109 thoughts on “March 3, 2012: Spring Training”

    1. Yankees vs. Phillies and Red Sox vs. freaking Boston College are the only televised games today? That's practically self-parody.

      We're televised tomorrow and the next day (because we play the Sawks, natch).

      I'll probably turn on the Yankees/Phillies, game, too, just because I'm itching for baseball so badly. Sigh.

      1. Twins vs. Red Sox also will be shown at 6 p.m. CST on MLB Network for those that get it.

    1. Glad to see the other Winona sports are continuing their tradition of sucking up, for marginal return, resources best directed to the Cross Country program.

  6. Today's starting lineups:

    RAYS
    1. Desmond Jennings, LF
    2. B.J. Upton, CF
    3. Ben Zobrist, 2B
    4. Matt Joyce, RF
    5. Jose Molina, C
    6. Jose Lobaton, DH
    7. Juan Miranda, 1B
    8. Elliot Johnson, 3B
    9. Reid Brignac, SS

    Starting pitcher: LH David Price

    TWINS
    1. Denard Span, CF
    2. Jamey Carroll, SS
    3. Joe Mauer, C
    4. Justin Morneau, 1B
    5. Josh Willingham, RF
    6. Ryan Doumit, DH
    7. Danny Valencia, 3B
    8. Trevor Plouffe, LF
    9. Alexi Casilla, 2B

    Starting pitcher: RH Carl Pavano

    Hopefully, we'll see a lot of Plouffe against lefties.

  7. WTF? Is this an early April Fool's joke?

    In what is easily the biggest demotion for a celebrated player of his kind in NBA history, Dallas Mavericks forward (and 2011 Sixth Man of the Year award-winner) Lamar Odom has been sent to the D-League to work his way back into both mental and physical playing shape. Odom, who has never gotten over being nearly traded to the New Orleans Hornets from the Los Angeles Lakers last December, is suffering through a miserable year and will spend at least one game with the Mavs' D-League affiliate in Frisco, Texas. There, he'll be asked to work with former NBA coach Del Harris while playing with the Texas Legends, in hopes of getting his game and head straight following a miserable start to the 2011-12 season.

    1. I saw this and my reaction was quite similar. It just isn't a thing in basketball. You'd think at worst, he sits with a faked injury.

    2. It sounds like it was Odom's idea, and now it sounds like he's going to be joining the Mavs instead of going down to the D-league. Looks to me like Odom is the biggest loser of the lockout and Stern's trade-vetoing.

      1. It seems like Odom doesn't have a lot of confidence in himself as well, from what little I know of the situation.

  8. Yes! I just heard the Twins' theme song on the radio. I know it's not that great a theme song, and it'll certainly never replace "We're Gonna Win, Twins", but it means baseball is back!

      1. Thanks! The regional game against Eurkea/Bowdle was pretty exciting. Don't know how they'll do in the state tournament, but it's been a fun season.

    1. The first spring training without one or both of Herb or Gordo is a little bittersweet, but Provus has a great radio voice, and I heard enough of him during his time with the Brewers to be pretty optimistic about his move to Minnesota.

      2. I read someplace that Dazzle is going to do four innings of play-by-play this year, rather than three. I haven't been able to listen enough to know if they've done that today. It's not a change that makes sense to me, given that Dazzle himself admits he's not very good at play-by-play. Still, Dazzle himself doesn't make sense to me, so I guess maybe it all works out.

        1. I was hoping that hiring Provus would move Dazzle off play-by-play duties. It just doesn't make sense to me, the guy is flat-out terrible at it and hasn't shown any movement towards "mediocre."

  11. Provus points out that Pavano had "an ERA over 4" last year. Practically everyone did, didn't they? Like, on every team?

    I'm not sure about Provus yet, but he does have a great baseball voice.

    1. AL average was 4.08, so "over 4" basically shows he is worse than average.

      Matt Joyce homers against the Twins. That seems familiar somehow.

        1. league average ERA for starters in 2011 was 4.23. Pavano was 4.30. Remember, relievers tend to pull the average down quite a bit.

      1. Careful, Rhu_Ru. We've got to ease into this. We don't want you going 100% too early in the spring and pulling something that nags you all season.

  16. Flew into Phoenix last night for the weekend and while waiting for the van to take us home, I saw a guy with a lot of luggage and a duffel bag with the Colorado Rockies on it. I quickly realize that he's here for spring training, so I look up the last name on the duffel bag and saw he was drafted last year in the 17th round. Spent a few minutes working up the courage to chat with him, while also trying to decide if it would be creepy or not. Decided to try, so I said I was a fan of the Rockies (close enough, it wasn't much of a lie) and chatted briefly. Told him good luck, et cetera and then had to leave. I hope he didn't think it was weird, and he didn't seem repulsed when I knew his name.

  17. I figured I'd wait to sign up for my Gameday Audio subscription until later in spring, but I lasted half an inning of Twitter updates on the game. Baseball is back.

  26. I'm clicking around the box scores for my yearly "Wait, that's where he plays now?" fun. Eric Chavez, Raul Ibanez and Bill Hall are Yankees? Jim Thome, Scotty Pods and Ty Wigginton are Phillies? I heard about a few of these, but I should probably use ST to figure out who's where.

    1. And over at the Detroit-Atlanta game, the high-powered Tigers have gotten their one run on a homer by something called Jerad Head. That's my new favorite name in the majors.

    1. I was enjoying this game, mostly because I enjoy watching the Cornstalkers lose any time I can.

  28. Clint Barmes, Casey McGehee and Nate McLouth all in Pittsburgh now (or again). Yeah, about half the time I assume someone retired, they're in Pittsburgh.

    1. Jack Cust is in Houston, playing the DH today. I wonder if the Astros know he can't do that during the regular season very often.

      (Sorry, guys. I'm obviously a little baseball-starved)

        1. Oh, right, I forgot about that thing. That feels odd to me, though like the Brewers, I suppose at some point I'll hardly remember it any other way.

  29. Gladden nails it, frankly, after the story of last year's Red Sox collapse:

    "They let Papelbon go, they fired their manager and they created a new Wild Card for the Red Sox."

    1. And Mauer and Morneau with the only RBIs for the Twins, not like last year!

  32. Provus says Burroughs' recent troubles are "reminiscent of Nicolas Cage's character in Leaving Las Vegas."

    Yikes. I hope he's cleaned up, for his sake.

    1. They were already mine.

      We covered this yesterday, but I'm not done with it yet. I'm still frankly amazed that the whole New Orleans thing caught fire like it did, as if they were some feel-good story, when they weren't actively hiding the fact that they were the dirtiest team in the dirtiest game.

      1. I missed it yesterday, but I was too lazy (as usual) to go back and check to see if it had been covered.

        Did anybody suggest that the Saints should be punished by putting bounties on Saints players for the next 3 years for anybody who plays them? It seems like the only fair punishment.

            1. If you really wanted to punish the organization, this would be the way to do it. It would cripple them. No free agent in their right mind is going to sign with them.

              It's impossible, of course, since people who were not even with the team would end up getting punished for it.

        2. I say you gotta make the Saints pay. The Patriots lost a 1st round pick for 'Spygate'. This is a more serious charge. Since the bounties went on for 3 years, the Saints lose their 2nd round pick this year (they have no 1st) and first round picks in 2013 and 2014. On top of whatever suspensions and fines that will be levied.

            1. I would also fine the organization for every player that was hurt in a game against them over those 3 years.

          2. They say this allowed them to illegally go over the cap. Knock their cap number down for the next three years. That'd be interesting. It'd also probably keep them from being able to re-sign Drew Brees. That would really shake up free agency.

          3. The fact they were warned yet continued to do it is a major strike. The owner telling the GM to make it stop and the GM not doing anything is another. I think Goodell is going to drop the hammer on the franchise. Huge fine, lost draft picks, and maybe suspend Payton since he also knew of it. And then there's Gregg Williams. He's in trouble since they can trace it back at least to Washington as well, if they can connect dots to other places he coached then I think he's toast.

            1. If the NFL takes this seriously, both Williams and Sean Payton need to be gone for a good, long time.

              1. But, I am confident that he will. The NFL is very concerned about liability as it pertains to player safety. I think he lays down a big hurt on the Saints.

      1. As long as the apoccolypse takes place after the Twins' World Series victory, I suppose I could live with this.

  37. even though I loathe the KissCam, I agree with Mark Cuban here (he was speaking at something called the Sloan Sports Analytics Conference)

    Michele Steele ‏ @MicheleSteele
    Mark Cuban has a "you're fired" policy if workers try to do the wave - calls it energy killer "I'd rather have 60m of kiss cam" #teamkisscam

  38. I kind of feel out of place mentioning this on the first Spring Training game of the year, but I went up north to go snowshoeing today. The Duluth area got a bunch of snow and it's probably the last time this year. It was awesome. I was snowshoeing in 6-8 inches of virgin snow, while it was still snowing big fluffy flakes. No breeze so some places it was so quiet you could hear the blood rushing through your head.

    Now wife and son are at school dance. I have a t-bone steak in the broiler, a sixer of New Belgium's new Pale Ale called Dig, and am listening to a 350 song playlist of late 60s/early 70s British psychedelia that a friend gave to me for turning him on to GBV.

    Yeah, life is good.

    1. Where abouts were you? When I was quite a bit younger I would snowshoe around duluth, esko, two harbors... The good old days.

      1. I was officially on the Grand Portage Trail which is shared with Superior Hiking Trail. Mostly in Jay Cooke State Park but it meanders in and out of the park boundaries. It's located a little southwest of Duluth. Basically on the other side of the hill from Spirit Mountain.

  39. I already posted on Facebook, but our daughter, Odelia Grace, was born yesterday night at 8:18, and weighed in at 7 lbs, 7 oz and was 21 inches long. She's in the NICU, but the prognosis is pretty good. Moms doing pretty well, too.

    1. Atta boy. The Calf came in at similar measurements at just over 36 weeks as well. Sounds like she is going to be healthy. Congrats.

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