1 outta 3 baby!

At 4 AM tonight, Jeremy Bonderman will still be awake.
Because he lost a game that, for 7 innings, was the game of his life.
If not for Luis Castillo's bunt single to start the game, Bonderman would've taken a no-hitter into the 8th inning.
And then in that 8th inning, 2 errors, 3 infield hits and a balk helped the Twins score 6 runs for their most important win of the year.
Has anyone else considered that, as cool as a new stadium will be, that the Twins are really, really going to miss the Dome - at least from a competitive standpoint?
Because this was another one of those Dome wins.
A bunch of little-league shit leading to a victory.
You almost felt bad for Bonderman, but things just started to snowball (Shelton was horrible), and you almost knew that Cuddyer was gonna get a big hit to add some insurance runs.
Yeah, it feels kinda cheap to score the tying run on a balk, but ya know what?
He fuckin' balked.
That was a big time mistake. What was he thinking?
Who cares?
The Twins may have won only 1 of the 3 games, but the way they stole this one, it almost feels like they won the series.
They're certainly in a better mood tonight than any of the Kitties.

Fuck Detroit

This was a big series for the Twins.
Winning 2 of 3 could've put them close to the Tigers, and kept pace with Chicago and NY.
Instead, two straight losses.
Disappoinment.
Fuck the Tigers.

Trade rumors

There has been speculation in both the Twin-Cities and national media that the Twins may be buyers at the trade deadline, with Alfonso Soriano and Carlos Lee (left) the most prominent names mentioned.
You may remember that last year the Twins were close to a deal for Soriano, but it didn't happen because they refused to give up Franciso Liriano.
That was just one of many instances when standing pat was the wise move over making a desperate deal, and its my opinion that that's usually the case.
I'd love to see Carlos Lee in the middle of the order for the rest of the year, but if it cost more than, say, Boof Bonser or Jesse Crain, it's just not worth it, especially since Lee will be a free-agent after the season (and by the way, how do you think that chick in the pink talked Lee into an interview?)
As for Soriano, he's got great offensive numbers, but he's also a selfish player with a history of being a pain in the ass. For a guy to keep putting up huge numbers like he does and keep getting traded anyway might say something about the guys personality.
Right now, the Twins are the best team in baseball. It might seem impossible for them to keep playing like this, but I wouldn't put it past them.
What they're doing is working, and making a blockbuster deal isn't necessary.

Rondell White!!!!!

It's only been a couple of games, but Rondell White has been so much better that it's hard not to think he may have finally straightened himself out.
I'll be the first to admit that I figured he was done as a big-leaguer and that the Twins were wasting both his and their time by not releasing him.
All of a sudden, he's hitting like the guy who was supposed to be the cleanup hitter this year.
And if there's anything more amazing than Rondell's sudden turn-around, it's the play of Nick Punto.
Punto was putting up decent numbers as a utility guy, but most (especially me) figured that if he got more playing time the numbers would quickly fall off.
Instead they've gone through the roof.
Hitting .322 with a .402 OBP and doing a nice job defensively, Punto is playing at a near All-Star level.
It's been almost generally assumed that Punto was just plugging a hole in the ship until the Twins could find another 3B, but if he turns out to be for real, he might end up being the answer.
Or he could end up being Luis Castillo's replacement at 2B. If you've watched Castillo gimp around much at all lately, you know that he's literally on his last legs.
*Sound like both Torii Hunter and Jason Kubel will be okay. Hunter all but guaranteed he'd be ready to come off the DL in time, and Kubel is back in the lineup - albeit as the DH.
*Brad Radke has been pitching like an ace for the last two months. 1-3 the Twins rotation is the best in baseball. Silva and Baker both pitched well in their last outings, but I'm still crossing my fingers every time they take the hill.
*Justin Morneau is almost a lock for 40 homers this year. And with his average up to .310, he's suddenly challenging Mauer as the team's best hitter. For years fans have waited for the Twins to have a guy in their lineup who could do both - hit for average and power - a Larry Walker, Manny Ramirez type hitter.
And Morneau might be that guy. He could be up to .330 by the end of the year if this keeps up.
*Jesse Crain has also got his shit together, and this could end up being his best season. The numbers are skewed by his terrible start, but he's becoming a more complete pitcher, able to get a big strikeout when needed, while also showing better command and more variety in his pitch selection.
*Dennys Reyes has been lights-out as the lefty specialist. Far better than JC Romero or Terry Mulholland. And the only reason the Twins have him is because he accepted a minor-league assignment back in March (he could've refused it and become a free-agent - lucky for the Twins).
*Fun trivia - Joe Nathan hit his first major league homer off Reyes back when he was a Giant and Reyes was a Dodger.

The Push

The only way the Twins can make the playoffs is if they win almost all of their remaining games against Chicago and Detroit, and if Detroit and Chicago spit their games with each other (or maybe better yet, one of the two dominates the other and the Twins sneak into the wildcard).
Either way, I don't think the Twins are going to the postseason this year.
While Brad Radke seems to have settled into a nice groove as the 3rd starter, the 4 and 5 spots are still a mess.
That alone will be enough to keep them out the way everyone else is playing.
I expect that Terry Ryan will try to move Shannon Stewart, but I'd be surprised (and disappointed) if Torii Hunter went on the block.
Luis Castillo would be a good trade chip, but with the dearth of middle infield prospects in the organization, they probly have to keep him for at least another year.
Other random thoughts:
*Gardy has had Stewart batting 7th since he came off the DL. Stupid.
While it's nice to have speed at the top of the order, the ability to get on base is more important.
Having Castillo and Punto 1-2, even as well as Punto has played, seems weak. Especially on days Mauer is off and Redmond bats 3rd.
*Come to think of it, I don't know if there's any player Gardy mismanages more than Shannon Stewart (all the more reason to trade him). He still insists on occassionally using him in LF, which would be like occasionally using Matt LeCroy at shortstop. Not only does Stewie have the weakest arm in the big leagues, he has no range, always bobbles and/or mishandles ground-ball base hits, and takes terrible angle to fly balls. There are no less than 30 outfielders in the North Central Conference who are more profiecient than Stewart.
He should bat leadoff and DH every game until he's traded.
*When Lew Ford pulled a muscle and landed on the DL, it was one of the happeist moments of my life. He's been so, so, so bad this year, his replacement, Jason Tyner, might actually be an improvement.
Tyner has never hit a homer in something like 900 ML at-bats, but he makes great contact and has even better speed than Ford. And as far as I can tell, he's not near as prone to brain-diarrhea as Lew is.
The dumbest thing about Ford (though not his fault) is how Gardy continues to play him against lefties. Yes, he's a righthanded hitter, but he's hit righties far better than lefties almost his whole career. I'm sure there are some game-notes laying around somewhere that contains that information, but apparently nobody is brave enough to show it to Gardy.
*The worst part of it is that is steals at-bats from Kubel. Not only is Kubel the third best hitter on the team, who has shown an ability to hang in against lefties, he needs the at-bats. He's still a rookie, why take valuable experience away from him so Lew can hit choppers to third?
On the other hand, Kubel's been complaining about his knees, a very ominous sign. I hope it's nothing.
*Since the Twins have now called up pretty much every useful player they had available at AAA (Tiffee, Bartlett, Tyner, Kubel) they needed to provide some depth for the Red Wings, and they made a nice signing, picking up Erubiel Durazo.
Just three years ago the guy put up All-Star numbers. He draws a lot of walks and hits for decent power. Don't know why he fell to the minors (steroids?) but he could prove useful. At least as much as Rondell White or Ruben Sierra.
*Speaking of White, he's hitting .256 in AAA with (surprise!) a homerun.
Why put the poor guy through all this? Just cut him already.
*I know nobody in America cares about hockey, but it's worth mentioning that the Wild have had a terrific off-season so far. They signed Marian Gaborik to an extension (thank God) and added countryman All-Star Pavol Demitra to play alongside him. They also added St. Cloud State alum Mark Parrish (a 20-goal scorer) and defensemen Kim Johnsen. They'll be a playoff team next year.

A Special Season

When Kirby Puckett passed away, many suggested it could be a rallying point for the Twins, and several players - most notably Torii Hunter - talked of dedicating the season to the Hall of Famer's memory.
I never really wrote anything about it, but I secretly hoped to myself that the ghost of Kirby could will this team to something special.
Or something like that.
Instead, the team went out and, for the first six weeks or so, played the kind of baseball that represented everything the opposite of Kirby Puckett, the kind of baseball that embarrassed his memory.
In late May, that started to change.
Right now the Twins are playing the best ball that they maybe ever have. They're beating good teams and bad teams, and theyre not just winning, they're kicking team's asses.
It seems like every time you turn on the TV it's 8-1 or 9-2 or 6-0.
Even more amazing than their terrific play, though, is the fact that they've managed to win, what is it 15 of 16 now?, and pick up only a half game in the standings.
Lots of people like me have said that the standings don't matter, that the Twins probably can't make the playoffs but who cares because it's fun to watch them play so well, etc., etc.
But I don't know about that anymore.
Sure the Twins look like a team that would enter 2007 as favorites, but they're probably one of the top 4 teams in all of baseball right now.
How frustrating would it be to watch the playoffs on TV with the Twins sitting at home after having played .700 ball for the final 4 months?
You'd think that if they can keep up the pace even a little that they'd start making up ground eventually, and they do have 22 games left against the Tigers and White Sox.
Those games will carry tremendous significance, obviously.
This is one of those years that reminds you why baseball is such a great and unpredictable game.
Maybe, when things get tight, Kirby can pull some strings for us.
We're gonna need it.

Non-Twins news

*Over at Skolvikes Newt has his NFL predictions up for 2006, division by division.
Guess who he has to win the Super Bowl.
Somebody asked me the other day how I thought the Vikings would do this year. I answered somewhere between 2-14 and 14-2.
*Sid Hartman is seriously trying to convince us the Wolves might get Adam Morrisson. Right. The ESPN guys predicted the Wolves (who have the 6th pick) would draft some power forward I'd never heard of. Seems to me the Wolves already have a power forward.....
*The Wild acquired Pavol Demitra at the draft this weekend. He's really good. Hopefully it'll increase their chances of re-signing Marion Gaborik. The Wild also made news last week when they hired 24-year old Chris Snow, the former Wild beat writer for the Strib, as their new VP of hockey ops. For nerds like me who allow themselves such fantasies, that's pretty cool.
*Stampede stud Andreas Nodl was drafted by my former favorite NHL team, the Philadelphia Flyers, in the 2nd round - 39th overall. Nodl will go to St. Cloud this year, and hopefully be there for 2-3 years. I got to know Andy pretty well while he was here, and it'll be cool to see him on TV in a Flyers sweater. (After, of course, he leads the Huskies to a national title.)
*In case you're interested, you can keep track of my .250 batting average and the Roadrunners inconsistent play here
*And finally, a web-site that recognizes those times when you're at the bar, you see a hot chick and you go, 'What the fuck?'

They're too good

Even though the Twins are playing as well as I can remember them playing since their 15-game winning streak in 1991, I still don't think they can make the playoffs. The White Sox and Tigers are just too good.
Last night I flipped to the Sox-Astros game, saw Houston leading 7-1 and kept flipping. About an hour and a half later it was 9-9.
The Astros did end up winning the game, but it was a reminder that the Sox are really, really good.
I believe in Detroit, but I still think the Sox will win the Central.
And the only way for the Twins to have a shot at the playoffs is if Detroit falls off a cliff.
That could happen if they got hit with some injuries.
But on the other hand, the Twins could just be on a hot streak right now, and fall back some themselves.
One thing I think we can say with certainty, though, is that the AL Central, once a laughingstock, is now the best division in baseball.
* Brad Radke has a 2.27 ERA in his last five starts. He appears to have righted himself, and if Silva has as well, the Twins will continue to win games at over a .600 clip.
* When it looked like the Twins were out of contention it didn't make sense to me for Ruben Sierra to be on the roster. But if the team is in the race, I like having him. A veteran with power, he makes a good pinch-hitter, a la Jose Offerman or Midre Cummings.
*Rondell White has finally blamed his mind boggling suckiness on a stiff shoulder. I'm not saying I don't believe him, but why wait till now to say something. The guy is having one of the worst seasons in baseball history.
*I'm really coming around on Jason Bartlett. While I was convinced he was better than Juan Castro, I was not convinced he was the answer. He's starting to look like he could have a Greg Gagne-like career.
*I would sum up the Cubs in one word: Dis-gus-ting. Even though I can't stand Dusty Baker, I feel bad for him. That team is horrible. A joke. Wow, are they bad.

In Gardy we trust?

Well, no, not really, but we don't have much of a choice.
Are the Twins in the race?
I don't think there's any doubt at this point.
A 7-game winning streak and a sudden development of common sense in regards to the roster personnel have put the Twins in a position where they remain longshots, but are somewhat close to striking distance.
The biggest reason no one saw this coming is that there was no indication that the Twins were going to suddenly realize that Castro and Batista were making the team worse.
Only a couple weeks ago a story ran in the PiPress with Gardy talking about how Castro had done 'just what we asked of him' and that 'any offense from him is a bonus.'
Nothing pisses me off more than the 'any offense is a bonus' talk you hear about guys who are supposed to be good with the glove.
Taken literally, that apparently means if Castro was the best fielding shortstop ever (which he clearly was not) he would be allowed to keep his job even if he batted .000 with 300 strikeouts.
It's not 1922 - winning teams get offensive contributions from their entire lineup.
But apparently the Twins finally hopped aboard the clue train, and now they can't lose.
The good news is that Rondell White is probably going to be released soon, whether the Twins stay hot or not. And it sounds like Kyle Lohse is also going to be moved regardless of the standings.
I don't think Torii Hunter will be traded, and I don't think he should be traded.
As for Shannon Stewart, it's almost entirely dependant on whether the Twins can stay in the race.
If they can, Stewart would make a good DH at the top of the order.
On the other hand, there's no way the Twins are going to bring him back next year, so if they don't trade him, they'll get nothing for him when he signs elsewhere as a free-agent in the winter.
Hunter shouldn't be traded simply because there is no one ready to replace him. Lew Ford cannot be allowed to assume the role of starting centerfielder under any circumstance.
After showing promise in the minors, Denard Span has been fairly unimpressive this year.
He's not ready, and it's starting to look like he won't be near as good as Hunter even when he is.
Granted there will be free-agent options out there who would come cheaper than Torii (Juan Pierre, Mike Cameron), but the Twins could - (A) scrap the $12 million club option and hope to get Torii to sign a more reasonable deal, say something in the 3-4 year, $15-25 million range, or (B) bite the bullet, pick up the $12 million option for next year, and keep working on a cheaper deal. As maddeningly inconsistent as Hunter is, it's easy to forget that, when you factor in his defense, he's probably one of the top 3 or 4 CF's in baseball. That's worth something.
And with almost all of the Twins key players still in their formative years, there's money to spend.
But back to this year.
When Stewart returns, he'll make the surging lineup better. He won't have the impact he did back in 2003, but the lineup would look something like this:
DH Stewart
2b Castillo
C Mauer
RF Cuddyer
1b Morneau
CF Hunter
LF Kubel
3B Punto
SS Bartlett
Not bad.
As much of a pleasant surprise as Nick Punto has been, I wouldn't mind seeing the Twins acquire a 3B at the deadline - if and only if they're realistically in the hunt.
Wouldn't mind seeing it, but don't expect it.
Meanwhile Radke has quietly found a nice groove, and we're keeping our fingers crossed on Silva.
Even though Detroit is currently the best team in baseball, I think it's more likely that Chicago wins the division.
Detroit has so many players with a history of injury, you wonder how long before they start dropping.
But if they do stay healthy, they're very, very good.
If you ever read this blog, you may remember me calling Cleveland the most overrated team in baseball, and writing that they'd finish 4th this year.
They are and they will.
Bottom line - with Santana and Liriano pitching 2 of every 5 games, the Twins are a pretty good baseball team.

Castro Gonzo

Once again, the Twins have listened to me.
They traded Juan Castro to the Reds for a minor league OF.
A good move, considering the Twins already have two serviceable utility IF in Nick Punto and Luis Rodriguez.
I think this might be T-Ry sending a message to Gardy.
The message being, 'I can't believe you started this guy for 10 weeks. He sucks.'

Thanks for reading Gardy

I have criticized Ron Gardenhire more this year than ever before.
Almost daily, either here or in the paper, I have said 'Gardy do this, Gardy do that.'
And you know what?
He's listened.
Stop playing Lew Ford, play Jason Kubel, I said.
Done.
Give Boof Bonser a chance in the rotation, I said.
Done.
Get Mike Redmond more at-bats, I said.
Done.
And then last night, we got a two-for-one.
Tony Batista was released and Jason Bartlett was called up.
Meaning both Batista and Juan Castro lose their jobs.
Finally.
Rondell White and Shannon Stewart had better be on the lookout.
The fact that Bartlett is back in the lineup is great news.
Not that I think he's going to be great or anything, but at least he's got a little potential, whereas Castro was simply a waste of space.
Batista was the same at 3rd, but the Twins don't have anyone in the minors ready to step in.
Matt Moses probably won't be ready till 2008.
It looks like the at-bats are going to go to Terry Tiffee, Luis Rodriguez and Castro.
Many fans still have a favorable impression of Tiffee after he had a tremendous debut weekend in the bigs a couple years ago, but in reality he's terrible. I actually think he's worse than Batista.
I wouldn't mind Rodriguez getting an extended look, but I think everyone knows he's a utility guy.
Batista was a big risk, and I admit I was a little optimistic about his ability to at least hit some homeruns. But it's pretty clear that the guy is finished.
So, sure, I'm happy the Twins are starting to cut their dead weight. I just wonder if the Twins had opened the season with Bartlett at short, Corey Koskie at third and Frank Thomas at DH, if they'd still be in the race.

From the B.F.D File

JJ Redick got arrested for DUI last night.
Apparently as he was driving along, saw a checkpoint, whipped a U-ie to try to avoid it, and got picked up.
He then blew a 0.11. North Carolina, like many other Nazi states, has lowered the legal limit to 0.08.
For those of you non-alkies out there, the fact that JJ blew a .11, especially considering he's a big-time athlete, means he probably had a wine cooler and a scoobie snack before getting in his car.
How lame.
If you're gonna get a Dewey get your moneys worth.
Tim Hardaway once got pulled over for going 130 mph in town, and later blew a 0.264.
That's a man's Dewey.

! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

I think by now everybody is running out of superlatives to describe Joe Mauer and Francisco Liriano.
Mauer kept his hitting streak going with a 1-for-4 yesterday, while the Cisco Kid threw a 1-hitter.
He might be better than Santana. He's sick.
As I wrote the other day, the Twins future looks bright with a nucleus of Mauer, Liriano, Santana, Nathan, Morneau, Kubel - and perhaps Hunter, Cuddyer, Baker, Bonser and Crain as well.
It would seem even Gardy is incapable of screwing up a franchise with that kind of talent.
But then again, I've been wrong before.
The Twins won't contend this year, and I next year might be tough as well.
But if 3B prospect Matt Moses is ready by 2008, and the Twins can find a couple middle infielders, they could very, very dangerous by then.

Half empty? Half full?

When a team has the best catcher in baseball, the best closer in baseball and the two best lefthanded starters in baseball, doesn't it seem like they should be better than 27-33, no matter how bad the rest of the team is?
With Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel showing signs of life as well, and with Brad Radke starting to figure it out, it feels like the Twins should be playing a little better than they are.
Not contending mind you - no team with Juan Castro, Lew Ford, Tony Batista or Rondell White playing regularly will contend - but at least over .500.
Who knows, maybe they'll still get there.
But regardless of what the Twins record is by the end of the year, there appears to be too much talent on the roster even for Gardy to totally screw up the future.
*Interesting side note: In the Twins last 162 games, their record is 73-89.

Is Jason Kubel the next Chad Hermansen?

I wrote a rather lengthy story for the Argus this Sunday about Canaries OF Chad Hermansen.
Chad was once one of the top prospects in all of baseball, touted as the next Barry Bonds by Pirate folks.
Now he's in Sioux Falls.
If you read the story, you might notice that I kind of took Chad's side in the story, placing most of the blame for his failures on the Pirates.
That's because I truly believe that Hermansen got screwed by the Pirates, regardless of who he chooses to blame himself (Lloyd McClendon, we're looking at you)
And the biggest reason I wanted to do the story is because when I look at guys like Justin Morneau and especially Jason Kubel - I see Chad Hermansen.
Aaron Gleeman (if you haven't checked out his 'Aaron's baseball blog', to the right, you should) and others have written about this extensively - guys who hit in the minors tend to hit in the Majors - if you give them an opportunity.
People seem to expect these guys to be All-Stars right from the get-go, and call for them to be replaced when they aren't.
Luckily, the Twins seem to realize that they should be patient with Morneau. Hopefully that patience will be extended to Kubel as well.
Just look at Michael Cuddyer. He's finally doing it this year. Sometimes it takes awhile.
I just know in Hermansen's case, it's a sad deal.
You'll never meet a nicer guy than Chad Hermansen, and he refuses to be bitter even though the Pirates dumped him after a little over 300 ABs.
You wanna know why the Pirates stink?
Hermansen is a good example.
If a guy has hit 150 homers in the minors before he turns 25, and you give up on him after 300 ABs - you deserve to lose.
I hope Chad's back in the bigs someday.
And I hope Jason Kubel has a long career - even if it takes awhile to develop.

Holy Fucking Shit

Francisco Liriano is good.
Like, really good.
Good like, the Beatles, or the Sopranos, or steak and shrimp.
Last night he just about no-hit the Angels.
Since becoming a starter for the Twins he is 16-0 with a 0.03 ERA and 674 strikeouts in 99 innings.
Or something like that.
He's so good that Johan Santana might now be the Twins second best pitcher.
In case you didn't already know, the Twins got him, and Joe Nathan (who struck out the side in the 9th last night) and Boof Bonser for AJ Pierzynski.
In a related move, I traded Chris Solari six ounces of my own feces for a case of Budweiser, a Playstation 3 and Alanis Morrissette's phone number.
Joe Mauer, he's good too.
He's hitting like .360.
This team may not win the Central this year, but the future still looks promising.

The Good Old Days

My stint as a Twins fan has endured three stages.
Stage 1: 1986-1993. The Twins won two World Championships during this time, and also won 90+ games in '88 and '92. They were good, and everyone expected them to be good. Expectations were high, attendance at the Dome was through the roof - it was good to be a Twins fan.
Stage 2: 1994-2000. The Twins were terrible during this stretch, never really even threatening to contend. After the '93 team - a team expected to contend - failed, the Twins began a series of rebuilding projects that totally failed because the team built around players that never amounted to much. Attendance was poor, expectations got so low that the Twins became an afterthough throughout the Upper Midwest. Nobody cared.
Stage 3: 2001 - present. In 2001, the Twins found out that, for once, they had rebuilt around the correct players. The team came into its own, and after finishing in second place with an 85-win season, went on a three year run of division titles starting in 2002.
Interest in the team was rejuvenated, a new group of players became household names, and the success eventually led to the team getting a new stadium.
Tom Kelly was in charge from 1986-2001, then turned the team over to Ron Gardenhire.
Considering Gardy won division titles in each of his first three years, it seemed that the transition was a smooth one.
It is becoming apparent that that wasn't exactly the case. As the Twins continue to rely on more and more young players, Gardy's faults as a manager become more and more glaring.
As bad as the Twins were for all those years in the 90's you could always count on two things.
One - the Twins wouldn't beat themselves with mental mistakes or lazy play (they lost because they had far inferior talent).
And Two - the Twins would not get outmanaged, not as long as TK was in the dugout.
Nowadays, the Twins seem to get outskippered on an almost nightly basis.
I'm not saying TK was perfect, or that Gardy is worthless. At times TK's stubborn ways rubbed players the wrong way, which sometimes cost the team.
But the fallacy is that Gardy makes up for his lesser intellect by 'keeping the guys loose, etc'.
This is a load of shit.
Not only can Gardy not make a lineup, not only does he still rely on old-fashioned conventional wisdom (sacrifice bunts with .300 hitters, etc), not only does he ignore advanced statistical analysis (insisting on managing with his 'gut', rather than scouting reports or obvious statistical trends), but he also fails in the clubhouse stuff.
He has totally mismanaged the career of Kyle Lohse. He has cowtowed to veteran players (refusing to DH Shannon Stewart for fear of pissing him off, refusing to bench Jacque Jones against lefties) to make them 'more comfortable.' He has steadfastly continued to write the name of Juan Castro, statistically the worst everyday player in baseball, into his lineup.
He has been unable to make up his mind on players like Jason Barlett, Jason Kubel, Michael Cuddyer and Justin Morneau, which has stunted their development as players.
He has allowed the team to become undisciplined and careless, resulting in the kind of mistakes TK's teams prided themselves on never making.
Failing to advance runners, mistakes on the base paths, missed signs, failing to get bunts down, and an overall decline in team defense.
'Twins baseball' does not mean what it once did.
And maybe the worst of all, he keeps making an ass of himself, going out on the field and throwing a temper tantrum and getting tossed.
In 16 years, TK got tossed four times.
In 4 1/3 years, Gardy has been tossed 24 times. It might be entertaining for the fans, but it's not helping anything. It's childish. At the very most, getting tossed can 'rally the troops' once or twice a year. When it happens every other week, it's just stupid.
I'm sad that it took me until the past year or so to realize it, or at least completely convince myself of it, but the Twins success in recent years had a lot more to do with Tom Kelly. As the players he developed have gradually moved on, the team has become more and more mistake-prone, more undisciplined, and frankly, just plain worse.
It's tough to say these things because I like Gardy. A lot.
But sometimes poor leadership is overlooked when people are likable (see Tice, Mike).
The bottom line is that Gardy's mistakes are costing his team wins.
That didn't happen under TK, and it can't be allowed to happen.
So the real question, of course, is would TK come back?

Finally, some good news

In what will surely be remembered as a lost season of false promises and disappointment, the Twins finally got a bit of good news this weekend, when their decade-long quest for an outdoor stadium was approved by the Minnesota Legislature.
At left is a premature artists rendering (for more illustrations from different angles visit twinsbaseball.com).
At the earliest, the Twins will be playing in 2010.
I have to admit that this is a pretty special day for me, because when contraction talk was hot a few years ago, I worried on a daily basis that the Twins might leave for good.
Now we at least know they'll be here.
I have to admit to feeling a little guilty that the stadium kind of got forced onto Hennepin County residents without a vote, but on the other hand, stadium opponents are largely just special interest groups looking for someone (preferrably an old white man like Carl Pohlad or a big corporation like MLB) to rail against.
I'm not saying those aren't deserving targets, but this park will benefit a sagging metro area - regardless of what some of the phony politicos blather on about on their soapboxes.
Still there are questions.
Will the Twins really increase their payroll now, and how much?
Will the Twins remain one of the most affordable tickets in pro sports? (I'd guess no fucking way)
Parking? Concessions? How much more $$$ am I gonna spend here?
How many fans will travel from outside the metro area? i.e. - fans in Sioux Falls, Fargo, etc. who dont want to risk driving all the way to the Cities only to have the game rained or snowed out.
Will they find a way to fuck it up? This is the Twins after all. The pictures all look nice - are we really going to get a park that compares favorably with the Camden Yards and Pac Bells of the baseball world?
How many rain/snow outs will there be in April and May?
Will they ever add a roof down the road?
How will it affect the team? Playing on grass means a lesser reliance on speed, I suppose, and could increase the effectiveness of groundball pitchers.
Should they pull the fences in to ensure lots of homers or move them back and build around pitching? (I'd favor the latter, but I doubt that's what they'll do)
Will I be able to get tickets when they host the All-Star game?
As happy as I am about the ballpark, I'm guessing it means fewer trips to Twins games for me.
Just a hunch, but I think tickets, beer, hot dogs, parking and souvenirs are all going to be priced obscenely high. To maximize my money I'll probly wait for a few rainouts then buy tix for a double-header.
**Naming rights
Rumor has it that TCF Bank is negotiating for naming rights.
Let's hear it for TCF Stadium!
Other candidates, I suppose, would've been Dodge, Ford, Dairy Queen and Michelob Golden Draft - which is inexplicably the most popular beer in Minnesota.
I'd prefer something like Killebrew Park or TK Field, but those days are long gone.
**The Boof is on fire
Boof Bonser had a terrific major league debut Sunday, holding an excellent Brewers offense to one run in six innings while striking out eight. He was in line for the win but Jesse Crain and Juan Rincon blew it for him. By now, however I'm at the point where I'm paying more attention to things like Boof's start than I am to the actual standings, so it was an encouraging day.
The first three batters of the game went single, double, walk, and it looked like Boof might be in for a long day.
But after the next guy got a sac fly he didn't allow another run. Very impressive.
**Not dead yet
Kyle Lohse has apparently decided to make the most of his demotion rather than pout, and he won his first start in Rochester.
In a 7-inning game (it was part of a doubleheader) he went the distance, allowing one run on four hits.

Get to Know Em: Boof Bonser (and Matt Garza)

The newest Twins was born John Bonser; he acquired the nickname Boof from his grandmother as a kid.
It became the only name anyone ever called him by, so he legally changed it five years ago.
Boof is 24 years old, and was acquired from the Giants in the AJ trade.
To recap that deal, the Twins got Joe Nathan, Francisco Liriano and Boof from the Giants for AJ. And at the time, Boof was supposed to be the main piece of the trade.
He's big (6-4, 250), right-handed and throws hard.
In 2001, at A-ball, he went 16-4 with a 2.49 ERA and 178 Ks in 134 innings.
In 2002, at high A-ball, he went 8-6 with a 2.88 ERA and 139 Ks in 128 innings.
His first full year with the Twins, in 2004, he went 12-9 with a 4.37 ERA in Double-A before getting called up to Triple-A Rochester in time to make one start.
He went 7 innings, allowed one run on five hits and fanned seven to get the win.
He spent all of last year in Rochester, and went 11-9 with a 3.99 ERA. In 160 innings he had 168 Ks - the most strikeouts in all of Triple-A ball.
The Twins didn't give Boof much of a look this spring, so even though he's currently 3-2 with a 2.01 ERA in Triple-A, you have to wonder if the Twins think he's ready.
Then again, he can't be any worse than Lohse and Silva have been.
I wouldn't expect Boof to make a significant impact, especially this year.
I think he projects to be at best a 3rd or 4th starter.
Basically, I would expect him to have a career similar to that of Lohse, although he could be an excellent reliever one day.
But, unlike Lohse, he doesn't make 3.95 million a year.
**The really good news when it comes to Twins pitching prospects is Matt Garza.
He was the Twins No. 1 draft pick just last year, and he blew through A-ball already.
The 22-year old righty from Fresno State was just called up to Double-A New Britain, and in his first start, pitched a one-hitter with 13 Ks in 7 innings!
He might be in the rotation next year.

So long, Kyle

Well, we got more out of the trade than the Cubs did.
Lohse was acquired from the North-siders way back in 1999 for....anyone? Rick Aguilera, who bombed for the Cubs and soon retired.
Kyle Lohse made sure to be just good enough to create false hope for about five years before finally bombing himself.
The Twins sent him to AAA, one month before he would've been eligible to refuse such an assignment.
One can only imagine how completely steamed he is tonight.
And for that reason I'm pretty confident that he'll never wear a Twins uniform again.
He'll be traded now, the team has no real choice.
While that might come as good news to Twins fans, who've hated on the righthander with the hot wife for years, it's a painful reminder that the Twins should've dealt him this off-season. He was coming off a year in which you could've argued that he was one of the top 5 4th starters in baseball, posting a career-best 4.21 ERA.
With a live arm and still young, he probably would've brought something of fairly significant value in a trade.
Now, with a 8.92 ERA and a bad attitude, I wouldn't expect more than a mid-level prospect with a 50/50 shot of ever reaching the majors.
I'm glad Gardy is finally addressing the team's horribleness and holding players accountable, and I'm glad Boof Bonser is finally getting a shot after two years of dominating AAA.
But this is a move that just doesn't feel good.
The Twins were bad for a long time, but patience and astute general managing eventually led to five straight winning seasons, the only such streak in team history.
That streak is almost certain to end this year, but what's far more scary is the feeling that this is just the beginning.
It's slipping away.........

Hopefully he can make three starts a week

Anyone for a two-man rotation?
8.80, 7.57 and 8.33.
No that isn't a random sampling of beer prices at AL stadiums, it's the ERAs of Carlos Silva, Brad Radke and Kyle Lohse.
The same three guys who were a more than respectable 3.44, 4.04 and 4.21 last year.
Ron Gardenhire finally made a move, sending Silva to the bullpen in favor of phenom Francisco Liriano, but I hope fans don't view the 'Cisco Kid as the season's savior.
He's still young and inexperienced, and big league hitters will eventually make some adjustments against him. Plus he's still on a limited pitch count.
And even if he's lights out, that only gives the Twins two quality starters.
Maybe Matt Guerrier, who's proven himself in long-relief, should get a shot. Or Boof Bonser, who is 3-2 with a 2.01 ERA for Rochester after leading Triple-A in K's last year.
They couldn't do worse than the current bad three.
Considering they have a 5.51 team ERA (only that low because of the bullpen), it's amazing the Twins record is 17-21.
If last year's team had posted a 5.51 ERA, they wouldn't have won 50 games.
I still just can't believe the pitching has been so bad.
Which has also further exposed Gardy's faults as a manager. He gets outwitted almost every night. It's sad.

Gardy...you're an idiot

Twins scored 7 runs in the 1st inning against Mark Buerhle (I think the clock is supposed to be a reference to how fast he pitches) and he won the game.
That's bullshit.
At one point the Twins had runners on 1st and 2nd with nobody out, and Luis Castillo bunted into a triple play.
Question.
Why, in a 9-7 game with runners on would you bunt with your best hitter?
Castillo's hitting .357, and like .450 against lefties, and Gardy takes the bat out of his hands.
That's retarded.
So was leaving Carlos Silva in the game when he obviously had nothing.
So was not pinch-hitting Joe Mauer for Mike Redmond in the 9th.
How long is he going to wait to put F. Liriano in the rotation?
And hell, the way he pitched Sunday, maybe Matt Guerrier should get a shot, too.
Silva's ERA is now 9.20. More runs allowed than innings.
3 of the Twins 5 starters have an ERA over 7.75.
The rest of the team suddenly looks like a contending baseball club - so I don't think it's fair for Gardy to keep letting guys go out and get shelled.
But sadly, I've come to expect that Gardy will continue to stick by 'his' guys, no matter how bad they suck and no matter for how long.
*I also need to make mention that right about the time I started openly doubting whether Justin Morneau would ever pan out, he started hitting.
He's having much better at-bats, he's hanging in against lefties, and hitting the ball well to the opposite field. Just think, if Rondell White was hitting even .250 with 5 homers (which would've seemed like a failure back in March), how much of a difference that would make.
All a sudden, from Stewart, Castillo, Mauer, Hunter, Cuddyer, Morneau - the Twins 1-6 hitters aren't too bad.

Ugly Athlete No. 6 - Sam Cassell

They're back....the ugliest athletes in sports.
And when you're talking ugly athletes, one of the first names to enter the discussion is always Sam Cassell.
Maybe one of the most obnoxious players in the NBA (and to be fair, a talented point guard who has turned every team he ever played on into a winner) Cassell's appearance is so jarring at first glance that it warrants sympathy.
The skull, the eyes, the teeth, he actually resembles most artist renderings of alien life forms.
Sorry Sam, it's nothing personal. You're just really fucked-up looking.
Sam Cassell
Pro basketball player
1994-present
Ugliness: 10
Creepiness: 10
Identifying characterstic: Huge rear skull area, beady eyes that lie on opposite sides of his head, sharp fangs ideal for tearing the flesh of homosapien life forms.
Looks like: Cross between E.T. and Yoda.

Zimmer: 0-2, K

So I played for the Canaries on Sunday, and grounded out against Sioux City Explorers ace Tom Lipari.
I also struck out looking in the 9th when Abner Arroyo graciously offered to let me hit for him.
Getting to do it with my lifelong teammate and friend Phil made it an even more memorable experience.
The Canaries players were really funny, friendly guys, and manager Mike Pinto is, as I've said before, one of the nicest people you could ever meet.
It was a beatiful day, and standing in right field as they played the national anthem was kind of overwhelming.
I spent most of the game in the dugout sitting next to pitcher Tony Cogan, a former KC Royal. What a great dude. He could've easily told any of us to buzz off, but we chatted through the whole game, and he had some nice things to say about my swing, which was very cool.
Chad Hermansen said he wanted to see Mission Impossible 3. I told him that Tom Cruise is gay, and therefore he shouldn't go.
He said, yes, I know Tom Cruise is gay, but the movie still looks cool.
But once the game started Hermansen never said a word to anybody, and I think he went 0-4. But playing next to him in the OF was really something. The guy played like 5 years in the big leagues, was a former 1st rd draft pick and I have like 5 of his baseball cards. And I was playing right next to him. At one point he looked over at me, gave me the horns and said, 'Two down, Matt.'
Awesome.
A guy named Mike Schmidt got to walk and actually scored a run, and also made a catch in RF.
One of the guys there was a total retard, and he almost ruined the experience for all of us. He made two big errors in RF that cost the Canaries three runs, and Pinto was pissed. Like Phil said, If I was that guy, I wouldn't have been able to come back into the dugout.
Phil struck out looking but got a couple of big hacks.
Backup catcher David Hoffman (I think that's his name anyway) saw Phil take a big rip and miss and said, 'Geez that was a good hack.'
I was like, yeah, he hits bombs all the time for our amateur team, and he said, 'God it would be awesome if he hit a bomb.'
I said, "No shit."
The tryout wasn't much - I don't think they would've given any of us a second look even if we'd hit 10 straight pitches over the centerfield fence.
But they at least pretended to be interested, which was nice. Bart Zeller, the hitting coach, is 65 going on 21. He's in great shape and told jokes the whole time. He told me that I hit BP better than half his players (for the record, I had a much better round of BP than I usually do, but they don't have to know that).
Rich Hyde, the pitcher/pitching coach, was also a real nice guy, but I'll be surprised if he throws 20 innings this year. He didn't sound optimistic, and he spent the whole game icing his arm even though I never saw him throw a ball all day.
I know the whole thing was mostly a publicity stunt (and a failed one at that considering hardly anyone showed up), but it was so much fun for us, and it was especially cool that the players and coaches were so good-natured about the whole thing.
And by the way, it wasn't my idea to make such a big damn deal of it in the newspaper. Having that big spread in there is about as embarassing as Dan Christopherson giving me the Kirby Puckett introduction at the game.
Oh and by the way, Nick Punto sucks and I'm this close to giving up on the Twins this year.

Wild & Twins - A Case Study for the Future

As many of you well know, the Twins have a rather long history of playing the 'small-market' card.
You know, where they bitch about their ballpark and how they don't have any money, brag about how smart Terry Ryan is for putting together winning teams on a budget, etc, etc, etc, while ignoring the fact that their owner, Carl Pohlad, is one of the richest in baseball. He's also 417 years old - apparently none of his kids have ever had the balls to use the phrase 'You can't take it with you' in his presence.
Anyway, with the Twins as close to a new ballpark as they've been, I got to thinking.
Is the new park really going to change anything? Are the Twins going to become the new Yankees suddenly, or even the new White Sox?
What's to stop the Pohlad family from keeping the payroll right where it is and pocketing the extra revenue?
Would anyone be surprised if they took the attitude of, 'Hey Terry, you've been winning with a $50 million payroll, why don't you just keep doing that. We like this extra $200 million in yearly revenue. Dad needs to have his head cryogenically frozen so he can keep an eye on his cash.'
Don't think so? Trust the team to keep their word and spend money on free-agents?
Just look North to St. Paul.
The Minnesota Wild play their home games in the most amazing/beautiful hockey venue on Earth. They sell tickets and merchandise at ungodly prices, and fans eat it up. Can't get enough.
I myself paid almost $200 for a pair of seats that were halfway up the Arena, and I enjoyed the hell out of myself. I'll do it again next year.
You would think, using the Twins definition, that the Wild would qualify as a "large-market" team. Because let's face it, it has nothing to do with the size of the market, it has to do with the depth of the owners pockets and the owners willingness to reach into those pockets - which the owners themselves try to tie to a shiny, trillion dollar stadium that they are loathe to contribute to financially.
(What is it about rich people being so fucking cheap? I make barely 30K a year and blow money on beer and playstation games left and right while Worldcom CEO's refuse to pay for toilet paper and coffee filters. Ridiculous.)
And the Wild, with a seemingly endless supply of revenue flying in on a nightly basis, are $14 million under the salary cap. I'm sure the paying customers (who saw the team raise season ticket prices after another losing season despite extending the streak of consecutive sellouts to 228) are happy that their money is being spent so well.
Wild GM Doug Riseborough's answer when asked recently if the Wild would spend to the cap max next year was practically a no-comment (the upcoming offseason will be one of the biggest free-agency periods of recent memory), and the team has been non-commital about re-signing Marian Gaborik, who missed 17 games this year and still scored a team record 37 goals.
If the Wild are willing to be that cheap, why won't the Twins?
I'm certainly not saying that teams should spend irresponsibly just because they can afford to, but having the revenue from a new stadium that (in the Twins case) you forced onto the public without a referendum seemingly obligates you to make decisions based on winning first, and budget second. Doesn't it?
Gaborik has made it clear that he wants to get paid. If he asks for a few million more than he's worth, the Wild should pay him anyway, because they can. He's the superstar, and signing him would act as both a thank-you gesture to the fans and a sign of commitment to winning.
The Yankees overpayed for Johnny Damon and everyone knows it, but it was still a good move because the Yankees had to have a CF, and they can afford his giant contract.
Tying this back to the Twins....let's say in 2011, 32-year old Johan Santana is looking for a new deal.
Joe Mauer will be making big bucks by then, and hopefully Justin Morneau, Denard Span, Matt Moses, Justin Jones and Alex Romero will be as well.
At 32, Santana will be old-er, but certainly not old. The Metrodome Twins would probably let him walk.
But if the Twins are playing in 'Northland Ford Stadium' by then (you know they'll call it something gay like that), averaging 30,000 fans at $30 a pop, they would be able to afford a much larger payroll at that point.
Will they lock-up Santana, ensuring he retires as a Twin?
Or will they, like the Wild, look for every conceivable reason not to spend money?
I guess we'll see, but I know where I'd bet my money.

It's not time to bail, but it's really fucking close

First, the numbers.
33-1: Score of the Tigers series.
3-12: Twins road record.
0-9: Twins record against AL Central teams not from Kansas City.
.365: Twins team slugging % - last in the majors.
6.28: Twins team ERA - last in the majors.
4.0: Twins runs per game - last year they were at 4.2.
9-15: Twins record.

9-15 in itself isn't a total disaster, although it is bad. But when you're 9-15 and coming off one of the most embrassing 3-game series' in recent baseball history...well, things can't get much worse.
The fact that the Twins offense has so far been worse than last year's is surprising but certainly not shocking. Shannon Stewart, Luis Castillo and Joe Mauer have been great at the top - but Torii Hunter, Rondell White and Justin Morneau have been worse than even the most vengeful White Sox fan could ever have hoped for.
Juan Castro's magic lasted a week, and Tony Batista hasn't provided enough power to compensate for his shortcomings.
But of course none of it has mattered. The Twins pitching staff, considered by many to be the best in the league and by all to be at least one of the best, has in fact been the worst.
Worse than the KC Royals. That's right - the KC Royals, whose rotation consists of Scott Elarton, Joe Mays, Mark Redman, Runelvys Hernandez and somebody else - has been better.
It's been utterly shocking, and no one saw it coming.
This is the same team that went 5-1 against the A's and Yankees, two of the best clubs in baseball. They can't be this bad....can they?
I don't regret for one minute picking this team to win the Central, because if every player on the team had simply repeated his performance from last year the Twins would add at least a few wins to their total of 83 by way of adding White and Castillo and subtracting Joe Mays.
And while I suppose it's still possible that guys like White and Hunter will start hitting and it's actually probably likely that the pitching will at least get somewhat straightened out - I'm more worried about what could happen while we all wait for that to happen.
How long before these guys start trying to kill each other?
What will happen to Justin Morneau's fragile psyche? Could he be lost forever?
Will Joe Mauer or Johan Santana become disenchanted with the franchise?
I'm not totally ready to give up on this season but it won't take too much more of this, and if we get to that point you've got to blow the whole thing up and blow it up good.
That means trading Hunter, Stewart, Radke, Lohse, Ford and maybe even Castillo, and giving White, Nick Punto, Ruben Sierra, Matt Guerrier and Batista their outright release.
From there, you take guys like Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, Jason Kubel and Jason Bartlett and stick them in the lineup and play them every single goddam day for the next two seasons to find out once and for all if they can play or not.
You also call up guys like Boof Bonser, Pat Neshek, Denard Span, Alex Romero, Matt Moses, etc, and see what they've got.
Oh, and you fire Ron Gardenhire.
I'm not saying this is all his fault, but I'm certainly not going to absolve him either.
I say give Gardy until the All-Star break to get the guys going.
If he can, great, but if he can't, I think it would be best to enter into a rebuilding project with a new regime.
The current one would have already failed too many of the players you'd be building around.
More than anything, I'm just really sad.
The Twins are my life in the summer, and its painful to see them not even compete. And I don't mean not compete for the playoffs I mean not even compete on a day to day basis.
I guess I should look on the bright side. It may suck to be a Twins fan right now, but hey, it's better than being a Twins player.

Cuddy Does It

First off, I'm happy for Michael Cuddyer.
He's had more downs than ups through his Twins career, some due to the team jerking him around, some due to his own failures.
But he got a big hit last night (off JC Romero no less) to give the Twins a big win.
The pitching still sucks, and the Twins are still finding ways to win.
Unfortunately, the starting pitching is far from the only thing failing the Twins right now.
I've been overly optimistic with this team since the winter, but right now I see a lot of ominous signs.
*Rondell White. He's been terrible, and I'm less and less confident every day that it's just a slump. Ruben Sierra had some good swings last night, but he can't play every day. White simply has to get it together.
*Tony Batista. Just when I was allowing myself to think he might actually be able to put together a decent season, he's looked horrible for the last two games. His swing is so long, and against pitchers who can bring it in the mid to high 90's he simply doesn't have the bat speed. At least he's shown more patience than has been the norm for his career.
*Matt Guerrier. The guy's throwing batting practice out there. He looks awful. His numbers last year (a 3.39 ERA) were sure nice, but he rarely was asked to pitch in key situations. So far this year he's been unable to take on a larger role. With veteran lefty Dennys Reyes off to a great start in AAA, I wouldn't give him a long leash.
*Jesse Crain. You can't get major league hitters out by just throwing 94-mph fastballs, Jesse. Yeah, that's pretty fast, but not fast enough to live without offspeed stuff. So far Juan Rincon and Francisco Liriano have been the only reliable middle relievers. And even that's tenuous because.....
*Kyle Lohse. He did a nice job against Oakland but his other two starts have been ugly. In his first start against Cleveland he didn't even compete. As much as I want to be careful with Liriano, you've got to look into trading Lohse while he still has value.
The only difference is before I would've said trade him for a bat, now I might consider trading him for a reliever.
*Coaching. There's no denying that the offense has been a million times better so far, continuing to come from behind while finding a variety of ways to score runs from a variety of sources. But their situational hitting is still awful, and amateur baserunning mistakes are still too common.
Twice in the last week they've loaded the bases with no outs against an All-Star closer. And both times each of the first two hitters failed to get the run home. Yes, they got a clutch 2-out at-bat to get the job done in both cases, but that's beside the point. One of the most important aspects of winning baseball is scoring runs with men on 3rd and less than 2 outs. And no team has been worse in recent years than the Twins. I don't expect hitting coaches to be able to miraculously make Nick Punto into Chuck Knoblauch or Torii Hunter into Kirby Puckett. But it's their job to make them smarter and more effective situational hitters. They haven't done it so far.

Some other observations from around the league:
*Curt Schilling appears to be back. He's 4-0. Right now the Red Sox look like a better team than the Yankees.
*Speaking of the Yankees, Jason Giambi sure looks good. Last year at this time the Yanks were trying to talk him into accepting a demotion to AAA. Right now he's one of the best offensive players in the game.
*A-Rod is so much better in the field than Derek Jeter it's not even....well, close.
*Remember Rob Bowen, a minor league catcher who got a couple cups of coffee with the Twins the last couple years? He was claimed off waivers by the Padres this spring and he's on their roster. That's not so hard to believe. The fact that he was batting 4th in the Padres lineup last week, is. The guy has a career average of .108. A career on-base percentage of .190. A career slugging percentage of .189. In 2004, he batted .197 in 249 at-bats at AA! And he bats cleanup for the Dads. Managers these days are too fucking lazy.
*The Royals are soooooooooooooooo bad. It's pathetic, sad, depressing, tragic - how could you possibly be a fan? They're absolutely terrible, and they can't even say they're rebuilding or have a future. They're playing a bunch of washed up vets. Joe Mays is D-U-N done, and he's their No. 2 starter.
And the Royals recently added seats to Kauffman Stadium. Yeah, cuz people are knocking down the doors to see this team. Their best young pitcher, Zack Greinke, is currently on indefinite leave as he gets treatment for clinical depression. He's apparently considering quitting (he's 22). If that doesn't sum up the Royals, I don't know what does. Sad, sad, sad.
*The White Sox look pretty good. Fat-ass (Ozzie Guillen's words) closer Bobby Jenks is getting it done, and Jose Contreras and Javier Vazquez have been nasty. Jon Garland is proving that last year was indeed a fluke, but if the other 4 starters are this good it won't matter. If the Twins pitchers dont get their act together they won't be able to compete with the Sox. Not with....
*Jim Thome hitting like a mad-man. He's scored a run in all 15 Sox games. Let's just be happy Rick Reed is retired.
*At this point its the understatement of the century, but Albert Pujols is the best hitter in the game.
In five seasons before this year, he posted a .332 average, .621 slugging pct, 201 homers, 621 RBIs and 401 walks while striking out only 332 times.
In case you're really bad at math that means he's averaged 200 hits, 40 homers, 125 RBIs and 80 walks per season, in the first five years of his career.
And now this year he's hitting .354 with 10 homers and 22 RBIs through 15 games.
It won't be long before he starts getting the Barry Bonds treatment and draws 200 walks a year.
The difference? Pujols is that good without steroids.
He's 26. We might be talking about the greatest hitter ever by the time he's done.

YEEEEESSSSSSSSSS

It's a good thing they moved Sunday's Twins game back to 3 p.m., cuz Morneau's probly a little hung over from all the Jag-Bombs I gave him last night.
I'll just pretend for another day that I'm not concerned with how terrible and clueless Rondell White has appeared.
Or that Jesse Crain hasn't shit his pants in every key spot he's seen so far.
I'll just celebrate the fact that I was in attendance for one of the more memorable regular season Twins games in recent history.
8 Jag-Bombs: Morneau. Dude, awesome. There's hope yet.
4 Jag-Bombs: Joe Mauer. Great at-bat first time ever facing Rivera, ends with a knock.
4 Jag-Bombs: Luis Castillo. 4 hits, including a dribbler to start the 9th (I thought he was out)
4 Jag-Bombs: Juan Rincon. Top 9, Yanks lead 5-4 with a runner on 3rd and 1 out. Sheffield at the plate. Any contact and it's a two-run Yankee lead and the game is essentially over.
It goes 3-2, and Sheff fouls off 8 pitches in a row. Rincon keeps pumping strikes, eventually K's him. Biggest at-bat of the game.
2 Jag-Bombs: Francisco Liriano. Another good job. He's pretty good.
2 Jag-Bombs: Juan Castro. Is it possible that he's the MVP so far? Wow.
4 Car-Bombs: Crain. Way to go.

Twins 5, Yankees 1

It was really fun to tell the 5,000 or so Yankee fans at Friday night's game to stick it.
Thanks to Scott Baker.
He was terrific.
4 Jag-Bombs: Baker. 7 innings, 3 hits, 1 run. Against a loaded lineup.
3 Jag-Bombs: Lew Ford. 2 hits and a terrific throw to nail Jorge Posada trying to score at home. Posada might be my least favorite Yankee ever, so that was cool. You suck, Posada.
3 Jag-Bombs: Juan Castro. Knew the dude could play the field. But right now he's hitting, too. Executed a text-book hit and run to set up a run in the second (he hit the ball right to the hole where the 2B had been, God it was beautiful), then finished a nine-pitch at-bat with an RBI single in the 8th. Right now Gardy looks pretty smart for picking Castro.
2 Jag-Bombs: Juan Rincon. Great job getting out of that jam in the 8th. Rincon is a stud.
1 Jag-Bomb: Johnny Damon. Thanks for still throwin like a girl, Johnny. Means I'll always have taunting ammunition no matter the score.
2 Car-Bombs: Rondell White. Hit the fucking ball.
1 Car-Bomb: Justin Morneau. His 4 early homers have overshadowed the fact that he's still holding onto many of his bad habits, and he's hitting, what .211? Not out of the woods, yet.

M&M Part Deux?

Okay, I'm probably jinxing them just by bringing the M&M thing up at all, but early on both Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau look as though they are going to take a step forward this year.
Mauer reminds me more and more of Don Mattingly every time he steps in the box. I just want to see a homerun or two.
And Morneau, right now, looks like a cinch to end the 30-HR drought.
Of course he was hitting .400 on May 1 last year, so I'm trying my best to temper my enthusiasm.
But I've been saying it all winter - Castillo, White and yes, even Batista, may prove all to be nice additions, but if this team is going to be a winner it'll because Mauer and Morneau have big years.
Having a healthy Torii Hunter, along with White and Batista, seems to be a big benefit to Morneau. Last year he was really the only dangerous guy in the lineup, and everyone knew it.
In hindsight then it is perhaps not surprising that he failed to carry the lineup. This year with a few other 20-HR (or more) guys surrounding him, he doesn't feel like he has to hit all the homers.
My projections for these guys as of today, are:
Mauer: .319 avg 17 HR 91 RBIs
Morneau: .267 avg 34 HR 108 RBIs
With some luck those numbers might prove to be conservative.
*Here are just some random odd stats that show just how strange April is in the big leagues.
Juan Castro is hitting .318. Rondell White is hitting .100.
Carlos Silva's has 1/3 as many walks (3) as he had all last year (9).
Brad Radke, perhaps the worst offensively supported pitcher ever, has a 5.54 ERA, and is 2-0.
And Bronson Arroyo, who had been an American League pitcher his entire career before this year, has 2 homers in 2 starts for Cincy. Barry Bonds is homerless.
Wednesday night Jag-Bombs/Car-Bombs:
4 Jag-Bombs: Tony Batista. He's hitting .292 after a 3-hit night. Cut out the box score.
3 Jag-Bombs: Juan Castro. As mentioned, he's hitting .318. Cut out the box score.
3 Jag-Bombs: Shannon Stewart. Keep it up Stewie.
3 Jag-Bombs: Torii Hunter. If he could face Esteban Loaiza once a week he'd win the MVP.
3 Jag-Bombs: Justin Morneau. Do they dare move him back to the cleanup spot?
2 Jag-Bombs: Joe Nathan. 1-2-3. Nice.
1 Jag-Bomb: Carlos Silva. Another early-inning thud followed by a late flourish. Are these guys warming up properly?
1 Car-Bomb: Carlos Silva. If your fastball is that bad, stop throwing it.
1 Car-Bomb: Rondell White. Dude, I'm fairly confident I could get 3 hits in 30 at-bats.
1 Car-Bomb: Shannon Stewart. You don't get picked off, dude. You just don't.

Jag-Bombs/Car-Bombs

Today I begin another new feature.
The Jag-Bombs (and Car-Bombs).
Based on performance, I will hand out Jag-Bombs to those who are most deserving (played good) and Car-Bombs (played bad...cuz Car-Bombs taste like my ass).
Here are Tuesday night's Jag-Bombs, after the Twins 7-6 win over the A's.
4 Jag-Bombs: Tony Batista - clutch 3-run jack. If he does that with any regularity, I don't give a shit what his OBP is.
4 Jag-Bombs: Joe Mauer - a textbook game at the plate. He's hitting the ball to all fields with authority and running the bases hard. This guy's good.
3 Jag-Bombs: Luis Castillo - another good game at the dish and a few great plays at 2B. This guy might literally be 23 times better than Nick Punto.
2 Jag-Bombs: Joe Nathan - struggled with command somewhat, but he was hitting 98 on the gun, something he never does at this point in the season.
1 Jag-Bomb: Justin Morneau - frozen rope for a dinger - I'm feeling good about his chances to break the 30-HR barrier.
1 Jag-Bomb: Juan Castro - I'm not saying I approve of the decision to demote Jason Bartlett, but there is no way in Hell he makes that play to end the 8th that Castro did.
1 Jag-Bomb: Brad Radke - The second inning was a struggle, and the pitch he threw on Crosby's homer in the third was unforgivable. However he was pretty solid after that.
And now, the Car-Bombs.
3 Car-Bombs: Jesse Crain - Second time already he's come in to a game and served up a 2-run homer. This kid's making me nervous.
2 Car-Bombs: Radke - Come on, dude. When your offense is trying to work out of a slump, you're not helping things by putting them in a 4-0 hole. Knock it off.
1 Car-Bomb: Rondell White - Dude, you're trying waaaay too hard. You're swinging at pitches way out of the zone, and taking pitches right down the middle. Yes, they expect you to have a good year. No, they don't expect you to do everything by yourself.
Chill.

Comin' home at 1-5

While it never ceases to amaze me how impatient baseball fans can be considering the season is 162 games long, I have to say even I am a little disturbed at the Twins 1-5 start.
Mostly because Tony Batista, Jason Kubel and Rondell White have been terrible at the plate.
Batista doesn't really surprise me, but Kubel and especially White are upsetting.
Stewart, Castillo and Mauer are getting on base. The big boppers need to hit. Right now they're not even hitting a little. They're not hitting at all.
Hopefully the homestand will help, although it won't be easy given that they're taking on Oakland and the Yankees.
Considering the first trip through the rotation has been more or less disastrous, I think Radke owes it to everyone to put an end to this crap and throw a shutout tonight.
And if he doesn't, well - the Vikings would still be alive at 1-6, so I don't think the Twins need to panic, what with 155 of these things left.
The best reason for patience is the 1991 Twins, a team that bears a lot of similarities to the 2006 Twins.
Both teams added a few mid-level free-agents in the off-season that the team was excited about, yet most fans and media observers scoffed at.
The '91 Twins lost two out of three in a season opening series at Oakland, then lost seven straight in Seattle and Anaheim to limp home at 2-9.
Just 11 games in and everyone was already looking forward to football season, writing off the Twins as last-place variety once again.
They slowly turned things around, though, and went on a little 15 game winning streak in June.
I still think the Twins can be the best team in the division, although I have to admit Cleveland appears to be an extremely well-rounded team, not the rough-around the edges type of club I expected to see. Jim Thome is off to a blazing start (though the Sox aren't) and the Tigers look like they are in fact ready to contend.
As bad as the bats have been, the Twins pitching is the real culprit. They have to get it together.
My gut says Rondell White is still gonna hit .300, and the lineup is still gonna score 50-75 more runs than they did last year.
It'd be nice if that would start tonight.

13-4!!!!!!!

Things that did not surprise me in the Twins first two games:
Johan Santana looking fairly crappy.
Brad Radke giving up three runs in the first inning.
Joe Mauer rapping hits to the opposite field.
Jesse Crain giving up a key homerun that cost the Twins a chance to win the opener.
Tony Batista hitting a long homerun.
Things that did surprise me:
Shannon Stewart making like Rickey Henderson in the leadoff spot.
Justin Morneau making the same mistakes at the plate that made him a .239 hitter last year.
Juan Rincon looking great in his first action since last year.
Torii Hunter getting 4 hits and 6 ribs.
Luis Rodriguez going deep oppo!
Francisco Liriano dominating for two innings.
Gardy showing a strong willingness to use his bench.

In summary, the Twins 6-3 loss was a bummer but no shock, considering Johan never pitches well till June and that Roy Halladay owns the Twins.
Their 13-4 win was fun to watch, and at the very least, gives hope that this lineup might not be terrible.
If Shannon Stewart ends up having a big year, that will greatly, greatly improve the Twins chances. It's easy to forget what a huge impact he had on the team in 2003, when he was a .320 hitter.
I'm really encouraged that Gardy has used his bench early and often, and the fact that Torii's hits on Wednesday were to center and right field is a very good sign. At age 30, he could be primed for a career year.
Tonight the Jays will send Ted Lilly, a lefty, to the mound, so expect Michael Cuddyer to get his first start, and possibly Mike Redmond as well.
The 13-4 win doesn't mean much more than the 6-3 loss, but it still made me happy for one night.

Oh yeah, there's five other divisions

The nice thing about the AL Central is that it's far away from the steroid controversy.
I feel bad for Giants fans that just want to watch their team play.
I wish they'd drop the whole investigation. If you didn't want guys taking the juice you should've had a policy for it.
There's testing now, so as long as Bonds or anyone else doesn't get caught from here on out - why bother? It's over and done with.
As for those other five divisions, I don't really give a shit about them, but I'll take a run at 'em anyway.
AL East
1. Yankees
2. Red Sox
3. Orioles
4. Blue Jays
5. D-Rays
The Yanks are ancient, but their lineup is loaded, and their pitching might not be as bad as people think. If Curt Schilling can stay healthy, the Red Sox will be right there. With Coco Crisp in CF they won't really miss Johnny Damon. Baltimore is one of my surprise picks. With Leo Mazzone taking over as pitching coach, their young arms could get on track. Watch Daniel Cabrera - he could be a righthanded Johan Santana. Everyone's talking about Toronto but I don't see it. A spending spree doesn't make you a contender overnight.
Tampa will be better, maybe even a lot better. Unfortunately in this division it doesn't matter.
AL West
1. Angels
2. A's
3. Mariners
4. Rangers
Who cares about this division, really. Who stays up late enough to ever watch them?
NL East
1. Braves
2. Mets
3. Phillies
4. Nationals
5. Marlins
The Mets might be a surprise, so might the Phillies. The Marlins will lose at least 110 games. They are an honest to god AAA team.
NL Central
1. Cardinals
2. Brewers
3. Astros
4. Pirates
5. Cubs
6. Reds
Cards are the best team in the league. Nice to see the Brewers finally decent again - they could make a run.
The Cubs (have I ever mentioned how much I hate the Cubs) will suck.
Give them credit, though. Sucking is their job and they're good at it.
Seriously, though, why do people always get excited about the Cubs. Wood and Prior are on the DL again. Again. I would't trade Kyle Lohse and Boof Bonser for those two.
NL West
1. Giants
2. Dodgers
3. Padres
4. D-Backs
5. Rockies
Terrible division. Padres won it last year at 82-80. If Bonds can play 120 games and Jason Schmidt gets his Schmidt together the Giants will take it.
AL MVP - Alex Rodriguez
AL CY - Johan Santana
AL ROY - Ken Jojhima, SEA
NL MVP - Albert Pujols
NL CY - Jason Schmidt
NL ROY - Ryan Zimmerman, WAS

Minnesota Twins 2006 Season Preview

As recently as a month ago, I was convinced that for the first time since 2001 I would pick someone other than the Twins to win the AL Central.
Last year my gut told me that the Twins had too many new and young players, but everyone else in the world was picking them to go the World Series, so I got suckered in.
This year I thought all winter that the White Sox would return as the best team in baseball.
But as spring training has wore on, I just don't have a good feeling about them.
This year, the Sox are the hunted, not the hunter. The Twins on the other hand, are the underdog. And anyone who's followed this team for a lengthy period knows that if there's a role they respond well to, it's that of underdog. I think the Twins will come out on top of a highly competitive American League Central division thanks to the best pitching in the league and an improved offensive attack and improved defense.
This is what I don't get about those who dismiss the Twins as a second division club: They weren't bad last year. They went 83-79. There are a lot of teams that would consider an 83 win season a wild success.
Their pitching, which was great last year, will be even better. Joe Mays is gone, Terry Mulholland is gone, JC Romero is gone. Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano are in, and Brad Radke and Carlos Silva are healthy.
Meaning all they have to do to improve on their 83 wins is add some offense. Not a ton. Just a little.
And I just don't see how even the most pessimistic person could look at the lineup and not think it will be much better this year. Not just because of Rondell White and Luis Castillo.
Think about it.
Do you really think Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau won't have breakout type seasons this year?
Do you think Torii Hunter won't have 25 homers and 25 steals if he doesn't break his ankle again?
Do you really think a RF platoon of Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel won't improve on Jacque Jones' .249 average and 23 homers?
Before we get to that, here is a look at the team's opening day 25-man roster:
Starting Lineup:
LF Shannon Stewart
Spring training avg: .261
It's a make or break year (and a contract year) for Stewart. Considering he's a far inferior fielder to Lew Ford, he has to get his ass on base to keep his job. He was hurt most of last year. I'd be shocked if he didn't improve on last year's .274/.323 OBP numbers.
2B Luis Castillo
Spring avg: .356
A gold glove caliber fielder who will get on base a lot. He won't steal 50 bases ever again, but 25 is possible. A huge improvement over Nick Punto/Luis Rivas/Bret Boone.
C Joe Mauer
Spring avg: .362
Might be the best catcher in the game and he's just getting better.
.320 with 20 homers isn't out of the question.
DH Rondell White
Spring avg: .351
Just stay healthy, baby. White is to this team what Chili Davis was to the '91 team. If DH'ing can keep him off the DL, he'll hit .300 with 20 homers.
CF Torii Hunter
Spring avg: .280
Still something of an underachiever at the plate, but he's a consistent producer. As long as he's healthy, and before last year's freak injury he always has been, he'll hit .270 with 25 homers and 25 steals while playing CF as well as anyone in the world. He's also the leader of the clubhouse, something this team needs after last year.
1B Justin Morneau
Spring avg: .375
Might be the most important player in the lineup. There seems to be less pressure on him this year from the fans and media, and with Torii Hunter, Rondell White and Tony Batista surrounding him in the lineup, he doesn't have to feel like the only guy capable of driving in runs. I'm predicting 34 homeruns this season.
RF Michael Cuddyer
Spring avg: .500
He slugged .844 in 32 spring training AB's. That's why he's got the job. But this is it. With Jason Kubel ready to go, this has to be Cuddy's last chance to win a job. There's an outside chance he could hit .280 with 20 homers.
3B Tony Batista
Spring avg: .224
He hit a team-high 4 homers, otherwise his spring performance was unimpressive. He makes me nervous, but he does have power, which at the very least could change the way pitchers approach the guys hitting in front of him.
He will hit at least 30 homers if he stays in the lineup, I just worry that he won't be good enough to do so.
SS Juan Castro
Spring avg: .176
The Twins must be pretty confident in hitters 1-7, because the bottom two are out-making machines. However Castro, who earned the nod when Jason Bartlett was sent to the minors, is excellent with the glove, and the dirty little secret from last year was that the Twins fielding was as bad as it's been since I've been alive.
Bench
OF Lew Ford
An excellent fielder at all 3 spots. Can steal a base, has decent power and can draw a walk. If Shannon Stewart proves to be finished, the Twins could still compete with him in LF.
OF Jason Kubel
Another wild card. Has .300-20 homer potential. If he plays well enough out of the shoot, Ruben Sierra (currently on the DL) might never play a game as a Twin.
IF Nick Punto
Hated, hated, hated him as a starter. As a utility guy he has some upside. He can run, has a little power, is a switch hitter and can play pretty much any position but C-1B.
IF Luis Rodriguez
I really hope he stays on this team. Can play all 4 IF spots, and could probly fill in an OF corner spot if he had to. And he actually has a clue what to do with that wooden stick in his hands. Also a switch-hitter, he had a .338 OBP last year, which is pretty high going by utility IF standards.
C Mike Redmond
One of the best backup catchers in baseball. Gets it done behind the plate, is a terrific clubhouse guy, and hit .311 last year.
Starting Rotation:
LH Johan Santana
The best starter in the game. Period. It would be nice to see him pitch well in April for once, though, especially since the Twins have a difficult early schedule.
RH Brad Radke
Still underrated. Also a slow starter, but maybe the best big-game pitcher the team has had in my lifetime. When you really, really need a quality start, Radke delivers.
RH Carlos Silva
Pitched through an injury last year and still ranked 5th in AL ERA. This year he's healthy. He has the best control in the game, and is also perhaps the game's most economical pitcher. For a No. 3 you can't do better.
RH Kyle Lohse
Went 5-0 with a 2.42 ERA this spring. I'm not expecting him to win the Cy Young or anything, but Twins fans who've hated the guy (you know who you are) should keep an open mind. He may prove to be the best 4th starter in the league.
RH Scott Baker
Very impressive last year, posting a 3.35 ERA in 10 starts. That would've been 5th in the league if he qualified. And he's our fifth starter.
Bullpen
RH Matt Guerrier
An excellent 3.39 ERA last year, but much of it was mop-up duty. I'm pretty confident he'll be fine, and if he's not, there are plenty of options ready to replace him.
LH Francisco Liriano
One of the top two pitching prospects in the game, and I like the fact that they're working him in through the bullpen. Everyone compares him to Santana, and he seemed to benefit from the transition pretty well.
RH Willie Eyre
Has been very reliable in AAA, and at 27, he's ready. He should be fine as a mop-up guy.
RH Jessie Crain
Has been great since getting called up two years ago, but his very low strikeout numbers - he had just 25 K's in 80 innings last year - scare me. Still, he gets it done, and is equally tough against lefties and righties.
RH Juan Rincon
One of the top set-up guys in baseball. With nasty, nasty stuff, he's racked up 200 K's out of the bullpen over the last two years. He could easily be a top-flight closer, and I'd bet he could be a 15-game winner as a starter, too.
RH Joe Nathan
He's the equivalent of Santana in the bullpen, a five-star guy. Usually has one week-long slump where he struggles with command, otherwise his 97-mph fastball and 91-mph slider make him impossible to hit.
Breaking it down
The Twins pitching is gonna be great and the offense will, I think, do the job. Defensively they'll also be better. If you believe in being strong up the middle (I do), you can't do much better than Mauer, Castro-Castillo and Hunter.
Everyone who dismisses the Twins does so because they're not impressed by Tony Batista, Rondell White and Luis Castillo.
They're missing the point.
This team is going to be better because of a healthy Torii Hunter and the emergence of Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Jason Kubel. Anything the three newcomers add (which I'm guessing will be substantial) is an added bonus.
They also have a nice bench, with Ford and Kubel giving them two good bats.
The Good: Excellent and deep rotation, loaded bullpen, very strong up the middle defensively. Best offensive players are still in the early stages of their careers.
The Bad: Two sub-.300 OBP guys at the bottom of the order, many of the starters could wash out as easily as they could shine.
Best-case scenario: Mauer and Morneau become two of the game's brightest stars, while White, Hunter and Batista each hit 25+ homers. Castro and Castillo are Gold Glove caliber up the middle, while Cuddyer and Kubel combine to far surpass Jacque Jones' production in right.
All five starters finish with an ERA under 4, and the bullpen is baseball's best. Twins win the pennant.
Worst-case scenario: Morneau proves that he's the next Randy Bush, not Kent Hrbek, Hunter, White and Castillo all battle injuries, while Batista is so bad the team turns to Terry Tiffee to play 3rd by June 1st. In a carbon copy of last year, punchless team finishes around .500
Minnesota Twins
Manager: Ron Gardenhire
Offense: B-
Defense: B
Starting Pitching: A
Bullpen: A-
Bench: B
Predicition: 91-71 AL Central Champs