Nevada pitcher Doktorczyk taken by Twins in MLB draft
RENO, Nev. (KOLO) – Nevada right-handed pitcher Jason Doktorczyk was drafted by the Minnesota Twins in the ninth round of the 2024 MLB Draft.
Doktorczyk was drafted with the 278th pick of Monday’s draft.
Doktorczyk is Nevada’s eighth MLB draft pick since 2019 and the third pitcher over the last two seasons. Kade Morris and Peyton Stumbo were drafted by the New York Mets and the Pittsburgh Pirates respectively last year.
Over the course of two years at Nevada, Doktorczyk struck out 150 batters over 148.1 innings, picking up eight wins. He also posted a strikeout-to-walk ration of 4:1 over 25 career appearances and posted an ERA of 3.21.
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Jim Souhan: Twins hitting coaches should get credit for team’s turnaround
MINNEAPOLIS – The Minnesota Twins have solved one of their most worrisome problems. They are no longer dependent on their stars.
For years, they couldn’t win without Byron Buxton in the lineup. Last year, they had trouble winning early in the season while Carlos Correa was playing through plantar fasciitis. Earlier this year, the lineup looked helpless when Royce Lewis was unavailable.
Now the Twins have stars, and enough offensive depth to win without them. This is a result of drafting and developing hitting talent, and a group of hitting coaches that has shown a knack for breaking players out of slumps. When the Twins set the record for home runs in a season in 2019, then-hitting coach James Rowson received his share of the credit. He was easy to praise. His hitters were thriving, and he was gregarious and insightful.
Current hitting coach David Popkins came under fire during the first 3 1/2 months of the 2023 season as the Twins’ lineup slumped, and he didn’t spend much time doing damage control. Now the results are speaking for him. Popkins, fellow hitting coach Rudy Hernandez and assistant Derek Shomon, along with Correa, have helped turn the Twins into an offensive powerhouse. “One of the hardest jobs in baseball is being a hitting coach for a major league team,” Twins President of Baseball Operations Derek Falvey said. “I think it remains the shortest-tenured job of any individual position coach. You deal with failure so much more than with success. Half the job is psychologist; half the job is technician, and you have to find the right blend.”
At the 2023 All-Star break, the Twins ranked 16th in walks, 25th in on-base percentage, 20th in slugging percentage, 24th in runs and 22nd in OPS. After the All-Star break, they ranked first in walks, fourth in OBP, third in slugging percentage, fifth in runs and third in OPS. This season, even with Buxton, Correa and Lewis spending time on the injured list and Buxton going through an early-season slump, the Twins rank 19th in walks, sixth in OBP, third in slugging, fourth in runs and fifth in OPS.
You’ll notice one difference between the way the Twins thrived at the end of ’23 and how they’re thriving now. They aren’t drawing as many walks. They’re attacking hittable pitches early in the count. Also, second baseman Edouard Julien specialized in drawing walks, and he has spent most of this season in the minors. What’s most impressive about the Twins’ offensive performances over the last calendar year is how many inexperienced or previously slumping players have produced.
Matt Wallner went through a terrible slump, repaired his swing mechanics at Class AAA St. Paul and looks like a different hitter now. Jose Miranda looked like he had lost his chance to secure an everyday big-league job and then, this year, he tied a major league record for most consecutive hits. Willi Castro had a .673 OPS with Detroit, and was released. He has a .762 OPS with the Twins and was just named to the All-Star team. Popkins deserves credit, but the reality of the modern-day hitter is that each is on his own program. Some might rely solely on Popkins. Some might use video to work with their own personal guru. Sometimes teammates consult one another, and Correa, as the unquestioned team leader, often translates analytics data into information his teammates can absorb.
