Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Friday, March 1, 2013 Hendriks Picks Up
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Minnesota Twins Daily Clips Friday, March 1, 2013 Hendriks picks up the pace in Twins’ win over Baltimore. StarTribune.com (Neal) pg. 1 Twins postgame: It’s a juggernaut. StarTribune.com (Neal) pg. 2 Notes from Fort Myers: Mauer expects fatherhood to be ‘a game-changer.’ StarTribune.com (Neal) pg. 2 TwinsCentric: Where are they now? Former Twins in big league camps. StarTribune.com (Stohs) pg. 3 Minnesota Twins: Pitching prospects Alex Meyer, J.O. Berrios shine. PioneerPress.com (Berardino) pg. 5 Joe Mauer calls impending fatherhood ‘a blessing.’ PioneerPress.com (Berardino) pg. 5 Tom Powers: Minnesota Twins think Alex Meyer well worth his high price. PioneerPress.com (Powers) pg. 6 Minnesota Twins’ Darin Mastroianni aggravates hamstring injury. PioneerPress.com (Berardino) pg. 7 Charley Walters: Twins’ Kyle Gibson showing zip – and sink. PioneerPress.com (Walters) pg. 7 Meyer, Berrios post zeros in ‘B’ game. Twinsbaseball.com (Bollinger) pg. 8 Expecting twins, Mauer excited about fatherhood. Twinsbaseball.com (Bollinger) pg. 8 Mastroianni says sore hamstring nothing serious. Twinsbaseball.com (Bollinger) pg. 9 Hendriks picks up steam in strong outing. Twinsbaseball.com (Bollinger) pg. 9 Hendriks’ three shutout inning pace Twins. Twinsbaseball.com (Bollinger) pg. 9 Perkins prefers to focus on the present. Twinsbaseball.com (Bollinger) pg. 10 Father-to-be Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau power Twins past Orioles. 1500ESPN.com (AP) pg. 11 Spring Observations: How to throw a better slider, with Mike Pelfrey. 1500ESPN.com (Mackey) pg. 12 Twins GM says prospect Alex Meyer is ‘just funky enough to be scary.’ 1500ESPN.com (Mackey) pg. 14 Reality from Fort Myers: Recalling the Replacements. 1500ESPN.com (Reusse) pg. 15 Twins’ Plouffe enjoys life as a big leaguer. News-press.com (Dorsey) pg. 16 Hendriks picks up the pace in Twins’ win over Baltimore La Velle E. Neal III / StarTribune.com – 2/28/13 FORT MYERS, FLA. - Twins righthander Liam Hendriks now has an outing he can take off from after pitching three scoreless innings on Thursday during the Twins' 7-1 win over Baltimore. Hendriks gave up a run in two innings in his first outing of the spring and said he felt much better on Thursday. It showed, as he was around the plate and used all of his pitches. "He rushed a couple pitches here and there but settled back in,'' manager Ron Gardenhire said. "Got his breaking ball where he wanted to. His pace was a lot better. The big thing with him is pace. When he starts slowing down in games, it is no fun.'' Twins hitters got their licks in against Orioles starter Jair Jurrjens, whom they talked about signing as a free agent during the offseason. Jurrjens labored through the first inning, walking three and giving up two hits. One hit was a bases-clearing double by Justin Morneau -- the last run scoring on an error -- that gave the Twins a 3-0 lead. Hendriks, in the running for the starting rotation, finished up with two solid innings. ~ 1 ~ "My command was definitely a lot better,'' Hendriks said while comparing his first two outings. "Fastballs in, fastballs away. It was only the second start of spring, but the off-speed stuff was working tonight.'' Morneau, Darin Mastroianni, Joe Mauer and Josh Willingham each had two hits. Morneau ended up with three RBI as the Twins won for the fourth straight time. Twins postgame: It’s a juggernaut La Velle E. Neal III / StarTribune.com – 2/28/13 Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau sure are serious about getting ready for the World Baseball Classic. Mauer was 2-for-2 as he raised his average to .375. Morneau was 2-for-3 with 3 RBI and is now batting .467. Both leave for the WBC on Sunday. But they aren't the only ones hitting. Darin Mastroianni was 2-for-3 with a double to left and a double to right as he raised his average to .264. He did tweak his left hamstring but is confident that he will not miss any extended period of time, Josh Willingham was 2-for-2 and is now batting - - - - - .727. That's 8-for-11. B game roundup All the centerfield candidates have played well so far in camp. Aaron Hicks had a couple hits in the morning game and really looks confident at the plate. ``Good,'' Twins manager Ron Gardenhire said. ``He's patient, getting his pitches and putting some really nice swings on them.'' Righthander Alex Meyer showed his skills today. He gave up one hit over two innings but really dominated a Red Sox team of minor leaguers.Didn't have a gun reading on him but he was firing the ball in there pretty good, He had looked a little too excited in some of his previous outings. ``That was the best performance we have see from him down here,'' Gardenhire said. Just one game tomorrow, as the Twins travel to Jupiter to see what Mike Redmond's Fighting Marlins have to offer. Notes from Fort Myers: Mauer expects fatherhood to be ‘a game-changer’ La Velle E. Neal III / StarTribune.com – 2/28/13 Joe Mauer knows that the news on Wednesday that his wife, Maddie, is pregnant with twins erupted throughout the Twin Cities. But he's still walking on clouds himself. "It's unbelievable,'' Mauer said after the Twins beat Baltimore on Thursday for their fourth straight win. "What a blessing. I'm just very excited. Very happy and really couldn't believe it at first.'' It was hard for the couple to keep the pregnancy a secret, but they wanted to make sure everything was safe before they made an announcement. They knew once a few people found out that word would spread instantly. There used to be Kodak moments. Now there are Twitter moments. And Wednesday night was a Twitter moment as Mauer began getting congratulatory messages -- and message making sure it wasn't a hoax -- right before he went to bed. "I really didn't expect what happened [Wednesday] to happen,'' he said. ~ 2 ~ The babies are due the last week in August, and the Mauers plan to be surprised at what gender they are. Mauer said that he's enjoyed watching his friends and family react to the news, that he plans to ask Jamey Carroll, the father of twins, for plenty of advice and that he's not afraid of changing diapers. "It's a game-changer,'' he said. "To start off with one is a blessing. To start off with two is an even bigger blessing.'' Mastroianni tweaks a hamstring Outfielder Darin Mastroianni was 2-for-3 with two doubles on Thursday, but he tweaked his left hamstring during his final at-bat in the fourth inning and was replaced by a pinch runner. Mastroianni can motor, so any injury to his legs can be concerning. But Mastroianni expected to miss only a day or two. He said the same thing happened during winter ball. B game The Twins dropped a 3-0 B game to Boston on Thursday morning before the main game at Hammond Stadium against the Orioles. The B game was to give some younger players some action while helping a few others prepare for the World Baseball Classic. Aaron Hicks was 1-for-3 with a double. Eddie Rosario was 1-for-3. Righthander Samuel Deduno gave up three earned runs over 1 2/3 innings. Righthanders Alex Meyer and Jose Berrios were impressive as each threw two shutout innings. B.J. Hermsen gave up a run in the final inning. On deck The Twins head to Jupiter to face Mike Redmond and the Florida Marlins. Righthander Vance Worley will start for the Twins, while righthander Henderson Alvarez will start for Florida. TwinsCentric: Where are they now? Former Twins in big league camps Seth Stohs / StarTribune.com – 2/28/13 If you’re like me, one of the fun things to do during spring training is to read through all of the box scores. They’re long, and full of names as starters are just getting a couple of at bats and managers are wanting to see their role players and non-roster invitees. It’s a good reminder of the offseason transactions and who signed where. That’s important for the big free agents, but it’s also fun to see where the lesser-known names and the minor league free agents signed. As someone who is coming up on ten years of blogging on the Twins, it’s also fun for me to see where former Twins players wind up. Some of the names are easily recognizable, and some of the players may not have even made it to the majors but ‘grew up’ in the Twins farm system. Now, this may not be a complete list of who is in big league camp. You may have seen on SportsCenter the other day that JD Durbin (aka The Real Deal) gave up a long home run to Edwin Encarnacion. Durbin signed a minor league deal with the Red Sox this winter after spending the past few summers in independent ball. So, check out the below list of 40 man roster guys and non-roster invites that are in big league camp right now, and be sure to point out who else you know is playing. Baltimore Orioles – Luis Ayala, Alexi Casilla, Danny Valencia and JJ Hardy are on their 40 man roster. Allan de San Miguel, Steve Pearce (drafted out of high school and spent 2012 spring training with Twins), Lew Ford and Jason Pridie are non-roster invites. De San Miguel is also on the Australian WBC team.