ashbury

My wife phoned to say someone at work was looking to sell a couple of bleacher tickets at Fenway. So, mere hours later (well, 30 is "mere", no?), I was on the Worcester commuter train, getting off at Yawkey Station.
 
Fun game versus the Marlins. Tied 1-1 for a long while, then the Sox starter Miley tired at around the 100-pitch mark and the score became 3-1 at the seventh inning stretch. But the home team came right back and loaded the bases against Cishek in relief of Haren, with a single, walk, and infield error, and (after LOOGY Dunn got what seemed a key strikeout) with two outs Xander Bogaerts fouled off several pitches from Carter "Not Matt" Capps before coming through with a single on a full count that cleared the bases for the 4-3 lead that turned out to be the final score. The eighth inning stretch (Sweet Caroline) is always fun, and with the Sox in the lead the mood was bubbly.
 
Sandoval facing Haren:
 

 
Kazoo, the Fenway fan:
 

 
Mary and me:
 

My wife phoned to say someone at work was looking to sell a couple of bleacher tickets at Fenway. So, mere hours later (well, 30 is "mere", no?), I was on the Worcester commuter train, getting off at Yawkey Station.
 
Fun game versus the Marlins. Tied 1-1 for a long while, then the Sox starter Miley tired at around the 100-pitch mark and the score became 3-1 at the seventh inning stretch. But the home team came right back and loaded the bases against Cishek in relief of Haren, with a single, walk, and infield error, and (after LOOGY Dunn got what seemed a key strikeout) with two outs Xander Bogaerts fouled off several pitches from Carter "Not Matt" Capps before coming through with a single on a full count that cleared the bases for the 4-3 lead that turned out to be the final score. The eighth inning stretch (Sweet Caroline) is always fun, and with the Sox in the lead the mood was bubbly.
 
Sandoval facing Haren:
 

 
Kazoo, the Fenway fan:
 

 
Mary and me:
 

My wife phoned to say someone at work was looking to sell a couple of bleacher tickets at Fenway. So, mere hours later (well, 30 is "mere", no?), I was on the Worcester commuter train, getting off at Yawkey Station.
 
Fun game versus the Marlins. Tied 1-1 for a long while, then the Sox starter Miley tired at around the 100-pitch mark and the score became 3-1 at the seventh inning stretch. But the home team came right back and loaded the bases against Cishek in relief of Haren, with a single, walk, and infield error, and (after LOOGY Dunn got what seemed a key strikeout) with two outs Xander Bogaerts fouled off several pitches from Carter "Not Matt" Capps before coming through with a single on a full count that cleared the bases for the 4-3 lead that turned out to be the final score. The eighth inning stretch (Sweet Caroline) is always fun, and with the Sox in the lead the mood was bubbly.
 
Sandoval facing Haren:
 

 
Kazoo, the Fenway fan:
 

 
Mary and me:
 

My wife phoned to say someone at work was looking to sell a couple of bleacher tickets at Fenway. So, mere hours later (well, 30 is "mere", no?), I was on the Worcester commuter train, getting off at Yawkey Station.
 
Fun game versus the Marlins. Tied 1-1 for a long while, then the Sox starter Miley tired at around the 100-pitch mark and the score became 3-1 at the seventh inning stretch. But the home team came right back and loaded the bases against Cishek in relief of Haren, with a single, walk, and infield error, and (after LOOGY Dunn got what seemed a key strikeout) with two outs Xander Bogaerts fouled off several pitches from Carter "Not Matt" Capps before coming through with a single on a full count that cleared the bases for the 4-3 lead that turned out to be the final score. The eighth inning stretch (Sweet Caroline) is always fun, and with the Sox in the lead the mood was bubbly.
 
Sandoval facing Haren:
 

 
Kazoo, the Fenway fan:
 

 
Mary and me:
 

My wife phoned to say someone at work was looking to sell a couple of bleacher tickets at Fenway. So, mere hours later (well, 30 is "mere", no?), I was on the Worcester commuter train, getting off at Yawkey Station.
 
Fun game versus the Marlins. Tied 1-1 for a long while, then the Sox starter Miley tired at around the 100-pitch mark and the score became 3-1 at the seventh inning stretch. But the home team came right back and loaded the bases against Cishek in relief of Haren, with a single, walk, and infield error, and (after LOOGY Dunn got what seemed a key strikeout) with two outs Xander Bogaerts fouled off several pitches from Carter "Not Matt" Capps before coming through with a single on a full count that cleared the bases for the 4-3 lead that turned out to be the final score. The eighth inning stretch (Sweet Caroline) is always fun, and with the Sox in the lead the mood was bubbly.
 
Sandoval facing Haren:
 

 
Kazoo, the Fenway fan:
 

 
Mary and me:
 

My wife phoned to say someone at work was looking to sell a couple of bleacher tickets at Fenway. So, mere hours later (well, 30 is "mere", no?), I was on the Worcester commuter train, getting off at Yawkey Station.
 
Fun game versus the Marlins. Tied 1-1 for a long while, then the Sox starter Miley tired at around the 100-pitch mark and the score became 3-1 at the seventh inning stretch. But the home team came right back and loaded the bases against Cishek in relief of Haren, with a single, walk, and infield error, and (after LOOGY Dunn got what seemed a key strikeout) with two outs Xander Bogaerts fouled off several pitches from Carter "Not Matt" Capps before coming through with a single on a full count that cleared the bases for the 4-3 lead that turned out to be the final score. The eighth inning stretch (Sweet Caroline) is always fun, and with the Sox in the lead the mood was bubbly.
 
Sandoval facing Haren:
 

 
Kazoo, the Fenway fan:
 

 
Mary and me:
 

My wife phoned to say someone at work was looking to sell a couple of bleacher tickets at Fenway. So, mere hours later (well, 30 is "mere", no?), I was on the Worcester commuter train, getting off at Yawkey Station.
 
Fun game versus the Marlins. Tied 1-1 for a long while, then the Sox starter Miley tired at around the 100-pitch mark and the score became 3-1 at the seventh inning stretch. But the home team came right back and loaded the bases against Cishek in relief of Haren, with a single, walk, and infield error, and (after LOOGY Dunn got what seemed a key strikeout) with two outs Xander Bogaerts fouled off several pitches from Carter "Not Matt" Capps before coming through with a single on a full count that cleared the bases for the 4-3 lead that turned out to be the final score. The eighth inning stretch (Sweet Caroline) is always fun, and with the Sox in the lead the mood was bubbly.
 
Sandoval facing Haren:
 

 
Kazoo, the Fenway fan:
 

 
Mary and me:
 

My wife phoned to say someone at work was looking to sell a couple of bleacher tickets at Fenway. So, mere hours later (well, 30 is "mere", no?), I was on the Worcester commuter train, getting off at Yawkey Station.
 
Fun game versus the Marlins. Tied 1-1 for a long while, then the Sox starter Miley tired at around the 100-pitch mark and the score became 3-1 at the seventh inning stretch. But the home team came right back and loaded the bases against Cishek in relief of Haren, with a single, walk, and infield error, and (after LOOGY Dunn got what seemed a key strikeout) with two outs Xander Bogaerts fouled off several pitches from Carter "Not Matt" Capps before coming through with a single on a full count that cleared the bases for the 4-3 lead that turned out to be the final score. The eighth inning stretch (Sweet Caroline) is always fun, and with the Sox in the lead the mood was bubbly.
 
Sandoval facing Haren:
 

 
Kazoo, the Fenway fan:
 

 
Mary and me:
 

Vacation time in Ft Myers is coming to a close. We had a very fun day at the Twins spring complex today.
 
We arrived at 10:30 unaware the minor league games had been moved up several hours, presumably in response to the forecast of rain. I started watching the Cedar Rapids game, and then a little bird told me, "you're missing Phil Hughes". I switched over to the Miracle game, in the fifth inning.
 

 
Performing as the World's Most Expensive Bat Boy in this game was Kohl Stewart. (Lurking on the right has to be Aaron Slegers, who served later in the game as World's Tallest Bat Boy.)
 

 
Hughes's breaking pitch was working beautifully here in the fifth inning, as an overmatched Rays youngster barely ducks out of the way of strike three:
 

 
Twins manager Paul Molitor was on hand to watch his ace, as well as catcher Suzuki. (Not pictured, bench coach Joe Vavra was nearby as well.)
 

 
After Hughes's stint, Ryan Eades came in for his turn. Is it just me, or does he resemble a young (and right-handed) Jim Kaat?
 

 
Reluctantly, at last, we departed the minor league area to attend the major league ST game. Here is an old friend collecting his thoughts during the National Anthem, standing beside someone else. Guess which one staked the Pirates to an early lead with a long home run. Hint: it wasn't the Florimonster.
 

 
Trevor May pitched today, and his fastball was humming along at about 94 MPH.
 

 
Unfortunately, the wind was blowing straight out to right, and the Pirates batters had little trouble making solid contact all through May's 4 2/3 inning stint, leaving a somewhat ugly 8 hit and 4 run lump on his spring record. Gregory Polanco started the mayhem with a homer to right, as the second batter of the game, and catcher Tony Sanchez added a similar shot in the fourth inning. In the meantime, a triple followed by a double plated shortstop Jung-Ho Kang with a ribbie for CF Jaff Decker, and two consecutive doubles (Polanco, Marte) in the fifth accounted for the fourth and final Pirate run.
 
It wasn't all May's or the wind's fault though. I'm officially off the Start Aaron Hicks In The Majors bandwagon now. He took a zigzag route on Kang's wind-aided triple and I'm certain that an above average CFer would have tracked this one down to save a run. Hicks also bobbled a ball that went for a double anyway, to no additional loss to the team but significantly to my confidence in him as a fielder. Let him add some polish in AAA, I now say.
 
As mentioned, there were two no-doubt home runs hit to right by the Pirates. To my consternation, it appeared that Torii read neither one correctly, taking a long while to realize he needed to go way back. Because he did eventually race back, it can't be that he judged them out of the park. Due to the extra lift from the wind, it didn't end up mattering, but I don't really know what to make of it.
 
To May's credit, he worked quickly on the mound. No fiddling around, staying near the rubber between pitches.
 
The Twins offense didn't keep up, against junkball lefty Jeff Locke. A couple of runs came in the third, tying the game for the moment, when Dozier drove in Santana with a triple and Mauer drove in Dozier with a fielder's choice to... guess where... second.
 
Incidentally, the Pirates used a pronounced shift against Mauer, a fairly extreme one in fact in the last of his three PA. Mauer could have bunted toward third and if it was past the pitcher he could have sauntered to first base. No. He walked his first time up, hit his next one to second, and the last was an unassisted grounder to first. I guess this is playing the game the right way. Or stubbornness. Or something. But it's not making adjustments, as far as I can see.
 
In contrast to the defensive lapses I mentioned, Brian Dozier made a very fine snare of a liner off the bat of fellow second baseman Sean Rodriguez. Since I don't have a photo of that, here is one of Dozier grounding out to short in the first inning. Not very effective, but still pretty. (Did I mention, we had nice seats behind first base, six rows up?)
 

 
Speaking of not effective, here is Hunter getting thrown out trying to steal second in the third inning. Since Arcia followed with a single to center, who knows whether the inning would have resulted in more scoring than it did.
 

 
Jordan Schafer, DHing because Molitor presumably wants him to bat as often as possible this spring, laid down a very nice bunt past pitcher and first baseman that left them only to watch the ball and hope it would roll foul. Oh, that reminds me, the Pirates turned up their nose at using a DH and let their pitcher bat, at least to begin the game.
 
By the seventh inning, Molitor had removed all his starters except Schafer and Hicks. Clint Hurdle only inserted a couple of bench players, Florimon (3B) and Lambo (RF). At the end we had Nunez at short, Rosario in left (nice play on a fly in the sixth by Kang), Bernier at third, Rohlfing to catch, Brock Peterson at first, and very young prospects Levi Michael at second and Adam Brett Walker in right.
 
Brian Duensing pitched an effective 1 1/3 innings to end the fifth and cover the sixth. His fastball was around 89 MPH, about his par. JR Graham pitched effectively in the seventh and the start of the eighth too, with his 96 MPH heater.
 
In the Twins' seventh, Michael hit a sharp single to left following a (guess what) pop out by Nunez to the catcher to begin. Peterson struck out after a lengthy battle against Antonio Bastardo, as the light sprinkle threatened to turn to a more substantial shower. I was more than eager to see ABW get his chance, but he struck out too. I'm a big ABW backer right now. Here he is pinch running for Hunter in the fifth, rather than show you the strikeout.
 

 
The eighth inning began and a couple of Pirates were retired by JR Graham. I think the umpires wanted to give him a chance to complete the inning, but after a walk, they took stock of the weather situation and, after consulting the managers, called the game. A wise decision, as by 15 minutes later the light shower had turned into a soaking rain.
 
And thus our two weeks in Fort Myers ended on a wet note.
 

 
 

 
Even in the rain, it's a nice place to spend one's time.

Special jetBlue Edition!
 
We took a break from Hammond Stadium for a day, and visited the Red Sox spring facilities for a game.
 

 
Before we went inside, we wandered in their minor league area. I was initially annoyed, because we went in what I thought to be an obvious direction but were stopped by one of the senile highly experienced hard of hearing stadium personnel, and directed toward the other side of the complex. At first I was thinking it looked like a wild goose chase (or snipe hunt) and there was to be no access to minor leaguers at all. But it turned out to be just a long walk, and it's about as free (once you pay parking of course) and open as at the Twins facilities. Here is a typical view, with fields on either side.
 

 
We walked further, essentially circling around almost to where we were denied entrance. This ended at a No Man's Land separating the major league practice field from the clubhouses. Well, "some" Men and their families were apparently allowed access, probably wealthy fans who had paid some kind of premium to rub elbows with luminaries like Brock Holt. Oh well, next lifetime. We contented ourselves watching pitchers take batting practice, specifically working on their bunting, specifically working on overcoming their instinct to flinch (as I interpreted some of their reactions to facing a pitching machine and having to expose fingers and thumbs). Turns out the BoSox open their season in a National League park, so it figures. Here are manager John Farrell and coach Torey Lovullo overseeing matters.
 

 
Here we happened to meet up with John Bonnes, and TD member eLee612. We chatted a bit, as drills concluded, then headed toward the main ballpark entrance.
 
When inside, you have your starting lineups.
 

 
Someone in the Game Thread asked whether the park has a Green Monster. Here is their equivalent of it, but it has seating (within, and on top) for fans.
 

 
We were seated in Reserved Lawn seating. Here is yours truly and Mrs Ashburyjohn in a typical tourist pose that dozens of other tourists replicated on their respective cameras.
 

 
So. The game. John Bonnes wrote up a good summary here so there is little value in my repeating much the same.
 
Escobar homered in the second, and in the fourth also drove in Plouffe on a sac fly after Arcia had driven in Hunter. Fryer drove in Arcia in the seventh with a single after the latter had tripled to right. I can't bring photos that illustrate any of this. Instead, I will offer you an unfair and cherry-picked reason why Shane Robinson would not be on the team if I had any say:
 

 
I jotted down typical pitch speeds from the radar gun display. Here is Tommy Milone throwing either an 87 MPH changeup or his 81 MPH fastball - I can't tell the difference, and I'm not sure the batters really can either.
 

 
Here is Tim Stauffer throwing something from his similar 88 MPH (or slower) arsenal:
 

 
 
On the Twins, a really good fastball is the true change of pace. Here is Mark Hamburger throwing what might be his 85 MPH slider (guessing from his fingers) - big as a beachball don't you think? - to the Red Sox' on-deck hitter. No, not really that far off the plate, but Mark was pretty wild at times, but effective, with his mostly 95 MPH fastball.
 

 
 
And finally, here is young prospect Jake Reed throwing a 95 MPH fastball to Allen Craig, the batter he did retire (on a popup). I put my camera away in time to not capture the pitch resulting in second batter Rusney Castillo's home run off the wall in left that ended the game in the 10th inning, 5-4.
 

Today we skipped the major league game and spent our morning and afternoon on the back fields. But only after watching some of the major leaguers doing drills on the front field. Looked like they were concentrating on the pitchers making their throws to bases - I wonder if the snafus in yesterday's game had anything to do with that.
 
Had a nice chat there with TDers John Bonnes, Jim Crikket, Halsey Hall, and beckmt (I believe only one of these names appears on any of these gentlemen's birth certificates). Baseball on a warm southwest Florida day is even better with friends old and new.
 
The two "A" games started at 1 pm, both against corresponding Rays affiliates. We mainly watched the nominal Cedar Rapids team managed by Jake Mauer, and I took one short peek at the Ft Myers team managed by Jeff Smith. I mention the teams this way, rather than a hard and fast A/A+ classification, because the players themselves were a mishmash from the rosters that were published only a few days earlier. Things change fast in spring training as the major league roster gets pared down and the ripple effect works its way down the organization. I'm sure what we saw today was a close approximation to the final assignments.
 
I didn't keep a scoresheet, but I did jot down a few thoughts. (Oh, and you'll notice there are no photos; bummer, I forgot to reinsert the memory card into my camera after downloading last night.)
 
Baby faced Stephen Gonsalves started for the Kernels. He proved to be a very tough draw for the Rays batters, just as a highly touted prospect should be. He notched two strikeouts to start the game, and then had a truly wicked liner come right back to him, one that somehow ended up in his mitt instead of somewhere less lucky. That was probably the hardest hit ball against him - I think he gave up one seeing-eye hit and altogether he had a sparkling day.
 
My one look at the other field was in what I assume to be starter Chih-Wei Hu's final inning of work. When I strolled over, it was first and third with nobody out. I don't know for sure how he got into the jam - a Rays coach briefed me as maybe a hit and an error - but he worked his way out nicely, with the batters having difficulty dealing with the movement on the ball. Hu doesn't have the fastball that evaluators like, but so far he has had nothing but success in his two years in the low minors, and like a fool I am thinking his ceiling could be front of the rotation. No one else on the planet has expressed such optimism - so I'll be gloating when he starts Game One of a World Series - one of these days Real Soon Now.
 
Catcher Brian Navarreto nailed a runner trying to steal second, to end one inning, and I'm not sure I ever saw a bigger grin on a player's face when he headed back to his dugout. And he had a right to be pleased, I thought - a really good throw.
 
Jorge Fernandez contributed a no-doubter home run to left.
 
Late in the game Brandon Poulson came in to pitch for one inning. His reputation for wildness appeared deserved - and while sometimes you hear "effectively wild" he wasn't very effective either. Jose Velez preceded Poulson and seemed to have good velocity (AshburySteven groaned when I attempted "Velezity") but he was pretty hittable, yet he escaped without too much damage. Kuo Hua Lo pitched a couple of innings and gave up some solid shots that I think plated a run. I haven't given you a very good idea of the scoring, because I fail to keep track in games like this, but I think the final score was about 4-2 in our favor.
 
Tanner English legged out a single, hit to short, that many other players would not have.
 
And speaking of short players, Rays 2B prospect Oscar Sanay is listed on b-r.com as 5'7" but at the plate he looked not much taller than substitute catcher Brett Doe crouching. The above-mentioned Tanner, listed at a generous 5'10", no doubt towers over him. I don't remember much about what he did, he just caught my eye.
 
Much more the prototypical looking player is first baseman Tyler Kuresa. His fiancee sat near us, and we chatted pleasantly about him and random other topics, as the game went along. Hint to Seth - he might be a good one to interview in depth - I know now for instance he takes pride in his defense at 1B. (Another of those Spring Training pleasures is watching Tom Kelly proceed onto the field in foul territory and coach his defense, in-game. Kuresa got a tip or two that way today.) The lefty looked good at the plate today, hitting an at'em ball to CF for an out and getting a nice sharp single to RF, suggesting that his good showing in Elizabethton was no fluke last year. A Rays lefty with a vicious sidearm delivery did strike him out on what appeared to be a low offspeed pitch on 3-2 after an otherwise good battle. So he's someone I'll add to my Players I'll Be Watching list this year.

Today we skipped the major league game and spent our morning and afternoon on the back fields. But only after watching some of the major leaguers doing drills on the front field. Looked like they were concentrating on the pitchers making their throws to bases - I wonder if the snafus in yesterday's game had anything to do with that.
 
Had a nice chat there with TDers John Bonnes, Jim Crikket, Halsey Hall, and beckmt (I believe only one of these names appears on any of these gentlemen's birth certificates). Baseball on a warm southwest Florida day is even better with friends old and new.
 
The two "A" games started at 1 pm, both against corresponding Rays affiliates. We mainly watched the nominal Cedar Rapids team managed by Jake Mauer, and I took one short peek at the Ft Myers team managed by Jeff Smith. I mention the teams this way, rather than a hard and fast A/A+ classification, because the players themselves were a mishmash from the rosters that were published only a few days earlier. Things change fast in spring training as the major league roster gets pared down and the ripple effect works its way down the organization. I'm sure what we saw today was a close approximation to the final assignments.
 
I didn't keep a scoresheet, but I did jot down a few thoughts. (Oh, and you'll notice there are no photos; bummer, I forgot to reinsert the memory card into my camera after downloading last night.)
 
Baby faced Stephen Gonsalves started for the Kernels. He proved to be a very tough draw for the Rays batters, just as a highly touted prospect should be. He notched two strikeouts to start the game, and then had a truly wicked liner come right back to him, one that somehow ended up in his mitt instead of somewhere less lucky. That was probably the hardest hit ball against him - I think he gave up one seeing-eye hit and altogether he had a sparkling day.
 
My one look at the other field was in what I assume to be starter Chih-Wei Hu's final inning of work. When I strolled over, it was first and third with nobody out. I don't know for sure how he got into the jam - a Rays coach briefed me as maybe a hit and an error - but he worked his way out nicely, with the batters having difficulty dealing with the movement on the ball. Hu doesn't have the fastball that evaluators like, but so far he has had nothing but success in his two years in the low minors, and like a fool I am thinking his ceiling could be front of the rotation. No one else on the planet has expressed such optimism - so I'll be gloating when he starts Game One of a World Series - one of these days Real Soon Now.
 
Catcher Brian Navarreto nailed a runner trying to steal second, to end one inning, and I'm not sure I ever saw a bigger grin on a player's face when he headed back to his dugout. And he had a right to be pleased, I thought - a really good throw.
 
Jorge Fernandez contributed a no-doubter home run to left.
 
Late in the game Brandon Poulson came in to pitch for one inning. His reputation for wildness appeared deserved - and while sometimes you hear "effectively wild" he wasn't very effective either. Jose Velez preceded Poulson and seemed to have good velocity (AshburySteven groaned when I attempted "Velezity") but he was pretty hittable, yet he escaped without too much damage. Kuo Hua Lo pitched a couple of innings and gave up some solid shots that I think plated a run. I haven't given you a very good idea of the scoring, because I fail to keep track in games like this, but I think the final score was about 4-2 in our favor.
 
Tanner English legged out a single, hit to short, that many other players would not have.
 
And speaking of short players, Rays 2B prospect Oscar Sanay is listed on b-r.com as 5'7" but at the plate he looked not much taller than substitute catcher Brett Doe crouching. The above-mentioned Tanner, listed at a generous 5'10", no doubt towers over him. I don't remember much about what he did, he just caught my eye.
 
Much more the prototypical looking player is first baseman Tyler Kuresa. His fiancee sat near us, and we chatted pleasantly about him and random other topics, as the game went along. Hint to Seth - he might be a good one to interview in depth - I know now for instance he takes pride in his defense at 1B. (Another of those Spring Training pleasures is watching Tom Kelly proceed onto the field in foul territory and coach his defense, in-game. Kuresa got a tip or two that way today.) The lefty looked good at the plate today, hitting an at'em ball to CF for an out and getting a nice sharp single to RF, suggesting that his good showing in Elizabethton was no fluke last year. A Rays lefty with a vicious sidearm delivery did strike him out on what appeared to be a low offspeed pitch on 3-2 after an otherwise good battle. So he's someone I'll add to my Players I'll Be Watching list this year.

Air travel isn't fun and while I am not a frequent flier, I have flown enough no longer to be fascinated by small aisles, nuts and soda, and the people watching. I sat alone in coach and was joined by an delightful Floridian/Minnesotan returning to Minnesota for a funeral. It passed the time and temporarily made me forget about the nasty URI I managed to get in the sunshine state.
 
We looked out the window and saw snow, probably starting somewhere around the Iowa/Minnesota border, maybe north of that. We were back in cold climate, where the jacket I brought with me could be put to use for the first time in seven days.
 
I have been wondering how to summarize the (likely final) trip I made to Fort Myers. There is a bit of melancholy because I think I have figured out the driving--I know the major arteries and where they are in relation to most of the places I want to get to. Now, I probably won't use that information soon, if at all. I feel comfortable at Twins' Spring Training. I mostly know where to go to see what I want to see. I have thoroughly enjoyed watching the young players in the back fields.
 
This year, I met more Twins Daily regulars than ever before. It is great to put a face to a screen name and to know more about a fan than whether he liked Gardy or Rick Anderson. Specifically, I met Halsey Hall, Ashbury John and thrylos, along with three other people who read but don't post. Good guys all, with disparate views on most issues in baseball (and probably world view). I know I owe Ashbury a beer, so I guess I'll have to pay up at Target Field this summer if he and I are at the same game.
 
Some singular thoughts: Aaron Hicks is a bigger man than Torii Hunter. I saw them take BP together and Hicks is definitely taller and probably just as wide as Torii. Speaking of size, Ervin Santana is not a big guy. He is listed at 6'2" 185, and I think especially the weight might be an exaggeration. Ricky Nolasco looks a bit trimmer than last year, perhaps yielding better results because of that. The Twins have a lot of big 'uns--Meyer, May, Tonkin, Pelfrey, Wheeler, Hughes, Gibson to name a few.
 
Hard throwers are not far off: Burdi and Reed both seem to be ticketed for AA, and both throw hard. Meyer will start in Rochester and Oliveros, Tonkin, and more will be laboring in the 'pen.
 
The Twins long-term and short-term future will probably be answered en español. Along with the already arrived Vargas, Santana, Pinto, and Arcia, both the upper and lower minors are filled with Hispanic ballplayers with Berrios, Sano, Polanco, Rosario, and more poised to contribute as soon as this year. In spring training, minor leaguers not participating watch the minor league games. The language amongst the viewers and in the dugouts is principally Spanish.
 
I understand that the Twins are working hard to accommodate this influx. There are more coaches with Hispanic names and the team demands the players take English lessons. The cultural change isn't easy and I hope the club continues to go out of their way to help these young men in a new country with different standards and a different language.
 
I am going with an optimistic view for 2015, based on rolling a bunch of sevens and filling inside straights. The talent is abundant at Century Link Complex. Some way, somehow, that is going to equate to many more wins in 2015 for the Minnesota Twins.

We allowed ourselves the luxury of arriving sometime after 11, and learned that the minor leaguers would not play at noon but at 1. Since we had cheap-seat tickets for the big league game, we chatted outside the park with Thrylos then went on in. Tomorrow we'll stay outside and watch the prospects again.
 
Warm day, starting out overcast but changing to partly sunny. Sunscreen advised.
 

 
Ricky Nolasco had a very nice outing, particularly in the early going when I noted three backward-K strikeouts in the first two innings. In each of the next two innings he was aided by Mauer with a 3-6-3 double play (I'm remembering one now as 3-4-3 but I'll go with what I scribbled). He gave up a solo homer to Donaldson in his fifth and final inning. I didn't keep a pitch count but it had to be decently low. Ricky's a good bounceback candidate for 2015 and this was an extremely encouraging outing. This photo may or may not be of Donaldson, connecting or not connecting on that homer; I didn't take good notes when I was snapping action shots but I think it was just a foul prior to the homer.
 

 
Meanwhile, as probably every Twins blogger on the planet has already noted, "Dozier celebrated his new contract extension with a first inning home run" to left. Here he is during warmups before the next inning. Doesn't he look elated?
 

 
Schafer later hit a solo shot to right; maybe he wants some dough too. Plouffe finished out of the running with only a double. Hunter hit a deep homer to left, but he already owes us, amiright? My son AshburySteven pleased me with the observation that Hunter isn't actually costing anything meaningful because the marginal cost of his contract is zero in the absence of being close to any practical budgetary limit; that collitch edjamacation we paid for (at nonzero marginal cost, amiright?) is actually working out for him.
 
Speaking of sunk costs, Mauer didn't have much to show in the box score, but he had two warning track shots to left. That's in keeping with what I saw in BP the day before. Here's a routine but classic pose by the man:
 

 
Perkins had a clean enough looking pitching line in the box score, but he was bouncing several in the dirt. So he clearly is still working on a few things. Duensing came in next, for the seventh, and did not have good results, retiring no one and leaving with the bases loaded after he took a shot off of his leg. Molitor evidently wanted to see how he'd do against righties because he fed him to two very dangerous ones, Joey Bats and Donaldson. The outing didn't aid Duensing's ambition to be more than a LOOGY, I'm afeared. Here he is a few pitches before getting dinged, also bouncing one in there:
 

 
(If that's any of you sitting behind home plate in the expensive seats, let me know when I should stop by for my free beer.)
 
But JR Graham came in to the rescue, and got a strikeout, and then a DP, to escape with no scoring that inning. We haven't had many bullpen arms lately where you could base strategy on trying to get a strikeout in a key situation; I could get used to that, if we end up with such a pen soon.
 
Graham got into trouble, himself, in the eighth, and Hamburger went on to give up the lead (and probably punched his ticket to Rochester) but wound up vulturing the win when Rosario drove in Nunez after a nice Fryer bunt. Ha ha, I said to Toronto fans (not really), your team lost to Mark Hamburger. Ha ha, AshburySteven said to me (really), you pay attention to pitcher wins.

Heading out this morning. Yesterday, there was minor league action plus BP for position players who didn't make the trip to Clearwater. Ervin Santana pitched the first four innings of the Triple A game and was unspectacular, one run in four innings-probably a half dozen strikeouts. It was home run derby on the AA side with Twins' farmhands connecting for five long balls.
 
I finally met TD's own Halsey Hall and a couple of lurkers, whose names will be withheld to protect them. Nice people all around. I truly enjoyed my time in Florida. Needless to say, it has gone fast. I will write a longer summary tomorrow unless I spend too much time shoveling snow!

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch
----The Twins has a couple split squad games today, against the Rays at Port Charlotte and at the Hammond Stadium against the Orioles. Here are my notes from the home game:
 
After Alex Meyers' demotion yesterday, there are only 3 pitchers left in the battle for the 5th rotation spot: Mike Pelfrey, Tommy Milone and Trevor May. The last 2 started the respective games today, with Milone taking the node for the home game. While May ended up pitching a no-hit 4 innings at Port Charlotte, Milone had an adventurous start in Fort Myers. He is a pitcher who really needs to be spot on and if he is not, it is like a batting practice, and the Orioles showed that in the second inning, when they timed perfectly his 83-87 mph Fastballs, hitting them all over the park, and one (by former Twin Steve Pearce) off the staircase that leads to the RF berm, for a HR. He complemented his fastball with a 79-81 mph change and a 73-75 mph curve that were hit and miss. Totally unimpressed with Milone, maybe because I do not think much about LH junk ball pitchers, but I think that after today Milone took a step back from Pelfrey and May in that competition.
 
To be noted: in the Orioles 4-run second inning, Josmil Pinto was hit three times! by Adam Jones' back swing on the head and left the game after the inning was over. Mildly surprised that the Twins' pitchers did not retaliate for their catcher, but the next pitcher who faced Adam Jones, was Glen Perkins... Perkins had a decent outing, other than hanging an 82 mph slider to Delmon Young for a HR in the 5th. 9 pitches, 6 FBs (90-92,) 3 SLs (81-82) all but one strikes, but a strike was a long one too. He was pounding the zone, but he is at least 4-5 mph with both of his pitches from where he needs to be.
 
Brian Duensing pitched 2 scoreless innings and he seems in mid-season form with all 4 of his pitches working: His Fastball was 89-91, threw 2 curves at 73, one for a looking strike, got a ground out and a couple of looking strikes with a mid 80s change and his slider was fairly lively at the low 80s, inducing a couple of jammed pop ups. Watching JR Graham pitch was a treat and I think that the Twins have found a good one. Will be very surprised if he does not make the team. He pitched 2 scoreless innings, and here is the sequence of his pitches (fastball unless mentioned) : First inning: 91-ball ( B ), 93 swinging strike (SS), 94 ground out (GO). 94 fly out (FO). 94 Foul (F), 84 (SLider) Looking Strike (LS), 86 (SL) SS. Second inning: 92 Hit. 95 B, 91 B, 93 LS, 94 F, 95 F, 81 (CHange up) B, 93 LS - K. To Mr Parmelee: 91 B, 96 F, 85 (SL) B, 84 (SL) F, 85 (SL) SS - K. 95 SS, 92 B, 95 B, 96 GO. Very good movement with the fastball, and, as you can see, he does very his speeds. Changeup is not his stronger pitch and he threw only one, but his slider is above average. Looking forward to seeing him this season with the Twins.
 
As far as position players, disappointed with Torii Hunter who killed a couple of Twins' rallies, the first by hitting into a double play with the bases loaded and one out on the first and the second by striking out with runners in scoring position and one out. If you read the box score, you'd think that Danny Santana had a good day with two hits, but what the box score does not show is a couple of awful swinging strike outs and a dropped ball when Rohlfing tried to throw the runner away that ended up moving the runner to third. I think that the battle for the starting Shortstop position is neck to neck as far as Santana and Eduardo Escobar are concerned. Hicks had a bad day at the plate and had a mishap (took a bad route and the ball dropped inches from his foot, but was too shallow) at the outfield that went for a double and a trapped ball that he could have caught. Between the four centerfield contenders nobody has really pulled ahead at this point. Eddie Rosario is hitting .242/.235/.515, Shane Robinson .269/.345/.385, Hicks .222/.313/.370 and Jordan Schafer .217/.357/.261. Pick your poison. Oswaldo Arcia had a good play with the glove on a shallow fly ball that he aggressively called Hicks away and fielded cleanly; that ball would had been an adventure for Willingham last season.
 
Really impressed with the improvements at Hammond Stadium, but there are a few things sorely missing: A couple of (small) infield boards; one to indicate balls and strikes and outs and the other pitch velocity. The main board is not visible from all outfield seats well. But there is always next year.
 
Tomorrow and Monday, there are no home games for the Twins, so expect full coverage of the action at the minor league fields.
 

Day 3 in Fort Myers yielded similar weather and the start of a pattern before heading to the ball fields. The morning ritual would be "bathroom, blog, breakfast".
 
The minor league activity yesterday was well covered by Thrylos and Ashbury John. I will add only a couple things: when Perkins pitched, standing behind the screen with us common folk, were Strib writers Lavelle E Neale and Patrick Reusse. I shook Patrick's hand and chatted with him for a moment. The scribes left when Perk did.
 
We arrived early enough to watch some major league BP. Hicks, Robinson and Torii were one group. We watched five or six turns and Hicks hit rightly for all but one turn versus Phil Roof, a rightly. The other group we watched was Mauer, Suzuki, and Plouffe. Tom Kelly was at the minor league games, in uniform with his fungo bat, but not sitting in the dugout. He looks pretty good, but isn't moving real fast.
 
That's all for today. More tomorrow.

I meant to write up these notes last night and forgot. No deep insights here, just my jottings from a day under the sun at Hammond Field.
 
I arrived at 9:10, too late to get free parking on a game day. Cheapskate fans of minor league spring ball, take note!
 
I was approached by a reporter from a Naples newspaper, who was looking to interview average fans. I had initially mentioned my tenuous "affiliation" with TD (thinking he might be Nick Nelson), and apparently that made me way too official sounding for him, so he moved on. LOL.
 
The players were only just starting their warmups, and I saw maybe one other "civilian" like myself checking things out, to begin with. More started showing up soon, of course.
 
This just in: Aaron Slegers is tall. He looks like a weed that the lawn mower missed, when standing amongst his fellow pitchers listening to a coach.
 
Met up with fellow TDer Stringer Bell, and his brother. Great guys. We hung out together, off and on, most of the rest of the day.
 
I watched the first hour of the two minor league games versus the Rays, back and forth between the adjacent fields. In the nominal AAA game, "A Rodriguez" (I didn't know A-Rod had joined the Twins organization!) scored a hit to right, and the players who had the game off behind the screen near me were hooting that this was his first time to hit to the opposite field, ever.
 
One of these players was eating some berries, and another piped up with a crack about Hingle McCringleberry. A Key and Peele fan, apparently. No "Berrios" joke, considering he was sitting right there with us, so I guess it's too far from his actual pronunciation which I haven't completely mastered yet. "Bay-REE-ose"? Either that or for some reason they don't want to kid him that way, or Jose had duties charting pitches and maybe shouldn't have been disturbed.
 
I already mentioned in a forum thread last night that AA pitching coach R. C. Lichtenstein asked the Rays kid who was holding the radar gun behind the plate, "was that a changeup?", while prospect Dylan Floro was on the mound. "No, fastball," was the reply. Hope Floro didn't overhear. Ouch. Very ouch.
 
In the other game, Sano hit a very long homer on the first pitch he saw. It drew appropriate oohs and aahs from the spectating players. His ability is certainly respected. The players know who's who - see my above comment about A-Rod, and when Max Murphy hit a homer the previous day I watched, one of the guys confirmed his identity for me and added "he can hit".
 
Stuart Turner threw out a would-be base stealer by about two miles. I know there's a lot more to catching than that, things I can't begin to judge on my own, but it confirms for me the good things I've read about his D.
 
I finally walked over to the big leaguers' game and made use of my cheap seat ticket. Watched the middle part of the game with Stringer and his brother, and got to witness an error by Dozier and later a bobble by Nunez that he still converted to an out. Guess which infielder I gave a pass on that to, and which one I griped about. It wasn't a very compelling game in the late stages, so after my companions left I watched an inning more, then left with the score 3-2 going into the bottom of the ninth. Apparently I didn't miss much.
 
That's it for now. Off to the park now for another go-round.

Source: 30 Twins Prospects I'll Be Watching In 2015

Originally published at The Tenth Inning Stretch
---------
 
Today was my first full day at Fort Myers and the Twins had a split squad duo of games, with the half of the team hosting the Orioles at Hammond Stadium and the other half a few miles away playing the Red Sox at Jet Blue Park. This was the second year in a row as far as renovations went for the facilities, and the Hammond Stadium looks really great. The front facade is extended to both broaden the concession place plaza and put a roof over it and to host a couple new elevators and gift shops. There are 4 gift shops in all now, which are much better than the single closet-size one that was there 3 years ago. The main one, which about the size of an average AA ballpark gift shop, even had Miracle T-shirts.
 
For some reason there was no pregame batting practice on field number six, as it has been the norm the seasons before; I suspect that it has to do with the split-squad games today. Joe Vavra was throwing batting practice to someone's kid in the under-stadium cages. Not much activity in the minor league parks also; Sporadic batting practice at the Chattanooga, including Miguel Sano and DJ Hicks hitting some good ones off Stew Cliburn, who looks scarily like Rick Anderson these days. Jorge Polanco and AAA infielders had bunt practice at the Rochester field. Nothing much there as far as minors go, other than Nick Burdi was surrounded by a whole slew of autograph seekers when he showed up. No home game tomorrow, so I will be able so spend a full day with the prospects.
 
As far as the game today went, there were a few things of note:
 
In the first inning, Joe Mauer hit a routine soft grounder to the shortstop, who had a hard time fielding it, dropped it, recovered it and threw to first to get a slow trotting Mauer out. This was not a great thing to see from the Twins' highest paid player. Had he run full speed, he would had been safe. I hope that these kind of plays do not happen again. On the other hand, the subsequent inning Eduardo Nunez beat out a non-trivial cleanly fielded infield single to the shortstop; hard not to see the contradictions between someone who has a job and someone who is fighting for one.
 
Torii Hunter is a yeller at the outfield. And this is a good thing. And he does not only yell "I got it". In couple of situations, a fly ball to right center and a shallow fly to the right, he yelled for Schafer and Dozier respectively to go and get it. And it worked. That was a good thing to see. Eddie Rosario was great with the glove at left. He did throw out Delmon Young when he tried to stretch a single, but even more importantly (and you cannot see that on the scoreboard) he took a triple away from an Orioles hitter with a great route and a great below the knee catch. He made it look so easy, that I bet that most of the Stadium thought that it was a routine play. It wasn't. Speaking of routes, I am not sure that Jordan Schaefer is the best one out there. Had a long fly really misjudged and hit the wall, allowing eventually Torii Hunter to make the throw to the infield. That ball was catchable. Being a left hand throwing Centerfielder might have some disadvantages.
 
As far as pitching went, Stephen Pryor really surprised me. He pitched fine, but there were earlier reports about him being healthy and being back with his mid- to high-90s velocity. He topped at 92 in Hammond Stadium's (fast) radar today, which is not extremely thrilling, to say at least. For comparison's shake, Ervin Santana hit 93.
 
Back there tomorrow morning and expect a full report on the prospects, tomorrow evening.
 

Day two of my Fort Myers experience featured baseball. After a bit more room jangling, we got to Century Link hereafter known as Hammond or Twins Spring Training camp at 10 AM. We checked the minor league fields and watched pitcher's drills. The Rays were to be the opposition for the Twins farmhands on this warm spring day.
 
Well before first pitch, we made the acquaintance of TD's own Ashbury John, who is in Fort Myers, living it up while his significant other slaves over a hot computer (I jest). John is a nice guy, much younger than me, who has somehow managed to escape the bonds of employment (voluntarily). We had a nice conversation on several light topics--life, death, family, marriage, WAR, Aaron Hicks--and agreed on many things,but not Shane Robinson. Ash and I tried to smoke out TD's Halsey Hall, using Trevor Plouffe references as bait, but either Halsey wasn't there or he was too smart for our ploy.
 
With my precision timing intact, I left the minor league games just when they started just in time to miss the first inning of the tussle with the O's. I didn't miss Ervin giving up three straight hits and two runs in the second inning. Santana yielded another run the next inning, but looked better in the fourth. Ash joined us with the score 3-1 and together we witnessed some squandered opportunities resulting in a 3-2 defeat at the hands of the Baltimores.
 
If I have more to say about the Twins, I will put it in the game thread. I want to close with an endorsement--a Fort Myers trip for a frozen Twins fan is a good thing. More tomorrow.

I had the pleasure of watching today's game in person at Hammond Stadium, versus the portion of the St Louis Cardinal roster they deemed worth putting on a bus (hint: no stars). This writeup ought to be pretty quick, because it's one of those rare games where the box score plus a little inference pretty much tells you all you need to know.
 
But first, I'll mention that we didn't have tickets to start with, and didn't want to feed the scalpers - but a little bird had told us that tickets get freed up just before most games - seats that are controlled by the two teams (for players' relatives etc) until they are sure they aren't needed. So we got there 2.5 hours early and waited half an hour, and sure enough we wound up getting $29 seats nearly behind home plate on the third base side up near the top. Seems high priced for spring games but the world is like that now. Just a little tip for those of you wanting to attend games.
 

 
Kyle Gibson was as good as his line score would suggest - batters were not able to distinguish his offspeed offerings and were getting fooled by them. Two hits, no runs, four strikeouts, in four innings. A little shaky in the third, followed up by a strong fourth. Very hopeful sign.
 
I've not been a strong proponent of Tim Stauffer when the news broke that the Twins had signed him, and nothing today improved my view on him. He got through his first inning with no drama and three ground balls, but his next two innings showed he was no mystery to the Cardinal batters and they piled up four Very Earned Runs in that span. I thought it was silly to envision him as a competitor for the fifth starter spot - now put him back in low-leverage situations like the Padres had him, is my advice.
 
The rest of the game was your usual parade of relievers, who did OK but nothing great, allowing two more runs in total. The last run was aided by some shoddy left field work by Nunez who allowed an extra base by not being able to decide whether to dive for a flare or not, winding up letting it drop but then not corralling the ball to keep the baserunner from getting to third, whereupon he scored on a sac fly. Bad luck to Fien I guess, but he did allow the first hit legitimately. This run was the one that tied it at 6-6, which was the eventual final score.
 
Conversely the Twins scored 5 early runs, three in the third capped by a Brian Dozier two-run homer to left following a Schafer RBI, and two more in the fourth that drove off starter Carlos Martinez when Suzuki doubled down the third base line. Nice. After that the Card bullpen was effective, though they let in another run in the seventh when Herrmann drove in Argenis Diaz. (I was surprised to see Herrmann playing first after Mauer was lifted, so I guess they really are grooming him to be super-sub, and thus likely to be the 25th man on Opening Day.)
 
Twins fans at Hammond today were outnumbered by Cardinal fans. They were courteous but toward the end of the game the repeated rallies had them cheering their favorites on, and the Twins fans were too "Minnesota Nice" (I guess) to put up much of a fuss.
 
The game ended on Nunez being thrown out at the plate trying to score on a short single to left, having been waved in by coach Glynn. With 2 out and weak hitters now in the lineup it was the obvious call for the situation, as all choices at that point had become low percentage and this was the most entertaining one to try. I saw it as him being out by at least two steps, leaving matters at 6-6, and it being Spring they did not go to extras. Everyone departed in a good mood - perhaps as in soccer, a "friendly" played to a tie.
 

I had the pleasure of watching today's game in person at Hammond Stadium, versus the portion of the St Louis Cardinal roster they deemed worth putting on a bus (hint: no stars). This writeup ought to be pretty quick, because it's one of those rare games where the box score plus a little inference pretty much tells you all you need to know.
 
But first, I'll mention that we didn't have tickets to start with, and didn't want to feed the scalpers - but a little bird had told us that tickets get freed up just before most games - seats that are controlled by the two teams (for players' relatives etc) until they are sure they aren't needed. So we got there 2.5 hours early and waited half an hour, and sure enough we wound up getting $29 seats nearly behind home plate on the third base side up near the top. Seems high priced for spring games but the world is like that now. Just a little tip for those of you wanting to attend games.
 

 
Kyle Gibson was as good as his line score would suggest - batters were not able to distinguish his offspeed offerings and were getting fooled by them. Two hits, no runs, four strikeouts, in four innings. A little shaky in the third, followed up by a strong fourth. Very hopeful sign.
 
I've not been a strong proponent of Tim Stauffer when the news broke that the Twins had signed him, and nothing today improved my view on him. He got through his first inning with no drama and three ground balls, but his next two innings showed he was no mystery to the Cardinal batters and they piled up four Very Earned Runs in that span. I thought it was silly to envision him as a competitor for the fifth starter spot - now put him back in low-leverage situations like the Padres had him, is my advice.
 
The rest of the game was your usual parade of relievers, who did OK but nothing great, allowing two more runs in total. The last run was aided by some shoddy left field work by Nunez who allowed an extra base by not being able to decide whether to dive for a flare or not, winding up letting it drop but then not corralling the ball to keep the baserunner from getting to third, whereupon he scored on a sac fly. Bad luck to Fien I guess, but he did allow the first hit legitimately. This run was the one that tied it at 6-6, which was the eventual final score.
 
Conversely the Twins scored 5 early runs, three in the third capped by a Brian Dozier two-run homer to left following a Schafer RBI, and two more in the fourth that drove off starter Carlos Martinez when Suzuki doubled down the third base line. Nice. After that the Card bullpen was effective, though they let in another run in the seventh when Herrmann drove in Argenis Diaz. (I was surprised to see Herrmann playing first after Mauer was lifted, so I guess they really are grooming him to be super-sub, and thus likely to be the 25th man on Opening Day.)
 
Twins fans at Hammond today were outnumbered by Cardinal fans. They were courteous but toward the end of the game the repeated rallies had them cheering their favorites on, and the Twins fans were too "Minnesota Nice" (I guess) to put up much of a fuss.
 
The game ended on Nunez being thrown out at the plate trying to score on a short single to left, having been waved in by coach Glynn. With 2 out and weak hitters now in the lineup it was the obvious call for the situation, as all choices at that point had become low percentage and this was the most entertaining one to try. I saw it as him being out by at least two steps, leaving matters at 6-6, and it being Spring they did not go to extras. Everyone departed in a good mood - perhaps as in soccer, a "friendly" played to a tie.