JUPITER, Fla. — The heat can be broiling, the games long, the scoreboard parched, and that Florida State League crowd is often even thinner than the sunscreen feels, making the chore of charting pitches behind home plate unappetizing on most days.
His turn charting pitches for the Cardinals’ High-A Palm Beach club often fell on the days his friend, his fellow New Jersey kid, Alex Reyes pitched. That put Kaminsky right in the middle of the action, surrounded by pitching coordinators and scouts from other teams, each of them cocking their radar gun for a second opinion to make sure that 99 mph wasn’t a glitch.