Twins Take Series

The Twins beat the Rays 8-3 tonight behind a strong pitching performance by Nick Blackburn and 3 hits a piece from the top three spots in the order. The bullpen continued to struggle, though, as Luis Ayala gave up a run in the ninth and Craig Breslow once again had trouble finding the plate in his inning of work. However, the game overall was a positive as the Twins took the rubber match in the three game set with the Rays, especially as they did it against a tough lefty starter in Scott Kazmir. Also, they've now managed a .500 record through the Mauer-less part of the schedule.

And that brings us to a new topic: Joe Mauer's return to the lineup. Mauer will be back with the Twins on Friday for their weekend series with the Royals, and the Twins now have a roster decision to make regarding their catchers. Despite Gardenhire's comments earlier this week about potentially keeping three catchers, there is no way that I see the Twins actually doing that. Some people have suggested that the Twins may cut Mike Redmond in order to keep the hot-hitting Jose Morales in Minnesota. I never saw that happening, and unsurprisingly news came out today about Redmond having a sore shoulder. I have no doubt that Redmond may be sore; he is a catcher after all. However, if the Twins didn't have Mauer coming back and Morales playing well, it would be a non-issue, but instead it will most likely be used as an excuse to put Redmond on the DL. Then, the Twins can let Morales hang around for a little longer and put off their decision on what to do with Redmond.

Weekend Wrap-up

Despite losing the finale of their 3-game set with the Indians, the Twins really impressed me this weekend. Last weekend's sweep of the Angels was certainly a good series, but this one actually gave me more confidence in the Twins. Their pitching has finally started to come around, as both Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey had very nice starts. We knew Glen Perkins wasn't going to pitch eight innings every time out, and his performance on Sunday was not awful. Even the bullpen held up their end of things, as Jose Mijares and Joe Nathan each threw a scoreless inning on Friday, Luis Ayala helped Slowey out of a jam on Saturday, and Matt Guerrier, Craig Breslow, and Ayala combined for three shutout innings on Sunday. That's five different relievers, none of whom allowed a run in the weekend series. As a whole, the Twins gave up just 6 runs to a team that came in averaging 6 runs per game.

The Twins offense also had a solid performance. Jason Kubel hit two home runs on Saturday, his third and fourth of the year, for his third career multi-home run game. Delmon Young had three hits on Saturday and finished the series with his average up to .255. Jose Morales picked up four hits in the finale and is now hitting a tidy .375.

This brings us to the subject of catcher, and with Joe Mauer set to return Friday, you have to wonder if Morales isn't the better option to back him up. Obviously I don't think the team is considering getting rid of Mike Redmond, but Morales has easily been a superior player thus far. You have to give Redmond some leeway as he's proven to be a solid catcher offensively and defensively, but he will also turn 38 years old on May 5th and his performance is way down.

From 2005 to 2007, Redmond hit .312/.353/.381, but he batted just .287/.321/.333 in 2008 before starting this year with an abysmal .226/.258/.314 line. His OPS has also fallen at least 50 points every year since 2006. His arm has declined, too. From 2005 to 2007, Redmond caught 41.2 % of potential basestealers (35/85); last season, though, he caught just 21.7 % (5/23) and this season he's only thrown out 9.1 % (1/11). Despite this drop in caught stealing percent, he has still not made an error since joining the Twins in 2005 and his passed ball this year was his first since 2005.

All of which is to say that Redmond's slow start may be more than that. Granted, I think he will hit better than a .572 OPS over the course of the season, but some of that is most likely an irretrievable decline. Because of his veteran status and general amiability, I seriously doubt the Twins would think of letting him go. I wouldn't be surprised, however, if he's quickly sent to the DL due to a minor or lingering injury at some point this season to give Morales an opportunity to stay with the Twins.

And your weekly pick-me-up Seinfeld clip:

Opening Day notes

• It was good to see C.C. Sabathia get bashed by the Orioles; hopefully this is a prelude to another disappointing season for the Yankees and then another long off-season explaining why they can't win with a budget as big as the recent bail-out.
• Johan Santana picked up a win in his Opening Day start for the Mets, pitching 5 2/3 innings and allowing just one run. The much-maligned bullpen showed its improvement by holding the Reds scoreless for the rest of the game.
• Kansas City and Chicago now lead the Central division thanks to their rain-out and subsequent 0-0 record. Detroit and Cleveland both got pounded.
• Mike Redmond suffered a groin injury--it seems unlikely he'll be starting tonight, given the fact that it's a possibility he's heading to the DL. That would be bad news because I have no interest in seeing Drew Butera behind the plate with any regularity.

As for the Twins' opening game, it was obviously not what we wanted. But there's 161 games left. Francisco Liriano's performance was encouraging, as he allowed only four hits and zero walks in seven innings. Any time you allow just four baserunners in seven innings, you've had a good outing. Unfortunately, timely situational hitting and home runs got all four of them across the plate. Joe Crede got his first Twins hit and Michael Cuddyer drove in the first run of the year. Luis Ayala had a tidy 1-2-3 inning in his first appearance, but the bullpen was sloppy in the ninth, allowing two runs to score. The Twins also failed mightily with runners in scoring position, but hey, it's just one game.

Looking forward to game #2.