I think I'm gonna do it

You can ask any of my friends and they'll all tell you I'm not a betting man. In the last year I've put money on exactly one sports bet that I'm currently winning, the under on the Wolves winning 30, but I think its time to make another, much riskier bet. I know I’m a twins fan and I’m probably being a homer, but I’m putting 20 bucks on them to win the world series now. On March 1st.

I look at it this way. This team made it to the playoffs last year. Yeah, just a one game series, but it was bonus baseball. Hear me out on this one. When I say this team I mean THIS team. Same rotation, same outfield plus a healthy Cuddy and same infield plus Joe Crede. You can say his back will give. I will argue that the contract gives the Twins incentive to drop him early. Something they didn’t do with previous veterans who didn’t belong. If his back gives we just go back to the platoon, if not we got a guy who was once an all-star, once a silver slugger and a good fielder.

And this rotation? Now they have an entire season under their belts. Now they won’t be intimidated or caught off guard and we get a full season of Liriano. If Liriano had gotten 2 more of Hernandez’ starts last season we would have beat the White Sox outright and gone up against a clone in the Devil Rays... It would have been interested. Now the whole team is back plus one and a specialty role or two.

The only thing that makes me weary is the bullpen. It could use a shot in the arm (rimshot). Somebody is going to have to step up with Neshek out once again. Mijares could be the guy to step up, but that could just as easily go south. My feeling is that if we can't get someone to step up in the bullpen we'll still be in a good despite the weakness and come trade time we'll find ourselves in the perfect position to pick up that big name reliever for once instead of stand idly by.

This team really could turn into a steam roller and it would be so poetic to do it in the final season at the dome with a hometown kid as the hero and a team made almost entirely out of the farm system just after their owner has died. It would be beautiful and I think it could happen.

We were at the wacky Twins game last night

Yesterday around 5 I was sleeping/ watching Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind when I got a phone call. On the other end was Bez offering me a ticket to go to the Twins game with him, Neubie and another friend of our... awesome, I love free baseball. Little did we know that I would get even more free baseball than originally thought. We figured that the game would go long because boof was pitching but we never expected to get the game that we did.

Minus the two HRs, the first of which I called as we walked to the ballpark, Boof cruised into the 7th and I though we had the game in hand. Back in the fourth I bet Bez a dollar that Everett wouldn't reach 1st. He did and Bez told me not to worry because Casilla was up next and the inning would be over soon and we'd still be down. About 5 seconds later we were celebrating Casilla's bomb... he hit that ball hard. Now Alexi Casilla and Everett both both have more home runs than Delmon Young and Joe Mauer, unbelievable.

Around the 8th when we were still down Neubie claimed that there was no need to worry because Delmon Young was going to tie it up. To my surprise he was right, young got a triple and Mike Lamb brought him home. Gardy put it all on the line (or so we thought) when he began pinch hitting in the 9th. Monroe and Redmond made appearances we got lost figuring out who was playing where when the 10th began. That confusion was quickly replaced by trying to figure out why Rincon could not be replaced in the same inning with 2 on. I may love baseball, but I don't carry a rule book in my back pocket so I didn't know that Gardy couldn't come to the mound after Rick Anderson had already been in the same at bat.

We figured that the game was over with the bases loaded and a call-up on the mound, (even adjusting out caps out of the rally position) but Korecky came through big time. We figured we had it made once Korecky got his first Major league hit, scooted to second after jumping over Harris' grass burner and touched down at third after they walked Mauer. Korecky became the first Twins' pitcher to get a hit in an A.L. game since the inception of the DH. Cuddy and the good Doctor disappointed that inning. Korecky came back and sat down some very good players to give us our opportunity in the 12th.

Go-Gomez made it on base and flustered the pitcher before reaching second when Young grounded out. Texas figured it was best to walk Mike Lamb to get a shot at career AAA player Howie Clark. We figured Clark was a goner and were really hoping to get to the next player. The next player to bat was to be Livan Hernandez, who has repeatedly asked Gardenhire for the chance to pinch hit in such a situation. Unfortunately for Hernandez, but fortunately for the Twins Clark roped athe ball right over Josh Hamilton's head and the game was over.

Insane... almost as insane as half the crowd getting to their feet at the end of the 9th and taking off. I don't care if you have a day job sit down and cheer your team on for at least one extra inning. Probably the best game I've been to ever, nothing that happened was expected and everything was exciting.

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.