This is my favorite time of year. Spring on the horizon. Thunderstorms in the forecast. The NCAA Tourney. And, of course, baseball on the cusp of a new season. Down on the Farm Mailbag will start up again as a regular feature the first week of the season. Let's take a peek and see what's in there right now.

John W. writes: I always enjoy reading your work, but I couldn't believe the Mariners preview. I took notice of Greg Wooten two years ago when he ended the season with 17 wins and only 15 walks, while being named the Double-A pitcher of the year and leading the New Haven Ravens to the Eastern League championship. He led the Triple-A Tacoma Rainiers in innings pitched last year, and it appears he will get his chance to make the big club this year. Please tell me that omitting his name from your preview was simply an oversight. I can't fathom why there hasn't been more mention of his name.

I should have written something about him, although he isn't a terrific prospect, for several reasons. First, Wooten did a fine job in Triple-A last year, going 11-8, 3.99 in 26 starts. He walked just 32 in 169 innings. But his strikeout rate was low, with just 116 whiffs, and he gave up 201 hits, bad in any league, even the PCL. His extraordinary control and good defensive support kept his ERA down. Scouts love his ability to throw strikes, he gets good sinking movement on his pitches, and his splitter can be nasty. But Wooten is 28 years old, and just now proving himself in Triple-A, so it's hard to get excited about him. That, and the fact that his best fastball comes in at 89 mph, keeps him off top prospect lists.

Wooten has given up 12 hits and eight runs in seven innings this spring for the Mariners, and given their depth in pitching, it will be hard for him to break through in this organization. He does have some ability, and could probably do decent work for a team with strong defense.

Jeff F. asks: After seeing Jose Offerman single-handedly lower standards for second basemen the past two years, I'd love it if Freddy Sanchez could take the job away from him. A lot of minor-league analysis websites claim Sanchez could only be a utility player because of his lack of power, but could he realistically hit .300+ in the majors? Do you think he could be solid defensively at second?

It seems like Offerman and Rey Sanchez will pick up the majority of playing time at second for the Bosox this year, but Sanchez looks like the long-term candidate. An 11th-round pick in 2000 out of Oklahoma City University, Sanchez owns a .320 career average in 177 minor-league contests, including a .326 mark in 44 games of Double-A last year. He does not have much power, hitting just four homers in his career, and his walk rates are marginal. But Sanchez doesn't strike out much, and has proven he can hit for average and hit doubles. He should at least be a .280+ hitter in the Show, possibly much more than that. His defense is fine; he has shortstop range and soft hands, but his arm is pretty weak, making him a better fit at second base. He needs some time in Triple-A, and I'd look for him to challenge for the second-base job in 2003. He looks like a decent player to me, possibly a very good one if expectations are kept reasonable.

Reed R. writes: How do you rate Tom Kelly as a manager, and will it hurt the Twins that they didn't elevate Paul Molitor to the head spot?

As many of you know, I've been a Twins fan ever since I became a baseball fan, since 1977 or so. I turned 18 in 1986, the year that Kelly became manager of the Twins, so he's been the Twins manager for my entire adult life. He's not here for us writers to kick around anymore, so I think I'll do my final public summary of Kelly and what he meant to the Minnesota Twins.

Every time I write something about TK, I get a bunch of responses. About half say "why did you let him off so easy?" while the other half say "You were way too hard on him!" I guess this is symptomatic of a dichotomy in my own feelings and thoughts about TK. As an in-game strategist, I think he was one of the best managers of his generation. He usually put together good bullpens. He was excellent at resurrecting broken-down veterans (Greg Swindell, Bob Wells, even Jack Morris) and getting something out of them. He and pitching coach/sidekick Dick Such did a fine job keeping the pitching staff healthy: the Twins had remarkably few severe arm injuries during their tenure. He would occasionally pull an unappreciated player out of the minors (Brian Harper, Ron Coomer) and get something out of them. He kept his teams motivated, even during hard times. The Twins under his command always hustled, and knew their fundamentals. Kelly demonstrated exceptional patience with some players, and was very loyal. He was imperturbable under pressure.

But there was a flip side to this. Kelly was loyal to players he liked, but guys in his doghouse seldom got out. Sometimes it was hard to tell why he liked or disliked a particular player. His focus on defense at all costs became obsessive at times, and made it hard for the Twins to get needed bats in the lineup. At times, he seemed to distrust young players, many of whom found him unapproachable and cold. Some highly-regarded prospects failed to prosper under his tutelage, and there sometimes seemed to be tension between Kelly and his coaches and the minor league development staff. If a manager gets credit during the good times, he deserves blame during the bad times as well.

Despite the negatives, the Kelly years were clearly a net positive for the franchise and its fans. He brought two World Series championships to Minnesota. Even when the team was losing, they always hustled. He helped establish a culture of hard work and strong fundamental play at all levels of the system. He was a fine manager.

As for Molitor, while I think he'll make a solid manager somewhere someday, he seemed uncomfortable with the contraction uncertainty regarding the franchise. The guy who got the job, Ron Gardenhire, has been Kelly's third-base coach for most of the last decade. He seems to have inherited Kelly's focus on defense and fundamentals, but his personality is different, perhaps a bit more open. He already has respect in the clubhouse, which is the hardest thing for a new manager to establish, and I'm optimistic about his chances to build on the strong foundation that Kelly has left behind.

John Sickels is the author of the 2002 STATS Minor League Scouting Notebook. He is currently writing a biography of Bob Feller. He lives in Lawrence, Kansas, with his wife, son, and two cats. You can send John questions or comments at JASickels@aol.com, or you can visit his homepage at hometown.aol.com/jasickels/page1.html.