Post All-Star Break Crucial for MN Twins

You will be hard pressed to find a more crucial homestand for the Minnesota Twins than the 12 upcoming games.

Think about the magnitude of the Royals 4-game series, Indians 3-game series and the Tigers 4-game series that will happen at Target Field following the All-Star Break.

On June 1st, the Minnesota Twins were a staggering 16.5 games back behind the Cleveland Indians. Fast forward to July 11th and the Twins are in fourth place, 6.5 games back behind the first place Detroit Tigers. Our next 12 games include only AL Central rivals and the Twins are coming off a 3-4 series win over the White Sox. We are heading in to the All-Star Break on a run of 24-11 over the last 35 games.

While there is always the risk of losing momentum over the break, I think for the Twins it will be quite the opposite as the Twins will have time to fully recharge and get healthy. Delmon Young, Jason Kubel and Denard Span can use the time to gear up for another divisional crown.

Not to mention Alex Rodriguez will be out 4-6 weeks with knee surgery, which puts a smile on my face and I'm sure I'm not the only one.

I guess we will know more after July 24th.

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.

Who are the Kansas City Royals?

At this point in the season, it is not uncommon for Kansas City Royals fans to jump ship and follow other, more exciting things like... golf. and chess. However, this year, the year the Earth will end as predicted by the Mayan calendar, has the Royals starting at the top of the AL Central. Yes, the Kansas City Royals are in first place... hell has frozen over and pigs are flying.

Last season, the best the Royals could muster was three wins in a row occasionally on their way to a finish of 67-95. Well... that consecutive wins cap is no more and the Royals are sitting at a comfortable 4-1. That is a .800 winning percentage. People in Boston are salivating at the idea.

What the heck happened?

When the Royals had a walk-off win over the Bad Guys from Chicago, the Royals became the third team in the past 20 season to have its first four wins come in the final at-bat and the first team to do it since the 1989 Royals. I don't know what to make of this strange season... but while I crack a Mich and think it over, let's just break down what has happened so far:

- Aaron Crow (the Royals' first-round draft pick in 2009), Tim Collins (someone not EVEN drafted), and Jeremy Jeffress (Brewers' first-round pick in 2006) compose the winning pitches of Kansas' last three games. They are all Rookie relief pitchers.

- Alex Gordon of Nebraska is hitting .379 after going 11-for-21 with 5 RBIs. The last two seasons he batted .232 and .215.

- Melky Cabrera still has a cool name. And as far as his talent goes, is batting north of .290 along with his teammates Alex Gordon, Jeff Francoeur, Billy Butler, and Chris Getz. (if anyone is interested, Joe Mauer, a candidate for last years' MLB batting championship, is batting .077)

Those are the facts. I just don't know how to interpret them. Something weird is going on and I expect someone to get to the bottom of it. Let me know how it goes.

Twins > BoSox... Simple Math

A quick Google search informed me that 33 out of 45 ESPN Experts picked the Boston Red Sox to win the 2011 World Series. Never before has a team won the World Series after a 0-6 start. Too bad for Boston... because that is EXACTLY where those suckers are. So sad. While we are only talking about less than 4% of the season... I see no hope for Boston reaching the playoffs, let alone their expected 100 wins and over 1000 runs scored. Callme skeptical.

Meanwhile... in the Midwest our Twinkies haven't started off so hot either. After a couple hugely disappointing losses in Toronto and a few expected losses in the Bronx, the Twins sit at 2-4 heading in to the Home Opener against Oakland. I had hoped for better. I had hoped Mauer would stop hitting grounders and bat higher than .077 and that Nishioka would stack up to be the defensive player the Club claimed him to be. I had also hoped that Pavano would have less than the 16 ERA he has now. But... those hopes are not being realized.

What do I do? I love the Twins with my whole heart anyway. I plan my days around Twins games. And I sit through the whole game... no matter how brutal it is because that is what a Twins fan does.

Don't get me wrong... the Twins are not the best team in the AL Central (raise your hand if you are ashamed to be behind the Royals), but my calculations tell us we are better than the 33-out-of-45 Red Sox and... that sounds pretty good.

Cheers.

Twins to Retire #28, Pick up Former Royal

The Minnesota Twins will immortalize Bert Blyleven's jersey number this 2011 season. No. 28 will be retired on July 16th, just eight days before he enters the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. (makes me hate the Yankees even more when I have to write about New York).

Blyleven won 287 games in his career and ranks 5th in MLB history with 3,701 strikeouts. He will join Harm Killebrew, Rod Carew, Tony Oliva, Kent Hrbek, and Kirby Puckett who have all had their respective numbers retired.



Dusty Hughes, the left-handed pitcher, was claimed off waivers by the Minnesota Twins. Last year, he played in 57 games with a 1-3 record and a 3.83 ERA for the Kansas City Royals. Quite a feat since the Royals only won five games.

Hughes' first win came against the Chicago White Sox on May 14th-- I like him already. And still hate the White Sox.