Twins - One month down, five to go
So, thoughts on this early season? Have a feeling that Detroit is not going anywhere and we'll battling it out with them for the season. Our lineup is solid (the LOB numbers are terrible but that'll improve) of course everything changes dramatically without JoeMa in the 3-hole but a big "Hola!" to Wilson Ramos (note to Sal Butera, dust off that Rochester uni, you are brutal at the plate.) I'm big on DYoung, love the weight he has dropped as you can tell he is much faster than last year. Thome for $1.5M? Take that. Liriano looks as filthy as advertised while Baker looks more lost than found. I'm not going to hang our bullpen quite yet but I think we're gonna see guys like Slamma sooner rather than later. Still exciting to have dropped only one series so far however we gotta sweep the KC's and Indians of the world to get some breathing room.
6 Comments:
The good news on the BA w/RISP thing is that (1) it really hasn't cost us more than one game yet, (2)it has to regress to the mean at some point, or at least approach it, and (3) at least we're getting a ton of people on base. But, yeah, it's pretty annoying. We took 20 hits to score 8 runs yesterday. You should get at least 12 with that many hits.
Agreed on Detroit. These rookies of theirs are making a big difference - Boesch, Sizemore, Jackson are all solid to better than solid so far, and helping plug the gaps for lost players. And the pitching is performing much better than last year, with the exception of Rick Sophomore Slump Porcello. They're not going anywhere, and neither are the White Sox, so it looks like it's us and the Tigers down the line.
The next two weeks are pretty large for this early in the season. Hosting Detroit, need to take two of three to stay ahead of them and even the series with them. Then we get four at home with the O's. There will be a lot of pressure to take 3 of the 4 there. Then next weekend, it's you-know-who at you-know-where. I consider this Detroit series and that series the first real tests of this team's legitimacy. Hopefully Mauer's back by next Friday.
Complaint: who the f made up this schedule? I'm all about division rivalries and stuff and I know we have to play them all 18 times (which is too many, by the way), but my god, do we need 75% of the first month to be against the same 4 teams? Take out the Anaheim season-opening series, and we're playing 21 of 24 consecutive games against the Central. Boring.
May 3, 2010 at 11:56 AM
I think you have to be generally pleased with the first month. 16-9 having faced the Angels, Red Sox, White Sox, Tigers, Indians and Royals? A couple of these recent blown leads are tough to stomach, but it's bound to happen over the course of a 162-game season. If the clutch hitting picks up, we will continue to score a ton of runs. My larger concern involves Blackburn and Baker. What's the deal? Also, what's up with MCA's boy Kubel?!? Other than hitting the first dinger at Target field, he hasn't done anything. Thankfully, Thome has come through with some big homers in his stead...
Detroit is about where I expected them to be at this point in the season...their pitching is very good, and they can score runs, but I'm thinking their rookies might hit a wall come August.
Oh, and I'm saying we begin a new era at "that stadium in that one burrough north of Manhattan." Mark it down.
May 3, 2010 at 4:12 PM
Did that guy win a steak or anything for that monster homerun in the 9th? Great finish, it would be too bad to be at the game and have had to leave early because a two year old got tired. Anyway, I am as pleased as a pig in shit.
May 5, 2010 at 8:42 AM
Sweep. Sweet. 10 games over .500, 3.5 game lead, 7.5 up on Chicago. Trying not to jinx us, but I'm pretty sure we finished 162 games last year at...10 games over .500.
Let's make the Orioles cry.
May 5, 2010 at 3:24 PM
Wow - I can't say expected this, especially without the MVP in the lineup. No sooner did I question Blackburn and Baker than did they both come through with strong outings. And MCA's boy Kubel finally picked up another RBI today. Lovin' it.
May 5, 2010 at 4:30 PM
So, yes, I was the one who missed from the 6th inning on due to FOB ER's son being up past his bed time, something which 2 years ago I would have thought differently about but nowadays I was fine with whatever ER Jr. wanted or needed to do. That said, we had seats in the right field bleachers (just to the left of the foul pole) but had been standing where that BOMB was hit in the top of the 9th due to the rain, probably better we didn't have a 2 year old with us as people scrambled for the ball.
Great sweep today, finally, right? Kudos for Kubel for getting big RBIs today, jeers to Kubel for leaving the bases loaded twice, yes twice, in consecutive at bats.
Down with the birds!
May 5, 2010 at 7:34 PM
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