3/1/09

Spring training week 1 summary.

The first week of spring training passed and found the Twins within 2 runs of a perfect record. I will be giving weekly recaps of the cumulative performance of players in Spring training, focusing on the roster battles.

Here is the summary of week one:

Position Players:

Outfield Starter Battle:

Young .857/.857/1.000, 1 SB (7 AB)
Gomez .222/.300/.556, 1 HR, 1 BB (9 AB)
Cuddyer .167/.167/.167 (7 AB)
Span .111/.200/.111 1 BB (9 AB)

Spot on the Bench vs Rochester Battle:

Buscher .600/.600/1.100, 1 HR (10 AB)
Hughes .333/.333/.333 (6 AB)
Machado .200/.200/.200 1 SB (5 AB)
Tolbert .167/.231/.167 1 BB (12 AB)
Macri .000/.200/.000 1 BB (4 AB)
Plouffe .000/.000/.000 (5 AB)

Battle for Rochester vs. New Britain:

Valencia .800/.800/.800 (5 AB)
Martin .600/ .667 /.889 (5 AB)
Peterson .200/.429/.800 1 HR (GS) 5 AB

Other notable starter stats:

Kubel .500/.714/1.500/.500 1 HR, 3 BB (5 AB)
Morneau .429/.500/.714/ 1 BB (7 AB)


Position Player of week 1:

Delmon Young



Honorable mention: Brian Buscher, Jason Kubel, Danny Valencia, Dustin Martin


Pitchers:

Best Starter Performance:

Slowey ERA 0.00, WHIP 0.00, 0 BB, 1 K 2 IP
Blackburn ERA 0.00, WHIP 0.00, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 IP
Perkins ERA 0.00, WHIP 1.00, 0 BB, 3 K, 5 IP

Battle for set up man:

Crain 0.00 ERA, WHIP 0.00, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 IP
Ayala 0.00 ERA, WHIP 0.50, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 IP
Breslow 4.50 ERA, WHIP 1.00, 0 BB, 2 K, 2 IP
Guerrier 4.50 ERA, WHIP 1.50, 2 BB, 0 K, 2 IP

On the bubble; battle for the last 1-2 spots:

Dickey 0.00 ERA, WHIP 1.00, 1 BB, 3 K, 2 IP
Henn 0.00 ERA, WHIP 1.50, 1 BB, 0 K, 2 IP
Mijares 0.00 ERA, WHIP 1.50, 2 BB, 3 K, 2 IP
Jones 3.00 ERA, WHIP 2.00, 2 BB, 3 K, 3 IP
Goslin 0.00 ERA, WHIP 2.50, 2 BB, 1 K, 2 IP
Humber 18.00, WHIP 2.50, 0 BB, 0 K, 2 IP

pitcher of week 1, spring training:

Kevin Slowey





honorable mention: Nick Blackburn, Jesse Crain, Glen Perkins, R.A. Dickey

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thrylos,

Have you done any analysis regarding spring training numbers and how they translate into making the team?

Thanks.

Blake

thrylos98 said...

Blake,

That would be very hard to do. Usually about 80-90% of a team's roster is set. The rest gets determined in spring training based not only on numbers but on teams' needs (e.g. do they need an extra infielder or a RH bat off the bench vs an extra outfielder or a LH bat) and whether someone has options or not. Most managers like to go with the "hot hand" so if someone has exceptional numbers (esp. against the starting players of the other teams) he would definitely get consideration.

Marv said...

Buscher is having a great ST so far, but how can they justify keeping him? Morneau hits RH pitchers better than he hit LH pitchers, while Buscher hits RH pitchers very well and LH pitchers almost not at all. The bench person ideally would sub for Morneau from time to time.
I vote for Cuddyer.
Crede has actually hit RH pitchers better the last 3 seasons, so they are probably not going to sit him specifically against RH pitchers.
I am hard pressed to see how Buscher gets a spot, though I suppose if wants to hit .600 this year we should find room for him.

thrylos98 said...

Agreed. Ideally the OF will be Span LF, Gomez CF, Young RF with Cuddy in a super Craig Monroe role (back up OF, 1B, PH, DH). If they go with 12 pitchers, I see no way that Buscher should be up (Cuddyer, Redmond, Harris, are out of options and there is another spot that should go to a more versatile player - or maybe a catcher depending on Mauer's health). If they go with 11 pitchers, Buscher might have a shot for one of the 2 positions, but his defense is really awful at both third and first.

Marv said...

I've seen on other blogs that you've been pushing this role for Cuddyer and I agree. If they really do this and give some of those guys a rest more often I think that would be a good thing.
It is a long season and I believe they should get some games to sit. Besides, if you've got Morneau to PH late in the game that would mess with moves the other manager can make.
Morneau's power outage last September was frustrating, but 6 months of solid baseball with never 2 days off in a row is asking a lot, even from youngsters.