A trip to Cedar Rapids: Final thoughts

I had intended to start writing about the major league team again, but after watching more errant throws and misplays Thursday night than I saw in three games of low A ball, I don't really want to.

So, a couple followup comments and notes:

Travis Blankenhorn is 1st @CRKernels player to record double digits in homers, doubles, triples & stolen bases since Jean Segura in 2010!

— Cedar Rapids Kernels (@CRKernels) August 24, 2017

The double-digits thing sounds more impressive than it is. Ten is a lot of triples. It's not that impressive in homers and steals (he has 11 steals). And 19 doubles isn't anything astounding.

But he's still fairly young for the league.

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Royce Lewis' leg kick.
(Photo by Linda Vanderwerf)

I commented in the Monday print column about Royce Lewis that he has a bigger leg kick than some pitchers employ in their windup.

Here's a photo of that leg kick, taken by my wife.

I said Monday that I doubt the Twins will try to change anything with him until he starts to struggle. That hasn't happened yet.

Incidentally, Lewis hit his first homer at Cedar Rapids on Monday.

And he drew his first walk Wednesday night (with the bases loaded in extra innings). He has, at this writing, 1:8 walk-to-strikeout ratio in the Midwest League. Granted, it is all of 45 plate appearances, but that's not a good ratio -- and it's drastically different than what he had in the Gulf Coast League, where he had more walks than strikeouts.

Again, small sample size. But it suggests to me that, his lofty batting average aside, he is being challenged by the move to the Midwest League. Which is neither unexpected nor detrimental. It's part of the process.

A trip to Cedar Rapids: Travis Blankenhorn and Trey Cabbage

I get Travis Blankenhorn and Trey Cabbage confused.

They are both left-handed hitting infielders drafted by the Twins in the third and fourth rounds respectively in 2015. Both were described as third basemen on draft day. They both have first names that start with the same two letters.

Blankenhorn got to Cedar Rapids for the last month or so of the 2016 season and hit fairly well after crushing the Appy League. He played more second base than third, and DH'd more than he played second. He returned to Cedar Rapids for the 2017 season and has been a bit less productive at the plate while playing more in the field, splitting time between second and third with more time at third than at second.

Cabbage has been slower up the ladder and less productive. He spluttered last year at Elizabethton and improved some there this year before getting a late promotion to Cedar Rapids, and he's barely over the Mendoza line in less than 150 plate appearances in the Midwest League. He's played more outfield than third base for the Kernels.

On Friday, Blankenhorn was the DH and Cabbage started at third base. On Saturday, Cabbage was the DH and Blankenhorn second. On Sunday, Blankenhorn played second and Cabbage entered the game late at first base.

Cabbage drove in the winning run Friday with a sac fly. Blankenhorn homered on Saturday for the only run of the game for either side, and followed that up with a 4-for-5 game Sunday.

Somewhere in my brain, I have linked Blankenhorn and Cabbage to a 1970s Twins third baseman named Mike Cubbage (which is pretty close to Cabbage). Cubbage was a left-handed hitter who platooned at third base for Gene Mauch and occasionally played second. He finished his playing career with the Mets and went on to manage in the minors, coach in the majors and serve as in interim manager with the Mets in 1991. 

Cubbage's career might be Blankenhorn's future. Cabbage will have to find his bat to reach that high. 

A trip to Cedar Rapids: Hitters

The Cedar Rapids Kernels -- the low A affiliate of the Twins -- will be in the the Midwest League playoffs this week as the second half champions of the West Division. It's the fourth straight year the manager Jake Mauer has piloted the Kernels into the league playoffs, and it's all the more impressive because there really isn't much on the roster in terms of high picks and name prospects.

The only player on the roster last weekend who Baseball America listed on its preseason top 31 prospects for the Twins is infielder Travis Blankenhorn, who was their third-round pick in 2015. He's a left-handed hitter who was drafted as a third baseman but has played mostly second base when in the field this year and DH'd more than anything. BA listed him as the Twins 26th prospect in the spring.

He played second base and hit fourth Saturday against a lefty, third base and hit fifth on Sunday against a righty and wasn't in the lineup at all on Monday (another lefty). He did nothing in either game that particularly caught my eye, but Friday was probably a really bad day for everybody on the team -- they'd played (and won) a 16-inning game Thursday night and then had a 5.5 hour bus ride back to Cedar Rapids, so it was probably a really tired squad.

Scouting the stat line

Three other infielders have had interesting seasons.

Luis Arraez, a smallish left-handed hitting second baseman from Venezuela, hit .347 with 31 doubles in a full season with Cedar Rapids, leading the Midwest League in batting average. He's only 19. Baseball Reference lists him as 155 pounds, but the Kernels roster lists him at 175, and I'd say the latter is more likely accurate right now. He started just the one game against a righty (Saturday) and had one hit but stung the ball two other times. He also got hit in the upper chest/neck by a ground ball.

.347 is .347, even in low A, and I would expect Arreaz to show up on prospect lists this winter. He's definitely worth keeping an eye on.

Nelson Molina is a skinny guy -- 6-foot-3, 165 pounds according to the roster and looks it -- but he hit .304, albeit without the doubles power Arraez displayed. The Puerto Rican played third base on Friday and shortstop on Sunday. He's 21, and if he is going to have a future he needs to get stronger.

Zander Wiel is plenty big (6-3, 220) and led the Kernels in home runs and RBIs; in fact, he led the Midwest League in RBIs and was second in homers. We saw him homer on Saturday, his 17th of the season; we left Monday's game early and missed two more homers from him. He hit 15 of his 19 homers in the second half of the season, doubtless a big reason why the Kernels had such a strong second half. But .. he's 23, a bit old for the league, and he's a right-handed hitting first baseman who hit under .260. Right-handed hitters limited to first base have to really mash to get to the majors, and I doubt Wiel qualifies.