AL Central Division Standings

After the walk-off hit by Alexi Casilla, who is no stranger to walk-offs having 5 in his career, I began to think 'what if?' The Twins are 11 games back with Cleveland leading the AL Central Division. Detroit, Chicago and Kansas hold the 2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectively.


What if? I don't want to get ahead of myself, so let's crunch some numbers and talk hypothetically.

After this series with Texas, which could be a prime opportunity to pick up some games on Cleveland seeing as the Indians are heading to the Bronx to take on the Yankees and we are, in recent history a difficult team for Texas to beat. We can't hope to take all four games of the series -- Texas is leading the AL West after all, but I don't think two games are out of the question, especially with one already under our belts.

After the Twins-Chicago series next week, we won't face another Central Division opponent until we see Chicago again in the second week of July. Then we have back to back series against the Central Division throughout July looking something like this: White Sox - All Star Break - Royals - Indians - Detroit.

We need to win 3 out of the 4 series AT LEAST... at the very minimum we need 3/4. During this 3-week stretch, our fellow division-mates have the following schedules:

Cleveland
Blue Jays
Orioles
Twins
White Sox

Analysis: we clearly need to win this series. Whether or not the Indians are maintaining their control of the division, we need to overcome the Indians in order to climb to the top. Additionally, if the Indians aren't games ahead, Detroit will be and nothing causes anxiety like seeing the Twins topple your division rivals (think game 163- AL Central Tiebreaker in 2009). It would be best if Cleveland split the series with the White Sox, but if not, the White Sox would be a better winner.

Detroit
Royals
White Sox
Athletics
Twins

Analysis: Similar to the Indian-Twins series, this is a must. The Tigers are on the verge of overcoming the Indians and we need to win at least 3/4 games of this series. No ifs ands or buts. It would be ideal if the Royals could take this series without a loss, but hey we can only ask for so much.

Chicago
Twins
Tigers
Royals
Indians

Analysis: much to my dismay, the White Sox hold an eerily similar schedule to ours. Wannabes. Basically, Chicago can only win 2 out of the 4 series to keep them from pulling ahead too far. One series they must lose would be to the Twins. Ideally, I would like them to beat the Royals so the Twins can fly to Chicago to visit a beaten-up team.

Kansas City
White Sox
Tigers
Twins
White Sox

Analysis: Just like years before, we need to enlist the Royals as allies and hope they can help us beat out the other AL Central Teams, while letting us cruise ahead to first. Kansas should be viewed as a pawn of sorts. Sorry guys! So, I would like Kansas to win every series in these three weeks except for the one against the Twins. If we don't beat Kansas, it seems hard to believe we would meet our goal of 3/4 series wins. Kansas is our stepping stone to bigger and better things.


I tried to be realistic in my observations, whether or not I did so, we will know in a little over a month. Obviously, the Twins need to perform better at home. The game last night against Texas was a good starting-point, but we need more. We need to win 75% of our games at home at least and those wins need to increase against the Central Division.

There are my thoughts. Have at 'em Twins.

LiriaNo-No

Liriano, who just so happened to throw his first professional complete game also threw his first no-hitter.

I watched this game and saw for myself how the men in blue helped Liriano achieve such a feat - they helped him in a big way.

It has been dubbed 'the out that wasn't'.

With pinch-runner Brent Lillibridge (White Sox) on first and only one out in the eight, Gordon Beckham (White Sox) jumped on the first pitch and hit a one-hopper to Danny Valencia. Valencia cleanly handled the ball and executed a perfect throw to Alexi Casilla, who was manning second base.

Casilla, wanting a perfect throw to Morneau, took his time making the toss and, unfortunately the throw pulled Morneau off the bag down the first base line toward the catcher... and Beckham. Morneau took a swipe at Beckham and clearly missed him (this was apparent to viewers at home who were provided a slow replay), but first-base umpire Paul Emmel called Beckham out to end the inning and to keep the no-hitter alive!

The out that wasn't.

In this amazing win, Liriano threw 123 pitches to catcher Drew Butera.

Now a game with the White Sox would be more than disappointing, even if it is a Twins no-hitter, if we weren't privy to an outburst by Ozzie Guillen. Lucky for us, the Morneau-Beckham play resulted in Ozzie storming the field in protest... Guillen made it as far as the third-base line before turning around and walking back in to the dugout.

Looks like our man Guillen has grown somewhat of an expert as to when arguing is appropriate - he is learning to pick is battles instead of battling all the time. I know I'm disappointed and I was disappointed that night too when I saw Guillen emerge from the dugout. I hopped right on Twitter to see what he would have to say... That lesson appears to be learned as well.

Ozzie Guillen needs to revert back to his old ways before I lose interest and start following Kobe Bryant's outbursts instead - now he knows how to start a media frenzy.

Nishioka and Mauer on Disabled List

The normally passive Minnesota Twin fan base is getting restless. Want to know why?

Joe Nathan, fresh off tommy-john surgery, is blowing saves... Justin Morneau has a .619 OPS... Tsuyoshi Nishioka was making errors left and right, until he broke his leg... and Joe Mauer has just been put on the disabled list due to 'bilateral leg weakness'... Additionally, the Minnesota Twins are at the bottom of the AL Central Division... a division we share with the Kansas City Royals and the Cleveland Indians. What... a good joke.

If you are anything like myself, when you heard about Joe Mauer's inability to play, you fired up the Mac and headed in to the cyber world in search of 'bilateral leg weakness' because, frankly, it sounds made up. Here is what I found: an individual suffering from bilateral leg weakness has muscle weakness in both legs that could be caused by a malfunction of the brain, spinal cord, or nerves.



GREAT! Joe Mauer is broken... so broken in fact that he is TOO sick with the flu to even see the doctor about his brain/spinal cord/nerves. This injury could be classified as the most-apocalyptic one to date. Mauer is in the first season of a contract that pays him $23 million a season until 2018. At the time of his injury, Mauer was batting a lowly .235/.289/.265.

Given the aforementioned injuries, the Twins are close to cardiac arrest. With Nishioka out, second base has been manned by Michael Cuddyer (one of my faves) and with Casilla playing the opposite of impressive, the Twins are forced to consider the unlikely double-play combination of Luke Hughes at short and Michael Cuddyer at second. If you had told me this in February, I would have laughed so hard, I may have fallen off my dinosaur. (Step Bros reference)

Finally, there is the ace left-hander Francisco Liriano who... basically can't get anyone out. He has been pitching for contact all year. Liriano has a 9.42 ERA in three starts. How are we 4-8?

Let's cross our fingers Mauer receives more of an informed diagnosis when he sees the doctor. Actually, let's cross our fingers Mauer even makes it to a doctor.

Minnesota Twins Make Moves in Winter Meetings

The Minnesota Twins lightened the roster by trading shortstop J.J. Hard and Brendan Harris, along with $500,000 straight cash homie (I miss Moss), to the Baltimore Orioles on Thursday. In the trade, we picked up minor league right-handers Jim Hoey and Brett Jacobson.

These two trades indicate that the Twins are likely closing in on a contract with Tsuyoshi Nishioka, a Japanese infielder. (I don't know how that name will fit on the back of a jersey!). It is doubtful that the club would have moved Hardy unless they were in a position to finalize a deal with Nishioka. The Twins would then be set-up to have a middle-infield combination of Nishioka and Alexi Casilla, with Casilla likely playing shortstop.

The Twins are also making a strong push to re-sign veteran starter Carl Pavano. I am definitely hoping for this contract to work because I love Pavano and his stache. Very attractive. The Twins are considered a front-runner for Pavano, but there are at least three other teams interested.

On a side note that actually may be more exciting to Twins fans, Jim Thome wants to play for two more years!!!!!! Love him.