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The Twins entertain the Rockies tonight. It is Colorado's first visit since 2017, so previous matchups probably don't matter much. The Rockies are 30-40 in the tough NL West. They feature former Twin CJ Cron at first base. He leads the team in homers and RBI. I frankly don't recognize many of their players other than shortstop Jose Iglesias. Starting for the Rockies is German Marquez, who has poor numbers, but who doesn't when you pitch half of your games at Coors Field. The Twins are coming off losing two straight series, first losing two of three in Arizona and then losing two late-inning leads to Cleveland and surrendering first place to the Guardians. For the third straight game Byron Buxton is out of the lineup. Also out are Trevor Larnach and Gary Sanchez. Nick Gordon, Gilberto Celestino and Jose Miranda (apparently Rocco reads TD!) are in the lineup. Dylan Bundy hopes to back up his eight inning performance in Arizona this time against another NL West club (Colorado). I expect many runs to be scored and the winnner will be the team that makes the most of their opportunities. The Twins are virtually tied with Cleveland. The Guardians face the Red Sox this weekend while the Twins wrap up their homestand against Colorado. It is an opportunity to retake the lead and the Twins will being going on the road after this weekend. HITTERS H-AB RBI HR SB AVG C. JoeLF 69-254 16 5 3 .272 Y. DazaCF 58-181 16 0 0 .320 C. BlackmonDH 67-252 38 11 2 .266 C.J. Cron1B 81-274 52 17 0 .296 B. Rodgers2B 60-235 32 6 0 .255 R. McMahon3B 60-242 37 6 0 .248 J. IglesiasSS 63-208 18 0 2 .303 R. GrichukRF 54-211 34 7 2 .256 E. DiazC 35-157 18 4 0 .223 HITTERS H-AB RBI HR SB AVG L. Arraez2B 76-218 25 4 2 .349 C. CorreaSS 59-195 23 7 0 .303 M. KeplerRF 50-208 31 7 2 .240 G. Urshela3B 57-218 29 6 0 .261 A. Kirilloff1B 10-49 5 0 0 .204 J. MirandaDH 29-127 16 4 0 .228 N. GordonLF 38-145 9 2 3 .262 R. JeffersC 30-150 20 5 0 .200 G. CelestinoCF 34-112 5 0 0 .305 PLAYER W-L ERA WHIP IP H K BB HR G. Marquez 3-5 6.16 1.55 73.0 89 66 24 14 D. Bundy 4-3 5.17 1.31 54.0 61 44 10 10

For those among us that have seen the earth orbit the sun more than 50 times, the St. Paul paper had a writer named Don Riley who weekly had an item "scattergunning from the catbird's seat". In a similar fashion,I have several thoughts and have thrown them together for comment: 1) Has anyone seen two wackier late inning victories than the Twins 2-1 win on Friday and the 5-4 walk-off on Tuesday? 2) Raise your hand if you thought at the start of the season that the best lineup against a right hander would include Nick Gordon in left field and Luis Arraez at first base. 3) Is it time to move Carlos Correa down in the lineup temporarily? He seems to be fighting himself at the plate. 4) With three of the next four opponent starters left handed and a roster reduction coming, I think Garlick will be getting his chance, but if he doesn't hit soon he could be the roster casualty. 5) Dylan Bundy's stuff doesn't make anyone go "wow", but his command has been beyond excellent and he knows how to pitch. 6) Things are going well for the Twins now, but the bullpen doesn't have enough impact arms. They either need to go outside the box and convert a minor league starter or outside the organization (my preference). 7) Sano, Correa and Polanco are off to miserable starts, but there are dozens of established major leaguers who aren't hitting. ? I’ll believe that Alex Kirilloff is healed when he starts driving the ball regularly. I'm not convinced he will contribute to this year's team. 9) The schedule in May for the Twins is Charmin soft. They need to take advantage and run of a 20-win month. 10) Joe Ryan and Bailey Ober have been terrific so far. This shouldn't have been taken for granted. Maybe the Twins' staff knows something about developing pitchers after all. Please comment on any of these items or any random thoughts you might have about the 2022 Twins.

The assessment of Twins by Twins fans tends to seek the positive. I read about the good pitching staff and other data that is meant to give hope. I decided to look at stats without trying to promote or complain about the team. It is now after the Memorial day holiday where assessments start to get past the SSS notations. So where are we? The overall position of the Twins in the American League - no divisions standings - has us in 11th place - 5 teams behind us. We are 23rd if we combine all teams. That is not good. In pitching which is our strength this year we are number 8 in the 15 team American League - I think we can safely say that is average - not great, not what we have seen the last few years, but average in ERA and batting average against and strike outs. WE ARE AVERAGE. In batting we are last in runs. 13 of 15 in HR. Number 13 in OBP, Number 14 in slugging. Remember this is out of 15 teams. In fielding we are number 7 in errors and number 6 in fielding pct - if you still follow this stat. So lets think about what these all add up to. A team that is lucky it is in the central division. A team that is better in pitching, worse in fielding and much worse in batting. If we dream of a wild card something has to change.