- Although the Twins lost 2 of 3 to their arch-rivals from the South Side, Carlos Silva's potentially season-ending injury was the story of the weekend. It sorta blindsided everyone, including those people in the organization, especially given how well he pitched last Wednesday. I will go on the record with this right now: I do not think that Joe Mays will be an adequate replacement for The Jackal. I may have been able to live with either Kyle Lohse or Joe Mays stinking it up every five days, but both? I'm not so sure about that. I almost guarentee that Mays will struggle initially (which is at least somewhat understandable, given the fact that he hasn't started a game since Aug. 29, 2003) but I will still be surprised if he regains his long-lost effectiveness this year at all. Mays was hit pretty hard towards the end of spring training and in his only appearance of the season on Friday.
And as Aaron Gleeman states today, Dave Gassner isn't the answer to our problems either. He's a soft throwing lefty who might fool some bad teams (hopefully) but probably isn't going to be mowing down quality major leaguers anytime soon. - Justin Morneau's extended absence also has me worried about the state of the Twins. Originally it was thought that he would be out only a day or two, but now the timetable is very uncertain. He'll see a specialist today, and it is sounding more and more like there might be something pretty serious wrong.
- The new-look Go-Go Sox impressed me this weekend in taking two of three. The Twins did not play particularly well either Friday or Saturday, but the ChiSox deserve a lot of credit for putting both of those games away with some timely hits and timely thrown double play balls. The Sox were dismissed by much of the media this past winter, predicted to finish as low as fourth in many preseason predictions, but I wouldn't be surprised if they stick around for quite a while this year after seeing them play firsthand.
- The Twins defense has been a little disappointing through six games. We all knew it probably would suffer with the departures of Dougie, Koskie, and Guzman, and that indeed seems to be the case. Cuddyer can be absolutely infuriating at third sometimes, making a spectacular play in the hole but then botching a routine grounder or throw. And LeCroy makes Morneau look like Dougie Baseball himself over at first - that's how bad he looks. He misplayed a couple of balls early in the game Sunday that could have made things dicey for Johan. I seriously can't wait until we get him off the field and into the dugout where he belongs.
Rivas also had a mental gaffe last night, failing to cover second in time on a steal attempt. I believe Corky Miller would have had his first highlight as a Twin if Louie had not been so slow (the runner probably would have been out). - "Sweet" Lew, the Official Player of this Blog, has had a rough start to the season. He's got just four singles so far this season (at least two of them infield singles) and I have yet to see him hit the ball with authority. Has the bubble burst for everyone's favorite computer geek? I sure hope not, but Lew's going to have to make some adjustments relatively soon if he hopes to stay in the lineup on an everyday basis.
That's all I've got for you today. If you disagree/agree/don't care about what I said today, feel free to express that inner voice in the comments section below. I (or possibly even John!) will be back with more Twins Chatter tomorrow.
-Ryan Maus
twinsfan21@msn.com
