Offense:
Not bad, considering they played without
Aramis Ramirez and Alfonso
Soriano (and Derrek Lee only had a couple of at-bats on Sunday).
Felix Pie homered Sunday, Alex Cintron and Ryan Theriot each had a couple hits over the two-day span and a number of the prospects had big days on Monday. But the biggest concern was a failure to get the 'big hit;' way too many stranded baserunners.
Defense:
Pretty good for the most part, minus Sam
Fuld getting handcuffed Sunday by a line drive. I swear he came within inches of tearing his knee up.
Was most impressed by the catchers (
Geovany Soto and
Koyie Hill each threw out base-
stealers) and
Kosuke Fukudome (who made an incredible catch up against the wall and showed off a laser arm).
Pitching:
Three potential 2008 starters hurled in the two-game span: Ted Lilly, Jon
Lieber and Sean Marshall. Lilly and Marshall each had trouble locating their pitches, but still impressed me. Lilly, flat-out, has balls. He exudes the 'here it is, hit it' mentality that I love. And Marshall twice pitched himself out of jams and showed some pluck.
Lieber was his typical self: he challenged hitters. That style produced a speedy 1-2-3 inning in the first, prompting the woman behind me to say "Wow, that was a really quick inning" (you'll see a lot of them with
Lieber, the anti-
Trachsel). But the M's
t'ed off on
Lieber in the second and he gave up two runs.
Impressed me:
Jake Fox and Matt
Murton. Both these guys seem to always hit the ball hard somewhere.
Murton is a valuable corner outfielder and Fox deserves a shot to be the second catcher.
Alex
Cintron has more pop in his bat than I expected and is solid in the infield. He could prove to be a valuable reserve.
Depressed me:
The baserunning on Monday was horrendous. Twice (twice!) a runner at second base got thrown out at third on a ground ball in the infield. It's called running yourself out of a big inning and it's a baseball sin.
Bob
Howry was just brutal. He entered the game in the ninth on Monday with a 6-2 lead. He finished off the game, but not before giving up five straight hits and letting the M's cut the lead to one. I'm hoping this was an aberration, but he certainly didn't help his cause in the battle for the closer position.
And as bad as
Howry was on Monday, Neal
Cotts was just as bad on Sunday. The Giants lit him up like a neon sign on the
Las Vegas strip. His fastball looked flat. If Lou
Pinella wants to carry two lefties in the 'pen (Scott Eyre and ?), he might have to look in a different direction.
Intrigued me:
Jeff
Samardzija has a seriously live arm. He looked very sharp in his two innings on Monday. Very impressed with his velocity and stuff.
Ronny
Cedeno was in the
leadoff spot on Monday and played all nine innings in
centerfield. And, surprisingly (as you might have guessed, I'm not a huge
Cedeno guy), he wasn't that bad. He had three hits (hit the ball hard four out of five times up) and didn't
embarass himself in the outfield. I
said earlier that I thought
Fuld or Patterson would make this team as a back-up in
centerfield, leaving
Cedeno, Mike
Fontenot and Alex
Cintron to battle for the last roster spot. Now I think it's possible two of the latter three make the club, while
Fuld and Patterson both get sent to AAA.
(But, for as well as
Cedeno played on Monday, he still got picked off in a typical Ronny-
Cedeno-bonehead-move).
Concerned me:
Was walking into the ballpark on Sunday and overheard hitting coach Gerald Perry lamenting that "everyone was trying to get out of the lineup." Minutes later, the PA announcer told us
Soriano was scratched with a finger injury. We all know about Mark
DeRosa's health concerns and there was no sign of A-Ram. I know these guys don't need too much work in the spring, but I don't want the team to be walking wounded.
I love
Fukudome. He has a great eye at the plate, great range in the outfield and, honest to God, reminds me of Spider-Man. Don't know why, but that's what comes to mind. Yet, I
don't think he's the right choice for the No. 3 spot in the line-up. He's far more similar to
Ichiro than
Hideki Matsui. He's a guy who can put the ball in the play and leg out some singles, but I don't see gap-to-gap power. He's far more suited for the No. 2 hole. And if he's not there, I worry we'll lose out on some runs.
...who should be in the starting rotation right now for the Cubs? 
