Twins Survive Boston

Twinks 7, Red Sux 3 (Box Score)

“I felt good in the ’pen. I felt my fastball was good, but I guess it wasn’t as good as I expected or wanted it to be,” said Buchholz to the Providence Journal. “It might have been that I was trying to throw too hard, like I do sometimes.* Then I pulled a few of them (wide of the plate). I have to find that happy medium. I was leaving pitches up and they got hit. And when I went to my off-speed stuff they were all over it. It seemed like they were right on every first-pitch changeup."

*I don't know if there are any 30 Rock viewers out there but on last week's episode Jenna Merony, the ditsy, self-involved blonde actress on the show-within-the-show TGS with Tracey Jordan, admitted to loving to use a 'backdoor brag'. This, she said, was the act of "Sneaking something wonderful about yourself in everyday conversation". The example she uses is "Its hard for me to watch American Idol because I have perfect pitch." Buchholz saying "I was trying to throw too hard, like I do sometimes" is vaguely similar to this, as if he were trying to remind everyone of his great velocity. Still, when you sport more than four necklaces at a give time and you are not the lead singer of Rush, you are chalked full of douchbaggery. I would bet he pops more than two collars at any given time.

According to pitch f/x data, Buchholz didn't throw that many first-pitch changeups. At least not to any of the Twins batters in the first through the fourth where he started only Brendan Harris and Michael Cuddyer with changeups previously. The quote is mostly likely Buchholz recalling his last three batters (Michael Cuddyer, Craig Monroe and Delmon Young) in which he threw four pitches - three of them change-ups - and all resulted in hits. Cuddyer thwacked a line-drive up the middle on a 80-mph change, sending Joe Mauer to 3rd. Craig Monroe was started with a 82-mph slider in the dirt but laced a double on the ensuing 79-mph changeup scoring Mauer and Cuddyer from first. At this juncture in the 5th, it is six to three Twins with Monroe on second and only one out. In the last two at-bats, three pitches were thrown and two of them were changeups. With this in mind, catcher Jason Varitek and his battery-mate, 23-year-old Buchholz set to work on Delmon Young stubbornly determined to prove that Clay's changeup works. Young proved the Boston duo wrong, sending his first-pitch 77-mph changeup through the middle to score Monroe, effectively ending Buchholz's night.

The Twins are finishing what is possibly the hardest four-game stretch in the next two weeks with a 3-1 record. In the last ten game prior to Monday night's victory, the Twins offense was hitting .276/.333/.409 while scoring 60 runs during a stretch when they went 7-3. The pitching faired well with a 4.09 era though allowing a batting line of .281/.334/.449 against three of the better hitting clubs in the American League: Chicago, Detroit and Boston. In from Cleveland comes Toronto, a 18-22 ball club that is every bit of a disappointment in the American League East as the Tampa Bay Rays are a pleasant surprise. In the Blue Jays' most recent ten games prior to the doubleheader against Cleveland on Monday, Toronto has hit .265/.316/.395 while scoring just 25 runs but winning six out of ten thanks to a sharp pitching staff, one that limited opponents to just 38 runs and a .202/.265/322 batting line.

This will certainly present a challenge to the Twins lineup who must remain persistant. Roy Halladay will be a tough equation to solve. In his career against the Twins he has pitched 64.1 innings with a 6-0 record in 8 starts thanks to a 2.66 era and 45 strikeouts. He will be matching up against Boof Bonser on Wednesday night.

Where's He Going to Go From Here?

On June 1st, 2007 Kevin Slowey took the mound against the Oakland Athletics in front of ESPN's national coverage. In comparison to the current season in which the Twins are clinging to 1st in the AL Central with a record that is one game above .500, at that juncture in 2007 the Twins were 28-25 and were hoovering in third place six games out of first. The Twins had rattled off four straight wins to achieve their third place position thanks to a sweep of the White Sox. Cleveland would finish a sweep of the Tigers as the Twins opened their six-game swing on the West Coast against two formidable opponents, the A's and the Angels. This would be a pivotal road trip in the season if they wanted remain in contention with Detroit and Cleveland.

Just two days prior to Slowey's debut, the Twins finally sent Ramon Ortiz to the bullpen following his May 26th start against Toronto where he gave the Twins six innings but surrendered three home runs on his way to six runs. This was the final straw in the Ortiz saga, one that began with five straight quality starts in which the Twins won four of them. "Ramon overthrows, then he tries to nibble," Rick Anderson told the Star Tribune after Ramon had failed to complete five innings against Milwaukee, "He's not pitching with confidence and attacking the zone. I don't think he pitched inside today." In those first five starts, Ortiz went 35 innings and possessed a 2.57 era and held batters to a .217/.266/.364 batting line. Meanwhile his last three had been 11 disastrous innings resulting in an era of 12.27 and a batting line of .370/.410/.593.

Enough was enough. The Twins, repositioning Ortiz to the bullpen, recalled the right-hander who had blown through the ranks from Rochester. In 366 innings of minor league work Slowey has struck out 361 batters (25.5% strikeout rate) and walked just 52 (3.6%) resulting in a minuscule 0.84 whip. Just 20 times was Slowey hit deep, a home run rate of 1.4%. This swift ascension through the minors, from Elizabethton in 2005 to Rochester to start the 2007 season, coupled with his undeniable success would led anyone to believe that Slowey would merge seamlessly into Minnesota. After all, the Twins farm system has groomed dozens of less qualified pitchers that had success under Rick Anderson tutelage.

In six innings of work that June night Slowey gave up just one run on a solo-home run by Eric Chavez, scattered five hits while striking out three. He showed glimpses of what had earned him rave reviews from scouts during the spring, including getting out of a one-out bases-loaded jam in the first by getting Chavez to pop out and Bobby Crosby to ground out. The Twins scored two runs in the 10th to secure the win, but the win went to Neshek rather then Slowey. The Chavez home run, however, began a run of eight starts in which Slowey. In fact, in his first 42 innings pitched Slowey gave up 14 home runs. Opponents were slugging .611 off of him in that time. The Twins moved Slowey into the bullpen to have him attempt to learn more about his major league opponents who were taking advantage of Slowey's impecible control. By September 11th, Slowey was back in the rotation. In his last three starts to conclude the season, Slowey tossed 18.2 innings without giving up a home run and held opponents to just .208/.208/.319.

It was his first start of 2007 and his last three to close out the year - in addition to him minor league numbers - that the Twins had essentially wrote him in stone into the starting rotation as Johan Santana, Carlos Silva and Matt Garza made an exodus from Minnesota. During the spring, Slowey threw 10.7 innings that were below the standard that had been created for him. True, in that time he struck out 13 and walked just 5 but now Slowey was tagged for 17 hits, three of which were home runs (leading the staff). Of course, if we were judging by spring stats, Livan Hernandez would already have been cut rather than winning seven of his eight starts. An earlier season injury set Slowey back once again following 3.1 innings in the fourth game of the season.

Returning to the rotation this afternoon after a three-game minor league rehab tour, Slowey pitch fairly well. For four innings, Slowey kept the White Sox at bay. The fifth proved difficult as Slowey gave up career home run numbers 18 and 19 to Jermaine Dye and Juan Uribe. It is possible that we cannot gauge Slowey by the significantly high bar that he had set in the minors but rather as the pitcher that keeps his team in the game. Thursday afternoon, completing five innings and striking out four, Slowey left with a Game Score of 51. This means that he pitched well enough to keep his team in the game only his offense could not return the favor.

The minor league Slowey has yet to come to fruition in the big leagues in spite of bursting with promise and potential. With high-impact rookie pitching debuts such as Francisco Liriano, Twins fans might come to expect their prospects to be delivered major league ready when more often than not, it takes plenty of adaptation before settling into a career. Below are the numbers of two pitchers after their first 70 and 72 major league innings:

	Innings	HR	BB	SO	ERA	AVG	OBP	SLG
Player A	70	17	11	49	4.89	.288	.312	.542
Player B	72	14	18	34	6.00	.313	.352	.544

Player A is Kevin Slowey, stats are from prior until Thursday afternoon's start which do not include the two home runs. As you will notice, he has quite the inflated slugging average against thanks to seventeen home runs. Fortunately eleven have been solo home runs which has kept his era reasonable. Player B is another player Twins fans should be familiar with: Brad Radke. Of course it is the easiest comparison as Slowey has been labeled as the right-handed strike-thrower heir since he was drafted into the organization that groomed Radke into a pitcher with a .516 winning percentage (a muted winning percentage, thanks to some awful late 1990s teams) with his unwavering control. The major difference between the two is that Slowey compiled his first 70 major league innings as a 23 and 24-year-old, Radke was just 22-years-old in his first 72 innings. At age 24 Slowey is just starting to learn major league hitters as Radke, at 24, was a 20-game winner in his third professional season.

As the innings start to amass, Slowey will being to learn what pitches to which batters are more likely to land in the seats and make the necessary adjustments. But now he needs to do it more quickly. With Baker now on the DL, the Twins need Slowey to perform if they expect to retain possession of first. The Tigers and the Indians (not to mention the White Sox) all have the potential of striking back quickly as the Twins prepare for a four-game home series against the best team in the American League. From here on out in 2008, the Twins need Slowey to become the type of pitcher Radke was at age 24 in spite of far less experience.

Chicago White Sox Series Preview

In attempts to resurrected the week-long dorment bats, resident frat-boy Nick Swisher is being accused of placing two inflatable female dolls in provocative positions (and bats inserted into the dolls) while at the Rogers Centre clubhouse hoping to inspire the rest of the team into hitting better. Chicago Sun-Tribune's Carol Swezak, obviously disgusted by the gesture, wrote "can you imagine the Yankees or Red Sox building a similar shrine in their locker room, in full view of clubhouse visitors? Can you imagine Joe Girardi or Terry Francona allowing that to happen? I can't." This event follows manager Ozzie Guillen's profanity laced tirade in Toronto where Gullien said "'We won it a couple years ago, and we're horse[bleep],'' Guillen said. ''The Cubs haven't won in 120 years, and they're the [bleep]ing best. [Bleep] it, we're good. [Bleep] everybody. We're horse[bleep], and we're going to be horse[bleep] the rest of our lives, no matter how many World Series we win. We are the bitch of Chicago. We're the Chicago bitch. We have the worst owner -- the guy's got seven [bleep]ing rings, and he's the [bleep]ing horse[bleep] owner.''

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that these two franchises should be in reverse order than they current are situated in the American League Central. After all, Bill James' Pythagorean win-loss record shows the White Sox as a 17-13 team while the Twins should be two games below .500, not two games ahead in the division. Is it the hitting? Well, the White Sox are scoring 4.48 runs per game (6th) while the Twins are scoring only 4.13 (11th). The White Sox have slugged 38 home runs -tops in the league- to the Twins 16, tied for the Kansas City Royals for last in the American League. How about the pitching? There too the White Sox have outshone the Twins limiting opponents to 3.87 (3rd) runs allowed per game versus 4.33 runs per game (6th). Plus the Chicago staff has only allowed 17 home runs -the lowest in the league- to Minnesota's 32. Going into today's series the White Sox have hit 21 more home runs while the Twins have been out-homered by 16. The White Sox bullpen has been every bit as good as the Twins bullpen. In 79 innings, the White Sox relief staff has compiled a 3.28 era while the Twins secondary pitchers have throw 95 innings with a 3.22 era. Yet on the morning of May 6th, the Twins found themselves at 16-14 winning their past five games and the Sox, at 14-16, were coming off a six game losing streak. Look all you want but you won't find any glaringly obvious reasons why the Twins are two games ahead of the Sox. In spite of a low batting average than the Twins (.229 to .260) the Sox have had more success reaching base (.318 to .310) and slugged better as well too (.391 to .374) so far in 2008. Nevertheless, the two teams are like ships passing in the night on Lake Michigan: Since the six game skid began, White Sox have hit just .170/.224/.272 in 203 plate appearances meanwhile during the five game winning streak the Twins have torched the ball hitting .293/.346/.445 in their last 181 plate appearance.

What the First?

For six consecutive batters to start the final game of the Detroit series, Boof Bonser was the grand marshall of the Tigers' hit parade. Curtis Granderson greeted him with a shot that landed seven rows above the beloved Baggy and the inning digressed into a series of unfortunate events including Placido Polanco's infield single off Bonser himself. The high-priced Motown lineup surgically sprayed line-drives over the Dome's turf Miguel Cabrera, Magglio Ordonez and Carlos Guillen all singled, accumulating two more runs. With Marcus Thames accounting for the only out of the first inning thus far with a foul pop to Mauer, the right-handed batting Edger Renteria doinked a low-and-away curve just over the head of the lumbering Justin Morneau and in front of the charging Michael Cuddyer scoring the bushy-haired Magglio Ordonez.

Prior to the game, the Tigers manager Jim Leyland reiterated his desire to have an increasingly mobile team. "A lot of it has to do with we’re not a motion team, we’re not a first-to-third team -- guys aren’t going first-to-third and sliding and making it on a close play. We’ve got to do better at that. Our secondary leads (the lead a player takes after the pitcher releases the ball) -- we’re going to have to keep harping on that." Leyland told the press. Leyland's pledge to implement his movement plan came to fruition in the first. With Miguel Cabrera batting with a 1-2 count Leyland attempt a hit and run. As Polonco dug for second, Cabrera fouled off the Bonser offering. Nevertheless Cabrera singled to Gomez later in that at-bat advancing Polonco regardless. Ordonez, the subsequent batter, singled to left on an 84-mph 3-2 slider with both Polonco and Cabrera in motion on the play. Polanco traipsed home with ease. A team that had been known for their long-ball, with a .437 slugging percentage (1st in the AL), were hitting and running all over the place.

It was as hapless as Bonser, who had been consistent for all but his Tampa Bay starts, had been this season. To be sure, his 2-4 record may invite plenty of naysayers but Bonser had been one of the most reliable pitchers on the staff. He could hardly be faulted if his offense failed to provide him even two runs of support per outing. Now in the Dome with the lone out and already down by five runs, he looked like a man presented with the task to solve a mathematics equation writing in hieroglyphics. You could see the motor in his mind churning as he wound up on the losing end of all but one of his first seven battles - even luck had left the Dome to enjoy the spring weather following Renteria's bloop.

With runners on the corners following Renteria's duckfart, Bonser focused in on the Tigers catcher, Ivan Rodriguez.

A lot of pundits like to make light of how impressive the Detroit line-up is with a future Hall of Famer in Rodriguez batting eighth. This revelation was not overlooked by our very own Fox Sports Net commentators. Eighth, of course, is exactly where a hitter like Rodriguez should be batting. This is because Rodriguez is grossly overrated at this point in his career. In his early years, Rodriguez was bar none the best defensive catcher in baseball. His arm was legendary. His bat was decent: between 22 and 25 years old, while cozying into the new offense injected Ballpark at Arlington, he was a 10-15 home run guy with a batting average that fell between .260 and .300. The strike-shortened 1994 season may have hindered his power potential as he hit 16 home runs in 363 at-bats when the season was halted. However, when he started at age 26 in 1998 Rodriguez began to swat the ball everywhere as he finished with a career best 21 home runs and a .321/.358/.513 batting line. In 1999, Rodriguez put together his finest season at 27 - in fact, if you look at his baseball-reference page, you will undoubtedly notice that if his career is a bell jar, this was certainly the pinnicle. He finished with 35 home runs and a .332/.356/.558 batting line. Even more curious is that Rodriguez attempted 37 stolen bases (successful on 25 of them) - 21 attempts more that season than his next highest season (16). For all this, Rodriguez was awarded the AL MVP. (It would be an injustice just to suggest his bat elevated him to the best player in the American League, as a catcher he logged 1,208 innings behind the plate and only allowed one (1!) passed ball all year.) Since 1999, production has since decline to the levels that it was at during his 22-25 years. This is a typical evolution in a player's career. You hit 30 years old and you no longer have the same batting eye, timing or wrist strength that you did at 25. However, as former teammate Jose Canseco suggests, I have to also believe that between 1997 and 2000 while playing with Texas, Ivan Rodriguez was on PEDs. A team that once boasted known PED users including Canseco, Rafael Palmerio and Juan Gonzalez probably influenced Ivan Rodriguez as well. Back in the present nearly a decade removed from the MVP season, Rodriguez deserves to bat eight because he is not someone that is reliable at getting on base to begin with. Last season, Rodriguez walked just nine times in 515 plate appearances (a walk rate of 1.7%). This led to an on-base percentage of .294, his lowest since two seasons before when he finished with a .290 obp due to walking just 11 times in 525 plate appearances (2.0% walk rate). This is the definition of an eight hitter.

Whether it was preordained by the Tiger coaches on the bench, an oversight by the interim Twins manager or simply Boof Bonser not believing 32-year-olds can run, Renteria was given free reign on the basepaths. True, in the past few seasons Renteria's ability to take second base has leveled off from his 2003 season in which he swiped 37 bases while with the Cardinals. When he did run, Renteria did so with precision. Last year he stole just 11 times in 13 attempts for the Atlanta Braves. It could have been that Bonser was to preoccupied with finally getting a second out that he completely zoned out whatever action may have been coiled on the basepaths. Whatever the reason maybe be for allowing Renteria to close the gap between himself and 2nd now closer to 83 feet away. With a 1-1 count on Rodriguez, Bonser rolled off an 78-mph curveball and Renteria took second with almost as much defensive indifference as the French army. This maneuver by the new-look Tigers effectively eliminated the double-play ball and put Renteria a single away from adding to that Tiger lead that was sitting at four.

Again, Bonser focused in on Rodriguez ahead in the count 1-2 - with Renteria now 90 feet closer to home. In his previous 1-2 count to Cabrera, Bonser came in with his curveball that was whacked to center for another hit and another run. Fresh in his mind, Bonser dropped the curveball below the strikezone and into the dirt. Rodriguez tried to hold up his swing at a ball that was making a short free-fall the distance of Rodriguez's knee to his ankles. To date, Joe Mauer had inspired as much confidence as Rodriguez did several years back behind the plate. In 2006, Mauer's last injury-free season, Joe logged 1059 innings and only allowing just 5 passed balls. Up until Bonser's 80 mph curveball to Rodriguez, Mauer had worked 220 innings without succumbing to a passed ball. This one, however, did not take the anticipated hop that Joe was looking for, instead, the tumbling ball hit the dirt and ran the ground to the backstop. This brought Guillen home from third and Renteria moved up yet again, now a total of 360 feet since his protecting the plate swing.

Bonser threw possibly his best pitch of the inning to Rodriguez only to have it five-hole the catcher that can count his passed balls allowed on his throwing hand. More contemplation appeared on Bonser's face as his pitch counted neared 35. Without the use of long-man Brian Bass, who filled in for Scott Baker the night before after his night was cut short following the third inning, Scott Ullger called on Bobby Korecky to begin loosening up in the bullpen. Renteria was comfortably at third and Rodriguez stood at first base - knowing full well he shouldn't be - with the confidence of college student who just snuck into a bar on a terribly fake ID.

Hope was on the horizon as former Twins Jacque Jones dug in at the plate who had been as close to an automatic out there could be. Never mind that if his season ended today .173/.256/.267 would be printed on the back of his baseball card for all the boys and girls to read, in the past week alone Jones had been hitting .063/.11/.125. Jones complied and struck out on four pitches (the punch-out slider may have been a mercy call by the umpire). There it was, five runs down without a single at-bat had by a Twins batter but the end was in sight. There were two outs as Detroit flipped its order back to the top to Granderson who, four runs ago, initiated the scoring.

Runners on the corners again, Bonser took his second attempt of the inning at subduing Granderson. Following a ball, the count pulled even at 2-2. On the following pitch Rodriguez broke for second. Mauer, who up until this point had not committed an error on the season, short-hopped Nick Punto on the throw which skipped towards Carlos Gomez in centerfield. Renteria scored as Rodriguez checked in at second. There it was: rock bottom. The moment of sheer disbelief. Bonser had thrown everything at the past few hitters but only to have the same results as the run total for the Tigers increased. Defensively he was not getting any assistance - Mauer's throw was bad and Punto should have gloved it. Three pitches later Granderson struck out looking and Bonser could retreat to the dugout to reformulate his game plan.

The Front Three (through 26 games)

Prior to the start of the 2008 season, I analyzed the pitching of the potential front three starters - Baker, Bonser and Hernandez - by their 2007 Record of Opponents Batting. Hernandez was viewed in the media as the more successful pitcher with his 11 wins with Arizona (to Baker's 9 and Bonser's 8), but when judging from the opponents batting, it is clear that he was the most hittable with his opponents batting with a .870 ops (compared to Baker's .760 and Bonser's .807). Twenty-seven games into the 2008 season and we are experiencing a similar dynamic: by record, Hernandez is considered the most success of the three. This, even to your most casual statistician is an egregious representation of the truth. Once again, when you dissect into the peripheral numbers, you find that not only is Hernandez not the best starter, he and the Twins should thank their lucky stars that they have managed to milk five victories out of those games.

Livan Hernandez - 3-1 (5-1), 5.05 era

pa	runs	hits	hr	bb	k	sb	cs	avg	obp	slg	ops
154	22	45	6	7	13	0	2	.310	.338	.490	.827

Because of an injury to Kevin Slowey and Francisco Liriano requiring additional seasoning in the minors as he recovers from Tommy John surgery, the Livan Hernandez signing has been beneficial for the Twins. But with the emergence of Nick Blackburn as well as the success of Brian Duesing and Kevin Mulvey in triple-A, the free agent acquisition may be increasingly regrettable with every subsequent below average start by Hernandez. Hernandez got off to a fast, successful start winning his first three. Over the course of those 21 innings, an average of seven innings per start, Hernandez posted a 2.57 era with six strike outs and 1 walk - a Game Score average of 57. Pundits praised his mix of pitches and ability to get batters out without striking them out. Opponents were batting .263/.268/.325. More importantly, Hernandez did not surrender a single home run in that duration, a critical facet to his winning. However his success was waning and his ability to maintain that level of output sharply declined. In his last three starts, he managed to only accrue 14.2 innings (4.7 inning average per start) while averaging a Game Score of 32. Admittedly, these were against very good hitting teams of Texas, Oakland and Tampa Bay (Tampa Bay? Did I just say that?) but the same tricks that worked so well against Kansas City twice and Los Angeles were not creating the same results. Hernandez's era ballooned from 2.57 in his first three starts to 8.59 in his last three while he was tagged up for 6 home runs as batters accumulated a .369/.417/.619 batting line.

Hernandez is essentially turning his opponents in to Raul Ibanez (who is hitting .296/.339/.487 with Seattle). This batting line, while disappointingly high, is actually lower than the one that led to his .500 winning percentage with Arizona. The Twins offense has aided Hernandez by providing him with 4.41 runs of support while Hernandez has averaged a Game Score of 44. In three of the five games the Twins have won while Livan was pitching have come in spite of less than quality starts by Hernandez (a Game Score below 50). As the season progresses, the Twins offense will have to sustain the 4 runs or more of support if Hernandez continues to pitch like the last three games rather then the first three.

Boof Bonser - 2-4 (2-4), 3.75

pa	runs	hits	hr	bb	k	sb	cs	avg	obp	slg	ops
151	17	35	3	9	22	3	0	.250	.293	.379	.672

Don't let the 2-4 losing record fool you, Bonser has probably been the best pitcher in the Twins' cadre starting pitchers. In his first 19 innings of the year in three starts, Bonser issued just two free passes while striking out 12 leading to just six earned runs (an average Game Score of 56). Opponents hit just .253/.273/.387. The road to victory was detoured for Bonser thanks to zero offensive production and bullpen meltdowns. Even though he only allowed three earned runs in each of those two starts, the team's offense managed to score Bonser just two runs total in those two games. In his third start of the season Bonser was once again the recipient of minimal run support (two) but limited the Royals to just three hits on the way to six shutout innings for his first win of 2008. In his recent last three starts Bonser has somewhat stumbled thanks to the potent offenses of Tampa Bay, Oakland and Chicago coupled with the lack of run support. His Game Score average in those outings slipped to 48, slightly below quality. Bonser compiled 17 innings and allowed nine earned runs. Boof found himself battling more baserunners as he walked seven in those games. In those last three starts, Bonser's opponents hit .254/.315/.369. Again the Twins offense was no where to be found, scoring just six times in those innings and they were shutout by Oakland's Chad Gaudin.

Overall, Bonser's .672 ops is a significant improvement over the .807 opponents hit off him in 2007. This year, batters are hitting very similar to Ivan Rodriguez (.255/.302/.388) off of him. Bonser has a minor league resume that suggests he can maintain this sort of output for the remainder of the season, however, he will most likely end up having an ops between .750-.800. Nevertheless, if Bonser continues to pitch in the same manner that he has been throwing through his first six starts (3.62 FIP) and his run support increases from its appallingly low 1.70 runs per game (well below the team average of 3.86), he will certainly be the benefactor of wins as the season wears on.

Scott Baker - 2-0 (4-1), 4.50

pa	runs	hits	hr	bb	k	sb	cs	avg	obp	slg	ops
122	15	30	6	5	27	2	0	.256	.287	.436	.723

His last start notwithstanding, Baker has also performed much like the staff ace. Not only is his 27 strikeouts and 5 walks leading the Twins rotation, but he is currently second in the American League with a 5.40 strikeouts-to-walk ratio (Cleveland's Cliff Lee leads with an unearthly 16.00). In his fourth start of the season, Baker dueled Cleveland's Paul Byrd for seven innings, giving up only one run and striking out seven, issuing one walk and scattering five hits. Despite not being the pitcher of record, that April 20th Game Score of 70 has been the best pitched game so far this season for the Twins.

The 4-1 record the Twins have in Baker's starts is partly skewed because he has absconded with the highest run support (7.02), the envy of the pitching staff, but it is not as if Baker has needed all of those runs: up until his start against Texas, he had allowed 3 or fewer runs per start. Up until that Texas game, Baker threw four consecutive games with Game Scores 50 or higher. Though it would appear that his home run total of 6 (5th in the American League) in just 122 plate appearances would be alarming, especially considering he gave up only 15 total last season, it should be noted that they came split evenly between two games against the homer-friendly White Sox and Tigers. Because Baker has been very good at not allowing base runners (1.16 whip), all 6 of his home runs given have fortunately been solo home runs minimizing the potential impact of damage. If the nagging injuries do not persist, Baker might take his rightful spot as the number one starter in the Twins rotation.