No big surprises, except for Jones. He cleared waivers, which means that he will now report to Rochester this season. He's probably disappointed, but if Brian Buscher makes the roster, I think that unless Jones struggles a lot in Triple-A, that he'll be the first call-up this season.
Tommy Watkins continued to show his desire to make the roster by learning to play catcher, however as Seth Stohs points out, the Twins weren't thrilled about his physical shape when he arrived at camp.
Randy Ruiz has had a great spring, offensively, but he seriously lacks a position. If this were the National League, he'd probably be carried as a pinch hitter. But the Twins need versatility in their bench players. Mike Redmond will be the only bench player who can play just one position.
Randy Ruiz's lack of versatility made him an unlikely candidate for the bench
With Randy Keisler and Ricky Barrett now cut, if the Twins want to have two left-handers in the bullpen, it looks like it will be Glen Perkins. That's not a surprise at all. I didn't really look at either Barrett or Keisler as possibilities anyways. Now it will be interesting to see what the Twins plan on doing with Francisco Liriano. Will they start him in the bullpen like they did in 2006? Will they keep him in the rotation? Or will they start him in Rochester? Those questions likely won't be answered until we get closer to the end of camp.
The Twins now have 35 men remaining in camp. They have 9 more games (10 days) until the roster must be down to 25. But I'm sure all but maybe 2 or 3 of the remaining 10 will be cut before next weekends games.
• The Twins are using another possible lineup for the season opener, today against the Phillies:
CF Denard Span
C Joe Mauer
RF Michael Cuddyer
1B Justin Morneau
LF Delmon Young
DH Jason Kubel
3B Mike Lamb
2B Nick Punto
SS Adam Everett
P Livan Hernandez
0 comments:
Post a Comment