Monday, November 5, 2007
Winter Update
I haven’t updated the goings on with the Twins minor leaguers
playing in Arizona or Venezuela, so I thought I would do that quickly.
First things first, Brian Buscher has left the Aragua team in Venezuela which is
fine. He went down there and hit well for a couple of weeks and now he can
enjoy some offseason. Hopefully he goes into spring training healthy. Here are
the updates from the weekend games in Venezuela:
·
Friday –
Brian Bass has been impressive all offseason. However, he had a rough one
on Friday night. He gave up five runs on six hits and a walk in 3.2 innings. He
struck out four. Later in the game, Frank
Mata was perfect for 2.1 innings.
·
Saturday – Luis
Maza went 2-3. Oswaldo Sosa got just two outs and gave up three runs on three hits and
two walks. Yohan Pino came in
and gave up a hit and a walk in 1.2 scoreless innings. Later Bobby Korecky
struck out for in two scoreless innings.
·
Sunday – Luis
Maza went 2-4. Ruben Salazar, who has spent the last two or three years with the
Fargo-Moorhead Redhawks, also went 2-4. I can’t help
but wonder what he could have been had the Twins not gone through the Luis Rivas era. I think he could have
been a player similar to Ronnie Belliard. Frank
Mata came in an got the one batter he faced out.
Things were a little quiet for the Twins prospects down in Arizona
this weekend. In Phoenix’s game on Saturday, none of the Twins prospects
played, and on Sunday they did not have a scheduled game. On Friday, Anthony Swarzak
started and gave up a run on two hits in three innings. He struck out two and
walked none. Ryan Mullins came in
and struck out three in three one-hit innings. Trevor Plouffe went 1-2 with two walks
and an RBI. Matt Macri
went 0-4 with a walk. Drew Butera caught an inning.
By the way, if you don’t check out mlbtraderumors.com
throughout the day, you never know what you’re missing. There is some great
stuff in there today on the availability of Scott Kazmir and Erik Bedard and Tim Lincecum and much more. But I do want
to point out that they have their Top 50
Free Agents available along with where they think those guys will sign.
If the Twins end up with the two guys on that list that they suggest, I will be
greatly disappointed.
Alright, I will be sure to be back with a decent entry that will
hopefully peak your interest tomorrow morning, so please check back. If you
have any questions, comments or ideas for future postings, please e-mail me.
Thanks again!