Your first place Minnesota Twins

[J-Dog Dungan]

I have good feelings about this series in KC. Even with their own retooled rotation, the Twins have been making rubes of the Royals over much of the last decade, heck even last year they still managed to win the season series against them.

[PseudoSABR]

It might seem like a sample-size witticism to some, but this team is clearly better than the what's been presented last two years. Being competitive is probably unrealistic, but an eighty win season seems to be in reach.

 

Having healthy pitchers and meaningful production from Plouffe, Parmelee, and Dozier makes this team so much more "watchable," or rather puts the team in a position to win games.

 

Go Twins.

[edavis0308]

They are winning games, and from the games I have watched, Mauer has been pretty terrible overall. It will be nice if he can get his game going here soon.

 

That said, I am hoping that the pitching staff can not be terrible once the weather starts warming up. I tend to think that the cold is actually helping us out a bit.

[Otto von Ballpark]

Any news on Perez and Harden?

 

Ryan said Rich Harden, trying to come back from shoulder surgery, will begin pitching to hitters in Twins camp “in about 10 days,” and lefthander Rafael Perez might throw before that.

Swarzak makes pain-free debut | StarTribune.com

[fairweather]

This is great! The fact that they've done it against 2 teams that have play-off caliber starting pitching gives us hope that it isn't just a brief fleeting aberration. I want to see how good this offense can be against some of the less stacked rotations in baseball.

[Don't Feed the Greed Guy]

It's okay to feel good, considering:

 

2011 April Record: 9-17

2012 April Record: 6-16

 

2013: April Record: 4-2

 

I still think we are in for a .500 season, but considering the talent coming upTwins Daily - Cedar Rapids Kernels Throw A No-Hitter!

I am absolutely giddy about the future... This is what you want to see out of your minor league box scores--players lighting it up early in the season.

 

Buxton hitting .563

Duffey perfect through 7, with 7 strikeouts

Rosario hitting .389

Sano hitting .438

Meyer with a 1.80 ERA

Gibson with a 1.80 ERA

Arcia is hitting .400

Colabello is hitting .600

And Clete Thomas is hitting .357 with only 3 strikeouts in 14 at-bats.

 

Many of these players have moved up a level since last fall. That means they are starting to excel against a higher level of competition. Good early signs. Really good. It almost makes me forget that Diamond has a 7.20 ERA while pitching at Ft. Myers.

[StormJH1]

It's been a very pleasant surprise, and it's nothing but good for the team and keeping some level of interest for the rest of the season. That opening series last year in Baltimore was SO bad, and the team was in such rough shape by the end of May that it was "over" before it even started.

 

I think there's a tendency by a lot of informed baseball minds to poo poo this early success because we feel that it isn't "deserved" or "sustainable". But the rotation has been unexpectedly serviceable and the team has shown a real "fight" to them in the late innings of games. Both are definitely good to see.

[Oldgoat_MN]

They look like the Bizarro 2005 Twins. Instead of RF/RA being almost equal in the high 600's, they will be almost equal in the high 800's

 

That would certainly make the games fun to watch. And our desperation for pitching even more apparent.

[Rosterman]

The secret is to win series. Win series. Anyway you can.

[mggopher]

[Brock Beauchamp]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]3707[/ATTACH]

 

I can't help but laugh every time I think of that scene.

[Oxtung]

I can't help but laugh every time I think of that scene.

 

Totally agree. That made me laugh, literally.

 

On a related note, can we get this thread locked and then pinned to the top so that about a month from now when we're already out of contention we can look back at this thread and day dream about what it was like to be leading the division?

[ashbury]

This thread is kind of a joke but still, I didn't expect we'd be able to say that on April 7th... April 2nd, maybe.

 

Sole possession of first, even!

 

And it took, what, 7 more days, but now it must be said (and I won't bother opening a new thread for such triviality): Your last place Minnesota Twins. Sole possession, even!