Minnesota Twins Daily Clips

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1 Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Friday, February 12, 2016 Twins GM Ryan says team needs to fix Oswaldo Arcia, who is out of minor league options ESPN (Wetmore) p. 1 Healthy Pressly seeks bullpen spot. MLB.com (Bollinger) p. 2 Reusse: As always, Twins prospect Walker looking to connect. Star Tribune (Reusse) p. 3 With camp approaching, Twins prospects impress evaluators. Star Tribune (Miller) p. 4 Target Field might be more hitter-friendly than you think ESPN (Wetmore) p. 5 MLB rumors roundup: More moves ahead for Baltimore? ESPN p. 6 Out of options, Oswaldo Arcia will need to fight for a spot with Twins. Bring Me the News (Ziemer) p. 6 Twins GM Ryan says team needs to fix Oswaldo Arcia, who is out of minor league options Derek Wetmore 1500 ESPN February 11, 2016 Oswaldo Arcia is a bit of a mystery. During the season in which he turned 23 years old, the slugger from Venezuela hit 20 home runs for Minnesota in just 410 plate appearances. If that rate continued across 600 plate appearances, that d be 29 home runs at an age that some hitters are still figuring out Double-A. But after a dreadful 2015 season that saw him demoted to the minors and not recalled when rosters expanded in September, Arcia is now out of minor league options and this spring will likely represent his final chance to latch on with the Twins. Oh yeah, and the Twins are planning to move their best hitter, Miguel Sano, to right field, and already have a DH penciled in to the lineup in Byung Ho Park and a left fielder who turned some heads with his glove and arm last year, Eddie Rosario. There s a lot left to play out during spring training, but Arcia will have to show that he belongs on the 25-man roster to head north with the club for opening day. Last year, he hit fine in limited work (.276/.338/.379 in 65 plate appearances), but then he got hurt, and when his rehab stint was over, the Twins chose to keep him at Triple-A Rochester. He floundered badly. Despite a ridiculous power surge in early July, Arcia finished the season hitting.199/.257/.372. On the latest episode of The Scoop podcast, with Darren Doogie Wolfson, Twins GM Terry Ryan said the he was disappointed with Arcia s season. I m terribly disappointed in the year he had, and he knows it, Ryan said. He s got a lot ot live up to here. I know he s been in Fort Myers since the day his season concluded in Rochester. But when you re not a September recall with the type of ability he has, there s something wrong. And we need to fix him. Ryan was referring to Arcia s workout in Florida. Arcia told me recently that he only spent three days this offseason at home in Venezuela. The rest of the time he was working out in Fort Myers, Fla. And he looks visibly stronger now than he did when he was sent out, which is saying something. Hitting coach Tom Brunansky once told me that the way he approaches working with Arcia is the same way he d approach building a wall. There are fundamental things like head placement and pitch tracking that need to be in place as a foundation before more complicated things can be implemented. And people with the Twins in the past have spoken about Arcia over-swinging. That is, swinging so hard he takes himself out of sorts, when he could still hit plenty of home runs without the violent hacks.

2 He also chased an awful lot of pitches outside the strike zone last year when he was in the Majors. Ryan mentioned players like Arcia, Kennys Vargas and Danny Santana as young players who had shown promise but then failed to duplicate positive early performances. Those guys aren t forgotten, Ryan said. I still have high hopes for Vargas and Arcia certainly can hit the ball over the fence. But they need to prove something as we get into spring training. In 2012, Brian Dozier was sent to the minor leagues and didn t get recalled when rosters expanded in September. At the time, that probably stung quite a bit for a guy who had already broken into the Majors. Dozier responded with a breakout 2013 campaign, and since then, he s been the most powerful second baseman in baseball. Healthy Pressly seeks bullpen spot Rhett Bollinger MLB.com February 11, 2016 MINNEAPOLIS -- Twins reliever Ryan Pressly was feeling particularly good during last season's big series against the first-place Royals in Kansas City on the Fourth of July. The right-hander was throwing harder than he had all season, hitting 98 mph on the radar gun twice in a perfect sixth inning. But he immediately knew something was wrong after his second pitch of the seventh, which registered at 97 mph. Pressly felt something in the back of his shoulder. After several tests, it was determined he had strained his lat muscle. He tried to rehab it to make it back during the regular season, but after a small setback in mid-august, Pressly was forced to miss the rest of a promising But Pressly is healthy now, as he was cleared at the end of the season. He said his taste of success before the injury is driving him heading into '16. The righty was emerging as a go-to reliever, posting a 2.93 ERA with 22 strikeouts in 27 2/3 innings after being called up from Triple-A Rochester. "After getting shut down, the main goal was just getting into the offseason healthy," Pressly said. "I wanted to have a healthy, clean offseason. My main thing was putting on some weight to be a bit stronger. But the lat is feeling really good, so if I can come back and still be in the upper 90s, that'd be nice." Pressly, 27, started his throwing program in December and is already working out at the club's Spring Training complex in Fort Myers, Fla. He's still being cautious after the injury because he wants the training staff to be there for his first bullpen sessions. Pressly said he's excited to get back on the mound, as it was tough to watch from the bench during the second half of last season. One positive, though, was that he pitched well before the injury, which gives him and the Twins confidence heading into '16. "You never want to get hurt, but if you do get hurt, you at least wanna get hurt while you're doing something good," Pressly said. "So you leave something good in their mind. Like if I would've had a whole season, who knows what would've happened? The hardest part was just sitting on the bench watching all my teammates." Pressly doesn't plan on holding anything back this spring since he will be competing for a spot in the bullpen. He knows it'll be a challenge to make the Opening Day roster despite his success over parts of the past three seasons in the Majors. He has a career 3.46 ERA in 132 2/3 innings. He said he's trying to not think too much about how the bullpen will shake out, but he admitted it's tougher to do as Spring Training goes along. "After like the first or second cut, you try not to play manager, but it can be hard not to," Pressly said. "I feel like I left on a good note. I was starting to get some meaningful innings, so we'll see how it goes." 2

3 Reusse: As always, Twins prospect Walker looking to connect Patrick Reusse Star Tribune February 12, 2016 FORT MYERS, FLA. Glynis Payne won three letters in track and field and four in volleyball for the Carthage College Lady Reds in the early 1980s. She was inducted into the Carthage Athletic of Hall of Fame as Glynis Payne-Walker in My mom was the national high jump champion in Division III one year and runner-up the next, Twins prospect Adam Brett Walker said. In high school, she was outstanding in basketball, as well as track and volleyball. Does that mean that Adam and his father were competing to be the second-best athlete in a three-person immediate family? Walker nodded and said: There was a very good chance of that. Adam Walker (Dad) was the tailback on the football team, and Glynis was a two-sport star when they met at the small Lutheran college in Kenosha, Wis. Later, Adam played in two games with five carries for 24 yards as a Vikings replacement player during the 1987 strike. The only child arrived in October To differentiate the youngster from his father, relatives and family friends addressed him with the middle name: Adam Brett. When I filled out paperwork for baseball, I wrote Adam Brett out of habit, and that became my professional name, he said. I like the way it sounds. Why not? There s great credibility in Brett as a baseball name. It s hard to tell whether the Twins stumbled into it or there was an orchestrated plan, but there has been a significant shift in hitting approach. An organization that was long accused of trying to turn all hitters into Joe Mauer-like, opposite-field guys now is getting a Houston Astros look to it: Big power, big strikeouts. There s one of those hitters who is sure to be a star, Miguel Sano, and there are others who are suspects for the 2016 Twins: Byung Ho Park from the Korea Baseball Organization, and Oswaldo Arcia and Kenny Vargas attempting comebacks from lost 2015 seasons. Over the long term, Adam Brett Walker might be more of a curiosity than Park, Arcia and Vargas combined. Walker s home run and RBI numbers are eyecatching, and his strikeout numbers are beyond that. Walker has the look of a basketball player at a fraction over 6-foot-4 and with a sleek frame. He played basketball, football and baseball at Milwaukee Lutheran High School. As a kid, playing all the sports, I always preferred baseball, he said. Maybe the fact my dad s cousin, Damion Easley, was a major league player had something to do with it. We went to a few of his games and I d hope that could be me some day. Walker was not taken in the amateur draft out of high school. He went Jacksonville University in Florida. Concentrating on one sport, he hit the weights harder than ever before and started to show power. He hit 44 home runs in three seasons for the Dolphins and was drafted in the third round in 2012 by the Twins. Walker has moved up one rung per season in the minor league system, with these totals in rookie ball Elizabethton: 14 home runs, 45 RBI,.250 average, 76 strikeouts in 232 at-bats in Class A Cedar Rapids: 27 HR, 109 RBI,.278, 115 Ks in 508 ABs in high Class A Fort Myers: 25 HR, 94 RBI,.246, 156 Ks in 506 ABs in Class AA Chattanooga: 31 HR, 106 RBI,.239, 195 Ks in 502 at-bats. The prodigious power has placed him on the 40-player roster for this season. Doug Mientkiewicz, Walker s manager the past two seasons, was asked last September: If Walker and Sano hit their best shot, which one travels farther? Mientkiewicz praised Sano s might and talent as a hitter and several other qualities, and then said, But best shot Walker s goes farther. 3

4 Chad Allen was Mientkiewicz s hitting coach in Fort Myers and Chattanooga and is moving up to Class AAA this season. Walker and Allen had a couple of gentlemen s bets in Chattanooga: If Adam swung at fewer than 10 pitches below his knees in 10 days, he won dinner from me. If not, he owed me dinner. Also, for every 15 hits he had to right field, I owed him dinner. If he stays on the outside pitch, he can still drive it out to right field. Walker has been working out and taking batting practice with early arrivers this week at the Twins complex. He was asked about Allen s attempt to get him off the pitch below the knees. I like to hit the low pitch, and the pitchers keep working me lower to see if I ll chase it, Walker said. When I m hitting well, I have a plate discipline. I have to be more consistent with that. Allen was the hitting coach for Scottsdale in the Arizona Fall League last year, a team with Walker and six other Twins prospects that won the AFL championship. Adam hit one in a game at our park there s a berm that has to be 50 yards behind the left field fence, and he hit it over the berm, Allen said. One of our coaches who had been in baseball a long time said, Chad, that might be the farthest ball I ve ever seen hit. Obviously, with those strikeout numbers, Adam s still in the process. But if he continues to learn what a pitcher is trying to do to him, and stays aggressive in the zone where he likes the ball I m telling you, raw power, the only guy I ever saw who hits em where Adam hits it when he gets one was Mark McGwire. With camp approaching, Twins prospects impress evaluators Phil Miller Star Tribune February 11, 2016 It s awards season in Hollywood, and it s anticipation season in baseball. Many spring training camps open next week (and in 11 days for the Twins), whetting the appetite for the 2016 season. And if you re looking even further ahead, as Twins fans have become accustomed, the next month or so should be fun, too. Preseason prospect lists and organizational rankings are published in February and March, and they will contain plenty of excitement for Minnesotans. Keith Law, a former front-office executive for the Blue Jays and now ESPN s chief scouting expert, is one of the first to publish his lists this spring, and he clearly is impressed with the talent that the Twins have throughout their system. This system is stacked, Law says in ranking the Twins organization third among MLB teams in minor-league prospects, behind the Braves and Dodgers. That s actually down a spot from last year, when Law ranked them second behind the Cubs, but that s understandable Miguel Sano, Eddie Rosario and Tyler Duffey are no longer prospects, having graduated to the major-league roster. Law s rankings of baseball's top 100 prospects they require an ESPN Insider subscription, but well worth it for all the analysis include seven Twins, with Byron Buxton ranked No. 2 overall behind Dodgers shortstop Corey Seager. Baseball America isn t quite as impressed; the magazine places Minnesota tenth in its newly released organizational rankings (subscription required), a drop from fourth last spring. Part of the reason is that Buxton, though still ranked second among rookies, is not progressing quite as expected due to injuries, though noting that the outfielder remains one of baseball s most dynamic and elite prospects. MLB.com s pipeline rankings, which last year were published in March, had the Twins third last season behind the Cubs and Red Sox. Rankings like those make it easy for Twins fans to dream about the teams they might soon have at Target Field, much the way Royals fans anticipated, 5-7 years ago, the arrival of a crop of young talent. And few evaluations figure to be as full of good news as Law s. The Twins have high ceilings, they have probability, they have starters, they have relievers, they have lots of position players. I guess they don t really have catching, if you want to pick nits, Law writes. But for a team that runs low payrolls, they re in damn good shape. 4

5 Target Field might be more hitter-friendly than you think Derek Wetmore 1500 ESPN February 11, 2016 Target Field is more hitter-friendly than you might have thought. Tristan Cockcroft writes about fantasy sports for ESPN.com. In a column published this week, Cockcroft ranked all 30 MLB parks, from most hitter-friendly to least. Sometimes you ll hear the Twins home referred to as a pitcher s park, but this ranking might dispel that notion. Target Field ranked No. 9 on Cockcroft s list. More specifically, the column says Target Field is a good run-scoring environment, even if it suppresses home runs a little. It s considered much better for right-handed power than it is for left-handed power, which makes some sense, considering the 23-foot wall in right field with limestone facing on the top. While that may be bad news for the lefties in the lineup like Joe Mauer, Eddie Rosario or Oswaldo Arcia, it could be good news for all the right-handed power the Twins have. Miguel Sano, Brian Dozier, Trevor Plouffe and the gang are right-handed hitters who find themselves playing in a home park that is good for right-handed power. The column took a five-year sample of data, which eliminates what I think we could call The Miguel Sano Effect. That is, if one hitter who hits lots of home runs in one season and roughly half of them come in his home ballpark, it could skew the data to saying the park is more hitter-friendly than it actually might be. Taking a five-year sample also means his ranking includes more data than ESPN s Park Factor tool, which uses a year s worth of data. Here is where the rest of the parks in the American League Central ranked, from most hitter-friendly, to most pitcher-friendly: Comerica Park (Tigers): No. 11 US Cellular (White Sox): No 12 Kauffman Stadium (Royals): No 15 Progressive Field (Indians): No 16 Now, if you re looking for one-year trends, ESPN has the Park Factor tool. The Park Factors formula is relatively straightforward. It isolates one team (let s say the Twins) and takes the average number of runs scored and allowed per game at home. Then it divides that numbers by the same average for road games. A rate higher than favors hitters, meaning it s easier to score runs in that ballpark, and a rate below means it s a pitcher s park. So let s say the Twins scored 373 runs at home last year* and allowed 323. Average that across their 81 home games and you re left with 8.59 runs per game at Target Field last year. Now take the same numbers for the road. Runs scored (323) plus runs allowed (377) and divide that across the 81 games away from home. For the Twins, that yields 8.64 runs produced in road games in 2015, which means that scoring was a little bit higher last year in Twins games when they were played away from Target Field. Divide the Minneapolis run totals by the rest-of-the-world totals and you re left with Target Field s Park Factor for 2015: 8.59/8.64 = That ranked 13th in all of Major League Baseball in terms of being hitter friendly, according to ESPN. 5

6 MLB rumors roundup: More moves ahead for Baltimore? ESPN February 11, 2016 More late maneuvering in store for the Baltimore Orioles? Just as Baltimore reportedly nears a deal with Yovani Gallardo, reports have surfaced that the Orioles are also interested in center fielder Dexter Fowler, right fielder Jay Bruce and first baseman Pedro Alvarez. Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports tweets that if the Orioles forfeit their No. 14 overall draft pick as a result of signing Gallardo, they would also be willing to surrender their second pick (29th overall) for Fowler. ESPN's Buster Olney reports that the Orioles like a contract in the ballpark of two years, $20 million for Fowler and that both parties have at least discussed this possibility informally. Regarding Alvarez and Bruce, Joel Sherman of the New York Post reports that the Orioles previously considered the tandem of Alvarez and Yoenis Cespedes as a backup to signing Chris Davis, suggesting that continued interest remains. Rosenthal adds Baltimore lacks the prospects necessary to trade for Bruce. Boston Red Sox: Boston is eyeing free-agent lefty relievers, according to a report from Pete Abraham of the Boston Globe, with Neal Cotts and Franklin Morales heading up the list. Abraham did not specify if the team is considering major league or minor league contracts. Morales, 30, played with the Red Sox from He struggled quite a bit after being traded to the Colorado Rockies but posted a respectable 3.18 ERA in 62 1/3 innings with the Kansas City Royals last season. Cotts, who will turn 36 in March, stormed back from irrelevance in 2013 with the Texas Rangers. Right-handed hitting is a concern for Cotts, but he's posted a 3.03 ERA in 187 innings since his return to the major leagues. New York Mets: Jacob degrom's comments to the New York Post's Kevin Kernan indicate he would be open to exploring a long-term extension with the Mets: "I m a little bit older so I might be more willing to do something like that. You just have to look at what is fair so both sides get a decent deal. It s something I d have to look into and make sure I agree with I haven t thought that much about it and I have to talk to my agents and stuff and look at the numbers and decide what [is] favorable." Even though degrom is 27, he has only a year and 139 days of service time under his belt, which pushes back his free-agency status to just before his age-33 season. If degrom continues to pitch this successfully, there will still be plenty of money waiting for him, but landing a deal spanning five to six years is less likely as teams turn to younger candidates in the open market. This could make a long-term extension now far more appealing to degrom. Atlanta Braves: Carlos Torres has agreed to a minor league deal with an invitation to spring training, reports the Santa Cruz Sentinel's Jim Seimas. Seimas adds that Torres chose to sign with the Braves over the New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers. It's possible that Atlanta could use Torres in the rotation, but it's far more likely he'll pick up relief duty given the wide-open bullpen picture. Torres, 33, pitched for the Mets over the past three seasons and posted a combined 3.59 ERA, 8.2 K/9 and 2.7 BB/9. In 2015, however, Torres' 4.68 ERA prompted New York to designate him for assignment. Aside from Arodys Vizcaino, Jason Grilli and Jim Johnson, who are locked into the bullpen already, Torres is among a handful of non-roster invitees who'll compete with Mike Foltynewicz, Daniel Winkler, Ryan Weber and Shae Simmons for a spot. Minnesota Twins: General manager Terry Ryan spoke with 1500 ESPN's Darren Wolfson on his weekly podcast and touched on why he hasn't made any moves for left-handed relievers this offseason. Within the Twins' farm system, prospect duo Taylor Rogers and J.T. Chargois have stood out as future possibilities: "I m looking forward to seeing Taylor Rogers, for instance, a left-hander that s been with us for quite a few years. He's going to get every opportunity to make this team. I d like to see J.T. Chargois, obviously, grow into a guy you can count on. He might have the best assortment of pitches of those young pitchers that you guys read about it." Out of options, Oswaldo Arcia will need to fight for a spot with Twins Aaron Ziemer Bring Me the News February 11, 2016 There s a lot of excitement about the Minnesota Twins lineup in The signing of Korean slugger Byung Ho Park, moving Miguel Sano to the outfield, watching how young players Eddie Rosario and Byron Buxton grow after getting their first taste of Major League Baseball last summer. Even the signing of veteran free agent outfielder Carlos Quentin is generating a little buzz. Lost in all of that excitement is a player who at one point just two seasons ago was considered one of the Twins top offensive prospects Oswaldo Arcia. After hitting a combined 34 home runs in 2013 and 2014 with the Twins, Arcia played just 19 games with the team in He injured his wrist early and 6

7 never regained his form, hitting just.199/.257/.372 at Triple-A Rochester. Things were so bad, he didn t even return to Minnesota as a September call up. I m terribly disappointed in the year he had and he knows it, Twins GM Terry Ryan said on an episode of The Scoop podcast with Darren Wolfson. He s got a lot to live up to here. I know he s been in Fort Myers since the day his season concluded in Rochester. But when you re not a September recall with the type of ability he has, there s something wrong. And we need to fix him. That s a long way from the promising young outfielder who would crush majestic looking home runs like this. Now out of minor league options, it will be a big spring for Arcia. Twins blogger for MLB.com, Rhett Bollinger, writes that Arcia will have a chance to make the roster as a fourth outfielder this season as they don t want to risk losing him on waivers given his youth and power potential. But potential can only last so long and with Rosario, Buxton, Danny Santana, Quentin, Sano and even Max Kepler all in the mix to be Twins outfielders, it might be time for Arcia to produce. 7