Who was that masked man?

Did I see, or do I have any good pictures of, Carlos Gomez? I'm sure I saw him. I was watching outfielding drills. However, they were WAY out there in the outfield and I was up at the top of section 115 hoping for a bullpen session.

So unless he's the guy in the red sleeves - and there was a good deal of speculation on that point - I don't know. Put a warm up jacket on and you might as well be wearing mask as no one can see the numbers on your jersey and therefore, tell who you are.



Interestingly enough, there wasn't as much speculation on Kevin Mulvey, Deolis Guerra or Philips Humber, the other three players that came over in the Johan Santana trade. Nor did I, to the best of my knowledge, see any of them - at least at spring training.

I did see the other two candidates for the position...Jason Pridie, whose picture I posted yesterday, and Denard Span...



Span is the guy in the middle with his hands on his knees. I was keeping an eye on Span for several reasons, not the least of which was that he does have fans hoping he'll land the job this year.

Someone - maybe Gomez, maybe Span, maybe someone else - was making some nice saves during outfield drills. The problem with outfield drills being that their held in the outfield and unless you can catch the jersey numbers, it's too far away to figure out who is who.

And batting practice is, to my mind, pointless in trying to rate a hitter. He's facing a coach throwing balls that a batter is supposed to hit. I'd be more concerned about a guy that wasn't hitting during batting practice.

That means I likely won't have a good report on him until the Blue Jays game when I - hopefully - can see him in a game situation.

While I won't discount the battle for center, I'd say given his reputation, it will be Gomez's to lose.

The other two outfielding pics I have are Cuddy and Kubel mulling around in the "garden"...





The rest of the shots are on Photobucket or will be once I've finished editing them.

Spring Training Sunday

If you haven't been over to Hammond Stadium for Minnesota Twins spring training, you'll find some new trappings aside from the new seats and lights. Shade has been added over the SRO and Drink Rail area, and the stadium as had some bling-bling added:





Unlike the bling-bling on the Reds Stadium in Sarasota, I know what these numbers mean!



Owen doesn't, yet, but he's only three and getting read to start Bitty-Ball.



Twins Field Manager Ron Gardenhire was his usual jolly self. Here he was watching what turned out to be catching drills. Virtually everyone in the park left Justin Morneau alone to infielding drills to watch catching drills.



Not that Justin minded.



Jose Morales looks like he'll be the first catcher called up should an injury happen to either of Twins main catchers, Joe Mauer and Mike Redmond, but Eli Whiteside was gathering a lot of attention from the staff as well.



Australian catcher Allan De San Miguel will likely start the season in High A with the Fort Myers Miracle.



There was no bullpen session on Sunday (bummer) but here we see former Miracle Kevin Slowey taking fielding drills.



Newly acquired outfields Delmon Young...



and Jason Pridie await their turn for batting practice.

Spring Training was lightly attended on Sunday, but don't expect it to remain that way. The Twins open their Grapefruit League season on the road Thursday, February 28 in Sarasota against the Reds. The first home game is Friday night against the Boston Red Sox. Tickets to select games are still available at the Hammond Stadium box office, but games are selling out fast!

Spring is on the way!

Hammond Stadium was closed for renovations, so the fans that usually went inside to check their seats couldn't. If they did, they'd be shocked to find out there weren't any seats to check!

"We're thinking of doing a bring your own seat promotion," one of the staff members told me with a laugh.



The seats are in those brown boxes and yes the crews are frantically trying to get them all bolted in place in time for the start of spring training.



The field is showing winter colors and could use some work before the start of spring training as well.



The waterfall out in front is also getting cleaned out and spruced up. It's only one month more and pitchers and catchers will be here.



The line for single game was extensive this year, probably longer than anything we've seen in the past. It started up a the boxoffice and went all the back past to the training complex .



More the line, as it winds it's way backwards....



A shot from another angle. Look at all those people!



Still, it was orderly with all of the ticket windows open and there weren't any fist fights.



Oh, here's T.C. Bear with refreshments for those waiting in line.



For the little one, the Twins where holding their Free Youth Clinics. The Clinics run every Saturday through February 16th.



Grandpa Mauer was on hand to demonstrate Joe's Quickswing machine and to help the kids with their batting. It was a great day to be out at the stadium and everyone enjoyed themselves!



Especially T.C. Bear, the very best mascot of any sports team, anywhere!

In other news, the Twins released their minor league invitees to major league camp. New Britain's Drew Butera and Fort Myers Allan de San Miguel will be helping out with the catching duties, as will Eli Whiteside who was signed as a free agent on November 21, 2007. Whiteside is expected to start the 2008 season with the Rochester team.

Infielders Chris Basak, Howie Clark, Alejandro Machado, Randy Ruiz and former Miracle Felix Molina and Tommy Watkins were invited. Jon Knott, a free agent who was signed on Nov. 23, 2007 is the only outfielder that was invited to camp.

Former Miracle Brian Duensing, Ricky Barrett and Armando Gabino were three of seven pitchers invited. The other four were all recent free agent signees: Mariano Gomez, Randy Keisler, Casey Daigle and Zach Day.

Tom Kelly, Tony Oliva, Phil Roof and Terry Steinbach , as well as National Baseball Hall of Famers Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew and Paul Molitor will be on hand to help the major league staff during spring training.

Twins' pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training in Fort Myers, Florida Sunday, Feb. 17 with workouts beginning Feb. 18, while the balance of the squad reports on Friday, Feb. 22 with the first full-squad workout taking place Saturday, Feb. 23. The Twins annual photo day will be held Monday, Feb. 25 at 8 am.

The Twins, who have a 31-game Grapefruit League exhibition schedule, will open their spring home season on Friday, Feb. 29 vs. the Boston Red Sox at 7:05 pm (EST). For more information on individual tickets to Twins Spring Training home games, call 33-TWINS or 1-800-33-TWINS or by visiting the Twins website at twinsbaseball.com.

Cats blank Sharks, 5-0

Photo courtesdy of los Tigres de Aragua

Aragua 5 at La Guaira 0

W: J. Santiago (1-1, 5.00); L: W. Collazo (1-1, 4.63)
HR: ARA: W. Romero (1), R. Salazar (1).

Los Tigers de Aragua bounced back from the their loss on Monday to blank los Tiburones de La Guaira on Tuesday.

Jose Santiago (NY Mets) worked 5.2 innings allowing only 5 hits and 1 walk while striking out 1 to pick up the win. Bobby Korecky (Minnesota) worked 1.1 innings in relief, walking 3, and Jose Mijares (Minnesota) struck out 3 in the 8th inning.

The Cats would not get on the board until the 5th inning when Willie Romero (F/A) went yard over the center field wall. Romero then tripled in the 7th, and following Raul Chavez (Pittsburgh) getting plunked by a pitch, he'd be plated by an Alberto Callaspo (Kansas City) single.

A walk to Luis Rodriguez (San Diego) would load up the bases. Following a pitching change and a line out to Edgardo Alfonzo (Texas), Miguel Cabrera (Detroit) clobbered a double out to left that brought in 2 more runners, making the score 4-0 Tigres.

Ruben Salazar's (F/A) home run in the 8th finished off the scoring.

Cabrera finished up 2-for-3 with a walk, a pair of doubles and 2 RBIs in the contest. L-Rod was 0-for-4 with a walk, Luis Maza (LA Dodgers) was also 0-for-4.

The Tigres host los Cardenales de Lara Wednesday night at 7:30 PM AST before taking a night off on Thursday.

Boxscore
Log
Tigers de Aragua

The Minnesota Twins today announced the team's annual Winter Caravan will include several community appearances in Southwest Florida this week. Twins pitchers Jesse Crain and Carmen Cali, Twins infielder Tommy Watkins, along with Twins Radio Network play-by-play announcer John Gordon are scheduled to appear Wednesday, January 9 through Friday, January 11 throughout the Fort Myers area. A brief description of this week's events is listed below.

Wed., Jan. 9
12:30 - 2:30 p.m.
Caloosa Harbour Seniors Residence
2525 1st Street, Fort Myers

Thurs. Jan. 10
10 a.m.
Lee Cancer Care, Lee Memorial Health System
2776 Cleveland Avenue, Fort Myers

1:30 p.m.
Health Park Medical Center
9981 Health Park Drive, Fort Myers

Fri. Jan. 11
10 a.m.
Royal Palm Exceptional Center
3050 Indian Street, Fort Myers

The Southwest Florida Youth Clinics schedule begins Saturday, January 12 at Lee County Sports Complex. You can find a complete schedule of the clinics HERE.

Tickets for individual Minnesota Twins Grapefruit League games also go on sale Saturday morning at Hammond Stadium, online at www.twinsbaseball.com, or by calling 1-800-33-TWINS. The Twins' 2008 Spring Training home opener will take place at Hammond Stadium on Friday, February 29 (7:05 p.m. EST) against the 2007 World Series Champion Boston Red Sox.

Spring!

"You can't wear that hat," John says.

I pull my Miracle hat off my head and look at it. "What's wrong with this hat?"

"No Miracle stuff at spring training. They want you to wear Twins Cities stuff only."

"Yeah, at least until 4:00," Chuck chimes in helpfully.

I shrug. "I'm not on the Twins payroll," I point out. "I can wear any hat I want. I can even where my Everblades hat if it pleases me.

"Where is my Mike Cudyer bat?"

"They don't make them," John says.

"Yes, they do, and Skippy was going to get me one."

"Skippy left," he says helpfully.

"I know. Probably out of fear of reprecussions for not get me a Mike Cudyer bat."

Ah...the joys of start of Spring Training. There is grass on the berm. Not all of the seats are in yet. You can jump off the patio into the trash compactor there is no fence there yet. They were bolting green padding onto the walls even as the players were taking the field.

As always, it's a bit of a three ring circus and I can't be at all the rings at the same time. This bothers me.

"I need to be cloned," I tell one of my friends.

"You need a posse," he counters as he attempts to stop his six year old from braining another kid with an aluminum bat.

Players running back and forth, especially Santana who seemed to be trying to run over as many people as possible; a long term game of "Find Frankie" which was not proving difficult, just follow the autograph seekers; kids saying "Mister, can I have an autograph," even when they don't know who the "mister" in question is.

Corey turns one kid down with a "later". He seems unhappy with that. "But I said 'sir'". Another kid is on his cell phone telling everyone back home in Minnesota that "Joe Mauer flipped me a ball!"

I find Kevin Slowey. I lose Kevin Slowey. Anna finds me.

"Where's Santana?"

"That field I think," pointing to the one behind my back as I try to find Slowey again. "Just look for the path of mown down people."

"Where's Torri Hunter?"

Dear god, I can't even find my boys and she wants me to keep track of her boys too?

"Where's you son?" I counter.

"Over there, why don't you take a picture of him?"

"I already did, he's in the second base cluster shot."

"Oh..."

I found Justin Morneau in the batting cage, first thing. This saved him from having to find me. I found Justin, my season ticket rep, in the gift shop. I told him where I wanted to sit, he told me he'd see what's available and get back with me. I had to rearrange my initial idea because they've moved the netting.

I find Slowey again the bullpen.

"Kevin, I need an autograph."

"Yeah, okay, after we're done." Except he snuck out through the dugout while I was trying to change film. I really need to get a digital.

I think the autograph seekers who are taking whoever they ran into instead of trying to get the guys they wanted were having better luck. I mean given that the same four guys were chasing Frankie around the whole time...

The weather was a nice sunny 82 degrees, if was amusing talking to everyone again, and I guess I did rather enjoy tailing Slowey all over the park.

Ah well...

In any case...Pictures, pictures, pictures:

American League MVP

How many second basemen do we need on this team?

Carlos Silva

Catching prospect Jose Morales

The Real Deal, whose new spring training job appears to be driving Francisco Liriano around in the golf cart.

Batting practice with Joe Mauer

Found! Kevin Slowey

You left me home alone to go to spring training?

Duh!

Under Construction

The baseball use of the dutch word "berm", that is, a grassy hill on from which you can watch a baseball game, isn't found in wikipedia or other online resources.



Considering the one at William H. Hammond stadium doesn't look very grassy, perhaps it's a good thing. However, my cat would think that's one HECK of a sandbox they're building there.



The back of the berm, which still has a ways to go. There also will be new deck seats behind the berm. No work, that I could see, on the relocation of the visitors bullpen.



The new first two rows will hold the dug out seating, which isn't in place yet. The dugout box seats will be available to season-ticket holders with priority given to fans who have owned season tickets the longest.



There will be a new net, which includes a tighter weave, making it easier to see through. However, the new net will not have a backdrop, so sitting behing the netting will not protect you from foul balls that might get up over the netting.

Some discussion with the Miracle staff that the old timers are going to like that. They sit behind, or under, the netting to be protected because they're not fast enough to get out of the way of balls that might be coming towards them.



You can see where this extends "the pit" seating out a bit. The county is spending just less than $2.1 million for the new seating and other ballpark improvements. There will be around 400 new seats at Hammond Stadium.



The roof is off the stadium and in the parking lot.



Evidently, there was a small accident in which a portion of the roof fell on the dugout of the adjacent practice field and also caused damage to the bleachers. More things to fix before spring training opens.



A long line for single game tickets.



Dick Mingo teaches pitching at the Twins youth clinic. Mingo coached high school baseball for 33 years following his professional career.



Twins 1st rounder and pitching prospect Kyle Walrop (left) was one of the minor league players helping out at the clinic.



T.C. Bear was also helping out - to the delight of the youngsters.

Caravaning in the sub-tropics

The Minnesota Twins have announced what, in effect, amounts to the Twins Caravan efforts in South West Florida, the annual free youth clinics. 11 clinics are scheduled for each Saturday starting on January 13 and continuing one through February 10th.

While the coaching staff for the clinics was not formally announced, look for some of the local Twins coaches such as Milt Cuyler, Rick Knapp and Eric Rasmussen to be in attendance as well as the cast of local players (::cough::cough:: Tommy Watkins) who always seem to show up to help out at these functions.

There is no pre-registration, the Clinics are free and open to boys and girls between the ages of 5 and 16, irregardless of skill level. Hitting, fielding, and throwing will be taught at each clinic, and parents are encouraged to join their children on the field.

There are two clinics on January 13, 2006, the first from 10 a.m. until Noon, the second from 1 until 3 PM. Both those clinics along with the Challenger (children with handicaps) Clinic on February 10, will be held at William Hammond Stadium at the Lee County Sportsplex on Six Mile Cypress.

The remaining 8 clinics are as follows:

Jan. 20  10 a.m. to 12 p.m.  Cape Coral (TBA)
         1 p.m. to  3 p.m.  Fort Myers Little League, Deleon
Jan. 27  10 a.m. to 12 p.m.  Buckingham Little League
        1 p.m. to  3 p.m.  Lehigh Little League
       Noon to 2 p.m.      Centennial Park, Fort Myers
Feb. 3   10 a.m. to 12 p.m.  Desoto County Little League
        1 p.m. to  3 p.m.  Charlotte County Little League
Feb. 10  10 a.m. to 12 p.m.  San Carlos Little League

Locations addresses and contact numbers are as follows:

Jan. 13 & February 10 (Challenger)
Minnesota Twins/Lee County Sports Complex
14100 Six Mile Cypress Parkway
Fort Myers, FL 33912

Jan. 20
Jason Verdow Memorial Park
801 Se 27th Street Cape Coral, FL 33990
Art Avellino - 239-772-4232

Fort Myers Little League
Sam Fleishman/Deleon Community Park
1750 Matthew Drive Fort Myers, FL 33907
Don Overhouser - 239-872-7787

Jan. 27
Buckingham Little League
9800 Buckingham Road
Fort Myers, FL 33905
Pat Shannahan - 239-33-8355

Lehigh Little League
1400 West 5th Street 33936
Darrel Willis - 239-823-6126

Feb. 3
DeSoto Little League
Speer Recreation Center
185 West Winifred Street
Arcadia, FL 34266
Tara & Matt Anderson - 863-990-0529

Charlotte County Little League
Harold Ave Recreation Center
Port Charlotte, FL 23400
Lou Agusto - 941-629-6552 or 941-629-0114

Feb. 10
San Carlos Little League
18215 Three Oaks Parkway
Three Oaks Park Fort Myers, FL 33912
Todd Backster - 239-989-5868

It should be noted that Jeff Smith will NOT be at the clinic scheduled for January 13th, as he will be holding his annual baseball camp at the Community School of Naples. Visit GCL Twins or phone 239-659-6543 or 239-269-8742 for additional information on the Jeff Smith Professional Baseball Camp.

The clinics will take us pretty much up until the start of Spring Training in February. Major League pitchers and catchers will arrive on Sunday February 18th, with the first workouts scheduled for Monday, February 19th. Position players report on February 23, with the first full-squad work out taking place on Saturday, February 24.

The twins have invited minor league catchers Korey Feiner, Jose Leger and Jose Morales to Major League spring training. Free agent infielder signee Ken Harvey has been invited to camp as has Gil Velazquez and Tommy Watkins (New Britain/Rochester) and Glenn Williams (Rochester).

Outfielder Josh Rabe, who appeared in 24 games for the Major League Twins last season was also invitied. Rabe was removed from the 40-man roster earlier this year and outrighted to Rochester, where he spent most of last season.

Pitchers invited to camp include free agent signees Carmen Cali, Mike Venafro, and Jeremy Cummings, as well as Jason Miller and Australian Tristan Crawford, who have both been playing in the Twins minor league system. Also on the list of invitees, is the Twins second round pick in 2005, Kevin Slowey.

Aside from the major league coaching staff, the following coaches will also be at major league spring training: Tom Kelly, Tony Oliva, Phil Roof and Terry Steinbach, as well as National Baseball Hall of Famers Rod Carew, Harmon Killebrew and Paul Molitor.

The Twins have signed short stop Nicholas Papasan, who was their 24th round (726th overall) pick in the 2006 June Draft. He's been scouted as having an excellent bat with surprising power for his size (5'9", 175 lbs). He'll be joining the GCL Squad this season, where he may end up being switched to second base.

Josh Taylor mentioned on his blog Taylor's Twins Talk the signing of Jesus Carnevales from Puerto Rico and Jae-Hyung Jang from South Korea. Both are expected to join the GCL Twins for extended spring training. There is little information forthcoming, I guess I'll just wait for the media guide.

Speaking of the GCL, for a league that was close to being disbanded at the end of the 2005 season, it sure has become lively. Both the Baltimore Orioles and the St.Louis Cardinals have opted to field GCL teams this season, bringing the number of teams in the league to 15. The Toronto Blue Jays were considering joining the League as well. The addition of the Orioles means that I'll get to see a few more games this year, as the league will be play every other Sunday now as well.

Unfortunately, it means the boys will not get as much time off as they had last year.

Meanwhile the Appalachian League will operate with only 9 teams this season, as Pulaski was unable to drum up any interest once the Blue Jays pulled out.

I have been in an organizational mood of late - very strange since anyone who knows me will tell you I've never been organized a day in my life. In any case, I've gotten all of the 2006 photos for the Twins and the Miracle into albums and tagged. There is something in the range of 1,500 of them (not counting spring training pictures). I've now started working on 2005. What this means is that if I have your address (like Vicki Harrington) I've finally dug out and sent the photos that I was supposed to send back in oh August...September...

If I don't have your snail mail address (Leavitt, Buenrostro, Parmelee) and you'd like to e-mail it to me, I'll be happy to drop said photos in the mail to you. Otherwise, you'll have to look me up at spring training.

No, sorry Eli. No photos for you until I get an autograph.

The baseball portion of this blog is now being duplicated on Blog Spot: Rookie Whites. If you'd like to exchange links, please let me know, links will appear on the Blog Spot location not on Xanga or Myspace.

I've also been doing some hockey blogging through the offseason at Live Journal for the entertainment challenged.

Finally, there was article in the Naples Daily News which related to lefty shooters on the ECHL Florida Everblades and the ratio of lefties to righties in hockey in general. What I found interesting about it was the a number of Canadians in the Twins organization - Justin Morneau, Rene Tosoni and Jon Waltenbury -- all bat lefty even though they they seem to be otherwise right handed.

Everblades president Craig Brush advanced the following theory in the article: "Your top hand on a hockey stick is your strong hand, so if you start playing hockey when you're a little boy, if you're right-handed you're going to shoot left-handed and if you're left-handed you're going to shoot right-handed. All three of my kids are right-handed, Matt played baseball first, he shoots right-handed, the other two shoot left-handed. If you played baseball first, like a lot of American kids do, and you learned how to hit right-handed then you'll shoot right-handed, whereas if you surveyed Canadians, there would be more lefties."

Could all the lefty batting in the Canadian contingent stem from playing hockey first? It's an interesting thought. Perhaps I need to have a chat with our neighbors from up north during spring training this year.