New Britain Rock Cats: Moments & Anecdotes from 2012

Emerging prospect Oswaldo Arcia batting
late in the 2012 season

For the second consecutive season, the Rock Cats made it to the final game with a chance to make the playoffs. For the second consecutive season, they fell just short. They ended the season with a respectable record of 75-67, winning each of their last 6 games in a push for the playoffs. Playoffs in the minor leagues are interesting. On the one hand, the guys are competitors and want to earn a ring -- and we, as fans, want them to win, even in the minor leagues, where the focus should be predominately on player development. On the other hand, there's no significant financial incentive to play more games, and we're talking about young men that have been away from home for half a year, living out of suitcases and traveling almost exclusively on buses. So it's an interesting dichotomy. On that topic, here's a minor league anecdote for you: Most of the Rockcats' players leases were set to expire on the last day of the regular season. I was talking to a few of them, and here's what their schedule was like for 1 particular 24 hour period --- day game after a night game; go back to apartment, pack and clean it out so that landlord can conduct walk-through; sleep somewhere; play final game of season (which, if they won, they would have had to immediately board a bus to Reading, PA). Moreso than the slash lines, gym time, and bullpen sessions, that is the life of a minor leaguer. For every Aaron Hicks who has received a sizable signing bonus, there are dozens of Nathan Hansons and Chris Colabellos -- guys fighting, paycheck to paycheck, to defy the odds and keep advancing through the minor leagues. That's minor league baseball.

It was a very solid season for New Britain. Two players in particular -- Oswaldo Arcia and Aaron Hicks -- surpassed expectations, and will each rank somewhere in the top 5 on my list of Twins prospects going into 2013. Chris Herrmann demonstrated to me that he can handle the job of back-up catcher at least as well as Drew Butera. Chris Colabello -- a 28 year old depth signing -- set the franchise record for RBIs. Even Deibinson Romero, too old to be a legitimate prospect, hit 19 home runs and was named a season-ending All-Star. You'll notice that I'm not focusing too much on pitching. As I've written before, most pitchers with even decent stats were sent very quickly to AAA. Additionally, aside from B.J. Hermsen (who had a very solid season, going 11-6 with a 3.22 ERA and a 1-to-3 walk-to-strikeout ratio), I didn't see too much from the starters that really registered with me. Bruce Pugh, out of the bullpen, throws pretty hard, so that is encouraging. If you follow the Twins, though, it won't be surprising for you to hear that there is a dearth of top shelf pitching talent at this level of the minors.

There were some very memorable moments this season, as well. My "season" covering the Rock Cats actually started in January, well before Spring Training, when I attended the team's Hot Stove Luncheon, where former GM Bill Smith was the keynote speaker. Probably most important happening, for me personally this season, was when the Twins and the Rock Cats announced that they had extended their player development contract through the 2014 season, so I will have Twins-related baseball to follow, just down the road, for at least another couple years. With respect to on-the-field action, there was plenty. Arcia hit a walk-off home run shortly after being promoted. Colabello did the same -- his was a majestic opposite-field shot that glanced off a light tower. On several occasions this team came back in the final innings -- one time plating multiple runs when they were down to their final out -- to win outright, or at the very least, to push the contest to extra innings. Herrmann had 4 hits in consecutive games. Arcia had multiple hits in each of his last 8 games this season, and looked darn close to a major league hitter in my opinion. He was twice named Eastern League player of the week, and was the Eastern League player of the month in July. Hicks had 5 hits in a game, and has excellent speed. In fact, Hicks' ascension up the Twins prospect rankings might make an off-season trade of either Denard Span or Ben Revere more probable.

On a personal level, this was a fun year to follow the team. I had a tough time keeping up with the blog part of this summer, as work and life got in the way just a little, so I apologize for that. That being said, it's incredibly easy to get involved with team events and to meet the players. I probably went to 15 or so games, and blogged about most of them. I got to know a lot of the season ticket holders, who are all fantastic people -- and Twins fans! I attended a preseason team dinner, where I sat with Alex Wimmers for a few hours. Unfortunately, Wimmers made only one start for New Britain before an arm injury, which eventually required Tommy John surgery, sidelined him for the season. I purchased a game-worn and signed Oswaldo Arcia "Irish Pride Night" jersey to support the Rock Cats charitable foundation (and met Arcia). Not regretting that purchase at all. I went to another charity event at a local bar/grill, where Chris Herrmann, whom I previously had interviewed, was my waiter, and where I talked to Aaron Hicks -- one of the nicest athletes I have ever met -- for a good half hour. I was a guest of infielder James Beresford's family, who had traveled from Australia to watch their son play for a few weeks. A couple weeks ago, Terry Ryan was in attendance, so I introduced myself and tried to talk up Herrmann to him. Finally, I threw out a first pitch a few weeks ago, and am happy to report that, although the velocity is significantly down, the accuracy is still there -- in other words, I fit the Twins mold.

I'm already looking forward to next year. Although I've almost certainly seen the last of Hicks and Herrmann, and probably Arcia, I'm excited for the next wave of talent coming up -- perhaps not at the beginning of the season, but by next summer.

New Britain Rock Cats 2012 Hot Stove Luncheon & Bill Smith

As I have mentioned before, living in Connecticut puts me just about 20 minutes or so from the home of the Twins' AA affiliate, the New Britain Rock Cats. One of my New Year's resolutions for this blog for 2012 was to provide more Rock Cats content. It makes sense, right? I'm no expert on the Twins' minor leaguers, but I do attend enough games to at least have some name recognition. I can only see the real Twins once or twice a year, so why not see tomorrow's stars today?

Yesterday I attended the Rock Cats' Hot Stove Luncheon, which was held at a hotel ballroom in central Connecticut. Apart from Rock Cat personnel, I would guess that there were probably around 300 people that attended. Many fans, and also some sponsors and members of the local New Britain community, comprised the crowd. I was most interested because former Twins' GM Bill Smith was the keynote speaker.

I wanted to provide you, my readers, with some quotes from Bill Smith regarding both the 2012 Rock Cats and Twins, as well as a couple interesting things that I picked up on. First off, Bill Smith was exactly the opposite of the gruff, sweaty, "no comment" personality that I had seen during some of his interviews when he was GM. He was affable, funny and extremely self-deprecating (he opened with a line to the effect of, when the team loses 99 games, someone has to be accountable -- and that person unfortunately was me). He mentioned that he never had any intention of leaving the Twins organization, and that he was happy in his new role, where he will actually be spending more time on player development. Now, onto the quotes:

On Miguel Sano: Has the "potential to be a Miguel Cabrera type player."

Joe Mauer: "100% healthy and intends to catch more than 120 games this season." He will also see time at first base and occasionally right field.

Justin Morneau: "We're confident he's going to be ready to go." Smith emphasized how detrimental concussions were, how teams are still learning more about them, and included Sidney Crosby as an example of how long-lasting and serious they can be.

Smith emphasised the Twins usage of the disabled list in 2011. I read it on another blog before, but the Twins lost 866 days to the disabled list. According to Smith, that translated into $28.8 million of salary. Pretty ridiculous.

On the Twins' performance last season: "Poor performance and lack of fundamental play" were the most frustrating aspects. This ties into later comments he made concerning player development at the AA level.

On AA call-ups Chris Parmelee and Joe Benson: They will get an opportunity to compete for a spot on the Twins opening day roster. Interestingly, Smith included Ben Revere with these two other players. Between what Terry Ryan has recently said about utilizing Trevor Pouffe in the outfield this season, and Smith's comments likening Revere to Parmelee and Benson, I'm starting to think that Revere may not be as likely to be starting in left field as I previously had thought, or, if he does, it may be in a platoon situation.

Rock Cats' manager Jeff Smith also spoke. He was a career minor leaguer, having played several seasons in New Britain. He said that his goal, aside from winning games, "is to have every player improve from game 1 to game 142." He suspected that, at some point in 2012, Rock Cats fans will see Aaron Hicks, and that Chris Herrmann and Logan Darnell would both be returning.

Jeff Smith's focus on player development was interesting for another reason. Bill Smith repeatedly said that, in the past several years, the Twins' best players all have come through New Britain (that makes sense, of course, as a matter of player progression). During his remarks, Bill Smith mentioned the instructional league, Class A Beloit, and AA Rock Cats as examples of organizations that prided themselves in player development. Not once during the 3 hour event was a single mention made of AAA Rochester. I'm reading between the lines a little here, but it makes some sense when you think about all the trouble the Twins have had with Rochester, and the fact that some of the guys coming up from AAA have not been fundamentally sound, or didn't seemed overly concerned with winning games. Bill Smith stated that call-ups from New Britain were prepared to play major league baseball. I think the negative implication from that statement, and the fact that Rochester was the only team never mentioned during the event, is that members of the organization do not believe that AAA is doing a good enough job developing players -- hence the house cleaning and promotion of Bruno to hitting coach.

In the end, this was a great event to attend. It was repeatedly emphasized that the Rock Cats and the Twins are both like families (for better or worse, I guess). And the event certainly had a family vibe to it. I'm still glad that Bill Smith got the axe as GM, but it's probably also fair to note that all the negative moves that fans criticized weren't done in a vacuum; Terry Ryan and the other staffers certainly had input. Hopefully he has more success in his new role.