Greetings from Hammond Field. Attempting to post this from my phone so I apologize up front for the typos.

Red Sox:

Nava, LF

Victorino, RF

Pedroia, 2B

Ortiz, DH

Napoli, 1B

Pierzynski, C

Bogaerts, SS

Middlebrooks, 3B

Bradley, CF

SP: Peavy

 

Twins:

Hicks, CF

Dozier, 2B

Mauer, 1B

Willingham, LF

Arcia, RF

Plouffe, 3B

Kubel, DH

Suzuki, C

Santana, SS

SP: Hughes

 

Enjoy! It's nice and sunny here today but breezy and chilly. Temps are only in the 60s right now.

Thanks, ChiTown.

 

I think we could almost match the Florida Temps today. Only 49 now but predicted to get to 66 in my corner of Iowa. One of those days when it almost feels too warm, too soon.

Supposed to reach a high of 72 but it's not there yet

Interesting, those look pretty close to Opening Day lineups for both teams, excepting maybe Santana.

hi all- birthday, twins on mlb network, game thread started, 1st batter easy ground out, what could be better?

hi all- birthday, twins on mlb network, game thread started, 1st batter easy ground out, what could be better?

 

Happy Birthday!!!

 

You also get a lot of NCAA basketball (this weekend & next weekend are two of my favorite sports weekends of the year) PLUS a little pre-St. Pat's partying.

 

All in all, a great day.

• Mike Berardino ‏@MikeBerardino 1m
  15-pitch first for Phil Hughes vs. #RedSox. Ten of those were to Victorino. 10 of 15 strikes, 1/3 FPS. #MNTwins
   
   
   
  Sometimes I wish Twins hitters would work the count the way that Victorino did.
   
  Then again, I think of how long the Red Sox/Yankees games are and think, oh, forget about it.
   
   
  

thx JB. I'm with you on the ides of march sports fun- and even better, my kid's baseball team will finally be going outside for practice soon games to follow shortly...nice hit & run!

Hughes seems to be deliberately working the curve and it seems to be effective. I hope this effort to focus more on this rather than the slider to complement his fb plus (any/some?) effect of TF turns his career around. Would be fun to see him establish himself as a solid #3.

hi all- birthday, ..., what could be better?

 

Skipping a birthday this year, but still having cake?

Going back to the curve is one of the things he and Anderson talked about. It definitely worked for him with Ortiz.

 

Apparently over-thinking/tinkering is a big problem for Hughes. If he can just get past that and trust what he is doing, he should be a solid #3 (actually a #2 for this team at this point, I think).

 

28 pitches (19 strikes) thru 2 IP for Hughes.

 

Pretty nice line so far.

The hard thing about early/mid ST is that we don't really see much of the 2nd and 3rd times through the line-up.

 

That's what I'm waiting to see.

The hard thing about early/mid ST is that we don't really see much of the 2nd and 3rd times through the line-up.

 

That's what I'm waiting to see.

 

It seems to me the Twins starters were seeing guys for the 2nd and 3rd time at about this point in the game during most outings last year.

It seems to me the Twins starters were seeing guys for the 2nd and 3rd time at about this point in the game during most outings last year.

 

sad but true...jeez, 2e's and one out...

Looks like we're going to have to suffer through a season with a stone-glove at first base?

• Mike Berardino ‏@MikeBerardino 1m
  15-pitch first for Phil Hughes vs. #RedSox. Ten of those were to Victorino. 10 of 15 strikes, 1/3 FPS. #MNTwins
   
   
   
  Sometimes I wish Twins hitters would work the count the way that Victorino did.
   
  Then again, I think of how long the Red Sox/Yankees games are and think, oh, forget about it.
  

 

The Yankees and Red Sox do work the count more than the Twins do, but the games are longer mostly because of longer and more frequent commercial breaks.

Provus and Gladden really giving it to AJ.

Trying to multi-task this afternoon. Twins game, B1G hoops tourney, B12 hoops tourney, work.

 

Started paring things down by walking out of the office at 11:30 and I'm not going back today.

Trying to multi-task this afternoon. Twins game, B1G hoops tourney, B12 hoops tourney, work.

 

Started paring things down by walking out of the office at 11:30 and I'm not going back today.

 

Hawkeyes gonna manage to win tonight, JC? Ugh..... this season started with such rosy prospects. (And I was so sorry to read about Fran's son's health problems....difficult time for the family.) Did watch the 'clones pull it out.

I won't be at all surprised to see Iowa lose to Northwestern tonight, JB. The last few weeks have been brutal. And yes, really too bad about McCaffery's son. Can't be easy for him to focus on basketball. I know I would struggle.

 

I did watch the Clones get their W. K-State always plays them tough.

 

Obviously, I'm splitting time, but is Santana having a tough day in the field? Seems like I've seen a couple of plays where he hasn't been able to make a play.

Colabello making some plays over at 1B!

Mauer may want to pick his brain.

I agree on the Hawks, JC although I hope they can manage to beat Northwestern.

 

You may have seen more of the Twins game than I did ... I've been trying to switch around plus get some photos edited so I haven't been paying much attention.

 

Purdue/Ohio State close though.

Yeah, hoping Purdue beats OSU. I pretty much hope everyone beats the Buckeyes at everything. Easily my least favorite athletic program in the B1G.

 

Hughes and Deduno both looked pretty good on the mound for Minny today, from what I could tell. Twins still not hitting the ball much, though.

How did Deduno look pitching? All I can go off is the box score, and that looks good.

I thought Deduno looked very good. Then again, most of the Sox big leaguers were out of the game by then and he does generally look good the first time through an opponent's batting order. I wish I was more confident that he'll ever cut down on the number of pitches he throws to the point where he can go deeper in to games. Worst case, though, he looks like a dominant RP.

most of the Sox big leaguers were out of the game by then and he does generally look good the first time through an opponent's batting order.

 

That's one of the things that makes judging the ST performances difficult, e.g. Colabello has been hitting well but has he faced the same quality of pitchers as others? It's really hard to tell from a distance.

That's one of the things that makes judging the ST performances difficult, e.g. Colabello has been hitting well but has he faced the same quality of pitchers as others? It's really hard to tell from a distance.

 

According to BR, Cola's average ST PA has been against AAA pitching:

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/c/colabch01.shtml

I thought Deduno looked very good. Then again, most of the Sox big leaguers were out of the game by then and he does generally look good the first time through an opponent's batting order. I wish I was more confident that he'll ever cut down on the number of pitches he throws to the point where he can go deeper in to games. Worst case, though, he looks like a dominant RP.

 

FWIW, BR has Deduno's average strength of batter rating for Spring Training at 8.4, with 8.0 being AAA and 10.0 being MLB:

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/d/dedunsa01.shtml

 

I agree with you though, as a set-up guy or middle innings eater, he profiles to be very good.

Thanks jokin.

 

Now I know to dig deeper into BR!