The Twins came up short in in their grapefruit opener today. Baker pitched the first 2 innings giving up 3 hits, no runs, no walks and had 1 strike out. Perkins took the loss giving up a 3 run dong in the 3rd. Perk gave up 4 hits and had 1 strikeout. Guerrier, Neshek, Daigle, DePaula and Barrett were the other Twins pitchers. Guerrier, Neshek, Daigle and DePaula did fine and each pitched an inning with and no runs. Barrett really slowed things down in the eighth giving up 3 runs (2 earned) with 2 hits and 1 base on balls.

Mauer, Cuddyer, Kubel, Monroe and Lamb each had singles for the Twins. The one Twins run was scored by Tolbert but was unearned with the Reds having 4 errors. The Twins had one error. Brendan Harris blew a double play chance with a poor throw that took Jones off of first. There was a hard slide coming in but sounds like he could have made the play. Carlos Gomez was 0 for 2 leading off in center today with one strike out. He did get on his horse with a nice catch in center though. Boxscore.

Tomorrow the Twins have an evening game starting at 6:00pm CT. Catch it on AM1500 and the Twins Radio Network.

Today at 12:05pm CT the Twins have their first grapefruit league game of spring training. The Cincinnati Reds are hosting the Twins at Ed Smith Stadium in Sarasota. La Velle E Neal III gave us today’s Twins lineup in a blog post he made yeasterday and also the Reds lineup today. Thanks La Velle! I’m psyched up, The Twins on on the air today! Catch the game on AM1500 and the rest of the Twins radio Network.

1. Carlos Gomez, CF.
2. Brendan Harris, 2B.
3. Joe Mauer, C.
4. Michael Cuddyer, RF.
5. Jason Kubel, LF.
6.Craig Monroe, DH.
7. Mike Lamb, 3B.
8. Garrett Jones, 1B.
9. Alexi Casilla, SS
P Scott Baker, Glen Perkins, Matt Guerrier, Pat Neshek, Casey Daigle, Rickey Barrett, Julio DePaula.

1. Norris Hopper, CF. 2 Ryan Freel, LF. 3. Brandon Phillips. 2B. 4. Edwin Encarnacion. 5. Jay Bruce, RF. 6.Andy Phillips, 1B. 7. Juan Castro, SS. 8. Javier Valentin, C. 9. Joey Votto. P Matt Belisle.

First pitch is about to be thrown. I will be twittering the game at http://twitter.com/betweeninnings. Hope you follow!

photo compliments of Stephen Fernandez cc

 Twins pitchers and catchers report to spring training tomorrow and one of my favorite times of the year is about here. Here are the key dates for the Twins Spring Training.

• Sunday February 17th - Twins catchers & pitchers report
• Monday, February 18th - first offcial workouts for Twins pitchers and catchers
• Friday, February 22nd - all Twins players report to spring training
• Thursday, February 28th - first spring training game 6:05 pm central time at the Reds.
• Friday, February 29th - Twins Spring Training home opener 6:05 pm ct vs the Red Sox
• Wednesday, March 5th - First Twins TV game of Spring Training 12:15 pm ct vs the Yankees on ESPN
• Saturday, March 29th - Twins last Spring Training game 12:05 pm ct at the Pirates
• Monday, March 31st - Twins first game of the season and home opener vs the Angels w/Torii Hunter 6:05 pm ct at Metrodome

Here’s a couple aerial shots of the Twins Spring Training Hammond Stadium. Ahhhhh, looks nice, eh?

 Here are a couple images of Twin’s spring training schedule and seating chart taken from the Minnesota Twins 2008 Spring Training pocket schedule. Click on them to see a larger image. Twins spring training tickets go fast I hear so them now if you are making the trip.

I just saw on the MLB Transaction list that the A’s have signed former Twin Matt LeCroy to a minor league contract. This comes as a result of A’s minor league catcher Jeremy Brown retiring for personal reasons and the A’s would like another catcher in spring training. Chances are slim that Matt will get a season long gig out of the deal.

Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports reported this morning that the Minnesota Twins have signed pitcher Livan Hernandez to a one year deal worth 5 to 6 million dollars plus performance based incentives possibly adding another million or so to make the deal worth the 7 million he made last year. Livan who pitched for the Arizona Diamondbacks last year will be 33 this season and will provide a veteran presence for the Twins young pitching staff.

The Good: Livan has pitched over 200 innings in each of his last 8 seasons. He eats up innings and has produced double digits in wins in each of these last 8 seasons. Bringing in a proven veteran can the pressure off the young Twins staff who really have no clue what the starting rotation will look like this year.

The Bad: Livan’s contract that may hit 7 million is no drop in the bucket. A 7 million dollar contract puts him only behind Morneau, Cuddyer and Mauer and just above Nathan. The Twins payroll is low this year with the departure of Santana, Hunter and Silva, but is that smart use of money for a team that many don’t think will contend?

The Ugly: In the past three years Hernandez’ stats have dropped in an ugly way.

• Wins have dropped from 15 in 2005, to 13 in 2006, and 11 in 2007
• ERA has increased from 3.98 in 2005, to 4.83 in 2006, and to 4.93 in 2007
• Home Runs allowed have increased from 25 in 2005 (.9 hr/9ip), to 29 in 2006 (1.2 hr/9ip), and to 34 in 2007 (1.5 hr/9ip)
• Strikeouts per 9 innings have decreased from 147 in 2005 (5.38 k/9ip), to 128 in 2006 (5.33 k/9ip), and to 90 in 2007 (3.97 k/9ip)

So does this mean the Livan Hernandez experiment for the Twins is likely to end up like the Ramon Ortiz and Sidney Ponson experiments of 2007? Livan’s sliding stats sure point that way. But I guess it depends what the Twins are looking for. If they are looking for wins and someone to lead them to the Central Division Championship I think are they mistaken. If they are simply looking for someone to take the pressure off the youngsters, eat up some innings, and provide some veteran leadership, they may get that but at a very expensive price tag. I’m guessing this spending of money will take some of the heat off the Twins for the low payroll this year and PR wise with the masses it may work for the Twins if Hernandez can pitch 200 innings. But I’m also afraid it would have been wiser to stick this $5 to $7 million in the bank and save it for 2010.

Today the New York Mets organization held their press conference to introduce Johan Santana to the assembled media in New York. It looked like a packed house to meet Johan, but not so much of a top notch press conference. It seemed a bit confused and not so smooth. Johan did well though, maybe a tad nervous, but came off as a happy and down to earth guy, just as he did here in Minnesota. The Mets introduction of Johan Santana video is just about 30 minutes long and Johan appears just after the 11.00 minute mark.

In writing Between Innings I look at meeting other baseball fans and writers and building a little community as a big part of the fun. One service I have used before and think does a good job of helping connect with others in the same niche is MyBlogLog. You will notice on the right side of the blog is a list of folks with their pictures that are recent visitors to Between Innings. Most of these folks are most likely other bloggers interested in baseball and the Minnesota Twins but even non-bloggers can create a profile and become more than a statistic at the thousands of sites that use MyBloglog. You can show your face, become a real personality in the online community, and even promote your own site if you have one. It would be great if some of the other Twins writers jump on board with this service, I think they will like it. Between Innings is brand new and at floor level without any identified readers. I’m anxious to see who the first person is to join my MyBlogLog community and even leave a first comment on one of my articles. See you soon!

According to the Twins 40 man roster, new Twins Carlos Gomez and Philip Humber have their new numbers with the Minnesota Twins.

• Carlos Gomez is # 22
• Philip Humber is # 38

Kevin Mulvey has been assigned spring training non-roster invitee number 88 and Deolis Guerra non-roster invitee number 89. It shouldn’t take long to start seeing Carlos Gomez jerseys walking around the Twin Cities.

With the Santana deal now complete, new Twins prospects Carlos Gomez and Philip Humber have landed on the Twins 40 man roster, while Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra are listed as non-roster invitees for the 2008 Twins spring training. I think we can venture a guess as to where these guys will end up in the Twins system.

• Carlos Gomez saw 58 games and 125 at-bats for the Mets last year. He also had 36 games and 140 at-bats for the Mets AAA New Orleans Zephyrs. Carlos has speed and dynamic fielding ability but he is suspect at the plate with a lack of discipline and poor walk to at-bat and walk to strike out ratios. My guess is that he will stick with the big league Twins and platoon in center field.
• Philip Humber pitched 7 innings for  the Mets and 139 innings for the AAA Zephyrs last year. He should get a good chance to show what he has in spring training but will most likely be with the Twins AAA Rochester Red Wings.
• Kevin Mulvey does not have any innings pitched in the Majors but moved up quickly to the Mets AAA last year and was named the Mets 2007 pitcher of the year. His minor league career of 2 years produced 173 innings pitched and a 3.02 ERA. With the Twins approach to young pitching he is bound to start at AAA and maybe get a call up mid season.
• Deolis Guerra is the youngest of the bunch and has 178 innings pitched and a 3.28 ERA for the Mets A teams over the past 2 years. People have high hopes for this youngster with his blazing fast ball clocked in the mid nineties. Maybe Deolis can make the Twins AA New Britain Rock Cats this season.

The Twins kicked off their 2008 "This is Twins Territory" ad campaign with a Twins Super Bowl ad titled "Sandlot". It features Twins sluggers Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer and Michael Cuddyer playing ball in the construction site of the new ballpark. The guys slug monster drives into downtown Minneapolis hitting various locations including First Avenue, a couple of sidewalk diners, the Mary Tyler Moore statue and it ends with a ball through the car window of a Cleveland Indians fan provoking a  sarcastic Tom Kelly to offer up a consoling comment. Good humor.

I think the Twins and their local advertising partner Periscope do a great job with the their ad campaigns. Look for more Twins ads in March including appearances from Pat Neshek, Delmon Young, Tony Oliva and Hall of Famers Harmon Killebrew and Rod Carew.