MVB on Royally Speaking

For an interesting 2008 AL Central Review head over to Royally Speaking; a great Kansas City Royals blog written by Jeff Parker.

Parker asked me along with other bloggers and media members to answer a few questions about the AL Central in 2008. If you need an incentive to read it you can learn the true name by the Twins MVB alias (never been disclosed here at MVB).

For more reading check out this weeks Off the TePoel as Dain discusses an interesting issue for Major League Baseball.

Ugly Weekend

Compared to most of the Twins' blogs out there on the web, I'd like to think I'm generaly one of the more positive Twins bloggers. However, I struggled to find anything good about the White Sox's swift three game sweep of the Twins over the weekend.


Last week I watched the Twins lose two out of three against Baltimore because of their inability to score runs despite solid pitching. This weekend it didn't matter who was pitching. Nick Blackburn fell Friday giving up seven runs, Livan Hernandez was the victim surrendering seven runs on Saturday, and Kevin Slowey was hit hard today giving up eight runs. The Twins offense managed to score only 10 runs in the series compared to the 33 from the White Sox.

After attending the two ugly losses to the Orioles last week at the dome I wondered why this club was just 1.5 games out of first place and had a legitimate chance at winning the division. Then I remembered how well the Twins had been playing against the AL Central (18-9 at the time). Enter in a three game sweep by the White Sox and you get a second place club that is not only 5.5 games back from the first place Sox, but also a club that falls below the .500 mark.

I'm certainly not throwing in the towel yet because I truly do believe this team can make the playoffs. After two full months it's clear the AL Central is not as deep as we thought it to be. The Tigers and Indians haven't shown any signs of turning things around; however the White Sox have been playing great baseball. The Twins must play .500 ball against non-division opponents and continue to play good baseball within the division (excluding this weekend).