Saturday, March 14, 2009

Position Battles

The Twins are pretty much set on who is going to come north with the team come April 6th. However, there is a few battles that everyone should keep their eye on the last couple weeks of spring training.
  1. Who is going to be the Opening Day Catcher

1. Joe Mauer- of course if he is ready to go it will be him but its looking more and more like he won't be ready to go opening day. As today he is in Baltimore getting a second opinion.

2. Mike Redmond- He will probably start opening day but he is not a starter at his point in his career. I look for him to play more than he did last year but not starter amount.

3. Jose Morales- In my mind the most likely starter at catcher to start the season. He is adequte defense and a pretty good hitter to replace Mauer's bat.

4. Drew Butera- He is a longshot, but if they decide they want more defense he could be the guy because he is a very good defensive catcher. He is not a great hitter but defensively he is very good.

Last Bench Spot: Brian Buscher vs Matt Tolbert

1. I think its Buscher because he will be a very good bat off the bench. I think Brenden Harris can be the utility guy. I think the only way Tolbert goes north is if they only keep 11 pitchers and i dont see that happening.

Last 2 bullpen spots:

1. Jose Mijares has really taken himself out of the competion being out of shape, walking batters and having a hard time getting hitters out.

2. I think Philip Humber if he does even an ok job the rest of the spring will make it because he is out of options.

3. The last spot is interesting with the Twins having to decide if they want a second lefty or if they want to bring Jason Jones or RA Dickey up north. If they go with a second lefty they have Mike Gosling, Sean Henn, and Brian Duensing to pick from. I think Gosling and Henn are journeymen that wouldn't really help so I think I would go with Jason Jones. It wouldn't surprise me that they would keep Gosling or Henn to take the load off Craig Breslow. Whatever the case I think Jose Mijares will be back up with the Twins by the middle of May and be dominant when he gets into shape.

Everyone let me know what you think