This Week in Twins: April 2-7
By Editorial Staff
Enough Spring Training already!
All of the questions have been answered, and almost all the games have been played. The Mayor’s Cup is lost. The roster is set. We know who is healthy (almost all of the Twins’ regulars) and who is not (Scott Baker and Joel Zumaya). Let’s get on with the Regular season.
Fortunately, the regular season starts this week. But first, we have to watch the Twins play a few more meaningless games. There are two of them against Tampa today and Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Twins play an even more meaningless game against their High-A Ft. Myers affiliate before an off-day Thursday. After that, the Twins finally have a three game series against the Baltimore Orioles that counts. That series will start Friday at 2:05 Central Time and extend through the weekend.
Weekly Winners:
Parmelee makes the weekly winner list because of his surprise addition to the Twins roster, but he did not rest on that laurel. He added a pair of homers this week to underscore the point. One came in the 4-1 Friday win over Toronto that happened simultaneously with a 9-7 loss to Boston (maybe the Twins should’ve kept Parmelee’s bat in the lineup against the Red Sox instead – it might have saved the Mayor’s Cup!). The other came against the Red Sox on Sunday afternoon. In that game, the homer was the Twins’ only run.
As with Parmelee, Burroughs makes the winner list because he made the roster. For the Spring, Burroughs has a line of .333/.429/.381, and that’s probably an indication of what we can expect from him this season. No, he probably won’t hit .333 for the full year, but we can expect him to hit singles and get on base if he’s playing at 100%. He will not provide much power for the Twins this year. In the field, he is solid at third base and can play first as well.
Weekly Worst:
The team’s Opening Day starter got knocked around in his final Grapefruit League start, which was also his first in nine days. Pavano held the Red Sox scoreless through five innings, but the sixth was not a good inning. He surrendered four hits and four runs in that inning before being yanked in favor of Alex Burnett. Pavano finished the spring with a 6.17 ERA and 1.63 WHIP in 23.1 innings. Fortunately, he can wipe that slate clean now and get back to being the reliable workhorse that he always seems to be. Off the field, Pavano had to deal with a distraction in the form of a crazy man trying to extort money from him. Puckett’s Pond hopes that man will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.