A trip to Fort Myers: Game 1's outfielders

My seat for Wednesday's Twins exhibition opener were in the right-field bleachers of JetBlue Park, home of the Boston Red Sox.

Drawing conclusions from the first game of spring training is a fool's errand, of course. Evaluating a hitter from some 500 feet away from home plate is also foolishness. Still, one can't help but note that Byung Ho Park struck out in all three of his plate appearances, while Miguel Sano walked all three of his,

If I had poor seats for watching the hitters, I had a pretty good location to watch Sano play right field. The only problem was, the ball never found him. The closest he came to touching the ball was a fly to right center that Byron Buxton gobbled up. Sano broke well on that ball, but Buxton had it easily.

The Twins started Oswaldo Arcia in left, Buxton in center and Sano in right. They left the game en masse about halfway through, and the Twins had Darrin Mastroianni in left, Danny Santana in center and Max Kepler in right. There are three center fielders in that second outfield, but none of them are close to Buxton.

Buxton fanned his first two trips, then singled home the first run of the game before giving way to Santana. I've said this before; his defensive abilities alone make Buxton the obvious choice for center field -- all the more so if Sano is going to be in one of the corners.