Article: Inside the Florida Instructional League

[John Bonnes]

What a difference a year makes. Not only did the squad reporting to this years 2014 Florida Instructional League look much different than last year but so did the newly renovated facility. When entering the new Player Academy, you're greeted by a large hill that was constructed for new strength exercises and a sign stating "This is Twin Territory" with a 12 ft picture of Kirby Puckett and the quote: "And we'll see you tomorrow night!" Around the corner is more signage showing the Twins past success and telling everyone "The Road Begins Here". While waiting around, I was able to find the itinerary for this past Thursday.

 

 

 

Further down is the brand new three-story housing unit and office for the Players' Developmental Academy, and let me tell you, the Twins did this right. That is except for the marked up rates they charge the players for simple things such as contact solution. I sweet talked my way into the first floor unit and it was nice, furnished with ping-pong tables, pool tables, conference rooms and offices. The walls are decorated with blown up old school Twins baseball cards and ESPN The Magazine covers with Baseball America magazines strewn about and the MLB network playing on flatscreen TVs. The players live on the second and third floor and room with a teammate unless they have family.

 

 

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The best part of this experience is that I'm the only "regular" person out there with all these players, coaches and trainers. With the 10am game cancelled due to wet conditions, the day started off as a fizzle and I was honestly about to leave but who do I see come out of the Academy Complex but Bryon Buxton and the rest of the Instructional League squad. Buxton was the first player out and has definitely hardened over the last two years since I've seen him in that he doesn't like the chit-chat or pictures or autographs as much as when he was fresh out of a small Georgia high school. Following Buxton were the rest of the Instructional League positional players minus Nick Gordon. The pitchers stayed behind in the Complex listening to a Rasmussen speech and watching video.

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At 9:30 the position players reported to what they loving refer to as "The Hill". At first glance it doesn't appear ominous but if you talk to any player out there, they hated it by the end.

The first player taken was Miguel Guzman (and boy, can he fly) while the catchers were all picked near the end with Alex Swim getting the notorious last pick and crying about it. Kanzler ended up with Rainis Silvia, Jorge Fernandez, Nelson Molina, Trey Vavra, Tanner English,Tyree Davis, Rafael Valera and Stu Turner.

 

, before deciding on slow-fast-slow placement of runners and picking Rainis Silvia to go first, which Rainis was pleading not to do. Jorge Fernandez is quiet the character: very verbal with encouragement, a quick wit and always cracking a joke.

 

I said that I wasn't impressed with last year's strength and conditioning regime. This time around leadman Eric Beiser pulled out a great drill. It included a tremendous number of difficult exercises on that hill. Tommy Watkins, the FIL manager, loves giving his players crap, riding them hard. Most of the players thought he was joking when he said we're hitting after this but he was serious.

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Believe it or not, this drill killed several of the players with three of them puking. Tyree told me, "I never had to do this even in football. They said you work every muscle but I only feel it here (quadriceps). I know what I'm doing this offseason (pointing to the hill). I've never had to workout like this before."

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Buxton just stood on the sidelines and watched as he's nowhere near in shape. He's only hitting in the the cage at this point. Tyler Kuresa asked Buxton if he had done this drill before which Byron replied "Yeah, but I was in shape then."

, thus making Kanzler group having to hit second and clean-up the hill and collect balls in the cage.

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While the positional players were finishing up with their drill, the pitchers came out at about 10:30 AM. Many of the positionals asked if the pitchers had to do the same drill, and received an emphatic "NO!" in reply. To which Tyler Kuresa replied back, "Gotta work on covering first today?"

 

Eric Rassmussen asked Field Coordinator Joe Lepel if he had two catchers that weren't tanked so

. Of course, that was after the pitchers played catch and long toss for 20 minutes.

 

After JT Chargois finished I was able to call him over and get him to talk briefly about his recovery processs and

. According to JT, the arm is feeling the best it has in a long time but he's having trouble with his location and command. He says he doesn't know how hard he's throwing which I'm sure was a lie, but according to a source he was 96-98 mph in his last outing. He's throwing mainly fastballs at this point and that's all he threw in his side session. The source I talked to said they plan to take it slow with JT, possibly starting off in extended spring training and/or Fort Myers and see from there. From my perspective Chargois seems like a genuinely nice kid and I wish him the best of luck but don't think he needs too much because that ball just explodes out of his hand.

 

The pitchers then reported off to the inside arena while the hitters continued to hit in the cages. The rain started to come and I departed. Hopefully next week the rain subsides enough to get a game in when I'll be back the 27th. I hope you enjoyed the ramblings of a baseball fan.

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*I have no affiliation with any club, organization, company, etc the above blog is just one baseball fan's look inside the not often covered Florida Instructional League.

 

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[Squirrel]

This was all amazing stuff! Thank you! Instead of a pub crawl, maybe TD should construct it's own 'hill drill' contest?

[Seth Stohs]

This was all amazing stuff! Thank you! Instead of a pub crawl, maybe TD should construct it's own 'hill drill' contest?

 

Interesting idea.... Ha!

 

I really enjoy this look into the Instructional League... it's an aspect of the minor leagues that we just have so little visibility to.

[Steven Buhr]

Great stuff. I'm chuckling just thinking about how much Kanzler must have hated losing to Christensen in that drill.

 

Also happy to have the mystery of how to pronounce Chagois' name solved.

[twinsfan34]

Now THAT, is the inside scoop!! 

[USAFChief]

Great stuff. Thanks!

[MplsFan]

As a long-time lurker at TwinsDaily, I had to sign-up for an account to say Thank You for this post!  This is awesome.  I'm excited about the Twins' minor league pitching prospects and what the organization is doing at the minor league level.  Looks really professional.  Thanks for the inside look, Bob!

[diehardtwinsfan]

JT Chargois sighting.... Here's to hoping his name can stay in the box scores all year long next year.

[Seth Stohs]

I pointed out on last week's Twins Hangouts podcasts that I'm hearing Chargois is hitting 97-98 on the radar gun in Instructs. That's rather encouraging!

[Kirby_waved_at_me]

After JT Chargois finished I was able to call him over and get him to talk briefly about his recovery processs and

.

 

Ha! Yes! Awesome, thanks for that.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Great stuff! Thank you!

[Bob Sacamento]

I'm glad everyone enjoyed and just proves that my wife is wrong sometimes LOL, someone out there does care to know what is going on at these events.  I'll be back out this Saturday morning again, just like I asked last time anything or anyone in particular one would like to see?  The Twins are scheduled to take on the Red Sox again at the Twins Developmental Complex at 10am.

[goulik]

Brandon Poulson- how's the adjustment to professional baseball coming and what is he primarily working on in the instructional leagues?

 

Theofanopolous- how we'll does his name fit on the back of a Jersey? ( name Reminds me of Mientkiewicz)

[Bob Sacamento]

okay, not a problem goulik.  I actually was on my way to talk to Poulson before JT Chagois was to take the mound, so I bypassed Brandon for videoing Chagois and talking to JT.

 

LOL I'll ask Theofanopolous about the name and jersey, I'm sure he'll have a smart ass answer for it.  He shoulda been drafted by the Cubs "theo-fan" - polous lol

[dukie034]

Bob, do you have the numerical roster?

[Shane Wahl]

Thank you! This was fantastic and really informative.

[Bob Sacamento]

dukie yes, here it is:

 

No. Pitchers (24)
71 Bixler, Brandon
13 Booser, Cameron
85 Cederoth, Mike
83 Chargois, JT
82 Clay, Sam
81 Curtiss, John
80 Eades, Ryan
21 Easton, Brandon
79 Gilbert, Brian
78 Gonsalves, Stephen
77 Hildenberger, Trevor
75 Irby, CK
30 Johnson, DJ
50 Jones, Zach
73 LeBlanc, Randy
33 Poulson, Brandon
72 Reed, Jake
31 Rodriguez, Dereck
65 Steele, Keaton
45 Stewart, Kohl
41 Theofanopoulos, Mike
60 Thorpe, Lewis
66 Tillery, Zack
39 Wilson, Jared

No. Catchers (6)
38 Fernandez, Jorge
37 Garver, Mitchell
27 Navarreto, Brian
26 Silva, Rainis
20 Swim, Alex
25 Turner, Stuart

No. Infielders (11)
18 Gordon, Nick
1 Guzman, Manuel
15 Kelly, Pat
7 Kuresa, Tyler
24 Mautner, Tyler
19 Molina, Nelson
52 Valera, Rafael
40 Vavra, Trey
5 Vielma, Engelb
12 Walker, Ryan
46 White, TJ

No. Outfielders (6)
23 Christensen, Chad
2 Davis, Tyree
51 English, Tanner
22 Kanzler, Jason
11 Larson, Zack
17 Murphy, Max

[Seth Stohs]

I'm just kind of curious what Byron Buxton and Nick Gordon are doing. I saw Buxton cheering on the guys during one of your videos. Is Gordon able to do any fielding or throwing yet?

 

How about lewis thorpe? My assumption is that he isn't doing bullpens.

 

How about Kohl Stewart? Is he doing bullpens and stuff? Shoulder seems OK?

[IndyTwinsFan]

A fascinating look at a day in the Twins Instructional League.  I've always kind of wondered how that all worked.  Thanks!

[Bob Sacamento]

Buxton is hitting in the cages but thats all I saw him do (besides picking up/cleaning up), no running, no throwing etc.  I know he said he's nowhere near in shape.  Gordon and Stewart were absent from the camp, not sure where they were.  Lewis Thorpe was out playing catch and doing long tossing and simulated pitching from flat ground.

[dukie034]

I watched Buxton and Sano hit BP today. Sano crushed a few over the fence. He is not throwing yet, but his swing is looking good. Sano also signed a baseball for me- great guy.