• 
• CLASS
• JOBS
• AUTO
• HOMES

Snappers play hoping for a call to the big leagues

BELOIT — According to Shooter Hunt, the goal is the same for every Beloit Snapper, whether a first-round pick or an undrafted free agent, who was sitting at the head table waiting to be introduced to fans on Tuesday during “Meet the Snappers” night at Memorial High School.

Everyone, Hunt said, is dreaming of that phone call beckoning them to Minnesota.

But of all the Snappers—the Twins’ low Single-A affiliate—who will begin this season in Beloit, likely nobody has a better chance of someday playing for Minnesota than Hunt, who will be the Snappers’ starting pitcher when they open their season 6:35 p.m. Thursday at Cedar Rapids.

Blessed with a fastball in the mid-90s and a curveball that Baseball America ranks as the best in the Twins’ organization (the publication also ranks Hunt as the seventh-best overall prospect in the organization), the 6-foot-3, 205-pound righthander has drawn comparisons to current Twins starter Scott Baker.

One of two former first-round picks currently on the Beloit roster, Hunt, a native of Wyckoff, N.J., was selected with the 31st pick of the 2008 draft after his junior year at Tulane University. He was one of two compensatory picks the Twins received for losing Torii Hunter to the Angels in free agency last offseason.

“Shooter has as good a work ethic as anybody I’ve ever been around,” Beloit pitching coach Gary Lucas said. “He’s receptive to instruction, he makes it easy for me and I think we’ll click as time goes on.”

The two things Hunt must work on are his command and developing his changeup as a reliable third pitch. After pitching well for the Twins’ Rookie League affiliate in Elizabethton, Tenn., last season, Hunt struggled some with a 5.46 ERA in seven starts and 31-plus inning s after being called up to Beloit.

“It was a real long year, probably the longest year of baseball I’ve played,” Hunt said. “But I learned a lot of things from it, took a lot away from it, and I’m looking to have better things happen this year.”

Hunt, whose real name is Steven but was nicknamed Shooter by his father upon birth, deals with the pressure of being a first-round pick by maintaining his own expectations.

“Expectations are what you make them, but you really can’t try to go out and please everybody and try to live up to everyone else’s expectations,” he said. “You really have to set your own and stick to the process.”