Tuesday, March 6, 2012

An ugly first look

Man, I hope we don't see a lot of this.
Fox Sports North televised Monday night's spring training tilt on their alternate channel. I don't know how many viewers found it, but I'm pretty sure not many stuck with it as long as I did.

Hey, it was baseball. Bad baseball, but still baseball.

A few comments, most -- but not all -- of which come with the "it's the fourth game of spring training, lets not read too much into it:" caveat: 

Jason Marquis was brutal. Utterly no command; he couldn't get out of the second inning. Walked three, threw three wild pitches and could easily have had a fourth. The Twins also committed two errors behind him.

Terry Ryan described Marquis as a strike thrower when the veteran signed, but that's simply not part of Marquis' record. I don't expect him to be great, and I don't expect him to be this out of control.

Deolis Guerra gave up five runs in his outing. Guerra is one of a handful of bullpen candidates I said a few days ago I was particularly interested in. Two of them, Guerra and Jason Bulger, have already been embarrassed by the Red Sox.

Bert Blyleven's explanation of Guerra's issues differed somewhat from what I've seen for years from Baseball America. BA has said that Guerra, who has a power pitcher's frame, shies away from using his fastball. (Supposedly his strong second half last season after his move to the bullpen corresponded with more use of his fastball.) Blyleven says Guerra's inconsistent with his "dominant" fast ball.

He didn't look like much of anything Monday.

Ryan Doumit played left field ... poorly. His "handling" of the leadoff double in the second inning was reminiscent of Delmon Young.

Joe Mauer had two hits. What a pretty swing. That doesn't change, spring training or no.

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