Baseball: Durbin excited about recovery

The Twins prospect grabbed the phone and didn't hold anything back.

"WHAT'S GOING ON!" he yelled into the receiver.

And that's how an interview with righthander J.D. Durbin started. Durbin, recently promoted to Class AAA Rochester, seems to be a cinch to be called up once rosters expand in September, if not sooner. The always high-throttled Durbin was energized by the promotion from Class AA New Britain and his numbers show it, as he entered a start on Friday 1-0 with a 1.38 ERA in two starts.

He's come a long way in a short time after missing five weeks because of shoulder surgery while at New Britain.

"By only watching the games, it allowed me to have more passion for the game," he said. "I sat out a month and seven days. When you do that, you just go crazy. There's nothing I'd rather do in this world than be on a mound."

Durbin appears to have listened to the demands of his coaches, that he mix in more changeups and fine-tune his control. His fastball is consistently around 94 miles an hour and he's topped out at 97 this season. He still needs some polish, but is close.

"The changeup is coming along great," Durbin said. "I throw it around 15-16 times a game and 10-11 of them are strikes. I'm getting a lot of swings and misses and that's a real confidence booster for me."

Durbin is spotting his fastball better and has improved the movement on his sinker.

The hitting machine

Kubel is batting .356 with 11 home runs and 55 RBI for the Red Wings, and entered Friday three at-bats away from qualifying for the International League batting title -- in which he would have a 23-point lead over Buffalo's Johnny Peralta. Combined with his early dominance at New Britain, Kubel is batting .361 with 17 home runs and 89 RBI in 109 games this season.

Like Durbin, Kubel is expected to be up by September at the latest.

"It crosses my mind every day," Kubel said of a call up. "You just wait and hope. It's been a long season and there's still a lot of stuff I'm looking forward to."

Kubel entered Friday's game batting .389 over his past 33 games, with nine home runs. Kubel had only two homers in his previous 40 games.

"I've been trying to take some bigger swings and hit more balls harder," he said. "I'm happy with hitting line drives or doubles but hopefully they will turn into homers and that I keep getting better."

Kubel also has an excellent arm, which makes him a good corner outfielder, preferably right.

Durbin and Kubel will lead the next wave of Twins prospects to the majors.