Yesterday I checked out the Twins second full workout of the spring as Paul Molitor ran his boys through their paces. I saw nothing really unusual but I thought it was kind of interesting that I saw no pitchers throwing in the bullpen at all the entire time I was there. The outfielders went through their drills on the Hammond Stadium field while the rest of the team appeared to be split into three groups with a mixture of infielders and pitchers in each group going through pitching and infield drills on three separate fields.
As I watched the drills I couldn’t help but miss Tom Kelly putting the guys through the drills and hearing his banter and seeing him pull guys aside to give them some tips on playing the game better. The drill without TK this spring was noticeably quieter. TK has a long history with the Twins and belongs out here in spring training and I am not convinced that he is back in Minnesota by his own volition.
The one incident that stands out in my mind were pitcher drills where the pitchers practiced the pick-off at second base. In this case starter Hector Santiago wheeled around and threw “a pea” wildly over shortstop Niko Goodrum‘s. To me two things stood out about that play, how quick and hard Santiago’s throw was and the fact that shortstop Niko Goodrum barely jogged to get the loose ball. It is only the second full day of drills, a little more effort from Goodrum would seem appropriate.
Hopefully the Twins will get a lot of work in today and rain is predicted for Wednesday. As always, I took a number of pictures and you can check them out on the 2017 spring training pictures link on the right hand side of the main page.