The 5.73 ERA is bad enough but looking deeper is even more disturbing. He's given up 7 runs in 11 innings pitched this spring. He's allowed 4 HR's. He has only 5 strikeouts, which is an incredibly poor number for a closer in that many innings. Opposing hitters are hitting .304 against him. This guy will be getting booed off the field by May.

4.5$mil. for a free agent closer is cheap,its just the 29 other teams know he's not a closer and the twins feel they have to keep him to justify trading a top notch young catcher.If they got 1 or 2 mediocre years out of him it would be a huge blunder,if he pitches well this year its easier to swallow.

And yet, the Twins will continue to march him out despite fan protests. I'm telling you, this team basically stopped caring after the 2006 playoff fiasco (maybe earlier).

I'm not so sure about that . . . if he pitches anything like he did this Spring, he won't be "closer" for long.

Last grapefruit league game today for the Twins. They will have an exhibition against the Fort Myers Miracle tomorrow then head to Baltimore.

Revere.............CF
Carroll...............SS
Mauer...............C
Morneau............DH
Willingham........LF
Parmelee..........1B
Valencia............3B
Plouffe..............RF
Hughes.............2B

Liam Hendriks pitching

Almost there!

Thats what she said!

3 doubles to start the 4th by Mauer, Morneau and Willingham.

All in all a great spring. Depressing winter leads to hope in the spring and in January who would have thought the Twins would do the right moves and send both Butera and Nishi down and then give Parmalee a chance plus have Morneau and Mauer go injury free (knock on wood). In keeping with the wrestling theme we have been doing as of late......

Can you smell what the RYAN is cooking?

I do, and it smells a lot better than what the Smith/Gardy regime was cookin'.

Here comes the pain

Is it fair to say we pushed "F5" on some of our roster move policies?

I just read somewhere that a few of the Twins young prospects will play with the Twins against the Fort Myers Miracle tomorrow. This includes Max Kepler, Niko Goodrum and Travis Harrison to name a few.

Oo nice, harrison! I want to see if he's really got the bat

Last lineups of the spring. Mauer Bowl I

Miracle

Daniel Santana, 2B
Jairo Perez, 3B
Oswaldo Arcia, RF
Dan Rohlfing, C
Lance Ray, LF
Angel Morales, CF
Danny Rams, DH
Michael Gonzalez, 1B
Levi Michael, SS

Marty Popham, RHP

Denard Span, CF
Alexi Casilla, 2B
Joe Mauer, 1B
Justin Morneau, DH
Josh Willingham, LF
Ryan Doumit, C
Luke Hughes, 3B
Trevor Plouffe, SS
Ben Revere, RF

Nick Blackburn, RHP

Oswaldo Arcia has homered off Balckburn.

Mauer is 2-2.

Levi Michael struck out his 1st AB and has committed an error. Shake it off kid...

Twins losing to the Ft. Myers Miracle right now (3-1 in the 4th)!

Twins are getting waxed by the minor league team. That's encouraging! ;)

Of course Gardy takes out all of the starters now that they're losing 5-1. So weak. Saving face, anyone?

Angel morales a HR away from the cycle

Quick! Get on the plane! We'll doctor the box scores later!