Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Twins
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Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Tuesday, February 21, 2017 Twins pitcher Kyle Gibson tossing out traditional training methods. Star Tribune (Miller) p. 1 Twins' day at camp: Jorge Polanco ended up at short despite little prep last year. Star Tribune (Neal III) p. 2 Here are the five best Twins promotions for the 2017 home season. Star Tribune (Rand) p. 3 Rod Simons, Twin Cities broadcaster, dies at 56. Star Tribune (Staff) p. 4 Molitor admits Polanco development should have been handled differently. Star Tribune (Neal III) p. 4 Rod Simons, former KSTP-Channel 5 sports anchor, dies at 56. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 5 Craig Breslow passes first test facing batters for Minnesota Twins. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 5 Minnesota Twins: Kyle Gibson changes delivery to keep shoulder healthy. Pioneer Press (Berardino) p. 7 Dream finally comes true for Twins coach. MLB (Butherus) p. 8 Twins president thanks fans, vows commitment. MLB (Bollinger) p. 9 Twins mourn passing of journalist Simons. MLB (Randhawa) p. 9 Twins' players take part in unique spring drills. MLB (Butherus) p. 9 Slegers learning to fit in with Twins. MLB (Butherus) p. 10 Zulgad: Limiting Mauer in 2017 will be smart play as Twins plan for the future. ESPN 1500 (Zulgad) p. 10 Paul Molitor says Twins didn’t handle Jorge Polanco the right way in the minors. ESPN 1500 (Wetmore) p. 11 Trevor May joins eSports team Luminosity. NBC Sports (Baer) p. 12 The Top 3 Breakout Canidates at Every Position Entering 2017. Bleacher Report (Shafer) p. 13 Minnesota Twins sign hometown RHP Seth Rosin. UPI (Butler) p. 13 New catcher Castro looks to make effect on Twins’ pitching. FanRag Sports Network (Perrotto) p. 14 Twins pitcher Kyle Gibson tossing out traditional training methods Phil Miller | Star Tribune | February 21, 2017 FORT MYERS, FLA. – Ryan O’Rourke was driving the Massachusetts Turnpike, heading to Boston a couple of months ago, while having a phone conversation about his pitching motion. What he heard was so insightful, O’Rourke said, “I had to pull over at a rest stop, just so I could focus. That conversation changed my world.” Kyle Gibson sat in a gym with Twins strength coach Perry Castellano in Plant City, Fla., last December, skeptically absorbing a presentation about how he could rid his back and shoulder of the nagging soreness that afflicted him throughout the most disappointing season of his professional career. Four hours later, Gibson said, “it’s like it all vanished. It was unbelievable. I said, ‘Wow, this is the real deal.’ ” If they sound like product endorsers, well, maybe someday they will be. But for now, the Twins righthanders are simply veteran pitchers searching for new ways to find health and success, and open-minded about where they might find them. Which is why O’Rourke now heaves a set of weighted balls as part of his training, and Gibson perches a giant yellow ball on his shoulder while he warms up. “It wasn’t easy at first, because there’s a lot of modern thinking about the throwing motion and I’m more of a traditional baseball guy,” Gibson said. “I had to open up a little bit to accept new ways of thinking. And I’m glad I did.” The Twins will be, too, if the nontraditional techniques produce more strikes, fewer runs and healthier pitchers. Pitching coach Neil Allen observed Gibson’s methods over the weekend, and was as excited about his pitchers’ passion as his workout. “If it makes him feel better about who he is and what he can do, if he shows consistency with it, I’m all for it. He’s feeling really good about his pitching, and that’s what we want,” Allen said. “If he feels it’s going to help him, how can I stand in the way?” For Gibson, it’s more than a new way of thinking — it’s an entirely new way of delivering the baseball, about as fundamental a change as a pitcher can make. But the 29-year-old former first-rounder decided he had to do something drastic after muddling through a discouraging season that included a month and a half on the disabled list, only six quality starts out of 25, a 5.07 ERA, and discomfort in his back and shoulder that wouldn’t go away. He didn’t make a start all season without anti-inflammatory medication, Gibson said, and he was tired of the constant soreness. “I was like, OK, I have a choice to make here: Get through spring training, take anti-inflammatories and just try to get through it again, banging my head against the wall,” he said. “Or try something different to prepare for camp. If it doesn’t work out, what have I lost? I’m still getting my arm ready. And it turned out, it was awesome.” A former college pitching coach at Missouri directed Gibson to Randy Sullivan, who operates the Florida Baseball Ranch, a facility dedicated to keeping pitchers’ arms healthy. Sullivan, a licensed physical therapist, spent an afternoon explaining his techniques to Gibson and Castellano, and putting the pitcher through some demonstration exercises. The drills are meant to retrain Gibson and alter his throwing motion, so he holds the ball more upright, at an angle of less than 90 degrees, which enables him to reach his release point more directly. That, combined with a de-emphasis on extending his arm after releasing the ball, has dramatically reduced the amount of stress on his pitching shoulder. And so almost every morning before training camp workouts, Gibson goes through a series of unusual throwing exercises, using a balloon-sized rubber ball, an oversized glove that looks like a stocking cap covering his right hand, and a set of hardballs of varying weights. Keeping pressure on the large ball insures his arm doesn’t extend outward too far. The ball he releases into the giant glove acclimates his shoulder to a shorter post-release extension. “I know how it looks. I hear about it from the guys,” Gibson said. “It’s not easy, because I’ve pitched the same way for 20 years. But I can feel a huge difference in my shoulder and my back.” So can O’Rourke, who signed on with Driveline Baseball, another performance academy located just south of Seattle that he first learned about on Twitter. He used a simplified weighted-ball workout last year and said it kept his arm strong. So over the winter, at the suggestion of a teammate on his Venezulan League team, he called Driveline founder Kyle Boddy, who has worked with several major leaguers. “He blew my mind with how he explained his program. He taught me to ‘think backward’ about how I pitch,” said O’Rourke, who became so dedicated to the workouts, he forced himself to make time for them during a vacation to Las Vegas. “I’m looking for health, to be able to pitch as well on Saturday as I did on Friday. I look at my mechanics from a year ago, I’m much more behind the ball now.” Of course, neither of the forward-thinking pitchers has faced a hitter yet, as Gibson conceded. “The hitters will tell me if it’s working,” he said. “But if it keeps me feeling good on the mound, I’m pretty confident I’m going to see some results.” He’s pretty sure the Twins are onboard with his program, too. The first time he met Twins chief baseball officer Derek Falvey, Gibson said, he was doing his specialized workout and Falvey walked over and said, “Did you get that ball from Randy Sullivan?” Allen isn’t ready to pass out weighted balls and rubber balloons to the rest of the staff yet. But he’s far less skeptical than he was a week ago. “In all honesty, until we see the results, it’s mostly a psychological [tool],” Allen said. “But I know there is science behind it. If these guys find something that works for them, by all means, I’m going to support them.” Twins' day at camp: Jorge Polanco ended up at short despite little prep last year La Velle E. Neal III | Star Tribune | February 20, 2017 FORT MYERS, FLA. – The last time Jorge Polanco played shortstop in the minors was 2015, spending 83 games there at Class AA Chattanooga and 19 games at Class AAA Rochester. He did not play a lick there for the Red Wings in 2016. The Twins, however, ended up using Polanco at shortstop during the second half of the season, and he is expected to be the starter there in spring games. 2 It led to a question for manager Paul Molitor on Monday: Why didn’t Polanco play shortstop at Rochester last season? Molitor responded bluntly. “I wish I had a better explanation for you,” he said. “But I think myself, a lot of other people, realized we didn’t handle it the right way.” Polanco’s case has been somewhat complicated. Signed as a shortstop out of the Dominican Republic in 2009, some Twins evaluators felt he was better suited at second base as he moved up the system. But Polanco would change their minds with bursts of strong play at short. Polanco entered 2016 as Rochester’s second baseman. The Twins usually move their infielders around in the minors, but that didn’t happen with Polanco. Meanwhile, the Twins went from having Eduardo Escobar at short to Eduardo Nunez. When Nunez was traded to San Francisco in July, the Twins needed a shortstop.