As I was leaving Target Field tonight, I noticed the game attendance was 33,000 and change. On a beautiful night early in the season with the Boston Red Sox in town, we still had over 6,000 empty seats in Target Field. It used to be that when a team like Boston or NY was in town, we would sellout and have another couple of thousand people packed in the ballpark with standing room only tickets. I know that I plan on going to all the games that I have tickets for this year, but with the product we are putting on the field I can't blame people for not going. This is just getting downright embarassing. They need to do something to shake this thing up, because if they don't it really isn't going to matter anyways. Our pitchers pretty much threw batting practice tonight and the ballpark was just dead. I don't know what else to say at this point. Please Twins, pretty please come out with some fire tomorrow and just salvage one game in this series!

According to Rhett Bollinger, Ron Gardenhire confirmed that Francisco Liriano will skip his next scheduled start and will make his next start in Anaheim on May 1. Gardy said that he attributes Liriano's troubles to both mechanical issues as well as nerves with guys on base. He said that Anderson will watch Liriano throw BP sessions this Thursday and Saturday as they watch for progress.

After Liriano's last start, Gardy said that they would "take a step back" and look at what the next step is for Liriano. I guess they figured that skipping a start was better than sending him to the bullpen. I guess I am not sure if I think this is the right approach. I know with a lot of pitchers I would say skipping a start would be the right thing, but right now Liriano has so much wrong with him that I would advocate that mop up duty in the bullpen might be the best way for him to work on things.

If Gardy were to send Liriano to the bullpen, then the question becomes who takes over as a starter. I know that some have said that Diamond deserves to be brought up and given a shot based on his four excellent outings at AAA so far this year. I agree with this, but I also think swapping Swarzak with Liriano would be okay as well. I do not think Swarzak is a long term solution in the starting rotation, but other than his bad outing against the Yankees he did fine in his first couple of starts of the season. I think he would be serviceable going forward if we were to go the "Liriano to bullpen" route. This would allow the team to evaluate Liriano in some non-meaningful situations and decide if he can eventually come back to the rotation or is best suited to be a reliever.

This a difficult situation to say the least. I am glad I am not the one in charge of deciding what to do with Liriano, but I hope the Twins can figure something out.

I have long ago accepted that the Twins do not have a realistic shot of making the playoffs this year and that it may be a few years before they can legitimately contend. However, I think we as fans can be encouraged by the series split the Twins just earned in the Bronx. I think it seemed like the Twins, for once, were not intimidated by the Yankees. They jumped all over some of the Yankee pitchers and didn't implode every time something bad happened. Although they did not technically win the series, I think this can be a positive point going forward in the season. I think the Twins showed themselves that they can be competitive against the best teams in the league, which is especially important during this very difficult portion of their schedule. I am excited for the series in Tampa to see if the Twins can build on what they did in the Bronx. This lineup can certainly score some runs and the defense, while not spectacular, is certainly better than last year. The bullpen hasn't been as bad I originally thought it would be. The key is going to be getting better starting pitching. I know that is stating the obvious, but if the starters can at least go a little deeper into games and minimize some of the damage, this team could be much more respectable at the end of the season than many thought. I am also very excited to see Morneau start improving the quality of his at-bats and driving the ball with authority. That's all for now...