First, I want to apologize for the slowness to update the past couple days. It’s been a busy weekend, and I’ve spent most of my free time working on a new feature for right here at Twins Nation. I’m gonna keep quiet on the details for now, but expect an announcement in the next day or two.

The Twins played 7 games last week and finished it out with a record of 4-3. Considering what my mood was most of last week (until the weekend), you wouldn’t have guessed they finished the week with a winning record. However, when you consider that they were 2-2 against two pretty bad teams it leaves kind of a bad taste in your mouth. Certainly the Tigers series was something to be happy about, and Johan’s Sunday performance was a sight for sore eyes.

Last week also saw a couple players come out of their early season slumps. Let’s get into the discussion.

Honorable Mention

• Johan Santana: It’s really hard not to give the honors to Johan this week. In his two starts he picked up 2 wins, combined for 14 innings pitched, 3 ER, 10 hits and 1 walk. For you stat-heads that’s a 1.93 ERA and a miniscule 0.79 WHIP. Oh yeah, he also racked up 20 K’s. After a rough start, Santana seems to have found his groove earlier than usual. Santana was Player of the Week last week though, and the hitters need some recognition, so I’ll call Santana the runner-up.
• Michael Cuddyer: Cuddyer only saw the bench during the Seattle Series, but Lew Ford’s struggles allowed him to get playing time the rest of the week and he made the most of it. Cuddyer picked up at least one hit in each of the 5 games he played. Overall he was 8-for-19 with 4 RBIs. That included 2 RBIs and a triple in Sundays 4-2 victory over the Tigers. He’s had plenty of chances to prove himself the past couple years, but maybe this time he’ll actually do it?
• Juan Rincon: Rincon is doing well after some offseason elbow surgery. This week he had four 1 inning appearances and was near perfect in all of them. He picked up the win in Saturday’s come-from-behind against Detroit.
• Matt Guerrier: Guerrier had two good relief outings this week, both coming in losses. Guerrier is most often used in blowout games (aka after a Radke start), so he doesn’t get many chances to factor into wins, but he has done a good job of keepin the Twins in the game or limiting the damage. Matt pitched 5 scoreless innings last week.

Player of the Week: Torii Hunter

It’s tough to ignore a guy that saw his average rise from sub .200 to nearly .250 in the span of one week. Hunter batted .440 last week and drove in 7 RBIs. He hit in the cleanup spot in almost all of the games and provided the production we’ve needed from the middle of the lineup all season. Hunter hit his 6th and 7th homeruns of the season last week and now sits with the team lead in homeruns and RBIs.