#-1: Twins (Last Week: -2). I'm getting this out before Friday's game, so the Twinks go 4-2 this week and easily reclaim the top spot in the WMNSS. They have begun a 13-game stretch where they have a chance to feast on bottom-feeders Cleveland, Baltimore, Kansas City and Seattle, and yet they drop the first two games to the Indians at home. They stabilized by taking the getaway game and winning last (Thursday) night at Baltimore, and combined with the Saturday and Sunday wins over Chicago (the Sunday matinee being a weird, wild one), they are still in the thick of the A.L. Central race.
Delmon Young is the best player on the team right now; he's Top 15 in RBI. Manager Ron Gardenhire finally did the right thing and moved him up in the lineup. Not only is he now producing like the first overall pick is expected to do, but is there a chance he has gotten his name into the MVP race? (Well, probably not because of the defense, but you can't take his name out until after you reach "honorable mention" level.)
The pitching may be less of a worry now. I say that because Francisco Liriano and Carl Pavano are throwing consistently enough that I'm not worried about them the rest of the regular season. And Bill Smith finally pulled the trigger on both suggestions written here last week, putting Brian Duensing in the rotation and yanking Nick Blackburn into the bullpen, and calling up Anthony Slama (while sending down the struggling Alex Burnett). Slama looked real good in mopping up Wednesday against Cleveland, and Duensing pitches for his life tonight against the Orioles. Let's say if this solves the Twins' pitching woes. After finishing their series with Balmer this weekend, they visit the Royals.
#-2: Lynx (Last Week: -1). Yeah, turned out to be false hopes. They drop both their games this weekend when they had a chance to score at the end of regulation and send both into overtime. (Similar scores, too -- 73-71 to best team in the league Seattle, 74-72 to San Antonio.) They now have a 2-2 record in their very long Target Center homestand.
At least it seems as if they have finally found their roles. Seimone Augustus has played well enough to be the #1. But Rebekkah Brunson has now become the #2 and the inside force. Lindsay Whalen shouldn't be playing more than 25 minutes a game, but she's become a good starting Point Guard and a stabilizing force to get the team into their sets.
Nevertheless, the best thing for this squad is that they're in an incredibly mediocre Western Conference. The Jynx are in fourth place, but not only are they only 1 1/2 games behind second-place Phoenix, they are two games up on Los Angeles for the final playoff spot. (With the exception of the Seattle Bing, every other team out West would be dead last in the Eastern Conference.) It just so happens that the two teams I just mentioned will end the Lynx's homestand this week: Phoenix on Saturday, L.A. on Tuesday. I believe I shall to go to the Farmers Insurance game just to check the team out. They then go back on the road and play at the LifeLock on Thursday.
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