So far, The Twins are having a fairly routine, uneventful spring training. They've won about half their games, some players are off to better starts than others. For those looking for reasons for optimism amongst the usual spring training stuff, the best stories emerging so far are probably the progress of Francisco Liriano, and the hiting of Delmon Young.
Going into today's action, Young was 8 for thirteen, (.615) with a homerun and four RBI's. The best part of that is he's hitting the ball to all fields, something that the Twins coaching staff may not have expected. That's an awfully good quality in a young hitter, especially one with some power. Being able to hit to the opposite field makes a hitter dangerous as a situational hitter, not just when the circumstances are right to pull the ball. If he can keep it up and carry that approach into the regular season, the Twins will be getting all they hoped for and more out of Delmon Young.
Liriano threw in a live game for the first time today. He was held to a count tof forty pitches, and in an inning and two-thirds, walked one, struck out one, and gave up two hits. The walk was to David Ortiz, and the strikeout was of manny Ramirez. That's never a bad way to approach pitching against the Red Sox.
No telling for sure, but I suspect the Twins are starting to develop hope that Liriano will be ready to join the major league club when they head home for the season. If he could be ready tp pitch from the start, it would be a big morale booster for the club, and go a long ways towards making them competitive in the AL Central.
Keywords: AL Central, Delmon Young, Francisco Liriano, Minnesota Twins
