With his slow start in the rear-view mirror, we can only hope that Mauer's approach at the plate (and the ensuing success) can be contagious.  He's now batting .346/.420/.452.

On April 12th, Joe Mauer went 0-for-4 against the Kansas City Royals, giving him quite the dubious start to the season.  Certainly the entire offense was in a disturbing funk, but hitting just .250/.279/.300 and hitting second or third in the batting order, Mauer was sitting at the center of the problem.

Of course in his next game he was again hitless, but did draw a trio of free passes.  Since then he's gone hitless only once, and in his last 17 contests has turned things around impressively.  In that period he's a one-man wrecking crew, hitting .406/.500/.547.  Sure he's still homerless, but with a line like that, who cares?

So, with the prodigal son once again hitting exactly like the baseball diety he's often treated like, it's time to shift our disapproving gaze to a couple other hitters whose power and potential seems to have been zapped by a phantom black hole.

The "Come On Boys, We Need Your Help" Section

Mike Lamb:  Lamb wasn't expected to hit 20 homers, or strike fear into the heart of any pitcher who stepped onto the mound, but the idea behind signing him was that he could easily improve upon Punto's notoriously horrendous output from third base last year.  To this point he's not really doing much better, hitting .207/.224/.272.  If you're wondering if part of the problem is in the splits, don't bother.  He's still doing better versus right-handed pitchers, but it's a moot point right now:  .555 OPS versus righties, .214 OPS versus southpaws.  The free agent investment in Mike Lamb was a smart one, but for the moment it isn't working out.

Delmon Young:  Unlike Lamb, Young had some moderate expectations to deliver some punch in the middle of the order.  After Thursday afternoon's loss to the White Sox he's hitting .264/.308/.304, with only three doubles and no home runs to go along with a very low line-drive percentage (14%) and a whole lot of ground balls (60%).  His isolated power is .042, which is miserable.  On the plus side, at least to this point in the season his walk rates are up slightly, and his strikeout rates are down slightly, in comparison to 2007.  There's clearly loads of raw talent there, we can all see it stewing underneath the surface, so hopefully he can play through this and bust out sometime soon.  Until then, I think he needs to be put On Notice.

 
Gavin Floyd pitches another career-highlighting game, brushes against history after nearly no-hitting the Tigers in April.

While The Perfect Game is rare, a No-Hitter is pretty damn close.  Floyd combined a masterful performance with some help from his defense, the end result of which was a great win for the White Sox.  There was a little trouble in the first inning, as he walked Brendan Harris and Joe Mauer in back-to-back plate appearances, but no damage was done.

Another walk to Mauer in the fourth led to Minnesota's only run.  With Joe on first, Justin Morneau took a strong cut and lined the ball hard into left field.  Carlos Quentin appeared to make the catch, but in the next instant the ball slipped from his glove.  Michael Cuddyer followed up with a long fly out to right field, advancing Mauer to third, and Jason Kubel completed the hitless scoring opportunity by lifting a sacrifice fly to Nick Swisher in center field.  It made the score 2-1, but Floyd wouldn't give the Minnesota offense another opportunity.

Cuddyer described what it was like for hitters in the batters box:

"He had late movement, and that's the best kind you can have," Cuddyer said. "It looks like a strike all the way to the zone and then maybe it falls out. To the naked eye, it looks like we are chasing, but when you're up there, it looks like a strike."

Gavin Floyd's curveball has always been his best pitch, but on Tuesday night his fastball and slider were just as effective.  Games like this are what can happen when guys with great stuff, like Floyd, can get it all working at once.

After retiring Brendan Harris on strikes to start the top of the ninth, Joe Mauer stepped in, 0-for-1 with a pair of walks.  On a 1-0 count, Floyd's slider broke over the plate and Mauer took advantage.  Mauer pushed it, lining the ball into the left-center field gap.  Swisher, who had been playing Mauer to pull, was out of position.

Knowing it takes a little luck to put a No-Hitter on your resume, Floyd mentioned he could only do what he could do:  throw strikes and get people out.  It was Swisher who sounded disappointed when talking about trying to keep that goose egg intact:

"In the sixth, I looked up and realized they didn't have [a hit]...I didn't care if I had to run through the wall to catch it. I was going for it, and tried my best superman impersonation, but I didn't get it. In my mind, it [stinks]. The win was great to get, but I wanted that for Gavin."

That one hit was enough, and Ozzie Guillen lifted Floyd from the game with a 7-1 lead, one out and Joe Mauer standing on second base.  It was Mauer's ninth double of the season.  Bobby Jenks came on and closed out the ninth.

It wasn't much fun to watch as a Twins fan, but as a baseball fan it's easy to appreciate what Floyd nearly pulled off.  We know first hand what it's like to cheer for someone or something that isn't extpected to do too much, and Gavin Floyd's career hasn't exactly gone as it once was projected.  Tuesday night he was effective as any pitcher in the game, and he nearly pulled off a No-Hitter.

Having said that, I'm glad Mauer broke it up.  It's a small victory, one of those "moral victories", but you take what you can get out of a loss.  Game two of the series is tonight, hopefully we can turn it back around and start another winning streak.

[Note by Jesse, 05/07/08 5:39 AM CDT ]  Be sure to check out our Q&A with Twins President Dave St. Peter from Tuesday moring!

Twins score four in bottom of the seventh, win fifth straight.

This game kicked off with one of those ominous half-innings, the ones that make you cringe as your team gets rocked.  Things that can go wrong do go wrong, and by the time that third out finally gets recorded you need a few minutes to shake the haze from your head.  Such was the top of the first inning, as Bonser combined bad location with bad luck, and following Curtis Granderson's leadoff homer the Tigers strung together five consecutive singles.  By the time the number seven hitter, Marcus Thames, popped out to Joe Mauer, it was five to nothing.  And the Twins hadn't even come to the plate.

A wild pitch by Bonser on a third strike allowed Ivan Rodriguez to reach, a throwing error by Mauer saw Edgar Renteria score, and when Granderson struck out in his second at-bat of the inning to end the top of the first Detroit was staked to a six-run lead.  But it's always darkest before the light.

Following the implosive first inning, Bonser found his groove.  It was a 45-pitch first inning, but the Tigers never found a way to get to Boof again as he followed up with pitch counts of five, 14, 10, 14 and 11.  His fastball looked good, the breaking balls snapped down and all the luck Detroit had (or was it bad luck on Minnesota's end?) in the first inning disappeared without a trace.  Boof Bonser could have collapsed, could have given in and thrown it away for lost after that nightmare of a first inning, but he didn't.  He came back strong, was effective, and he gave his offense a chance.

The offense didn't disappoint.

Justin Morneau singled following Mauer's double in the bottom of the fourth, making for the Twins first run.  The next inning, Nick Punto doubled in both Craig Monroe and Delmon Young to close the gap to three.  But it was with two outs in the bottom of the seventh that fireworks went off.

With Kenny Rogers still on the mound, Matt Tolbert took the seventh pitch of his plate appearance pulled a double into left field.  Nick Punto followed that up by rolling over on a changeup, but the Twins were getting all the bounces by this point.  Carlos Guillen, playing third base, let it get through his legs; runners at the corners, still two away.  The hiccup chased Rogers, who was replaced by Zach Miner.

Miner peppered leadoff man Carlos Gomez with four straight fastballs.  On the fourth offering, Gomez swung and chopped a high bouncer off the plate.  Edgar Renteria charged and snagged the ball on the first hop, but he never had a chance.  Gomez reached, Punto advanced to second, and Tolbert scored.  6-4, Detroit; momentum was swinging.
 
Hitless on the afternoon, Brendan Harris put a charge into a changeup from Miner.  He drove it deep into left field, past the outstretched arm of Jacque Jones, and it bounced over the fence for a ground-rule double.  6-5, Detroit.

Then came Joe Mauer, with two runners in scoring position.  Bobby Seay had replaced Miner, but he couldn't stop the bleeding.  Mauer chopped a fastball up the middle, right over the mound.  Polanco and Renteria converged but the ball snuck through, and Mauer's seeing-eye single scored two.

It was a fantastic comeback for the Twins, and the victory keeps them in first place.  In the stretch of these five wins, Minnesota has outscored their opponents 29-12, and the bats have been more impressive than they've been most of the year.  The picture is far from perfect, but it's working for the moment, and it's one hell of a lot of fun to see.

I didn't think I'd be able to say that in May.

Saturday night's victory was the fourth consecutive for the Twins, and with a 15-14 record find themselves sitting atop the AL Central.  While there's nothing spectacular about the record, our boys are still in first place.  And that's fun to say.

Craig Monroe's two-run bomb in the bottom of the seventh last night made it a 4-0 game, and the Twins had more than enough offense to win the contest.  Monroe's been a decent pick up for the Twins to this point, at least offensively, as he's contributed to a couple of big moments and wins.  In 16 games (50 at-bats) he's hitting .280/.321/.500 with two homers and five doubles.  He's only taken three walks versus 15 strikeouts, but it's not like that's unusual for him.  But he's been used pretty effectively so far.  He was happy to get a shot against his old team :

"The emotions build up because it is my old team. I'm a little geeked up, a little wired up right now, and to have some success was definitely cool...There's just something about playing against your old team. You have this different -- I don't know if you'd call it anger -- but it's when you're in there and you have a chance to beat up on your old team, and today felt incredible."

Joe Mauer was 3-for-4 with a double last night, and is batting a much more Mauer-esque .326/.393/.421.  On the year his power is still lacking, but he's much improved over the last couple of weeks.

While the Twins have picked up a couple of wins on blowouts, it's the pitching that's enabled Minnesota to pick up wins in close ballgames.  Their pythagorean record is only 14-15, so it isn't much of a difference, but they've still been outscored on the season by seven runs.  Last night it was the pitching again, as Brian Bass's performance took pressure off the rest of the bullpen.  Four innings, no runs in relief of Scott Baker stymied the Tiger batting order through seven.  Scott Ullger was impressed :

"He worked professional, and he worked fast," Ullger said. "He threw strikes and kept the ball down. He's a sinker-ball pitcher, and that's what he's supposed to do. He looked very very poised."

This team has been a lot of fun to watch, just as much fun as frustrating really, but right now there's a lot to be happy about.  Sure, 15-14 isn't great, but it's a winning record...and it's first place.  Hopefully Boof can fend off The Gambler this afternoon.

It's as easy as 1-2-3.

Jason Kubel hit a 2-run shot in the fourth off Chicago starter Gavin Floyd, giving the Twins a 2-0 lead.  Michael Cuddyer, who had doubled directly in front of our new full-time designated hitter, was the other run.  Said Kubel about the upper-deck shot:

"I was just trying to get the runner over from second base, and he left it down the middle," Kubel said. "I was trying to pull it and ended up putting a lot of backspin on it. And I got it up and out."

Floyd agreed, admitting leaving a fastball down the middle was a mistake to a hitter like Kubel.  The towering blast was Jason's fourth home run of the season, and while it's early puts him on pace for more than 20 bombs in 2008.  His .247/.268/.398 line to this point isn't anything to write home about (in fact it's disappointing), but there aren't many position players off to good starts for the Twins.  As the season rolls along, Kubel should find his stride.

Bonser was like a man possessed, taking out the Chi-Sox early on the fastball before mixing in his breaking balls.  Seven strong innings, eight strikeouts, a walk and only six hits.  Joe Crede's solo shot in the seventh was his only damage.  Gardenhire was impressed:

"He set a nice tone. I think you saw some really good breaking balls. His curveball was going down hard. He had a nice slider. And he mixed them all in there. But it all starts with locating the fastball early in the ballgame and setting it up."

While Pat Neshek and Dennys Reyes combined for a scoreless eighth, it was Joe Nathan came on and pitched a perfect ninth inning.  There's nothing like finishing a vicotry with a double-shot of Joe!  Twins win, 3-1.

With Tuesday's win the Twins improve to 12-14, which puts them in a tie for second place with the Royals.  While many of Minnesota's upcoming opponents will are early favorites for October runs, hopefully the Twins can take advantage of having 15 of their next 21 games at home.

Other Highlights

*  The 1 and 2 hitters for the Twins were 0-for-8.  His hitless night left Brendan Harris' OBP at .344, still second best on the team.

*  Joe Mauer was 1-for-3, with a triple and a walk.  He's now hitting .306/.362/.400.

*  Delmon Young was 2-for-2 with a walk and a pair of stolen bases, giving him six in seven attempts.  While there's still no power, Delmon is 10-for-27 in his last seven games.  Hopefully this means he's heating up.

*  In his last two starts, Bonser has pitched 13 innings and allowed three runs and just nine hits.  BOOOOFFF!!!

*  Pat Neshek has held opponents scoreless in his last six appearances (5.1 IP, 3 H, 3 K).  His ERA is under 4 for the first time since being lit up by the Royals on April 4th.

*  Dennys Reyes:  LOOGY extraordinaire.  11 appearances, 8.2 innings pitched, 4 hits, 4 strikeouts, 2 walks, 0 runs allowed.

*  Joe Nathan's eighth save ties him for third in baseball, behind something named George Sherrill and Francisco Rodriguez.

See you tonight!!

It's a good thing I'm not terribly supersticious, I'd never see another full Twins game this year.

I wouldn't call it ironic, because kicking the living crap out of the Ranger bullpen isn't unheard of or even unexpected, but the Twins didn't get to Sidney Ponson as early as I thought they would.  Ponson went five and a third, allowing five runs (just one earned), but he'd been surprisingly effective through five innings.  In the sixth, holding a 5-2 lead, things came unravelled.

Once he was staked to his lead, Ponson changed tactics and began to go after Twins hitters, not being afraid to throw over the plate instead of trying to get them to bite on fastballs dancing on the outside of the zone.  In the sixth inning this tactic began to backfire, and in the end forced Texas to put the fate of their game into their suspect relief corps.

Brendan Harris led off the Minnesota sixth, and again it looked like Ponson was approaching Twins hitters aggressively.  Three of his four pitches were right over the heart of the plate, and on a 2-1 count, Harris took Ponson's offering to center field for a double.

Still in control, Ponson attacked Mauer will three consecutive fastballs.  Joe took the first two for balls before taking his third pitch back to the pitcher.  Ponson threw the ball away, Harris scored, and when the dust settled Joe Mauer was standing on second base.  5-3 Rangers, but Ponson was shaken.

After Justin Morneau grounded out to first base, Michael Cuddyer reached base when Texas third baseman Ramon Vasquez was unable to come up clean on the ground ball.  With only one out and runners on first and second, it was Jason Kubel who chased Ponson.  His hard-hit liner to right scored Mauer from third.

Jamie Wright came on in relief, and quickly walked Delmon Young on five pitches.  The bases were loaded for Mike Lamb, who's had one of the roughest starts of any Twin so far this spring.  Lamb came through with a sacrifice fly, and the game was tied as Cuddyer crossed home plate.  It was the best inning I've been able to watch so far this year, and was an awesome way to wake up this morning, not gonna lie.

Another three-run inning in the seventh gave the Twins a healthy lead late, but it was Michael Cuddyer's three-run homer in the top of the eighth that put the nail in the proverbial coffin.  Following a 10-pitch plate appearance for Morneau, Cuddyer took Scott Feldman's first pitch and deposited it over the left field fence.  It capped 10 unanswered runs by the Minnesota offense.

Craig Monroe's start in center field didn't cost the Twins any runs in the end, and likely helped the offense in the absence of Carlos Gomez.  He went 2-for-5 with an RBI double, giving the Twins their first lead at 1-0.  I wouldn't want to pull that job more than a handful of times all season, but if it has to happen on a limited occasion, well...it's not going to alter the fortunes of the team one way or the other.

That was a great win for the Twins.  Let's shoot for a series victory this afternoon!

It's not easy.

Even though I do try to maintain a view of the larger picture, I can't deny it--I get caught up in the moment just as much as the next guy.  And in those moments it's easy to second-guess decisions, and all justifications of The Future can be lost to an emotion-fueled fret.

Carlos Gomez

When the Twins had the decision to make of whether to start him in Rochester or Minneapolis, it was pretty easy to justify going either way.  Once the choice had been made, there were some natural doubts but for the most part it seemed plausible enough that, in the long run, this was the best route to take in the development of Carlos Gomez.

Ten games in he was incredible.  Twenty games in he couldn't even get by on luck.  A bit of a panic settled in, to which I wasn't immune.  Questions starting popping into my mind:  What if this was the wrong decision? What if being this over-matched wreaks long-term damage on his development?  How long should the Twins allow him to suffer this punishment?

Again, the emotion-fueled fret destroyed my common sense.  Ten games isn't enough to judge anyone on.  Hell, a full season often isn't enough to judge what kind of player a guy can be.

Questions like the ones I was asking myself don't have to be asked now.  It's Major League Baseball, and here's a shocker:  there's a learning curve.  For a 22-year old it's not uncommon to be over-matched, and in the end I do believe that the experience he garners now will help him reach his ceiling much sooner than had he been sent to Rochester.  We probably won't see it this year, but the re-occurring theme here is Long Term.

Joe Mauer

Mauer's had a slow start, just like pretty much every other position player.  For good reason we're concerned with his production, because the Twins need him to be an offensive force.  After a 2-for-3 game on Friday, however, it's amazing how quickly things change.  One game, and suddenly the batting average and on-base percentage are significantly closer to where most of us think they should be.

Of course there's still work to be done.  Mauer is still only batting .301/.358/.384, which shows a disturbing lack of power--even for a guy who's home run ceiling this season will only be 10-15.  But, patience is a virtue; it's a very long season.  Players who hit .300 aren't getting exactly three hits in every 10 at-bats, and it's not going to happen with Joe, either.  While there's a time and a place to be concerned about Mauer's production, it isn't now.  Not yet.

Joe Mauer is, without a doubt, one of the most talented hitters this team has seen.  What is done with that talent is more important, but we've seen what he's capable of.  We can't ignore that he's just as much to blame for Minnesota's slow offensive start as some of the other guys out there, the difference is that he has what it takes to come around; there's plenty of time for him to return to the form we hope he can fill out.

Francisco Liriano

For some reason it seems like somewhere along the line, it was forgotten that Liriano really hasn't pitched that much in the last year and a half.  Tommy John is a major surgery, and it's mildly annoying that somewhere out there, there's a Twins fan who's infuriated by the fact that he's not pitching like he was in the summer of '06.

It was asked earlier on this site whether we thought Liriano was lazy.  It's a good question, but unfortunately isn't really a question we can answer in any way besides subjectively.

Essentially, from our perspective, it's incredibly easy to make judgements on those kind of questions and they make for great debate.  But it doesn't help us answer the real question, which is how long will it take for Liriano to regain his effectiveness?  This means everything from his mechanics, to his command, to velocity, to his mental state, and the answers range from never to it's hard to say.  We don't have any answers right now, and as a result of that frustration we look for something to blame it on.

When Kevin Slowey went down, the Twins took a gamble on Liriano in hopes that in the higher levels of competition would up his game.  They ignored what Rochester told them, that he wasn't ready, and threw him into the fire.

There were no surprises here.  What would have been surprising, would have been if he'd been able to be even half as effective as he'd been in 2006.  But instead, he's responded just like a pitcher who's still recovering from the effects of Tommy John surgery.

Time is the only answer we have.  It sucks, it's frustrating and it's not the answer we want because we want an answer right now.  At least I do, when I hit one of those emotion-induced frets.  Hopefully whenever one of them strikes I can come back and read this, and maybe regain some of my sanity.

 Justin's grand slam, 5 RBI over-shadowed.

A 5-0 lead in the top of the third was wiped out in the bottom, as Nick Blackburn was tagged for five consecutive singles to lead off the inning.  Hank Blalock follwed immediately with a double, before Jason Botts drove his own double to right field.  Blalock, who was trying to score from second, was thrown out at the plate.  Botts, in an attempt to turn his double into a triple, was consequently thrown out at third.  Seven consecutive hits plated five runs, but Blackburn was the benefactor of a slow runner and a bad base-running decision.  Frank Catalanotto was called out on strikes to end the Ranger third in the very next at-bat, but it could have been a whole lot worse.

Each team was kept scoreless until the bottom of the tenth, when Donny Murphy singled off of Juan Rincon to score German Duran.

Carlos Gomez rebounded for the second straight game, going 2-for-3 with two runs and his 10th stolen base of the year.  Joe Mauer also did his part, going 2-for-3 with a double and two walks.  After the criticism they've received here the last couple of days, it was good to see them come through.  Hopefully they can build off of Friday's successes at the plate.

Michael Cuddyer was 1-for-5 in his return, batting fifth.  He was followed by Jason Kubel and Delmon Young, whose hitless nights helped the three combine for a 1-for-14 evening.  They stranded 17 baserunners between them.

That's not a fun way to start your Saturday morning, no matter what country you're in.  I'll see you this afternoon.

I just wanted to show you what I'm working on.

I won't be able to compile all the data tonight, but this is essentially what I've been working on the last couple of days.  I'm breaking down pitch selection--from number of pitches, to how many swings, to which pitches a hitter likes and which ones he can't hit.  Hopefully as this experiment grows throughout the season we'll be able to pick up on some strengths, weaknesses, and maybe see what opposing teams see when they game plan for the Twins.

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