Twins Fever at a Mid-Season High

It has been a long time since I have been able to sit down and put my thoughts together on the Twins. I have been encouraged with their play over the last 5 weeks. The Twins are 24-11 since June 1st and have made up 10 games in the standings, (although they've only made up 4.5 games on Detroit over that span). Strangely enough, this stretch included a six-game losing streak. I'm not exactly sure what happened there. Anyway, the run to the 2011 pennant is in full swing.

The following list of things has me very excited about the final 73 games of the season:

• The starting pitching has been getting deeper into games. Pavano and Baker have now raised their season average above 6.5 innings per start. Swarzak has saved the team in the spot starts he has made. Duensing and Liriano have both thrown complete game shutouts, and although Blackburn has really struggled in his last 3 starts, the Twins still managed to win 2 of them.
• The innings logged by the starters has reduced the amount that the bullpen needs to be relied upon. My feeling on the bullpen this year can be summed up with "Less Is More." Yet, I still feel pretty good about the bullpen getting through 3 innings if needed.
• The Twins have been clutch at the plate which has led to an increase in run production. Prior to June 2, the Twins averaged 3.5 runs per game, since June 2 their runs per game average has increased to 4.5. The team has to be clutch when they don't hit it out of the park.
• Casilla, Nishioka, and Revere have been making terrific plays in the field. Although the Twins are low in the fielding rankings and still have trouble at times completing double plays, they are now making plays that they didn't make earlier in the season. Revere has outstanding range, and Casilla and Nishioka seem to be figuring out how to work together now that they have switched between shortstop and second base.

The next 11 games out of the All-Star break are against Kansas City, Detroit and Cleveland. The Twins need to continue the climb again the division and really put the pressure on the division leaders as the season stretches into August and September. Chicago and Detroit have proven in the past that they have the ability to crumble down the stretch. Cleveland has been ravaged by injuries so much in the past that they haven't been in this situation since 2007. Most people thought they would have folded by now and they haven't, so I believe they will be around until the end.

6.5 games out of the lead at the All-Star break is not too much for this team to overcome. The Twins have done it in the past and can do it again. Sometimes it has taken 163 games, but the Twins will not give up until the final out has been made.

Sunday Sermons

The Twins are 81 games into the season - the half way point - and we are stuck at 35 wins, 9 games behind the Central Division leading Cleveland Indians.  Not to beat a dead horse, but how are the Indians still leading this division?  Wait, the fact that the Indians are still leading the division is the biggest thing that continues to give me hope that this division is still in reach.  An extremely young team leads the division, and 2 teams notorious for 2nd half collapses are the other obstacles in our way.  There are a few frustrations I have, apart from the revolving door at the DL, that need to be addressed this 2nd half.

I'm trying not to act on just emotion from last night here when I suggest the possibility of giving Glen Perkins a little more responsibility out of that bullpen.  This makes sense in my head for a number of reasons.  Matt Capps, although he has the closer experience, has struggled greatly this year.  Capps has 13 saves, but has blown 6 saves already!  Capps has a 4.67 ERA, and has been the opposite of dominating the way you would like to see a closer do so.  To me, Glen Perkins has the mental make-up to be the guy in these pressure situations.  The guy looks like he doesn't even know that he's playing in the big leagues.  If you watch him run around during batting practice, you would wonder if he is the bat boy with his child-like attitude.  Nothing seems to rile this guy up.  In 29.1 innings so far, Perk has yet to give up a home run, and seems to have more movement on his fastball than Capps, making it difficult for guys like Nyjer Morgan to get the barrel on the ball.  I like the Capps pounds the strike zone and rarely walks anyone (4 walks so far), but man do I get nervous when he takes the hill!

Here's another question: Why does it seem so impossible for the Twins to steal any bases?  It was beyond frustrating last night to see Nishioka and Repko (and Hughes if you want to include the broken double steal) get thrown out - by a mile - by a catcher in Lucroy who had only thrown out 4 baserunners all year before that.  Stealing bases is definitely not all about just pure speed.  There is a skill to it, and it takes work to get really good at it.  If it was only about speed, I think Nishioka, Span, Repko, Casilla, and Revere would have no problem taking bags at will.  There is a young man in Fargo right now by the name of Maury Wills that has a little experience stealing bases (104 SB in 1964, led NL in SB 6 straight years from 1960-65).  I wonder what it would take to get him out of the F-M Redhawks radio booth and down to Target Field to work with some of these guys every day to learn how to better read pitchers, get better jumps, and successfully put a little more pressure on defenses.  We have the team speed to do it, but none of these guys seem like natural base stealers.

Let me leave you with this: Joe Mauer has a 7 game hitting streak going right now.  Our lineup consisting of Repko, Butera, Nishioka and Company broke out for 14 hits last night despite the loss.  If Blackburn leads us to a win this afternoon, that will give us 7 series wins out of 9 since the beginning of June.  We've been playing much better baseball, and we have 15 of our next 19 games at Target Field - 16 of those games against our 4 division rivals.  The Twins are playing as good of baseball as they have all year (I know, not saying much) and July will be the month to make another push toward .500 and the Central division lead.

Congratulations, Michael Cuddyer, on your first All-Star selection.  As much as even Twins fans are going to question this selection, Cuddy definitely deserves it - even as a lifetime achievement award.  Good work Cuddy!