[Early Arrivals], [New Season, New Look], [Matthew LeCroy update]

Early Arrivals:

Tomorrow (February 19th, 2008) marks the first day that all players may
report to Spring Training. But there are plenty of familiar faces already working
out at the Lee County Sports Complex.

More than 30 Major and Minor Leaguers were taking part in the voluntary workout
Friday morning on the back fields of the complex.

Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins, and Jesse Crain, have all been working out all week and have also been throwing off the mound.

Joe Mauer caught a few pitcher's bullpen sessions Friday morning.

Jesse Crain is looking strong after just about 8 months after having right shoulder
surgery to repair a torn labrum and torn rotator cuff.

There were some new faces that joined the workout group on Friday some of
these new faces were pitchers Phil Humber and Kevin Mulvey, both who were
acquired from the Mets in the Johan Santana trade.

The first official workout for pitchers
and catchers will take place on Monday



New season, new look:

Lots of changes were made during the offseason to the Twins roster, and to the
team's Spring Training complex.

Every year, the complex gets some slight upgrades.

This year:

- New Lights were installed at Hammond Stadium
- New Seats inside the ballpark
- Installation of a new batter's eye to help players see better
during the afternoon games.



Former Twin update:

Catcher Matthew LeCroy signed a Minor League contract with the Oakland A's
on Friday.

While LeCroy eventually hopes to go into coaching, he said at the time of
his call-up with the Twins last season that his hope was to play at least
one more year.

Liriano is going to be late to camp this year

Notes: Liriano to be late to camp

Today is February 17th, 2008, the day that Twins pitchers and catchers are supposed to officially report to training camp. But the team has already been told that Left-Handed pitcher Francisco Liriano is probably going to miss a few days of camp, due to some trouble he had obtaining his work visa from the U.S. Consulate in the Dominican Republic.

Liriano had planned to fly to Fort Myers on Friday but his visa application was flagged Wednesday due to a previous drunk driving arrest in March '06 in Cape Coral, Florida.

As part of a memorandum passed by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice last summer, visa applicants must be referred to panel physicians if they "have a single drunk driving arrest or conviction within the last three calendar years." The applicants must go to a counseling session and also have to pass a sobriety test.

According to the Twins general manager Bill Smith, Liriano had done everything according to schedule because the new order from the State Department was unknown to everyone in the organization.

It was passed last June and apparently no one knew about it. Even the MLB didn't know about this new law.

Liriano had an appointment scheduled for Friday to hopefully take car of the issue. The Twins have been in contact with Liriano's agent, Greg Genske, to get updates on the situation.

The hope is that Liriano will be in camp sometime early next week, although his new process could delay the pitcher's arrival as long as 10 day.

While it's disappointing that Liriano will not be in camp on the very first day, the team said that it's not a significant setback.