Nice April for Twins

Nice start to the season for the Twins, they finished April with a 15-8 record.  That equates out to 105 wins.  They outscored their opponents 118-87.  Obviously, they will cool down a bit from that start, still it's nice to see.

Some nice starts individually too.  Justin Moreau finished April hitting .347 with 5 HR's and 17 RBI.  Joe Mauer finished at .345, with 13 RBI.  Michael Cuddyer sits at .309/3/18 and Orlando Hudson at .301/1/8.  Francisco Liriano was dominant on the mound with a 3-0 record, 0.90 ERA and 27 K's in 29 innings.  Carl Pavano (3-2/3.73ERA) and Kevin Slowey (3-2/3.77ERA) had nice starts too. Jon Rauch also had 7 saves and a 1.80ERA out of the bullpen.

Red flags?  Dennard Span finished April batting .211 with a .339 OBP, they need better than that from their leadoff hitter.  Joe Mauer had just 1 HR, what happened to the power?  JJ Hardy is batting just .220 with a .281 OBP, he was also limping around quite a bit, they need him to get on track.  They also need better production out of Jason Kubel (.219/2/10) and Delmon Young (.222/2/9).  Starting pitchers Scott Baker (2-2/5.72ERA) and Nick Blackburn (1-1/6.85ERA) must pitch better.  Jose Mijares was also miserable in the bullpen (6.00ERA) before winding up on the DL. 

All in all though a very good start.  Keep it up Twinkies.

A look at the Diamondbacks April on the next page.


The Dbacks struggled to a 11-12 April.  They were outscored 139-134.  I'm guessing they'll finish up somewhere around .500 at the end of the year.  They just have too many holes in their pitching staff to make a run this year.

Bright spots?  The biggest would have to be 2B Kelly Johnson, probably the best free agent signing in baseball to this point (.313 ave, .750 SLG, 9 HR, 18 RBI).  Chris Young seems to be flashing some of his immense potential again (.281/4/21).  Stephen Drew (.298) and Adam LaRoche (.296/4/17) have been solid.  Mark Reynolds has 7 HR's and has been solid in the field.

Signs of trouble?  The starting rotation has been mediocre at best.  Edwin Jackson has really struggled (1-2/6.67 ERA).  Kris Benson is on the DL (after only 3 starts).  The bullpen continues to struggle closing out games (the bullpen has the highest ERA in the National League).  Chad Qualls has an ERA of 9.00.  Miguel Montero injured his knee and is on the DL.  Justin Upton who had a great spring training is struggling with a .213 average, .360 SLG, 3 HR and just 10 RBI.  It's great to see Connor Jackson back after missing most of last year but he's not lighting the world on fire (.267/0/2).

Lots of room for improvement here.