Originally Posted at http://twins-extcs.blogspot.com/

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Nick Punto is the anti-Youkilis. At least that’s the way it seems. When Red Sox manager Bobby Valentine made comments about Kevin Youkilis’ lack of emotion and physical gamesmanship, he replaced Youk with, well, a guy who certainly has never been accused of that. Say what you will about little Nicky, but effort has never been a problem.

Wilson Ramos hit his first Homerun of the season on Sunday against Houston. Mauer got his first this week too. Tied at 1 a piece.

David Ortiz also got his first homer this week. Morneau got 2. Advantage Justin.

Michael Cuddyer continues to impress. He has hit safely in 9 of 11 games, 5 of which were multi-hit games. Luckily for Twins fans, Willingham has done even better as his hitting streak stays perfect and peppered with homers.

Orlando Hudson has been benched for Andy Parrino aftera 4-for-35 start. We can expect Hudson to return to Bud Black’s lineup soon but he has not been producing much thus far.

J.J.Hardy had a couple of Homers and a handful of hits this week, including a 2-for-3 night last night with a dinger.

Delmon Young was the unfortunate recipient of a reversed call last Friday, rightfully turning a triple into an error. We’re no stranger to Young’s hilarity in left field, and it’s exactly what we were hoping to see out of the Tigers defense this year.

http://i.imgur.com/noRJf.gif

Jim Thome is struggling to find any rhythm in his limited role. Back in the National League, Thome has only started 2 games at first base and the rest of his appearances have been in pinch-hit situations, mustering 1 hit in 11 at-bats.

A.J. Pierzynski is on fire. He’s batting .387 and he’s 5-for-7 in the Baltimore series so far. A.J. has already hit 3 homeruns, after only hitting 8 all year in 2011.

Johan Santana did not have a good night last night, lasting 1-1/3 innings against the Braves. The Braves got 6 runs while he was on the hill and Johan never got a strikeout. Although he looked good last week, his W/L total is now 0-2.

Kyle Lohse is the star of the Cardinals staff. He shined again last night with 7 innings of scoreless pitching. So far for Kyle: 20.1 innings, 11:2 K:BB ratio, 0.89 ERA, 0.590 WHIP. Impressive, indeed.

Joe Nathan blew a save early in the week to Seattle, then turned around and got one against the Twins. All indications from (Ex-Twin) Ron Washington is that Nathan has been a great clubhouse leader.

What the hell was Thome expecting?

this is a cool feature, you should update this throughout the year