Twins Quick Hits
(Live Twins Chat Tonight at 7!)
First things first, it was 14 degrees BELOW
ZERO on my drive to work today. It just reminds me that, in six days, I will be
in Ft. Myers!! And, to commemorate that (or just because), there will be a 5%
discount the rest of this week on the Minnesota Twins Prospect Handbook – 2011.
From what I’m told, the handbook is a great help for those that go to Ft.
Myers, for people in the cities of the Twins minor league affiliates and for
Twins fans anywhere who are looking for information on the Twins system.
Also, as of yesterday, the Maple
Street Press Twins Annual 2011 should now be available on newsstands
throughout Minnesota, North Dakota and South Dakota and in Ft. Myers. Let
people know where they can get them in the comments. I know there are Twins
fans all over the globe, so if you can’t find them locally or if you live
elsewhere, you can still get a copy
directly from Maple Street Press.
Finally, at 7:00
tonight, I will again be hosting a SethSpeaks.net
Live Twins Chat. I will answer your Twins (or other) questions until
9:00 when I would encourage people to try to listen to Fanatic Jack’s Twins Talk podcast
at 612sports.net. To sign up for an e-mail reminder, to participate in
the chat or to read the transcript later, Click Here.
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After a long, drawn out Yankees-related blog
yesterday, I feel the need to just post a bunch of quick Twins thoughts today.
I know several people were not happy with me writing about the Yankees
prospects or somehow perpetuating the Francisco
Liriano to the Yankees rumors. So when Ken Rosenthal wrote an article last
night talking about how the Twins
are holding strong that they would need Manny Banuelos in a trade for Liriano, it kind of validated the time I put into the
article. Brian Cashman,
and Terry Ryan, insist there is nothing going on. OK!
Here are a few more Twins notes:
·
The biggest story
on Thursday was that Joe Nathan
returned to the mound in a game for the first time in a year. He pitched a
scoreless fourth inning, only allowing a walk. His fastball was in the 86-90
range. In my mind, that didn’t matter. Simply getting back on the mound was a
big thing. To get that out of the way is huge for his confidence, and a good
stepping stone to the rest of spring. He said later that he felt like “a kid in
a candy store.”
·
The Twins
mentioned that Francisco Liriano will pitch in the “B” game on a back field on
Friday rather than pitch for the Twins in a Major League game. This happens all
the time, so no need to make much out of it.
·
Justin Morneau saw a Doctor in Pittsburgh yesterday, but he was not
cleared to play in games. I’m not certain how to take that. I’m sure they did
some tests and talked to him about how things are going. However, he is
practicing daily, live batting practice, fielding ground balls. Games may
actually be even easier on him. The one area I would have concern about is if
he is on first base and wants to break up a double play. Hopefully he’ll have
another visit in a week and get that clearance.
·
On Tuesday, Michael
Cuddyer had his wart removed by a doctor in Minneapolis.
He is expected to miss a week or two. The feet are obviously a very important
part of the human body if they affect things like, you know, walking. So, it’s
great that he got it done now. The question I have is why he had to go to Minneapolis
to get the wart removed. Are doctors in Ft. Myers not capable of wart removals?
·
The missed time by Morneau and Cuddyer has opened up an opportunity for additional playing
time for Joe Benson, Chris Parmelee
and Rene Tosoni
this spring, as this
News-Press article tells us.
·
For those interested, and I know many aren’t, here is #MyIdolBallot -
1. James, 2. Casey, 3. Paul, 4. Stefano, 5. Brett, 6. Clint, 7. Scotty, 8. Tim,
9. Jacob, 10. Jovany, 11. Robbie, 12. Jordan.
·
Kyle Gibson, Carlos Gutierrez and David
Bromberg each made their spring debuts yesterday afternoon. Two pitches
into Gibson’s outing, he had given up a double, a single and a run. He struck
out Mike Cameron on a slider before
walking The Greek God of Walks (Kevin Youklis). Then he caught a line drive back to him and
doubled a runner off of first base to end the inning. Gutierrez gave up a hit
in a scoreless inning, although he threw a lot of balls. Bromberg got the first
two batters he faced, but then gave up two runs on three hits before getting
the final out. Gibson discussed his first outing, Blaine Gabbert and much, much more with Paul Allen in the 9:00 hour of the show
today. Check out the podcast
here.
·
The Twins managed just four hits on the day against
the Red Sox pitchers. Danny Valencia was
2-2. Danny Rams launched a long,
opposite field double, and Chase Lambin hit a hard single.
·
On Wednesday, the Twins travel to Bradenton to play
the Pittsburgh Pirates.
·
Minnesota native and former Twins minor leaguer Mark Hamburger, who was traded to the
Rangers in the Eddie Guardado
trade a few years ago, made his big league spring training debut yesterday.
He and his upper-90s fastball threw eight pitches (7 strikes) in a 1-2-3
seventh inning.
·
Nick Nelson wrote a tremendous article
on the Twins “Core Four.”
·
Twins fans interested in the AL Central should follow AL Central in Focus. Here is
a prospect
profile on Ben Revere. Or a prospect
profile on Liam Hendriks, who is now on Twitter.
·
Aaron Gleeman
continued his Top
40 Twins series with #25, a player Twins fans from 1991 will remember
well.
·
Knuckleballs
did a great service for Twins fans around the state by posting the Twins
Radio Affiliates, including a map!
·
North Dakota Twins Fan asks if
spring success leads to regular season success. I most agree with
Conclusion #5!
·
Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau hanging out with Tim Kirkjan and John Kruk (photo from MN Twins). Baseball
Tonight’s Twins preview today at 2:30.
Please feel
free to comment in the comments section.