Thanks!

Frank
frank641w@gmail.com

Yet. It is a long season.

Should be an interesting series. Thanks for breaking down the Native Americans first couple of weeks. The Twins are off to a hot start, having won their first four series for the first time in franchise history. The starting pitching’s been adequate, but not outstanding, with the exception of Frankie Liriano looking like his pre-Tommy John 2006 self in last Thursday’s 8-zip beatdown of FEDBU-lite. The beefier lineup’s made up for it, with the exception of Sunday’s 10-5 loss to the Royals, when they stranded numerous baserunners. Adding J.J. Hardy and Orlando Hudson allowed them to keep Little Nicky Punto over at 3B (platooning with Brendan Harris) and out of any spot in the lineup except ninth.

Once Denard Span (now the everyday center fielder with speedy but erratic Carlos Gomez dealt for Hardy) and Hudson get going at the dish, there’ll be a lot of opportunities for the $184M man and the Big Canadian to knock in some runs. And having Jim Thome’s bat available off the bench is greatly preferable to, say, Jason Tyner’s.

I attended the aforementioned games and boy, oh boy, is Target Field terrific in every way. Reminds me a lot of Progressive Field, except the club restaurant and plaza are on the right field side instead of the left field side. There’s not much foul ground, but pitchers will love the power alleys, where a lot of well-hit balls have become long, loud outs.

It’ll also be cool to see the reception for Mike Redmond’s return. (Have any stories run there yet about his famous Naked Clubhouse Walk or Naked Batting Practice?)

And yes, let’s hope the White Sox are that bad.

Baseballbriefs.com tracking back So Long, Eric Wedge…

I have disliked Wedge since he decided to take the first issues with Milton Bradley public and ruin Bradley’s trade value (admittedly, Shapiro salvaged something out of it, but Bradley was worth more than Gutierrez and his tantrums weren’t public knowledge before Wedge made them public). His insistence on using Rafael Perez in leveraged situations this year, benching of LaPorta (and now Marte), and once-again astounding underperformance just sealed a deal that should have been finished before it started.

I don’t really believe that managers make much of a difference to a ballclub and I think there are a few reasons why the Indians have underperformed their pythagorean expected record that aren’t just Wedge-related. That said, Wedge never deserved the job in the first place and certainly did nothing to warrant seven years in it once he had it, so I’ll shed no tears to see him getting to spend time with his family while drawing a seven-figure salary for 2010.

Yeah, I thought the 22-4 game was going to be the start of a nice run for your club. I texted “We want Swisher!” to a co-worker (the NY native with whom I went to Yankee Stadium last year) in the middle of that big inning. He’d taken the afternoon of the new YS opener off and called me during the 7th to tell me you could hear ‘em chanting that through the TV at the sports bar in which he was drinking heavily.

My club gets the Baby Jesus back Friday–he’ll look great hitting in front of Morneau again–and won’t get Zack Greinke when the Royals are in town this weekend. Kevin Slowey and Sidney Ponson are Friday’s starters, which I’m hoping will be as lopsided as it looks on paper.

Man, it looks like anybody could take the Central this year.