SPRING TRAINING!! BASEBALL’S HERE!! My thanks to JC for carrying the load so well while I’ve been house-obsessed. But if there is one thing that can get my brain out of packing/moving/cleaning/painting world is the start of another baseball season. I can’t wait to get down there!
I’ve hardly been able to tear myself away from my twitter feed because our ever dutiful beat guys are down there sharing pics, videos and general hilarity from the pitchers & catchers who are going through the beginning of daily exercises! I totally encourage you to follow them – you’ll feel warmer just reading!
It’s finally here… the day Twins pitchers and catchers report!
It feels like I should write something monumental to mark the occasion, but as is almost always the case, I find that there are other Twins bloggers who can speak to the occasion much more eloquently than I. So, if you haven’t done so already, go check out the blogs of the following terrific writers:
There’s a rumor going around that Monday is a holiday of some kind. I’ve always felt that Opening Day should be a holiday, but since someone apparently decided instead to make the Monday after “pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training” a holiday, I’m not going to complain about it. Those of us with Monday off really should try to come up with something appropriately baseball-related to help us celebrate.
Pitchers and catchers report this weekend!
The Twins’ pitchers and catchers officially report to Spring Training Saturday, with first official workouts, I believe, scheduled for Sunday. When that happens, it’s officially “baseball season.” I guess we’ll have to come up with some kind of new “countdown” widget to put up over on the right side of the page. Maybe a countdown to Opening Day? Ah, a blogger’s work is never done.
Speaking of which, with the season quasi-officially underway, our work here is about to get more serious, too. Sure, it’s been fun ranting about Bud Selig and the Twins’ moves (or lack thereof) and how things are shaping up for other teams, but if we’re being perfectly honest, most of us ran out of really interesting topics to talk about a long time ago. But with baseball players actually getting on the field this weekend, that’s about to change.
Pretty soon (though not soon enough), it will be our turn. I’ll be making my way down to Ft. Myers toward the end of Spring Training for my annual trip and I will be posting pretty much daily while I’m there.
Babs: Now you've seen Ft Myers Beach... so you can just go watch baseball
But this season, I won’t be the only Knuckleball reporting from the Lee County Sports Complex. CapitalBabs will be embarking on her first-ever Spring Training adventure early in March. She has promised to post her impressions and we can pretty much count on seeing a whole bunch of pictures, though she did mention that she and her hubby also have plans to spend time on non-baseball related activities while they are in Ft. Myers. She mentioned something about golf and beaches. Heck, I didn’t even know there was anything going on in Florida besides baseball that time of year.
Anyway, I really enjoy seeing and hearing about the Spring Training experience through different eyes and especially from the perspective of fans who haven’t been down there before, so I’m looking forward to reading Babs’ reports.
Of course, we won’t be the only bloggers to make the journey. I haven’t heard or read about everyone who’s announced plans to make the trip but I did read that Thrylos, from Tenth Inning Stretch, is planning on reporting from Ft. Myers at some point. If you know of other bloggers going down there, do us a favor and mention something about it in the comments section. Likewise, if any of our readers are going to be down there, let us know that, too. We’d love to hear from you and maybe even share your favorite pictures from your trip, if you’re willing.
If you feel inclined, you can also click here… and here… and here… to go back and read the Spring Training Guide tips I posted about this time a year ago. Or just wing it and discover things on your own!
Podcast Appearance
I also want to mention that I participated in “The Phil Naessens Show” podcast Thursday night. You can give it a listen over at The Baseball Page site (www.thebaseballpage.com). If you haven’t added The Baseball Page to your regular list of sites to check out, you should. The folks there cover a wide variety of MLB issues. Phil is interviewing bloggers representing all of the Major League teams. I encourage you to overlook his questionable judgement in choosing me to be his Minnesota Twins blogger representative and check it out anyway.
Condolences
Finally, we send our condolences out to the family, friends and fans of Hall of Fame catcher Gary Carter, who passed away Thursday, less than a year after being diagnosed with a brain tumor. Carter was never one of my favorite players, probably because he never played for a team I felt any particular affinity toward, but I do remember the enthusiasm he brought to the game. I remember watching him and thinking, “that guy really enjoys playing baseball.” He obviously also played the game very well. Carter was just 57 years old at his passing and I have to admit that hits just a bit too close to home for me. Rest in Peace, Gary.
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Once again, if any of you have Spring Training plans, by all means leave a comment or at least email us and let us know about your plans!
Ever since the Twins handed the reins of the organization back to Terry Ryan, fans have been asking what he was going to do about the pitching staff. We wanted him to tell us how he intended to fortify a rotation that was undeniably one of the worst in Major League Baseball in 2011.
We asked what the plan was for rebuilding a bullpen that arguably made the rotation look good, by comparison, and that was losing the guy who’d been anchoring said bullpen for most of the past decade, in Joe Nathan. Some of us (OK, maybe it was mostly me) hoped that he’d upgrade the rotation to the point where the team would get more than five innings out of starts by pitchers not named Pavano, which would almost certainly make the bullpen look better. But whatever the plan was, we mostly just wanted to know that there WAS a plan.
Can Rick Anderson get lucky and give Glen Perkins some help in the bullpen? (Photo: Reuters/Steve Nesius)
Now… finally… thanks to Twins pitching coach Rick Anderson, as reported in this article posted Sunday by the Pioneer-Press’ Tom Powers, we have our answer. “It’s like Terry Ryan said to me the other day, ‘Maybe we’ll get lucky,'” Anderson said.
I don’t know about you, but I feel better already. Here we were concerned that maybe Ryan and the Twins didn’t really have a plan for improving their pitching in 2012.
My biggest concern was that the Twins were going to repeat Bill Smith’s ill-fated attempt to restock their bullpen a year ago, after losing Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier, and others. Smith, you may recall, brought in about a dozen guys to compete for the honor of filling in the empty bullpen spots behind Nathan, Matt Capps and Jose Mijares. The field consisted of both new faces (Jim Hoey, Dusty Hughes, Scott Diamond) and old faces (Pat Neshek, Anthony Slama, Kyle Waldrop, Glen Perkins, Alex Burnett). In the end, only Perkins made significant positive contributions on the mound.
It didn’t seem like a totally unreasonable plan, at the time. After all, most effective middle relievers are “discovered” when they stand out given similar opportunities. But it certainly didn’t work for Smith and the Twins, so many of us hoped for a somewhat different approach in 2012.
Thankfully, Terry Ryan does indeed have a different plan. He’s bringing in THIRTY-THREE pitchers.
Yes, I know, some of those guys are going to be in the rotation and a couple others are pretty much locks for bullpen roles, so they aren’t all competing for bullpen spots. But the rotation is pretty much set and only Capps, Perkins and Duensing can be considered virtual sure-things to be members of the Opening Day bullpen corps.
That leaves 25 pitchers competing for the remaining 4-5 bullpen spots. How in the world will Anderson and manager Ron Gardenhire possibly sort through all of those guys to determine which should claim a Big League roster spot?
Again, thanks to Mr. Powers and Coach Anderson, we have a few clues:
“We’ve got 33 pitchers coming in,” Anderson said Sunday from Florida. “I’ve already talked to just about every one of them. We have 13 days to get ready to play. We have the time to get ready.”
There’s clue number one. If you’re a pitcher with an invitation to the Twins’ Big League camp, but Anderson hasn’t spoken to you yet, it’s probably premature to lease an apartment in the Twin Cities.
But there’s more:
“We’ve got ‘B’ games and split squads,” Anderson said. “With 33 pitchers, we need to find innings to see what they’ve got. I was thinking about this just this morning: In the past, maybe we’ve had a couple of spots open, and we didn’t have a whole lot of options. This year, we’ve got nine or 10 guys with a legitimate shot. Maybe more.”
Hmmmm… nine or 10 guys… maybe more… with a legitimate shot. But which nine or 10 guys?
“T.K. [former Twins manager Tom Kelly] always says, ‘Don’t let spring training fool you,’ ” Anderson added with a laugh. “But this year it’s going to be go, go, go. If you don’t have a good spring, we’ll send you down to Triple-A and say, ‘Maybe we’ll see you again.’ This year, guys are pitching for jobs and not just to get in shape.”
Well, I still don’t know exactly who the nine or 10 guys are with a legitimate shot at making the ballclub, but it sounds to me like we’ll all discover pretty quickly who ISN’T in that group. That would be anyone who’s first inning or two of work in Ft. Myers sucks.
So that’s the plan, fans. Invite a crapload of maybes, wannabes, usedtabes, and almostweres to Spring Training, put them on the mound and see if any of them can get anyone out… and, “Maybe we’ll get lucky.”
Those of us who are planning trips to Spring Training in a couple of months had better make our lodging reservations quickly because Ft. Myers is going to be a bit more crowded than usual. The Twins have invited 25 non-roster players to their Major League camp which, when added to the 39 players on their current roster, means 64 players will fill their clubhouse. You have to also figure that GM Terry Ryan will find a relief pitcher to fill that last 40th roster spot, making the final number 65 players.
Dress them in purple and it will look more like the Vikings training camp clubhouse than the Twins. Think of it this way… if all of the players invited to the Twins MAJOR LEAGUE camp are still with the organization in April (granted, that won’t happen), they would fill not only the Twins’ active roster… not only the Red Wings AAA active roster… but also nearly half of the Rock Cats AA active roster.
I’m not going to list all of the invitees here. The list is available elsewhere (click here for the post by the Star-Tribune’s Joe Christensen). I’d bet most of us have never heard of at least half of the non-roster invitees. (I’ll throw a few pictures up throughout this post… see how many you can name without running your mouse over the picture to see the filename.) That’s OK, though, because there are a few on the roster we don’t know very well at all, either.
Prevented by ownership from paying for quality additions to fill most of the Twins many holes in their line up, Ryan has apparently opted for quantity, hoping that there’s a couple of guys in the group that can provide at least replacement level production, if called upon to do so.
Maybe Ron Gardenhire and his coaches will find someone of value in that group, but you have to wonder just how much time they’ll have to seriously watch, much less work with, all of those players. Maybe that’s why the Twins are augmenting their Spring Training staff with an unusually large number of guest “instructors”. In addition to Tom Kelly, Tony Oliva and Paul Molitor, who have been Spring Training mainstays for some time, the Twins will have Jim Kaat, Rod Carew, Terry Steinbach and Eddie Guardado on staff in Ft. Myers.
Looking at the rest of the 2012 roster, Gardy might want to see if any of those guys would consider coming out of retirement.
I really want to feel more optimistic about the upcoming season, but it’s difficult when the most encouraging thought you can generate is that the rest of the AL Central Division looks almost as bad as the Twins. I’ve been starting to piece together a series of posts looking at each of the other division rivals and none of them are going to bring back images of the 1927 Yankees… or even the 2011 Yankees, for that matter.
Clearly, the Twins ownership is imposing on the front office a philosophy based on waiting to see whether their “stars” are healthy and productive enough to keep fans showing up at the ballpark. As I’ve written before, I still think that’s a risky business move but, as surpising as it may be, they didn’t ask for my opinion before charting this course.
I did find a couple of things interesting about the list of non-roster invitees.
First, it appears that the Twins will have a total of 32 pitchers in the Big League camp (33 if Ryan fills the last roster spot with a pitcher before pitchers & catchers report) and none of them are Anthony Slama. As Nick Nelson mentioned in his blog today, Slama pitched well at AAA before getting hurt last season and has also done so in Winter Ball (striking out more than a hitter per inning both in Rochester and in Mexico). Just seems odd that with the bullpen so void of talent, he may not even be going to get a look.
The second thing I noticed is that only three non-roster outfielders were invited to camp. I thought they might have wanted to get a peek at a couple of their talented younger outfielders, such as Aaron Hicks and Angel Morales. Oswaldo Arcia, another young OF, was added to the 40-man roster, so he’ll be in camp, and maybe the staff just figures that with so many other guys cluttering up the field, there just wasn’t going to be room for guys who are almost certainly at least another year from contributing.
In any event, seeing this list has pretty much cemented in my mind that I’ll be waiting until mid-March before heading to Ft. Myers. Once the minor league camp opens up, about 20 of these guys will probably be headed across the complex to one of the back diamonds.
Hopefully, out of all this “quantity”, the staff will be able to find a couple of guys with enough “quality” to make meaningful contributions this season. It just seems like an unnecessary exercise, for a team that’s no longer a “low revenue” organization, when so many reasonably priced free agents are still on the market.
– JC
UPDATE: I notice that the good folks over at Puckett’s Pond have started a series of posts with information on each of the 25 non-roster invitees. It’s an ambitious undertaking that Nate Glimore leads off with a look at 1B Aaron Bates. Keep on eye on the Pond (they’re included in our Blogroll at the right) for more.
The Twins finally released their official Spring Training schedule today! Now those of us who are interested can start making our plans… of course, mostly this just tells me what is going to be available during the week I’m planning to be in town – I think we’re looking at the 3rd full week of March to be in town. I’m pretty sure that is basically how it works for anyone else going down there too! If you’re one of those who is going to be down there, send me a message and perhaps we’ll be able to meet up at a game or something… Of course, I will be on my honeymoon but I’m still gonna see some BASEBALL!!
By the way, if you’re one of the few who is NOT on Facebook, the following information won’t be of much use, BUT for the rest of us… Our friends over at InterpretationByDesign created a page counting down the off-season days until Spring Training officially arrives – it’s good stuff! Countdown to Spring Training
Yes, I know, most of my thoughts these days can only be described as “minor” in nature. But I’m going to share a few of them with you, anyway.
My home town Cedar Rapids Kernels announced their 2012 schedule this week. The first thing I checked was to see how many home series the Kernels have with the Twins’ Midwest League affiliate, the Beloit Snappers. I was happy to see the Snappers will be coming to Cedar Rapids for three series next year… May 2-4, June 22-24, and August 25-28. The May series is a mid-week series but the June and August series are weekend series.
I’m hopeful that some of the Twins’ better young prospects will be starting the season in Beloit and I always enjoy getting a look at the Snappers. By the way, I’m pretty sure Cedar Rapids is the Midwest League city closest to the Twin Cities. I only mention that in case some of you feel like a road trip. After all, it’s only fair… I have to make the same drive up to the Twin Cities to watch the Big club!
Speaking of the Midwest League, The Quad Cities River Bandits swept the Lansing Lugnuts to win the MWL Championship. So what? Glad you asked.
I mention this only by way of pointing out that runner-up Lansing finished the season 77-60, before advancing in the playoffs by winning the MWL Eastern Division title. Again, you ask, “so what?”
Well, I’d just point out that the Blue Jays’ farm club did quite well under their first year manager; a guy you may remember… Mike Redmond.
Lugnuts manager Mike Redmond (Photo: Rod Sanford/Lansing State Journal)
Yes, Red Dog not only led his young team to the championship series of the MWL in his first year of managing, he was also named the Midwest League Manager of the Year.
It sure is too bad the Twins’ minor league managing/coaching staff was too full of great baseball minds to find room for Redmond, isn’t it?
I’m sorry, that was a bit snide, I know. But I can’t help but wonder what a combination of Redmond, as manager, and Tom Brunansky, as hitting instructor, would do with an opportunity to run things in Rochester next season.
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I noticed an item over at springtrainingonline.com about the good folks who run Lee County (FL) making plans to work with the Twins on upgrading their Spring Training home, the Lee County Sports Complex. (It’s also the home of the Ft. Myers Miracle… to continue with the minor league theme of this post.)
Outside Hammond Stadium
Hammond Stadium in Ft. Myers is a nice stadium. Not great, but nice. From the outside, it’s actually pretty impressive, with Churchill Downs-type spires. But inside, it’s just not really anything special. The stadium was built in 1991 and it could definitely use some updating, but it’s nowhere near the worst spring training stadium in the Sunshine State (the Blue Jays’ stadium in Dunedin would get my vote for “worst” stadium, from among the nine I’ve visited). But Hammond is far from the nicest, as well.
The point that captured my attention in the article was a brief mention that the Twins’ lease, which runs through 2020, includes a clause that requires Lee County to maintain the facility, “at the same level as the five newest Florida spring-training facilities.”
Lee County just built the Red Sox a new $75 million facility down the road from the Twins’ complex, so I’d guess Lee County just raised their own ante a bit. I haven’t been to the five newest stadiums, but I can say with certainty that the Twins do not currently train in one of the five best facilities in Florida.
I’m not exactly sure how they would determine what the five “newest” stadiums are, for that matter. If it’s based purely on when the stadium was built, that’s one thing… those stadiums would range from Boston’s new facility that opens next spring to the Yankees’ Steinbrenner Field in Tampa which was built in 1996.
But a number of stadiums have had major face-lifts much more recently than that. If you measure based on the year a stadium underwent a major remodeling job, the most recent (after the Red Sox) would be the Orioles facility in Sarasota, the Rays’ park in Port Charlotte, the Phillies’ facility in Clearwater and the Tigers’ Lakeland complex. I haven’t been to the Lakeland ballpark, but the other four would rank above the Twins’ in my view. So would the Yankees’ Tampa facility and the Mets’ park in Port St. Lucie.
The Twins have been selling out just about every spring training game the last couple of years, so in the unlikely event that the Twins decided to start looking for a new spring home, communities across Florida and Arizona would trip all over themselves to bring the Twins in. I doubt that the Twins would get in to a serious battle with Lee County over an escape clause in their lease, but they have every right to expect to see the county make an honest effort to live up to the terms of their agreement.
OK, that’s enough on that subject. Thinking about it just makes me anxious to get down to Ft. Myers in March and the Twins have a whole lot of work to do before then.
However appreciative the Twins might be that they are in Arizona to play baseball on the day of Killer’s funeral, they now have to play baseball after that very emotional service. I’m sure it is going to be hard for many of the guys to concentrate tonight but I think that it will give them extra motivation to stay focused on work tonight. At least I can hope.
Well that was both extremely frustrating an somewhat encouraging at the same time. It hurt to see Twins pitching give up that fatal big inning yet again and then, to see the hitters keep fighting and make progress to come back. Yet, again, LOB is what killed us in the final outs. We were inches from gaining the lead back with the bases loaded in the 9th inning but we were unable to pull the trigger. But the encouragement comes from the effort to overcome that large a deficit and to come that close to doing so. At least it makes me want to watch the next game agian!
Well, we won and according to various radio staff, that means that we had the best record in the Grapefruit League. I guess that is a good thing although I still don’t think that spring training baseball is all that monumental a thing but it’s good to know we were winning games.
Today was … boring. How can baseball ever be boring? I don’t know but I was finding myself paying more attention to stripping paint off of crown molding than the game on more than one occasion so.. yeah, that’s unusual. (I hate paint-stripping.) At any rate, Kubel kind of led us to victory today for hitting and all our pitching was pretty phenomenal so I think we’re ready to go…
It’s exhibition baseball (not to be confused with Spring Training baseball)!
Tonight the Twins visit the Braves in Hotlanta. Both teams appear to be using the DH, to that’s something the Braves fans don’t see a lot of!
The game is on the radio in the Twin Cities, but I don’t think it’s on FSN. I believe it may be on the MLB Network, but it’s also apparently going to be on MLB.tv online (I hope).
This one still doesn’t “count”, but we’re getting closer Twins fans!
Going to put up a GameChat for the game tonight, too, for anyone inclined to stop by.
Not a good way to end this game, but at least it doesn’t count. I wouldn’t mind seeing a bit more offense out of this lineup that’s supposed to be so good, too. Nice few innings by Blackie (4 IP, 1H, 1BB), facing the minimum number of hitters thanks to a couple of double plays.
