We have the first of two consecutive Monday televised games today as the Marlins travel to Ft. Myers to take on the Twins this afternoon.
Reports coming out of Twins camp are that 14 roster cuts have been made today. As expected, a many of the cuts were for the purpose of thinning the starting pitching ranks to allow those starters who clearly would not be going north with the Twins to continuing getting significant innings on the minor league complex. Here’s the list of those cut:
David Bromberg RHP, Anthony Swarzak RHP, Eric Hacker RHP, Deolis Guerra RHP, Yorman Bazardo RHP, Kyle Gibson RHP, Rene Tosoni OF, Joe Benson OF, Chris Parmalee 1B, Justin Huber 1B, Ray Chang IF, Brian Dozier IF, Jair Fernandez C, Chris Hermann C.
No real surprises there, but it’s interesting to note that none of the lefty pitchers were cut.
I’m going to put up a GameChat window today for anyone who’s able to pop in. I probably won’t be there myself much (if at all) due to that pesky thing called “work”.
Finally… Happy 51st birthday to Kirby Puckett. We miss you, Puck.
Today’s lineups:
| MARLINS | @ | TWINS |
| Bonifacio, CF | Revere, CF | |
| Martinez, O, SS | Plouffe, 2B | |
| Dobbs, 1B | Young, D, LF | |
| Buck, J, C | Thome, DH | |
| Dominguez, M, 3B | Kubel, RF | |
| Baker, Jo, DH | Valencia, 3B | |
| Thurston, 2B | Bailey, J, 1B | |
| Cousins, RF | Lehmann, C | |
| Lubanski, LF | Casilla, A, SS | |
| Sanabia, P | Slowey, P |
Well, THAT was a nice way for the Twins to head in to their sole off-day of Spring Training! All the pitchers had good days, including two rotation memebers, Slowey and Blackburn.
Danny Valencia launched a blast to LF and Luke Hughes, after entering as a pinch runner for Jason Kubel, added his fourth HR of the spring! For those interested in following what little suspense there remains in the Twins camp (the battle for the utility infield position), Gardy also shifted Hughes over to shortstop for the last few innings of the game. “Conventional wisdom” has been that, even with Hughes hitting so well, Gardy would be reluctant to go north with a utility infielder that doesn’t play SS (something Tolbert does, but Hughes has not typically done). So… with Hughes getting some innings at SS, the plot thickens a bit.
Click here for the link to the box score
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No game on Tuesday… the next game is Wednesday, when the Twins host the Mets!
– JC
Damn, can’t join in chat from work, but glad to see Slowey’s having a good outing.
I snuck home to watch a few innings over the noon hour and was able to join the chat for a bit then, but now I’m back in the office and ‘flying blind’, as well. I did see Danny V’s blast just as I was heading out the door, though!
Luke Hughes getting some innings in at shortstop. Not something we’ve seen yet and verrrrrrrrrry interesting.
KIrby… 🙁