First of all, unlike the 2008 Mariners, this year’s Seattle team doesn’t stink. Yes, there are weaknesses, especially when it comes to fielding the ball, but its a team that’s on the way to becoming pretty good and has some players who are making the most of their chances. That doesn’t excuse another series featuring untimely hitting on the road by the Twins, but it’s not as painful the losses from last season against a team that lost 101 games — especially the games when the Twins managed to blow good-sized leads. You can argue that nonperformance against Seattle was the reason, as much as anything else, was  the reason the Twins weren’t playing baseball last October.

Now, the Twins are going to Oakland to face a team that has one of the half-dozen worst records in the majors and has put together a pitching staff that makes Kevin Slowey seem like a graybeard. You will hear lots over the next few days about the A’s talented young pitchers — four rookies in the rotation — and the pitfalls of facing a starting pitcher for the first time. And the triple-stack of left-handers the Twins are scheduled to face in the first three games of the series. And this and that and the other thing. Blah, blah, blah.

I’m guessing there will be times when the fawning over the youthful A’s will make it sound like the Twins should be lucky to pull out a game or two in Oakland.

The truth is this is a series when the Twins shouldn’t be happy with anything less than three wins in four games.

Yes, the A’s have won six games in a row — and that’s part of my point. A team this inexperienced shouldn’t be putting together a winning streak of nine or 10 games. They are due for a fall after beating up on Baltimore, another one of the bottom half-dozen, and the White Sox, who have a recent history of playing down to the level of their opponents. Name an offensive stat and there’s a good chance that Oakland is at or near the bottom of the American League in it.

This is a fine time for the Twins to shake the shackles of their road woes and start showing that a team with two of the best position players in the majors and a good supporting cast should be better than the sub-.500 club we’ve been watching through the first one-third of the season.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 8th, 2009 at 12:47 pm 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.