Luis Rodriguez Topic Page

The power went out in more ways than one Tuesday night in Kansas City. The Twins offense was again stifled by a mediocre pitcher--this time it was Brian Bannister holding the Twins to just 6 hits and 1 run through 7 innings.

Winning the series against Cleveland was certainly not expected the way the Twins limped into Cleveland after being clobbered in Toronto. With C.C. Sabathia on the mound for Cleveland it seemed even less likely the Twins could win the rubber game of the series.

Last night's game between the Detroit Tigers finally got back to a level that was bearable to watch, or listen to, as was my case last night. After a stretch of games featuring no clutch hitting, fielding errors and mental mistakes all-around this game was actually well played by both sides. Through the first six innings there was again no sign of Twins' offense, but that all changed in the seventh and eighth.

Saturday afternoon's game got off to an ugly start. Boof Bonser loaded the bases with a leadoff single by David DeJesus, a bunt single from Mark Grudzielanek and an infield single from Mike Sweeney. Bonser struck out Mark Teahan and Ross Gload for the first two outs of the inning, but then Luis Rodriguez, who was playing second had a pop fly bounce off his glove in shallow center field to allow 2 runs to score. Bonser then struck out Alex Gordon to end the inning.

It was an interesting game for the Twins. The Felix Hernandez hype was short-lived as he left the game early with soreness in his elbow. Hopefully it's not serious, but the whole event was eerily similar to Fransisco Liriano's departure of last season. The game also featured a crazy ending thanks to a little too aggressive base running from the Mariners.

The Twins roster is set for opening day, so it's time to give a player by player rundown of the team. 25 players is a lot, so I'll start with the hitters in this entry.

The season's over which means it's now time to evaluate the 2006 team and determine who can help the squad in 2007. A decision will be made by the end of the week regarding Torii Hunter's option, but there are a few players that might remain as question marks until the free agent period has passed. Now I'll go through each player and give my opinion on how they fit into the picture for 2007. I'd love to hear your opinion in the comments.

Carlos Silva's ineffectiveness on Wednesday night cost the Twins another loss against baseball's worst team. In Silva's final start of the season he saw he ERA jump back over the 6.00 mark. If there's any positive you can take from it, it's that Silva is even more unlikely to win a spot in the postseason rotation. He shouldn't even make the roster. Kansas City has been a much tougher opponent for the Twins than they should've been this year. The Twins have just an 11-7 record against the .373 Royals.

For the second straight night the Twins put together an eighth inning rally to beat the Cleveland Indians. Just as important, the Kansas City Royals were once again able to defeat the White Sox which allowed the Twins to move to within 1 game of the White Sox. Detroit also lost, to Boston, which moved the Twins to within 7.5 games of the AL Central lead. Boston is just 1 game behind the Twins.

Spring Training Game.