stringer bell

Seeing Rooker, Larnach, Kirilloff and Lewis in person turned out to be a highlight of this abbreviated spring training for me. I think the lefties are more ready now, but are corner OF/first basemen. I was glad that Larnach got a game in left field. I have a hard time seeing Rosario in a Twins uni for 2021.

I’m “stuck” in Fort Myers with no games to watch. I am going golfing later this morning. My fiancée is scheduled to fly down a week from yesterday, but that plan is doubtful. I’m waiting until the weekend to determine whether I’ll head back early or hang on here. I made a blog entry entitled “Strange Days” about my experiences yesterday.

I write this blog entry when I was expecting to do other things. I am in Fort Myers in 80 degree weather with just a hint of a breeze on a nice Thursday afternoon. What could be wrong? Well, actually, plenty. My significant other and I made plans for the rest of winter sometime in January. Because we had made an extended trip of the Christmas/New Year holidays and because we were planning a family gathering for the summer, we decided to stay in Minnesota for the rest of January and I decided I would stay in February until I could make it to spring training for my favorite baseball team. The plan was for me to drive to Florida by way of my daughter's residence in Indiana. I would be in Fort Myers by myself until she was on semester break and then we could enjoy a week together in Florida--baseball, beaches, warm weather--before driving back together so that she could be ready for college to start up again. Things often don't go as you plan them. The expensive ticket for her flight could now be purchased for pennies on the dollar. The Minnesota Twins and all of major league baseball have cancelled the remainder of spring training games. The Final Four won't happen, to quote a song "Broadway is dark tonight" and I would expect more cancellations going forward. This has brought me to think about what is important and what isn't. Having something like baseball to occupy my time is important. Filling that gap is essential. Having health is really crucial. I am thankful to be in good health at this time and I certainly don't want to get the coronavirus, even though it likely wouldn't effect me long term. Many people could die needlessly if measures aren't taken to diminish the acceleration of exposure. I'll do what I can to avoid getting the virus and spreading it to others. Oh yes. I did get to watch the future of the Minnesota Twins (IMHO). On Tuesday, in Clearwater, the starting lineup included Alex Kirilloff, Trevor Larnach, Brent Rooker and Royce Lewis. They all impressed me, particularly Lewis, who homered and made an outstanding defensive play at shortstop. If two or three of these prospects pan out, the pipeline will be intact and the Twins should be able to have a first-division lineup for most of the next decade. Today, before MLB's announcement suspending exhibition games, I watched Twins minor leaguers play. I saw Duran throwing absolute gas, Matt Wallner (big kid--6'5") looking good, but not making contact and I found out about a Twins prospect Seth Gray (4th round draft choice from Wright State) from his dad. I'll be a Gray fan now. Seems like a nice kid. Finally, as I was walking back to my car I saw a man walking over to a somewhat elderly guy wearing a Twins hat. Tony-O!. I waited until the conversation was over and asked Tony if I could take a picture. He said that we should make it a selfie, but that he couldn't sign autographs--bosses orders. I asked Tony how old he really was and he said something to the effect of "in America, I'm 81" with a chuckle. According to BB Reference, that is his correct age FWIW. I got back to my room excited about spending more days like today at the spring training complex, meeting icons and nice people from Twins Territory, and now it seems it is over almost before it started. Since I started writing this entry, Disneyland announced they were closing and March Madness was cancelled. This is serious stuff folks.

I read somewhere that the Twins were limiting his time in the outfield, which would probably give Jake Cave a leg up for the last bench position. Could playing a corner outfield position a couple or three days in a row impact Gonzalez’ health and/or availability?

Lewis looked great and the other top hitting prospects (Larnach, Rooker and Kirilloff) all looked pretty good. Kirilloff looked pretty comfortable at first and I was impressed with Lewis particularly in the field.

2-1 Phillies in the 4th. Lewis with an outstanding play in the hole to start the bottom of the fourth. Jax gives up a 2-run big fly. 4-1.

Great day to watch the best hitting prospects—Lewis, Kirilloff, Larnach and Rooker all in the lineup.

Royce Lewis! Long ball to left (off Wheeler).

Of course Gregorius gets a hit, his first of the spring, ‘cause he’s facing Minnesota.

Phillies drop a couple soft singles and score Harper’s PR. 1-0 Philly.

Well, I’m in Clearwater. Beautiful drive from Tampa. 0-0 bottom 1. Harper hit by a pitch and left the game.

The only reason for adding him to the 40-man roster would be if he made the Opening Day (26 man) roster. Adding him only to option him would burn an option they don't need to use and leave one less spot on the 40-man roster for adding non-rostered players. Further, those not on the 40-man roster aren't in jeopardy of getting hurt and then drawing major league pay and service time on the injured list. It is likely the three potential sluggers (Kirilloff, Rooker, and Larnach) will get sent to the minor league side for more reps pretty soon, but there's no harm in having them around for now.

I see Larnach homered again today. Again, he was the DH (actually pinch hit for the starting DH). Does he have an injury that is preventing him from playing in the field? I haven't seen anything written that explains this, but it would seem to be the most likely explanation. If Larnach has an injury, is it something that might be chronic or is this just a short time issue?

With no Twins game today I was checking the box scores of other games. Detroit had a slugfest against someone and the first scoring was "Cron homered, Goodrum and Schoop scored". Three ex-Twins scoring on one swing of the bat.

It is still really early to include or exclude a player in an open competition. Dobnak has been very good so far, Chacín has a bad inning, Thorpe is just now back and Smeltzer has been OK, I guess. There are three weeks left, lots of time to shine or sink.

I think Arraez is the real deal and will continue to be a high OBP guy with adequate defense. If he is a flash in the pan, there aren't any immediate answers, but giving Gordon a shot makes sense. I don't think Gordon has proven anything about his hitting and his defense in the minors from what I've seen is pretty average. He does have good speed, an ingredient the Twins lack and he's played a lot of shortstop so far. I question whether he is a good enough defender at short, as well. I don't think we can dismiss Gonzalez totally as an option at second base. He played little there mostly because the Astros regular when he was there was MVP candidate Jose Altuve. He isn't ancient-he'll be 31 later this month, and he appears to be able to adjust to whatever position he's asked to play (third base last year after not playing much there previously). Last year, the Twins had Arraez, Schoop and Adrianza to fill second. If they only have one other option than Marwin, I would like to see if he would get some run at second.

All I have heard this spring is that Buxton is on schedule to be ready for Opening Day.

Each of the competitors for the fifth starter role should have three or four more appearances, yes? I think you can throw out a clunker inning here or there for all of them. So far, Dobnak has been very good, but it is way too early to think of each outing as an elimination outing. In addition, for Chacín, they have to keep him on the roster as I understand it, meaning if he loses the competition, he is lost to the team. Fair or not, that gives him a leg up in the competition.

Glad to hear it. I hope whatever it was, that the situation was resolved positively.

Please don't go there. Political posts will hijack threads. It will not be permitted.

This topic will be moved to Other Baseball. While it does refer to the possibility of the Twins acquiring the player. The bulk of the OP is the size of the contract and the status of the team issuing the contract.

Using the rules as they existed last year, the Twins’ bullpen was very durable and more effective as the year progressed. I would expect Rocco to continue to make moves that keep everyone fresh. If the current bullpen stays healthy , they should be effective, no matter what rules are in place.

From a payroll standpoint, Maeda ranks as well as any of those considered.Let's not neglect to mention that the "cost" of his acquisition also included Brusdar Graterol.

I think it is good to remind ourselves that these players are human beings with families who run into issues much like us. It won't do much good to speculate, but perhaps the distraction of an issue in Australia is more of a disruption that leaving camp to deal with it. Again, like Romero, Thorpe has options remaining and it won't be the end of the world if he is optioned and he could easily pitch himself back to the major league club at some point in the season.

I'll put it this way--how many players had their best season last year? For sure, Garver, Kepler, Berríos, Odorizzi, Polanco, May, Duffey and Rogers. Can we expect a number of these mostly young veterans to continue to get better? I don't think so, as a matter of fact, it might be a career year for a number of those guys. Among the players who were here last year,there aren't many who we can expect to be measurably better and there are a number of regression candidates. I think the Twins will continue to be good because they brought in more talent. They have a deep starting rotation, deep bullpen and a very good starting lineup. I doubt they'll win 100 again, but I think they should be favorites to win the division and perhaps get deeper into October. Nothing is guaranteed. They need to play with a chip on their shoulders.