There’s no doubt that the Twins are sitting in a much better decision right now than they were as April closed last year. They finished off April with a 14-11 record compared to last year’s 9-15 and they sit just 1.5 games behind the division leading Indians rather than trailing the White Sox by 8.0 games. That’s not to say they exceeded expectations. Most people, including myself, expect the Twins to be a winning team this season and the April record puts them on pace to win about 91 games.

What’s been the most surprising about April? Who’s disappointed and who’s been a pleasant surprise? Here’s a quick list of my thoughts on the month of April.

4/30/2007	W	L	GB
Indians	14	8	-
Twins	14	11	1.5
Tigers	14	11	1.5
White Sox	12	11	2.5
Royals	8	18	8

• Ramon Ortiz is winning games. Of the two free agents the Twins signed to join the rotation, I figured Ortiz would be the better, but frankly I thought they’d both be flops. I’m not ready to start printing my “Cy Ortiz” t-shirts, yet, but I’m quite pleased with what he’s offered and perhaps even a bit optimistic that he can at least provide some consistency in the rotation. Through five starts he’s posted a 2.57 ERA and has never allowed more than three runs in a start. Simply put, he’s given the Twins a chance to win every time out and they have won 4 of the five times he’s started.

• Nick Punto is struggling. I’d could brag about how I predicted Punto would drop off this year, but I wasn’t the only one. Punto is batting .220 and although he leads the team in triples, he’s simply not providing much production for a top of the lineup batter. He has had 4 hits in the past 2 games to bring his average above the Mendoza line, but I’m hardly convinced it’s a trend. I anticipate the return of Jeff Cirillo, so perhaps Punto can get a couple more games off.

• Dennys Reyes has been terrible. He was nearly perfect last year and when the Twins signed him to a contract extension late last summer it all seemed to good to be true…and it was. So far in 2007 he’s been a total flop. He’s pitched only 7 2/3 innings in 15 appearances and managed to allow 13 base runners and 6 runs. Since April 18th he’s made three appearances in which he didn’t retire a batter. He had just 3 such outings all of last year.

• Neshek has been clutch. It seems like whenever the Twins have been in trouble late in the game Gardy has called on Neshek and Neshek always seems to get the job done. His 2.25 ERA is completely the result of a 3-run home run by Raul Ibanez in a game the Twins went on to win anyway.

• Joe Nathan looked mortal for a while. There were a few appearances in which Joe Nathan actually looked hittable. There was the game that was saved by Carl Crawford’s base running blunder that came in the middle of a string of eight appearances in which Nathan allowed a base runner. In recent appearances he’s shown more dominance with 8 strike outs in 5 innings, so there’s really no reason to be worried as we roll into May.

• Torii Hunter and Mike Redmond are tough. These guys were pretty gutty for the Twins in April. There was Mike Redmond who didn’t let a back swing to his shoulder prevent his clutch hitting. There was also Torii Hunter who took a pitch off the face and came back the next day to hit a double in his first at-bat. Hunter will head into May with an active 15 game hitting streak on the line, which is a career best. He hit 13 doubles and five home runs while missing a few games due to a couple injuries in the month of April.

• Mauer started where he left off. After winning the batting title in ‘06 Joe Mauer exits the month of April with a .369 batting average, good for tops in the AL. It took him until April 28th to hit his first home run, so my prediction of 20 homers may not come to fruition, but as long as he’s hitting near .350, he can keep it in the park all he wants.

The Twins had relatively easy competition in April and I feel like they played like a sub .500 team. They’ll need to pick things up in May, but fortunately they have the capacity to do so. My big prediction for May: Scott Baker will replace Sidney Ponson in the rotation.