I’m excited to watch this team, because it’s young…and from the last few contracts they’ve worked out there’s a good chance the talented youngsters will be able to grow together.

Not to mention I really want to see Young and Gomez.

Carlos Gomez got better as spring training went along. Yeah, the first week and a half he didn’t do much. Then the “Big” league pitchers started taking the mound, he worked hard with Vavra and cranked it up. He isn’t gonna walk much, but he has the ability to get a bunt in play seemingly at will, as well as pound the ball into the gaps. Honestly he looks just awesome. Even if he only hits .260 he’ll have a huge impact, but I guess the bunt singles are gonna push him a bit higher than that.

Lamb, Harris and Monroe are all upgrades over what we had last year and I really doubt Everett will be much worse with the bat than Bartlett.

Our starting pitching is a big question mark, but it has been for the last couple years. No one thought Silva was going to be good last year. Garza has never shown any more ability than Pat Maholmes did.

Last year Baker was our #2 starter as far as I was concerned and he’s coming back. Everytime he took the mound there was a chance something special would happen, can’t say I felt the same about Silva or Garza. Liriano was pretty darn good when he last played real games as well. To me the worst case is Liriano not being quite as good as Santana, Baker continuing to get better and Livan more than replacing Silva. If Boof or Blackburn or whoever sreps up, bonus! The Bullpen might be the best in the game.

The Twins haven’t had a bad year since 2000, and I really doubt they’ll have a bad year this year. They would’ve finished above .500 last year if not for the cloud Santana and Hunter were keeping the team under. Everyone seemed more worried about them than playing, never mind that Johan said all his teammates were not good enough in mid-August. After which the Twins really went in the tank. Never mind that Santana lost a ton of divisional games last year and had 5 losses/ 0 Wins against Cleveland. Yeah, thats worth 22 million per year……..

The popular consensus on Gomez is that he was rushed through the Mets system and needs to spend more time at AAA for seasoning. While it was true he was rushed, it was not without merit.

At each level he has played at he has started out over his head and didn’t merely play poorly, he stunk the place up. But at each level, he made adjustments and made huge improvements. Add in his speed and defense and it’s easy to understand why the Mets coaching staff was so willing to move him up to the next level by the end of each season.

But when you add the stunk the place up months with the tear it up up months, the end result is season stats that don’t really leap out at you and scream total stud.

Last year, he got the call when Wright or Beltran got hurt (I don’t remember which). It was the same pattern: he stunk the place up, then got better. The last month before he broke a bone in his hand he was batting .310, but add in the stunk the place up numbers and his overall average was something like .244.

While one month of hitting .310 may not prove that he CAN hit at the major league level, it certainly proves he is CAPABLE of doing it.

And, once again, there is his speed. In the short time I’ve been watching him closely, he has done amazing things. Barely a week ago, he was hitting something like .140 and leading the entire team in runs and stolen bases.

And now he’s hitting.

This kid is the real deal. He has all the tools and will be a fan favorite and a star by the end of the season. He’s made most of the adjustments he’s needed to make to be successful at the major league level - he just hasn’t had a full season to prove it yet. The fact that he’s made the team over two older and more experienced players (three, if you count Monroe) means Gardy is seeing the same things the Mets staff saw when they moved him up.

Another thing I’ve noticed … he seems to be getting on base early on and floundering later. Even the one game he went 0 for 3 in, in his first at bat, he ran out the relay on what looked like a routine double play (then stole 2nd, stole 3rd and scored a run). It looks to me like he may be working on stuff and trying new things before the season starts. You know, get a hit or two, then try a few things. It could be nothing, but that is the impression I’m getting. If that is even partially true … it just boggles the mind to think about.

This kid is going to score a lot of runs and I would rather see him do it at the dome, then down at AAA.

Like any stock analyst will tell you, “past performance is not an indicator of future success.” Sorry folks, it’s just not as simple as scouting, or else there wouldn’t be so many has-been rejects from MLB.

Gomez could tank ultimately, or he could be amazing. Or he could be somewhere in between. If you’re a real fan, you hope he ends up being a huge contributor. Time will tell.

By the way, the Vikes have “Skol Vikings.” Does anyone know if the Twins have a nice old fight song like that? And don’t give me the “We’re Gonna Win Twins” answer. That is on the same level musically as the Icky Shuffle.

Go Twins!