The next three days could be very difficult for the Twins, every bit as difficult as those three games in Oakland. The Angels are 22-8 at home and 22-9 when these three starting pitchers take the mound: Jered Weaver, Kelvim Escobar and John Lackey. The Twins can hope to fluster the young Weaver, and hope Escobar feels some ill-effects from the shoulder injury that hampered him early in the season. But Lackey is a Cy Young candidate at 9-3 with a 2.37 ERA.

The Twins counter with Boof Bonser, Scott Baker and Kevin Slowey. On paper, that’s probably not enough to make the Angels hitters sweat. But the Twins have quietly won seven of Bonser’s last eight starts. They are 8-3 when he pitches, and in his past seven starts, he is 4-0 with a 2.16 ERA.

Last week, in my “Your turn to play GM” post, many of you pointed to offseason upgrades the Twins should have made to the offense. That’s a good point because for all the time and energy we’ve spent discussing the rotation (Ortiz, Ponson, Silva), the offense hasn’t been clicking like last year.

One name that kept coming up was Devil Rays 3B Akinori Iwamura. I’ve spoken to Twins officials about him. They scouted him and liked him. They did not bid for his services. Basically, their reports said that much like Nick Punto, he was a third baseman in a middle-infielder’s body. No sense bidding, when they felt they already had a similar player. With Punto struggling to match his 2006 numbers, these comparisons might run thin with a lot of you right now. But let’s see how it plays out with Iwamura, who got off to a terrific start but whose durability already is suspect.

For those who suggested entering the year with Johan, Boof & The Rochester Four, I respect the theory that the money could have then been used toward locking up The Core to multi-year deals. I just didn’t see enough of a contingency plan for injuries. We all know it takes 8-10 starting pitchers to get through most seasons. The more we hash this out, the more I respect the take that the Twins should have gone with Ponson or Ortiz, but not both.

Best alternate suggestion, I thought, came from biggity2bit, who reminded us that Randy Wolf signed a one-year, $8 million deal with the Dodgers that includes an option for 2009. The lefty is 7-3 with a 3.68, and it’s looking like the steal of the offseason. But I doubt he signs that same deal to sign with the Twins. He’s a So Cal kid, who was dying for the chance to pitch at home.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 4th, 2007 at 12:42 pm and is filed under Twins thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.