Split-Squad Friday
Posted on March 7th, 2008 – 9:43 AMBy La Velle
I’m near downtown Fort Myers with Pat Reusse, waiting to cover Francisco Liriano’s debut. Joe C. should be headed over the Sunshine Skyway about now as he’s on his way to Dunedin to cover the Twins-Blue Jays game.
Stopped by the Twins minor league complex this morning and picked up a few notes.
Matt Moses and David Winfree, originally third baseman, both are listed as outfielders on the list of work groups. This doesn’t mean the moves are permanent, but it suggests that the organization may be clearing a path for Danny Valencia or, down the road, Deibinson Romero. Maybe Moses or Winfree will take off offensively if they find that playing outfield is a better fit.
Estarlin De Los Santos, a good-looking shortstop prospect at E-Town last season, will miss a couple months with a strained elbow ligament. The Twins were worried he might need Tommy John surgery and sent him to the Twin Cities recently. But doctors recommended that rest and rehab is the way to go.
Outfielder J.W. Wilson, a sixth round pick in 2005, has retired. He missed all of last year with a torn labrum and has decided to pursue other opportunities.
First baseman Henry Sanchez, the power-hitting prospect who has been slowed by left hand and right knee surgeries, now wants to be called Hank. Well now he’s got the name right….
Here are the Twins’ lineups for both games
vs Boston: 1. Span, CF. 2. Harris, 2B. 3. Cuddy, RF. 4. Morneau, 1B . 5. Monroe, LF. 6. Lamb, 3B. 7.Redmond, C. 8. Kubel, DH. 9. Basak, SS. Pitching: Franchise.
Boston: 1. Diaz, SS. 2. Pedroia, 2B. 3. Ortiz, DH. 4. Man-Ram, LF. 5. Drew, RF. 6. Varitek, C. 7. Casey, 1B. 8. Ginter, 3B. 9. Van Every, CF. Pitching: Buchholz.
vs Toronto: 1. Gomez, CF. 2. Punto, 2B. 3. Young, LF. 4. Jones, RF. 5. Ruiz, DH. 6. Buscher, 1B. 7. Macri, 3B. 8. Morales, C. 9. Everett, SS. Pitching: Perkins.
Don’t have Toronto’s lineup yet….
93 Responses to "Split-Squad Friday"
Which game is Pridie playing in?
nice update len3 it’s good to get some info on some of the players and how things are moving along.
Unlike Joe C, don’t forget to turn the ignition off when you park today.
LaVelle,
I know the team has adopted the moniker the Franchise for Liriano but someone has to start calling him the Cisco Kid.
Then when he warms up in the dome, the music from the group War could be blasted on the loudspeakers, “The Cisco Kid he was a friend of mine”
I will guarantee that the fans would go nuts.
LEN
I know it’s early but is your gut telling you that Monroe is going to make the team?
I wanna read about the Franchise making Big Papi and Man-Ram look silly at the plate.
LEN3- it seems pridie never starts any games in cf…i dont remember that he has…is there something to read into this… and any chance casilla may overtake harris at 2b or is being groomed for short only…he sure has looked good this spring and may force gardy into something …jmho…thanks for the updates on the younger players…
mj1-yesterday Pridie started in CF, and Span came in later in the game.
Mauer isn’t playing? Which hammy is he busy icing down?
Ben
I would guess the middle hammy.
Unfortunate for de Los Santos. I know that the Twins are quite high on him. The opening may give Nick Papasan an opportunity at Beloit to start the season.
Interesting on Moses and Winfree. I know the Twins tried Moses at 2B in the Instructional League. I wonder if that just didn’t work, or if they’re just trying anything. Also, you may be right. This may allow Valencia to start at New Britain, rather than come up a month or two later.
Let’s hope Perkins can nail it down vs. Toronto.
Hank! lol
Hank Sanchez? You can’t make that stuff up. Maybe he should go with the first name of Dirty?
Man, I wish mlb.tv had the Franchise game on. I’d love to see his first few pitches.
thanks beth. i guess i wasnt paying close enough attention….
Gomez with a hit and sb already…good to see him bounce back.
Liriano’s a scratch…Perkins pitching (MLB.com boxscore)
Wow…Monroe & Morneau homer. New M&M combo? 
Justin Morneau just hammered a 2-1 brekaing ball from Clay Buchholz over the right-center wall INTO THE WIND for a two-run homer.
Craig Monroe hits the NEXT PITCH over the left-center wall.
3-0 Twins.
Liriano’s a scratch…Perkins pitching (MLB.com boxscore)?
Where’s La Velle on this one?
Eunomian…wrong game. Liriano is throwing in Ft. Myers vs. Boston
Perkins is pitching the Toronto game. Franky is pitching against the Bosox. It’s a split squad.
It’s split squad today. Perkins is pitching one. Liriano the other.
he is not a scratch…he is throwing in the Boston game..lol
Liriano’s a scratch…Perkins pitching (MLB.com boxscore)?
perkins is starting the toronto game. (split squad). you must be looking at the wrong game.
Delmon with another hit (.643 avg) and his 5th RBI
Liriano warming…
Ah, thanks all…my error (thankfully!)
anyone having password trouble with MLB.com…trying to get John and Danny’s TRN commentary online.
Clay who? Must say the Twins have done pretty well against the pitchers the Sox offered the Twins for Santana.
how are we getting info on the b game…coming from someone at the game??
Gomez with another stolen base and run scored
Nice to see Young getting some more time at the 3-hole. I really think M/Y/M/C is the best way to go into the season.
And wow, hope he saves some of it for the season.
Big off speed pitch by The Franchise to force Manny to “grab some bench”.
Liriano walks one in the first but strikes out Man-Ram swinging with a nice slider to end the inning.
Once again, my local Twins Net radio station from Marshall isn’t broadcasting the game. And KSTP won’t stream any games this year.
So I’m in the dark. Would appreciate live accounts on Liriano.
Meanwhile, ESPN is broadcasting the Indians-Mets game. Cliff Lee is getting pounded in the 1st. 35 pitches already, just walked a guy in. They’re taking him out.
I guess that Buchholtz, Joba and Ian Kennedy were “TOUCHABLE” after all.
Gladden on the radio said Franchise’s fastball being clocked at 88-89mph. Anderson must be telling him to hold back-hopefully.
My kingdom to at least listen to the game…Not on xm, high school hockey on the radio, blacked out on mlb in my area.
be great news len3 if you can give us your impressions as the game progresses a lot of us can’t get the live feed.
CharlieMurphy, you gave us the Toronto game link.
Is it a split squad day cause I can’t figure what the heck is going on?
JDW
All pitchers gain velocity as they go through spring training. His fastball should top out around 93-94 by the end of camp.
Yes, SS today. @Blue Jays and @BoSox
It’s nice to see Punto (.125) and Everett (.111) are living up to their reputations. Great gloves.
Sarc
What is LEN’s post title?
Gomez has 3 hits and 3 SB in 14 AB.
Yearning for the good ol’ days when we heard Twins on ‘CCO radio. Local station preempted for a local high school game last week, but I have no idea why they aren’t broadcasting today.
Twins Radio Network sucks.
The Mets’ Martinez misjudges a screaming liner from Hafner, which goes for an RBI double.
Wow, has baseball changed.
Late in the 1964 season, Sandy Koufax developed a circulatory issue. He won 19 games that season, but spent the winter rehabilitating. When he arrived at spring training 1965, the Dodgers put him in a game and let him throw 160 pitches(!) They were unrepentant — they wanted to find out if Koufax was still a 9-inning workhorse. After this game, his elbow swelled up like a grapefruit, but he ‘pitched through it’.
In 1965 he went 24-8 with an era of 2.04.
He did have to retire after the 1966 season - arm trouble.
Teams treat their assets with a little more care in the modern age…
Whoever is doing the live box score on Twinsbaseball.com is really pathetic today.
Any place where I can get an actual live box score instead of having it update once every 10 minutes or so??
Nice first outing for Liriano. 8 batters, 2 hits, 1 walk, 2 k’s, 39 pitches in an inning and two thirds.
I’m at works so any in game updates from people listening on the radio would be greatly appreciated. It sounds like he had a decent 1st inning. I’m watching the live boxscore but nothing has changed for quite awhile on it.
does 1500 am have it?
Jama- my concern is that Twins staff said he was throwing 95-96 in Dominican Republic. Maybe that radar gun is too fast but if not a dropoff of 6-8 mph is strange unless he’s purposely holding back.
Liriano is done after 40 pitches, either 24 or 25 of them strikes.
Gave up back-to-back singles with two outs in the second when Nick Blackburn replaced him.
Looked free and easy. Command wasn’t there, which is expected.
Thanks Jerry D, too bad he couldn’t have finished the inning but I’m still happy he didn’t get knocked around, that would have been depressing.
Thanks all of you with info
In other news, it looks like Perkins is having a pretty good day Vs. Toronto. 2 2/3 IP no runs 2 hits 2 K’s
Gladden says he had a nice changeup and threw it w/confidence vs lefties, too.
Thanks people for the updates.
We’re interested in Blackburn too!
the scouts said he only touched 90 miles an hour once today..
(1500 am announcer is the source)
that really stinks.. but you know.. it seems like hes holding back right now.. also hes doing more a a curve ball to strike out people then a slider.. better for his arm but i really loved that slider
I would assume that Franchise is working more on his location right now than his velocity. Remember this is the first time he has faced live hitters in a year and a half.
Blackburn has pitched very well this Spring. Would like to see him start the season as the #5 in the rotation.
Sarc = sarcasm. Look it up.
AM 1500 said fastball was 88-89, curve (slider) and changeup 77-78. I’m betting he’ll take it easy on the slider until his velocity comes up. Gladden said the slider was more like a big curve. He really was working his changeup… good location and used it to whiff Ramirez. Worked around Ortiz pretty well, but walked him. All in all, pretty good first outing.
it doesn’t matter how hard Liriano was throwing today. Today was solely about getting into an actual game and face actual hitters and situations… and come out of it healthy. That’s all. Everything else can be addressed later.
I’d like Blackburn OR Perkins as a starter. Gladden, on the broadcast, says Perkins has better value to the Twins as a starter.
3 shut out innings in Dunedin for Perkins today.
Lamb is 2-2 today. He’s hitting around .500 this spring & Gladden said his defense has looked very good as well. I liked the Lamb pickup this year, hopefully playing full-time he can hit 18-20 dingers & knock in 70-80 RBI.
big, big day for liriano and the twins…couldnt have asked for anymore than we got today…awesome….very good sign of things to come…no hurry….after what hes been through…
Its only ST, but Monroe has 3 hits and a HR in his first 6AB of the spring.
If he could regain his 33 HR, 102 RBI stroke from 2006, mmmmmmm….homers.
Well warrior, sounds like Franchise is already pitching about the way Cytanna did last year with a great changeup and an ineffective slider.
New blog…….
Gomez with a triple. 2-3 today, back to playing good ball. One bad game doesn’t mean he isn’t ready.
Lamb is hitting .455 but Buscher is also having a great spring hitting .400.
And Gomez is having up and down days… Pridie has been playing more consistant baseball so far
Gomez hit a triple.
I hope someone has tape of him running that out.
Did Kubel hit a solo homer? If so, cool.
Stupis slow mlb boxscore.
I’m a little confused….Kubel has an RBI but no hits and no BB?
Mleeob,
I don’t think Kubel hit a HR as he has no hits.
I think he reached on a FC (Redmond out) driving in Lamb, Stole 2nd and scored on Basak’s hit.
Thanks Mike!
kubel with a SB? are the stars aligning?
Yah I figured it was that too Mike. How the heck did Kubel steal a base? Twins are looking good on all fronts today.
Thanks Mike.
Stole second?!?!
What about Humber? 3 Ks and 1 hit in 2 innings. Not bad.
Nick Blackburn 2 1/3 innings, one walk, no hits. La Velle, do you think he will make the team if he keeps it up?
So 4 runs in one game…I think 4-5 in this game.
Good consistent offense this spring. They lost the first two x-1, but then have scored a fair number of runs each time since. (They’re other loss was what…7-6?)
Pridie may be more consistent and more advanced than Gomez,
Let the BEST CF play when I am NOT watching.
BUT WHEN I go to the game, I’d rather see Gomez in CF even if his throws are flying over my head.
Gotta love the excitement of watching him run, hit (when he does) and throw -LOOK OUT!!!!!!!!!
The Santana trade looks good today at least. Gomez is doing well and Humber and Mulvey combined for 4 innings, 1 hit, no runs and 5 K’s.
Kubel has 2 rbi today as well. I wish these games were on!
Don’t forget Morneau’s first homer!
[…] BennHSplit-Squad Friday I’m nearby downtown Fort Myers with Pat Reusse, state to equilibrate Francisco Liriano’s debut. Joe C. should be headlike over the Sunshine Skyway most today as he’s on his whole to Dunedin to equilibrate the Twins-Blue Jays game. Stopped by the Twins alternative connexion Asiatic this going and picked u… Read the flooded place from Twins Insider Tags: Uncategorized via Blogdigger book wager for la fitness. […]
