Author: David Shama

Bill Fitch, the former Gopher and NBA coach, told Sports Headliners that Timberwolves rookie Kevin Love was deserving of being picked among the top five players in the June NBA draft, but local fans will need to be patient with his development.

The 6-10, 250-pound power forward will need “at least two years” to develop, just like other big players when they come into the league, according to Fitch who is now retired and living in New Mexico and Texas.  “He’s a project,” Fitch said.  “He’s got a lot of growing (improving) to do.  What you’re seeing now is just the beginning. …”

Fitch said it’s important for a rookie to join an NBA team where he’s needed and fits the personnel.  Love is a match with the Wolves who need another big player to complement center Al Jefferson.

The plan is for Love to help Jefferson with rebounding, plus feed the ball to the 6-10, 265-pound 23-year-old center and ease defensive pressure on him by scoring from the outside.  Last season Jefferson scored 21 points and 11.1 rebounds per game (fifth best in the NBA) after coming to Minneapolis a year ago in the Kevin Garnett trade with Boston.  “I think the kid from Boston is going to be a helluva player,” Fitch said.

Fitch also said Love was probably as well coached in college as anyone coming into this year’s NBA draft.  Love is “very coachable” as proven by his willingness to accept instruction throughout his life including from his dad, Stan, a former NBA player.

Fitch would have no part of any comparison between Love and Larry Bird, a player he coached in 1981 when the Celtics won the NBA title.  Love has been an outstanding passer, rebounder and scorer in college, three areas that Bird excelled in, too.  “I don’t see anybody like Bird,” Fitch said.   He believes when healthy and at his best that Bird was as good as any player ever.

Wolves vice presidentKevin McHale, who was also on that 1981 team, has said Minnesota could win another 20 games next season after being 22-60 during the 2007-08 season.  Fitch indicated that’s ambitious but he thinks the Wolves have some “good young players” and it’s an asset to be in the Northwest Division, and not in the Southwest where they would face Dallas, Houston, New Orleans and San Antonio.

 The Twins’ Rick Anderson is one of baseball’s best pitching coaches, an authority on pitching to hitters.  I mentioned to him that the Twins’ Justin Morneau has so much plate coverage with his swing that he can reach for an outside pitch and stroke it for a base hit.

“Amazing,” Anderson said.  “And he’s a pitcher’s nightmare because you think, ‘Well, I am not going to come into him because he can hit one 400 feet to right field.’  But then you stay away…he can hit it 400 feet to left field. …He says, ‘When I am swinging the best, I use the whole field.’ When he’s not, he’s trying to pull home runs, but when he stays with his plan and trying to use the whole field, he’s tough to pitch to. …”

Anderson said if Morneau were on another team he wouldn’t “know how” to pitch to him.  The 6-foot-4, 230-pound Morneau is second in the American League in RBI with 89 while batting .311 with 18 home runs.

The Twins, who have a 24-30 road record and lost two of three games in Seattle earlier this week, are nearing their longest road trip of the year starting on August 21.  The Twins will play in Anaheim, Seattle, Oakland and Toronto before returning to Minneapolis for a series against Detroit starting on September 5.

Before the 2008 major league schedule was made the Twins communicated to major league baseball officials that Republican Convention organizers asked that the team be out of town during the convention, September 1-4.  Team president Dave St. Peter told Sports Headliners the first draft of the schedule had the team in town during the convention.  The final draft changed that but resulted in an unusually long time away from Minneapolis.

St. Peter described the Twins as “disappointed” the schedule wasn’t made more favorably but said MLB has requests from all 30 teams and faces a challenge in sorting things out.  He also said it’s a “quirk” in the schedule that the Twins didn’t play Seattle until this month and now play the Mariners nine times in August.

If general managers and scouts could pick one player to build a team around, Joe Mauer, 25, would be among the first names mentioned.   A recent Sports Illustrated story reported that a panel of such experts listed Mauer as the No. 5 choice in major league baseball after Florida shortstop Hanley Ramirez, New York Yankees shortstop Alex Rodriguez, Philadelphia second baseman Chase Utley and Seattle pitcher Felix Hernandez.

Last year a Sporting News article named Mauer the No. 1 player to build a team around.  That story resulted from input by general managers, scouts, an assistant general manager and a “Hall of Fame writer.”

Well documented to the public are Mauer’s sweet swing, high batting average and strong arm for throwing out potential base stealers.  A subtler asset is his ability to call a game and work with pitchers.  The latter has positively impacted the development of the Twins’ young starting pitchers this season, Scott Baker, 26, Nick Blackburn, 26, Glen Perkins, 25, and Kevin Slowey, 24.

Pitching coach Rick Anderson was asked about Mauer’s contribution to the success of the four pitchers who have been surprisingly effective and played a major role in the team’s contending for the Central Division title.  “It’s invaluable,” Anderson said. “You think about it, they’re all (the starters and Mauer) about the same age.  He was here a little bit before some of them, but they all kind of came in that same time. They’re all young and they’re all learning.  Our young pitchers trust him, and he’s learning how to call games with them.  And they’re jelling together and that’s the big thing.  He takes charge of these kids and these kids follow right along with him, and that’s the success part there.”

Anderson said when a pitcher trusts a catcher it’s so important because it allows the pitcher to concentrate on executing pitches.  Otherwise, the pitcher is thinking too much about what type of pitch to throw and/or maybe where to place the ball around home plate.  The pitcher doesn’t have to be thinking, “I have to do this, I have to do that.”

A catcher has to know his pitchers, and not just what pitches they throw, but as much about them as possible.  “That’s why the young ones are having success,” Anderson said of Mauer.  “He’s finding ways that’s going to get them success and get them through (the game).  Everyday they’re not going to have their best stuff and he’s finding ways to survive, and that’s pretty cool.”

Also, a catcher has to understand the opposing batters, not just his own pitchers.  Before a series Mauer and Anderson will talk about the other team’s hitters but during a game conversation is pretty minimal other than to analyze something on the spot.  Anderson said Mauer has improved his knowledge of other hitters.

“Joe is getting much, much better as far as retaining (information) and how we attack guys, and what they’re doing, and what they’re looking for,” Anderson said.  “And to me that’s tough because you got 12 pitchers (on the Twins staff).  You’ve got to (for example) remember how did (Twins reliever) Brian Bass get out Gary Shefflield (Detroit hitter) a month ago. …”