Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Twins Update 3/28/2007

As has been speculated for much of spring training Twins super-stud-prospect Matt Garza will begin the season with Rochester. However Twins fans can expect to see him up no later than mid-May once the Twins have delayed his arbitration eligibility by one more year, and even earlier if Carlos Silva struggles early. In other words, we'll see him again in a few weeks.

The roster is now down to 28 with three players left to trim. The last spot up for grabs is really a battle between J.D. Durbin a former top-prospect with the organization as a twelfth pitcher who is out of options, Chris Hientz a player who would serve as a third catcher and almost certainly never play, and Josh Rabe a left fielder who saw some time with the big club last year and would be the sixth outfielder.

The common community opinion seems to be that the Twins should keep Durbin as an insurance policy with such an unsettled rotation, an opinion I fully support. I think giving Durbin one last shot to prove he can be the pitcher everyone knows he has the talent to be can't be a bad idea. However, its common knowledge that manager Ron Gardenhire has a man love with carrying three catchers in the unlikely event both Mauer and Redmond go down in the same game. I think its ridiculous but perhaps theres a reason the Twins didn't call me when the managerial job opened up after T.K. left, I just don't know what that reason is.

Mauer Returns to Action

Joe Mauer played in a AAA game today. Sounds like things went really well as he caught Perkins and had a couple hits including a homer (apparently when your swing is a part of your genetics its easy to miss a week or so and act like it never happened). Of course all of this is just what I heard... I haven't managed to dig up a box score yet. I'll have more details to you as soon as I get them.


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