Nice day here in St. Petersburg as the Twins prepare to face the Rays in what should be a decent pitching matchup. Both Rays lefthander David Price and Twins righthander Kyle Gibson have started the the season well.
This comes on the day in which many of the "aces" in the league are on the mound. Verlander, Fernandez, Price, Bumgarner, Wainwright, Cueto, Lester, Tanaka, Shields are all starting today.
The Twins are 6-3 over their last nine games, outscoring opponents 52-32 during that time. Can the offense keep it up? The Twins are batting just .250 as a team but, thanks to a league-leading 96 walks, they have the best on base percentage in baseball at .354.
Four Twins players - Brian Dozier, Josmil Pinto, Joe Mauer and Trevor Plouffe - are among the top 10 in walks in the AL.
Will check back soon with updates and the Rays' lineup.
One more thing: Byron Buxton took batting practice on a field in Fort Myers today and is making progress in his comeback from a left wrist injury. He is on track to start playing in extended spring training games early next week.
UPDATES
Darin Mastroianni has been claimed off waivers by the Blue Jays, the team that drafted him in the 16th round in 2007. Ron Antony said he would have liked to have kept Mastroianni in the organization and had hoped to get him through waivers. But I know one Blue Jays scout who was upset they lost Mastroianni to the Twins in 2012. Toronto planned to move Mastroianni to second base before they lost him on waivers. Let's see if they revisit that now that he's back in the fold.
