Early season surprises
With the start of the 2009 season, I would not have expected that twenty games into the season, Toronto would be leading the AL East, Seattle would be leading the AL West and their would be four way battle between Detroit, Chicago, Kansas City and Minnesota for the AL Central.
The Twins have had a few surprises of their own. Many including myself, expected the Twins to be at the top of the central division, but so far, they are a game behind Kansas City and Chicago and two behind Detroit.
This is a three part post which will go over the good, the bad and the ugly of the current season.
The Good
With the loss of Joe Mauer and Mike Redmond’s uncanny ability to get injured in every game he plays, it was a relief to see catcher Jose Morales play well. He has been behind the plate for the majority of games and as of late seems to have found his stroke with the bat.
The in-field of Morneau, Casilla, Punto and Crede has seen some success, but the real surprise has been Brendan Harris. Harris has found his way onto the field in a large portion of games and is hitting .317 with a .457 slugging percentage.
In the outfield, there have not been many surprises. Many were reporting that Denard Span would be a complete bust this season, but Span has been stellar in his first 20 games. Leading off, Span has been at the plate 76 times and is hitting .303.
Offensively the biggest surprise has been the performance of Jason Kubel. I have to admit that when Kubel squeezed out a 7.2 million two year contract from the Twins, I thought he got a great deal from an extremely frugile ball club. Now it appears to me that the Twins may have gotten the better of the Belle Fourche, SD native.
Kubel is batting .310 with a slugging percentage of .592. Kubel highlight was April 17 when he hit for the cycle, topped with a 7 run 8th inning when Kubel hit a Grand Slam to put the Twins ahead 11 to 9 against the LA Angels.
In regard to pitching, the nicest surprise has been Glen Perkins and R.A. Dickey.
It is hard to believe that someone who pitched the first three games that Perkins did would have a record of one win and two loses, but that is the way it goes in baseball. Perkins has had great control and has pitched 29 innings in 4 starts. He went 8 innings against the LA Angels and only had 85 pitches when Nathan came in relief in the 9th.
Having secured his position on the team do to the Scott Baker injury, R.A. Dickey showed may Twins fan that he has game. The knuckleballer won his first start with the Twins against the Chicago White Sox. With Baker back, Dickey is transitioning to the middle reliever roll, but should be able to move into a starting pitching roll if needed.
The Twins brought back up Jose Mijares and recently signed Juan Morillo off of waivers. Mijares was brought up beacause of an injury to Jesse Crain. He has dropped some of the weight he gained and has pitched effectively for the Twins. Morillo has some heat in his fast ball and has looked good, but the knock on him is control. It will be up to pitching coach Rick Anderson to help Morillo fine tune his delivery and become a more accurate fastballer.
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