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Each year, I try to make a pilgrimage to see the Twins affiliate in the Midwest League. I made a trip this past weekend to Cedar Rapids and took in three Kernels games. If you haven’t made the trip to Iowa, it’s not a bad one. I live exactly an hour east of Target Field and the trip to Cedar Rapids took four and a half hours. Luckily - and unbelievably - we ran into road construction only one time.I made the trip as a fan and a consumer (of both baseball and beer) and tried not to be too “scouty.” I did take around 100 pictures, hoping that at least one or two make it into next year’s edition of the Twins Prospect Handbook. After three games, though, I was definitely able to form/confirm some opinions I already had and thought it might be of interest to share with the readers at Twins Daily. First and foremost, the Kernels are in contention to be a playoff team. They are five-games over .500 in the second half and eight games over .500 overall. According to MLB.com’s rankings, they roster one Top 30 prospect (Lachlan Wells, #28). If you look historically at prospect lists, you’re not going to find a lot of guys outside the Top 30 that make and have continued success in the Major Leagues. In fact, that is probably true once you get out of the Top 10 or 15. I’m not saying that it doesn’t happen and that none of these guys have a chance to make the major leagues. I’m not saying that at all. But as fans of the Twins minor league system have learned and been spoiled with lately, this is not a team full of top prospects. The most impressive “stuff” that was on display all weekend came on Sunday afternoon when Cam Booser made a 9th-inning appearance in a six-run game. He started out throwing about 10 straight balls before finally finding the strike zone (and getting the loudest applause of the day). Once he settled in (finally), we got to see the best raw stuff of the weekend: 98 mph with the fastball and a high-80s slider. Booser was a MWL all-star last season before missing the end of the year with a labrum injury. He hasn’t been good this year. In fact, I joked during his outing that he might get cut before recording an out. But there is some rare raw ability there. I texted a scout after the game about Booser and the response I got was, “He’s hitting 98 or he’s hitting people with 98?” The floor to ceiling split on Booser is huge: Closer or never reaches high-A, with the middle ground being a LOOGY; the lefty he faced on Sunday couldn’t touch him (yet he’s getting roughed up by LHH on the season). Though he didn’t show off the power he demonstrated the previous week (four HRs in three games), Zander Wiel did have three hits over the three games, but nothing spectacular; he was, however, very impressive at first base. Jaylin Davis played left field twice and right field once, making all the routine plays and narrowly missing making an above-average catch to his right, running full speed and having the ball glance off his glove. His carrying tool is his power, which is impressive given his size (6’ 1”, 190) and it was on display with a three-run shot to dead center field on Friday night. He also doubled on Friday and drove in two runs on Sunday. Similar to every other power-hitting corner-outfielder in the organization, Davis does have some swing-and-miss in his game. But after striking out in nearly half of his at-bats in E-town, he’s cut that down to about one-third of his at-bats in Cedar Rapids. It’s still too much, but an improvement. To my eyes, Rainis Silva was the better defensive catcher, though neither he nor Kevin Garcia were standouts on either side of the ball. Silva did just miss hitting a home run on Sunday, absolutely crushing a ground-rule double to the deepest part of right-center field. Without a game where he went 4-6 last week, he’s hitting .170 (9-53) on the season. He’s still only 20, so there’s potential to improve. I’d have a hard time believing anyone besides Sean Miller is the team’s MVP. He comes up in big spots and produces: two RBI hits on Friday (the team was 3-11 with RISP; two of the hits were Miller’s), a go-ahead RBI double on Saturday (the team was 2-10 with RISP; Miller was 1-1) after replacing Manuel Guzman who lost track of the outs, and another two-hit game on Sunday with a double and RBI. Defensively, he looked OK at shortstop, but probably profiles best as a utility player. He’s not big, but looks the part of a baseball player. Sam Gibbons pitched Friday night and by all accounts, he threw his best game of the season. He gave up two home runs, but was low-90s with his fastball and didn’t give up too much hard contact (except for the ones that left the park). I was genuinely curious to see Luis Arraez in action. Not in my (or anyone’s) Top 30 and not on my radar to break camp with the Kernels, he has absolutely raked. He got a hit in each of the three games that I watched and he’s batting .333 on the season. He’s listed at 5’ 10”, 155, so I expected to see a small, speedy guy. He’s not. He’s not 155 for one. I’m guessing he’s 5’ 9”, 180ish and has a thick lower half and not a lot of foot speed. He DH’d Friday and Sunday, playing second base on Saturday. He’s got a bat that should play - he’s disciplined, works a count and makes contact - but doesn’t have a lot of power or speed and I question where he’ll end up defensively. Oh, and he’s the youngest guy on the team by a significant margin, so you can either say that’s to his benefit or you could say that his body is going to only get bigger (and slower) as he ages. Bummed that I didn’t get to see Jermaine Palacios play. Palacios will miss the rest of the season with a hand/wrist injury. I did get to see two 2016 draft picks: Tom Hackimer and Casey Scoggins. Hackimer pitched in relief on Friday night and has a funky arm angle. He was only 88-89 mph which is four-five mph off what he was throwing in college, but he’s not getting regular use and he has been pitching since the beginning of the college season. I still believe he’s a guy that could move quickly through the system. Scoggins played centerfield on Saturday and Sunday and looks the part defensively. He drew four walks on Sunday. The 39th-round pick has already exceeded my expectations. I would guess he’ll start next season in Fort Myers and should stick in center field though I’m curious how the bat will play as he moves up. Jake Mauer and his staff deserve a lot of credit. I sat behind the dugout on Friday and Saturday and saw a few occasions where the coaches were making adjustments that immediately made differences. While there’s a significantly high probability that many of these players will remain in the system next year, there is a strong chance that there will be a shakeup in regard to coaching assignments. Of all the members of the Kernels staff, I’d say the trio of Mauer, Brian Dinkelman and J.P. Martinez is the most deserving of remaining in the organization. And finally, special thanks to Steve Buhr, who can’t be the “Mayor” of Cedar Rapids (because of Tommy Watkins) but should be. There’s no one in the city who’s more accommodating. (But plenty of people who are better at darts.) Click here to view the article

Relief pitchers seem to go under the radar when they do their jobs well. On the occasions when they don’t do their job well, then they get noticed. Here at Twins Daily, we want to make sure that the relief pitchers get some positive recognition. Instead of just doing a Minor League Pitcher of the Month, we separate the starters and the relievers because many relievers deserve to be noticed for positive reasons.There were a lot of very strong May performances out of the bullpen at the Twins affiliates. Below, you’ll find the Top 6 Relief Pitchers for the month, but first a few relievers worthy of mention: RHP Nick Burdi – 8 G, 2-0, 2.03 ERA, 1.20 WHIP, 13.1 IP, 13 H, 3 BB, 15 KRHP JT Chargois – 9 G, 0-0, 2 Saves, 0.00 ERA, 1.04 WHIP, 8.2 IP, 7 H, 2 BB, 11 KRHP Madison Boer – 8 G, 2-2, 2.55 ERA, 1.13 WHIP, 17.2 IP, 13 H, 7 BB, 10 KLHP Mike Theofanopoulos – 9 G, 1-0, 1.56 ERA, 1.15 WHIP, 17.1 IP, 12 H, 8 BB, 16 KRHP Zach Tillery – 7 G, 2 GS, 1-1, 1 Save, 1.88 ERA, 1.16 WHIP, 19.0 IP, 16 H, 6 BB, 19 KNow let's get to the Top 5 Minnesota Twins Minor League Relief Pitchers for May 2015: Number 5 – Cedar Rapids – LHP Cameron Booser - 9 G, 0.68 ERA, 1.05 WHIP, 13.1 IP, 5 H, 9 BB, 17 K The Twins signed the left-hander as a non-drafted free agent late in 2012. He turned 23 at the beginning of May. He was terrific in April and even better in May. Overall, he has a record this year of 1-0 with five saves. He has an overall ERA of 0.77 with a WHIP of 0.99. As noticeable, he has struck out 35 batters in 23.1 innings, a rate of 13.5 per nine. He will have to improve his control as he has walked 13 batters. However, his stuff is tremendous and opponents have just ten hits off of him all year. He is blessed with a fastball that easily reaches into the upper 90s and even touches triple figures at times. When I talked to him in Cedar Rapids, he fully acknowledged that he was still learning how to pitch, and that is very exciting. Number 4 – Chattanooga – Zack Jones - 9 G, 1.74 ERA, 1.06 WHIP, 10.1 IP, 7 H, 4 BB, 9 K Though he hasn’t been talked about as much as some of the other relievers who began the season in Chattanooga, he has been Doug Mientkiewicz’s most consistent, reliable bullpen arm all season. Overall, he is 3-1 with 7 saves. In 17.1 innings (over 16 games), he has a 1.56 ERA and a 0.92 WHIP. The biggest improvement this year has been his control. He’s walked just five batters through the season’s first two months. Blessed with a fastball that sits between 95 and 98, Jones was the Twins fourth-round pick in 2012 out of San Jose State. He missed most of last season due to an aneurysm in his right shoulder. Number 3 – Ft. Myers – Brandon Peterson - 11 G, 1.10 ERA, 0.98 WHIP, 16.1 IP, 8 H, 8 BB, 25 K Peterson was the Twins 13th round pick in 2013 out of Wichita State. The Savage, MN, native was our choice for Twins Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Year in 2014. He returned to the Miracle to start this season and continues to dominate the league. Overall, he is 1-0 with two saves in his 18 appearances. He has posted an ERA of 1.00 and WHIP of 1.04 in his 27 innings. He has struck out 13.0 per nine innings, which is the same rate he had in 31 games with the Miracle last year. His lone flaw to this point is 15 walks in 27 innings which will need to be addressed. Number 2 – Rochester – AJ Achter - 12 G, 0.75 ERA, 0.42 WHIP, 12.0 IP, 4 H, 1 BB, 11 K Michael Tonkin and Ryan Pressly were promoted. People talked about Lester Oliveros. All the while, AJ Achter outperformed them all in Rochester. When Tonkin promoted to the Twins, Achter took over as the Red Wings closer and did very well. He was 7-7 in save opportunities. On the season, he has pitched 21.2 innings in 21 games. He is 3-2 with the seven saves. He has a 2.08 ERA and a 0.60 WHIP. He’s walked just five and struck out 20. The 26-year-old debuted with the Twins last September and deserves to be back up with the team in 2015. And the Twins Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Month is: Cedar Rapids – Trevor Hildenberger - 9 G, 0.00 ERA, 0.38 WHIP, 18.2 IP, 5 H, 2 BB, 23 K Hildenberger was a close runner-up for this award in April, and he dominated the Midwest League in May as well. Not only did he not allow any runs, but opponents hit just .083/.113/.100 (.213) against him. He has worked a few times for just one inning, but for the most part, he is throwing two or three innings at a time. He currently has a streak of 25 innings without allowing a run and has given up just one run in 28.2 innings through the season’s two months. I’m going to make a paragraph just for his 2015 season numbers, just because they are so ridiculous. In 14 games and 28.2 innings, he has an ERA of 0.31 and a WHIP of 0.49. He has been successful using two fastballs (two-seam and four-seam), a changeup and a slider. Hildenberger pitched for four seasons at Cal-Berkeley, so he is already 24-years-old. It is inexplicable to me why he remains in Cedar Rapids, but he is taking it all in stride. He told Twins Daily, “I try not to worry about moving up or not. I just keep getting the next hitter out no matter where we are or what the situation is.” Most likely the day after the Kernels either clinch a playoff berth or after an All- Star game appearance, he will find himself packing and heading back to Ft. Myers, this time to join the Miracle. Who knows? It could be even sooner. Hildenberger was the Twins 22nd round pick last year out of Cal-Berkeley. He pitches from an interesting angle. “I would describe myself as sidearm. I know my release point can rise up from time to time, but I definitely categorize myself as sidearm.” The right-hander hasn’t always thrown from the side. “It started back at the end of my third year at Cal Berkeley when my teammate wore the wrong number jersey to practice. My pitching coach, Mike Neu, commented on what he pictured when he saw my teammate’s number. I asked him what he pictured when he saw my number 26, and he said a sidearm pitcher because UCLA and Washington both had sidearm relief pitchers with the number 26. At that point in time I had thrown a cumulative 12 innings in three years and was clearly not effective enough to compete. So he asked me to throw a bullpen from a lower arm angle. I obliged not realizing it was a permanent change. He liked what he saw and sent me off to summer ball in Bend, Oregon, in the summer of 2012 to refine my new style and experience some growing pains.” As a senior in 2014, he pitched in 28 games. He was 3-3 with 10 saves and a 2.83 ERA. In 47.2 innings, he gave up 41 hits, walked 11 and struck out 48. It was enough to get him drafted by the Twins where he has continued to work on his new delivery while experiencing a ton of success. In that same 2014 draft, the Twins selected Hildenberger’s teammate, LHP Michael Theofanopoulos. If nothing else, the Twins have an advantage on other organizations should a Scrabble tournament be played where only names of players in their organization can be used. It was a positive for both to come to professional baseball together as teammates. “Theo and I were lucky to be drafted together by the same team in the same year. We had known each other for the previous four years playing at Cal together and were friends coming into the draft. It made the transition from college to professional baseball easier and gave me a no-brainer catch partner when we first started. We lived together last summer in the GCL and in instructional league, and now we live together with the same host family here in Cedar Rapids. It's nice to have someone who knows your pitching history to discuss outings or mindsets so candidly.” Hildenberger worked with pitching coach Ehren Wasserman in the GCL last year and has been working with Kernels pitching coach Henry Bonilla this season. He says that he has been able to learn from each. “Luckily, Wass was a sidearm pitcher who pitched with the White Sox in the major leagues, so I was able to learn specific tips to help me improve my slider and fastball command. Henry has taught me a mindset that has helped me become successful at this level. To keep attacking hitters with the same pitch or location until they prove they have made an adjustment. He stopped me from overthinking as I did in 2014 and allowed me to become more relaxed and confident in my approach.” The Kernels are 32-18 at this stage of the season, and as you would expect with a record like that, the clubhouse has a terrific atmosphere. “The Kernels Clubhouse is extremely loose right now (May 31). We're competing with everyone we play. Our starting pitching has been outstanding. Our defense kept us in games. Our bullpen has been magnificent. And our offense has led the way with timely hitting. As a staff, we are aggressive and relaxed, knowing our defense will back us up and our hitters will provide enough offense to win. It’s extraordinarily fun to come to the ballpark every day knowing the starter and every guy in the ‘pen will do his job, giving us a chance to win. Booser, Theo, LeBlanc, Bard, Velez, and Cederoth have all dominated lately, allowing us to win tight games.” Speaking of dominating, did I mention yet that Hildenberger, through two months and 28.2 innings with the Kernels, has an ERA of 0.31 and a WHIP of 0.49? He’s also giving up 3.5 hits per nine, 0.9 walks per nine and striking out 11.9 batters per nine innings. However, Hildenberger has bigger goals for 2015 than just dominating for two months or (gasp) a Twins Daily Minor League Relief Pitcher of the Month award. He started with team goals before considering his personal goals. “My goal is to make the playoffs this year. Last year, I spent with the GCL Twins, and we missed out on the postseason. When I got called up to Elizabethton, I got a taste of what the playoffs were like. So hopefully we can keep winning games and clinch a playoff berth in the first half. Personally, my goal is to be in Fort Myers (High-A) by the end of the season and help them reach the postseason as well. Being an older guy, I know getting drafted at 23 isn't exactly an advantage, and that you have to perform right away. Hopefully I can continue the success I've had early here in 2015 and advance towards the ultimate goal of helping the Twins bring a World Series championship to Minnesota.” Count me in on someone that would love to see that as well! Congratulations on a great month of May and a great two month start to the season, Trevor Hildenberger. I’m thinking the Miracle bullpen will be adding a side-armer very soon. So what do you think? I’ve ranked the top five bullpen arms in the Twins organization in May, along with another five that deserve to be recognized for their May performance as well. Who would your choice be? How would you rank these guys (and feel free to include others)? Be sure to check back later for the Starting Pitcher and Hitter of May. 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I watched three games in Cedar Rapids last week, and Cameron Booser was the man on the mound to close out two of the Kernels wins. The left-hander has a big fastball, hitting 96 mph with regularity and even touching 99 mph. He threw a sharp slider and tested out a changeup that could be very good. Booser looked every bit the part of potential, dominant closer. Things haven’t been easy for the 22-year-old. He’s accumulated injuries but is finally healthy and pitching well. He not only has an interesting story, but he has become one of the more intriguing pitching prospects in the Twins organization. Image courtesy of Seth Stohs Cam Booser was born in 1992 and grew up in Tacoma, Washington. He enjoyed baseball, but it wasn’t his favorite sport. On the football field, he played linebacker. He played a little receiver, tight end, but spent most of his time on the defensive side of the ball. “Football was a passion growing up, but injuries just kind of took me out of it really. My dad was my biggest coach.” The injuries were not insignificant either. ““I had knee surgery in high school. I broke my back in high school.” Injuries, unfortunately would become a theme for Booser. He turned his attention from the gridiron to the baseball diamond. However, it wasn’t on the pitcher’s mound initially. “I got into baseball, and really liked it, fell in love with it a little bit. Grew up as a hitter. Went to college as a hitter.” He continued, “I actually didn’t start pitching until I got to college. My first few starts, I had a little elbow soreness and thought that was just a normal thing for a pitcher to have. Ended up being a tear in my elbow, in my UCL.” Booser had Tommy John surgery after his freshman year at Oregon State and missed his entire sophomore season as well. He transferred to Central Arizona where he threw 19.2 innings in 2013. He went undrafted, but the Twins signed him late that year. “I signed about the second-to-last week of August in 2013. I really just went down to Ft. Myers to check out the facility, meet a few people, the coaches, and kind of see how everything works.” At the end of his first spring training (2014), Booser experienced some elbow tendinitis. His season was delayed by about six weeks. When healthy, there wasn’t space on the Cedar Rapids roster for him, so he went to Elizabethton and pitched well. He struck out 42 batters in 31.1 innings. He walked 14 and was really still just learning how to pitch. Following the season, he went to the Twins Florida Instructional League. He became one of the better stories of the fall. It was reported that he was throwing very hard, touching 99 mph at times. However, following Instructs, it was back to the operating table for Booser. “I just had a scope surgery back in November, in the elbow. They took out some bone fragments. They just cleaned it out a little bit, got some debris out of it.” After seemingly every athlete’s surgery, we read the same thing. The player had “successful surgery.” For Booser, his Tommy John surgery did not go well, or at least did not go as it should have. “The Tommy John didn’t exactly go as planned. There have been some setbacks ever since Tommy John. We always thought it was tendinitis or some inflammation. Then after getting MRIs and x-rays, found that there was quite a bit of debris in there, bone fragments and bone chips. It really shouldn’t have been there from the Tommy John, but it was. Surgery didn’t exactly go as planned, but it happened. I got the scope. Dr. Steubs up in Minnesota did it, and it feels fantastic.” He had the scope in early November and was back to throwing by about February 1st. Now he is excited to get to learn how to pitch. Booser said that because of all of the injuries, he “never really had that time to learn that much. You can learn as much as you want watching videos, but you’ve got to do it in a game.” Booser is already 22, but he knows that he is still young enough to learn. He is just learning from anyone and everyone. Of course, a lot of the instruction comes from Kernels pitching coach Henry Bonilla, who was also his pitching coach last year in Elizabethton. “I worked with Henry Bonilla last year and I learned an incredible amount. Now I can translate everything that he taught me, now that I’m healthy, and work on those things and take time every day to work on those things. He knows how to relate his job to every single guy, and he doesn’t just have one way of thinking. He can look at a guy, look at how they throw, watch them in a game and the next day have answers for you on what to do better or what he thought about. He’s incredibly knowledgeable. He’s one of the best I’ve ever worked with.” But just as much as learning from his pitching coach, Booser learns a lot by observing his teammates as well. “I’m working with guys on the team, guys like (Stephen) Gonsalves who is two years younger than I am but knows a lot more than I do. He’s very knowledgeable about how to pitch. He’s a guy who is 20 years old and giving me insight on how to do it. He’s one of my good buddies so I talk about him a lot. He’s 20 years old and he’s logged 500 innings in his life, and I’m barely breaking 100 so far.” As it relates to working out of the bullpen, he added, “I’m kind of tweaking my mechanics a little bit, but then also, watching how some guys like (Randy) LeBlanc, or (C.K.) Irby, or (Trevor) Hildenberger, how they attack certain guys.” Booser has really taken to the bullpen role. His competitive fire – maybe from his football days – is allowed to come out. “Closer is the role they would like me to throw, I think, from conversations we’ve had. It’s a role I like, pressure situations, late in the game. It’s what I would want to be doing. After surgery, I just kind of stayed in the bullpen, felt more comfortable out there. I kind of felt more comfortable throwing every day rather than every fifth day. Personally, everybody’s a competitor, but I really like to compete so being able to come into that pressure situation late in the game is what I thrive on.” Booser is blessed with a big arm. He throws the upper-90s fastball and has a good slider that can be devastating to left-handed hitters. He’s also working on developing a third pitch, a changeup. “I’ve been working on it for quite some time, but with injuries, it’s hard to go up on the mound every day and work on pitches. Last year, it was hard to develop pitches and work on mechanics when it hurt to throw a baseball. So now this year in the offseason I really worked on developing a changeup to the best that I could. But primarily fastball, slider. As a reliever, you can kind of get away with having just two pitches.” As you would expect, his number one goal for 2015 is to remain healthy. However, when asked about his goals, Booser returns to his baseball and pitching education. “Everybody wants to be a dominant pitcher, but learning how to stay down in the zone, learning when to throw what pitches, just learning how to be a good pitcher. Yeah, it’s nice to throw hard, but everybody can catch up to 95, 96, 97 if you throw it every single pitch. So knowing when to throw it, or knowing when to throw a slider or a changeup. Everybody wants to get promoted. If you do your job, it will take care of itself.” He expanded upon his thoughts, “You might be able to get away with getting guys with fastballs, but if you get to High-A Ft. Myers, those guys are grown men. They’ve seen it all before. You can’t get away with that. No one is Aroldis Chapman. No one throws 105. So you can’t get away with that every single pitch. For me, the adrenaline gets doing a little bit, and you overdo it a little bit, and then you leave fastballs up. You do that every pitch and that’s not going to go well. They’re straight and they’re in their wheelhouse as hitters. Learning to get the ball down.” For right now, he’s enjoying the process, and he’s enjoying being a part of this year’s Cedar Rapids Kernels team. “I would say probably 85 or 90 percent of this team is last year’s E-Town team. Aside from the returners in (Zack) Larson and (Zach) Granite. (Max) Murphy was there. Gonsalves was in E-Town. We’ve got a lot of guys that are really close together, and it’s a great group of guys, and there’s a lot of talent here too.” Booser has gone from a relative unknown, signed as an undrafted free agent, to one of the more intriguing pitching prospects in the entire Twins system. He’s got a big fastball, a humility to know that he has a lot to learn, and a willingness to work very hard to get there. Hopefully he will be able to stay healthy, and if so, he will have a chance to move up quickly. View full article