I took my first trip of the year out to Hammond Stadium today to see what might be going on out there. The temperature was in the low 70’s, the sky was overcast, and the threat of rain hung in the air as I arrived at the ballpark about 10:15 AM. I didn’t waste my time stopping at the Twins main workout fields but instead drove straight back to the minor league fields and parked my car. A short walk by the clubhouse and minor league fields told me that not much was happening. There were 4 other fans there when I arrived and the only player I saw working out turned out to be Fort Myers native minor league RHP Hudson Boyd. Boyd was a Twins 1st round supplemental pick, 55th overall in 2011. I had no idea who he was and introduced myself and we chatted briefly before he headed into the clubhouse. A little while later Steve Liddle came out and we exchanged pleasantries he was oon followed out by Scott Diamond, Kyle Waldrop and I believe the other player was Jeff Manship. There was a couple of other Twins minor leaguers that were also there that I did not recognize. Without uniforms this early in the spring it is often hard to know who is who, at least it is for me. I was told that Liam Hendricks was also there but I did not recognize him. I saw pitching coach Rick Anderson stop by the minor league complex but he only stayed for about 30 minutes and he left. Wayne “Big Fella” Hattaway was around and helping out where he could. About 45 minutes after I arrived the clouds darkened and a slow drizzle started and the few players that were out running were headed for the clubhouse. Not 5 minutes later, the clouds opened up and it poured down for a good 15 minutes, so I took advantage of a break in the “Florida shower” and headed for the car. That was it for today, all I saw was some conditioning and there was not even a bat, bat, or glove to be seen today. We will see what I find the next time I stop out there in a day or two. Now days, every passing day will bring more and more Twins and future Twins to the ballpark. I did manage to get a few pictures and you can see them on the right hand side of my home page along with spring training pictures from previous years.
Tag: Hammond Field
What is the Twins plan?
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.
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.
Another visit to Hammond Stadium
March 16, 2011 – I headed out to the Hammond Stadium today hoping to meet up with JC of Knuckleballs who just got into town the other day. Since we had not met before I had no idea who I was looking for and I had no cell number to reach JC but I did give JC my cell number and I was hoping he would call me. Well, to make a long story short, I ended up in a nice conversation with former GM Terry Ryan and during that conversation someone else joined us but we never introduced ourselves. After the conversation we each ended up going our separate ways and when I got back to the house I sent JC an e-mail saying it was too bad we did not hook up. This evening I checked my e-mail and I have a note from JC with a picture attached, the picture was of Ryan and I talking and JC was the guy that had joined us. What a small world indeed.
The conversation with Terry Ryan was very interesting, the man has been on the road all spring and today was the first day that he had really spent any time at Hammond Stadium at all. He said he is doing way more traveling than he did when he was the GM. I asked him a number of questions about numerous players but since I did not tell him up front that I was a blogger I do not think it is fair to write what he had to say in detail. But I think it is fair for me to say that he feels that Revere needs to keep playing and not sit on a Twins bench. Ryan mentioned that the Twins are not looking to trade a starting pitcher unless a need develops that needs to be corrected at some position because the chance of injury to starters is always there. Ryan reemphasized that the Twins like Diamond and that you need to be patient with Rule 5 pick-ups, using Johan Santana as an example. Terry also went into detail explaining that Alexi Casilla has all the tools to do the job at short, he just needs to grab the bull by the horns and get it done (my words). I really enjoy talking to Terry Ryan whenever I get the chance, he will always tell you what he thinks and he will challenge you if he thinks you are off base.
Other than that, there was nothing out of the ordinary going on since the Twins were playing the Mets at home today. I spent some time watching TK and Rick Anderson hold some pitcher fielding drills but other than that most of my time was spent watching the minor leaguers. We are getting to a point in spring training now where the open position battles are going full tilt and the Twins walking wounded are starting to see some game action, the only non participant so far continues to be Michael Cuddyer but hopefully he will be in action soon too.
Another day at the ballpark
February 14, 2011 – It may have been Valentine’s Day today but there was nothing about today at the ballpark that made it any different from any other spring day as Twins players and hopefuls worked up a sweat as they prepared for another season of baseball. The day started off kind of cool, the kind of cool where you welcome standing in the sunshine to feel those warm rays from the bright sun here in Ft. Myers. Officially spring training has not started but every day there are more players and more fans showing up at Hammond Field. Reporters are starting to show up also, Kelly Thesier was there and LaVelle E. Neal III rolled in too but he didn’t show up until after 11 AM. I had a very nice chat with Kelly Thesier who writes for MLB.com and then I listened in as she did a quick interview with pitching coach Rick Anderson primarily discussing Scott Baker. I didn’t see anything real special out at the park today but as I mentioned earlier, the number of fans is growing quickly but the players are very generous with their time after practice on their way back to the clubhouse and they sign everything that is put in front of them and pose for pictures when requested. Matter of fact, that is how I got a number of my pictures today that you can view on my 2011 spring training gallery. Tsuyoshi Nishioka remains the hot topic in camp and he seems to be everyone’s number one autograph target. There are already balls signed by Nishioka selling on E-bay for 80 to 90 dollars.