You want to crown em?

The Twins are 8-3

I had the Twins being a big deal in 2010 here, and through 11 games they are looking pretty damn good. I'm not ready to crown their asses yet but.....

The team does lead the league in runs scored and fewest runs allowed. The fielding has been excellent.

The middle of the lineup has been fantastic so far.
Joe Mauer is hitting .324/.435/.541
Justin Morneau is hitting .341/.471/.512
Michael Cuddyer is hitting .348/.380/.522
Jason Kubel is hitting .258/.410/.484
Delmon Young is hitting .300/.324/.567

Backup 3b Brendan Harris is hitting .250/.438/.500

The starting pitching has been great:
Carl Pavano is 2-0 .85 WHIP 1.38 ERA
Francisco Liriano is 1-0 1.15 WHIP 2.08 ERA
Scott Baker is 2-1 1.13 WHIP 3.38 ERA

Pat Neshek, Matt Guerrier and Jon Rauch have been great out of the bull-pen.

The Twins are 5-2 on the road.
The Twins are 7-3 vs. prospective contenders.
The Twins beat last years Cy Young tonight 10-3. (The game could have been much worse if not for some great plays by the Royals in the field)

It may be early, sample sizes are small, but there is a lot to like so far.

.....And, the 1-2 hitters are just starting to hit....

The Astros have a very nice stadium.... and not much else, join the Twins bandwagon

So, I got the opportunity to see the Astros play the Phillies on Friday. I work for the company that owns the Astros and got some free tickets. I looked at the lineup and stated, "if this game was played 10 times, the Phillies would win 8" I should have said the Phillies would win 11 out of 10. The game was a bloodbath. Carlos Lee was the only starter at his position that was better than the player the Phillies ran out there. Starter Bud Norris, a nice kid who signed the ball below, could not find the plate.

He can touch 94 on his fastball and has an 88 mph slider, but couldn't throw these pitches for strikes. If a guy can't throw strikes the Phillies lineup will kill him. He gave up 6 hits, 4 walks and 3 ERs through 2.2 innings. He managed to throw 82 pitches, only 44 for strike, and burned the a large part of my evening to get 8 outs. His night ended when he walked pitcher Happ. While Norris was brutal, Happ wasn't terribly sharp either, allowing 6 hits and 2 walks,while throwing 103 pitches in 5 innings. He didn't give up any runs, but he was very slow out there. This was probably the slowest moving game I've seen live.

The final score was 8-0 Phillies, but it seemed much worse. The Phillies offense sucked the life out of the stadium very quickly. The game-time was 3:17, but it seemed to take 3 days. The first 4 innings took about two hours. My boss's team is going to have a very long year.

Oh Well! The stadium is really nice, go check it out when you can, hopefully you will get a better game.

If you are an Astros fan, take a year off, join the Minnesota Twins bandwagon, we'd love to have you.

2010 Predictions

Well, the 2010 Season is upon us. It's prediction time: You have come to a Twins blog, so it should be no surprise at the LARGE amount of homer-ism picks. Oh Well! If there was ever a year to go homer, this is the year.




Hopefully I am a smart Homer.

AL East:                    AL Central:               AL West:
Boston        96-66     Minnesota  94-68      Los Angeles  87-75
New York  94-68*   Chicago      85-77     Texas            85-77
Tampa Bay 86-76     Detroit        80-82     Seattle           83-79
Baltimore    76-86     Cleveland    70-92     Oakland        73-89
Toronto      69-93     Kansas City 66-96
ALDS:
Boston over LA Angels 3-1
i think Boston is much deeper.
Minnesota over New York Yankees 3-2
New field, better line-up, home-field due to Wild Card status.

ALCS:
Minnesota over Boston 4-3
Boston has the better pitching but the Twins have the better lineup.

NL East:                    NL Central:               NL West:
Philadelphia  98-64    St. Louis     91-71    Colorado        92-70
Atlanta         85-77     Chicago     84-78    San Francisco  86-76*
Florida         82-80     Milwaukee 81-81    Los Angeles    80-82
New York   77-85     Cincinnati    79-83   Arizona           79-83
Washington  66-96     Pittsburgh   76-86    San Diego       63-99
                                  Houston      68-94
* Wild Card
NLDS:
Philadelphia over San Fransisco 3-0
Halladay beats Lincecum, then it's over.
Colorado over St. Louis 3-2
Colorado has the deeper lineup.

NLCS:
Philly over Colorado 4-0
Philadelphia is the class of the NL.

World Series:
Twins over Phillies 4-3
Twins use that all-star game home field advantage.
Homer-ism reigns supreme

Twins MVP: Joe Mauer
He earns well over his salary for another year. Bank it when he gets old!

Twins Top Pitcher: Kevin Slowey
Something like 18-12 3.30 ERA

Twins Best Rookie: Anthony Slama
If given the chance, he could close the second half of the season.

Twins Most Improved Player: Delmon Young
.310/.335/.470 with 25 SB would be a nice step forward. Maybe he'll walk someday.

Three Keys to Success for the Twins:
Liriano going from terrible to good. A under 4.00 ERA Liriano would go a long way. If he becomes great again, well that's just a bonus.
Slowey a full year healthy. He needs to pitch the full season in order to be 18-12 with that 3.30 ERA.
Slama coming up to seize the closer role. The team needs a closer. I hope it's Slama or Neshek.

Rest of the League Predictions

A.L. MVP: Joe Mauer
Considerations to: Miguel Cabrera, Alex Rodriguez, Josh Beckett
N.L. MVP: Chase Utley
Considerations to: Troy Tulowitzki, Albert Pujols, Hanley Ramirez
A.L. Cy Young: Josh Beckett
Considerations to: Kevin Slowey, Zach Greinke, Felix Hernandez
N.L. Cy Young: Roy Halladay
Considerations to: Johan Santana, Tim Lincecum
A.L. Rookie of the Year: Brian Matusz
N.L. Rookie of the Year: Jason Heyward
A.L. Breakout Player of the Year: Kevin Slowey
N.L. Breakout Player of the Year: Yovani Gallardo
A.L. Comeback Player of the Year: Fausto Carmona
N.L. Comeback Player of the Year: Tim Hudson

Those are my picks. What are yours?
Check out Josh's post: He is the father of the Twins blog series Predictions: