The game’s at 11 a.m., so here are a few more things to chew on before lunch:

*From the Duh! Department. If the AL Central is the strongest division in baseball and if it is even stronger than in ‘06, then the Twins can’t fall behind by 12 games nor wait until late June to make their moves. In the next 2-3 weeks, left field, third base and the rotation need to be addressed. Someone needs to decide on the Rondell/Kubel thing and end the silliness that Lew Ford (or Jason Tyner or Garrett Jones) is an answer. And it needs to be decided that, working from the back, Alexi Casilla can spend the year at Rochester because the Twins have a great utility infielder named Punto (currently miscast as a starting third baeman) and are in need of a third baseman with some pop (and more range than that Batista guy). And if Ramon and Silva won’t challenge hitters and come inside, swap ‘em out for the Rochester guys. Walking two guys to load the bases in the fifth, as Silva did last night, is a sign that his own faith in his stuff isn’t there. Those are the three decisions that will likely guide the season. And fans have to hope that one of the three other elite teams — Detroit, Cleveland or the White Sox — starts turning to dust soon (as Cleveland did in ‘06).

*To the commenter who pleaded yesterday “Pleaseeeeeeee leave some pitchers down here in Rochester NY. thats the best thing going for the team, besides a couple of the regulars in the lineup.”: Sorry, it doesn’t work like that.

*Clearly, New York is not all atwitter about the arrival of the Twins next month for a series against the Mets. Because last night’s game against the Cubs started way late because of a three-hour rain delay, fans who had tickets (whether or not they went) are being allowed to get free tickets for the Twins series June 18-20. The challenge is for the Twins to turn that into a series between two hot teams.

*Cleveland’s radio crew is unlistenable. Wiith minimal provocation, they scream and preen about their team like a couple of arena football announcers. Or at least what I imagine arena football announcers sound like. I turned off the XM in the car the last two games and went to KSTP.

*The Twins shouldn’t be surprised that Sabathia plunked Morneau last night. Remember that Johan, who doesn’t routinely hit batters, got Hafner and Martinez when the teams played at the Dome last month.

Enjoy Johan over lunch.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 17th, 2007 at 7:58 am and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.