Things worth talking about (with notes from Friday’s Bisons/Fisher Cats/Lugnuts/Canadians game against the Twins)

• Teoscar Hernandez struck out another two times yesterday afternoon, giving him five Ks in his first 12 spring training at-bats. Hernandez hit well in his short stint in Toronto last year and we would have been talking about him more as an option to start 2018 with the team had he not struck out in almost 40% of his plate appearances. Teoscar and his plate discipline will be something to watch all spring. It is March 3rd though, so you could say it’s uh, still early.
• Anthony Alford hit a single and then stole a base in the fourth yesterday, which isn’t really noteworthy, but it’s Anthony Alford so it absolutely is.
• Thomas Pannone and Jon Harris combined to give up three hits over four innings, striking out five and walking one against the Twins major-leaguers yesterday.
• Aaron Sanchez made the start against the Twins and did exactly what you thought he’d do against a weaker Twins lineup. He pitched a quick three innings and faced the minimum. The only hard hit ball off of him was by Taylor Featherston, who promptly got picked off to end the inning. Nine batters faced with two strikeouts and four groundouts will play. Nothing but respect for MY Opening Day starter!
• In a completely fabricated “I am the captain now” outfield competition that exists only in my mind, Randal Grichuk made two nice catches and hit a double, and Kevin Pillar, obviously hearing footsteps and having a great start to his spring, hit a homer.
• John Axford pitched a clean inning with three ground ball outs.
• The two teams combined for 21 runs and 21 hits on Saturday. The game was back and forth until the eighth, where hero and apple of our eye Ezequiel Carrera led a five-run inning off with a single. Coincidence? Probably not.