While many continue to act as though the Twins have no chance at postseason baseball in 2007, Thursday night's win over Atlanta serves as a reminder of how quickly momentum can turn in a sport where you play a game every day.
A sweep of the Bravos and suddenly everyone feels good again.
And any special season has to have at least a couple of dramatic 9th-inning comebacks now and again, so that made Thursday double-special.
*The comeback took Johan Santana off the hook for what would've been his 7th loss in 13 decisions. He lost six games all of last year.
While it might seem like Johan is having a down year, it should be pointed out that his 3.19 ERA and 105 strikeouts in 93 innings place him comfortably near the top of the AL leaders.
In fact, 2007 has probably been the best first half Johan has had since be became a full-time member of the rotation.
It's old news that Santana is a slow starter, but the 6-6 (almost 6-7) record seems to have overshadowed that Johan is in line for the best year of his career, assuming he gets into his usual mid-summer groove.
If and when that happens, he'll be on his way to another 250 or so strikeouts, and an ERA comfortably under 3. His win-loss record, as is the case with all pitchers, will depend on his run support, defense and bullpen.
*Two complete games in three starts for Carlos Silva. More importantly, he looked like the Silva of old in the shutout of the Braves, with a sinker that induced 15 ground outs.
*Not much news on the trade front. Twins are apparently not interested in Dmitri Young, because he had some clubhouse problems last year in Detroit. I think that's bogus. The guy's hitting .340, while the Twins DH is Jason Tyner, hitting .260 with no power.
Ty Wigginton's name is still out there, while BoSox 3B Mike Lowell's name has popped up.
Supposedly Lowell would be available if the Sox acquire Texas' Mark Tiexiera (and move Kevin Youkilis to 3B). I'll believe it when I see it.
*Name to know: Matt Tolbert
Just another name going into the season, Tolbert has wedged his way towards the top of the Twins positional prospects (admittedly not a difficult feat these days), by hitting .378, placing him tops in the International League.
The Twins are in no hurry to call him up, and they shouldn't be, since he hit just .258 in Double-A last year, and .303 in A-ball. He only has 10 homers in about 600 career ABs.
He's still raw, and probably bound to start coming down a little over the next few weeks or months.
But the Twins are clearly paying attention, as evidenced by the fact that they moved Tolbert from 2B to 3B last week.
That means Nick Punto and Matt Moses should also be paying attention.
*The Twins are 5.5 games back of Cleveland, and 3.5 back of Detroit, the wild-card leader.
The Yankees, left for dead by the whole world, have won 9 in a row, and are tied with the Twins.
5 comments:
I read that Bartlett might be traded soon?
Don't hold your breath on the idea of Youkilis small gloving it at 3rd full time, I'm thinking no on seeing Lowell in Twinkie pinstripes. Tiexiera would be an interesting fit for the Sox however.
In other news, in the past two weeks I've seen two Royals wins in a row. In person no less. I'd be checking to see if hell is forecasting for snow. God bless the NL.
If the Sox added Tiexiera, they'd have to get rid of someone. Lowll would be the odd man out, I'd guess.
That's IF they bagged Tiexiera. I'm not saying the rumor can't happen, I'm just saying I'm not holding my breath.
Also, I don't want him on the team for the soul purpose of not wanting to spell his goddamn name out every time I'd write about him. The bat in the lineup would be nice, but the loss of Lowell in the field might suck. Then again, this is why no one has hired me as GM of the Sox.
Some clubhouse problems? Dmitri beat his girlfriend pretty severe last year and they released his ass
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