Friday, March 7th

First off i want to say i was impressed with Francise today for being his first start in 18 months his changup was good and his velocity will pick up and i believe his slider will come around. he gave up 2 hits and 0 runs in 1 and 2/3 innings and threw 40 pitches but its a good start.
Next i want to go through some of the position battles and say who i think is winning so far.
2b Punto vs Harris
neither one is really hitting very good to be honest and both will be on the team this spring punto is hitting .111 while harris is hitting a robust .083 this spring. I know harris is not hitting well now but i think he will be at 2b on opening day.
gomez vs Pridie vs Span
This battle i think is going to go on until the end of spring training because none of them are really taking the bull by the horns and earning the spot one day one guy has a good game and the next nothing and vice versa. so far this spring span is hitting .200, pridie is hitting .308 and gomez is hitting .235. I have actually changed my mind on this im gong with gomez because of the excitement he can bring to the team. Of course he will have his o fors but his defense and speed will put him in cf on opening day
Buscher vs Jones
This is an interesting battle i think Buscher has outplayed Jones but Garrett Jones is out of options and the Twins dont want to lose him so im thinking he will make the team out of spring training especailly with that memorable hr off chamberlian. Buscher has had a good spring so far hitting .375 to Jones' .182 but on opening day i think garrett jones will be there.
5th starter job
Kevin Slowey i think is still a favorite to get the job but he is not producing this spring with a 14.71 era and if he doesnt pick it up he wont make it but there is still time. The guys that have been making up ground are Nick Blackburn and Philip Humber along with Glen Perkins.
humber 0 runs in 4 innings after a bad game vs concordia and blackburn 0 runs in 3 innings when its all said an done i think Philip Humber is going to be the 5th starter with Nick Blackburn making the team in the bullpen.
its really early but those are some of the early results this spring see if they change.