... Live From Fort Myers: Shot Of The Day

By A Daily Update By Our Staffers

Last update: March 18, 2007 - 10:40 PM

Attention focused on Silva's pitching

While Johan Santana pitched Sunday in Hammond Stadium, Twins manager Ron Gardenhire and pitching coach Rick Anderson were on a back field watching righthander Carlos Silva pitch against Class AA New Britain.

Official stats weren't kept, but Silva went four innings and New Britain scored a run in the first, second and third innings. Gardenhire said some balls should have been caught in the field.

"He was working on a few things," Gardenhire said. "The ball came out of his hand good."

In four outings, Silva has a 7.62 ERA. His sinker, a main focus of the coaching staff's attention this spring, has not returned consistently.

The Twins need to see results.

"We want him to be in our rotation desperately," Gardenhire said. "We think we need him. Nothing is a lock. He knows that. He has to go out and pitch."

ROSTER MOVES

The Twins sent outfielder Denard Span to Class AAA Rochester before their game Sunday. After the game, the Twins reassigned lefthanders Carmen Cali and Jason Miller and righthanders Kevin Slowey and Jeremy Cummings to minor league camp.

Span and Slowey both were impressive during their stints.

Span batted .306 with seven RBI and made the staff feel he could fill in for center fielder Torii Hunter.

"If something happened to Torii or if Torii gets hurt or something, we could look down and feel pretty comfortable with him," Gardenhire said.

Slowey had a 3.38 ERA in five outings. All three runs off him came on Sunday during an inning of work. "I think we all know that he has a very good opportunity to pitch in the big leagues, if not this year, very soon," Gardenhire said. "More than likely this year. He's pretty good."

NEW BACKDROP

A green garbage bag-looking section has been added to the Hammond Stadium batter's eye, the area in center field that functions as a backdrop to help hitters see pitches. The addition stretches from the left edge of the eye about 10 feet toward the left-center gap.

For a lefthanded hitter against a righthander, the ball was coming out of the sky, said catcher Joe Mauer, who bats left. But the shiny surface reflects the sunlight. "They put up that thing, but there's glare coming off of it," Mauer said. "It's still bright out there. I didn't see anything the last AB."

ETC.

• Hunter, who was just messing around, took grounders at shortstop before the game. "I just wanted to show everybody that I'm an athlete," he said. "It was sweet, wasn't it?"

• Third baseman Nick Punto had a nice barehand grab of a slow bouncer to throw out Brent Abernathy.

WHO'S HOT

Luis Castillo was 3-for-3, giving him three straight games with at least two hits.

WHO'S NOT

Mauer was 0-for-4, including two groundouts and a strikeout looking. He is batting .226. When asked how he felt at the plate, he said, "Not very good today."

WHO'S NEXT?

The Twins have their only off day of spring training today. They will return for what amounts to a sprint to the finish -- 12 games in which they settle on the rotation and figure out bench spots.

LA VELLE E. NEAL III

Recent Twins stories

Cuddyer option is first order of business for Twins - March 18, 2007

Cuddyer option is first order of business for Twins - When the World Series ended Wednesday, the clock began ticking on some key offseason decisions for the Twins. More