A bit of reassurance that the snow will melt
Posted on March 5th, 2008 – 3:57 PMBy Howard
Having the office TV on the Twins-Yankees game today made the overnight snow a little easier to deal with. Opening Day is in 3 1/2 weeks away and I’m expecting someone to knock down Torii Hunter and then get him to ground into a double play with 2 men on.
I was keeping track of the game with half an eye and one ear — and there were some things that made me happy:
*Simply beating the Yankees, even if it is only an exhibition game. Should I have been surprised that ESPN’s lead-in featured an interview with Derek Jeter, the greatest player ever among those who judge the game by intangibles and don’t see the balls he doesn’t get to in the field?
*Seven innings of relief pitching without a walk. Kevin Slowey didn’t look so good, but the important guys who followed looked (and sounded during the radio innings) pretty sharp. I know this Randy Keisler guy is probably a mirage, but he looked pretty good along with Neshek and Reyes. (Note to Oswaldo Sosa: You simply can’t leave a change-up at the letters and not expect a major-leaguer to hit it 625 feet. Note to Fans: Sosa gave up only 6 HRs in 155 innings in the minors last year, so I think he can learn.)
*Garrett Jones taking Joba Chamberlain very, very deep. After all, Joba is the second coming of the Rocket and Jones is just another Stahoviakian stiff, right? Nice to see the playing field leveled there.
*Delmon Young swinging like a stud, going deep of Ian Kennedy. The Twins have been lighting up the collection of pitchers that were talked about in various iterations of the Johan deal.
*Three stolen bases, including 2 against Jorge Posada, who has thrown out 42 percent of base-stealers in the last two seasons.
*That’s enough to provoke a bit of hope for today, even if Carlos Gomez went 0-for-5.
other people are here too.
11 Responses to "A bit of reassurance that the snow will melt"
Ahh…the sweet smell of The Twins Beating the Yankees…REFRESHING.
Our A squad played their A squad even and oue B GUYS WHOOPED their B guys.
By the way…Carlos Gomez is not good. I hope Pridie is our opening day Centerfielder.
putting Garrett Jones and Scott Stahoviak in the same sentence is funny
I think that Jones is fighting for a bench position (RH DH/1B/OF/PH) with Monroe, Knott and Ruiz and unless Monroe shows up, I wouldn’t doubt that the Twins might give the job to Jones (since he’s out of options) release Monroe, take his $3.5 mil and sign Lofton while Gomez is growing up…
I continue to believe Slowey has no out pitch, and wish he would have gone to Tampa. I continue to hope I’m wrong.
Slowey has no out pitch
Well, this is true, as is true that Greg Maddux does not have an “out” pitch. Slowey is a control pitcher, working batters not with different speeds or movements, but with different locations. A lot of pitchers made a pretty nice living with that…
mww: Tampa Bay wanted Garza. That was the only way to get Young.
Period.
Slowey looked like he had better stuff than Kennedy to me. Better defense behind him & he would have done ok.
What a difference there will be on our bench from last year! Guys who can field and hit, unlike our starting third baseman from last year. In fact, if the compitition was just on this spring’s results, I don’t think our last year’s starting third baseman would even make the club.
I agree with TD. Gomez really seems to be VERRRY raw. His throws come out from a 3/4 overhand slot, which is why he pulled those throws up the 1st base line. That will also lead to the ball curving to the right on his longer throws. He also seems to be trying to get the ball to home on the fly, which makes it hard on the cutoff man. Great talent. Needs to learn how to use it. Also needs to learn how to hit.
Young looks great.
It sure was nice to be able to watch a game on TV again. For some reason this has been a really long winter for me, and I am really looking foward to spring, which means baseball!
I was encouraged to see Casilla with several heads up plays! I was so frustrated with his inability to keep his head in the game last year and the mistakes he would make by rushing himself.
Interestingly enough, it’s very much like what I saw out of Carlos Gomez today. He’s got a lot of talent and his problems are mostly mental. He’s really got to get his personal sense of timing down keep his head in the decision-making.
Since it seems like time is doing a lot for Alexi in that department, I have a lot of hope for the same being true for Gomez. I don’t know if he can pull himself together for opening day but I have legitimate hope that he will be able to focus that talent better in the future.
And I was surprised to see how well Kiesler did considering I didn’t know him from Adam.
thrylos98, Jones is a LH batter.
I’m thinking Gomez’s mechanics are a year or two behind thanks to the Mets organization.
