These are the things that crossed my mind during a day of lousy baseball, a day so bad that it was hard to get too worked up about it. In fact, I think Twins fans should be expressing thanks today for the unbalanced schedule that keeps the Twins going to AL Central cities three times per season and the ballparks of the East only once or twice. If anyone tries to argue schedule impurity, counter with reality. Sometimes, it’s good to be in flyoverland.

*Scott Baker, he’s not this bad. There’s no reason right now to bury a guy who had Baker’s numbers and performance last season based on two horrific starts. It’s fine to wonder what’s up, but I’ll bet you a Dome Dog that he gets straightened out soon. I think I saw a consistent flaw in his delivery yesterday — as much as I could while multitasking, anyway — but I’m unwilling to share the specifics here because I’m not overly confident in my qualifications to be a pitching coach. (If anyone in the Twins’ organization wants to know what I think, Dave St. Peter has my cell number.) In addition to a general aversion to blowhardiness, my reluctance is reinforced by an incident earlier this week when someone I know (a journalist who doesn’t cover baseball) called a national talk show and explained in no uncertain terms (to himself, anyway) why Chien-Ming Wang of the Yankees has been so atrocious. I almost drove off the parkway.

You want bad? CMW’s numbers are 6 IP, 23 H, 23 ER, 6 W — a 34.50 ERA in three starts.

Anyone remember the AL Central pitcher last season who was 0-3, 13.50 after his first four starts? (Hints: He weighs much closer to 300 than 200, plays for an AL East team and wear pinstripes.)

*Francisco Liriano showed what happens when you pitch the kind of game that you can get away with in Triple-A. In the minors, you can walk four guys, hit another and be good enough the rest of the time to win. Four of those runners probably won’t score. Not the case against most major-league teams. Certainly not the case against Boston. Liriano was nasty about 70 percent of the time last night, especially when he struck out MVPedroia on a change-up. But walk/hit batter/three-run homer-to-Jeff Bailey isn’t going to work at the “major-league level.”

Who would have thought the Twins would be winless in the six starts made by the guys who were thought to be Nos. 1 and 2 in the rotation coming into the season?

*Is anyone still having issues with Justin Morneau? No? That’s good. I remember a little bit of commenter queasiness when he went hitless in his first couple of games. I’m glad we’re all over that. Someone could hold him responsible for the fact that his line drive home run to center field last night came with the bases empty, I suppose. (Hey, isn’t he supposed to make everyone around him better?) I’m kind of looking forward to the Mauer-Morneau-Kubel heart of the order that we’re being told to expect at the beginning of May. It’ll be even sweeter when the right-handed guys start puling their weight.

*If someone wants to explain their unhappiness with Denard Span, I’ll try not to laugh.  He’s the leadoff man the Twins had been lacking (.387 OBP last season and slightly higher so far this year) and he’s a better-than-average outfielder who can play all three positions. I know he doesn’t have the strongest of arms and he’s made some strange baserunning choices in the first couple weeks of the season. But does anyone really want to see a return to Jason Tyner (or Carlos Gomez) in the top spot?

*I’m wondering if we’re going to see more frequent reunions of the main 2008 outfield (Young-Gomez-Span). Gardy has gone that route in 4 of the first 16 games. Last week, I aroused some ire with my suggestion that Gomez be sent to the minors to work on his skills if the other option was having him sit on the bench. If he’s going to stay here, I’d like to see him get a 7 -10 days worth of starts (batting ninth and playing center) and see if he can find a groove — the same way the Twins stuck with him last year.

*That was a slick eighth inning Jose Mijares pitched last night. Now, I want to see him do that in a close game. Meanwhile, I hope most of you were working (or otherwise engaged) and missed Juan Morillo’s double/walk/walk/walk appearance in the opener. He also groined Mike Redmond with a pitch in the dirt. Don’t be surprised if the Twins cut their losses on that experiment when Jesse Crain is ready to return. It’s OK to be jealous of the Red Sox bullpen.

*Yes, it stinks that the Twins didn’t make the right call on David Ortiz, but I’ve always liked watching him hit and I’ve enjoyed the statesman role that he’s taken on in Boston. I was also thankful for his classiness in the second game last night when he veered out of the way when Liriano’s throw to first base pulled Morneau into the basepath. My first thought: What if that had been A.J. Pierzynski?

Enjoy the off day. And you can keep up with Section 220 on Twitter by going here.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 23rd, 2009 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.