The Twins played their first game of the spring, facing off against the Concordia College Golden Bears. It more more or less a fun competition in which Rick Stelmaszek was the home plate umpire and Ron Gardenhire umpired first base.

I'm not sure an official box score exists for this game (as if anyone would care), but LaVelle and Joe Christensen each have their own recaps of the game. Most notably Phillip Humber allowed 4 of Concordia's runs. The two other pitching prospects received in the Santana deal, Kevin Mulvey and Deolis Guerra also saw some time on the mound. LaVelle mentioned that Juan Rincon looked shaky, though he allowed no runs.

The Twins will begin real spring games against Cincinnati on Thursday. They'll play Ft. Myers rival, the Boston Red Sox, on Friday night.

Howard Sinker posted yesterday about Kyle Lohse's continued free agent status. He's sure to be picked up by someone sooner than later and I think his lack of signing with someone can mostly be attributed to his agent, Scott Boras, holding out for more money that Lohse is worth.

Francisco Liriano is finally expected at camp tomorrow (Wednesday). All the talk so far regarding Liriano has been positive. His velocity has been as high as 97 mph in bullpen sessions, which is a great sign. I'm still going to take a somewhat reserved approach to Liriano's return due to the history of slow comebacks from Tommy John surgery.

If you're a fantasy baseball player, The RotoFeed blog has a useful list of resources for getting the most out of your draft.

Phil Hughes is blogging now. I would've gladly welcomed him into the Twins blogosphere. Yes, I'm still bitter about how the Santana ordeal played out.

The Cardinals are going to continue their late 2007 experiment of having the pitcher bat 8th in the lineup. Many times last year I thought the Twins should have had the pitcher bat eighth (or anywhere in the lineup, for that matter). As the AL's 3rd lowest scoring offense, a little experimentation couldn't have hurt.

MLB this year has managed to make the game even less fan-friendly.