Jump to content
Twins Daily
  • Create Account
  • A Day At Twins Minor League Camp


    Seth Stohs

    The Twins were on the road again on Saturday. They made the trip to Bradenton to play the Pirates and got a win. I spent the full day over at the minor league practice. In fact, if you follow Twins Daily on Twitter or “Like” Twins Daily on Facebook, you can see that a LOT of pictures (probably 500) were taken of minor league players whom you have seen in box scores or the Twins Daily minor league reports each day through the season, but now you can put a face to them.

    I’ve been asked on numerous occasions what happens in a day at minor league camp. They definitely put in some work. Here is an approximation of a daily schedule as well as some of my observations. I included a few minor league notes at the end as well.

    Image courtesy of Seth Stohs

    Twins Video

    There are 55 rooms in the new dormitory at the Twins complex, with two players in each room. Most of the younger players stay there. Some of the more veteran players or some of the guys who think they’ll play for the Miracle this season will find a place to live off-site. At the dorms, they are able to eat breakfast.

    At about 9 a.m., they will generally have a meeting to discuss the day’s practice. Before Friday’s first official practice, all of the minor leaguers and staff met in the new auditorium to go through things they would need to know.

    At around 9:30, the players will come out onto the fields. The pitchers will all go to one field and the hitters will go to the area that includes Perry’s Hill. The strength and conditioning coordinators go through a series of stretching exercises as well as some short jogging, just to loosen up. They have weights and stretchy bands as well as some devices that are essentially shake weights. They definitely get a full body stretch and a small workout to get everything ready for a full day of practice.

    When they’re done, the players split into four work groups. Work Group 1 is the most veteran group with a lot of players who will spend the season at AA or AAA. Work Group 4 is a lot of the guy who will likely begin the season in extended spring training.

    The hitters go to a field and usually start with some base running work. They’ll run from home to first, through the bag. They’ll start at first and work on their cross-over steps to steal second. They’ll go first to third. Finally they’ll go second to home. They’ll maybe do each thing a couple of times. At that point, the infielders break into ground ball drills. They put them through every situation imaginable, throwing to first and throwing to second. They’ll spend 10 minutes just working on backhands. The middle infielders will work with each other on flips, or giving each other a good target for a double play. You will see a coach with a fungo standing by third base, hitting line drives and one or two hoppers at the first basemen so that they can work on stretching and scooping baseballs.

    Pitchers will get ground balls shot out of a pitching machine to work on their reactions and hands. They make it a competition to keep it enjoyable. On their days, pitchers will throw their bullpens. They’ll work from the windup and from the stretch. As the spring wears on, those bullpen sessions will likely become more intense and pitchers will be working on more things. At the end of each pitcher’s bullpen, he and his catcher will meet in the middle, shake hands and talk for a minute about what they saw.

    ccs-19-0-26583500-1426331961_thumb.jpg

    Outfielders may be in the batting cages taking swings. At some point in the morning, they get that pitching machine and launch fly balls from it positioned near the left field line to the outfielders who are standing in centerfield. They will make them come forward or go backwards. It’s all about repetition and getting to see the ball in the air.

    Pitchers fielding practice (PFP) is something that we hear about all of the time. On Friday, the pitchers worked on it on all three fields. Infielders will help with it as well. The pitchers need to do a variety of things in preparation for what could happen during the season:

    • Covering first base on a grounder to the first baseman.
    • Fielding a bunt to each the first or third base line.
    • Fielding grounders straight back to them.
    • Communicating with the first baseman on grounders that way that maybe the pitcher can field.
    • Finding a ball that is near the mound and calmly throwing to first base.
    • Getting a ground ball and throwing to second base for a force out, or maybe even a double play.
    • Fielding a bunt down the third base line and throwing to third.
    • Pick off throws to first, second or even third base.

    ccs-19-0-92523900-1426331876_thumb.jpg

    I’m certain that I left out some of the scenarios. They go through some I hadn’t even thought of and yet that scenario may come up during the course of the season. In fact, on Saturday, they worked on where to go to back up a play if they have picked off a runner from one of the bases, starting with how to run toward them and make the runner commit to a base.

    It’s really amazing to watch the precision of a minor league practice with four work groups on five fields. They have stations. They have certain things that they need to do and they get them done.

    On Saturday before lunch, all of the pitchers had to do the shuttle run. Mini-cones were placed 25 yards from each other. A group of six to eight pitchers will get on the line and do six down and backs, about 300 yards. They are timed and the times are recorded. Most finish between 53 and 60 seconds. A few get between 61 and 65. And then after each of the groups does it once, they get to do it a second time. A few of them maintain their mid-50s time, but most are closer to 60 the second time and a few more trickle to just above 60 seconds. It’s actually kind of impressive.

    The players generally have lunch for about 30 to 45 minutes. At that point, the hitters come out and they take batting practice on three fields. They get a lot of swings. There was even a bunting station on each field where three or four guys would rotate just to work on bunting. It is an impressive showing of efficient use of the field. Pitchers generally will be shagging fly balls throughout this time.

    On Friday, they hit until about 2:00. At that point, the hitters went over to the area to do their two shuttle runs. You can tell the catchers, but again, the times were typically between 55 and 60 seconds. There were several that trickled over 60 seconds, but for the most part, they did well.

    When you watch it, the players are generally doing something. However, in the Florida heat, I also think they do a good job of mixing coaching with executing. In other words, not only do they take ground balls or work on different plays, but they will spend a lot of time huddling in a group to discuss what they will be doing and why. If a coach sees something that a guy should work on, he'll work with him right away, or hit him another ground ball so that he can continue to learn. They are encouraged to get water frequently.

    The players are on the field from basically 9:30 until 2:30 with a 30 to 45 minute lunch, but they are well taken care of and each field has one athletic trainer around in case there is a need.

    If you get a chance to spend a day watching a full Twins minor league practice during spring training, I would encourage it. Again, I am amazed by the efficiency. They are able to keep somewhere around 140 baseball players busy, but more important, they are coaching them up at every opportunity.

    I'm certain that I didn't cover it all. There is so much going on. Here are a couple of quick notes:

    • I talked to Luke Bard for a little while. As you know, he had surgery last May and it is expected to be a 12 month recovery. As I’ve written before, once they found the issue, they were amazed that he was able to throw at all. As he said, a lot of really good doctors missed it. Bard said he feels good and is on track to this point. He’s such a good person that you want to see him get healthy and see what he can do. Reports from teammates when he was able to pitch were that he had some really nasty stuff.
    • I also talked to David Hurlbut, a left-handed starting pitcher who was named to the Florida State League All-Star team in 2014. He didn’t pitch from that point forward and was rehabbing throughout the offseason. He told me that he kept having bullpens and thinking he was good and then he wouldn’t be able to pitch again for a couple of weeks. He did say that the last couple of weeks, he has felt very good. He’s now doing bullpens and involved in all activities with the hope to be ready for opening day.
    • Jason Kanzler shaved the mustache for photo day. I actually felt bad. I was chatting with outfielder Zach Granite between fields, and Kanzler walked by on his way to another field. I had to do a double take. We chatted later and Kanzler said, “Yeah, didn’t think you knew it was me.” I agreed and said that I had to do a double-take just to believe that it was him.
    • There is a belief that flame-thrower Brandon Poulson has a chance to be really good, dominating someday as a pitcher. Though he is 25 years old, he hasn’t played a lot of baseball. He’s 6-4, 240 pounds and as Tom Powers of the Pioneer Press wrote today, he has just 8% body fat. Right now, he has trouble with this control, and the Twins will be patient with him. Why? Because he has little problem hitting 98 mph with his fastball. If it takes him a couple of years to gather his control and maybe a second or third pitch, and he could get to the big leagues at 28 years old with a 98 to 101 mph fastball, then it’s all worth it.

    ccs-19-0-69374400-1426332007_thumb.jpg

    • I know you were wondering the same thing I was, but they were able to get THEOFANOPOULUS on the back of a Twins jersey.

    ccs-19-0-68177200-1426332053_thumb.jpg

    • Three guys to keep an eye on for years down the road, possibly, are outfielders Roberto Gonzalez, Tyree Davis and Edgar Corcino. All three fit the profile of athlete. They are all very fast. They all have good strength and they’re all baseball guys. Obviously they’re all young and a long way from big league ready, but if you’re looking for some names of sleepers in the low levels, those guys could be very interesting.
    • One thing I’ve noticed in watching so many bullpens the last couple of days: The Twins have a lot of pitchers that throw pretty hard. I know they’re not completely airing it out in the first bullpen sessions, and I’m not necessarily seeing their best secondary pitches either, but it’s very clear that there is more velocity.

    On Saturday, the Twins are on the road again, this time across the state in Jupiter, so I’ll be at the minor league facilities again. As you can see, I really enjoy this and I hope that passion comes through when you read me write about the Twins minor league system and the players in it. There really is a lot of talent. Then consider that some of their top prospects are still over in the major league camp and that talent pool just continues to grow.

    Nick Nelson will be arriving in Ft. Myers later this afternoon, so look forward to his terrific writing the next week or so. He and I will both cover the Twins on Sunday, so be sure to check back often.

    MORE FROM TWINS DAILY
    — Latest Twins coverage from our writers
    — Recent Twins discussion in our forums
    — Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email
    — Become a Twins Daily Caretaker

     Share


    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments

    Featured Comments

    I love reading these recaps!! Feels almost like I'm there. :) 

    Can you tell me what the deal is with watching minor league games? I intentionally skipped Twins/Blue Jays tickets on the 24th to hopefully go watch the minor league crew. The schedule (the one I could find online at least) shows AA/AAA vs Red Sox at Jet Blue. Do I need tickets for this or can just show up? Different field than the main field?  

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    The minor league games are free, but if the MLB Red Sox have a home game (just like at the MLB Twins facility) you are likely going to have to pay for parking ($10ish).    You park with everyone and walk over to minor league fields to watch game.    If MLB team is away that day  -   Everything is free and easy.

     

    Great stuff Seth.    Incredible photos.    Do some groups (minor leaguer's) still practice at City of Palms (old Sox facility)?    They did in previous years.    I heard Twins built new fields is why I'm asking?

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Have you seen JD Williams and if so How does he look?    Does he still have that blazing speed that made him who he is?    Has Kanzler and Murphy surpassed him in the eyes of the organization (in your opinion) ?    There is no way he expected to be in Cedar Rapids for a whole year in 2014.    Hoping for a bounce back year.   Charming kid

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

     

    Good stuff, Seth!

     

    Have you seen Andro Cutura, the Twins 7th round pick last June out of SE Louisiana? 

     

    He's here. He's working with Group 4 which is the group that likely starts in Extended Spring Training. He didn't pitch last year at all, so I'm guessing he'll start in extended at least.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites

    Thanks Seth--this post was exactly what I was asking for the other day. Great overview of how they run the full camp.

     

    Really interesting to hear how they work on different skills.

     

    Is there video analysis built into their days?

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites



    Join the conversation

    You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
    Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

    Guest
    Add a comment...

    ×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

      Only 75 emoji are allowed.

    ×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

    ×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

    ×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

    Loading...

×
×
  • Create New...