Notes, quotes and comment

Tim Wood had a
2.19 ERA in 70
innings in Triple A.

Tampa Bay ran at will late in Tuesday's exhibition game against the Twins, and that doesn't bode well for the two relief pitchers involved, Tim Wood and Tyler Robertson.

This was the second time this spring that Ron Gardenhire has commented on Wood's inability to limit the running game. We may be seeing why Wood never got a call-up by the Pirates last year even as he had a dominant season in Triple A.

Few teams run the bases as aggressively as the Rays, but man -- stealing home in a first-week-of-March exhibition? Robertson should be embarrassed.

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Ten Baseball America staffers predicted in the latest issue which teams would have the top three draft picks in 2014 — which is another way of predicting the three worst teams of 2013.

All ten picked the Houston Astros to have the first pick — which would make three straight seasons of having the worst record in baseball.

Four of the 10 had the Twins picking second; three others had them picking third. Not a lot of optimism about the Twins from that bunch. (The Marlins also had four saying they'd be picking second in 2014 and three third.)

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The Twins minor leaguers were due in camp Tuesday, with minor league exhibitions getting under way this weekend. The first cuts in major league camp figure to come then, but with a dozen guys gone for the World Baseball Classic, those cuts may not be very deep.

Most likely to be sent to the minor league camp, in my estimation: RHPs B.J. Hermsen, Trevor May and Mike Tonkin, IF Danny Santana, C Josmil Pinto. They're all 40-man roster players with options who have little to no chance of opening the season in Minnesota, which makes them prime targets for early demotion.  If they get hurt in major league camp, they go on the major league disabled list, get paid a major-league salary and earn service time.