By Michael Haas
About a month ago, we wrote about the story lines and questions for spring training. Now that we've seen the guys in action, what have we learned?
Fransisco Liriano: Mixed results. They are taking it very slow with The Franchise, only allowing him to start two games. The first game went went well, but the second game, in which he said he 'let loose' wasn't so good. Of course, everyone says he is progressing and feeling no pain. Where would you draft him in your fantasy league?
Joe Mauer: He's been relatively healthy this spring so far, and has even hit one home run. If thats a sign of things to come, look out Detroit. The Mauer Pauer is finally here.
Fort Myers: It's called a Fort because, you guessed it, it once was a military fort. It was built in 1850 to hold off Seminole Indians, and named for Col. Abraham C. Myers.
Carlos Gomez and the Centerfield Saga: Still a pretty cool name for a band. Maybe it could be used as a fictional band for a concept album, ala Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars. But anyway, with only two weeks left of spring training, even less is decided about our centerfielder than was heading into camp. It's between Pridie, Gomez and Span. I think it will be Pridie, for no particular reason.
The New Guys - Here's what I wrote last month:
Can the newly acquired Twins play baseball? Can they earn our respect and admiration? Do they have personalities? I'm talkin about Adam Everett, Mike Lamb, Kevin Mulvey, Phil Humber, Livan Hernandez, and those other guys that I'm forgetting.
Phillip Humber has a shot at the rotation, and it looks like Livan will be our opening day starter, but other than that, not much is known. It's well known that Everett is a good glove, bad bat guy, and Brendan Harris is the opposite. As for personality, I have really only heard Lamb. He was on the air with Barriero one day and have a pretty good interview. He said all the right things and seemed excited, but he wasn't Torii Hunter either.
The rotation and Boof's fat ass: Boof truly did lose a bunch of weight. I will never doubt him again. But the rotation still isn't set. I have a feeling that when this is all figured out, we still won't be happy about it. It's going to feel like we're missing some pieces when we head north, and the answers won't necessarily be in triple A.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Spring Training Questions: Then and Now
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I expect Blackburn to be in the opening rotation. I think he can be a good one. Slowey needs to either develop movement, or a good change up if he's ever going to be a decent MLB pitcher.
And I really haven't had any problems with Gardenhire since he's been the Manager, but if Little Nicky Punto makes daily appearances on the lineup sheet, then my opinion will change very quickly.
Just for clarification, I don't expect Blackburn to be the opening day starter, I just expect him to be in the rotation when the season starts.
I love the idea of having Nick Punto on the team, he's great with the glove, can play 7 positions and has enough speed with good baserunning instincts. But the thought of him being an everyday player again this year makes me physically ill.
hows about Brendan Harris leading off?
at least it looks like mauer won't be batting 3rd anymore.
Post a Comment