In Twins system, Wimmers all about team
First-round pick in this year's Draft learning to hone arsenal
By Doug Miller / MLB.com | 10/02/10
These days, when Alex Wimmers isn't on the field pitching for the Minnesota Twins in Florida's fall instructional league, he's keeping up with the pennant race.
Even a few thousand miles southeast of Target Field, the back fields are abuzz with dreams of a third World Series ring.
"It's awesome," said Wimmers, the 21-year-old right-hander whom the Twins selected with the 21st pick in this year's First-Year Player Draft.
Alex Wimmers was the 21st overall pick in the 2010 Draft. (Scott Jontes/Four Seam Images)
"Everyone in the organization through the Minor Leagues, a lot of the coaches through Single-, Double-A and Triple-A, the field coordinators, everybody ... every day they're talking about it. Hopefully, this will be the year that we can break through the first round."
Wimmers has been in Florida since August. First he had a quick and dominant foray into professional baseball as a starter for the Class A Advanced Fort Myers Miracle, with whom he went 2-0 with a 0.57 ERA and 23 strikeouts in 15 2/3 innings over four starts.
Now he's learning the ropes in instructs, where long days and some ups and downs are commonplace but easily understood by a pitcher who says he's eager to soak it all in.
"Right now, I'm focusing mainly on trying to get acquainted with the system and how the Twins do things and learn a lot about my teammates," says Wimmers, a Cincinnati native and two-time Big Ten Pitcher of the Year while at Ohio State.
"It's important to take in how everybody does things and work hard on and off the field without bringing attention to yourself. A lot of it is about doing the little things right because they add up at the end of a season. The little things are what matter."
