All-Star Recognition June 23rd, 2008 at 9:22 pm
Much to my surprise, Joe Mauer, took the lead in All-Star balloting for AL Catchers in today’s weekly update of the vote totals. He’s narrowly edging out Boston’s Jason Varitek. It’s not the Mauer doesn’t deserve to be the starting catcher in the mid-summer classic–he certainly does. It’s just that past years have taught us that big market teams (and older veteran players) have a significant advantage in the fan-based voting.
Sweeping again June 22nd, 2008 at 11:45 pm Diamondbacks 3 at Twins 5
The Twins completed their second consecutive sweep, again coming against a National league team at the Metrodome. On Sunday, they defeated one of the NL’s best right-handed pitchers, Arizona’s Brandon Webb. After a rough stretch, Livan Hernandez has now pitched two straight decent starts as he continued the trend of a rotation turnaround.
While the Twins were sweeping the Diamondbacks, the Chicago Cubs were doing the same to the Chicago White Sox at Wrigley field. On June 13th the Twins trailed the White Sox by 5.5 games, and seemed more likely to fall behind Cleveland and Detroit in the standings than they were to catch Chicago. However, they now find themselves just 1.5 games behind the Sox for the AL Central lead, but Detroit is playing just as well and is starting to work its way out of the early season slump that plagued the team (they trail the Twins by 3.5 games) .
Monroe's homers beat Boston May 12th, 2008 at 11:30 pm Red Sox 8 at Twins 9
It’s hard to believe, but Sunday night’s game was the first multi-homer game for the Twins of the season. Not by one player, but for the whole team. In fact, the Twins had 3 homers. Craig Monroe had a 3-run shot in the second inning and then what proved to be a game winning solo homer in the seventh.
Adam Everett also provided an unlikely solo homerun, just barely getting one by LF Jacoby Ellsbury’s outstretched arm.
The battered Twins somehow still find themselves in first place, with just a single game lead over Cleveland and Chicago. They’ll go for the series victory, in the fourth game against Boston tonight. It’ll be Livan Hernandez (5-1, 3.83 ERA) against Clay Buchholz (2-2, 4.50 ERA).
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This offense has issues April 25th, 2008 at 11:30 pm Twins 5 at Rangers 6
The big news of the week was Francisco Liriano’s demotion to AAA Rochester, which came as no surprise after his 3rd start of the season lasted just 2/3rds of an inning. However, the biggest problem for this team this year (and all of last year) was it’s offense.
Michael Cuddyer finally returned to the lineup on Friday night against Texas. Curiously, he was batting fifth in the lineup rather than in the 3rd spot where he started the season. Hopefully it was a temporary thing and he’ll find his way back to #3 in the lineup. It’s much more sensible to move Joe Mauer to the #2 spot with Cuddyer splitting up the lefties Mauer and Justin Morneau.
Boof robbed again April 24th, 2008 at 8:13 am Twins 0 at Athletics 3
Boof Bonser put together another start worthy of a win, but his offense again failed to provide decent run support. The offense was shut out by Chad Guadin in a close 3-0 game. In Boof’s 5 starts this season he’s been given a total of 7 runs by his offense. Over that span he’s really had only 1 bad start.
As we are a week shy of the 1 month mark on the 2008 season, so far there’s no indication that this offense has improved over 2007. Fortunately Michael Cuddyer will return from the DL soon, which should push Jason Kubel to the full-time DH role and leave Craig Monroe out of the lineup most nights. However, huge holes remain at CF, 3B and possibly SS when Tolbert returns to earth. Carlos Gomez has been atrocious at the plate since his nice first week, and actually rode the bench on Wednesday night for the first time of the season.
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Weekend recap April 20th, 2008 at 11:13 pm Indians 1 at Twins 2
Three low scoring affairs ended in a series victory for the Twins against Central division rival Cleveland Indians. On Friday night the Twins were shut out while Francisco Liriano struggled again in his second start of the season. Liriano allowed “only” 3 runs through 5 complete innings, but it could’ve been worse. He gave up 4 hits, walked 5 and struck out just 3. Rick Anderson and Ron Gardenhire have raved about his last two bullpen sessions, but when he goes out and struggles to find his location for 5 innings, it’s hard to fully believe what they see.
With Kevin Slowey due to begin a rehab assignment, the Twins could soon face a difficult decision. A lot can happen in a couple weeks, but before long Liriano could be the odd man out, which won’t necessarily be a bad thing, as he could certainly use the work.
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