FORT MYERS, Fla. — Just before the morning workouts ended in Twins camp, I saw a small group of people on Tom Kelly Field, so I walked over to take a look. It was Zack Granite, Nick Gordon, coach Gene Glynn doing the pitching — and Rod Carew. The Hall of Famer had offered to give some tips about drag bunting to the Twins' prospects, and they weren't about to turn him down.
"He's the best guy you could ever get," Granite said, and he's right about that: Carew's 112 bunt singles as a Twin as twice as many as any other player in franchise history ever had. "You might as well take everything you can get from a guy like that. Anytime somebody of that caliber — I mean, a Hall of Famer, c'mon — I'm going to listen."
Carew, here occasionally during the spring to help with coaching, had a bat in his hand during the drills, and frequently demonstrated the body position and footwork that made for an ideal bunt. "I was getting some pretty good ones down, so that makes you feel pretty good," Granite said. "It's awesome how the Twins bring those guys back. We've got all the analytics and computer guys, but it's nice to hear from those baseball guys who just did it, too. You can learn a lot."
Speaking of learning, fans might learn something about what ballplayers say to each other during today's Fox Sports North simulcast. Brian Dozier has agreed to wear a microphone while he's in the game today — on the field, at the plate and in the dugout.
Today's game is a sellout, but rain is in the forecast. Assuming they play, here are the lineups:
RED SOX
Betts DH
Benintendi LF
Ramirez 1B
Martinez RF
Bogaerts SS
Bradley CF
Nunez 2B
Leon C
Holt 3B
Beeks LHP
TWINS
Dozier 2B
Mauer 1B
Polanco SS
Escobar 3B
Buxton CF
Kepler RF
Grossman DH
Garver LF
Castro C
Gibson RHP
