TwinsGuy55422

2-3, 2B, BB, 2 RBI, No Ks, and at least one nifty play at 3B.

Stop walking people!

Good to see Plouffe back. Hope he picks up where he left off!

Sounds like you guys had fun. I, too, drove to KC with my wife to take in some Twins baseball. We were there from Thursday afternoon until Sunday morning. We went to the game on Friday which was cool because they won 2-1 in 11 innings and they had the fire works display after the game. I also landed myself two balls which was pretty cool. One was thrown my way by Butera during batting practice and the other Casilla threw to me as he was running off the field after the last out of the first inning. We looked around in the Royals Hall of Fame before the game and it was pretty cool. They have a giant number 5 made up of 3154 baseballs representing the total number of hits in George Brett's career. In the middle of the 5, they have the bat he used for his 3000th hit in a display case. I went to the Negro Leagues Museum on Friday and found it pretty interesting. I liked the movie they show when you first come in and the field with the bronze statues. I ate lunch at the original Arthur Bryant's BBQ which looks like kind of a dive in a not so great part of town. We got there at just the right time because by the time we got our food there was a line out the door for the lunch rush. The food was phenomenal and the portions are huge. They also have all these pictures on the wall of various famous people eating there. I also checked out something called the College Basketball Experience which was pretty cool. It has all these different interactive exhibits and also houses the National College Basketball Hall of Fame. The Power and Light District in downtown was also a pretty cool place to grab some food and listen to music. I concur with your assessment on the drought conditions. I don't know if I saw a blade of green grass the whole time we were there. One other thing I noticed about KC in driving around different parts of the city was how quickly it would change from the nice part of town to the not-so-great areas. All in all, a very cool city and a great place to watch a ball game.

Hoping for a good outing from diamond and some good execution by the offense. I was at the game last night. It was my first time at Kauffman Stadium and it was a great atmosphere.

Let's be swinging the bats.

Hopefully the Twins can forget the Pittsburgh series and start getting back on the right track this weekend.

I think he needs to be allowed to work through his struggles against left handers. He has made a lot of progress in his comeback from the injuries and he used to hit southpaws quite well. If you ever want Morneau to get back to close to what he was, you have to let him struggle his way through this.

I would say now is not the time to trade either guy. Let contending teams become more and more desperate toward the deadline and drive up the value of our assets. I am pleased that Morneau has been more productive this year, but I don't think we should let that dissuade us from making a trade if we get a great offer.

I enjoyed reading this article. It was well researched and thought out. When you look at the progression of Plouffe's hitting mechanics over the past few years, you can really notice a difference. I think one of the biggest factors as to whether Plouffe continues to have success is his personal drive. Sometimes when you have a lot of success it is easy to get complacent and assume that the success will continue. Hopefully he continues to work his tail off so that he can make the adjustments necessary to keep hitting the cover off the ball. On a side note, one of my favorite hits by Plouffe this year was not a patented homerun to left field. It was a double he crushed to right centerfield on Tuesday against the Phillies. That showed me that he is developing the maturity to not try and pull everything.

Agreed. If you're starting pitcher is either giving you outstanding performances or still giving you a chance to win on their off nights, you have got to be happy. One thing that impresses me about Diamond is how composed he seems on the mound. When things aren't going perfectly, he appears to be in control of his emtions and the situation at hand.

Good to see Parmelee back in the lineup. I would like to see him get regular at-bats.

I live close to the ball park as well and it hasn't rained at all in couple of hours. I hope they can play ball. Let's keep the string of series wins going.

Good for Oliveros. I hope he pitches well and can stay up with the team for a while.

He's got to be injured or ill. You wouldn't pull him in the first inning even if he did give up a few runs unless that was the case.

I don't hate the guy, but I dislike his writing style. Besides coming off very smug, he seems to target certain people and beat them to death with his articles. I am thinking about his negative articles about Mauer last summer. He made some very bold assertions about certain players talking about Mauer and rolling their eyes behind his back with absolutely no evidence to back it up. To me, that showed very poor taste.

I am realistic enough to know that the starting pitching isn't good enough for the Twins to truly contend. However, as mentioned previously, I would definitely take some overall competitive baseball while seeing some progess from guys who will be part of the future of Twins baseball. I think will have a summer of interesting baseball ahead of us.

Nice interview, Jeremy. How did you get in contact with him? He does sound like an outstanding young man with a bright future.

I was at the game and Plouffe was slowing up to stop at third and Liddle definitely sent him. It might have been worth a try down by one run with a speedier runner but not in that situation.

Great win today. Hopefully Liriano gives us another solid performance tomorrow and we get the sweep. Keep the momentum going!

I believe he was making a play on the statement Buddy Ryan made when Carter was released from the Eagles. Ryan thought Carter was only effective when running fade patterns in the end zone. I believe the quote was something to the effect of "All he does is catch touchdowns."

I doubt he can keep up this current pace but he seems to be gaining confidence by the day. I hope they keep him playing almost everyday and find out once and for all if he can be an everyday player. Who knows, he may just find his niche at 3B.

I am not worried about Hicks. Some tools develop faster than others and for him it is the hitting. I do think they will stop the switch hitting which should help. Even if he took another couple of years to be ready, he would still only be 24 years old.

I think 3 years would be pretty optimistic for Buxton but you never know how players will develop. Joe Mauer was a great prospect coming out of the draft, but how many people would have guessed that he would be starting at catcher in the bigs at age 20. As far as Buxton goes, I would guess it would take 4-5 years for him to be ready to signifcantly contribute.

Hopefully these recent homeruns are a sign that he is getting out of his slump.