Who are these guys?

Posted at 12:15 PM on June 23, 2008 by Chris Dall (2 Comments)

So I go away for a week, and the Twins rip off a six-game win streak, vault to four games over .500, and all-of-a-sudden look like contenders. How did this happen? I was pretty much ignoring all forms of media while I was gone, so I have no clue what prompted all of this. Was it the play of Brian Buscher and Matt Macri? Was it the pitching? Was it Cuddyer and Kubel coming up big? Most importantly, can this be sustained?

And do you agree with Jim Souhan, who wrote in his column today that we should be seeing more of Buscher, Macri and Denard Span, and less of Mike Lamb, Brendan Harris, Craig Monroe and Delmon Young?

Comments (2)

I don't agree that we should see less of Delmon Young, but more of Buscher is a must...

Posted by TwinsTerritory | June 23, 2008 1:58 PM

One huge reason was the starting pitching. After getting trounced, they threw 6 quality starts, and a well-rested bullpen was happy to go out and finish up the games. That was very nice to see after the Chicago series (I live in Chicago now too, so I had to suffer smug White Sux fans on top of it all).

There's one stat from the last 6 games that I can't decide if it's encouraging or worrisome: 40 runs scored, with 2 home runs (for 3 of the 40 runs). While it looks like we're introducing new piranhas into the pool (Gomez, Casilla, Harris, Buscher, Macri [and Span??]), I feel like we're one good power hitter away from being true contenders. Even though we're 4th in the AL in runs scored, being dead last in home runs in the MLB is a little troubling. Of course, who's going to be available mid-season for the likes of Bonser, Lamb, Everett or some other off-season reject? I like Delmon on our team. He's doing a good job, but if his bat can wake up (with some help from Monroe and Kubel), we might have baseball in October to look forward to...

Posted by Erik | June 23, 2008 3:28 PM

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