Article: Long Travel And Baseball Day (Twins Notes)

[Seth Stohs]

FORT MYERS, Fla. - It’s been a LONG day, but at the end of it, I got to hang out at Hammond Stadium and watch a little baseball today. That is never a bad thing. Over the next eight or nine days, be sure to check out my reports and stories from Ft. Myers.

 

To get started I’m just going to post a couple of quick notes. When you get to the ballpark in the 4th inning of a spring training game, you don’t get to see a ton, but still quite a bit happened. So bear with me as I reflect on a travel day that resulted in watching the Minnesota Twins and the Miami Marlins play baseball.As most of you know, I pretty much live in Canada. To be exact (or pretty close), my house is approximately four miles (as the crow flies) from the Canadian border in Minnesota. I worked on Thursday until about 4:00 and after throwing a few more things into my trunk, I was out of town by 4:30. I had a nine-minute stop to meet my dad along the way. But I arrived at my sister’s house in the west Metro at about 11:30.

 

I crashed before midnight, but setting an alarm for 2:40 a.m. is just wrong on so many levels. I can’t even imagine doing that on a regular basis. But, she agreed to take me to the airport at 3:30. I was at the airport and through security by about 4:30, so that was pretty good, I thought.

 

First flight was at 6:05 a.m. and left on time. We arrived in Atlanta, and I had 15 minutes to spare before they started boarding the connecting flight. It took off on time and I arrived in Ft. Myers by noon (ET, of course).

 

By the time I got my car (which was not a swift process by any means!) and drove over to Hammond Stadium, it was already about 1:45. Of course, the first thing I did was walk over to the minor league complex, just to see if they were still working out. They were.

 

On one field, Jake Mauer was feeding a pitching machine and several players who could spend time with the Cedar Rapids Kernels this year were taking BP.

 

On the next field, Jeff Smith and Jim “Slice” Dwyer were watching a group of likely Miracle batters take batting practice.

 

On the third field, there were a lot of coaches. That’s where the guys who are likely to spend time in extended spring training were. Among them was new GCL hitting coach and former Twins prospect Steve Singleton. I chatted with him for just a few minutes. He’s expressed real excitement about getting to work with the young players this year. He stressed that there is a lot of talent in that group. He talked about the great speed of Emmanuel Morel and Gorge Munoz and some other great athletes. He also talked about the number of power arms that are now in the organization, especially compared to when he was playing.

 

I walked over to the the big league stadium and went inside for the 4th inning. I got in just in time to watch Byung Ho Park launch his third spring training home run. He got all of it. As Molitor said “It was a no-doubter.”

 

Following the game, Molitor mentioned that it was on a fastball inside and Park was able to keep it fair. Pioneer Press scribe Mike Berardino pointed out that all three of his home runs have come on fastballs (94, 92 and this one was 91), and all three of them came when he was playing first base.

 

An inning later, Joe Mauer came to the plate. He worked a long count before ripping a line shot to center field. In dead center, there is “405” printed on the wall, about two feet from the top of the fence. Mauer’s double hit about a foot above that sign. Soon after, Miguel Sano crushed a liner over the left fielder’s head to score a run.

 

The Twins wound up losing the game 6-5, in case anyone was curious.

 

NOTES

 

The game went 3 hours and 28 minutes. In his post-game presser, manager Paul Molitor kicked it off by saying, “What are your thoughts on pace of game?”

 

I missed Kyle Gibson’s outing. Looking at the numbers, it wasn’t very impressive.He gave up two runs on four hits and three walks in two innings. Molitor said after the game that Gibson was “OK for me.” He was keeping the ball on the ground. His pitch count just kept mounting. Too many 1-0 pitches and deep counts.

 

Randy Rosario came in late in the game, in large part because of Gibson’s short start. It’s clear that his stuff in electric. The first batter he faced was left-handed and he made him look silly on a strikeout. However that was followed by a blooper to right, just out of the reach of a diving Darin Mastroianni, who trapped the ball. The next batter hit a four-hopper through the right side, just out of the reach of a diving Wilfredo Tovar. Then came a solid single up the middle to score a run. But Rosario came back and got the final two he faced, one of them on a strikeout.

 

Jorge Polanco struggled mightily on defense. In fairness he got a lot of opportunities, but concerns about his defense have to be elevated at some point. He mishandled a routine bounding grounder up the middle for an error. He got a second error on a throw that was probably eight feet shy of first base. He was saved of at least one, and possibly two, more errors by nice scoops by Beresford. Following the game, Molitor said that Polanco is “fine, arm-wise. He hasn’t expressed any trouble with his arm. He throws fine in infield. It looks like he rushes during games. After he throws a couple low, you start trying to guide it instead of throwing it.”

 

James Beresford hasn’t played a single game at first base as a professional baseball player, in the regular season. He has played there twice this spring and a little bit last offseason, along with third base and his “normal” spot, second base.. Molitor said, “He made a couple of nice plays… He’s more than competent to play around the infield. Probably not at short too much, though he’d be fine in an emergency. That’s where he started before he moved over to second.”

 

 

I was somewhat surprised by the shortstop comment. Beresford was signed as a shortstop and played there a lot early in his career. He also was the shortstop for Team Australia in the WBC Qualifier. However, it probably shouldn't be surprising as in the last three years, he has played 340 games at second base, six games at shortstop and five games at third base. Although he was an all-star second baseman for Rochester last year, if his future with the Twins is as a utility infielder, he will need to spend time at all four infield spots.

 

Max Kepler made the start in center field on Friday afternoon. Molitor said that he hasn’t seen a lot of him in center field and hasn’t seen enough plays to fully evaluate. He commented that Byron Buxton will start the next two games in center, and then Kepler will make a start on Monday in Jupiter. He noted that Kepler “is not a burner, but he covers distance with that long stride.”

 

Nick Burdi needed only six pitches to work a scoreless ninth. The first pitch was 96 and the batter reached on a Polanco error. The next pitch was 97 and got a weak grounder to second base for an easy double play. He needed four pitches for the final batter, and they went 97, 99, 84, and 99. Ground ball to shortstop to end the inning. The ‘84’ may have been Burdi’s split-change.

The Twins are on the road in Sarasota on Saturday. I’ll stay in Ft. Myers and talk to some players before spending the majority of the day watching the minor league workouts. Be sure to stop back throughout the weekend as I plan to post at least once, and usually twice, each day. Also, I plan to post several pictures on the Twins Daily Facebook page and Twins Daily Twitter feed (and my Twitter feed too, if you want to follow that). The Twins are back home on Sunday afternoon when it is believed the first round of cuts will be made.

 

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[ashbury]

Molitor's quote about Polanco "guiding" the ball to first is discouraging. This is what I saw in him, last spring - he can get the distance, or the accuracy, but not both. I was hoping he could find some way to get over the hump. But it sounds to me as if he is just shy of having a shortstop's arm. A pity. I imagine he can have a career at 2B (for some team, maybe the Twins), but SS would be nicer.

[Seth Stohs]

I wouldn't give up on him there completely yet, but it is definitely a struggle. I do think that he got stronger over the offseason in he could do it... it's at least partially in his head right now.

[ashbury]

I only said "discouraging".

[stringer bell]

If Polanco is a second baseman primarily and only an emergency shortstop, I think he is a trade chip. It would be between him and Dozier and although Polanco is much younger, I like the proven performance that Dozier has provided.

[birddog]

Nice to see the middle of the order guys out to a good start. Sano and Park displaying early power has me even more pumped up for the season to start. Is Mauer going to be Mauerlike this year or Puntolike again? If he is more the former scoring runs will be no problem. Looking forward to your updates, Seth, especially the minor leaguers.

[dougkoebernick]

Sano had a nice game - and made a great base running play his first time up by getting to second. He really doesn't look slow in the outfield in my opinion but he didn't have much hit to him.