Nightly Notes: Game #5

Feels good to get a win again, doesn't it? Especially over the daunting powerhouse that is the Kansas City Royals . . .

Here are some notes:

1.) Clearly, the most important story of the night is Michael Cuddyer's injury. At this point, all we know (thanks to La Velle) is that Cuddyer suffered a dislocation and laceration of his right index finger, and that he was taken in for x-rays afterwards. Without knowing more (including whether anything is actually broken), there's no way of telling whether or not Cuddyer will need to head to the DL or will just miss a few days recuperating. Who comes up if Cuddyer goes on the DL? That might be complicated. The best outfielders in Rochester are probably Denard Span and Jason Pridie, but the Twins probably would prefer both of them to get regular playing time in AAA. The Twins could go with Garrett Jones, but that would mean adding him to the roster again just after removing him -- and they'd have to remove him again when he was sent down. It really doesn't make a lot of sense to make that move. Randy Ruiz or Jon Knott? Do the Twins really want them clogging up the roster? My guess is that the Twins would go instead with Brian Buscher. No, he's not an outfielder -- but the Twins could make due with Jason Kubel and Craig Monroe splitting time in RF for 15 days. Hopefully we won't have to find out what plan the Twins would go with.

2.) It looked like Scott Baker was going to completely overmatched after the early innings, but he settled into a pretty nice groove and picked up yet another quality start. As much as people were worried about the starting rotation as the year started, it's been the offense that's let the team down so far (to state the obvious). The good news is that I think we can expect the offense to heat up at some point -- Justin Morneau, for instance, has been dreadful and that's not likely to continue. Believe it or not, I'm actually encouraged by the first five games of this season, despite the 2-3 record.

3.) Good lord is Carlos Gomez fun to watch. Obviously, he's not going to hit at a .450 clip all season long, and he's not going to steal 150 bases, but this isn't about looking at the pace he's on or anything so simple as all that. It's about looking at the total package that he brings to the table. I was not particularly pleased about the choice the Twins made in the Santana deal at the time, thinking that the Red Sox and Yankees packages were better. At this point, I'm willing to admit that just maybe the Twins new exactly what they doing when picked the Mets package over the other two (supposed) packages. There are no guarantees in life, of course -- but I think it's going to be fun seeing how things turn out in this case.

4.) I was all about Craig Monroe making the team out of spring training, but wow is he struggling right now. He's now 0-for-9 on the season with 5 K's (3 today), and while I haven't watched each of his bats all that closely, in the ones that I have seen he's looked mostly lost. It would have been a great story for him to have a great comeback season; sadly, that possibility is looking a bit remote right now.

5.) Will Matt Tolbert end up winning the starting second base job? I'm not saying anything is imminent, but Brendan Harris might regret getting the flu by the time all is said and done.