Twins bats come to life, win third in a row
Now that’s what you call a winning streak! Three wins in a row for the Twins is a big deal, as it comes on the heels of a 9-game losing streak. It appeared that the Twins had hit rock bottom this after losing eight straight at home, nonetheless. There were rumblings from the clubhouse that players were getting frustrated and angry, which they should have been, and it seemed like things were about to get even worse after they got shut down my rookie phenom Michael Pineda. But, instead, Francisco Liriano took the hill and outdueled Felix Hernandez. And the bats came to life in Oakland to help give the Twins a season high 3-game winning streak.
Justin Morneau hit a home run today, just his second, while racking up a three-hit game. He seems to be hitting well of late and if he is turning the corner this Twins club could be doing so as well. The season pretty much hinges upon Justin Morneau’s abilty to hit and Francisco Liriano’s abilty to pitch. If those guys can come back to where they should be the season can still be salvaged. Liriano racked up nine strikeouts in his seven inning outing against Seattle and he only walked one batter, which is huge since he has been racking up walks like crazy so far this season…but then again so has the entire staff. With Liriano it is always “what have you done lately” because he has been so inconsistent thus far, but if he can put together another good start I will start to believe he has found himself. And that will be a huge shot in the arm for this club.
Morneau finding his stroke is another huge boost. If he can start finding some power he could start carrying this struggling offense. Even Michael Cuddyer is starting to hit. He had three hits today and two against King Felix, to go with two RBIs that night as well. Delmon Young came off the DL and looked DREADFUL, but he appeared pretty fired up after scoring the game-winning run Wednesday and hopefully that will carry over to more success. He did drive in a run today against Oakland.
Right now, on May 19th, the Twins are 12 games behind Cleveland. After playing some of the worst baseball in over a decade the Twins are only 12 back. I don’t see that number as being insurmountable. They would really need to get HOTTT, but if guys start hitting I would not count this team out. I am not sold yet on Cleveland, even though it has been almost two months. Maybe I should buy into them? I don’t know. I do know that I think the Twins can turn this ship around. There is too much talent on this roster to be this bad. Each day guys are getting healthier and the bats look to be warming up. You heard it here…this club will come around. I can’t decide how long it will take for them to get out of the cellar, but we should find out very soon if it can be done. The first week of June the Twins will face Detroit, Kansas City and Cleveland, all teams they are chasing. If they can do some damage over that 10-game stretch then they could be in very good shape. Should they falter…well, then I guess I was wrong about this club.
Delmon Young to return Friday
Another day off for the Twins comes with some good news. Delmon Young is set to be activated from the disabled list for the weekend series against Toronto. This comes on the heels of another terrible game where it was the bullpen, not the offense, that terrorized the Twins. So a little good news is helpful at this point. Anything positive works for me, because the negativity swirling around the Twins is starting to build and you can sense an air of frustration even from the outside looking in.
Delmon wasn’t hitting when he was healthy, but one can hope he comes back and adds the right-handed thunder this lineup needs so badly. He was hitting .228 with zero home runs and just six runs batted in in 16 games so I think it is safe to say there is a lot of room for improvement. And, really, he can’t get much worse than what has been out in left field in his place. Ben Revere and Rene Tosoni have brought virtually nothing to the table and have looked a bit overmatched in doing so. Young’s return allows one of them to head back to Triple-A and develop some more, hopefully using this brief stint as a nice building block.
I drafted Delmon Young for my fantasy team this spring and I said to the guys in my league that I felt he was going to blow up this season. To that I must say, I was wrong…so far. I am looking for Delmon to come back and add a spark to the lineup. A familiar face could really go a long way for these Twins, since the everyday lineup had started looking pretty darn thin. Hopefully Delmon can add some thump and erase another spot in the linuep that gives away three to four outs a ball game…not that I am mentioning names(Rene Rivera, Drew Butera, Matt Tolbert, Alexi Casilla etc.)
I am going to rally here and say this is the moment the Twins turn it around! It took everything in me to fight off all of my negative emotions to write that last line, but some positivity could go a long way. So here is to the Twins turning around 2011!
2011 Minnesota Twins, cursed?
Take one look at the starting lineup for the Twins Tuesday and it is hard not to think about all of the injuries this team has had to deal with. It started with the broken leg of Tsuyoshi Nishioka. Then Kevin Slowey hit the DL. Following Slowey to the disabled list would be Joe Mauer, the biggest blow the Twins have had so far. And it didn’t end with Mauer going on the shelf. Delmon Young would soon head to the DL with sore ribs, Jim Thome followed him shortly after with a strained oblique. Typing al of that wore me out, just imagine how Ron Gardenhire has to feel when he looks at his roster and has to come up with a lineup. Trevor Plouffe was called up when Thome hit the DL with the hopes of bringing some stability to the shortstop position. He had a big game in his season debut, but he would wind up injuring his hamstring at the end of what was just his third game. It just seems like the injuries don’t stop. Even the guys who aren’t hurt all seem to be getting sick at least. Francisco Liriano threw a no-hitter and followed it up with a sore throat and had to be pushed back a day. Justin Morneau got the flu a few weeks back and ended up losing around 15 pounds and he looks noticeably thinner. Where does the madness end?
All of these things lead me to my point. Are the 2011 Twins cursed? Haha, okay I don’t believe that, but my goodness, that’s how crazy things are getting at this point. No one can stay on the field long enough to find a groove and the offense clearly reflects that. Jason Kubel and Denard Span have stayed healthy so far and have been productive but they’re the only two guys who can really say they’ve done both this season.
In all of my years watching baseball I have never seen a club have this much turnover on their roster in such a short period of time. It is no wonder they are in the basement of the AL Central. There is still talent on the roster, but at what point do all of these losses add up to a lost season? It sounds like the Twins are shooting for Mauer to be back before June 1st, but that’s three weeks away. I can’t imagine this team can do a whole lot of winning with Drew Butera and Rene Rivera giving away outs on a nightly basis. How long can the Twins survive with Ben Revere or Rene Tosoni in the everyday lineup? At what point does the black cat run across the field or does some sort of goat show up at Target Field? That’s what this all feels like. It feels like one long, extended nightmare that has no end in sight.
Delmon Young did play in an extended spring training game today and appears to be on his way back, but who knows what he will be able to do when he returns, since he wasn’t hitting before the injury. I haven’t heard much about Thome and nobody seems to know about Mauer. I have conceded that the lineup will look like that of the Rochester Red Wings at this point, but I don’t know if I can take watching this much more.
Carl Pavano, bad investment?
When the Twins waited and waited this offseason to sign Carl Pavano I was all for it. I was not a fan of a three year commitment worth anywhere near the $30 million that was originally rumored. I think the Twins new darn well he wouldn’t pitch well enough to be worth $30 million and now I am starting to wonder if he is worth the two years and $16.5 million he ended up getting paid. Okay, well, his current contract is pretty standard for a veteran of his level, as guys like Brett Myers, Randy Wolf and Joel Pineiro all make roughly the same type of money this season as Pavano does. So he is probably making the industry standard, but I am starting to wonder if the Twins made a bad move giving him that money.
A team with a payroll stretched as thin as the Twins’ was this offseason can’t afford to make big salary mistakes and Pavano is starting to look like that. Kevin Slowey, who makes about a third of Pavano’s salary could easily be doing as well as Pavano if he were out there every fifth day. Shoot, Glen Perkins has been extremely good out of the ‘pen, perhaps he should have been given a chance to start? If the Twins had not decided to pay Pavano, perhaps they could have spent money a little better in the bullpen or the middle infield, two areas of severe need for the Twins so far. Maybe they could have made a mid-season push for Jose Reyes? Just a thought. Who knows, maybe they still will, haha.
I think the money would have been better spent on Jesse Crain than Carl Pavano. Crain has been pretty good so far for the White Sox and with the state of the 2011 Minnesota Twins’ bullpen, he would be the best arm out there, or darn close to it. Crain will earn $4 million dollars this season, half of Pavano’s take. It is hard to compare the salary of a reliever to a starter because they aren’t the same position really, but with what we have seen so far it would have made more sense to keep Crain. I know, it is easy to say that now because back in January Pavano was coming off of a great 2010 season and no one(except maybe me haha) was expecting anything from Scott Baker. So re-signing Pavano made a lot of sense and at the time I was all for it. I never expected him to pitch to the 3.75 ERA he had in 2010, but I definitely didn’t expect to see him sitting around 6 at this point in the season. I would be beyond excited if he could come back to his career ERA of 4.38. And I have to think he will smooth things out soon. But at the same time he has been pretty bad in the past, shoot, his ERA was above five when the Twins traded for him in 2009. And I know ERA doesn’t tell the entire story, but he has given up 50 hits in just 42 innings this season and the league is hitting .294 off him, compared to the .266 from last season.
There was a lot of talk about keeping Pavano around because he was a solid veteran, but I really hate hearing the argument that the Twins needed a veteran arm. Every one of the pitchers on this staff is a veteran at this point, so that argument just doesn’t stick with me. At the time, maybe it made sense for the Twins to pay Pavano and keep him around. But hindsight being what it is, it sure would look better having Jesse Crain than Carl Pavano. I truly hope Pavano turns it around and becomes a solid investment for the Twins because this organization has an extremely small margin for error when it comes to finances.
Welcome back to the big leagues Trevor Plouffe
Trevor Plouffe was recalled from Triple-A Rochester Wednesday and he probably would have started against the White Sox had his plane not been delayed. Instead, he made his 2011 debut Friday night against the Boston Red Sox and it was quite the impressive debut at that. Ron Gardenhire seems intent on letting Plouffe take over as the everyday shortstop for the time being and he threw him right into the number two hole in the lineup and Plouffe delivered. He went 2-4, hitting a home run in his first at bat. He ended up scoring three runs, drawing a walk and stealing a base. That is the kind of production the Twins have been dying for from their middle infielders. I have a good feeling about Plouffe this time around, and feel like he could really be the spark the Twins need. It was just one game, but I really do think he could make a difference in the lineup. Let’s face it, the middle infield hasn’t exactly been spectacular so far and if Plouffe could even come close to his Triple-A stats it would be a monumental upgrade for the Twins.
With Plouffe’s arrival it seems like Gardy is going to sqaush the Michael Cuddyer-second base operation. Alexi Casilla made it clear he feels more comforatable at second base and with Jim Thome on the disabled list there is really no reason for Gardy to keep running Cuddyer out at second because Jason Kubel can DH without stealing at bats from Thome. Perhaps the switch can get Casilla feeling comfortable and even light a fire under him. If he could start getting on base and making things happen it could be a huge lift for the lineup. And let’s face it, Cuddyer is better suited for right field, even though I liked him at second when he was there this season. Then again, I, for some reason, have always been a big proponent of Cuddyer at second.
Regardless of who ends up playing the middle infield spots, one thing is certain, someone needs to step up and be consistent, both on offense and defense, because this carousel middle infield thing just isn’t going to cut it. Oh, and did I mention that Scott Baker is awesome? Is it too early to toot my own horn? Haha.
