Rod Carew and Paul Molitor held a meeting for leadoff hitters this morning. Among those in attendance: Carlos Gomez, Denard Span, Jason Pridie and Nick Punto.

Things are moving quickly today. Most players are in Hammond Stadium, starting their workout. And a bunch of them will had to a back field here soon for a scrimmage against Concordia. First pitch, 9:30 a.m. (Central).

Twins lineup:

Denard Span, CF
Matt Tolbert, SS
Brian Buscher, 3B
Garrett Jones, LF
Tommy Watkins, DH
Jon Knott, RF
Randy Ruiz, 1B
Felix Molina, 2B
Drew Butera, C

Kevin Mulvey, Philip Humber, Oswaldo Sosa, Deolis Guerra and Armando Gambino will pitch for the Twins. … Nick Blackburn, Juan Rincon and Carmen Cali will pitch for Concordia.

That might be a skeleton lineup, but after watching practice all this time, I’m anxious to see some game action.

Scott Baker will start Thursday’s Grapefruit League opener against the Reds. Glen Perkins will pitch in relief.

The Twins have not named a starter for the regular season opener. Livan Hernandez is scheduled to pitch Sunday, and if the Twins wanted to keep one pitcher on a five-day schedule, working backwards from the March 31 opener, it would be Saturday.

(Correction: I originally thought Sunday was the key day this week, but it’s actually Saturday. So the Livan note here is much ado about nothing. For what it’s worth, Boof Bonser is scheduled to start Friday, opposite Boston’s Dice-K Matsuzaka, and Randy Keisler is scheduled to start Saturday.)

Note: To make room on the 40-man roster for Hernandez, the Twins passed OF Darnell McDonald through waivers and assigned him to Class AAA Rochester. He remains in big league camp.

Joe Mauer knew he was going to face Joe Nathan in the batting cage Sunday, so he decided to have a little fun.

Mauer told the guys in his hitting group he would take a rip at the first pitch (very un-Mauer like), figuring he’d get a fastball, and if he launched one over the fence, he was going to leave the cage immediately, forgoing the rest of his five pitches.

As in, “This stuff is too easy.”

Sure enough, Mauer got a first-pitch fastball, and he ripped Nathan’s offering to deep left field, nearly hitting an opposite-field home run. The rest of the hitters were oohing and aahing, and the ball landed just short of a home run. It would have been extra bases, for sure.

Not to be outdone, Nathan later came back and jammed Mauer with a two-seam fastball, breaking his bat. Nathan always has thrown a four-seam fastball, a pitch that is easier to control. The two-seamer is a work in progress because it has more movement.

Mauer later signed the broken bat with the words, “Nice two-seamer, thanks. Joe Mauer #7.”

“He’s been one of the best closers in baseball, and he’s still trying to get better,” Mauer said later, marveling.

Some reporter was in Gardy’s office today, poking and prodding, trying to get some answers as to what this team’s batting order is going to look like. OK, that was me.

Anyway, he was kind enough to humor us, even though there are so many questions about who’s going to win starting jobs (at CF, 2B, etc.) it’s hard to predict the lineup.

Gardenhire did say he hopes to make Justin Morneau the cleanup hitter.

“I would like to have him in that 4-spot,” Gardy said. “I think that’s where he belongs.”

So from that, would it be safe to assume he wants Joe Mauer batting second?

“No, I wouldn’t assume that,” Gardy said. “I think that sounds really good, but don’t assume that. I like that. I think [Mauer’s] an on-base percentage guy, and I’d like to have a righthanded bat in between them. … So it makes sense, if we can find a leadoff guy, and if we can find a third hitter, all those things.”

Asked about the possibility of Delmon Young hitting between the M&M Boys, Gardenhire seemed to be leaning more toward having Young hit behind Morneau.

“Anything’s possible,” Gardenhire said. “You better have somebody behind [Morneau] who can hit a little bit. Or they’ll pitch around him all day long, and then he expands, and that’s no good. So there’s all kinds of things we can think about with this lineup.”

Here are a few bonus items on Livan Hernandez, which I couldn’t squeeze into today’s profile.

(*) Tony Oliva said he is excited to have another Cuban-born player with the Twins. What impresses Oliva the most about Hernandez is how he has transformed himself from a power pitcher to a control specialist.

“We have a very young team,” Oliva said. “To have a veteran who can pitch every five days is good for the young guys.”

(*) Twins pitcher Casey Daigle got to know Hernandez as teammates in Arizona the past two years.

“He’d give you the shirt off his back,” Daigle said.

Daigle said Hernandez is a pitcher with an uncanny knack for rising to the occasion. It also works on the golf course.

“If there’s a chip or a put or a wedge shot, with money on the line, he’ll nail it about seven out of 10 times.”

(*) Also, Hernandez has come a long way this week since Ron Gardenhire had a talk with him after the first workout.

Said Gardenhire: “I told him, ‘We signed you for a reason. You’re a veteran here and people are going to watch you, and if you’re casual about some of the things you do around here, they’re going to follow. Some of these young kids are going to follow. He says, ‘Yeah, Arizona said the same thing over there.’

“He’s been doing great, ever since the first day. He had the earrings in — he forgot ‘em. He’s just trying to fit in and relax. … I planned on talking to him before [the workout], and when I saw him, he was on the cell phone in the clubhouse.”

Gardy laughed. People aren’t allowed to talk on cell phones in the Twins’ clubhouse. But Hernandez didn’t know that at the time.

“He’s been great,” Gardenhire said. “He really is unbelievable. He’s a pretty good teammate.”