Nice knowin' ya, Scott

I set my alarm for 11:55 Sunday, so I could get up just in time to watch the Twins spring game agaisnt the Red Sox.
Instead, a women's college basketball game was on.
The Twins came on in the 6th inning, by which time they were already down 6-1, thanks to another miserable outing from Scott Baker.
He allowed five runs in two innings, raising his spring ERA to 24.30. In 3 1/3 innings he's allowed 13 hits and nine runs.
Terrible.

It's early, but with the stiff competition for spots in the ro', he's already pretty much taken himself out of the running.
The bigger question is whether or not he's pitched his last game as a Twin.
Besides the rotation, the Twins (more specifically, Ron Gardenhire's) biggest concern going into the season is finding a backup shortstop. Jason Bartlett played 99 consecutive games after his call-up last year, and the Twins don't want to make him play that much this year.

Luis Rodriguez looks unlikely to make the team because he's not an adequate shortstop, and Alejandro Machado, a Rule V pick from Washington who was brought in to perhaps fill the utility role, is hurt. Considering he hit only .260 in Triple-A last year, I don't think Machado is the answer anyway.
Alexi Casilla is a possibility, but the Twins want him to play every day in the Minors, which, since he skipped Triple-A on his way to a September call-up last year, is the smart thing to do.

Gardy hinted at a trade, and it wouldn't be surprising to see the team try to move Baker and or JD Durbin, who they would likely lose anyway (he's out of options and probably won't make the team).
Of course, if Nick Punto fails to play as well as he did last year, and Jeff Cirillo plays well, we could see Cirillo take over most of the ABs at 3rd, with Punto taking on a larger utility role, where he could get plenty of ABs at 2b, 3b and shortstop. That would leave a spot open for Rodriguez or perhaps Matt LeCroy, who Gardy would no doubt love to keep because of his misguided craving for a 3rd catcher.

*Torii Hunter was beaned in the side of the head by a Kyle Lohse fastball on Friday.
After an initial concussion scare, it turns out he's fine.
Lohse removed himself from the game after the pitch, and Hunter blamed it on Hammond Stadium's poor lighting (he's not the first to bring that up).
While Hammond Stadium was lauded when it was first built in 1991, it has already fallen into the lower tier of Major League spring training stadiums. Hunter swore afterwards he would refuse to play in any night games there until the lighting is improved.

*Saturday the Twins lost 14-1. Boof got roughed up, but the rest of the runs came against no-names that won't make the team anyway.

The Twins are now winless in five spring training games.
They've been outscored 35-9.
Not worth losing sleep over, but disconcerting to be sure.