A Big July Start

I know things don't really matter until Aug/September, but the Twins are facing a decided little gut check stretch. After squaring off with the Tigers (congrats Mauer on your first grand slam) the twins will play a four game set at the Yankees and then finish up the 1st half with four games at Chicago.

The Yankees and Chicago are struggling...could it be possible that the Twins take 2 of 3 from Detroit, 3 of 4 from NY and 3 of 4 from Chicago??? Could the Twins pull together a nice little run before the break and cut the Indians lead down to 2 or 3?

With Morneau back, Santana finding his rhythm, Redmond always hitting clutch doubles and the idea of putting some pie in Chicago's face has me very excited and anxious for this next week of baseball.

The Saga Continues…

Two days after sweeping the White Sox, the Twins are being labeled as "dirty" and being considered "overachievers" by the Chicago media. In an article by Joe Cowley (see link below for article) of the Chicago-Sun Times, he writes that the Twins would be considered "dirty" if they were a big market team, but since they are a small market team it is considered "hard-nose" according to Cowley.

Cowley article: http://www.suntimes.com/sports/baseball/whitesox/410224,CST-SPT-joe01.article

Leave it to a beat writer from the second best paper in Chicago to bash the Twins. This is the same writer who voted Jeter sixth in the MVP voting last year, so how can he be taken seriously. He talks about Punto who slid hard into second base on a force play and accuses him of giving a forearm to Iguchi on the play. First of all, Punto slid into second before the ball was there. Second, Punto was trying to stop with a pop-up slide and trying NOT to hit Iguchi who was falling away from the base anyway. Punto's momentum carried him into Iguchi.

Cowley also referred to the A.J. incident with Morneau. He writes,

"While Sox catcher A.J. Pierzynski still was being treated like Public Enemy No. 1 because he dared to accidentally clip Justin Morneau's foot Monday, there was Twins third baseman Nick Punto in the ninth inning Wednesday, going into second base hard on an attempted force play."

Saying that A.J. "accidentally" clipped Morneau's foot is quite a stretch. A.J. can claim all he wants that it was an accident and make apologies, but when your right foot, the one on the opposite side of your body while running the bases, and not your left foot clips the first baseman's heel, that's a reach. Think about it, in order for your right foot to clip the first baseman's heel, you have to make the effort to step across a base that is at least a twelve inches wide in order to touch the heel that is on the edge of the base. Sounds pretty "dirty" to me.

The term "overachievers" also bothered me. With the likes of Johan (Cy Young), Mauer (Batting Champ), and Morneau (MVP) you cannot tell me that they are "overachievers." The term "overachiever" should be saved for teams that do it once and are not expected to do it again, such as George Mason in the NCAA, and not those with nine division titles and two world series under their belt. Even if you look their recent success this team still has four division titles in five years. In defense of our 'cuddly' Twins, I would have to say we are not "overachievers" but we should come to expect the Twins to be successful year in and year out.