Friday Tidbits

Hey everyone, again sorry for the lack of posting this week. I was pretty busy trying to get everything I could done before Spring Break which happens to be next week for me, however I have a lot of homework (pretty much from just one class) that I'm going to have to do over break, but hopefully I can return to managing my time more efficiently.

Anyways, not a whole lot happened this week, but here are some things that you might find interesting:

• Ron Gardnehire all but said that Jason Pridie will not be the opening day starter in a quote earlier this week in which he called Pridie a "role guy", which means that puts more all the spotlight on Denard Span and Carlos Gomez to win the job, as if it wasn't already all on them to begin with. Span and Gomez have combined to go 2-14 this week, and Span collected both hits, one being a double. Pridie on the other hand has gone 2-4 with an RBI. We'll see how this thing plays out.

• Scott Baker's shoulder strain could force him to start the season on the DL, which would likely make way for either Nick Blackburn or Philip Humber in the rotation, as both of them seem to be pitching much better than Kevin Slowey. However, it's going to be hard sending Slowey back to Rochester when he has absolutely nothing left to prove there. Either way, this is not good news for the Twins who have many questions in their rotation to begin with. Now we might have to hear about Baker's injury for a while if it continues to linger.

• Jesse Crain is also injured after being hit near his knee with a line drive in yesterday's Minor League game. It doesn't sound like it's serious, but we'll likely find out more sometime later today.

• Francisco Liriano made his second start of the Spring and went 2 innings and gave up 3 runs on 3 hits while walking 2 and striking out just 1. However, I don't view this as necessarily a bad thing, he reportedly pitched near 90% and pitched 53 pitches. His control is alarming right now though, and hopefully he can get that under wraps before the time the season starts. But again, I can't expect too much from him this season, nobody can.

• Seth Stohs gave us 7 different perspectives on the center field competition, he also gave us 7 perspectives on the second base competition. Definitely check those out, they're a good read.

• Nick Nelson is in the middle of his "Position Analysis" series in which he addresses each position and gives his thoughts on that spot including who he thinks will be the starter come opening day. He's done catcher, first base and second base.

• Lisa Winston does a nice job going over the Twins in an article on milb.com.

• Former Twins pitcher Kyle Lohse has signed a 1-year $4.25 deal with the St. Louis Cardinals. They'll likely depend on Lohse a lot this season, as the Cardinals pitching staff just can't seem to stay healthy. This wasn't a bad move by the birds.

Have a great day.