The results of today's MRI on Pat Neshek's right elbow were not good.  La Velle E. Neil reported on his blog that Neshek has been diagnosed with an acute partial tear of the ulner collateral ligament.  Yes, that said tear, and yes, that's the Tommy John ligament.  The word on what that means right now is Neshek will not throw for at least 3 months.  Surgery has not been mentioned at any point yet, but I highly doubt it's medically out of question considering the importance of that ligament.

This is clearly terrible news for the Twins.  Not only is it almost certain that Neshek will be done for the balance of the year, causing the Twins to lose their top set-up guy, but an injury to this part of the body casts instant doubt on how Neshek will pitch for the rest of his career.

Neshek is likely to get a second opinion, and hopefully we'll soon hear word about the injury being something a player can recover from soon...

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.

Wednesday night, rookie center fielder Carlos Gomez became the first Twin in 22 years to hit for the cycle.  Gomez hit a home run to lead off the game, struck out in the third inning, slapped an RBI triple in the fifth, drove in another run with a double in the sixth, then singled - off the pitcher's glove - in the ninth. He later struck out to end the Twins' six-run ninth inning, and the Twins won the game 13-1.  Nick Punto drove in five runs, and Livan Hernandez lost a shutout with one out in the ninth inning when Jermaine Dye went deep.

A few did-you-knows about cycles:

• The last Twin to hit for the cycle was Kirby Puckett, who accomplished the feat against Oakland on August 1, 1986 .
• Lyman Bostock (July 24, 1976) was the last Twin to complete his cycle with a single.
• Gomez is the first Twin to start his cycle with a home run.
• Bostock was also the last, and only, Twin to hit for the cycle against the White Sox.
• Bostock was the only Twin to go 4-4 to complete his cycle; he also walked and hit a sacrifice fly.  No Twin - and only one player in the majors since 1957 - has ever hit for the cycle in just four plate appearances.
• Gary Ward (September 18, 1980) was the only Twin to accomplish the feat in a loss.  He was also the last Twin to do it on the road.
• Rod Carew (May 20, 1970 ) was the first Twin to hit for the cycle.
• Cesar Tovar (September 19, 1972) completed his cycle with a walkoff, two-run home run in the bottom of the 9th.
• Larry Hisle (June 4, 1976 ) took until the 10th inning to complete his cycle, hitting a two-run homer in the top of the 10th, which turned out to be the game-winner.
• Mike Cubbage (July 27, 1978) was one of two Twins (Carew was the other) to do it from an infield position.
• Like Gomez's, three of the Twins's seven cycles have come from the leadoff spot in the batting order (Puckett, Ward, and Tovar.)
• Like Gomez, Puckett and Bostock were playing center field.  Ward, Hisle, and Tovar were all playing left field.
  
• Like Gomez, Puckett, Bostock, Hisle, and Tovar completed their cycles in the Twins' final at-bat of the game.
• The last cycle in the majors was completed last June 29th, by Baltimore's Aubrey Huff.
• Three teams - Tampa Bay, Florida, and San Diego - have never had a player hit for the cycle.
• There have been 277 cycles in the major leagues, since 1882.

After the jump, the full list of Twins cycles, with dates and play-by-play.

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According to Dave Golokhov at FOXSports.com, the Twins - AL Central Champions in 2002, 2003, 2004, and 2006 - are the seventh-worst franchise in professional sports. The quote:

7. Minnesota Twins

"Moneyball" is to baseball what frugal is to cheap; it's a creative way of saying, "we're not going to pay for our stars or reward our veterans who have earned their keep." Sabermetrics and scientific stats are used to evaluate players and give a better indication of their worth, but teams like the Minnesota Twins use this strategy to kiss their superstars goodbye at the trade deadline or the first day of free agency. The Twins constantly sell proven veterans for prospects and draft picks, but when those youngsters finally develop, they get shipped away to start the cycle again. The Twins incessantly look to the future and winning now is not a priority. Translation: the Twins care more about the dollars than about winning.

Puzzling personnel plays: Trading Johan Santana and failing to re-sign Torrii [sic] Hunter.

The Twins are on the list just behind the Boston Bruins, who haven't been to the conference finals in 15 years, and just ahead of the Atlanta Hawks, who haven't been to the conference finals since 1970 - and haven't been to the NBA Finals since before the Twins moved to Minnesota (when they were still the St. Louis Hawks.)

The Toronto Maple Leafs haven't won the Stanley Cup since 1967, and are the saddest franchise in the NHL despite having the largest, most rabid fanbase.  They aren't on the list.

The Oakland Raiders can't even get players to play for the silver and black, and every draft pick dreads getting the Oakland call.  They aren't on the list.

Heck, the Twins aren't even the worst franchise in town by a long shot - yet the Timberwolves are nowhere to be found on the list.

In fact, according to Golokhov, the Twins are a worse franchise than the Los Angeles Clippers.  That's a franchise that's been to the playoffs four times since moving from Buffalo in 1979, winning one - one! - playoff series since.

I'm forced to conclude that either Dave Golokhov has no idea what he's talking about, or that this is a prank designed to rile up Twins fans.  I'm sure you can name ten or twenty more franchises easily that belong on this list instead of the Twins.  But I thought I'd share this, just to remind us all: the Twins might be bad, but when you think about it, things haven't been that bad.

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.

Being pulled from Friday's game was a precautionary measure.

In the fifth inning of last night's game, Carlos Gomez was diving into second base for what would be his second steal of the night.  The throw from Ivan Rodriguez came in low and to the first base side of the bag, and caught Gomez in the left side of his head.  While the impact didn't knock him unconscious, Tiger shortstop Edgar Renteria told Gomez to "stay put".

Following an on-the-field assessment, physicians and staff sat Gomez up, put him on a cart and removed him from the game.  A brief evaluation by medical personnel deemed him fine, with a headache and a bruise the only things to show for getting hit by a baseball.  While it's likely the Twins may keep him out of tonight's game, Gomez had this to say about his availability:

"I'll see how I feel tomorrow. I did hit my head, so it's hard to tell if we play tomorrow or not."

Tonight's game kicks off just after 6pm, CST.

Injuries in Beloit make room for promising outfielder.

Third base prospect Deibinson Romero and sleeper pitching prospect Mike McCardell were placed on the disabled list by the Beloit Snappers, and in conjunction with the release of relief pitcher Dominique Rogers has made room for three players from the GCL Twins.  Outfielder Ben Revere, and pitchers Brad Tippett and Santos Arias were the benefactors of the moves.

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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.

We are experiencing technical problems.

Hey everyone, just a quick note to let you know that we're working hard to reslove the technical issues of the last 48 hours.  We've been up and down a quite a bit in that period, even during games, but have the issue nailed down and hopefully this won't be a recurring problem for much longer.

Thanks for your patience, and hopefully I'll be able to get to that conversation on Gomez's development tonight!

Jesse

A quick look at Pat Neshek over the past couple of years:

2006: 32 appearances, 2 blown saves
2007: 74 appearances, 3 blown saves
2008: 6 appearances, 2 blown saves

Granted, this is a small sample size, but Neshek's already been bombed twice this year, and both times the Twins were ahead when he came in and behind when he came out.  This just didn't happen that often in 2006 and 2007.  Should we Twins fans be starting to worry about Neshek?  Or is it just too early?