Thrylos

Deolis Guerra pitched a scoreless 9th to close the game. Twins wil 6-5 (but still bat at the bottom of the 9th so the Sox' pitcher gets his work in.) If you are interested I wrote a game recap here.

The Red Sox player who hit that HR off Tyler Robertson was non-roster C Dan Butler

Top of 7th. Tyler Robertson gives an one run HR. Twins up 6-5

6-4 Nate Spears 2 Run Triple for Boston; off Carlos Gutierrez and stopped the 6th inning early and took him off

Bates' HR was off Boston lefty Jesse Carlson who was a good setup guy with Toronto esp in 2008 and sat out all of 2011 because of injuries

Looks like it is 6-2. Do not know how the Sox scored the second run but Twins' scoring RBI single by Benson (Tosoni scores) RBI single by Towles (Dozier scores) 2R Homer by Bates (??? and ??? score) 2R Double by Dinkelman (??? and ??? score)

Just adding a couple cents to the Santana discussion. Here is his ranking among Twins' franchise leaders in career ERA and WHIP and career total Ks. I know that the last one is not a rate stat, but he ranks pretty high: Career ERA: W Johnson D Ayers D Chance C Flakenberg C Smith B Gallia H Harper J Boeling S Covelenski T Hughes J Merritt B Groom J Perry J Santana Career WHIP: J Merritt W Johnson D Chance J Santana R Aguilera D Ayers Career total K: W Johnson B Blyleven C Pascual J Kaat B Radke J Santana F Viola So I would add Jim Merritt and Dean Chance to the discussion about the greatest Twins' pitchers...

Totally agree with you Seth. As a matter of fact, when I looked at the Twins' pen situation a couple days ago, what I wrote was very similar. (only one detail: Deduno is not a power pitcher, his average fastball is in the high 80s) A couple of those players will have break-through STs and break-through seasons. Burnett is due. 3 seasons ago he was brilliant in AA and then rushed to the majors too soon. Hopefully he puts it together this Spring and carries through the seasons. Lots of early acolades about Waldrop's sinker in the camp too. Grey, Vasquez, Burton and Bulger could be the next Guerrier and Reyes. Oliveros has a ton of potential (and the hardest thower among everyone in camp now that Zumaya is done) and he is 24. Interesting group and will be intersting to see them fight for a spot through out the Spring.

nope... they do not have the contract

Ok. I would have to say that in the past century (1911-2011) there have been better players in the Twins' franchise than Santana and Hunter. like about 3-4 pitchers and a good 15-20 (or even more hitters) disagree?

that's what I figured too... (so twitter it is) any idea when the Twins' radio crew is going down there?

First Twins game for a while It IS exciting

that's from Phil Mackey's notebook (just posted) : I think that Gutierrez does have a decent outside chance to make the team now with Zumaya down. Fien might surprise us too...

Good to see the Twins playing their first spring training game tomorrow. Baseball is finally here Any ideas on radio/tv/internet coverage of the game? I suspect since that it is a B game there will not even be an official boxscore available, so we'd be in the mercy of twitter for updates, but I just had to ask Thanks!

First posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch Tomorrow the Twins will play their first unofficial game, and there are already a few interesting observations in this very young Spring Training. As always, you can find all the Spring Training news and analysis on this site here. First of all, as far as the "B" game (free to fans, BTW) tomorrow goes, the Twins have announced who is playing. All of: Scott Baker, Nick Blackburn, Liam Hendriks, Jeff Manship, Jason Bulger, Carlos Gutierrez, Tyler Robertson, Brendan Wise and Deolis Guerra will pitch an inning a piece. The line up will be: C- J.R. Towles, 1B- Aaron Bates, 2B- Pedro Florimon, 3B- Ray Chang, SS- Brian Dozier, LF- Ben Revere, CF- Joe Benson, RF- Rene Tosoni, DH Brian Dinkelman. So what have we learned so far: The clubhouse atmosphere is upbeat and easy going and players like Ben Revere have been lighting up the atmosphere and bring in positive energy Joe Mauer did not miss a single workout, a single bullpen catching or a single batting practice. This is extremely encouraging. Justin Morneau did not miss a single workout and hit a double and a home run off Fransisco Liriano the other day, which means that he can time and turn a fastball this early in Spring Training and this is great news The Twins lost Joel Zumaya and someone from the organization will have to step up. My analysis about this is here, but several of these pitcher will be pitching tomorrow. Based on the starting lineup tomorrow, unless they reverse, Florimon is viewed as the second baseman and Dozier as the SS for the Red Wings. It Looks like the Twins will give Dozier many chances to win the short stop of the future label. As a matter of fact, that lineup, minus Revere, might be the Rochester Red Wings starting lineup. Ron Gardenhire is open with his outfield positions, especially now that Revere's arm is stronger Late edit, because it just came up in Phil Mackey's notebook. According to Joe Mauer, Carlos Gutierrez, Casey Fien and Fransisco Liriano have been the most impressive pitchers he caught in camp right now. So the Twins are playing their first game tomorrow. Baseball is here. And this is incredible news!

First posted at The Tenth Inning Stretch Tomorrow the Twins will play their first unofficial game, and there are already a few interesting observations in this very young Spring Training. As always, you can find all the Spring Training news and analysis on this site here. First of all, as far as the "B" game (free to fans, BTW) tomorrow goes, the Twins have announced who is playing. All of: Scott Baker, Nick Blackburn, Liam Hendriks, Jeff Manship, Jason Bulger, Carlos Gutierrez, Tyler Robertson, Brendan Wise and Deolis Guerra will pitch an inning a piece. The line up will be: C- J.R. Towles, 1B- Aaron Bates, 2B- Pedro Florimon, 3B- Ray Chang, SS- Brian Dozier, LF- Ben Revere, CF- Joe Benson, RF- Rene Tosoni, DH Brian Dinkelman. So what have we learned so far: The clubhouse atmosphere is upbeat and easy going and players like Ben Revere have been lighting up the atmosphere and bring in positive energy Joe Mauer did not miss a single workout, a single bullpen catching or a single batting practice. This is extremely encouraging. Justin Morneau did not miss a single workout and hit a double and a home run off Fransisco Liriano the other day, which means that he can time and turn a fastball this early in Spring Training and this is great news The Twins lost Joel Zumaya and someone from the organization will have to step up. My analysis about this is here, but several of these pitcher will be pitching tomorrow. Based on the starting lineup tomorrow, unless they reverse, Florimon is viewed as the second baseman and Dozier as the SS for the Red Wings. It Looks like the Twins will give Dozier many chances to win the short stop of the future label. As a matter of fact, that lineup, minus Revere, might be the Rochester Red Wings starting lineup. Ron Gardenhire is open with his outfield positions, especially now that Revere's arm is stronger Late edit, because it just came up in Phil Mackey's notebook. According to Joe Mauer, Carlos Gutierrez, Casey Fien and Fransisco Liriano have been the most impressive pitchers he caught in camp right now. So the Twins are playing their first game tomorrow. Baseball is here. And this is incredible news!

Not a bad rule, still baseball is the sport with the lowest percentage of teams going to post-season/playoffs. 10/30 vs 12/32 for NFL and more for basket ball and hockey (I think.) It will help sell tickets for sure because every team lingering around .500 in July/August will be a post-season contender, but the trade deadline waters will be much muddled.

I would argue that players like Hunter come at the rate of about 3-4 a season, maybe more, for the whole league if you count the annual draft and international signings. Players like Santana maybe once every 3 years. But the kicker is that the Twins won as much with Santana and Hunter as they won after they left. And it is a tired argument about what they got back, but, if they kept them at an annual $35 Million combined, they would have lost more than they would have won after 2008... Got to see what they got with that $ they saved (Pavano, Thome, Fuentes, Rauch, Hudson, Hardy etc) to add to the whole equation. I am really not that frustrated about what the payroll is. I just want them to spend the money wisely. And if they threw $14M a season to Adam Done (sic), $17M a season to Peavy and $12M to Rios, like the White Sox are doing in 2012, it would not be that wise (at least in my book) Also I do not subscribe to the philosophy of picking rejects for $1-2M a piece and throw them to the wall and see if anyone can stick. They tried that too much before under Ryan (see Ortiz, Ramon, Ponson, Sidney et. al.) and happy to at least see Ryan get away from that (al least at the MLB level, because there is a large heap pile esp. of pitcher in Camp) Just give a team a chance and do not pronounce the season dead before it started

"My assumption is that 13 pitchers will come north, since that's how they Twins have generally operated in the past and they've got a whopping 33 hurlers in camp this year (several of whom are out of options and one of whom is a Rule 5 draftee). If that's indeed the route they go, there's only room for one more bench player beyond the three mentioned above." If they carry 13 pitchers (i.e. 8 in the pen) that's it. No room (need 12 position players and 9 are starting). But they will carry max 12 pitchers (been talking about even 11) so there is room

Little known fact: even if Butera/Towles/Rivera do not make the team, the Twins have 3 players who can catch and are locks to make it up North. We all know about Mauer and Doumit. So the only reason that the Twins might need a third catcher is if one of them is the DH and the catcher gets hurt and they do not want to lose the DH for that game. Enter Josh Willingham. He played multiple positions including catcher in the Florida organization even at the MLB level. He could probably put the armor on and finish a game. Might be interesting to see whether the Twins have him crouch behind the plate in practice a bit during ST...

Good to see you here Aaron and wishing you a ton of success with the Twins. I have been on the record many times this off-season saying that you have a good chance to make the team (especially after your monster campaign in Puerto Rico), but this might seal the deal: I was a catcher my whole life, up until my last year of college. So, can you catch in a pinch? Like if the catcher is injured? I know that you have not caught at all in pro ball, but I am just asking out of curiosity. Take care and go get them!

I rarely watch any of those (heck I do not watch any basketball or hockey at all) other than occasionally the MLB All-Star game if I have nothing better to do. I love football but just cannot watch the Pro Bowl.

Ok. I am not willing to comment about someone's abilities based on his first spring training bullpen before even ST games started. Way way way premature On the other hand, it is very encouraging for Morneau to time and drill a 92 mph or so FB (that's what Frankie was hitting in the DWL)

Minor league franchises change hands very often. And their GM deals with all operations other than baseball (ie. promotions, tickets, food, getting concerts etc.) All baseball operations are part of the MLB team. So, in other terms, MiLB franchises, just own the parks and the concessions and the MLB team puts the product that brings the fans there. There were rumors that the Mets will move to NB, but we will have to see.

Still not sure that there will be a third catcher... A couple of things that happened within the last week have me hopeful: - Ryan said that Gardy might go north with only 2 catchers and that Butera has to win that job - Gardenhire said that Doumit is not an option on 1B, so they are looking at him as a C/OF/DH. If Morneau is the DH, then Doumit is full time backup catcher OF Also, in my mind, Hughes is a lock. Other than Morneau, he has the most MLB experience in 1B and can play 2B and 3B. Burroughs might push him, but Hughes has no options and the Twins will not risk losing him. Plus by playing decent 2B, he can fill in there when Carroll needs rest (he is 38) and have Casilla slide at SS. Florimon is another backup infield possibility and will push Nishioka. He actually did have a decent winter in the Dominican. I think that, depending on how Morneau does and whether a first baseman is needed, Aaron Bates will also get a long look in addition to Steve Pearce. Also, Darin Mastoianni might make it as a PR, bat off the bench and defensive specialist. Fun to see what will happen...