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Blue Jays 8, Twins 2: Second Look

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Hello from Fort Myers – and by way of (re-)introduction, my name is Ben Goessling. I’ve been at the Pioneer Press for about three months, mostly covering the Wild, but I’ll also be covering the Twins with John Shipley this year. I came to the paper from Washington, D.C., where I covered the Nationals for the Washington Times and the Mid-Atlantic Sports Network the last four years, and I’m excited to be back in my hometown covering the Twins. I’m in Florida this week while John gets a few days off, and you’ll be reading plenty from me in this space this year.

While I was in Washington, I typically posted something like this after spring training games and after many regular-season games – a quick recap of the game that I like to call “Second Look.” The goal is to give you a quick rundown of who played well, who had a rough day, highlight a few beneath-the-surface items about the game and throw out a couple questions for you to chew on. I’m always up for a good baseball discussion, so if you have questions or thoughts on the team, leave them in the comment section below this blog and I’ll respond to you there. You can also chat with me any time on Twitter; I’m at @BenGoesslingPP.

One more point of explanation, and we’ll get on with it: I pick the guys who had good and bad days with something called Golden Geese and Goose Eggs. My last name is pronounced “Guess-ling,” but most people read it like “Gosling” – either the name of a baby goose or the surname of a Hollywood heartthrob (not me, obviously). In either case, it’s my play on words to look at who played well and who struggled.

Onward:

Golden Geese

Kyle Waldrop: The former first-round pick continued his strong spring with a scoreless fourth inning, striking out Moises Sierra and getting a pair of groundouts. He doesn’t have overpowering stuff, but he’s done a good job this spring of generating weak contact. We’ll see how he looks against better competition, but the Twins need relievers, and Waldrop is making a solid impression. “There are a lot of opinions about whether he’s (major league) ready,” manager Ron Gardenhire said. “If you asked me, I’d say yes.”

Matt Maloney: Like Waldrop, he’s trying to grab an open spot in the bullpen. And like Waldrop, he’s doing it by putting up zeros this spring. He struck out three of the four batters he faced on Tuesday, and he hasn’t allowed a run in 5 1/3 innings this spring. Maloney’s only real experience in the bullpen has been in a pair of call-ups with the Reds, so it’s not wise to set expectations too high, but the Twins have hit on some veteran relievers before, and they’re hoping they did so again with Maloney.

Joe Mauer: In a 2-for-3 day, the catcher stroked a pair of singles and showed he’s in good baserunning shape, tagging up on Justin Morneau’s deep fly ball and scoring from second on Trevor Plouffe’s single in the fourth (more on that later). For Twins fans, Mauer being happy and healthy at this point in the spring has to be a major improvement over last year.

Goose Eggs

Francisco Liriano: For two innings, the left-hander was smooth again, striking out three batters while setting down six in a row. But the third inning came around, and he got back to a familiar problem: he rushed through his delivery, which took some of the downward movement off his pitches and helped the Blue Jays score four runs on him. Liriano and Gardenhire were particularly miffed about his matchup against Travis Snider, who got behind 0-2 and ripped a slider for a two-run double after Liriano got on the side of the ball instead of staying over the top of it. It’s one inning, but it’s a familiar script. We’ll see if it continues throughout the spring.

Alex Burnett: On a day where Waldrop, Maloney and Jared Burton all pitched scoreless innings, Burnett continued to struggle, giving up five hits and four runs in just two-thirds of an inning. He’s got a 16.88 ERA this spring, and though it’s always dangerous to attach too much significance to spring results for a guy who’s made 107 appearances the last two seasons, it’s also not impossible that Burnett starts the year at Triple-A Rochester, particularly since he’s got an option left.

In Case You Missed It

* On his two baserunning plays in the fourth inning, Mauer showed he was running well, being aggressive and sliding into second and home. But he also made a nice read of Morneau’s fly ball to center, which had Rajai Davis backing up to the warning track. It looked momentarily like the ball might fall in for a hit, but Mauer never left first base, knowing he could tag up and take second if the ball was caught. It was, and he slid in ahead of the throw. Had the ball fallen in for a hit, he might have been thrown out on the basepaths or kept Morneau from a double. But as it was, he read the play well and put himself in position to score, which he did on Plouffe’s two-out single.

* As a matter of course when the Twins play the Blue Jays in the U.S., the Canadian national anthem is played before the U.S. national anthem. Normally, it’s heard by a group of players who don’t identify much with it, but the Twins had three Canadians – Morneau, Rene Tosoni and Scott Diamond – in the ballpark today. And Diamond, who grew up in Guelph, Ontario, less than an hour from Toronto, said he got a thrill out of facing the Blue Jays for the first time in a spring game. He was a Blue Jays fan growing up, and had never faced them in a major league uniform before; his only appearance against the Jays was in a World Baseball Classic game in 2009, when Team Canada played an exhibition against Toronto in Dunedin, Fla. “It was fun,” he said. “That’s always been the team I’ve watched, and there were a lot of Canadian fans here today.” And on hearing “O, Canada?” “It actually is (a little thrill),” he said. “You don’t get to hear it that often in the U.S. It’s a rarity, so it means more.”

Talking Points

1. What’s your take on Liriano? Does his start to this spring encourage you, or are you worried that his outing, scheduled for four innings today, got cut short because of a familiar problem? Or are you waiting to see how he does in longer outings later this spring?

2. How do you feel about the bullpen at this point? Can the Twins piece things together with guys like Waldrop, Maloney, Burnett, Burton, etc., or do they still need to add a veteran reliever?

Let me know what you think about those things and anything else on your mind. I’ll have more tomorrow, as the Twins travel to Clearwater to take on the Phillies. Have a good night.


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