Spring Training Report: Game Seventeen

This winning thing is starting to become a regular occurrence, with the Twins rattling off wins in five of their last six ballgames. While I still believe that spring training wins are meaningless, it at least is nice to look at a winning box score. Here are today's notes:

1.) Ramon Ortiz gave up entirely too many hits in his first inning of work, but he wasn't helped at all by Tommy Watkins' and Alexi Casilla's errors. His last three innings were very solid, however, and he continues to churn out workman-like performances that have to encourage Twins fans (not to mention the coaching staff and Terry Ryan). Really, at this point, I'm just looking for him to stretch out to five and maybe six innings so that he's fully ready to go when he makes his first regular season start. If he keeps pitching like this, that could end up being on the second day of the season.

2.) How awesome is it that all of the young guys fighting for a spot on the roster keep stepping up and delivering? Glen Perkins seized another opportunity to prove himself by pitching 2 innings of relief and facing the minimum, striking out three. It will be very interesting to see Matt Garza and Sidney Ponson the next time out - and both are slated to pitch tomorrow. Another bad outing from Ponson probably dooms him, and would really make things interesting as the young guns battle for that precious fifth spot in the rotation.

3.) Randy Choate didn't allow any runs today, but he did give up 2 hits in his inning of work. I don't think that's good enough - he's so far behind Mike Venafro and J.D. Durbin that I expect him to be cut by Monday.

4.) A miracle occurred today in Ft. Myers . . . Jason Tyner entered the day hitting .143 (4-for-28), and Garrett Jones entered the game hitting a woeful .061 (2-for-33). BOTH got a hit today, however, and Jones even picked up a couple of RBI's off his double. Now, if only Tommy Watkins (2-for-18) had pitched in . . .

5.) I'm still reading that Alejandro Machado is just a couple of days away from getting into some games. Assuming that actually happens, he has to be the hands-down favorite to win the backup middle infielder job. No one else has stepped up and won it outright (well, ok, maybe Alexi Casilla - but you all know my preference, and seemingly Terry Ryan's preference, is to have him in AAA playing every day), and Machado just fits much better than the other options. Frankly, I couldn't care less if Machado can hit - as long as he plays a solid SS, I say keep him around.

6.) This is completely unimportant, but how weird is it to see Jeff Cirillo, as the DH, lead off? There are just so many things wrong with that . . .

7.) Brad King has a batting average of .000 halfway through the spring, but he has just two official at-bats. He has, however, drawn 3 walks and scored a couple of runs. Whether the Twins choose to offer him a minor league contract is debatable, but he seems to have good plate discipline and must be an adequate receiver if they've kept him around this long.

Today's Big Winner: Glen Perkins (Deserves a roster spot . . . doesn't mean he'll get one)
Runner-Up: Josh Rabe (3-3 day, .316 for the spring - guess the back is healthy)

Today's Big Loser: Jeff Cirillo (0-3, 2 K's)
Runner-Up: Alexi Casilla (0-3 - not many other candidates)