Behind the Fence: Nick Burdi Throws Smoke and Rehabbing Pitchers

Bob Sacamento · April 1, 2017

Nick Burdi on the mound

The Minor League Twins took part in intrasquad games on Friday with the AA vs High A, Low A vs Extended players with camp breaking on Monday the players are starting to get a little stir crazy with many of them knowing where they are going to start the season already. A few of the latin players aren't excited about how cold it is in Cedar Rapids (with many never seeing snow before) but are ecstatic to get to pitch in Low A.

The starters for today were Paul LeBlanc (AA) vs. Brady Anderson (HiA) and Clark Beeker (LoA) vs Dom Carlini (ExST). The wind was blowing out so there was a power display, Dan Hutcheon crushed a ball while Lewis Diaz hit a monster grand slam, Gorge Munoz belted a 3 run homer. Tommy Fields was hitting for AA and Hi A, in consecutive at bats, he went yard for the AA team and his next at bat took a ball deep to left center for the Hi A team.

Gorge Munoz being greeted at the plate after his 3 run homer

The biggest arm to throw was Nick Burdi who threw serious gas with his fastball hitting 97-99 mph (even his warmup pitches were 95 mph). Burdi threw 19 pitches, striking out out three (Rodriguez, Fields, Scroggins) and walking one (Vielma). His slider was sharp 87-89 mph. He struck out the first two batters with ease but then walked the LHH Vielma and also struggled with the LHH Scroggins before putting him away.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVCAdFZpE9M

On the rehab front, Johan Quezada hopes to get clearance from the doctor on Saturday to return to throwing. Brusdar Graterol continues his rehab process and will start throwing in game action the first week of Extended Spring Training. Stephan Gonsalves is slated to throw three innings at JetBlue vs the AAA/AA BoSox. Romero will start the AA game. Phil Hughes will start the Hi A game and is slated to go 4 innings.

Pitchers' Day 3/31/2017