Twins: After ‘downward spiral,’ Sean Burroughs is one to watch ?

There are some within the Minnesota Twins organization who believe Sean Burroughs could give incumbent third baseman Danny Valencia some real competition this spring.

Manager Ron Gardenhire was quick to soften that notion upon Burroughs’ arrival to camp on Wednesday, saying, “There’s plenty of people that could play third base, but not as good as Danny should be able to.”

...“It was a premature retirement for me (in 2007), I’d say, and I went into a downward spiral,” Burroughs said Wednesday, between unpacking bags in the Hammond Stadium clubhouse. “And I think I lost the love of it. But I really don’t think I really lost the love of the game, I just started to love other things away from the field and it took away from my aspirations and my dreams. So I had to clean myself up and do what I had to do and everything started coming back again. ...

“Baseball was the farthest thing from my mind from like 2007 until May 2010. All the friends I made in baseball I kind of alienated myself from, I’d say. I made a whole new group of friends, per se, but they weren’t really friends. They were like leeches or what not.”

And then there’s this…

“(Expletive).”
—Gardenhire, when asked by a reporter what his thoughts where when the Tigers signed Prince Fielder.