We’re headed to Tampa for the Twins-Yankees game. Jim Souhan is driving. Joe Christensen is shotgun. I’m in the back seat to make sure the rear wheels maintain traction.

And we’re online…..

That’s right. Thanks to a wireless card, router and car adapter, we’ve got internet in the car. Technology rocks! And our StribMobileNet (hey I just made up a new word!) is better than the wireless at City of Palms Park last night.

Some observations from the game….

Matt Garza’s fearlessness is as impressive as his stuff. His slider is nasty. And he seemed to be around the plate more. He spent the offseason working on shortening his stride to the plate so he could get over the top of his pitches more and get more downward angle.

The only thing that bothered me was that his curveball clearly is his worst pitch and should be used sparingly. Jason Varitek hit a laser off a hanger in the second inning, and Gardy said Garza has to throw that pitch into the ground to get them to chase it, or use it as a first pitch, get-one-over strike.

Baker pitched up in the strike zone - again - but he wasn’t as elevated as he was last season. Then too many of his other pitches caught too much of the plate.

While Gardenhire felt Baker needed to get the ball down more - and not rely on his cutter so much - Baker had a different assessment. 

“ I threw several good sinkers,” he said. “Just like anything, if they see it enough times it doesn’t matter what you throw or how hard or how good it is. I think I threw four, maybe five offspeed pitches out of 41 pitches. Only one change up. I felt great. I’m not that displeased with my outing.”

Once again, there’s plenty of time left to win and lose a job. But I felt like I was watching Garza make a effort to improve while Baker is still trying to get out of the rut he’s in. But, as Baker pointed out, it’s early and he didn’t change speeds as much as he will later in camp.

Some other observations:

Rondell White looked good, but he also played well last spring.

If you’re a middle infielder, shouldn’t you be able to 1. run and 2. play shortstop? I like Luis Rodriguez, but watching him get thrown out at home by Alex Ochoa in the ninth exposed his lack of foot speed. And the Twins need a backup at short.

Gil Velazquez started at short Wednesday. The guy can pick it but he can’t hit a bull in the rear with a show shovel…

Torii Hunter had no business trying to stretch a single - to right - into a double when the play was right in front of him and the outfielder. On top of that, Hunter tore a thumbnail. He was so happy to come to camp in great shape and now a thumbnail may cost him a few games… 

 

 

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This entry was posted on Thursday, March 1st, 2007 at 8:30 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.