...so let's talk baseball. Twins pitchers and catchers report this Sunday and some players are already working out early:
Michael Cuddyer and Brian Buscher hit the gym Wednesday morning before taking batting practice on a back field at the Lee County Sports Complex. Matt Macri hit off a tee at one of the batting cages.
I chatted briefly with Buscher, who looks a little more muscled up than I remembered him to be last season. He was raving about being on the infield last weekend for the Budweiser Shootout in Daytona. We didn’t get around to talking about the club’s interest in Joe Crede, but that might be a moot issue as the Twins don’t appear to be eager to give Crede $5-7 million.
There were about 20 cars parked near the back fields as players continued their pre-camp conditioning. Kevin Mulvey, Brian Duensing, Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins, Craig Breslow, Bobby Korecky Jose Morales and Jason Kubel were among the recognizable faces.
Woohoo!
I have only seen one prediction for the 2009 season and that's from Baseball Prospectus. They pick the Twins to finish second in the AL Central with a 79-83 record. The Twins went 88-75 last year including their one game tie-breaker loss to the White Sox.
Before I get into that, allow me to get crabby for just a second: I hate the World Baseball Classic. No wait, that's too gentle. I loooooath it. The interruption effects all teams, but I think it is really damaging to young teams like the Twins. Spring training should be about steadily building up teamwork and discipline, two critical things I think the Twins lacked consistency in all during 2008. Losing Punto at shortstop and Morneau at first for a few weeks is not going to be helpful that way. My two cents is all.
Anyway, it's time to start thinking about 2009 and looking back on the good and bad from 2008. I think the Twins are going to do even better than they did last year and have a far better chance than people might think. First of all, the five starting pitchers are returning and they and the team as a whole should be able to build on last year's experience. They also have a top tier manager in Gardenhire and a solid coaching staff. There are doubts though when it comes to defense and hitting and so those are big things to watch. Much will also depend on the other teams in the AL Central and specifically if Detroit and Cleveland are going to come back from their disastrous starts last year.
Right now I'm very optimistic for the Twins. It could be their year in 2009, but I few things need to improve over last year. All I can say at this point for sure is that I'm looking forward to digging into this stuff after a long winter.
LSU has a brand new state-of-the-art baseball stadium and a team ranked at or near the top this year. I plan to make at least one trip. College baseball isn't the same as MLB but it's still a great atmosphere and not a bad substitute when you don't have the real thing. Good Luck to the Twins.
Posted by: Rob | February 11, 2009 at 04:17 PM
Nothing wrong with college baseball, especially at the level LSU plays. I was into the U of M for a while when they were competing on the national level.
Posted by: Dave E. | February 12, 2009 at 09:20 AM
Cold weather universities are at an extreme disadvantage in NCAA baseball. The college baseball season starts about 6 weeks before the majors and those schools are still shoveling snow. The ones that can afford the travel try to schedule games against warm weather universities in the early part of the season. Hard to keep a program going, paying for travel, etc when you have a limited number of home games and it's very difficult to compete nationally when you only get in 40 games a year to your competition's 60+.
Posted by: Rob | February 12, 2009 at 10:22 AM
Got interesting for us. U of M is coming to Baton Rouge this weekend as the #2 seed. LSU playoff tickets are a tough get but I am going to try.
Posted by: Rob | May 25, 2009 at 01:12 PM
Good luck, I hope you can scrounge up some tickets. I can see Minnesota getting past Baylor and maybe Southern. I don't see them getting past LSU though. But, you never know. Good luck to your boys.
Posted by: Dave E. | May 25, 2009 at 02:28 PM
The Tigers are very beatable even at the Box, especially when their opponent wears orange. :) Illinois and Tennessee both won series at the Box. Seriously, Southern has played them there and is not intimidated in the least. Looks to be tough for everyone.
Tickets for non season ticket holders go on sale tomorrow. They'll make everyone buy tickets for the whole tournament. They'll be scarce and expensive. I'll probably be relegated to radio.
Posted by: Rob | May 25, 2009 at 02:54 PM