Twins 'burdened' with too many arms

Team: Minnesota Twins
Location: Fort Myers, Fla.
Date: March 28, 2007

Burning Question

Where will Matt Garza start the season and what do the very impressive members of the front end of the Triple-A Rochester rotation need to do to prepare for their arrival or return to the big leagues?

Garza, MiLB.com's 2006 Pitcher of the Year, stayed in the Major League rotation mix right to the end before being assigned to Minor League camp Wednesday afternoon. The final spot went to erstwhile reliever Carlos Silva, who joins Johan Santana, Ramon Ortiz, Boof Bonser and Sir Sidney Ponson.

In '06, his first full season after being drafted in the first round out of Fresno State, Garza combined to go 14-4 at three Minor League levels while striking out 174 batters. He finished his summer in Minnesota, where he posted a 5.76 ERA in 50 innings, which just barely keeps him qualified for AL Rookie of the Year honors when he gets back to the Twin Cities.

For now, he heads up a Rochester Red Wings' rotation that, quite frankly, could match up against any in the Minors. Garza will be followed by right-hander Kevin Slowey and lefty Glen Perkins for quite the 1-2-3 punch.

Slowey, a 2005 second-round pick, combined for a 1.90 ERA and 158 strikeouts between Class A Advanced Fort Myers and Double-A New Britain in 2006. He also was the starting pitcher in Team USA's historic victory over Cuba in the Olympic qualifying tournament.

Perkins, a homegrown Minnesota boy who was the club's first-round pick in 2004, posted a 3.91 ERA at New Britain last summer before coming up to the bigs and wowing the hometown folks with a 1.59 ERA in four starts.

"What I think they all need to do is get into a groove and stay focused on what they're there (in the Minors) to do: pitch, stay healthy and stay ready," said Twins director of player development Jim Rantz. "The good thing is that none of them came back from big-league camp with an 'I'm going to pout' attitude."

Rantz noted there were 18 callups from Rochester to Minnesota last year, so history certainly is on the players' side.

It makes sense that the trio (along with Scott Baker, Jeremy Cummings and Dave Gassner) keep their eye on the prize. Silva took an 11.02 spring ERA into Wednesday night's game against the Red Sox. And Ponson, well, to say his past (and weight) has been unreliable would be understating the issue. So it certainly wouldn't be a stretch to think that any of the Red Wings pitchers could be getting a call at any time.

Other News of the Day

Other than Garza's assignment to Minor League camp, things were relatively quiet Wednesday as the Twins enjoyed a "camp day" of intersquad games that started at 10 a.m. Joe Mauer, who had been sidelined with a sore leg, got his first taste of action back on the field as he played in the New Britain-Rochester game; he was expected to return to the Minor League field Thursday, when the Twins' two Class A clubs squared off against their Red Sox counterparts.

On the injury front, a few players may be missing some time. Third baseman-turned-catcher Jose Leger, who was working through the transition from one position to the other, underwent labrum surgery and will miss the 2007 season. ... 1B Henry Sanchez, one of the club's top picks in 2005 out of San Diego State, will be out for two or three months as he continues to recover from offseason surgery on his hamate bone. He'll be working on building up hand strength, meaning no grounders and no swinging a bat. ... SS Paul Kelly, who had been expected to break camp as the starting shortstop at Fort Myers, will instead stay at extended Spring Training as he recovers from a bothersome knee injury. The 2005 second-rounder hit .280 at Beloit last year. ... On the good news front, RHP Jay Rainville, a 2004 first-rounder who missed all of 2006 due to shoulder trouble, will break camp in the Fort Myers rotation.

Two power-hitting first basemen are seeing time this spring in the outfield as the Twins hope to find a better potential spot for their bats now that Justin Morneau appears to be sticking around for awhile. Erik Lis, the reigning Midwest League batting champion, is working out in both left and right field and will continue that progress at Fort Myers. Lis, a 2005 ninth-round pick, hit .326 with 16 homers and 70 RBIs in just 105 games at Beloit last year, posting a .402 on-base percentage and .547 slugging percentage. At Rochester, slugger Garrett Jones is seeing time in the outfield after getting his start with 23 games there last year. Jones' 92 RBIs last year tied a career high as he's topped the 20-homer mark three years running.

Five Questions with Kevin Slowey

MiLB.com: What was your first big-league Spring Training like?

KS: The biggest thing for me was seeing how the guys act day to day. Everyone makes a big deal about how Joe Nathan throws on the mound, how good his slider is or how Joe Mauer hits, but to see how they go about their business on days they don't pitch or don't hit ... I got in there pretty early every day, I thought, but Mauer and Justin Morneau were the first guys in there every day. No matter what happened in the game, Joe Nathan was in the weight room afterwards and running the next day. And these are guys who are already established superstars, but they don't take it for granted. I try to take that with me, that I have to try to get better every day because those guys certainly are, and the only way to catch up with them is to be doing the same thing.

MiLB.com: Identify one person in history you'd like to have dinner with and why.

KS: Abraham Lincoln. I think he'd have a good, dry sense of humor and would have some phenomenal stories to tell. He failed a lot of times before he succeeded. He came across a lot of difficult times in his life. And I'd like to get his perspective and see what he thought of the country now.

MiLB.com: Complete this sentence: It would surprise people to know that I ...

KS: I speak Spanish. I minored in Spanish in school. It's an asset and it's also a good way to break the ice with guys. It's funny a lot of the time because I'm a white, white guy, I'm very Caucasian and the fact that I can speak Spanish well enough to catch guys when they're making fun of me is pretty funny.

MiLB.com: Who is the most unusual character you've come across in the Minors and why?

KS: Matt LeCroy. He's hysterical, he is so funny. He has this good southern Clemson twang even though I think he's originally Canadian. He tells stories that bring the house down.

MiLB.com: What is your favorite aspect of playing in the Twins organization and why?

KS: The teammates I have are guys I feel I'd be friends with even without baseball. In the offseason, we stay in touch, not to talk about how their throwing programs are going but how everything else in their lives are going. People talk a lot about the Twins organization and their ability to produce pitching prospects, but I think sometimes they overlook the kind of guys we have here. We don't have guys, including the big leaguers, who think they're better than anybody else, and that's really conducive to having a tight-knit organization.

Lasting Impression

In his first Spring Training, 2006 draftee Whit Robbins has continued to make the Twins happy they took him with their fourth-round pick. The Georgia Tech product batted .304 in his pro debut last summer at Beloit but played in just 32 games because of a stress fracture in his back.

Now healthy, he continues to scorch the ball this spring and earned a move up to Fort Myers, where he'll see some time at first base.

"He's really swung the bat well down here," Rantz said.

Off the Beaten Path

OK, so it's not exactly the Yankees-Red Sox rivalry, but the Twins and Red Sox have a Spring Training feud that culminates in the awarding of the "Mayor's Cup."

Both clubs having their spring digs in Fort Myers, with the Twins based at Hammond Stadium in the Lee County Sports Complex and Boston seven miles across town at City of Palms Park.

Since the big-league clubs see each other a few times every spring, the winner of the series gets the Cup. And though the Twins had won it two years running, taking five of six games in 2006, the Red Sox were on the verge of grabbing the trophy back as they prepared for the last spring showdown on Wednesday night with a 2-1-1 lead.

And it's not just the big guys who square off time and again. The Minor Leaguers were getting to know each other pretty well, too.

There are five organizations in the cluster of teams that play each other during the spring (with Cincinnati and Baltimore, both in Sarasota, and Pittsburgh in Bradenton rounding out that quintet), with games running from mid-March to the end of the month.

Not surprisingly, the Twins prefer when they get to face the Red Sox, if for no other reason than it means an easier commute (if the Double-A and Triple-A games are at one site, the two Class A games always will be at the other).

"The convenience of not having to get on I-75 but to just have to drive seven miles to get our work in and get good competition is very much appreciated," Rantz said.

Ironically, the Twins and Red Sox both have affiliates in the Triple-A International and Double-A Eastern Leagues, so you can bet these seemingly meaningless spring games are remembered once the season rolls around.

"I'm sure a pitcher remembers if he gives up a long ball," Rantz said, "or if he strikes someone out, he remembers how he did it."

Parting Shots

With just a few days left in camp, it's still too early to rest easy, even though most of the planned moves have been made and most of the questions have been answered.

But Rantz knows that an injury, trade or other move could start that ripple effect at any time, so he never gets too comfortable.

"Knock wood, we haven't had anyone go down on the Major League side," he added. "If that happens, it does change the whole picture."

Overall, though, Rantz feels it's been a good camp. His only problem right now is a surfeit of pitching, which is a good problem to have, but one that's going to result in too many arms and not enough jobs.