Friday Minor League Report

Meanwhile, it was a busy day on the back fields at Hammond Stadium too. Since the High-A and Low-A teams were just traveling across Ft. Myers to play, they worked out on the back fields with the AAA and AA players.

Of the nine players sent down to minor league camp, only Jose Berrios worked out on Friday. Players from the 40 man roster get a couple of days to report. Non-roster players are required to report right away but it is likely the Twins brass told them to take the day off.

The pitchers did their PFPs and situations. They worked a little more today on pickoff plays. They even spent time working with the right-handed pitchers on pickoff throws to third base.

They then broke off onto the three full fields for batting practice (the EST squad went back to their field as well).

I also was interviewed by Neil Roberts who does a great job with SpringFeverBaseball.com. Check out his site and read and listen to his reports. He does two-minute interviews with several players and four of five have already been posted. Neil has been doing this for over 15 years. The North Dakotan provides these reports to radio stations around the state. Take a listen. He’s got interviews this year with Kyle Gibson, Adam Brett Walker, Nick Burdi and more posted.

The teams were done with their batting practice a little before noon. If anyone happens to be there and need a nice place for lunch, there is a place called Panitella’s Chicken Grill just down Plantation Road in a strip mall area before getting to Daniels Parkway. I’ve gone there the last two days for lunch before coming back for the afternoon games.

Ricky Nolasco made the start for the Twins in the AAA game. He was caught by Kurt Suzuki. Watching him in the bullpen, he really has a tremendous curve ball. He also throws a sinker that drops well. After a quick first inning, the second didn’t go as well for Nolasco. One batter reached on an error and the next hit a long, two-run homer. However, after that, he was very good. He went five innings and avoided hard contact.

In the AA game, Glen Perkins worked the first inning. The lefty had no problems at all. He got a high-hopper back to the mound for the first out. He struck out the second batter and got the third batter to ground out to Engelb Vielma at shortstop. His fastball was in the low-90s and his slider was sharp.

Offensively, there was a lot of power shown. But, Twins pitchers did not give up a home run. Meanwhile, both the AAA and the AA teams had four home runs.

Adam Brett Walker crushed two long homers for the Red Wings. The first hit the back wall, well behind the fence in left-center field. The second one traveled well over the fence in right field. In the first inning, the Red Wings scored four runs. The big blow that inning was a very long home run for Daniel Palka. An inning later, Dalton Hicks hit a ball so far that the outfielders didn’t move. After a while, they did at least turn around to see how far it went.

In the AA game, Joe Maloney hit a long, towering blast, probably nearly 400 feet to left field. The next batter, TJ White, hit one a little lower but nearly as far. Later in the game, Levi Michael hit a homer over the left-center field fence, and soon after, now mustache-less catcher Brett Doe hit a no-doubter as well. The final two home runs were glorious. I mean, they were given up by Glorius… Austin Glorius.

Following Nolasco, Tim Shibuya and Raul Fernandez each threw two scoreless innings in the AAA game.

Glen Perkins was followed by DJ Baxendale. The first batter lined one back up the middle that hit Baxendale. After the coaching and training staff came out to check on him and he threw three warm up pitches, he pitched again. However, he walked the next two batters and when checked, he was done, so the inning was done.

South African Callan Pearce came in for an inning. Luke Bard pitched really well for two innings. Brian Gilbert finished things with a couple of quiet innings.

The extended spring group played another simulated game. I know that Onas Farfan threw some live BP during that game. He is the New Hope High School player that the Twins drafted out of Ridgewater College in Willmar. He was known as the first player drafted out of the Minneapolis RBI program. I had the chance to chat with him the other day and he is very excited to be pitching again after missing all of last season with Tommy John surgery.

LaMonte Wade played today after missing the games on Thursday after being hit by a pitch in the forearm. Nick Gordon participated fully in the morning workout. He went through fielding practice and took a full round of batting practice. However, the team kept him out of the game on Friday.

Lewis Thorpe faced batters for the first time in almost a year on Friday morning. As he has the other days this week, he watched the minor league games. However, on Friday, along with watching his teammates, he closely watched one of the Red Sox minor league pitchers. Daniel McGrath pitched a couple of innings against the Twins AA team. McGrath grew up about five minutes from Thorpe in Melbourne, Australia. According to Thorpe, the two were teammates on several teams throughout their youth, including some international competitions.

I chatted quite a bit with Stephen Gonsalves. He showed me the grips on his pitches. He has a very interesting chang-up grip. It’s kind of a circle change, but he’s really holding the ball with just two fingers, his middle and ring finger. As he said, “It’s good to have big hands.”

Gonsalves is currently on the AA roster, but as more players are sent down from big league camp, it will be interesting to see if he heads back to Ft. Myers. That is the most likely situation, but some of it depends on what happens with Taylor Rogers. If he makes the big league roster, there would be a trickle-down effect. Again most likely he’ll start the season with the Miracle, but it’s very possible he will end the season with the Lookouts.

It was nice talking with Trey Cabbage. Following a full day of practice, he worked one-on-one with Sam Perlozzo on a side field later in the afternoon. He came over to watch the minor league game. The Tennessee native said his decision to sign with the Twins instead of going to the University of Tennessee on a baseball scholarship was an easy one, yet he knew that he would have been happy with either scenario.

He credits the time he spent playing in Georgia during the summers for moving up draft boards. The Twins took him in the fourth round. He played in Ft. Myers before, in a Perfect Game tournament at Hammond Stadium. I asked him if he missed football and basketball and he said not really. He enjoyed playing and spending time with his friends, but it was never something he enjoyed the way he does with baseball.

Briefly chatted with LHP Corey Williams as well. He said he’s been feeling really good. This will be his first full season after Tommy John. He returned to the Miracle last June and worked his way back to AA, this time in Chattanooga. In the offseason, he has his wife moved from Atlanta to Chicago. He said he also spent some time in Minnesota. He has relatives in southwest Minnesota that he visits at least every other year.

Saturday will be my last day at the ballpark. I’ll get there early and stay as long as I can. The AAA and AA teams travel to play the Red Sox. The High-A and Low-A teams will play at home, also against the Red Sox.

Nick will be getting to Ft. Myers and take over Twins Daily duties on Sunday.