Thursday, March 6, 2008

Orioles vs Twins thoughts

Today the Twins hosted the Baltimore Orioles in Fort Myers and won the game 8-7 to bring their spring record to 4-3 and win their 4th straight win there were alot of positives and only a few negatives today and here they are.
Positives
Delmon Young- Delmon continues to mash the ball going 3-3 with 2 rbi's to bring his spring batting average up to a robust .615. Talk about making an impression the more i see of him the more im liking him he is a monster. I look for him to put up great numbers this year and in the future look out for him i think he is going to put mourneau to shame with his numbers which is saying something all i have to say to look out.
Craig Monroe- Craig came back from a minor calf injury with a 2 run single in the first to help the teams cause. Craig really bounced back and im happy for him cause if he can hit he will really help the team in late game situations when you need that big hit off your bench so today was a big day for him.
Alexei Casilla- Every game i see him play the more impressed im getting with him he has shown alot of improvement over last year in my opinion. he went 1-2 with a walk today and played good defense. He will probably start the season in Rochester but if Everett struggles dont be shocked to see him in a Twins uniform early in the season.
Mike Lamb- Lamber is really solidifying his starting 3rd baseman job this spring hitting the ball all over the park today he hit an rbi double and was 2-3 and is hitting .400 this spring and looks like he is going to be the guy at third this season.
Twins Bullpen- they did a good job today especially Juan Rincon he is really stepping up to make last year a thing of the past.

Negatives
Livian Hernandez- I dont know what to say except wow did he get hammered today. 3 in 10h 6r, but he is a veteran and he can bounce back from something like this. With Hernandez you know what your getting when his junk is not working his 85 mile per hour fastball is very hittable and there will be days like this. However you know what your getting him for is the innings and he will have more good starts than bad ones and i believe next time he will be effective.
Adam Everett- he went 0-3 today with 5 guys left on base. the reason we got him was for defense but hes only hitting .125 and with the way casilla is playing maybe the twins might consider cutting him. I dont know all im saying is he needs to step it up im not expecting 300 but 250 would be nice with that defense.
Overall many good things and anytime you win it was a good day, but there were a few things that were disappointing Pirdie had a chance to solidify his claim on cf and Hernandez could of made the questions go away but they didnt. The great thing about spring training is its long and the questions and battles usually have a way of working themselves out and hopefully this will too.

Thursday, March 6th

One of the biggest battles in spring training is the 5th starter job and by the way Kevin Slowey has looked so far he has opened the job open to a few guys. Dont get me wrong there is a long time before the opener but if he doesnt pick it up soon he will be on the outside looking in and based on that here are the contenders and how they are doing so far.

Philip Humber- 2 games 2in 1 hit 0 runs he didnt look good in the scrimmage against concordia but he has looked solid since and has put him back in the race for the 5th spot.
Nick Blackburn- 2 games 2 and a third innings 1 hit 0 runs he is the one who has really impressed me so far. Last year in a late callup he didnt look so good but i believe he is winning a job with a twins this spring if he keeps it up.
Glen Perkins- 2 games 3 innings pitched 6 hits 4 runs he has not looked good at all this spring if its possible he has looked worse than slowey and is costing himself a spot with the twins so he needs to step it up.
I think it is down to those 3 for the final spot saying that Liriano can start the season in the rotation. Like i said though its only march 6th there is a lot of baseball to be played and many more opprotunitys for these guys to impress the twins and find a way to make the team.
Today the Twins host Baltimore Orioles and should get a look at new oriole Adam Jones Livian Hernandez gets the start and looks like the return of Craig Monroe will happen today so it should be an interesting game at noon today.