare position of having TWO of the Twins’ recent first round picks and both have been beating up on Midwest League pitchers through the first several weeks of the season.

Lewis has been everything you’d hope for as a Twins fan. He has put up a.373 batting average and .849 OPS in 83 at-bats through Tuesday’s game at Dayton., He carries a six-game hitting streak into Wednesday’s game. He has also hit safely in 16 of his 20 games.

That’s the kind of start that has a lot of people wondering how soon the first overall pick in the 2017 draft will be promoted to Class High-A Fort Myers.

Alex Kirilloff, the “other” first rounder the autograph hounds were looking for, was selected by the Twins in the first round (15th overall) of the 2016 draft and, while Lewis has rightfully been getting a lot of publicity, Kirilloff has also been making a strong case that his time in Cedar Rapids should not be an extended stay, either.

Kirilloff’s OPS of .851 is almost identical to that of Lewis, but they’ve taken different paths to establishing that number.

OPS is the sum of two other statistics, on-base percentage and slugging percentage, and Lewis’ .OPS is composed of nearly equal on-base and slugging percentages. Kirilloff, on the other hand, is reaching base at a .327 clip, but his slugging percentage is a robust .524.

His batting average has climbed to within shouting distance of .300, and over half of his hits this season have been of the extra-base variety. Kirilloff has 12 doubles (second most in the Midwest League) and four home runs among his 30 hits. He is also taking a nine-game hitting streak into Wednesday night’s game..

Alex Kirilloff (Photo by SD Buhr)

Having first round picks on the field is nothing new for the Kernels.

Since they began their affiliation with the Twins in the 2013 season, fans in Cedar Rapids have watched outfielder Byron Buxton (in 2013) and shortstop Nick Gordon (in 2015), as well as pitcher Kohl Stewart (in 2014). Of course, Lewis suited up for the Kernels for the final couple of weeks of the 2017 season, as well.

Buxton, Gordon and Lewis, as everyday position players, generated a lot of buzz at the ballpark, as befits a first-round pick, and Lewis continues to see a lengthy line of autograph seekers during the Kernels’ Sunday afternoon autograph sessions.

Any other year, you know Kirilloff would be getting that focus from fans and media.

But this is no ordinary year in Cedar Rapids.

Kirilloff bats third in a lineup that not only includes Lewis and himself, the two first round picks, but also typically includes a second-rounder (C Ben Rortvedt), two Compensation “B” round picks (IF Jose Miranda and OF Akil Baddoo), a fourth round pick (OF/1B Trey Cabbage), a Twins fifth rounder (3B Andrew Bechtold), a Mariners fifth round pick (C David Banuelos, obtained in a trade) and an eighth round pick (OF Shane Carrier). On top of those “slot pick” players, outfielder Jean Carlos Arias was an international free agent that signed with the Twins for a mid-six-figure bonus.

And that list doesn’t even include the pitching prospects.

He certainly gets his share of autograph requests, but there’s no doubt that sharing a field with Lewis and the other high-priced talent on the Kernels roster has resulted in Kirilloff playing in a broad shadow during the early part of the 2018 season, despite having one of the cleanest, most consistent and most productive swings you’re ever likely to see from a 20-year-old.

Spend a few minutes talking to the 20-year-old from Pittsburgh, though, and you can tell he is not the least bit bothered by his circumstances. Quite the contrary.

“It is a lot of fun,” Kirilloff responded, over the weekend, when asked his feelings about being a part of a lineup that is pretty much loaded with highly regarded position prospects. “We all have to still show up and do our jobs, but it’s a great group of guys that are even better people, as well. They’re fun to be around and an exciting team.”

Alex Kirilloff (Photo by SD Buhr)

At this point, you can understand if Kirilloff is just happy to be back taking meaningful swings at the plate after missing all of the 2017 season following Tommy John surgery. It would also be understandable if he had started off this spring a bit rusty, but there’s no rust in his swing.

“I had known it was not going to be easy, at first, taking a year and a half off from live at-bats,” he said. “I was expecting to take it one step at a time, to be honest. I learned a lot from spring training and kind of built on that and just continued to plug away this year. Hopefully, I can continue to build off of our start and my start, as well.”

Best of all, perhaps, there have been no lingering effects from his injury.

“The arm’s great. No problems. It’s been a blessing,” he confirmed.

It hasn’t all been easy, though. Cedar Rapids played several games in near freezing temperatures and even occasional snow flurries during April and even had to sit through a six-day layoff caused by cold temperatures and snow. It’s not that they didn’t notice, he and his team mates just treated the inclement weather as one more part of learning  to be professional ballplayers.

“It was just really cold here at the beginning of the year,” he recalled. “But, all of us were expecting that, being in Iowa.”

You might think that Kirilloff is anxious to quickly make up for the development time he lost by sitting out last season, but that’s not really at the forefront of his mind this spring.

“Just kind of maintaining for 140 games is the biggest key for this year,” Kirilloff said, adding, “and keeping my body healthy. Staying on an even keel throughout that whole stretch is going to be big. It’s a long season.”

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

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

Edwar Colina (Photo by SD Buhr)

You enjoy sports, especially baseball, and you can literally play ball every day, all year, if you want.

You realize your dream of signing a professional baseball contract and then, one day, you’re pitching for the Cedar Rapids Kernels, a mere 2,600 miles, as the crow flies, from your home town.

Then you walk out to the mound to pitch your first game of the season and it’s 37 degrees with a 15 mile per hour wind slapping you in the face.

Welcome to the world of Kernels pitcher Edwar Colina, as it existed on April 7 this spring when he took to the mound for his first start in full-season professional baseball.

“It was hard for me,” Colina recalled this weekend, concerning his introduction to Midwest spring weather. “It was the first time in my life that I see snow. The weather was really hard. In my home, the regular weather is 85 degrees. 85 to 90 all year. So when I came here, the first week was really hard for me. But the experience is all (part of) baseball. That’s part of the process, you know?

“It was hard, because I never pitched in that weather, but you just try to compete and I think I did a good job with the weather.”

Indeed he did.

Colina accorded himself quite well, considering the circumstances that night, when he got the start for the Kernels’ home opener. He surrendered two runs, just one of which was earned, in four innings of work in what would become a 4-3 Cedar Rapids win.

Thanks, in part, to a streak of unplayable weather that followed the Kernels across the Midwest for a week, Colina didn’t get another chance to start until more than two weeks later. In fact, he’s had only three starts this season.

He gave up just a pair of hits over five shutout innings in a start on April 24, recording his first Win on the year in a game where the temperature was 74 degrees at first pitch, exactly twice what it had been in his first start. That’s pretty good, but both the weather and his performance levels were both just starting to warm up.

In his start on Tuesday, May 1 (two days before his 21st birthday), it was 80 degrees in Cedar Rapids when he took the mound for the first inning. When he left the game, he not only had shut out the South Bend Cubs over his six innings of work, he’d also held them without a hit.

After Jovani Moran provided three innings of no-hit relief, the pair had combined to throw the first no-hitter for the Kernels in just over five years and Colina’s record rose to 2-0.

The no-hitter was a first for Colina.

“That was my first no-hitter ever at any level, amateur or professional,” a smiling Colina acknowledged. “It was the first no-hitter of my life.”

Whether by tradition or due to superstition, common baseball practice is to pretty much leave a pitcher alone between innings when he has something as meaningful as a no-hitter going on, but that’s not what Colina was doing on Tuesday.

“No, I talked to my team mates a lot during the game,” he said. “I talked to the catcher. How we feel comfortable throwing what pitches. I just tried to be a good team mate with my position guys and I did not pay attention, really, to the no-hitter. I just tried to keep focus on the game and to help my team.”

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.”