Laying It On The Line

Holy CRAP!!! What is happening to our beloved Twins? They’re an offensive juggernaut right now. In the last 8 games they have scored 48 runs while holding they’re opponents to only 19. If it weren’t for Detroit and Chicago also being really hot, the Twins would be on their way to another division title.

The Twins have a great core of young guys right now that are contributing. Mauer is hitting .389, tops in the MLB, Liriano is 21st in the league in strikeouts (with Santana first of course), Morneau is tied for 9th in the AL home run race. Add to that the contributions from Kubel, Bartlett, Punto and Cuddyer and you have a group that is really fun and exciting to watch.

There’s been a lot of talk lately about the Twins losing Torii Hunter this coming year. After watching his at bats for the last couple years, I’m ready for Torii to go somewhere else. Almost everyone else on the roster knows how to take pitches and work the count. Whenever Torii comes up to bat I immediately write it down as an out. If someone is on base ahead of him I’m sure it will be a double play.

Torii Hunter has great defense but he’s just not a good hitter. For the $12 million it will take to keep him, I think the Twins could do a lot better. Lew Ford plays pretty well in the outfield. Have Lew platoon with one of the minor league guys. It would cost a lot less than $12 million and would allow the Twins to find another quality batter with the extra money.

I feel the Twins are close to having a dominating team. I don’t think they will make the playoffs this year but if they make the right moves in the off season, watch out world.

Carlos Silva started last night and the first thought that I and many others had was ok, there’s a loss. Well, the final score was 5-3 with Houston coming out on top with two runs scored in the bottom of the 9th.

Yes, it was a loss but the goat of the game wasn’t Silva. The loser in this game was our old buddy Kyle Lohse. He gave up 3 hits, 2 runs, and 1 walk while getting no outs. Silva on the other hand had a decent line of 5 hits, 3 runs, 1 walk and 5 strikeouts.

Isn’t there anyone in the league that will take Lohse off our hands? There has to be someone out there that wants a young pitcher that has decent stuff but has never put it together. C’mon Kansas City. You like taking the garbage from the rest of the league. What will you offer? I’m thinking three packs of Big League Chew and a bottle of Gatorade.

Tonight Francisco Liriano faces Roger Clemens in Houston. My hope is that this game will be televised nationally. With the Rocket making his first start of the year, it’s probably a pretty good chance. This should be a really good game dominated by pitching of course.

I’m taking the Twins with a final score of 2-1.

Hey everyone. Just wanted you to notice that Lay it on the line now has a sponsor. Please click on the links on the right side and support them for me. Who knows, if enough people go to them from this site maybe they’ll throw some love my way. Besides, their page is kind of neat. It not only has tickets for sale but it has some historical info on the Twins that is interesting.

The news just keeps getting better and better. First Batista is sent down (basically released) and now Castro was traded. Do you think Rondell White sees the handwriting on the wall yet? He can’t be feeling very comfortable right now.

Twins Sweep Boston

I was actually able to watch the game last night. It’s hard because I don’t have the MLB Extra Innings package and in my part of Montana I’m cosidered part of the Rockies home area. Thus, not very many AL games are shown on TV here unless they are part of the ESPN coverage.

Carlos Silva was on the mound against the knuckle thrower, Tim Wakefield. Silva almost looked decent last night. He still isn’t really striking that many out but he basically got the job done. It also helped that Big Papi dinged one off a speaker in the roof of the dome. The way Ortiz hit that shot last night, if it hadn’t hit the speaker it may have punctured the roof of the Dome. That hit was a rocket.

Right now the Twins are on 4 game winning streak and head to Pittsburgh to face a very beatable Pirates squad. With two of the matchups featuring Francisco Liriano and Johan Santana, it should be a good series. I fully expect to win at least 2 and if Boof Bonser does what he’s supposed to, three is within grasp.

Oh, forgot to say this. Castro was replaced on the roster by Ruben Sierra. Guess you can’t have everything.

Man you have to love that the young guys are finally getting a chance to contribute. Mauer, Cuddyer, Morneau, Bartlett and Kubel all in the lineup. How many of my fellow bloggers have been yelling and screaming for these guys to get conisistent playing time?

Almost brings a tear to your eye.