Span sent down; Twins-Phillies lineups
Posted on March 18th, 2007 – 10:31 AMBy La Velle
The Twins on Sunday optioned outfielder Denard Span to Class AAA Rochester. Span batted .306 this spring, and his seven RBI were tied for second most on the team.
The move was expected, but Span impressed the coaching staff during his time in the big league camp. He’s got good speed (although he needs to steal more bases) has a sold arm and plays a solid center field. He’s made progress offensively, but his next step will be an important one: learning the drive the ball more.
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire has had nothing but praise for Span this spring. With Torii Hunter’s future with the Twins unclear after this season, the Twins have someone nearly ready to play center in 2008. Span will never have the power Hunter has, but he’s a different type of player anyway.
Lineups:
Phils: Shane Victorino, Michael Bourn, Wes Helms, Jayson Werth, Dusty Wathan, Carlos Ruiz, Abraham Nunez, Danny Sandoval, Brent Abernathy. Pitching: J.A. Happ
Twins: Castillo, Punto, Mauer, Cuddyer, Morneau, Hunter, White, Cirillo, Bartlett. Pitching: The best in baseball.
19 Responses to "Span sent down; Twins-Phillies lineups"
Looks like we have our regulars playing today. Nice to see White back in the lineup.
Was Span the only move?
I was thinking the same thing as TT. First time I recall seeing a lineup with all the projected starting defense at the same time. Must be that time of ST where Gardy starts getting serious about things. Of course, it may just be a factor of having a scheduled day off tomorrow, too.
It appears that Philly sent a complete B squad. I thought teams had to have a couple front line players on road games so fans could see other teams stars.
That was a great play by Punto! And people question why Gardy wants him to be the third basemen?
I would think that if there’s a rule about starting a few front line players, it’s as much for the benefit of a manager trying to evaluate talent as for the fans. Kind of hard to determine how good your young pitchers and hitters are if they arent given a chance to face at least a couple of legit major leaguers early in a game.
Morneau is getting hot…..is it openning day yet?
It’s a split squad Phils team. Maybe that gets them out of the four-starters rule…
Morneau just homered into a crosswind. It’s 2-0. Castillo just got a RBI infield single. It’s 3-0.
Man, Casilla is fast. I haven’t seen anybody tag from third on a fly ball that shallow.
Yeah, I want Casilla to get experience so he is ready in 2008 to be our 2nd baseman but his speed could sure be a help in the late innings of a close game.
Oh I know he won’t be with the team this year, and I agree, he shouldn’t be. But I’m sure excited for when he’s finally playing second for us.
La Velle, Not sure if you have covered it but what do you know about Luis Castillo’s knees. It was a problem that really affected him towards the end of last season. Is not hearing at all about them a sign that it’s not an issue?
Looking at the box score, it appears Slowey had a bit of a rough inning.
Listening on the radio broadcast, it sounds like the first couple of hits were bloops/seeing eye type hits. Not well hit but found the hole. Anderson did go out and talk with Slowey. Maybe La Velle will be able to assess Slowey’s stuff today.
Pretty sure the first runner got on because of a throwing error by Casilla. After that he just couldn’t nail down the final out.
http://twinsfans.zedzone.com/wiki/view_entry.php?wikiEntryId=20071
Slowey did have a bit of a rough inning. It wasn’t a throwing error by Casilla, the throw was fine. He had trouble getting the ball out of his glove, and the delay allowed the runner to reach safely. Bartlett wouldn’t have made the same mistake, and hopefully in time Casilla won’t either.
But what troubles me more is that Slowey showed that he struggles when the pressure is on. He needs to be able to get out of trouble with guys on base, and he couldn’t do it. Sure, the first couple of RBI base hits were softly hit, just dropping in over the infield. But those still count. And if Casilla had made the play, it would have been another 1-2-3 inning for Slowey. But he needs to be able to compensate for mistakes in the field. Bonser was doing it over and over again yesterday.
(By the way, I love MLB.TV!)
Slowey is going to have a hard time getting out of jams because he isn’t going to be able to get strikeouts when he gets in trouble. That is the difference between him and guys like Garza, Perkins and Bonser. They can get the strikeout when they need to.
Great to hear that the Twins # 2 starter got lit up in a start against minor leaguers today.
Kevin; Who’s #2 and I didn’t hear it. Lit up how? What’s great about it?
Bad knees and all Castillo should have won the Gold Glove last season. He is the best fielder on the team and on this team that says an awful lot about how little the knees affect him! If the Twins put together a highlight reel on Luis before the voting last season, everyone would have seen what I saw! Thank you God for Direct TV Extra Innings and Tivo, so all of us displaced Twins fans get to see almost every game!!!
2007 Gold gloves
Nick Punto
Luis Castillo
and Torii will actually earn one this year based on his play and not his reputation. He was not even close to a Gold Glover in 2006!
