*Didn’t see the game yesterday and kept track of things through play-by-play on the web and an occasional text from the Dome. Without having seen it for myself, I am seriously skeptical of this idea that Brendan Harris looks that much better at shortstop that he looked at second base. Sure, Gardy said that Harris “looks more comfortable at shortstop.” He’d better. He couldn’t have looked much more uncomfortable than he did at second base. If enough middle infielders ever return to health, I’m thinking his future will be in a third-base platoon with Mike Lamb.

*Kevin Slowey vs. the Tigers tonight doesn’t exactly inspire confidence based on his last two starts. He needs to figure out how to find a bit extra so he doesn’t get into two-strike duels with opposing hitters. The Twins point of view is that Slowey needs to figure that out in the majors because he would dominate if returned to Triple-A and it would likely slow his progress. I know it’s painful to watch him struggle, but I’m mindful that two of the game’s elite control pitchers were 7-17, 4.56 and 6-14, 5.61 in their first full major league seasons. Even Bradke was 11-14, 5.32 in his first full season..

*Has anyone else noticed that Gogomez is tied for the team lead in extra-base hits? He has 15, Morneau has 15. Here’s a question: Can a leadoff batter with a .318 on-base percentage be more beneficial than a leadoff batter with an OBP 40 points higher? That’s the difference between Gomez’ OBP and Luis Castillo’s when he was with the Twins last year. Castillo had only 14 extra-base hits in his 349 Minnesota at-bats in 2007 and stole only 9 bases. Gogomez already has 16. How do you measure being a disruptive force?

*Until Nick Punto and/or Adam Everett return from their injuries, Harris and Alexi Casilla are the shortstops. Matt Macri, who just got called up, was the return the Twins got from Colorado last summer in the Ramon Ortiz trade. Macri played only three games at shortstop in Rochester and has already gotten his injury out of the way, you’d think, after straining his left hamstring last month. You’d think.

*Seth Stohs at Seth Speaks has a homemade statistic called “reliever efficiency.” By his standards, he says of the Twins bullpen: “This bullpen has been bad. But looking specifically through (the first) 19 games in May, the bullpen has been horrible.” Crummy bullpen, mental errors, Cuddyer batting .227, Delmon’s power blackout. Not quite a recipe for contention.

*Make sure you vote in the “who’ll homer first” poll. The choices are Delmon, Mauer and Livan. Among the first 1,500 people who weighed in, Delmon led with 46 percent, Livan was second at 35 percent and Mauer trailed at 19 percent. I still contend that if Mauer is among the league’s average leaders and has an OBP near .400, it doesn’t matter whether he hits one home run or 21.

*Sometimes, it’s tough to be a magician, as the New York Times reports: “The Mets needed a hero Thursday night, not just a stopper. But the left-handed Santana, the pitcher they acquired to halt losing streaks and provide confidence, gave up a career-high 12 hits Thursday night in a 4-2 loss to Atlanta.” One strikeout in seven innings last night. Twins are 23-24, Mets are 22-23. The New York Post calls Johan the “$137.5 million man.”

Times are tough all over.

other people are here too

This entry was posted on Friday, May 23rd, 2008 at 8:39 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.