Reports have come out that the competition for the Twins starting center field spot is now only between Carlos Gomez and Denard Span. It makes sense that Jason Pridie is out of the race seeing how Gomez and Span each have 7 starts in center compared to Pridie’s 2. Pridie is being looked at as a possible 4th outfielder and is usually coming into games in all outfield positions as a backup. Gomez and Span have alternated at center in the last 4 games and only Span(not Gomez) is on the trip for todays matchup against so that continues the alternating trend for now.

Here’s a look at their stats so far this spring. Keep in mind these numbers don’t include 2 B games and one rain out that had 4.5 innings in.

 HITTING

FIELDING 

It’s hard to come to any conclusions with a limited number of AB’s but the big thing is that sticks out is the on-base percentage. Span is at a .435 vs Gomez’ .167. In the minors with 1291 at-bats Carlos has a .278 AVG /  .339 OBP . / .399 SLG. Denard’s minor league stats show 1939 AB’s with .283 AVG / .350 OBP / .348 SLG.  In 125 AB’s with the Mets Carlos had a .232 AVG / .288 OBP / .304 SLG. Gomez obviously has not been able to bring his moderate minor league success into the majors or this year’s spring training with him.

So here’s the deal. Gomez has a huge upside with his speed and athleticism. If the Twins can get him on base with any amount of success his speed and fielding will be fantastic. The Twins want him to win the spot. Span does not show this kind of upside but he can at least get on base at this point. If Carlos can’t figure out how to get on base in any consistent way this spring I don’t see how he can start the season in center for the Twins. Span will have to start the year in center and Carlos will go down to AAA to get things sorted out. And that’s exactly what I think will happen. I don’t think carlos will figure things out at the plate quickly enough, Gomez will go down to AAA and Span will get to start the year at CF. I don’t think Pridie will make the 25 man roster, Monroe will get that spot with Kubel at DH.

Francisco Liriano got his 2nd start of the spring and didn’t fare so well. Francisco made it through 2+ innings today against the Red Sox and gave up 3 earned runs with 4 hits and 2 base on balls. Francisco said he didn’t have command of his pitches but did work up to throwing at 90-95% of full throttle. He also said he think he will be ready for t he rotation by end of the spring. Probably the best thing we heard  was that Francisco felt great after the game. Below is francisco’s line. Boxscore

Scott Baker’s sore back is going to keep him out longer than once thought. Ron Gardenhire said Scott would not be able to make the start in a minor league game this weekend as they had hoped. It all started in the Boston game on March 3rd he felt a tweak in his back. During his next start against Pittsburgh, Baker experienced tightness in his back and they shut him down after two innings and decided to have Nick Blackburn get the next start in Baker’s place.

This doesn’t sound like a major injury but Joe Christensen has quotes of coaches saying things like:

"Pitching coach Rick Anderson “says if this goes on for another week or so, we’re going to have to start making other plans,” Gardenhire said. “That’s what we’ve got to find out, whether, it’s going to push on.”

Hopefully he just misses the one start and can come back for the next one. Will keep you posted.

The Twins yesterday released their newest TV ad of their 2008 Twins Territory campaign titled Park Center featuring Minnesota’s own Pat Neshek. In this spot Pat gets zero respect from the youth of own high school alum as the kids can only ask about Joe Mauer. Pat’s grand total of words he speaks in this ad is a whopping ONE word: cheese?. It comes in reply to a girl asking What;s Joe’s favorite kind of cheese?

Sorry Pat, you deserved a better script in your starring role. This spot gets a thumbs down but Pat gets an A- for fine facial expressions and body language. For those wondering, the ad doesn’t reveal Joe’s favorite kind of cheese but my guess is it’s something exotic like KRAFT American.

By the way Pat Neshek has a personal blog at patneshek.com. Pat updates his blog fairly often, writing about his pitching, autographs, the Twins, mlb, hockey and personal tid-bits. He does a nice job sharing an inside glimpse of his life in baseball. Maybe Pat will clue us in on his favorite cheese….

For the record, my favorite cheese is pepperjack.

For a little fun today Patrick Reusse of Star Tribune and Joe Soucheray of the Pioneer Press,  and both of AM1500, are going to provide the radio call of the 3rd, 4th, and 5th innings of today’s Twins game. John Gordon and Dan Gladden will step aside for three innings of radio play by play and analysis to let Pat and Joe do their thing. Sounds like they will each take an inning of the play by play then see who gets to do the third.

Today’s game against the New York Yankees is also on FSN North giving folks a shot to see the spring Twins on TV. Game time is 12:05pm ct.

Today’s lineup is:

Boof Bonser(R) gets the start against Phil Hughes(R) who was included in the Santana trade talks with the Yankees. Other pitchers scheduled to get in some innings today are Randy Keisler (L), Joe Nathan (R), Matt Guerrier (R), Carmen Cali (L), Ricky Barrett (L), Mariano Gomez (L).

1. Span, CF. 2. Gomez, RF. 3. Young, LF. 4, Morneau, 1B. 5. Monroe, DH. 6. Buscher, 3B. 7. Redmond, C. 8. Punto, 2B. 9. Everett, SS

Interseting note is Gomez in right field. Looks like they are trying to both Span and Gomez in as many games as possible.

Livan Hernandez had a tough outing in today’s Twins win 8-7 over the Baltimore Orioles in a Spring Training game at Hammond Stadium. Livan’s line was

• On a positive note Delmon Young is heating up going 3 for 3 and getting his average up to .615. Delmon also knocked in 2 runs.
• Craig Monroe saw action today again after sitting out much of this early spring with a sore calf muscle. Craig went 2 for 2 and drove in 2 runs also.
• Alexi Casilla stole his 4 base of the spring and went 1 for 2 bringing his average up to .333

Check out todays boxscore of the Twin 8-7 win over the Orioles.

Today’s game vs the Tampa Bay Rays is one of the few spring training games where we don’t get to listen on the Twins Radio Network. If I remember right just a few years ago we were lucky to get just a handful of games during Spring Training. Now we get pretty nice coverage. Will have to follow the MLB boxscore. So far 0 -0 after 1 and a half innings. Boof has pitched 2 innings with 2 SO, 0 BB and 1 H. I wonder if he will go 3 IP today?

La Velle E Neal III reported earlier that Francisco Liriano was going to throw BP again today. Now I see Joe Christensen just posted that the session went well without any pain. Joe also said

"Liriano said he feels like he’s throwing his fastball and slider well but is still holding back with his slider. That explained what those of us behind the batting cage saw, as his fastball and change-up looked pretty good, while his slider was wild and ineffective."

One thing I have heard about pitchers coming back from Tommy John surgery is that strength and pain is not usually a problem. The arm has been so well rested and has gone through a lot of physical therapy so the arm is quite strong and healthy. Endurance for pitching 7, 8 and 9 innings and control are bound to be what Francisco will have to overcome.

The Boston Red Sox picked up where they left off last year and pounded out 8 runs against the Twins while all the Twins could muster was 3 runs late in the game. A few notable items worth mentioning include:

• Boof Bonser started the game with 2 strong innings: 2.0 IP   1 H   0 R   0 ER   0 BB   1 SO   0 HR   0.00 ERA
• Kevin Slowey started strong but could get his last out giving up back to back shots by Youkilis and Varitek.:1.2 IP   4 H   3 R   3 ER   2 BB   2 SO   2 HR   16.20 ERA
• Philip Humber pitched one shutout inning : 1.0 IP   1 H   0 R   0 ER   0 BB   1 SO   0 HR   0.00 ERA
• Denard Span led off the game with a nice single and looked comfortable. He was 1 for 2 at the plate.
• Carlos Gomez came in for Denard in the fifth and showed off his arm gunning down Pedroia at the plate. Carlos also had a questionable play where he chose to throw home again attempting to throw out Kottaras who easily scored. This allowed Coco Crisp to trot into 2nd base. Carlos was 0 for 2 leaving 3 guys on base.
•  Brian Buscher had a good game with a nice play in the field and the Twins first spring training homerun.
• Delmon Young made his first appearance and was 1 for 2.
•  Adam Everett also made his first appearance for the Twins and was 0 for 2 with 2 flyouts.
•  Neither Jon Lester nor Jacoby Ellsbury who were much talked about in possible trade packages for Santana made an appearance in the lineup today.
• Boxscore

The Twins get their second game tomorrow of three in a row against Boston. Randy Keisler will start for the Twins against Jon Lester. My guess is we will see Jacoby Ellsbury in center for the Red Sox too. Game time is 12:05 CT.

Johan Santana gave up 3 earned runs in 2.0 innings pitched in his first grapefruit league appearance for the New York Mets. His line included 10 batters faced, 4 hits, 0 base on balls, 1 strikeout and 1 homerun surrendered to Juan Gonzalez.. That line gives Johan a meaningless grapefruit ERA of 13.50 so far this spring. Take from that outing what you want. Twist it and say "Johan is washed up and will never match what he did for the Twins" or maybe say "Johan’s best is yet to come, he will dominate the National League, these spring numbers mean nothing".

But if this is so meaningless you may ask why bother writing this at all. My answer to that is because people want to know what Johan did today, and I like writing and talking about baseball. We all want to speculate on what will be, what was lost, what was gained, and who will do what this year. That is the fun of baseball. None of it really matters for us observers, it’s just a release, hmmm…..a pastime one might say. Johan’s box score

Since a lot of us Twins fans are going to be watching what Torii and Johan do this year here’s the scoop on what Torii did in his first spring training game with the California Angels, oops.. I mean Anaheim Angels, shucks,…. I mean the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim….how lame is that name? Torri went 2 for 2 with a double and a single and a 2 out rbi. I’ll let you know what Johan does in his first appearance and give updates from time to time throughout the season.