Never doubted ya, Frankie

Francisco Liriano has just completed one of the strangest no-hitters I'll ever see.

I'll blog more about it after I get done with work. Right now, I have to figure out how to get this on Page One.

Problem spot: First base

The Twins enter today's game with the White Sox 9-18 and 10 games out of first place.

As bad as that sounds — as bad as that IS — it's not fatal. Cleveland and Kansas City still don't look like long-term contenders to me, and the Twins are within two games of both Chicago and Detroit.

But, obviously, the Twins can't keep playing .333 ball. They're in last place on merit, failing and flailing in almost every category. There are, I think, six players — Denard Span and Jason Kubel among the position players, Scott Baker and Brian Duensing among the starting pitchers, Matt Capps and Glen Perkins in the bullpen — who are doing what they're expected to do (or, in Perkins' case, exceeding expectations).

Justin Morneau hit
his first homer of the
season on Sunday.

Everybody else is part of the problem. And the sheer bulk of problems is itself a problem.

Today I'll start examining specific issues. And I'm going to start with one of the former MVPs, Justin Morneau.

I'm no doctor, but it seems fairly obvious that last season's concussion remains a problem. Even without considering his month-long slump (.225/.289/.338 with one homer), the defensive sloppiness suggests a certain lack of acuity.

Twice this season the Twins have picked a runner off first base and lost him in the rundown. Both failed rundowns began to break down when Morneau made a wrong decision. Against Toronto — in the very first inning of the very first game — he gave up the ball too soon; against Kansas City on Sunday he held the ball too long. A rundown is a rather fluid play, and he seems unable to keep up with it.

It was reported this weekend that he remains on medication and subject to fatigue. Obviously he has been cleared by the medical people to play, and I accept the assertion that he's at no greater risk of injury than anybody else, even with the meds.

But to this decidedly non-medical set of eyes, he's not ready to play.

I don't expect him to bench himself. The man has taken far too much criticism the past couple of years for missing games, he's medically cleared to play, he wants to try to earn his pay, he's important to the team.

He's not producing, and I doubt that he's physically capable of producing — not only to his accustomed standards, but merely to the level of a major-league first baseman.

Baseball to the back burner

I had a couple of ideas Sunday afternoon for today's post, and I suppose that if I think hard enough I could even remember what they were. It's even possible that I'll compose something about the Twins, or something else baseball oriented, later today.

But right now, I'm not complaining about anything. Osama bin Laden finally got what he had coming, and I'm not about to spoil my appreciation for that by thinking about the Twins' failings.

Pic of the Week

Jose Reyes of the New York Mets wishes to register
a mild objection to Marvin Hudson's call on Wednesday.

Again, no deep thoughts here, just the realization that we don't need the details of the play to know what happened.

Alexi Casilla, scapegoat

Five plays comprised the Kansas City Royals' game-winning rally on Friday, five plays that resulted in two runs in the bottom of the eighth inning.

Alexi Casilla had a
difficult eighth inning
on Friday.

Alexi Casilla was involved in three of the five, and when the game was over FSN studio analyst Ron Coomer heaped the blame on the Twins' beleaguered shortstop.

Let's break the rally down:

Alex Burnett struck out the leadoff man, then (PLAY 1) allowed a double to Wilson Betemit. Then came Casilla's troubles.

PLAY 2: Kila Ka'aihue hit a sharp grounder at base-runner Betemit, who broke for third. Casilla let the grounder kick off his glove. It was ruled a hit, which is sloppy official scoring by any standard; it should have been an error. Hit or error, the Royals now had the tying run on third and the go-ahead run on first.

Comment: This is the easiest play to criticize Casilla on, and as a physical error the one Coomer was least willing to rap him for. I assume that, because Casilla was headed toward second, his play would have been to first base, conceding third to Betemit. That would have left the Royals with two outs and a man on third.

PLAY 3: Kansas City pinch-ran the speedy Jerry Dyson for the plodding Ka'aihue. On the first pitch to Brayan Pena, Dyson stole second. Drew Butera's throw was well to the first base side of second base (behind the sliding runner) and went into center field. Betemit scored and Dyson advanced to third on the Butera error.

Comment: Casilla was the man covering second on the steal attempt, and he held at second as the ball sailed though. Coomer's criticism was that Casilla should have left the bag to try to keep the ball in the infield. Watching the play unfold, I expected Butera's throw to hit Dyson, and if that happened, there was no telling where it would go. (And, obviously, in an alternative universe in which Casilla makes the Ka'aihue play, there is no steal and no error,) The throw was errant enough that I'm not sure Casilla could have kept it in the infield anyway.

PLAY 4: With Dyson on third, Burnett walked Pena (Burnett was up 0-2 in the count and lost him).

PLAY 5: Alcides Escobar hit a looper between third and short. Casilla dashed over and back to catch the ball, but his momentum was carrying him away from home plate, and Dyson tagged up and dashed home. Casilla threw, third baseman Danny Valencia tried to cut it off, the ball went well up the first base line, and there was no play on Dyson.

Comment: There was nothing wrong with the catch, and while I can't prove it, I doubt that the slower J.J. Hardy would have gotten to the ball (assuming that Hardy were healthy enough to play, which he isn't). Coomer's complaint is that Casilla didn't immediately plant, pivot and throw home. (The catch was good; a throw, against Casilla's body, strong and accurate enough to catch Dyson would have been even more impressive.) Coomer sees this play, and the stolen base play, as further examples of Casilla's pattern of mental errors, that he wasn't adequately aware of the game situation.

And that's certainly possible. Casilla's problems over the years have generally been from the neck up. In this inning, however, the mental errors, if any, arose directly from the physical mistake on Ka'aihue's grounder.

Target Field aesethics, year two

The "Twins Tower" to the right of the right field
video board is much more effective from a distance.

A couple of notes about the look of the second season of Target Field now that I've made two trips:

*My Opening Day seats were in the right field seats, and as you can see from the accompanying photo my wife took during the pre-game introductions, the new "Twins Tower" loses something up close. It's much better from a distance, as seen from the other photo, made Thursday from Section 319 when Rene Tosoni came to the plate for his first major-league at-bat.

*Remember the flap late last season when Target Center put up a large billboard for a Fargo-based health services company? And how FSN immediately changed its standard "look at the stadium" shot from the view of the Minneapolis skyline from behind home plate to the view from the outfield?

The Twins probably aren't any happier with the billboard, but they're no longer publicly whining about having their audience hijacked. FSN is showing its skyline shot again -- and, probably no coincidence, has a sponsor for in-game injury-health reports: The same Fargo-based health services company whose name and logo "graces" the Target Center billboard.

Money, as the song says, changes everything.

The continuing pitching staff shuffle

... to Alex Burnett

From Eric Hacker ...

.. to Anthony Swarzak ...

After playing just two games in five days, the Twins bullpen figured to be well rested. After playing three games in two days -- three games in which the three starters pitched about 12 of the 27 innings -- the bullpen is shot.

Eric Hacker was supposed to start the second game Thursday, but he had to pick up the mess left Wednesday by Francisco Liriano. He got shipped back to Rochester so that Anthony Swarzak could make that Thursday start, which seems harsh, but Hacker was probably going back to Triple A when Kevin Slowey came off the DL soon anyway.

Swarzak was probably still wet from his post-game shower when the Twins sent him back to Rochester and recalled Alex Burnett to get a fresher arm in the bullpen. Which raised the question in my mind: Why not Slowey?

The answer came today from Ron Gardenhire: The leash on Liriano is pretty short. He said on Reusse and Mackey today that he and pitching coach Rick Anderson are examining their options with Liriano. The preferred one, of course, is to straighten Liriano out. But Slowey is being stretched out now with an eye to returning him to the rotation in Liriano's stead, and Gardenhire implied that would happen if Liriano flounders in his next start.

Let's examine that notion. Somebody gets sent to Rochester when Slowey is activated, probably either Burnett or Dusty Hughes (7.84 ERA so far, with 19 baserunners in 10.1 innings). Moving Liriano to the bullpen suggests the demotee should be Hughes, since the Twins appear reluctant to devote the majority of the bullpen jobs to lefties.

Here's the problem: This would devote two of the seven bullpen slots to recovery projects (Liriano and Joe Nathan) and another to Burnett, who has not earned a key role in his previous major league stints.

That''s a lot of arms for the manager to try to avoid using in game situations. Nathan's been effective in his two most recent outings, but is he really ready for key outs? I have my doubts.