Quick Spring Game Recap

Blue Jays 5 Twins 5

The takeaway from the game, for me, was how terrible Anthony Alford looked. He needs a great spring to have a chance at the roster, and he put himself in a hole today.

At the plate he was 0 for 3 with 2 strikeouts. In the field he really didn’t impress. In the second inning, with a runner on first, there was a single to center and Alford threw to third even though there was no play and sailed it over the cutoff man, allowing the batter to go to second, removing the double play possibility. The play was to throw it into second. If you wanted to throw to third, you really needed to make it close enough to the cutoff man to keep the runner at first.

Later in the game he dropped an easy popup (see picture above). Plays that you have to make if you are on the bubble to make the team.

Other guys:

Pitchers:

• Anthony Kay went 2 innings, allowed 3 hits (none of them hard hit balls), 2 earned, 2 strikeouts. Hurt a bit by the defense behind him.
• Jacob Waguespack: 1 inning, 1 walk, 2 k.
• Thomas Pannone: 1 inning, 3 hits, 1 earned, 1 K. He was hit pretty hard.
• Sean Reid-Foley: 1 inning, 1 hit, 1 unearned run. Hurt by Anthony’s defense.
• Justin Miller: 1 clean inning.
• Thomas Hatch: 1 inning, 2 k.
• Kirby Snead: 1 inning, 1 home run, 1 walk.
• Ryan Dull: 1 inning, 1 hit, 1 k. Got out of the inning with a Twin getting caught trying to steal third, a bad way to end a game for the Twins.

Hitters;

• Derek Fisher: 1 for 3.
• Forrest Wall: 1 for 1.
• Joe Panik: 0 for 2, k. He also made an error. Runner on first, ball hit up the middle. He got there but tried to make the tough play, and let the ball get past him. He should have made sure to block the ball from getting into the outfield.
• Logan Warmoth: 0 for 2, k.
• Brandon Drury: 0 for 2, k.
• Andy Burns: 1 for 1, RBI.
• Travis Shaw: 0 for 2, k.
• Rowdy Tellez: 2 for 3, k. He hit a couple of balls hard, both for singles.
• Reese McGuire: 0 for 2, 2 k. I wonder if he is feeling a bit of pressure after the arrest.
• Alejandro Kirk: Walk. Scored on a deep sac fly (a play that was far closer than I expected).
• Billy McKinney: 0 for 1, walk.
• Josh Palacios: 1 for 2, k.
• Santiago Espinal. : 1 for 2, k, double (our only extra base hit on the day).
• Kevin Smith: 0 for 1, walk.

The defense didn’t excite me today, I’m hoping for better.