Minnesota Momentum and ESPN SportsCenter Coverage

Is tonight the night where Francisco Liriano puts it together?

CC Sabathia is down. In two starts this season, he has 0 decisions. In 12 innings pitched, he's given up 16 hits, 9 earned runs, 2 home runs and 5 walks, while striking out 15. His ERA in this brief stretch is 6.75. Clearly, he's looking to rebound against the Twins tonight, and for good reason: in his last 9 starts against Minnesota (including the postseason), Sabathia is 8-0 with a 1.72 ERA. So, although the Twins have the momentum going into tonight -- thanks to great games by Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Alexi Casilla, and a solid outing by Carl Pavano -- Sabathia has the momentum in the historical sense. Tonight's game, featuring lefties Sabathia and Francisco Liriano, could be very good, or it could be rough: both are capable of shutting down offenses, but both have been very hittable thus far.

As I wrote last year, I think it is possible for this team to have success off of Sabathia. I still would love to see a couple bunts (for base hits) in the first few innings tonight. Between Sabathia's bulk, and the fact that neither Alex Rodriguez nor Mark Teixeira is fleet of foot, bunting would be a great way to upset Sabathia early on. Anything that gets him off of his routine is a positive, in my book. Second, Liriano needs to bust a few Yankee hitters inside. Last night, Pavano pitched well, but you could see the Yankees waiting for those pitches that were on the outer half of the plate, without any fear that Pavano would instead go inside and upstairs to "give them a different view of the ball," so to speak. Liriano, with better velocity than Pavano, can do just that. It could be a great game tonight, like a 2-1 or 3-2 contest, if Liriano and Sabathia are both "on." Judging from past performances this season, though, my guess is that one or both are going to struggle. Hopefully it's Sabathia.

Finally, I want to formally thank ESPN's SportsCenter for their wonderful coverage of last night's Twins-Yankees game. This game featured, among other things, a gigantic Justin Morneau home run to the deepest part of Yankee Stadium, 3 hits from Joe Mauer, including hard-hit doubles down both lines, and a solid RBI single in the first inning by Josh Willingham to give the Twins an early lead. Of all those plays, SportsCenter's coverage after the game showed one of the Mauer doubles (and Alexi Casilla's nice play up the middle). They spent most of the time -- like 80% -- focusing on Derek Jeter's leadoff 351 ft. home run, Curtis Granderson's shot immediately thereafter, and -- get this -- a Jeter infield single. An infield single. A meaningless infield single in a game the Yankees lost by a considerable margin.

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, but seriously: we have Morneau trying to come back, against some pretty significant odds, to resurrect what was once a great career, and they don't even show his home run. We have Willingham, who has hit in every single game this season, and they don't show the line drive that he ripped to open up the scoring for the Twins. And there were a handful of other plays during the game that constituted Twins highlights in my opinion, but were, of course, left on the cutting room floor. I'm very, very glad I got to see Jeter leg out that single to shortstop. Thanks, as always, ESPN, for the fair and balanced coverage. And I really, really look forward to watching the Red Sox-Rangers on ESPN's Wednesday night baseball, and the Yankees-Red Sox on ESPN's Sunday Night Baseball.

Why the Twins are Better than the Yankees

Today, Harmon Killebrew was laid to rest in Arizona. By a strange confluence of events, the Twins were also in Arizona. They face the Diamondbacks tonight to mark the beginning of the 15th season of interleague play. They have not played Arizona since 2008, and that was at the Metrodome, so a Twins trip to Arizona is anything but commonplace.

We often hear about baseball teams being family-like in nature. To be sure, they spend more time in a year with their teammates and coaches than they do with their own wives and kids. I was hoping that the current crop of Twins would show up en masse today for Harmon's funeral, and apparently they did not disappoint. Rhett Bollinger reported that the team held a meeting yesterday to go over details with respect to the funeral, and that two buses had been arranged to take any members of the team to the service that wished to go. Nick Blackburn indicated his understanding that "we're all going to be" in attendance. That, to me, is the Twins' way. And that's why they're better than the Yankees.

If you recall, over the All-Star break in July, 2010, legendary, longtime New York Yankees public address announcer Bob Sheppard passed away. If you also recall, not one current Yankee player attended Sheppard's funeral. Yankee captain Derek Jeter, by all accounts a consummate professional, "didn't even know" when Sheppard's funeral was. In fact, the only prominent Yankee representative was Brian Cashman (yuck), who delivered a eulogy.

I'm not trying to equate Bob Sheppard with Harmon Killebrew. Clearly, one was a player, and the other an announcer. But it is probably fair to state that Sheppard was "the Harmon Killebrew" of Yankee announcers: he announced for the Yankees from 1951-2007; he has a plaque in Monument Park, where greats like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig are immortalized; Derek Jeter famously had Sheppard record his at-bat introductions, ensuring that Sheppard will be the only announcer ever to introduce Jeter; and Carl Yastrzemski once famously stated, "you're not in the big leagues until Bob Sheppard announces your name." Bottom line: Sheppard was a class act, and a Yankee great. Bottom line: Even during the All-Star break, not one Yankee player made it to Sheppard's funeral, which was in New York, and the organization failed completely to arrange any kind of transportation, or even to communicate to its players and staff the funeral arrangements.

That is why the Twins are better than the Yankees, and that is why I will always root for the Twins, even when they have 5 AAA players on their roster. Sometimes there are clear rights and wrongs. Today, thanks to the good fortune of MLB scheduling, the misfortune of losing Killebrew, and the veteran Twins leaders, the Twins did the right thing.

For Shame

Things really can't get much worse for the Twins. Really. The flu bug has infected a good portion of the team, Joe Mauer may or may not resume baseball activities in the foreseeable future, and our "ace" Francisco Liriano has been one of the least effective starting pitchers in baseball. The list goes on (Casilla not being a good baseball player, Thome injured, Delmon Young talking himself onto the DL and possibly out of Minnesota), and on (Nick Blackburn walking a lot of batters and not being a good pitcher when we need it). Thankfully, Kubel and Span have been bright spots.

I wish we knew more about the injuries. When the President of the United States has his annual physical, the results are released to the public. We know all the details, even the gross ones. I don't expect the same level of transparency from the Twins, as we don't have a right to know and they don't want to reduce any perceived competitive advantage, but I do expect more than the media and fans have been given. It wasn't until yesterday's brief press conference that we knew that Joe Mauer was still alive, and in Minnesota, and still has that gorgeous head of hair. Thanks again for that, Head & Shoulders. He's the face of the franchise: he has to step up, take his lumps, and answer questions related to his mysterious injuries. Kirby and Torii were always available to the media. Think about the questions Derek Jeter has faced this year about his contract details, icy relationship with Brian Cashman and declining production. He sits there and answers every single one, day in and day out. Mauer, the MLB veteran, should no longer be handled with kid gloves. Frankly, it was nice to see Jim Souhan at the Star Tribune use his column to essentially make this point.

Further, Ron Gardenhire has no place snapping at reporters that are asking questions about these injuries. The media is doing its job, and is finally asking some pretty pointed questions - - questions that fans want answered. I'm not going to blame Gardy for much of this injury stuff, and I recognize that some of it is unknown/untold to him, but as the manager he's ultimately responsible for the team and should, when asked, share as much information as possible.

Things really cannot get much worse. The calendar is about to turn to May, the weather will get warmer (maybe that means Delmon will be able to get loose?), and inevitably some of the guys in the lineup will begin producing. The question is whether, when those things happen, we will be 7 or 17 games out of first place?

A few links:

North Dakota Twins Fan has a good rundown of Mauer's mysterious leg injury.

K-Bro's Baseball Blog reports on Delmon's injury, as well as the other (approximate) 45 ailments hampering the Twins.

Andrew at Off the Mark analyzes Liriano's pretty awful 2011 and his struggles to pitch to contact.