Is it Opening Day tomorrow?

With the exception of Scott Baker's recent trip the DL, the 2011 Minnesota Twins as of tomorrow will be at "full strength" as far as the 25 man roster is concerned - basically for the first time all year!  This morning on KFAN, P.A. had Seth Stohs on talking about how potentially potent this lineup could be with everyone back.  Currently 9.5 games behind division leading Detroit with 45 games to play, I am not quite ready to relinquish hope of a comeback just yet.  Once again, we have 9 games left with Detroit, 9 with Cleveland, and 6 with the White Sox.  On Friday our lineup will quickly turn from a lineup filled with Repko, Butera, Hughes, Plouffe, and Dinkleman; to a lineup that is truly "stacked" on paper.  Let's take a look at the possibilities!

Looking for a winner: Justin Morneau

Yesterday I wondered if we had anyone on our roster that you could call a "gamer", a winner, a guy that will do whatever it takes to break up a double play, a guy that will run over the catcher to score the tying run, a guy that will make the great play in the field to turn a double play to get out of a bases loaded jam.  I'm not sure who that guy would be right now.  The obvious idea would be to look to a guy like Joe Mauer (MVP winner, hometown hero, batting champ, etc) to have a Kirby Puckett-esque game to get this team back on track, but Mauer just isn't that personality.


Last night, http://www.twinsbaseball.com/ writer @rhettbollinger tweeted this: "Morneau texted #Twins GM Bill Smith to say he wants to face Lester tomorrow. Smith texted back 'We'll see you in Detroit' according to Gardy."  Now that's a little disappointing/frustrating to me.  We have a guy that is itching to get back and face one of the toughest pitchers in baseball to try to help get this team back on track, and Morneau gets shot down.  Morneau is 9-22 on his current rehab stint in Rochester, including 4 doubles and 5 RBI in his 5 games.  I realize the Twins probably want him to get 15-20 more at-bats before returning to the Twins, but when you're team is struggling all the way around as much as it is, will it really matter to Morneau's health whether he is playing in Rochester or in Minnesota?  This is the shot in the arm this team needs as the season slips through their fingertips, and our "gamer" gets shot down.  That's disappointing.

2011 Twins: What are we good at?

As the 2011 season quickly fades away, and the Twins slowly disappear in Detroit's rear view mirror; I woke up this morning wondering this: What are the 2011 Twins good at?  We have a roster filled with names.  We have former MVP's, future Hall of Famer's, 1st round picks, and former top prospects; yet we can't seem to win a baseball game.  Our lineup consists of guys like Span, Mauer, Kubel, Thome, Cuddyer, Young, and Nishioka; but we can't win a baseball game.  With the roster the Twins have, we must be good at something, right?  Right.  We are good at 2 things.

The Twins Desperately Need...Alexi Casilla?

Alexi Casilla last saw the field on July 27th when he pulled up legging out a double.  Since that day, the Twins have gone 2-8 and quickly lost 4 crucial games in the standings to the Tigers.  We have been without many key players this season losing guys like Mauer, Morneau, Span, and Kubel to significant injuries; but out of all of those injuries, the spark has been gone without Alexi Casilla the lineup.  It feels a little weird even saying that, but for the first time in my life I sit here today counting down the days until Alexi Casilla gets off the DL!

The Case For Nishi

My wife and I went to the Twins/Sox game on Friday night (thanks Carlos Quentin for ruining the day) - it was my wife's first game at Target Field!  Buerhle was on the hill for the White Sox, so naturally we were driving out of the parking ramp 2.5 hours after the first pitch.  As usual we sat one row in front of the father/son or grandfather/son who knew everything about baseball.  You know who I'm talking about.  It was the grandpa/dad who was there to teach this 15 year old everything there was to know about baseball because he had seen in all in his lifetime.  Normally this isn't a big deal to me, but this guy 2nd guessed everything!  The guy hated everything that was Twins baseball - Butera squared too early on a sacrifice bunt, Gardy didn't put Perkins in in the 4th inning, Valencia didn't do anything right.  What a good way to ruin the Target Field experience for everyone around them.