Steven Buhr

Thursday is Opening Day in the minor leagues. Tonight you can read the first Twins Daily Minor League Report, a daily update on how the Twins affiliates and prospects do each day. One of our long-time friends is Steve Buhr, a native of Cedar Rapids, who provides excellent content on the Kernels. He was at the Meet The Kernels event on Tuesday night at the ballpark and submitted the following story. But first, a quick reminder. If you live in the Twin Cities, Cedar Rapids is just over a four hour drive away. Going to Kernels games can be a lot of fun, and it's a chance for fans to see some future Twins a few years before they arrive. Head to Kernels.com, check the schedule and find a couple of weekends to head south.There were differing opinions concerning who won the dance contest held in the Kernels' clubhouse prior to "Meet the Kernels Night" in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, but the players and coaches who were brought in to talk to the media were in agreement on one thing. They all expect the 2017 Kernels season to be fun. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/KernlesFans2017-600x400.jpgKernels players meeting fans on "Meet the Kernels Night" in Cedar Rapids. (photo: SD Buhr)In fact, almost all of the players and coaches who endured media interrogation before moving on to the stadium concourse to meet the fans who showed up for the event used the word "fun" in at least one of their responses to media questions. (Article originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com.) That shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone who has spent time with the Kernels' new manager, Tommy Watkins. If you see Watkins at a ballpark without a smile on his face, snap a picture quick. It would be a rarity. Early during the media session, Watkins was asked what sort of mood he likes to see in his team's clubhouse. "Probably like a somber mood," Watkins deadpanned. "No, a lot of energy," he continued, after the laughter in the room faded. "We just had fun down in the clubhouse before we came up, so it was a lot of fun. Get the guys moving around a little bit. Everybody danced a little. I think we like to bring a lot of energy and like to have fun. Play the game the right way." His coaches, Brian Dinkelman and J.P. Martinez, claimed Tommy won the dance contest and Tommy claimed the two coaches had been the winners. Later, pitcher Sean Poppen would claim that he'd been the true winner. Whether or not there was an actual winner of that contest, there was no question that Watkins, his coaches and his players all are looking forward to having a fun season - and winning some baseball games along the way. "I’m excited about all of these guys," Watkins said of the players making up the first roster of his minor league managing career. "They were fun to watch in spring training. Good group of guys, they all got along well. Up and down the lineup I think you’ll see a lot of energy, you’ll see a lot of guys play the game hard. I think they’ll be fun to watch this year. Same thing from the pitching side. We’ve got guys who can throw it over. We’ve got guys that throw hard, got some off-speed stuff. From both sides of the ball, these guys will be fun to watch." While last year's opening day roster was composed largely of returning players from the 2015 Kernels roster, only eight of this year's group wore a Cedar Rapids jersey at some point last year. Most of the group, including many of the returning players, played together at Elizabethton in the Appalachian League, during a season that did not see the sort of success on the field that E-town fans have come to expect. Pitching coach J.P. Martinez said he things this group is hungry for success, as a result. "I think in Cedar Rapids, in particular, we’ve set the bar pretty high," Martinez said, recounting the success the Kernels have had, including making the playoffs in each of the four seasons since the inception of the affiliation agreement with the Twins. "I think (these players) are eager to prove that they belong at this level, maybe partly because they didn’t really have the success they wanted last year, but they're a really, really talented group. A really close-knit group and so we’re hoping that we can kind of steer them in the right direction. They are the future of the franchise." Brian Dinkelman, the hitting coach, also thinks there's a lot of potential in this group of Kernels. "Yeah, we’ve got some guys that can definitely swing the bat," he said of the hitters he'll be working with. "We've got a lot of young guys. We’ve got (Lewin) Diaz and (Jermaine) Palacios and (Ben) Rortvedt - guys that are still in their teens. But we’ve got some guys who can swing the bat and do some damage, so looking forward to the season. A lot of guys to work with. Hope we can develop them and move on to the next level. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017-Kernels-players-600x400.jpgBen Rortvedt, Sean Poppen and Travis Blankenhorn (photo: SD Buhr)One of the guys the hitting coach mentioned, Rortvedt, is among the players who will be getting their first taste of full-season professional experience this season in Cedar Rapids. "Wonderful. A bit of an upgrade with the stadium from Elizabethton and the Florida GCL," the Wisconsin native responded, when asked for his initial impressions."I played here growing up a couple of times and it was fantastic. I mean, it wasn’t full bleachers, but I’ve seen pictures of you guys filling up the stadium, so I’m really excited. "I played with a bunch of the guys last year and we’ve bonded pretty well, so it’s going to be a fun season." There's that word, "fun" again, along with another common theme of the day, team chemistry. Pitcher Sean Poppen and infielder/DH Travis Blankenhorn expressed similar expectations. "(Tommy) is great. I think he’s really going to develop team chemistry and that’s pretty important," Poppen said, of his manager. "We had Tommy in instructs (fall instructional league) and spring training," Blankenhorn added. "He just keeps the game fun. It’s fun to play for him. He keeps it fun for all of us. It makes baseball a lot better when you’re having fun." "Absolutely," Rortvedt agreed. "I didn’t know Tommy going into instructs and he came in already cracking jokes at me, so he’s definitely going to keep us loose in the dugout." Fun and chemistry are important, but Poppen doesn't think that's all Watkins brings to his team. "He’s a good coach. I’ve had some experiences with him that were very helpful and I feel like he’s going to help me - and help the team - get better." "I think we have a good team this year," Blankenhorn concluded. "I think we have a bunch of pitchers that are going to throw strikes and go out there and put some zeros on the board. I think we have some good sticks in our lineup that are going to put the ball in play and puts some runs up and hopefully we can win some games." Having fun and winning games. Sounds like a pretty good combination. Click here to view the article

There were differing opinions concerning who won the dance contest held in the Kernels' clubhouse prior to "Meet the Kernels Night" in Cedar Rapids on Tuesday, but the players and coaches who were brought in to talk to the media were in agreement on one thing. They all expect the 2017 Kernels season to be fun. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/KernlesFans2017-600x400.jpg Kernels players meeting fans on "Meet the Kernels Night" in Cedar Rapids. (photo: SD Buhr) In fact, almost all of the players and coaches who endured media interrogation before moving on to the stadium concourse to meet the fans who showed up for the event used the word "fun" in at least one of their responses to media questions. (Article originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com.) That shouldn't come as any surprise to anyone who has spent time with the Kernels' new manager, Tommy Watkins. If you see Watkins at a ballpark without a smile on his face, snap a picture quick. It would be a rarity. Early during the media session, Watkins was asked what sort of mood he likes to see in his team's clubhouse. "Probably like a somber mood," Watkins deadpanned. "No, a lot of energy," he continued, after the laughter in the room faded. "We just had fun down in the clubhouse before we came up, so it was a lot of fun. Get the guys moving around a little bit. Everybody danced a little. I think we like to bring a lot of energy and like to have fun. Play the game the right way." His coaches, Brian Dinkelman and J.P. Martinez, claimed Tommy won the dance contest and Tommy claimed the two coaches had been the winners. Later, pitcher Sean Poppen would claim that he'd been the true winner. Whether or not there was an actual winner of that contest, there was no question that Watkins, his coaches and his players all are looking forward to having a fun season - and winning some baseball games along the way. "I’m excited about all of these guys," Watkins said of the players making up the first roster of his minor league managing career. "They were fun to watch in spring training. Good group of guys, they all got along well. Up and down the lineup I think you’ll see a lot of energy, you’ll see a lot of guys play the game hard. I think they’ll be fun to watch this year. Same thing from the pitching side. We’ve got guys who can throw it over. We’ve got guys that throw hard, got some off-speed stuff. From both sides of the ball, these guys will be fun to watch." http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017-Kernels-coaches-600x400.jpg Hitting coach Brian Dinkelman, Manager Tommy Watkins and Pitching coach JP Martinez (photo: SD Buhr) While last year's opening day roster was composed largely of returning players from the 2015 Kernels roster, only eight of this year's group wore a Cedar Rapids jersey at some point last year. Most of the group, including many of the returning players, played together at Elizabethton in the Appalachian League, during a season that did not see the sort of success on the field that E-town fans have come to expect. Pitching coach J.P. Martinez said he things this group is hungry for success, as a result. "I think in Cedar Rapids, in particular, we’ve set the bar pretty high," Martinez said, recounting the success the Kernels have had, including making the playoffs in each of the four seasons since the inception of the affiliation agreement with the Twins. "I think (these players) are eager to prove that they belong at this level, maybe partly because they didn’t really have the success they wanted last year, but they're a really, really talented group. A really close-knit group and so we’re hoping that we can kind of steer them in the right direction. They are the future of the franchise." Brian Dinkelman, the hitting coach, also thinks there's a lot of potential in this group of Kernels. "Yeah, we’ve got some guys that can definitely swing the bat," he said of the hitters he'll be working with. "We've got a lot of young guys. We’ve got (Lewin) Diaz and (Jermaine) Palacios and (Ben) Rortvedt - guys that are still in their teens. But we’ve got some guys who can swing the bat and do some damage, so looking forward to the season. A lot of guys to work with. Hope we can develop them and move on to the next level. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2017-Kernels-players-600x400.jpg Ben Rortvedt, Sean Poppen and Travis Blankenhorn (photo: SD Buhr) One of the guys the hitting coach mentioned, Rortvedt, is among the players who will be getting their first taste of full-season professional experience this season in Cedar Rapids. "Wonderful. A bit of an upgrade with the stadium from Elizabethton and the Florida GCL," the Wisconsin native responded, when asked for his initial impressions."I played here growing up a couple of times and it was fantastic. I mean, it wasn’t full bleachers, but I’ve seen pictures of you guys filling up the stadium, so I’m really excited. "I played with a bunch of the guys last year and we’ve bonded pretty well, so it’s going to be a fun season." There's that word, "fun" again, along with another common theme of the day, team chemistry. Pitcher Sean Poppen and infielder/DH Travis Blankenhorn expressed similar expectations. "(Tommy) is great. I think he’s really going to develop team chemistry and that’s pretty important," Poppen said, of his manager. "We had Tommy in instructs (fall instructional league) and spring training," Blankenhorn added. "He just keeps the game fun. It’s fun to play for him. He keeps it fun for all of us. It makes baseball a lot better when you’re having fun." "Absolutely," Rortvedt agreed. "I didn’t know Tommy going into instructs and he came in already cracking jokes at me, so he’s definitely going to keep us loose in the dugout." Fun and chemistry are important, but Poppen doesn't think that's all Watkins brings to his team. "He’s a good coach. I’ve had some experiences with him that were very helpful and I feel like he’s going to help me - and help the team - get better." "I think we have a good team this year," Blankenhorn concluded. "I think we have a bunch of pitchers that are going to throw strikes and go out there and put some zeros on the board. I think we have some good sticks in our lineup that are going to put the ball in play and puts some runs up and hopefully we can win some games." Having fun and winning games. Sounds like a pretty good combination.

Thank you, all, for taking the time to read this article and contribute your thoughts. - Steve

With the 2017 Minnesota Twins season set to open up on Monday, it's finally time to try to predict what this team will do over the next 162 games. (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com) Looking at the Opening Day roster and comparing it to what we saw a year ago, making a prediction that doesn't have the Twins once again at least flirting with 100 losses takes a combination of considerable imagination and pure hope. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/DSC_0834-2-600x400.jpg Twins GM That Levine (Photo by SD Buhr) A 103-loss team a year ago, it's pretty hard to see obvious reasons to project a significant improvement in that record. The primary change (in fact, perhaps the only significant change) in the organization came in the front office and, no matter what you think of Derek Falvey and Thad Levine, the new Twins brass won't pitch or hit the team to more wins. This is a roster that cried out for pitching upgrades and I defy anyone to look at the Opening Day pitching staff and point out where significant improvement is going to come from. The decision-makers have determined that manager Paul Molitor will have 13 pitchers to choose from. I don't think volume is going to automatically make the staff better, though. What this roster does have, thanks to the extra pitching being carried, is a total lack of offense available off the bench. When Molitor looks down his bench for a pinch hitter, he's going to be looking at Chris Gimenez, Eduardo Escobar and Danny Santana. The only way he'll see a viable pinch hitter in that dugout is if he has started Escobar at shortstop, leaving Jorge Polanco available. Gimenez, the backup catcher, is also supposedly the backup first baseman behind Joe Mauer. That's not ideal. I have to wonder if we won't see Max Kepler at first base with some frequency. I don't doubt he can handle the position (he did well enough there in Cedar Rapids back in 2013), but it's a waste to put a guy with his range in the outfield at first base. It just makes you worse as a team, defensively, at both positions. I don't envy Molitor the task he has before him this season. Owner Jim Pohlad made it clear at the end of 2016 that, regardless of who he hired to run his baseball operations, they were going to keep Molitor as their manager in 2017. So Falvey and Levine knew they wouldn't be able to hire the manager of their choice until the 2018 season. But it's almost as if they collectively decided that they weren't going to go out of their way during the 2016-2017 offseason to improve the Twins' roster and risk giving Molitor any chance to win enough games to make replacing him an unpopular thing to do, either with fans or with an owner who clearly likes the Hall-of-Famer, after his lame-duck season wraps up. Molitor has certainly not set the world on fir in his first two seasons as a manager. In this interview with the Pioneer Press' Brian Murphy, Molitor even admits that, "Learning to run the bullpen has been a work in progress." He'll get no argument from most Twins fans on that point. Molitor also conceded that his ability to produce more wins may be taken out of his hands as this season unfolds. After trying, and failing, to get what they considered fair market trade value out of veterans like Brian Dozier and Ervin Santana during the offseason, you have to assume that the Twins new front office would be quick to pull the trigger on mid-season trades of such players if they get off to good starts, driving up their trade values With a front office so obviously focused on the future, such moves would have significant negative effects on the chances of Molitor leading his team to enough wins to save his job. To his credit, it's clear from the comments he made to Murphy that Molitor, while being aware of these circumstances, isn't particularly concerned about them. Or at least he's classy enough not to express any such concerns publicly. Make no mistake, however, any ultimate failure of the 2017 Twins to substantially improve the results that fans see on the field would be a shared responsibility. I won't argue that Molitor would be blameless for a lack of success, but his front office did him no favors with its inactivity all offseason long. They had an obvious task - improve the pitching, both the rotation and the bullpen. They did almost nothing to address that need and that, in my view, would make them primarily responsible if a lack of pitching talent leads to another bad season. I'm hoping that another year of development will mean significant improvements on the field from guys such as Kepler, Polanco, Byron Buxton and Miguel Sano. I'm hoping Phil Hughes and Kyle Gibson have good years and that whatever mix is in that bullpen turns out able to do its job well. I'm hoping that some of the organization's young pitchers develop quickly enough to provide upgrades during the course of the season. As a fan, hoping is all I have the ability to do. Unfortunately, everything I've seen, heard and read about the new Twins front office indicates that they're just hoping all those things happen, too. Falvey and Levine, however, walked into their offices at Target Field with the absolute authority to reshape their roster and they did virtually nothing to give Molitor - and Twins fans - anything of substance to hang our hopes on for this season.

The Minnesota Twins once again included Cedar Rapids, the home of their Class A affiliate Kernels, in their Twins Winter Caravan tour and last night's event was entertaining and about as enjoyable as any such event put on by a 100+ loss big league organization could be. The venue was one of several new aspects of this year's Kernels Hot Stove event, the primary fundraiser for the organization's charitable foundation. Rather than using a large hotel ballroom to hold a sit-down dinner, the Kernels hosted a reception at the New Bo City Market, a showplace for a variety of local food merchants. All food, beer and wine available at the event was provided by New Bo vendors, giving the event a distinctively local flavor.Broadcaster Kris Atteberry did a terrific job as the emcee for the Twins Caravan portion of the program, doling out opportunities to address the gathering to five members of the Twins organization gathered on stage. They included a pair of Twins players, pitcher Trevor May and outfielder Byron Buxton, newly announced Kernels manager Tommy Watkins, new Twins General Manager Thad Levine and Brian Dinkelman, who served as the Kernels hitting coach in 2016 and, while no official announcement has been made as yet, is presumed to be serving in that capacity this summer, as well. In addition to responding to Atteberry's prepared questions from the podium and answering questions from the crowd, the Caravan participants also were available for media interviews. Here are a few highlights from one-on-one interviews, as well as the public portion of the program. Early in January, the Twins and Kernels announced that Watkins, who served as the Kernels hitting coach, under former manager Jake Mauer, from 2013 through 2015 and in the same capacity for Class AA Chattanooga last season, will get his first opportunity as a minor league manager in 2017 when he takes the Kernels' reins. Watkins said that he and farm director Brad Steil had discussed the possibility of Watkins getting a managing opportunity for the past couple of years, but no such position had opened up until last year's Fort Myers Miracle manager Jeff Smith got promoted to a coaching position with the Twins this offseason. Still, Watkins said, "I didn't know if I would get it or not." http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_0865-2-600x400.jpgTrevor May and Tommy Watkins react to Byron Buxton explaining how he "noodled" a catfishOnce the assignment was officially offered, Watkins was very happy to accept. "It was just like the news I got when I was going to the big leagues. I was happy, I was nervous, I was scared, I didn't want to go. So it was a lot of things. I cried, I laughed, I called my family and told them. It was exciting news." Asked by Atteberry to tell the gathering what went into the front office's decision to offer the job to Watkins, Levine led off with tongue firmly planted in cheek. "I've got to be honest with you, I have no idea how this came to pass. This is news to me. I'll try to adjust on the fly." Levine then turned serious - and very complimentary toward the new Kernels manager. "I think that one thing you guys always hear about is that we're trying to develop players, there's a development track. But I think the other thing that we're trying to develop concurrently is staff members. Guys who have a chance, on the scouting side, to influence decision-making and, on the coaching side, a chance to be major league coaches. "One of the things that I heard when I first joined the Minnesota Twins was about the man to my right, Tommy, and I think the universal feeling was that he had a chance to be a really good hitting coach, but he had the chance to be special as a manager. So when the opportunity presented itself to give him an opportunity to pursue his career as a manager, I think everybody in the organization really endorsed him because we felt as if that's where he's going to be a difference maker. "We think he's going to have a chance to be a major league coach down the road. We think in the short term, he has a chance to really influence our minor league players, and as a manager we think his impact could be even greater than it was as a hitting coach. "He's a special man. He's very charismatic. He knows the game of baseball. He's still trying to learn every single day. Each time I've been around him, I feel as if I've gotten to know him a little bit better. This guy's a very dynamic man. He's going to be a leader in our organization for a long time to come and he's just scratching the surface of his potential." http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_0838-2-400x600.jpgTC Bear made the trip to Cedar Rapids with the rest of the Twins Caravan crewWatkins said before the event that he's looking forward to his return to the Kernels. "It feels good. I had a bunch of different emotions but I'm excited. It feels like I've been gone for a lot longer than just a year, but it's good to be back. I enjoyed my time here and I'm looking forward to it." Asked by Atteberry to set the line on how many times Watkins will be ejected by umpires in 2017, Brian Dinkelman didn't hesitate before saying. "I set it at 3 1/2." Buxton said he's been feeling good since his hot finish to last season in September. "I've been hitting since late November, working on a few things and getting some stuff kinked out, but other than that, I feel great. "I'm just focusing a little bit more on hitting, being a little bit more consistent, using my legs, staying down through the ball, keeping my head down. Just small things to help me out in the long run." He said he didn't think there was any major change in his game that led to his strong finish to the 2016 season. "Just stop thinking. Just run out there and play baseball. Have fun, going out there and have fun with teammates. We competed, September was different for everybody, not just including me. We went out there with a different mindset to finish the season strong and carry that over into spring training and this season." Looking back at his time in Cedar Rapids as a teenager barely out of high school, he said the dream of playing big league ball has turned out to be everything he hoped for, "and more." "Not many people are able to make it up there to the bigs, so I'm very blessed and thankful to get up there. Just being able to play beside Trevor when he's up there pitching, not many people can say you've been in a big league uniform and you've been behind a pitcher like him that gives it his all and you're right there giving it your all and trying to compete for a World Series ring." For his part, May also indicated he's feeling good after having some trouble staying healthy in 2016. "I'm feeling good," said May. "I had some patterns I needed to break. In the past, I've always thought four months was enough to heal from everything in the offseason. But I've come to the realization that breaking down a muscle and building it back up again to where you want it to work just takes time." He said even little things such as posture, while standing or sitting, have been items he's focused on this offseason, with an emphasis on workouts that increase his flexibility, like Pilates and yoga, rather than weight training. "I was doing a bunch of stuff that was just exacerbating the problem 24 hours a day. Changing all those things has been a lot of work, but I'm excited to just keep doing what I'm doing into the season. "I threw a bullpen today. If I threw a bullpen when my back was tight back there, I would definitely feel some stiffness right now after I threw and I don't feel stiff at all, so I'm just taking that as a really good sign." May wasn't just trying new things in regard to his offseason workout regimen. While he did some DJing again this year, as he has in the past, he also expanded his horizons. "I actually have a new hobby," he explained. "I broadcast video games, which has been really fun. It's like having your own radio show in which you talk and play video games. I really enjoy it. I'm going to try to do it once a month on an offday during the season. I'm going to host tournaments of games I play for viewers." Asked to evaluate the state of the Twins' farm system, now that many of their previous top prospects have broken into the big leagues, new GM Levine said that the Twins front office doesn't necessarily look at the organization strictly in terms of players that have exhausted their eligibility for Rookie of the Year awards and those that have not. "I think we look at the farm system as an extension to the major leagues, so any guy in the major leagues who has two or fewer years of service is part of that next wave, that core," he said. "So I think when you include those players with your minor league players, you can really see the waves of players coming. "There's a wave in the big leagues right now, there's a wave right behind them, there's a wave that will be playing at Cedar Rapids this year. I think we're excited about the depth throughout our system, inclusive of the major leagues and I think if you include that young group in the major leagues all the way down, you could see that the future is very bright. "For a team that has the payroll that we will have, you're looking at having as many young players who can impact the game as possible and I think you've got to look at the guys who have matriculated to the big leagues when you're factoring that." The subject of the relatively public flirtation with trading second baseman Brian Dozier came up both in the interview setting and during the public Question & Answer session. Levine indicated that, while it certainly appears that Dozier will be opening the season with the Twins, he wouldn't say the door was completely closed on the possibility of moving Dozier, or any other player for that matter. "I don't know that we would talk specifically about any one trade negotiation, but I think the way Derek (Falvey) and I are going to operate is that we're not closing doors at any juncture. At that point, you are not doing your job to the fullest. Any time you close off opportunities to improve the team, I think you're doing the franchise a disservice." http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_0869-2-600x400.jpgBuxton and May did the autograph thing after the Twins Caravan programDuring the public session, Levine was asked specifically what he expected Dozier's future was with the Twins. "I think we think his future is going to be glorious with the franchise," he responded. "He's been the consummate professional throughout this process. We always approached this from the mindset of, the best the Minnesota Twins could be would be with Brian Dozier. If someone wants to blow our socks off, we'll consider talking about him. But for that fact, we see him as part of this franchise moving forward." Atteberry asked Levine to address the "stats vs scouting" issue that comes up in almost any conversation about the new front office management. Again, the new GM mixed humor into his more thoughtful response. "When the movie Moneyball came out, everybody who was below a certain age - at that time, I would say 35, now I would say 45, just conveniently (Levine celebrated his 45th birthday in November) - you were viewed to be more of a formulaic-based decision making group vs if you were older, you were more of a scouts guy. And I think it's a bit of a misconception. "Derek and I are both guys who are going to have analytics and scouting and player development factor into every decision that we make. We're not going to focus singularly on any sort of formula to spit out a decision we're going to make. "The other big misconception I think about that movie is that anybody working in a front office looks at all like Brad Pitt. We really don't. Honestly. "So the movie did some disservices across the board, but I do think analytics plays a role in decision-making, but that's all it is. It's a piece of the pie. It's not something that is going to drive us to make any singular decision. It will be something we weigh in, we factor in, but it's not going to drive our decision-making." Also during the public session, Atteberry challenged Levine to demonstrate how much he knew about the two players he was sharing a stage with. Atteberry presented a few bits of trivia and asked Levine to guess which player, May or Buxton, the fact pertained to. The questions were: Which player DJ'd at his own wedding? Which one of them has the highest vertical jump and is the fastest runner in his family (and which is not)? Which has successfully noodled a catfish? And which one has a mother that kept a mountain lion as a pet for four years? The answers: May (obviously), Buxton is NOT the fastest runner or best jumper in his family (he said his dad jumps higher, his brother is faster and he has a 13-year old sister who may eventually pass them all), but Buxton did noodle a catfish. It was May's mother who kept a mountain lion as a pet. And Levine nailed every answer correctly. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_0867-2-600x400.jpgTwo members of the "Knuckleballs" table took home door prizes. A May & Buxton signed jersey and a Twins stocking capThe final question from the audience asked Watkins and Buxton to relate the funniest thing that happened to them during their time with the Kernels. Suffice to say that you won't find Buxton playing baseball with ping pong balls in the clubhouse again any time soon and Watkins' days of shaving his head are over. (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com) Click here to view the article

The Minnesota Twins once again included Cedar Rapids, the home of their Class A affiliate Kernels, in their Twins Winter Caravan tour and last night's event was entertaining and about as enjoyable as any such event put on by a 100+ loss big league organization could be. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_0857-2-600x400.jpg Kris Atteberry emcees the panel of Trevor May, Byron Buxton, Tommy Watkins, Thad Levine and Brian Dinkelman The venue was one of several new aspects of this year's Kernels Hot Stove event, the primary fundraiser for the organization's charitable foundation. Rather than using a large hotel ballroom to hold a sit-down dinner, the Kernels hosted a reception at the New Bo City Market, a showplace for a variety of local food merchants. All food, beer and wine available at the event was provided by New Bo vendors, giving the event a distinctively local flavor. Broadcaster Kris Atteberry did a terrific job as the emcee for the Twins Caravan portion of the program, doling out opportunities to address the gathering to five members of the Twins organization gathered on stage. They included a pair of Twins players, pitcher Trevor May and outfielder Byron Buxton, newly announced Kernels manager Tommy Watkins, new Twins General Manager Thad Levine and Brian Dinkelman, who served as the Kernels hitting coach in 2016 and, while no official announcement has been made as yet, is presumed to be serving in that capacity this summer, as well. In addition to responding to Atteberry's prepared questions from the podium and answering questions from the crowd, the Caravan participants also were available for media interviews. Here are a few highlights from one-on-one interviews, as well as the public portion of the program. Early in January, the Twins and Kernels announced that Watkins, who served as the Kernels hitting coach, under former manager Jake Mauer, from 2013 through 2015 and in the same capacity for Class AA Chattanooga last season, will get his first opportunity as a minor league manager in 2017 when he takes the Kernels' reins. Watkins said that he and farm director Brad Steil had discussed the possibility of Watkins getting a managing opportunity for the past couple of years, but no such position had opened up until last year's Fort Myers Miracle manager Jeff Smith got promoted to a coaching position with the Twins this offseason. Still, Watkins said, "I didn't know if I would get it or not." http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_0865-2-600x400.jpg Trevor May and Tommy Watkins react to Byron Buxton explaining how he "noodled" a catfish Once the assignment was officially offered, Watkins was very happy to accept. "It was just like the news I got when I was going to the big leagues. I was happy, I was nervous, I was scared, I didn't want to go. So it was a lot of things. I cried, I laughed, I called my family and told them. It was exciting news." Asked by Atteberry to tell the gathering what went into the front office's decision to offer the job to Watkins, Levine led off with tongue firmly planted in cheek. "I've got to be honest with you, I have no idea how this came to pass. This is news to me. I'll try to adjust on the fly." Levine then turned serious - and very complimentary toward the new Kernels manager. "I think that one thing you guys always hear about is that we're trying to develop players, there's a development track. But I think the other thing that we're trying to develop concurrently is staff members. Guys who have a chance, on the scouting side, to influence decision making and, on the coaching side, a chance to be Major League coaches. "One of the things that I heard when I first joined the Minnesota Twins was about the man to my right, Tommy, and I think the universal feeling was that he had a chance to be a really good hitting coach, but he had the chance to be special as a manager. So when the opportunity presented itself to give him an opportunity to pursue his career as a manager, I think everybody in the organization really endorsed him because we felt as if that's where he's going to be a difference maker. "We think he's going to have a chance to be a Major League coach down the road. We think in the short term, he has a chance to really influence our minor league players, and as a manager we think his impact could be even greater than it was as a hitting coach. "He's a special man. He's very charismatic. He knows the game of baseball. He's still trying to learn every single day. Each time I've been around him, I feel as if I've gotten to know him a little bit better. This guy's a very dynamic man. He's going to be a leader in our organization for a long time to come and he's just scratching the surface of his potential." http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_0838-2-400x600.jpg TC Bear made the trip to Cedar Rapids with the rest of the Twins Caravan crew Watkins said before the event that he's looking forward to his return to the Kernels. "It feels good. I had a bunch of different emotions but I'm excited. It feels like I've been gone for a lot longer than just a year, but it's good to be back. I enjoyed my time here and I'm looking forward to it." Asked by Atteberry to set the line on how many times Watkins will be ejected by umpires in 2017, Brian Dinkelman didn't hesitate before saying. "I set it at 3 1/2." Buxton said he's been feeling good since his hot finish to last season in September. "I've been hitting since late November, working on a few things and getting some stuff kinked out, but other than that, I feel great. "I'm just focusing a little bit more on hitting, being a little bit more consistent, using my legs, staying down through the ball, keeping my head down. Just small things to help me out in the long run." He said he didn't think there was any major change in his game that led to his strong finish to the 2016 season. "Just stop thinking. Just run out there and play baseball. Have fun, going out there and have fun with teammates. We competed, September was different for everybody, not just including me. We went out there with a different mindset to finish the season strong and carry that over into spring training and this season." Looking back at his time in Cedar Rapids as a teenager barely out of high school, he said the dream of playing big league ball has turned out to be everything he hoped for, "and more." "Not many people are able to make it up there to the bigs, so I'm very blessed and thankful to get up there. Just being able to play beside Trevor when he's up there pitching, not many people can say you've been in a big league uniform and you've been behind a pitcher like him that gives it his all and you're right there giving it your all and trying to compete for a World Series ring." For his part, May also indicated he's feeling good after having some trouble staying healthy in 2016. "I'm feeling good," said May. "I had some patterns I needed to break. In the past, I've always thought four months was enough to heal from everything in the offseason. But I've come to the realization that breaking down a muscle and building it back up again to where you want it to work just takes time." He said even little things such as posture, while standing or sitting, have been items he's focused on this offseason, with an emphasis on workouts that increase his flexibility, like Pilates and yoga, rather than weight training. "I was doing a bunch of stuff that was just exacerbating the problem 24 hours a day. Changing all those things has been a lot of work, but I'm excited to just keep doing what I'm doing into the season. "I threw a bullpen today. If I threw a bullpen when my back was tight back there, I would definitely feel some stiffness right now after I threw and I don't feel stiff at all, so I'm just taking that as a really good sign." May wasn't just trying new things in regard to his offseason workout regimen. While he did some DJing again this year, as he has in the past, he also expanded his horizons. "I actually have a new hobby," he explained. "I broadcast video games, which has been really fun. It's like having your own radio show in which you talk and play video games. I really enjoy it. I'm going to try to do it once a month on an offday during the season. I'm going to host tournaments of games I play for viewers." Asked to evaluate the state of the Twins' farm system, now that many of their previous top prospects have broken into the big leagues, new GM Levine said that the Twins front office doesn't necessarily look at the organization strictly in terms of players that have exhausted their eligibility for Rookie of the Year awards and those that have not. "I think we look at the farm system as an extension to the Major Leagues, so any guy in the Major Leagues who has two or fewer years of service is part of that next wave, that core," he said. "So I think when you include those players with your minor league players, you can really see the waves of players coming. "There's a wave in the big leagues right now, there's a wave right behind them, there's a wave that will be playing at Cedar Rapids this year. I think we're excited about the depth throughout our system, inclusive of the Major Leagues and I think if you include that young group in the Major Leagues all the way down, you could see that the future is very bright. "For a team that has the payroll that we will have, you're looking at having as many young players who can impact the game as possible and I think you've got to look at the guys who have matriculated to the big leagues when you're factoring that." The subject of the relatively public flirtation with trading second baseman Brian Dozier came up both in the interview setting and during the public Question & Answer session. Levine indicated that, while it certainly appears that Dozier will be opening the season with the Twins, he wouldn't say the door was completely closed on the possibility of moving Dozier, or any other player for that matter. "I don't know that we would talk specifically about any one trade negotiation, but I think the way Derek (Falvey) and I are going to operate is that we're not closing doors at any juncture. At that point, you are not doing your job to the fullest. Any time you close off opportunities to improve the team, I think you're doing the franchise a disservice." http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_0869-2-600x400.jpg Buxton and May did the autograph thing after the Twins Caravan program During the public session, Levine was asked specifically what he expected Dozier's future was with the Twins. "I think we think his future is going to be glorious with the franchise," he responded. "He's been the consummate professional throughout this process. We always approached this from the mindset of, the best the Minnesota Twins could be would be with Brian Dozier. If someone wants to blow our socks off, we'll consider talking about him. But for that fact, we see him as part of this franchise moving forward." Atteberry asked Levine to address the "stats vs scouting" issue that comes up in almost any conversation about thenew front office management. Again, the new GM mixed humor into his more thoughtful response. "When the movie Moneyball came out, everybody who was below a certain age - at that time, I would say 35, now I would say 45, just conveniently (Levine celebrated his 45th birthday in November) - you were viewed to be more of a formulaic-based decision making group vs if you were older, you were more of a scouts guy. And I think it's a bit of a misconception. "Derek and I are both guys who are going to have analytics and scouting and player development factor into every decision that we make. We're not going to focus singularly on any sort of formula to spit out a decision we're going to make. "The other big misconception I think about that movie is that anybody working in a front office looks at all like Brad Pitt. We really don't. Honestly. "So the movie did some disservices across the board, but I do think analytics plays a role in decision making, but that's all it is. It's a piece of the pie. It's not something that is going to drive us to make any singular decision. It will be something we weigh in, we factor in, but it's not going to drive our decision making." Also during the public session, Atteberry challenged Levine to demonstrate how much he knew about the two players he was sharing a stage with. Atteberry presented a few bits of trivia and asked Levine to guess which player, May or Buxton, the fact pertained to. The questions were: Which player DJ'd at his own wedding? Which one of them has the highest vertical jump and is the fastest runner in his family (and which is not)? Which has successfully noodled a catfish? And which one has a mother that kept a mountain lion as a pet for four years? The answers: May (obviously), Buxton is NOT the fastest runner or best jumper in his family (he said his dad jumps higher, his brother is faster and he has a 13-year old sister that may eventually pass them all), but Buxton did noodle a catfish. It was May's mother who kept a mountain lion as a pet. And Levine nailed every answer correctly. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/DSC_0867-2-600x400.jpg Two members of the "Knuckleballs" table took home door prizes. A May & Buxton signed jersey and a Twins stocking cap The final question from the audience asked Watkins and Buxton to relate the funniest thing that happened to them during their time with the Kernels. Suffice to say that you won't find Buxton playing baseball with ping pong balls in the clubhouse again any time soon and Watkins' days of shaving his head are over. (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Granted, it probably wasn't anywhere near the "worst of times" for Stuart Turner and Mitch Garver, but the excitement of learning they had been drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the June, 2013 Amateur Draft had to have been at least slightly dampened with the realization that the Twins had drafted both of them.Going into that draft, the Twins knew they needed catching. They didn’t yet know just how desperately they needed catching. (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com) The Twins had allowed their organization to become thin at a critical (if not THE most critical) defensive position. And it was understandable, to a degree. After all, they had the reigning American League Most Valuable Player behind the plate. Catcher Joe Mauer was not only good for a .300 batting average and .400 on-base percentage every season, but he had only just turned 30 years old a few weeks earlier. What the Twins’ brass didn’t know – and couldn’t know – as they gathered in their offices for the June 2013 Amateur Player Draft, was that Mauer would never get behind the plate to catch another big league game after the 2013 season, due to persistent concussion problems. Still, to their credit, they identified the catching position as one that warranted some focus in the 2013 draft. And focus they did. The Twins used three of their top 10 picks in 2013 on catchers and added another in the 22nd round. After selecting pitchers Kohl Stewart and Ryan Eades in rounds one and two, Minnesota picked Ole Miss catcher Stuart Turner in the third round. He was the 2013 Johnny Bench Award winner, presented to the top NCAA Division I catcher. In the sixth round, the Twins grabbed a high school catcher, Brian Navarreto. New Mexico Lobo catcher Mitch Garver was selected by the Twins in the ninth round. Garver was one of three finalists for the Johnny Bench award that Turner won. In fact, it was the second year that Garver was a Bench Award finalist. The Twins added Alex Swim out of Elon (NC) University in the 22nd round, to complete the 2013 catching class. Adding that many catchers to the organization at one time required a bit of roster manipulation on the part of the Twins farm director Brad Steil and his group. You obviously can’t just start the entire group at the same level and still get everyone enough work behind the plate to develop them. Navarreto, being a few years younger than the others, was easy to plug into the rookie league programs. Fair or not, as a lower round pick, there would be less emphasis on getting Swim adequate opportunities to show what he could do behind the plate. By the end of the 2013 season, of course, the Twins pretty much knew Mauer’s career as a catcher was effectively over and suddenly the club and its fans became much more interested in the catchers coming up through the farm system, particularly in Turner and Garver. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Turner3-450x600-450x600.jpgStuart Turner (Photo: SD Buhr)The Twins don’t make a habit of starting many of their young players at the Advanced Class A level in Ft. Myers, but it was important that both Turner and Garver get as much time working with pitchers from behind the plate as possible. That could only be accomplished by splitting the two catchers up in their first full season of professional ball. To accomplish that, Turner was assigned to Ft. Myers, while Garver spent 2014 at Class A Cedar Rapids. A year later, Turner and Garver remained one level apart as Turner was promoted to AA Chattanooga and Garver moved up to Ft. Myers. In fact, the first time the two became teammates wasn’t even technically with a Twins affiliate. The Twins sent both catchers to the Arizona Fall League in October, 2015. Both caught 11 games and DH’d in one for AFL champion Scottsdale. Garver hit .317 for the Scorpions, while Turner hit just .171. That set up a 2016 season where Garver and Turner would both begin the year at Chattanooga. While the two had been effectively competing with one another for some kind of mythical “Twins top catching prospect” designation since that 2013 draft day, this was the first time Garver and Turner were set up to go side-by-side into a regular season at the same professional level. That dynamic continued into the second week of August, when the Twins had a spot for a catcher open up at their AAA affiliate in Rochester and the call went out to Chattanooga for someone to finish out the season with the Red Wings. Since Turner was about to finish his second Class AA season with the Lookouts and Garver was still in his first tour through the Southern League, you might have thought that Turner would get the promotion – but you would have been wrong. With Garver hitting a respectable .257 (.753 OPS) at the time, while Turner was hovering around .210 (and an OPS around .650), it was Garver who was packing for Rochester. But it wasn’t just his bat that appeared to have pushed Garver ahead of Turner on the Twins’ organizational depth chart. He threw out 52% of runners attempting to steal on him (23 of 44 attempts) in Chattanooga. Turner threw out 19 of 48 attempted base stealers for a 40% clip. Admittedly, using “caught stealing” statistics as a measure for a catcher’s work behind the plate is iffy, at best. For one thing, runners steal bases off of pitchers as much as (if not more than) off catchers. However, in this case, that factor is largely mitigated since the two were catching members of the same Chattanooga pitching staff. After the season, the Twins again sent Garver to get additional work in the Arizona Fall League, where he hit .229 and put up a .756 OPS, fueled by four home runs and four doubles in 70 at-bats for the AFL runner-up Surprise Saguaros. Whether Garver will eventually hit and, perhaps more importantly, catch well enough to work his way into the Minnesota Twins lineup on a regular basis certainly remains an unknown. However, we do know the Twins like him enough that, as the AFL season wrapped up, they added him to their 40-man roster. Meanwhile, Turner was not added to that roster, exposing him to Major League Baseball’s Rule 5 draft. On Thursday, the Cincinnati Reds selected Turner from the Twins in said draft. Ironically, while it’s clear that the Twins now value Garver’s big league potential over that of Turner, it’s Turner that very well could get to the big leagues ahead of Garver. As a Rule 5 pick, the Reds will need to keep Turner on their big league club in 2017 or return him to the Twins (or offer the Twins some sort of additional compensation in return for being allowed to keep him at a minor league level). At the same time, Garver will open spring training in the big league camp but has no guarantee in his pocket assuring him a spot with the Twins on Opening Day. On draft day in June of 2013, Turner and Garver had to be wondering what the chances were that the two of them would somehow both work their way into a Minnesota Twins uniform. It seemed likely that, some day, the Twins were going to need to make a choice between them. That day came and the Twins chose to cast their lot with Garver. Fortunately for Turner, he’s getting a pretty good consolation prize, courtesy of the Cincinnati Reds. Click here to view the article

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. Granted, it probably wasn't anywhere near the "worst of times" for Stuart Turner and Mitch Garver, but the excitement of learning they had been drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the June, 2013 Amateur Draft had to have been at least slightly dampened with the realization that the Twins had drafted both of them. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GarverAFL16ae-600x400.jpg Mitch Garver (Photo: SD Buhr) Going into that draft, the Twins knew they needed catching. They didn’t yet know just how desperately they needed catching. (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com) The Twins had allowed their organization to become thin at a critical (if not THE most critical) defensive position. And it was understandable, to a degree. After all, they had the reigning American League Most Valuable Player behind the plate. Catcher Joe Mauer was not only good for a .300 batting average and .400 on-base percentage every season, but he had only just turned 30 years old a few weeks earlier. What the Twins’ brass didn’t know – and couldn’t know – as they gathered in their offices for the June 2013 Amateur Player Draft, was that Mauer would never get behind the plate to catch another big league game after the 2013 season, due to persistent concussion problems. Still, to their credit, they identified the catching position as one that warranted some focus in the 2013 draft. And focus they did. The Twins used three of their top 10 picks in 2013 on catchers and added another in the 22nd round. After selecting pitchers Kohl Stewart and Ryan Eades in rounds one and two, Minnesota picked Ole Miss catcher Stuart Turner in the third round. He was the 2013 Johnny Bench award winner, presented to the top NCAA Division I catcher. In the sixth round, the Twins grabbed a high school catcher, Brian Navarreto. New Mexico Lobo catcher Mitch Garver was selected by the Twins in the ninth round. Garver was one of three finalists for the Johnny Bench award that Turner won. In fact, it was the second year that Garver was a Bench Award finalist. The Twins added Alex Swim out of Elon (NC) University in the 22nd round, to complete the 2013 catching class. Adding that many catchers to the organization at one time required a bit of roster manipulation on the part of the Twins farm director Brad Steil and his group. You obviously can’t just start the entire group at the same level and still get everyone enough work behind the plate to develop them. Navarreto, being a few years younger than the others, was easy to plug into the rookie league programs. Fair or not, as a lower round pick, there would be less emphasis on getting Swim adequate opportunities to show what he could do behind the plate. By the end of the 2013 season, of course, the Twins pretty much knew Mauer’s career as a catcher was effectively over and suddenly the club and its fans became much more interested in the catchers coming up through the farm system, particularly in Turner and Garver. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Turner3-450x600-450x600.jpg Stuart Turner (Photo: SD Buhr) The Twins don’t make a habit of starting many of their young players at the Advanced Class A level in Ft. Myers, but it was important that both Turner and Garver get as much time working with pitchers from behind the plate as possible. That could only be accomplished by splitting the two catchers up in their first full season of professional ball. To accomplish that, Turner was assigned to Ft. Myers, while Garver spent 2014 at Class A Cedar Rapids. A year later, Turner and Garver remained one level apart as Turner was promoted to AA Chattanooga and Garver moved up to Ft. Myers. In fact, the first time the two became teammates wasn’t even technically with a Twins affiliate. The Twins sent both catchers to the Arizona Fall League in October, 2015. Both caught 11 games and DH’d in one for AFL champion Scottsdale. Garver hit .317 for the Scorpions, while Turner hit just .171. That set up a 2016 season where Garver and Turner would both begin the year at Chattanooga. While the two had been effectively competing with one another for some kind of mythical “Twins top catching prospect” designation since that 2013 draft day, this was the first time Garver and Turner were set up to go side-by-side into a regular season at the same professional level. That dynamic continued into the second week of August, when the Twins had a spot for a catcher open up at their AAA affiliate in Rochester and the call went out to Chattanooga for someone to finish out the season with the Red Wings. Since Turner was about to finish his second Class AA season with the Lookouts and Garver was still in his first tour through the Southern League, you might have thought that Turner would get the promotion – but you would have been wrong. With Garver hitting a respectable .257 (.753 OPS) at the time, while Turner was hovering around .210 (and an OPS around .650), it was Garver that was packing for Rochester. But it wasn’t just his bat that appeared to have pushed Garver ahead of Turner on the Twins’ organizational depth chart. He threw out 52% of runners attempting to steal on him (23 of 44 attempts) in Chattanooga. Turner threw out 19 of 48 attempted base stealers for a 40% clip. Admittedly, using “caught stealing” statistics as a measure for a catcher’s work behind the plate is iffy, at best. For one thing, runners steal bases off of pitchers as much as (if not more than) off catchers. However, in this case, that factor is largely mitigated since the two were catching members of the same Chattanooga pitching staff. After the season, the Twins again sent Garver to get additional work in the Arizona Fall League, where he hit .229 and put up a .756 OPS, fueled by four home runs and four doubles in 70 at-bats for the AFL runner-up Surprise Saguaros. Whether Garver will eventually hit and, perhaps more importantly, catch well enough to work his way into the Minnesota Twins lineup on a regular basis certainly remains an unknown. However, we do know the Twins like him enough that, as the AFL season wrapped up, they added him to their 40-man roster. Meanwhile, Turner was not added to that roster, exposing him to Major League Baseball’s Rule 5 draft. On Thursday, the Cincinnati Reds selected Turner from the Twins in said draft. Ironically, while it’s clear that the Twins now value Garver’s big league potential over that of Turner, it’s Turner that very well could get to the big leagues ahead of Garver. As a Rule 5 pick, the Reds will need to keep Turner on their big league club in 2017 or return him to the Twins (or offer the Twins some sort of additional compensation in return for being allowed to keep him at a minor league level). At the same time, Garver will open spring training in the big league camp but has no guarantee in his pocket assuring him a spot with the Twins on Opening Day. On draft day in June of 2013, Turner and Garver had to be wondering what the chances were that the two of them would somehow both work their way into a Minnesota Twins uniform. It seemed likely that, some day, the Twins were going to need to make a choice between them. That day came and the Twins chose to cast their lot with Garver. Fortunately for Turner, he’s getting a pretty good consolation prize, courtesy of the Cincinnati Reds.

Yeah, I really should have looked at the Surprise Saguaros' schedule before I reserved my hotel for this trip. After Saturday night's Fall Stars Game and Monday afternoon's Surprise game, the Saguaros (for whom all of the Minnesota Twins AFP prospects play this fall) have no more home games while I'm in town. The game today was the first of four games that Surprise is playing in some other distant part of the Phoenix area. Just means I'll be doing a lot of driving between now and Friday. Live & learn, I suppose. The Saguaros dropped a 10-7 decision to the Mesa Solar Sox this afternoon (Tuesday). It was interesting, in that Mesa scored four runs in each of the first two innings and when the score stood 8-5 after three and a half innings, this was looking like it had the makings of a four-hour game. In the end, it wrapped up in two hours and forty-six minutes. It is not a coincidence that they use the pitch clock in this league. It really does keep the game moving. It also didn't hurt that the only two Twins prospects to take the field for Surprise, relief pitchers Mason Melotakis and John Curtiss, each worked a clean 1-2-3 inning when their turns came to toe the rubber. Tomorrow afternoon, it's over to Scottsdale. With any luck, some of the Twins' position players will be back in the lineup and maybe I'll even get to see Stephen Gonsalves get a start against Tim Tebow and the Scorpions. As always (or almost always, anyway), here are a few pictures of Twins in action today. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/ArteagaAFL16a-600x400.jpg Ivan Arteaga http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/MelotakisAFL16d-600x400.jpg Mason Melotakis http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/MelotakisAFL16b-400x600.jpg Mason Melotakis covering first base on a ground ball to the first baseman http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/MelotakisAFL16a-600x400.jpg Mason Melotakis http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CurtissAFL16b-600x400.jpg John Curtiss http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CurtissAFL16a-600x400.jpg John Curtiss http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/CurtissAFL16c-600x400.jpg John Curtiss All photos by S D Buhr and may not be used without permission. (Article originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)

For the third year, I've made the trip top the Phoenix area to watch a little November baseball in the Arizona Fall League and, while I have no pearls of wisdom to pass along, I thought the least I could do is share a few photos during the week. The AFL consists of six teams that each use one of the Phoenix area MLB spring training sites and each big league team sends six or seven minor league prospects to participate. Representing the Twins this fall are pitchers Stephen Gonsalves, Randy Rosario, Mason Melotakis and John Curtiss, as well as shortstop Nick Gordon, outfielder Tanner English and catcher Mitch Garver. As a bonus, for the first time, every Twins representative in the AFL is also a Cedar Rapids Kernels alum. In addition, Ivan Arteaga is serving as the Surprise pitching coach this fall. Arteaga was the Kernels' pitching coach in 2014. After landing a bit late at the Mesa airport on Saturday, I missed the first half-inning of the AFL's "Fall Stars" game on Saturday night, but it wasn't a huge deal since Nick Gordon was the only representative in the game from the Twins organization. After the league's day off on Sunday, I got my first look at the Surprise Saguaros on Monday afternoon. Garver, Gordon and English were all in the Surprise lineup on Monday and reliever Randy Rosario worked a pair of solid innings on the mound. Now, here's the photographic evidence of my attendance at the game! http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/EnglishAFL16c-600x400.jpg Tanner English throwing a runner out at second base http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GarverAFL16a-600x400.jpg Mitch Garver http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GordonAFL16g-600x400.jpg Nick Gordon http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/RosarioAFL16a-600x400.jpg Randy Rosario http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/EnglishAFL16d-600x400.jpg Tanner English http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GordonAFL16h-600x400.jpg Nick Gordon http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GarverAFL16b-600x400.jpg Mitch Garver http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/RosarioAFL16b-600x400.jpg Randy Rosario http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/EnglishAFL16g-428x600.jpg Tanner English http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GordonAFL16c-600x400.jpg Nick Gordon http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/GarverAFL16e-429x600.jpg Mitch Garver http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/AFL16-600x400.jpg Andy Ibanez (Rangers) awaits a throw from Garver as Brett Phillips (Brewers) slides. No, the picture doesn't involve any Twins prospects, but I just really liked the way the picture turned out! All photos are the property of S D Buhr. Use without permission is prohibited. (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com)

They say pitching and defense wins games at playoff time and that certainly was the case in Clinton Monday night, where the Cedar Rapids Kernels and Clinton Lumber Kings not only needed 11 innings to determine a winner, but just as many innings just to see a run tallied. In the end it was Clinton taking the 1-0 win in the deciding game 3 of the West Division series and advancing to the Midwest League’s Championship series against the winner of Tuesday night’s deciding game between West Michigan and Great Lakes.Let’s let Kernels manager Jake Mauer tell the story of the game. “Pitching duel, back and forth. They had chances, we had chances. They caught the ball, we caught the ball. Comes down to the ball finds a hole and the young man puts a good swing on it and that’s it. It’s a tough one. It’s sad that our season had to end on that last game like that.” Mauer was, nonetheless, very proud of his team’s performance this season. “One hundred percent. Those kids battled and competed, gave themselves a chance. It just comes down to one run here or there and that’s just kind of how baseball goes.” Four Kernels pitchers held Clinton scoreless through 10 2/3 innings, but Ricky Eusebio’s line shot to left-center drove in Logan Taylor for the winning – and only – run of the game in the home half of the 11th inning. Sean Poppen got the start for the Kernels and worked five shutout innings, surrendering just three hits without walking a batter, before turning the game over to Michael Cederoth to begin the bottom of the sixth inning. While Poppen struck out three Clinton batters in his five innings, Cederoth matched that total in his first stanza on the mound. Before his night was over the 6 foot 6 inch righthander sent five batters back to the dugout in two innings of shutout relief work. Tom Hackimer relieved Cederoth to begin the eighth inning and gave up just one hit, striking out a pair, in 2 1/3 innings. With a pair of lefties coming up with one out in Clinton’s 10th inning, Lefty reliever Anthony McIver relieved Hackimer and retired both left-handers to end the stanza. McIver was tagged with the loss, however, giving up three singles, including the game-winner, in the 11th. The Kernels had plenty of scoring opportunities throughout the game, despite notching only four hits on the night. Travis Blankenhorn led off the visitors’ fifth inning with a soft line drive double down the left field line and advanced to third base on a wild pitch. Clinton shortstop Rayder Ascanio nearly single-handedly squelched that threat, however, making a diving stop on a sharp ground ball by J.J. Fernandez and snaring a line drive off the bat of Nelson Molina. Jaylin Davis struck out to end the inning, stranding Blankenhorn at third base. In the Kernels’ eighth inning, Fernandez led off with a single, was bunted to second, moved to third on a ground out to the first baseman, but was left there when Kevin Garcia grounded out to end the inning. In the ninth, Casey Scoggins singled to start the inning with a single to right field and, after a fly out, Arraez walked. Matt Walker entered to pitch for Clinton and threw his first pitch to the backstop, allowing both Cedar Rapids runners to advance. Walker then intentionally walked Blankenhorn to load the bases, but Fernandez popped up to shallow right centerfield to end that threat. The Kernels failed to record a hit in extra frames, however, and now they’ll pack their bags and head home for the winter. Click here to view the article

If the Cedar Rapids Kernels are going to return to the Midwest League Championship Series for the second consecutive year, they’re going to need to do it the hard way – with a win on the road in a series-deciding game 3. The Kernels fell hard on Sunday night at Clinton, dropping game two of the series 6-1 to the Lumber Kings. The same two teams will play Monday night in Clinton with the winner moving on to the MWL’s championship series against either West Michigan or Great Lakes. Kernels starting pitcher Sam Gibbons was touched for all six Lumber King runs, all earned, in four innings of work. Most of the damage came in a four-run Clinton fourth inning, topped off by a bases-clearing double off the left-centerfield wall by Chris Mariscal.If you’re looking for a silver lining for the Kernels, you won’t find much here. Kernels batters were virtually shut down by Clinton starting pitcher Kevin Gadea, who struck out 11 Cedar Rapids batters in six innings while giving up just four hits and one walk. In total, Kernels batters were sent back to the dugout on strikeouts 17 times. Kernels manager Jake Mauer summed the game up succinctly. “It’s tough to win baseball games when you don’t put a ball in play,” he said. “We can’t hit and run, we can’t move guys over. Just is not much you can do.” The manager was disappointed that his hitters didn’t do more against Gadea. “He just overpowered us with very average stuff, I thought,” Mauer said. “He slowed it down and threw it over. For whatever reason, we couldn’t do anything.” Cedar Rapids scored their only run off Gadea in the fourth inning and even that required a bit of a fluke to accomplish. After Luis Arraez’s two-out single to right field, Zander Wiel hit a squibber to the left side of the infield where Clinton’s third baseman and shortstop apparently each thought the other was going to try to bare-hand the ball. Neither did, however, and the ball rolled into shallow left field, allowing Arraez to advance to third base. A pitch later, Arraez crossed the plate on a wild pitch. The Kernels fared no better against Gadea’s mound replacement, Reginald Dominguez, who struck out four in two relief innings. Wiel was the only Kernels player with multiple hits, adding a single up the middle in the seventh inning to his fourth inning infield hit. Arraez, JJ Fernandez and Nelson Molina each had one hit for Cedar Rapids, all singles. Williams Ramirez relieved Gibbons to begin the fifth inning and held Clinton scoreless, striking out five (so there’s your silver lining, I suppose). Colton Davis struck out one in working a scoreless eighth inning. Mauer had not announced a game 3 starting pitcher prior to the game, but afterward said that he will send Sean Poppen to the mound for the deciding game Monday night in Clinton. Game time is 6:30. Click here to view the article

There really isn't a "category" here at Twins Daily for a post of this type (and maybe it's not appropriate here at all), but I posted this over at Knuckleballsblog.com this morning and thought I would share it here, as well. Just a few reflections on this, the 15th anniversary of 9/11. It's incredible to think that there is now almost a complete generation of Americans who have little or no direct recollection of the day the United States was attacked and thousands of people lost their lives when the two tallest buildings collapsed to the ground in New York City. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Never-Forget-600x450.jpg I suppose my parents' generation felt much the same way about Pearl Harbor and all of the horrors that came about out of World War II. Of course, I remember 9/11 and as long as I have my full mental capacities, I always will. I'll remember one of our administrative assistants sticking her head into my office and telling me a plane had hit one of the World Trade Center towers. I'll remember doing almost no work that day as I was hitting "refresh" on CNN.com every minute or two. And I'll remember trying to reach friends who lived and/or worked in Manhattan to make sure they were safe. As much as that day, though, I'll remember what came after. I'll remember the stories of the bravery and ultimate sacrifices made by first responders that day. I'll also remember the way sports helped return a sense of normalcy to our lives, while at the same time giving us an avenue for expressing our strong resolution that, while we Americans disagree on many things, we are one people and when you come after us the way Al Qaeda did that day, we will stand together. There's a lot of talk today about how various NFL stadiums, athletes and others will be choosing to memorialize this 15th anniversary of that day. I'm sure some will be better than others, but I'm confident there will be some very touching scenes. That's all well and good. But what I would much prefer to see is a return to that sense of unity that we all felt in the aftermath of that attack. In the past 15 years, it feels like we have turned from a diverse people held together by a common pride in what our country can stand for into a population irreparably fragmented along lines defined by political ideology, race, gender and other factors. That saddens me and, in some ways, it makes me feel like we might be dishonoring somewhat those who have given their lives so that we are free to express our differences. Later today, I'll spend my day watching the Vikings on television and going to Clinton to watch the Kernels in the Midwest League Playoffs, Most of you will be doing similar "normal" Sunday things, as well. But for just a few moments, let's reflect on 9/11 - and the way we've evolved as a population over the subsequent 15 years - and consider what each of us can do to make our country something worthy of honoring those who lost their lives that day -Steve P.S. This weekend, I read an incredible recounting of 9/11 from the perspective of the people who were traveling with President Bush on 9/11. It's at Politico.com and you can find it by clicking here. It's not a quick read, but it's well worth your time. One thing that really stood out to me was just how "backward" technology was just 15 years ago, even aboard the most technologically well-equipped aircraft in the world, at the time.

The Cedar Rapids Kernels spotted visiting Clinton a pair of runs in the first inning of the opening game in their 3-game Midwest League Western Division championship series on Saturday, but after that it was all Kernels as they clobbered the Lumber Kings 9-3. Kernels starter Brady Anderson worked through trouble in each of the first three innings, giving up seven hits, walking a pair and surrendering all three of the runs Clinton would score on the night.With the score knotted at 3-3, Andrew Vasquez, who hadn’t pitched in a game since facing Clinton six days earlier, took the mound for Cedar Rapids to begin the fourth inning and shut down the Lumber Kings for four shutout innings, surrendering just one hit while striking out six. Kernels manager Jake Mauer was appreciative of Vasquez’s work. “He (Vasquez) calmed the game down pretty quick,” Mauer said afterward. “Anderson wasn’t his best and had a hard time putting people away. Andrew had a bunch of rest and he was ready to throw. They had a hard time with his breaking ball.” By the time Vasquez gave way to Max Cordy in the eighth inning, the Kernels offense had plated six more runs, half of them powered by Christian Ibarra’s fifth inning 3-run home run. Ibarra also had a second inning double, driving in Kevin Garcia with the Kernels’ first run of the night. In addition to Ibarra, Luis Arraez, Casey Scoggins, Jaylin Davis and Garcia each also chipped in two hits for Cedar Rapids. Travis Blankenhorn went his teammates one better, however, contributing three hits to the Kernels offense, all singles, and lifting his postseason batting average to an even .500 (6-for-12 in three games). He also drove in a run and scored once. Blankenhorn is one of three Kernels hitting .500 or better in the postseason. Zander Wiel is also at .500 and Arraez is stroking at .692. Blankenhorn didn’t play his first game for the Kernels until August 9, but he has adjusted to Midwest League pitching quickly. “I’m adjusted here,” Blankenhorn, the Twins’ third-round draft pick in 2015, said. “I’ve been playing with these guys a little while now. I think we’re all getting comfortable and starting to hit as a team. We hit very well as a team tonight. “We had some guys that came up with some big hits with runners on base, got a couple RBIs and scored a couple runs.” Cordy contributed a perfect inning of relief work in the eighth inning and Patrick McGuff worked himself into – and out of – a bases-loaded jam in the ninth inning to cap off the win for Cedar Rapids. Cedar Rapids will travel to Clinton for game 2 of the series on Sunday, with game time scheduled for 6:35. If a game 3 is necessary, it will be played Monday evening, also in Clinton. Click here to view the article

With a 3-1 win on Thursday night, the Twins’ Class A affiliate, the Cedar Rapids Kernels, have advanced to the second round of the Midwest League’s playoffs for the third consecutive season. Cedar Rapids swept the first two games of the three-game series over the Wisconsin Timber Rattlers. The Kernels have qualified for the playoffs all four years that they’ve been affiliated with the Twins and all four seasons under manager Jake Mauer.Eduardo Del Rosario (1-0) worked six innings on Thursday for the win, giving up just one run while striking out five T-Rats. Del Rosario surrendered five hits, all singles. He also picked off two runners, one at second base and one at first. Second baseman Luis Arraez, who was the MWL batting champion, notched four singles in a 4-for-4 night to lead the Kernels offense. Added to his 3-for-5 night on Wednesday in game one of the series, Arreaz finished the two-game series with a .778 batting average. photo by Steve Buhr (Luis Arraez) Casey Scoggins, who went 2-for-4 with one double on Thursday, was the only other Kernels batter with more than one hit on the night. All of the Kernels’ meaningful offense came in the bottom half of the third inning. After falling behind Wisconsin 1-0 in the top half of the third, Scoggins shot a double down the right field line and moved to third base on a groundout. With two outs, Arraez dropped an RBI single into left field and then scored on a Zander Wiel triple to right-center. Travis Blankenhorn’s single to right field scored Wiel for the final run of the game. Tom Hackimer threw 2 scoreless innings of relief, striking out four in the process. Anthony McIver came on in the ninth to nail down the save. The sweep means the Kernels have earned a day off on Friday before starting round two of the MWL playoffs with a home game against Clinton on Saturday. Clinton, a Mariners affiliate, swept Peoria in two games, as well. Game time Saturday is set for 4:00 pm. Game 2 and, if necessary, a deciding game 3, of the Western Division playoffs will be played Sunday and Monday at Clinton. Click here to view the article

Every year, a number of Cedar Rapids Kernels players and coaches spend one of their off-days sweating on a golf course with a bunch of people willing to shell out a couple dollars (actually a bit more) for the pleasure of sharing their company as they knock a little white ball about 6,000 yards around a local golf course to benefit the organization’s childrens’ reading program.http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/CordyMiller-600x400.jpg - Max Cordy is slightly taller than Sean Miller Today was such a day. I was fortunate enough to get to be part of a fivesome that included Kernels relief pitcher Max Cordy.http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Cordy1-200x300.jpg - It’s in the hole! OK – maybe not. Cordy is a 23-year-old righthander drafted by the Twins out of UC-Davis a year ago, made just three appearances at E’Town this year before being promoted to Cedar Rapids. He has a 2.00 in eight appearances for Cedar Rapids and is striking out about one batter per inning since arriving in Cedar Rapids. Our group didn’t come close to winning anything in the 5-man best-shot competition, but that didn’t stop us from having a good time, despite enduring some heat (and even more humidity) as we made our way around Hunter’s Ridge Golf Course. Kernels infielder Sean Miller was playing with the group ahead of us on the course and, despite our best efforts, we couldn’t even hit a decent shot into Miller’s group to make them nervous. The golf outing is just one of several ways Twins minor leaguers participate in community relations activities in the Cedar Rapids area during the season. http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/08/Miller1-200x300.jpg - That drive was right down the middle! I’d like to tell you everything Max and I talked about during our 4+ hours together, but what’s said on the golf course stays on the golf course. Plus, I might have had a beer or two during the round, so I probably wouldn’t relate anything we talked about accurately anyway.

With less than 40 games left in their 2017 campaign, the Cedar Rapids Kernels need a strong finish to clinch a Midwest League playoff spot, something they’ve accomplished every season since affiliating with the Minnesota Twins in 2013. The Peoria Chiefs and Clinton Lumberkings finished one and two in the Division’s first half standings, automatically qualifying them for the postseason. Their Division rivals with the two best records in the second half will join the Chiefs and Lumberkings in the playoffs. If the season ended today (Monday), Clinton would have the best second half record in the West, while Cedar Rapids and Quad Cities (currently second and third in the Division) would fill out the Western half of the postseason bracket. However, Burlington and Wisconsin sit one game or less behind Quad Cities, so the race is likely to be tight over the final weeks of the season. Jake Mauer has been at the helm of the Kernels from the beginning of the club’s affiliation with the Twins. His 292-226 record with the Kernels makes him Cedar Rapids’ winningest manager in the modern era (1949-present) and places him third all-time. He’ll catch up to Ollie Marquardt in the second spot with his next win, but Mauer’s going to have to stick around a very, very long time to top Belden Hill’s 831 wins.While winning takes a back seat to player development in modern minor league baseball, the local fans definitely like to follow a winner and Mauer has given the locals plenty of success, beginning with a squad that was loaded with top prospects in the inaugural season of the Twins/Kernels relationship. That team made winning look easy – at least a lot easier than it has looked in the two-and-a-half seasons since. 2016 has, perhaps, been the most challenging of Mauer’s four years of wearing number 12 for the Kernels. This year’s group is short on players you would find among “top prospect” lists published by the likes of Baseball America, MLB.com or any other group in the business of tracking minor leaguers’ paths to the big leagues. Nonetheless, in an interview late last week, Mauer was unwilling to say that the lack of blue chippers on his team makes this season his most challenging. “Each year is different,” Mauer said. “If you have a lot of high-end (prospects), you’re expected to win and if you don’t have a lot of high-end guys, you’ve got to find ways to win. It’s all part of development, it’s all part of the process. “The second year (2014), I thought we had a lot of challenges, they were comparing the ’13 team to the ’14 team and that wasn’t fair to that ’14 team.” Winning is obviously a lot easier when you’ve got a lot of those high draft choices and big money international free agents. Several of them, including first-round draft choice Byron Buxton and six-figure bonus international signee Max Kepler (both now playing the outfield for the Twins) spent much of their 2013 seasons in Cedar Rapids uniforms. “You get blessed with years like ’13 where you have seven of them, eight of them. They’re all panning out at different speeds,” reflected Mauer. “You know, some of the clubs I had at Fort Myers I don’t think we had one. So it just depends on what you have.” When you’ve got a team of projected stars, a manager in Mauer’s position will generally stick with a pretty consistent lineup. “Obviously, guys that are higher end guys as a player," he said, "you’ve got to find out what they can and can’t do, that’s the nature of the beast.” Not so this season. “I wonder how many different lineups we’ve used,” Mauer pondered. “It’s probably been fifty or sixty of them, would be my guess. “Clubs like this, some of these guys that aren’t necessarily Baseball America guys get an opportunity to kind of put themselves on the map. As you can see, there’s no way to get buried on our bench here. Everybody plays. “Pitching’s a little bit different,” he conceded. “They earn (consistent playing time) a little bit more. They’re all going to get an opportunity, it’s just a matter of what they’re going to do with it. “It’s all getting these guys to understand themselves, first, in order for us to do anything - in order for them to have any impact down the road. This is the league where we start to shake out the guys that aren’t as mentally tough as others. Find out who can play every day, find out who can do what it takes. So, they’re going to get tested, they’re going to get innings, they’re going to get at-bats, get all that stuff. Then we’ll kind of look back in September at how everything unfolded.” http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/MartinezMauerDinkelman900.jpg(L-R) Cedar Rapids Kernels pitching coach JP Martinez, manager Jake Mauer and hitting coach Brian Dinkelman (behind screen) (Photo: SD Buhr)Throughout most of the first half of the season, it looked like the Kernels would easily clinch an early playoff spot by finishing in one of the top two spots in the Western Division’s first-half race, but they faltered badly during the final couple of weeks before the midpoint and ended up in third place. “You hate to say it,” Mauer commented on his squad’s late first half implosion, “but we scored the same amount of runs, but we lost two guys in the back end of the bullpen and lost probably the best starter in the league. “We weren’t necessarily blowing the doors off of anybody in the first half. It takes you a while to figure out who can step up and take those roles.” Mauer is starting to see some guys stepping up. Last week, the Kernels went on one a six-game road trip over into the MWL Eastern Division territory and came away with a perfect 6-0 record against Lake County and Fort Wayne. “We swung the bats really well,” he said of their Eastern sweep. “We rode (Luis) Arraez, (Zander) Wiel and (Jaylin) Davis, really. Other guys chipped in here and there, but those guys had a monster week. You’re scoring 6, 7, 8 runs a night, it gives you a pretty good chance to win. “(Wiel) can carry a team, which he did the last week. Jaylin Davis is probably in the same boat, he can carry a team. Arraez has been pretty consistent, but we kind of go where those three guys go. When the three of them are having a pretty good week, we’ve got a pretty good chance. If they’re not, it will be more difficult for us.” Finding pitchers to fill the holes left following promotions has been more challenging for Mauer and pitching coach J.P. Martinez. “Pitching is still kind of up in the air who we’ve got,” the manager said. “It’s so different,” Mauer said, of the Kernels’ bullpen situation. “We’re not as pitching-deep as we were last year. If we had a lead going into the fifth inning, we pretty much knew we were going to win last year. That’s not the case this year. You’ve got some guys that need to step up and take control. I’d say (Anthony) McIver has, to a point. We’ve got to find out about (Tom) Hackimer. But we still have several guys you don’t quite know what you’re going to get in given situations. We’ve got to find out.” Mauer’s clearly also looking for some improvement among his starting rotation. “(Cody) Stashak’s probably our number one (starting pitcher). (Lachlan) Wells has been good. Those two guys have been pretty good. If we can just get some of these (other) guys to take that next step, it would make the process better.” http://knuckleballsblog.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/WellsSenzelSilva900.jpgKernels pitcher Lachlan Wells strikes out Reds first-round draft choice (2nd overall) Nick Senzel July 25. Catching is Rainis Silva. (Photo SD Buhr)The season’s second half is shaping up to be at least a four-team dogfight with the Kernels, Burlington Bees, Wisconsin Timber Rattlers and Quad Cities River Bandits playing leapfrog with one another in the standings on virtually a daily basis as they jockey for one of the coveted second-half playoff spots. “That’s our division,” said Mauer. “There really isn’t a team that’s head and shoulders above anybody. Anybody can beat anybody on a given night and I think you’re going to see that kind of as we go through. Things change, obviously, as these draftee guys (from the 2016 draft) starting to come and some of these first full season guys that tend to hit a wall a little bit.” Mauer’s working with a pair of coaches, in his fourth season with the Kernels, that he hasn’t been teamed with before. Martinez and hitting coach Brian Dinkelman are in their first seasons by Mauer’s side after coaching with the Twins’ Gulf Coast League team, where games are played on back fields at the organization’s spring training complex in front of few, if any, fans. But the manager says things are going, “good,” on that count. “(Martinez and Dinkelman) have been real good. Their first ‘real baseball’ compared to that ‘complex ball’ that’s a lot different. They’ve done a good job. For them, their first year, this is unusual to have so many different guys coming through.” Forty-nine players have already worn a Kernels jersey in 2016. It’s not unusual for fewer players than that to suit up for Cedar Rapids in an entire season. “What’s nice is that these guys know most of the kids that have come up,” Mauer added. “They’ve had them, they know what makes them tick, the things to do with them, what they need to work on.” High roster turnover, few top prospects, new assistant coaches. Those things, on their own, might make a manager’s job challenging, but last week the Twins added a little something extra to the load that Mauer and his staff have to carry. Long-time General Manager Terry Ryan was fired by the Twins ownership. “It’s unfortunate,” Mauer said of Ryan’s dismissal. “Obviously, he’s a great baseball man. He’s all I’ve ever known as a GM, other than Bill Smith, but Terry wasn’t far away (during Smith's tenure as GM). I think it came as a shock, the timing of it, to everybody. He’s done so much for us and for our organization and whoever comes in after him is going to have big shoes to fill.” As a result, Mauer and his coaches now are essentially lame ducks, uncertain whether the new GM will choose to retain them going forward. How’s that for adding a little anxiety to the manager’s life? But, as Mauer observed, the anxiety goes well beyond just he and his coaches. “It could be for scouts, all the way down to the athletic training guys and strength guys. You don’t know what’s going to happen, we don’t know who is the next guy, if they have somebody in mind, if they don’t. So, we’ll see. I’m sure they’ve got a game plan up there for what they’re going to do. “But, if you’re confident in what you’re doing and you do a good job, you can’t control that,” Mauer concluded. “This is just like we tell the players, if they look at what’s going on ahead of them or who’s doing what behind them, they can’t control that. Same with us, (we can’t) worry about who’s coming in and fret about it, and not do the task at hand. We’ve got to do the task at hand first of all and see what shakes out.” The “task at hand” for the manager and his charges is to finish the final six weeks of the season strong. How does Mauer see the remainder of the season shaping up? “We’ll see. I wish I could answer that, honestly. I have no idea. We look like a million bucks for three or four days, then we have a tough time for three or four days. It’s just kind of how it is. We talk extensively about, we need leaders to step up and to lead and to be our guys so you kind of know what you’re going to get day in and day out. “They’ll keep playing hard and they’ll keep competing and we’ll just see how it ends up.” (This article was originally posted at Knuckleballsblog.com) Click here to view the article