Well I get to take a look at two teams that I have a futures bet with a buddy on what team would win more games this year. Of course I took the Twins. Both teams are a futile 5-14. Both teams needed each other at this point, I am glad the Twins get to do it at home, or maybe the Royals are glad to see the Twins on the road since they can't win a game at their own place. 0-10 at home for the Royals to start the season in a season they host the All Star game and a lot of buzz surrounding the team is not a good start for that team. Teaford vs Pavano to start the weekend series and I believe for the 2nd time all season the Twins are favored. YES THE TWINS ARE FAVORED to win a baseball game.

I want to say that I really don't like writing bad things about my favorite team. But when the team is 5-14 it is hard to find good things to write about, and to be honest it kind of pisses me off as well. It is what it is. I can say this for sure, it is only April, a lot can happen in a 162 game season. The optimist in me for the season will say that the Twins need to sweep this series and make it a big stepping stone to set up the West Coast Swing and play good baseball. There is nothing more that I want except to play good baseball and win a few series. Looking through the blogs and forums we all have our ideas on where things went wrong, who to blame, why we are sooo bad. The reality of the season is we have 3 quality starts in 19 opportunities. The Twins are batting .192 w/RISP or something close to that which is 28th in MLB. With somewhat of a small sample size those numbers are supposed to avg out for a season, the problem with that is when the numbers avg out in the wrong spots. You could bat .192 w/RISP when you are down by 8 runs or up 8 runs and it doesn't matter, it matters when you are up or down by a couple runs, we haven't had the big hits when we have needed them to win games. We have been in multiple games and haven't gotten the runs home. Blame Joe Mauer, sure, Morneau, absolutely, Valencia, yes, Span, sure-- they have all had AB, where they had the game on the line trying to get runs home, it hasn't worked so far, hopefully that will change. The way the Twins used to win games though was Pitching/Defense, it was never really talked about when you gave your ballclub a chance to win early in the games, we didn't need to score runs all the time in those spots because our pitchers put us in spots where it was easier to win.

The boo birds are going to the wrong people at Target Field. The fans are expecting more because "hey we got this great ballpark" we need to spend more money and put a better product on the field. The fans are absolutely right, the fans also have to realize what they have invested in Morneau, Mauer and if they were or were not going to be healthy. This is a tough position for Terry Ryan to be in, of course we could have made moves, but if we were to make moves and those guys couldn't play we would be in the same spot.. The boos are going to Mauer because he is making the most amount of money and he is batting like **** in spots in the 7th inning on, when we need him because our pitching has been really bad. Batters can't be put in these spots consistently and be able to drive in runs on a consistent basis. The fans realistically should be cheering Mauer as he has played every game and is batting over .300, who typically has April be his poorest month. If the fans are going to boo at Target field, they should be booing Danny Valencia, and all the starting pitchers. (yes another Valencia dig)

For the time being as well let us think about what Terry Ryan and Gardy have gone through to get to this point. A farm system that was left baren, Scott Baker who needs Tommy John surgery, a Jason Marquis who couldn't really pitch in spring training, and a very talented pitcher who needs a therapist. On top of that knowing or not knowing if their 2 stars would be healthy this year. Reality is the Twins are bad mainly because of the starting pitching. If somehow the 20 minute behind closed doors meeting between catchers and pitchers does anything and the starters are able to get some quality starts in the Twins will win games. WE NEED THAT TO START VS THE LOWLY KC ROYALS.