Saturday, March 28, 2009

Saturday, March 28th

Today, in Fort Myers vs the Red Sox the Twins and Francisco Liriano found out a very important lesson. When Liriano has trouble placing his fastball he is very hittable. Gone are the days when he could rely on his nasty slider when he couldn't place his fastball. I think Liriano is going to be a very good pitcher for the Twins, but I don't see him ever being the dominant Liriano of 2006 and thats ok. He will be a guy in the 3's for a era and every team needs one of those.
  • Today in Fort Myers the Boston Red Sox got all over Francisco Liriano to the tune of 7 runs in only 3 innings of work. He gave up 3 homeruns in the 3rd inning in his worst start of the spring. Liriano just can not place his fastball right now and until he does that he will be a very average pitcher. Joe Nathan pitched a good inning and appears ready to go north. Philip Humber was ok giving up 1 run in his 2 innings of work. All in all everyone but Liriano did his job and all in all they appear ready for the season.
  • The Twins continue to hit the ball well as they again had 8 hits in a losing cause. Joe Crede had an Rbi double and Justin Mourneau had an rbi single in a 2 run first. Matt Tolbert continued his quest to make the team with a 2 run homerun for the Twins. All in all it was a good game for the hitters as Carlos Gomez' skills were on display as he went 3-3 with 2 stolen bases. The Twins need to find a way to get him in the lineup on a consistant basis because he is a star in the making.
  • The Twins made a major roster decision when they agreed on a trade with the Yankees to keep Jason Jones in the organization. They had to give up a good prospect in Charles Nolte, but he will be a good pitcher for Rochester and might make his way to the majors this season. Jones had a 2.70 era this spring and will start the season in Rochester.
  • Tommorrow, the Twins welcome the St. Louis Cardinals to Fort Myers. The Cardinals are expected to bring all their regulars so it should be an exciting game. The pitching matchup should be good with Twins ace Kevin Slowey going against Chris Carpenter. Gametime is at 12:05 in Fort Myers.

NEW!!!! Projected Rochester Roster

Based on a few roster changes and other projections I am going to project who I think will be on the Rochester roster and the type of lineup.

C- Jose Morales
1b- Brock Peterson
2b- Matt Tolbert
SS- Trevor Plouffe
3b- Luke Hughes
Lf- Dustin Martin
CF- Jason Pridie
RF- David Winfree
DH- Justin Huber

Bench
Jeff Christy
Matt Macri
Alejandro Machado
Joe Gaetti

Pitching
1. Kevin Mulvey
2. Anthony Swarzak
3. RA Dickey
4. Jason Jones
5. Mike Gosling

Relief
Closer- Ben Julianel
Rob Delaney
Bobby Keppel
Jose Mijares
Tim Lahey
Armando Gabino
Sean Henn