Tuesday, April
6, 2010
Opening Night
Notes
NOTE – Be sure to join Travis
Aune and I for the first
episode of the Minnesota Twins Weekly Minor League
Report. Travis and I will talk about the Twins affiliates and prospects
each week. Tonight we will be joined by Kyle
Gibson, who will be starting the Ft. Myers season opener on Thursday night.
Maybe one other guest, but we will try to talk about all the
goings on in the Twins system. The main focus tonight will be the opening day
rosters. By the way, The Twins signed former big leaguer Jason Repko to a minor league contract
and he will play in CF in Rochester. The move pushed Rene Tosoni back to New Britain. In
recent days, the Twins released Charlton
Jimerson, Blair Erickson, Adan Severino and Jeff Lanning.
It’s official.
The Twins will not go undefeated in 2010. And if you read comments by some
Twins Tweeters, you would wonder if this team will ever win a game. It always
amazes me how riled up some Twins fans get during the season’s
first week, last month and in October. Every at bat is so magnified. Here are
some thoughts from the game:
·
Denard Span was 0-5 with three strikeouts. Not too worried about it.
I think he’ll be OK. I like when people (some sarcastically, some seriously)
bring up that the Twins maybe should have kept Carlos Gomez over Span because Gomez went 4-5 with a double, a
homer and a stolen base on Opening Day. I think we can all comfortably say that
Span will be better.
·
Scott Baker gave up two runs in the
first inning. He went just 4.2 innings. Not too worried about it. He will be
very good this year. It’s not like he typically walks two in an inning.
·
Jose Mijares gave up back-to-back
home runs in the bottom of the 8th inning. Not too worried about it.
He will likely be one of the Twins top bullpen options throughout the season
and his numbers will be great.
·
On the positive, Jesse
Crain looked tremendous, but again, it was one outing.
·
It was great to see Pat
Neshek get in a game after missing 23 months of
regular season games. It was probably great for Neshek
to be able to move past his rough outing on Friday night.
·
It was great to see Delmon Young smack a home run to deep left field in his first at bat,
beat out an infield hit in his second at bat and steal a base.
·
Overall comment on the offense. The Twins left 12 runners
on base. More often than not, they will knock in a few more runs.
·
Gomez wasn’t the only former Twins player to have a nice
Opening Day in the National League. Garrett Jones homered in his first two at
bats of the season as the Pirates starting RF and #3 hitter.
·
Jason Frasor blew a save opportunity
for the Blue Jays. George Sherrill
gave up three runs on two hits and a walk in 0.2 innings for the Dodgers. Franklin Morales got a save today. In
other words, closers blow saves and have rough outings. And anyone can close,
so be patient with Jon Rauch. I’m
sure he’ll be fine.
One game down,
161 (or 162?) to go!! What were your thoughts on the game? Leave
your comments.