03/17/2007 Twins 7 - Pirates 3

I finally got the chance to view some Pirates spring baseball this afternoon. Here are some of my observations while watching the game:

• Green baseball caps are dumb.
• Regardless of whether he's any good or not, I like Don Kelly.
• It took a whole 6 pitches before we were told that Don Kelly is Neil Walker's brother-in-law.
• Boof Bonser kind of reminds me of Jimmy Anderson. Except he's a much better pitcher than Jimmy was.
• Why aren't the Pirates wearing green helmets? That must have been too costly. Or maybe after the hats were made, they realized how stupid it was.
• I was thinking Armas was looking pretty good early on. Then Torii Hunter came to the plate.
• Don Kelly could use a sandwich. Or maybe several sandwiches.
• The Pirates' bottom of the 2nd inning started like this: leadoff single, high chopper over the third baseman's head for a single, a pop up that is misplayed and drops in, groundball off the pitcher goes for an infield single. Final result: zero runs. What is this, April 2006?
• Here's a quote from Bob Walk. "Brian Graham has done a heck of a job." Sigh.
• Jack Wilson actually looked like a good number two hitter today. 2-2, 1 BB
• Don Kelly will play the role of Jose Hernandez/Mike Edwards at Jim Tracy's next job.
• With all the Don Kelly references, you might think you are watching/listening to a Pirates broadcast.
• The middle of the order looked very shaky today.
• Masumi Kuwata looks like a guy that was a star in Japan. Five years ago.
• Ronny Paulino looks like he's ready to make the trip to Houston.
• Someone should have told Jason Bay about the "spontaneous" green hat/8-pack promotion. He probably didn't help the cause much during his interview when he said something along the lines of, "I get to keep the hat, I don't know that I will though."
• That looked like a high school game. I think the Twins misplayed 31 flyballs. But the Pirates were kind enough to run the bases poorly so as not to take advantage,
• Brad Eldred is still really big.
• This looked like the same old Pirates game. Waste early opportunities, fall behind 7-1, start to rally in the 9th, bring the tying run to the plate, leave the bases loaded, lose 7-3.