Carlos Gutierrez looking to secure place on Twins' roster– MLB Spring Training News
Carlos Gutierrez is a very talented young pitcher. In addition to being a strong reliever, the 25-year-old has the ability to play his natural game even in crunch situations. These days, the pitcher is working extremely hard to make his way into Minnesota Twins’ Major League Baseball roster. Although Gutierrez produced some great performances last season, he still has a lot to accomplish to secure a closer spot on the Twins’ big league roster.
In a game against Boston Red Sox, the reliever displayed some high quality closing abilities, presenting his strong case in front of Twins’ coaching and management staff. Showing great control and accuracy over his throwing, he helped the Twins’ B-squad team rally past Boston Red Sox in the opening game of 2012 Spring Training sessions.
"First time out, maybe he's a little nervous, but he's better than that," Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. "He's been pitching at the high levels here, and he's got to do a little better than that. He's got to pick up the pace of the game and throw the ball over. He throws the heck out of the ball."
"Gutierrez was misfiring, didn't make any adjustments," Gardenhire said. "Velocity's good, but you've got to make adjustments; you've got to step back and throw the ball over the plate. He stopped the game; I think we all saw that, and that's what we don't want."
The way Gutierrez conducted himself on the field was quite outstanding. In a nail biting contest, the closer held his nerves to help his team seal an important victory. The right handed reliever was quite outstanding at Class AAA Rochester last season as he earned a 2-3 win-loss record with a decent 4.62 ERA to shut his critics.
However, he will certainly find it tough to achieve similar stats at the highest level of the game. Gutierrez will be hoping to make the most of available opportunities in Spring Training to impress Twins’ manager Ron Gardenhire. It will be interesting to see if he can give consistent performances to change the course of his career.
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