So Cleveland is a roll right now. This is their 5th straight win if my count is correct. That being said, it was a really close, well-fought game on both sides. There was also some interesting late-inning roster manipulation on both sides – a scorers nightmare for keeping track of who is in for who and where they went. Sadly, we just came out on the losing end of things at the end.
So today, the St. Paul Saints are having their yearly try-outs in which they take all comers. Yes, it is snowing – which is why I think they postponed the activity from yesterday to today – but from what I have heard, they are going ahead today. At least the website still says that they are going today.
So if you’re dying to play professional baseball and think you have the stuff, you should head over to Midway Stadium – at least if you’re young and vigorous, right?
Paul Risso, a 60-year-old pitcher from New Mexico who will try out for the St. Paul Saints on Thursday, May 2, 2013, is shown pitching during the Mens Senior Baseball League – Phoenix 55+ World Series in a 2009 photo. (Photo courtesy of Paul Risso)
So here’s the thing. One of the guys who will be “auditioning” today is 60 yo Paul Risso. Yes, you read that right. He’s 6-0 years old – as in “born in 1952.”
According to the Pioneer Press story, Risso had a promising career back in college when kids normally are drafted to play professional baseball: son of Giants prospect, Albert Risso; promising right-handed pitcher from San Mateo College in California; drafted by they Pittsburgh Pirates in the sixth round; but… A torn rotator cuff ended all that in 1973 as they didn’t have the medical technology to make those diagnoses or repairs.
Paul Risso, a 60-year-old pitcher from New Mexico who will try out for the St. Paul Saints on Thursday, May 2, 2013, in a 2011 photo. (Photo courtesy of Paul Risso)
Mr. Risso went on with life without baseball as a civil engineer but always with the shoulder pain that had killed the baseball option – that is until about 10 years ago. For whatever reason, the shoulder had repaired itself, gotten stronger and the pain went away so… he started throwing again. He still throws a fastball around 84 miles an hour, which is nothing to sneeze at.
Risso is the oldest player ever to try out for the Saints but he’s certainly not the only “old guy” who wants to play baseball over there. And he’s NOT the oldest guy to actually play for the Saints. Other senior players include a 53 yo Knuckleballer (always a fav) named Jon Secrist and Minnie Minoso who was signed each in 1993 and 2003 with at-bats as a designated hitter so he could record professional play in 7 decades. Minoso is now 87 years old and you wonder if maybe they’ll throw him out there now that it’s 2013 to give him one more decade to make 8.
Of course, those are names none of you have ever even heard of so who else wants to play for the Saints this year? According FSN, Jose Conseco. Anyone else think it would be more entertaining to have Minoso again? At least Conseco is honest enough to admit that he is making the proposal purely for promotions’ sake – although whether it’s for his OWN promotion or the team would be hard to differentiate.
And the Saints have been known to do crazier things with players on the backside of their careers. Darryl Strawberry was attempting a legitimate comeback, which worked since he ended up back with the Yankees the next year.
So with all this attention to the Saints possible roster additions, has anyone reminded them that our dear friend, Jim Thome doesn’t have a home yet?? Now THAT would sell WAAAAAAY more tickets than Jose Conseco. Anyone have his email address??
I’m all for it! Let’s get some Old Guys Playing Baseball!
Boy, am I glad the Twins are on the road right now… We Minnesotans get enough crap about living here without a game possibly being postponed AGAIN for snow – on the first of May. It’s only raining at my office right now but we’re supposed to get a slushy mess of crap through this afternoon. I’ll try to distract myself with following the game on Gameday – oh yeah, and work, that too.
At any rate, I would love to see Scott Diamond go deep into the game (would have liked that from Vanimal too but oh well) but I’m sure a lot will depend on how he fares against a pretty potent hitting lineup. Hicks is back in the lineup today and Mauer is getting a day off but that is basically to be expected since he caught last night. We have Carroll coming in at 3B so no Plouffe today.. let’s see what happens!
Now THAT was a fun game to watch!! err… sort of “watch” since I was limited to gameday tracking but you get the idea… WINNING is GOOD! It was very good to see the Twins offense show up and do well up and down the order. I wish I could have SEEN the stolen base by Doumit! It’s good when baseball is fun – especially when I look out the window and it’s snowing here in Minnesota. And right now, that means we have an even split on the season series between us and Detroit at 3 apiece if I recall correctly. AND it also means the Twins are back to .500 for the season as well… honestly, given the expectations during Spring Training, this is a dramatically better result.
Today what made me the happiest though was the performance by Scott Diamond. He’s definitely making his way back. His top number for velocity was only 90 mph and I only saw that once (wasn’t watching TOO closely) but there didn’t seem to be anyone on the Detroit roster who was going to hit off him until the 5th inning! That’s pretty unusual given the way the Tigers have been hitting us lately. So for that, the GameChat unanimously elected Scott Diamond as today’s BOD!
Cedar Rapids Kernels outfielder JaDamion (J.D.) Williams is in his fourth season with the Minnesota Twins organization. He was drafted by the Twins in the 10th round of the 2010 amateur draft.
JD WIlliams with some pregame stretching
After a very productive 2011 season at Rookie League level Elizabethton, where he hit .324, Williams hit only .237 for the Beloit Snappers a year ago and accumulated an on-base percentage of .311.
In his second year in the Midwest League, Williams is off to a much better start for the Kernels.
Hitting out of the ninth spot in Manager Jake Mauer’s batting order, Williams spent most of the first three weeks of the season with a batting average approaching .300. While he’s dropped to .250 through Tuesday’s game, he’s sporting an impressive .446 on-base percentage. He’s also hit four doubles and three home runs, leading to a slugging percentage sufficient to put his OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) up to .946. Those numbers may not be sustainable, but they reflect a new approach to hitting this season.
Williams sat down for an interview over the weekend to discuss his first few weeks in Cedar Rapids and his role, thus far, with the Kernels.
Knuckleballs: This is your second season in the Midwest League. Is there anything specifically different about how you feel going in to this year as opposed to starting last year in Beloit?
J.D. Williams: Just the fact that I’ve had a year here in this league and I’ve learned a lot more. I’m more of a mature player, mature of a hitter and fielder. Learning from different guys. Our hitting coach Tommy Watkins, this is my second year working with him. Guys such as (Twins minor league hitting coordinator) Bill Springman, those guys just teaching me not necessarily the athletic side of the game but baseball mentality. Just learning to be a baseball player, not just running around.
Knuckleballs: Was it disappointing to find out you were going to be coming back to the Midwest League or was that something you were pretty much prepared for happening this year?
JDW: I wasn’t sure what was going to happen, but like they say, as long as you got a jersey on, somebody likes you. I didn’t do what I wanted to do here (in the Midwest League) last year, so it doesn’t bother me that I’m back here. I’m playing a lot better this year, so it is what it is.
Knuckleballs: Did the Twins give you anything specific to work on? Did they say, “this is what we really want you to work on going in to the season. That’s what you’re going to have to do to advance.”?
JDW: Basically, they wanted me to cut down on my strikeouts; put the ball in play a lot more because I can run but you cant steal first base, like they say. I think I’m doing a lot better at that this year. I’m walking a lot more, not just going up there swinging at every pitch I see, opposed to like I was doing last year.
JD Williams waits his turn for batting practice as Byron Buxton gets his swings
Knuckleballs: They probably don’t exactly encourage you to run a lot with Byron Buxton coming up behind you, though.
JDW: (Laughs) He talks to me a lot. He tells me he’s going to give me a few pitches to run. We’ve got our little sign for when I’m gonna run and whatnot. So we work on that a lot, try to get each other a couple of bases.
Knuckleballs: Growing up, did you have a favorite player, someone you wanted to be like?
JDW: Growing up I liked to watch Brandon Phillips. That was back when I was an infielder and I’m an outfielder now. Of course, I like Denard Span and those guys. Michael Bourne, Juan Pierre, those guys that can run, get on base, steal a couple of bases. I want to be just like those guys.
Knuckleballs: Is there anything about coming to Cedar Rapids that you’ve found different than what you expected it to be?
JDW: Yeah, I love the atmosphere here, the stadium, the people. It’s a lot bigger than Beloit, obviously. Just a lot louder atmosphere. It’s fun playing here. Much more fun team this year, the guys, everything is different this year.
Knuckleballs: You’re making a statement at the bottom of the order. There’s a cliché about the number nine guy being a second leadoff hitter, but that’s not just a cliché with the way you’re getting on base.
JDW: That’s what Jake told me at the beginning of the season. He told me I was probably going to bat ninth and I told him that didn’t bother me at all. If Buxton’s doing a great job at the top of the order, I’ll score a bunch of runs batting in front of Buxton so I’m not gonna argue with that at all. Basically, like I said, we’re just having fun, man. I enjoy hitting in the nine hole in front of those guys.
Knuckleballs: Is there anything that Twins fans and Kernels fans don’t know about you that you’d like the fans to know about you?
JDW: I’m not sure what they know about me yet (laughs), probably not a lot, yet. I’m going to try to change that in the future though, you know? Let these guys know who I am. Not many people know who I am.
Williams and his Kernels team mates are off to a very good start, leading the Midwest League’s Western Division by three games over Quad Cities and riding a nine game winning streak, through Tuesday. If they keep it up, Kernels fans will be getting to know him much better.
[Because of the Wild playoff game, the Twins game is being broadcast on FSN+]
Maybe Justin Verlander will be really bad tonight, right?
OK, probably not, but he hasn’t been quite as dominant this season as he has been in the past, so maybe we’ll see something unusual, like a Twins win over Verlander.
Apparently, Gardy has decided Aaron Hicks has seen Verlander enough already and he’s getting tonight off.
Then again, maybe there are other reasons and I’ve just been totally out of touch all day and have no idea what I’m talking about. Wouldn’t be the first time.
I’ve got a business dinner tonight so I won’t be in chat until late, if at all. For those who do make it, enjoy! – JC
Gotta admit, that game really wasn’t much fun to watch. Nothing HORRIBLE but nothing really good. Again, Worley gives up a rough first inning. Again, Worley can’t go deep in the game. Again, the Twins can’t seem to string enough hits together to get RUNS.
I think we have figured out though that while the Tigers defense has definitely improved this year, their base-running most definitely has not.
The Twins start their second series of the season against the Detroit Tigers just a single game behind MoTown in the AL Central standings. The Twins took two of three in the season opening series with Tigers despite dropping the Opening Day game against Verlander. The Twins get off a little lighter tonight facing Max Scherzer. The Twins will counter with the wildly ineffective Mike Pelfrey who is still less than one year removed from Tommy John surgery.
The Twins will need to get the bats going tonight in order to pick up a victory.
One really bad inning and it’s a loss to the Tigers. Not really much more to say about it than that. Pelfrey looked pretty good two times through the Detroit order, but that wasn’t good enough.
[apologies for the lack of gamechat yesterday – apparently all Knuckleballers were off busy elsewhere – not that hard to believe actually]
The final game of the series – I would love it if we could SPLIT it. Yesterday’s win was a nice come back after going down in the first two games. I would like to continue to enjoy this phenomenal spring weather with another Twins win!
I’m beginning to wonder if I’m a jinx. The two games that I am not able to watch are the ones in which the Twins manage to have towering victories over the Rangers. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVE it. I just wish I had been able to actually SEE it. But it’s a great way to finish the homestand and send the boys off on a long road trip.
Episode 35 of the Twins baseball podcast, Talk To Contact (@TalkToContact), is now available for download via iTunes or by clicking here.
Episode 35 is a Minor League/Prospect heavy podcast, something we haven’t done for a while. We talk specifically about Miguel Sano, Byron Buxton, Adam Walker, Kyle Gibson, Trevor May, Alex Meyer, and then finally go Down on the Pond with Kennys Vargas. Lots of good stuff in there. We also discuss the Twins recent performance against the Marlins and Rangers, pick out the Twins hitter and pitcher of the week, and then do a little bit of baseball chatter when we look Around the League.
Enjoy!
You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan. You can follow Paul on Twitter (@BaseballPirate) or read his writing at Puckett’s Pond. And of course, you can find me on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read my writing here at Knuckleballs!
The Cedar Rapids Kernels beat the Great Lakes Loons Saturday night in dramatic, extra-inning fashion.
Adam Brett Walker hit a game-tying three-run home run with two out in the bottom of the ninth inning to send the game in to extra innings.
In the bottom of the 11th inning, the Kernels loaded the bases and Manager Jake Mauer sent Travis Harrison to the plate to pinch hit. If you’ll pardon the quality of the video from my phone, I’ll share what happened next:
Niko Goodrum, the runner on third base, trotted in to score the winning run, but did you notice the two runners immediate ahead of Harrison? Dalton Hicks and Adam Brett Walker appear to peel off their paths after rounding third base and run toward the infield to join the celebration. Eventually, it appears they may have returned to the baseline and found their ways to home plate ahead of Harrison.
In the end, however, the umpires ruled that while Goodrum scored the winning run, Harrison and the other two runners abandoned their efforts to advance. The result is that Harrison was credited with a walk-off RBI single and the Kernels won 8-7.
