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Berrios maturing on mound for Miracle

Twins' No. 5 prospect holds Jupiter to one hit in best outing of year
May 8, 2014

Sometimes Fort Myers' pitching coach Gary Lucas finds it hard to believe right-hander Jose Berrios is just 19. At other times, it's all too obvious.

The Twins' No. 5 prospect flashed what Lucas referred to as "Major League-caliber" stuff Wednesday, limiting Jupiter to one hit while striking out seven over five scoreless innings in a 6-3 win.

But Berrios' youth showed too as he walked four batters and racked up 92 pitches before exiting with a 1-0 lead.

"He looks very much 19 some nights," Lucas said. "Some nights he looks like he could pitch in the big leagues. … I think that's kind of been his thing so far this year."

Berrios (2-2) boasts a plus fastball that can work 91-95 mph with good downward angle, Lucas said. He gets in trouble, though, when he insists on reaching for 95 instead of settling for less smoke and more command.

The 2012 first-rounder (32nd overall) draws rave reviews for his competitiveness, an asset that leads to a tremendous work ethic and coachability, per Lucas. But when Berrios' adrenaline kicks in and he tries to muscle up, his mechanics tend to get thrown out of whack.

"His upper half from the waist up, he jerks his head and he jerks his front side," Lucas said. "That's something we're trying to iron out.

"Youth raises its head sometimes with this boy, but he has the stuff, no doubt about that. He shows flashes of it. He just needs to make some adjustments as he goes along."

Berrios' saving grace Wednesday was his offspeed stuff, especially his changeup. Where his fastball command was inconsistent, his change was spot-on, featuring good deception and sink and inducing a number of swings-and-misses behind in the count.

"He used it well, commanded it well in fastball counts," Lucas said. "We'd like him to be able to mix up when he uses that change, and not necessarily when he's behind in the count all the time. But it got him back into counts. He got outs with it. The movement, it looks like a fastball coming to a lot of hitters in fastball counts. That helped him survive through five innings."

The Bayamon, Puerto Rico native issued a leadoff walk to Austin Barnes, who advanced to second on a stolen base and third on a wild pitch. Barnes was left stranded, though, as Berrios struck out Terrence Dayleg and Matt Juengel before retiring Viosergy Rosa on a groundout.

Berrios collected two groundouts and a strikeout in a 1-2-3 second, worked around a one-out walk and a two-out single with three strikeouts in the third and pieced together another 1-2-3 inning in the fourth. He issued two more walks in the fifth, but got flyouts from Cameron Flynn and Dayleg and a groundout from Ryan Goetz to complete the scoreless outing.

The 6-foot righty opened 2013 pitching for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic, a valuable experience for his development but one the Twins think caused him to tire in the regular season. Minnesota limited Berrios' innings late in the season, especially when he returned from a brief trip home to Puerto Rico in August appearing especially worn down. He finished the season with a 3.99 ERA over 19 starts with Class A Cedar Rapids.

"I think he more than held his own last year," said Lucas, who was the Kernels' pitching coach last year. "I thought he was tired at the end of the season."

After going through Spring Training on a normal workload, Berrios has made the jump to the Florida State League with promising, if inconsistent, results. Through six starts, he has a 3.30 ERA with 27 strikeouts and 11 walks in 30 innings.

Lucas is hopeful that with a more standard workload and a little maturity, Berrios could let his Major League stuff shine more consistently in the near future.

"He probably is okay around 92, 93 mph," Lucas said. "But at 94 or 95, you look at the chart, and a lot of those pitches at that velocity aren't showing up in the strike zone.

"He's a hard worker. He really has an excellent work ethic. He does everything we ask of him, and he's open to taking instruction and takes instruction well. But it's a learning experience."

Jake Seiner is a contributor to MiLB.com. Follow him on Twitter at @Jake_Seiner.