Tag: Brendan Wise

Pirates 17 – Twins 6

I took the family out to their first Twins spring training game of the year out at Hammond Stadium today and it might be difficult to persuade them to go to another Minnesota Twins game this year after watching the Twins debacle against the Pirates. Terry Doyle started for the Twins and he lasted just 2/3 of an inning as the Pirates battered him for 8 earned runs on 7 hits, 1 walk and 1 strikeout. Doyle told reporters after the game “that he could not locate his fastball” but I can tell you that the Pittsburgh Pirates hitters had no problem locating Doyle’s fastball. Finally Gardy had no choice but to take Doyle out and bring in Anthony Swarzak who was treated rather rudely himself as he gave up two more runs. So, after 38 minutes and before the Twins could even pick up a bat, the score was 10 to zip for the Pirates and the Twins walked off the field to a smattering of applause for finally getting the Pirates out.

One game does not a season make, particularly if it is a spring training game in the middle of March but I spent the afternoon wondering if I was at Target Field and it was 2011 all over again. When the final score was posted about 3 1/2 hours later, the scoreboard said Pirates 17 and the Twins 6. The Pirates out hit Minnesota 19 to 11 and the Twins had 3 errors to the Pirates 1. You will have to believe me when I tell you that the Twins had several other plays that could have easily been called errors if not for the generosity of a home town scorekeeper. Outfielders continue to throw to the wrong bases and infielders either can’t make a decent throw to first or end up throwing wildly to first when they should just hold on to the ball. The play of Aaron Bates and Mike Hollimon at 1B was just plain embarrassing and the Twins should do all they can to ensure that Hollimon does not play 1B for his own safety and the safety of the opposing base runners until he learns to play the position. Only Perkins, Capps and Luis Perdomo escaped the carnage on the mound as Doyle, Swarzak, Dumatrait, and Wise were hit around pretty good as each gave up 3 or more runs. It sure looks like Doyle will be wearing a White Sox minor league uniform again soon. I know the score was already 17-6 but Luis Perdomo looked pretty good in the ninth striking out two Pirates and throwing his fastball between 92-94 and then hitting them with a change-ups in the 81-83 range.

Bottom line, the game was just brutal from a Twins perspective and the play of some of the Twins today should make it a lot easier for Gardenhire and Terry Ryan to make some roster decisions when it comes time to decide who will play in AA or AAA this year. Tomorrow is another day.

What is the Twins plan?

GM Terry Ryan

What exactly is the Twins plan going forward? In the past, the Twins have always stressed pitching and fielding. The Twins went into 2011 saying that they wanted to improve their defense and their speed. This past off-season the Twins signed Josh Willingham, Ryan Doumit and Jamey Carroll and none of these players can be seen even remotely as defensive stars or speed demons. On the pitching side they resigned Matt Capps to be their closer and signed Jason Marquis as another “innings eater” starter to replace Brian Duensing whom they want to move to the bullpen.  For middle relief they went after quantity versus quality hoping to catch “lightning in a bottle” by claiming or signing relievers such as Jason Bulger, Jared Burton, Samuel Deduno, Matt Maloney, Aaron Thompson, Daryl Thompson, Casey Fien, PJ Walters, Brendan Wise and Joel Zumaya. GM Terry Ryan also signed players with big league experience such as 3B Sean Burroughs, 1B Steve Pearce, OF Wilkin Ramirez, and catcher JR Towles.

In the past, Twins management has stated that they didn’t want to start camp too early because the players just got bored and burnt out waiting for the real games to begin. The Twins have historically been one of the last teams to report to and start training camp, this year they are one of the first teams to report and start work-outs.

This year the Twins will have at least 25 non-roster spring training invites this year, there will be more players out there than you can shake a stick at. In the past the Twins position has been not to invite too many players in spring camp because there was just not enough playing time and they wanted to give everyone a chance to showcase their talents.

Ron Gardenhire

This year the Twins seem to be desperate, picking up some veteran hitting help even though their defense and speed will suffer, they picked up a slew of relievers hoping that one or maybe two can find their way north to Minnesota. Speed? Gardy felt a need for speed going into 2011 but I have not heard him mention speed once this off-season. When you sign a 38 year old Jamey Carroll who has never had a full-time starting role to be your regular shortstop you are indeed close to a panic situation. Yep, these are desperate and trying times in Twinsville as the team tries to regroup from a horrendous 63-99 2011 season and the team is taking desperate steps to right a ship that is on the shoals of a major rebuilding effort. The problem they have is that Joe Mauer is making a ton of money and they haven’t a clue as to what will happen with 1B Justin Morneau who is coming off his seventh career concussion. Without big comebacks from both of these Twins stars the team has no chance at even finishing near the .500 mark. Ron Gardenhire will have to do his best managing act ever to get this team to win half of their games.

So it will be an interesting spring in Ft. Myers this year and I would expect to see a number of intrasquad and “B” squad games taking place on the back fields of Hammond Stadium. I will be there to watch the action and it should be fun. The beauty of this time of the year is that we all have hope and no one has lost a game as yet. It just seems to me that the Minnesota Twins are changing gears this year and things are going to be a lot different going forward into 2012 and beyond. So make sure you buy a scorecard when you attend your first Twins game this year.