As a fan, you hate the middle road. If your team is bad, you can sell the farm and pick up some nice shiny prospects. If you’re good, then you go out and pick up a free agent to be or two to give you that push you need down the stretch. Then there’s the teams in the middle who aren’t quite out of it but not exactly in it. When that happens, you’re not sure what to do which is where the Twins are right now.
At eight games back, and behind some solid teams in the Indians and Tigers, the Twins definitely face an uphill battle. Then again, they have the reigning Cy Young winner (and Johan is gold in the second half) as well as the reigning MVP along with some other nice parts. So you have a good team but the Twins just play in a tough division.
Justin Morneau is your team MVP right now. At 24 homers and 74 RBIs, he’s the primary run producer. Right behind him is Torii Hunter, who could end up being that trade bait if the Twins falter in the next couple of weeks.
And then Johan is carrying the pitching staff, which isn’t a big surprise. Boof Bonser is probably the next best pitcher, but the mediocrity is open to debate. The pen is solid again with Pat Neshak being even better then last year and Joe Nathan doing his job.
First up in the second half for the Twins are the Athletics at home. Scott Baker takes on Chad Gaudin in the opener and you’ll have two teams in similar situtation duking it out. Friday’s matchup of Joe Blanton against Santana should be a good one.
