Friday, April 4, 2008
Friday Night Notes
Well, the news
came via LaVelle that Michael Cuddyer
would be put on the 15 Day Disabled list with a dislocated and lacerated
finger. When the play happened, he dove headfirst into 3B Alex Gordon’s spikes,
the TV cameras showed his finger briefly and it was disturbing. I really hope
he is alright, and moreso, I really hope that this
doesn’t give him that hated “injury prone” label. I hate when that label is
given when a guy gets hurt on freak plays when he is going all out. Cuddyer was going all out, took an extra base. It is just
unfortunate.
Also, the Twins replaced Cuddyer with Denard Span on the
roster. I am happy for Span. We all know what kind of player he is. Speed!
Speed! Speed! He was solid for the last half of the year last year and had a
good spring. He deserves this and I wish him well. The Twins have the option of
playing him in CF with Carlos Gomez moving to RF. Or, Jason Kubel
could just go into RF with Span acting as a fourth OF. I do anticipate him
being in the lineup tonight.
But on the positive side, the
Twins won again, 5-4 against the Royals. Scott Baker gave up three runs in the
first two innings, but that is it as he ended up going 6.2 innings. Very impressive. Then Pat Neshek
and Joe Nathan got the final seven outs to assure the win. Like I mentioned
last week, the Twins Pythagorean number will probably never be impressive, but
the Twins will almost always outperform it. Why? Because any game that the Twins
bullpen gets into that is close, they find a way to win. The
bullpen. Wow!
Cuddyer was 2-2 when he left the game. 2-hitter Joe Mauer was 2-4 on the game with an RBI. But the ignitor, Carlos Gomez, went 3-4 with a double to the Left
Centerfield gap and two more stolen bases. Adam Everett laid down a perfect squeeze
bunt to score Mike Lamb with what proved to be the game winner.
I have to ask this… I happen to
think that (admittedly through 5 games) Carlos Gomez is the most exciting
player that the Twins have had since… ???? When? Cristian Guzman’s triples year? Chuck Knoblauch? It is a different
kind of excitement than even when Joe Mauer and
Justin Morneau were in their incredible 2006 season.
What do you think?
Rochester lost a 3-4 decision
to Richmond. Garrett Jones went 3-5 again and hit his first home run. Has he
turned a corner, or two games is a small size?! Denard
Span got on twice and stole two bases before learning of his promotion. Brian Duensing took the loss but was solid for 5.2 innings. He
gave up two runs on six hits and a walk. Carmen Cali gave up two unearned runs
in an inning. Then Julio DePaula gave up two hits and
a walk in 1.1 innings.
New Britain was rained out.
Ft. Myers beat Sarasota 6-3 and
Jeff Manship recorded his first win of the year.
Danny Valencia went 3-4. Brian Dinkelman was 2-4 with
a double. Toby Gardenhire went 2-3 with a walk and
two RBI. Manship went five innings and gave up three
runs on three hits. He walked three and struck out four. Matt Fox and Alex
Burnett each threw a shutout inning before Rob Delaney threw two shutout frames
for the save. Alex Smit took the loss for Sarasota.
Beloit fell 10-5 in their
opener to Kane County. They will play two games today. The story of the game
for the Snappers unfortunately has to be that Chris Parmelee
went 0-5 with five strikeouts. Not a good start for a season of hope! Joe
Benson went 2-5 with two doubles and three strikeouts. Deibinson
Romero went 1-3 with two walks. Ozzie Lewis hit a homer. David Bromberg gave up
five runs on three hits and three walks in 5.2 innings. Steve Hirschfeld came in and gave up four unearned runs in his
inning. (Note – the Snappers had four errors in the game). Charles Nolte gave
up an unearned run in 1.1 innings. Dominique Rodgers struck out three in two
perfect innings.
That’s it for now. Have a great weekend!