Nightly Notes: Game #67

And here I thought the Twins were over playing like a AA team . . . guess not. I'm writing this post before the game is even over -- something I almost never do -- because it doesn't seem to be all that important to wait for a final in such a lopsided affair. Here are a few notes:

1.) I have been saying for the past couple of days that I thought the Twins were back in line to see good, solid starts. In fact, that was a significant part of my argument for why the Twins were foolish to keep 13 pitchers -- I figured that needing a bullpen that large was an anomaly. I also mentioned, however, that I was a bit uncomfortable with Livan Hernandez, who has simply been horrid in each of his last five starts. He seems to be the weak link in the chain right now -- which is ironic, since he was supposedly brought in to eat through scads of innings. I will continue to argue, as I did with Rincon, that even if he was eating through a ton of innings, it doesn't much matter because they aren't good innings. Having Livan pitch terribly every five days isn't, incidentally, a reason to keep an extra pitcher in the bullpen; instead, it's a reason to get rid of Livan. Would the Twins be bold enough to part ways with a guy who costs as much as Livan? If they're smart, and if they have a replacement ready to go (say, a certain Francisco Liriano, who appears to be improving), then the answer should be yes.

2.) Nice to see Matt Macri hit his first big league homer tonight. It was pretty much the only real highlight of the evening, from my standpoint.

3.) Didn't see if there was a particular reason that Jason Kubel was in left field tonight instead of Delmon Young. If it was a strategy decision, it clearly didn't work. Doesn't necessarily mean it was a bad decision, just one that didn't work out -- although unless Delmon was unavailable, I'd be inclined to say it was the wrong move.

4.) Glad to hear that #1 pick Aaron Hicks is close to signing, and should be in the fold tomorrow. No reason to delay the development of a promising young high school player. I hope that in a week or so, the Twins will have signed about 12 of their picks -- they're well on their way to that goal, with the 6 announced yesterday and the impending Hicks signing.

5.) Not much else to say tonight. I'm being dragged against my will to the opening of M. Night Shyamalan's "The Happening" tomorrow, which means I probably won't post anything tomorrow night. I'm serious when I say I'm going to this movie against my will -- it looks ridiculous, Shyamalan ran out of steam long ago, and the movie has a 14% score on rottentomatoes.com, which usually (although not always) is pretty reliable. Nonetheless, I made a promise, so I'll take my punishment and go watch this monstrosity. I'd say that hopefully it won't be as bad as I fear, but I'm realistic -- it's going to suck. Enjoy tomorrow's game, and I should be back on Saturday.

UPDATE: Check out the comments for some good info from Jeremy (mostly regarding the Rochester roster) that I didn't know when I wrote this post originally. I'll be updating Org Rankings posts to reflect all of this stuff over the weekend.