Twins_Fan_in_NJ

Again late to the party....but, dare I say it, this team is exciting!

Also, what the heck happened to Duran? He looked like a future star a couple of years ago. Has regressed the last couple of seasons to the point where I'd be surprised if he's in Boston beyond this year.

Longest road trip of the season. Against teams the Twins can compete with. Winning trip is essential if they're going to stay in the wildcard race and possibly the division race. 2-0 is a great start.

Contreras is a former catcher, right? Could tell by his reaction to Caratini that he knew it was a d*** move and risked injury to both players.

No issues with Shelton going to and sticking with Morris. Those situations show you what a player is made out of and it's invaluable experience.

Late to the party again, but nice win despite the nail biting 9th. Sure it's been discussed but I liked Caratini showing some emotion there and standing up for himself. Best part of that whole sequence was SWR running in from the pen. Guy was going full speed just looking to take out frustrations.

Late to the party but really nice win. Props to the bullpen, especially Adams.

If Kreidler is a 'lot more than just depth', something has gone horribly, horribly wrong.

Presumably, the Twins didn't want to mess with the 40-man roster for what could be a 3-4 game absence for Gray so it was always going to be Gonzalez or Mendez. Excited to see what the youngster can do!

Instead of trading assets and controllable talent in hopes of making a run, I'd be more excited about the Twins if they signed Jeffers and Ryan to an extension and started having discussions with Bradley about the same. Snowball's chance in hell but that's what I would like to see.

This road trip will be an interesting one. Longest trip of the season and teams - Red Sox, White Sox, Pirates - that the Twins should be able to compete with. Have a winning trip (6-4) and come back to Target Field hovering around .500 the first week of June. Keep things interesting for as long as possible - and while I'll continue to root for the players no matter what - when it comes to the front office, I have zero confidence that they'll do right by the team or the fans.

Cleveland always surprises me. I'm not sure how they win as much as they do. But, alas, they've gained some separation. While I expect them to regress a little bit, along with the White Sox, I think Detroit will eventually right the ship just enough to make a run. The Twins could hang around in the AL Central for another few weeks, but it will be a tall task with this line up. Who would have thought the bullpen wouldn't be the main problem right now?! There's always the path to the wildcard - that usually stays a jumbled mess well into September - but even with that, I think Seattle and Toronto will go on extended runs as they get healthy. If being 'in it' was really a priority, the Twins would have approached the previous off-season much differently than they did. The only questions for me - when do they trade Ryan and Jeffers - and if / when do we see Jenkins, Rodriguez, Culpepper, Mendez, etc..

Gonzalez and Mendez are really the only two options, right? Unless they want to do some maneuvering with the 40 man roster and bring up Ross or Schobel?

Well, I'm headed out - t-ball game awaits. Hopefully the Twins hold on.

Keaschall is going to find himself in St. Paul if this continues much longer. Good grief.