Carlos Gomez Topic Page

Friday night's game 2 of the ALDS was every bit as disappointing as Tuesday's tie-breaker game was satisfying. For multiple reasons the Twins lost the game by a single run when Mark Texeira hit an 11th inning walk-off home run down the left field line. Prior to that the Twins had a couple opportunities to seal a victory.

In the fourth inning Carlos Gomez was caught off second after a Matt Tolbert single to center. Delmon Young was coming around to score easily, but Gomez was tagged before Young crossed the plate, ending the inning with no runs for the Twins. Gomez had no business rounding second on that play, but even after making that mistake he should have kept going, allowing Young enough time to score.

I really like fangraphs.com. A quick glance can give you a pretty good idea of how the game went. The win probability graph for Tuesday's game was particularly interesting. See the point where the green line is nearly touching the x-axis? That's when Carlos Gomez was batting with 2 outs in the ninth. After that, the fun begins.

See the chart after the fold.

The Twins opened the final season in the Metrodome with a 6-1 loss to Felix Hernandez and the Seattle Mariners. Hernandez and Francisco Liriano dueled through the first five innings, but the game began to deteriorate in the bottom of the fifth inning when the Twins turned a bases loaded, no outs, situation into just 1 run after Justin Morneau grounded into an inning-ending double play.

In the sixth, Franklin Gutierrez slipped a 2-run homerun just past the outstretched glove of Carlos Gomez in center field, and a sloppy bullpen surrendered two more runs in the ninth.

It wasn't an all-bad night. Liriano actually pitched well, despite a few costly mistakes. 3 of his 4 runs surrendered came on long-balls, but he still made it through 7 innings on just 93 pitches. He allowed just 4 hits and 0 walks.

The Twins came just shy of the postseason last year, however made very little moves in the offseason to make the team better. It's clear that they're counting on growth from within to make this team contend in 2009.

Looking to improve this year.

Michael Cuddyer struggled through injuries last season. While he was rehabbing a hand injury, he was struck by a ball and broke his foot. The string of bad luck limited him to just 279 plate appearances, hafter surpassing 600 in each of the previous two years.

With the exception of the cruddy weather outside, you can't really ask for a much better opening day if you're the Twins. Livan Hernandez pitched well enough that 3 runs were all the Twins needed to win. He allowed 2 runs on 7 hits and 0 walks through 7 IP. With a pitch count only in the eighties, I was surprised not to see him sent out for the eighth. Perhaps, if the there had been a little more padding on the lead, Gardy would've given him another inning.

Game Time: 6:05 PM (CT) Location: Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome Opponent: Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim

Carlos Gomez has some big shoes to fill after beating out Denard Span and Jason Pridie to replace Torii Hunter in center field. By the way, he was also the centerpiece in the Johan Santana trade. The comparisons to Hunter will come instantly as he'll be sharing center with Hunter when the Angels open the season with a 4-game series at the dome. Although, if you ask me, the real pressure is on Torii Hunter, who needs to prove to the Angels that he's worth the 5-year $90 million contract they gave him. Let's look at what we can expect from Gomez:

The Twins game today against the Phillies was televised on FSN and I got a chance to watch a large portion of it. Tomorrow's game is also televised (WFTC29).

I thought I'd interrupt the steady stream of projections posts to recap what's been happening down in Florida.

Before I say anything, I just want to make it clear that the deal is still tentative. The Mets and Johan Santana will need to agree on a fat contract extension before Johan will waive his no-trade clause. It's pretty unlikely that they won't reach a deal, but we can still hope.