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.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 5th, 2008 at 3:57 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.