Cabin Twelve

10 days until pitchers and catchers report!

And as it draws near, the Pioneer Press gives us news of something to watch for this spring in regards to Go-Go and his fungo stick:

Gomez said he has improved at not swinging at too many pitches by … well, not swinging. “I take pitches. I stand and take 60 pitches, then swing at one,” Gomez said of his daily routine before Leones del Escogido games in the Dominican Republic. “Don’t swing for 60 pitches.”

Obviously, Gomez is a young dude and seems to have ability to spare, but needs improve both his strikeout rate and ability to draw walks, so it’ll be interesting if he can translate his off-season work into results as a batsman.

And to randomly compare his season to a few other AL Central lead-offish Center Fielders:

I realize this isn’t necessarily fair, objective, scientific or especially informative – but its at least a little interesting, in that, especially with the Sizemore/Granderson comparisons, you don’t have to stretch your imagination too far to think that Gomez could be on the level with those two players, if he manages to tap his potential.

And I’m not asking for an entirely new Carlos Gomez either, everything looks better if he just gets the walks up to a decent level and the strikeouts down. Everything else will come out in the wash. Heck, I’d even take the average of the 4 guys on this list. And that isn’t out of the realm of possibility for Gomez – the guy did get on base at a .336 clip and slug .399 in the minors, for what its worth. A couple of modest improvements from Gomez would mean a big improvement for the Twins offense.

Especially if Denard Span and Alexi Casilla can put up a 162 game version of their 2008’s in 2009.

On May 7th, 2008, Carlos Gomez became the first Minnesota Twins player to hit for the cycle in 22 years. He accomplished the feat in a 13-2 romp against the Chicago White Sox at US Cellular Field in Chicago.

Livan Hernandez got the win. Mark Buerhle took the loss.

Carlos was 4-6 on the game. His AB’s went thusly:

Top of the 1st: Home Run (Line Drive to Deep LF)
Top of the 3rd: Strikeout Swinging
Top of the 5th: Triple to CF (Fly Ball to Deep LF/CF); Tolbert Scores
Top of the 6th: Double to LF (Fly Ball to LF/CF); Punto Scores; Gomez to 3B; adv on E8
Top of the 9th: Single to P (Ground Ball to weak SS-2B)
Top of the 9th: Strikeout Swinging

A couple of notes about the game: Gomez struck out twice and still managed to hit for the cycle. He made the last out for the visiting team, and yes, still managed to hit for the cycle. If you watched Carlos Gomez play in 2008, you probably aren’t surprised by either of those things. And if you watched Carlos Gomez play in 2008, it’s no surprise that his single in the 9th was an infield hit. The pitcher for the Sox was Ehren Wasserman, who deflected a ball hit up the middle, Alexei Ramirez couldn’t corral it and couldn’t throw Gomez out at 1st.

The last time a Twins player hit for the cycle? That’s right, Kirby Puckett. 8/10/1986. The same night Bert struck out #3000.