Going into the preseason I thought that the battle for the last spot on the last bench spot would be between Buscher, Jones, Casilla or possibly the loser of the CF competition.  Is it though?

Yes it's early in the preseason, and yes it can be frivolous at times to speculate but hey we all need something to do until the season starts.  I mean I'm looking forward to complaining about Kubel's lack of at bats, LNP's lack of pine sitting and why Livan is still in the rotation as much as the next guy but for now I'm bored.  I think it's generally understood that the Twins will go north with 12 pitchers.  I also think that Redmond, LNP and Monroe are pretty much a given to be the first three bench players.  The question at this point is who's the fourth?  To me it seems to make the most sense to carry another middle infielder because with Kubel as the primary DH, we pretty much have five outfielders (and of course since LNP is the most amazing defensive player ever you could probably call him an emergency 6th outfielder).  So anyways it seems logical to have another backup for 2B, SS and/or 3B.  What's interesting to observe so far this spring however is that Garrett Jones, Randy Ruiz and Jon Knott seemed to be getting a fair number of at bats.  My hunch is that at least one of them is going to be cut this weekend but I'm also wondering if the final bench spot might go to what we can probably call a designated pinch hitter.  All three of the mentioned are probably only good for 1B or OF so defensive prowess is not really part of the question equation.  

Of course we all know Jones's story.  Basically his power is intriguing, he's down on options however, he's a bit redundant considering our best hitters are already lefties.  As for Knott and Ruiz they're basically both past prospect stage, but they're both right-handed and have shown an ability to hit for power in the not so distant past.  For Ruiz is best year to date would probably be is 2006 stint with AA Trenton.  At the age of 28 he sported a line of .288/.363/.533.  For Knott is best statistical season was also 2006 where at the age of 27 he managed a .280/.353/.572.  

Anyways, just some food for thought.  Best case scenario in my mind is that one of these three makes the team, figures it out and rather sticks when we drop down to 11 pitchers or gets traded to a team looking for their particular skills (I believe the Mets are having issues with Delgado and they kind of do owe us...).