Me thinks Craig Monroe should maybably has pinks bats all of the times

(and other strange Twins observations)

On Mother's day Craig Monroe hit two home runs and was the major reason the Twins won that game. He doubled his home run production for the year in a single game and pulled himself into a tie for the second most home runs on the team. Thats not a good sign, but this team has been scoring more as of late so I'm just going to hope that the team heats up soon.

Adam Everett has more home runs than Mauer and Delmon Young combined. Adam Everett has 36 home runs in nearly 2200 at bats. I think maybe Mauer spent too much time getting pointers from Jason Tyner last year. Young is the more troubling of the two, he was supposed to be a power hitter and an all-star in the making. He claims hes a slow starter but its pretty hard to label yourself something like that when you're 22 years old. Twinkie Town has a good little piece about Young and some stats that kind of scare me.

Mike Lamb has been a thorn in my side for the majority of the season so far, but this weekend he has two two-out, two RBI hits. Hopefully this trend continues.

Pat Neshek being out for the season scares the shit out of me.

After tonight's win Livan Hernandez is 6-1. I hope we finally picked up a cheap veteran pitcher who won't be gone from the team by the all-star break.

I feel horrible for waiting this long to mention it but I was extremely excited about Carlos Gomez' cycle. Gomez flashes brilliance far more often than I expected already; he's tied for the A.L. lead in steals, covers a lot of ground in the outfield and is doing a decent job at the plate. I'm probably going to hold off for a while longer but I'm strongly considering purchasing a Go-Gomez jersey. Thats a big deal because I tend to be bad at consuming things.

The Twins roster is basically set

The Twins signed Joe Nathan to a 4 year $47 million contract with a club option for a 5th year. I'm in favor of this even though I know its kind of controversial considering the Santana trade and letting Torii Hunter walk. We got Nathan at a major discount and his no-trade clause only allows for him to select 3 teams that he does not want to play for. That means we can keep him for all four years if our starting pitching surprises us and the line-up lives up to it's potential in the batters box or we can turn Neshek or someone else into our closer and get something very good in return for an all-star caliber closer with a discounted contract.

It looks like Carlos Gomez will be our center fielder on opening day. If nothing else we'll get some interesting quotes on a daily basis from the young Dominican. If he can figure out how to put the bat on the ball on a regular basis and not get overly excited on defense this move will be worth it. Hopefully he'll figure out the names of "the catcher and that other guy."

There were no other surprises in the starting lineup. Mauer will bat second and play catcher, Cuddyer will take right and hit third, Morneau will bat 4th and play first, Delmon Young will take Torii Hunters spot in the order and play left field, Kubel will DH in 6th, Mike Lamb will play third and bat 7th, Brendan Harris will play second and bat 8th and Adam Everett will play short and bat last.

Matt Tolbert staying with the team didn't make sense to me until I read in the Pioneer Press that Gardy feel comfortable plugging him into 7 of the nine positions on the field. Craig Monroe, Mike Redmond and Little Nicky Punto will ride the pine with Tolbert until their numbers get called.

Livan Hernandez, Boof Bonser and Kevin Slowey are locks for starting pitching and the other two spots seem destined for Scott Baker and Fransisco Liriano. The only thing that makes Baker questionable is his injury earlier this spring and a flu that just won't go away. The rumor was that Liriano would start the season in AAA, but after throwing a no hitter through 4 innings against Baltimore he may go north with the team. Baker's absence means that Nick Blackburn will most likely take the final starting role and Brian Bass will play long reliever. Hometown kid Glen Perkins didn't make the team, but he'll surely make his way to Minneapolis when the injuries begin.