Check Swings

With playoff hopes rekindled after a four game winning streak and a ridiculously gratifying sweep of Chicago, playoff fever is contagious once again in and around the Twin Cities. My dream scenario is that the Twins rattle off 10 more wins against the Sox the rest of the way and complete the most shocking comeback since the Shot Heard Round the World. But who would be our Bobby Thompson? I have to assume it would be Justin Morneau, but that’s still a ways off. The next best case scenario sees the Twins squeaking into the playoffs ahead of the A’s, Yankees and Tribe with a strong stretch run. Rob Neyer recently wrote that their ability to do so hinges on Johan Santana going bananas (B-A-N-A-N-A-S) and Justin Morneau mashing from here on out. Both have looked good recently, with Morneau providing a key homer against the Sox and Johan flirting with his first career no-hitter the next night. The Twins have 32 games to make up four on the field, so this weekend’s four gamer against the hapless M’s is vital; they cannot afford to sleepwalk through another disappointing series with a team 15 games under .500. Still, let’s temper our optimism and default to the null hypothesis until we have evidence to indicate otherwise: the A’s and Yankees are favorites and the Twins have a big mountain to climb.

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The recent resurgence has coincided with Juan Castro mercifully spending some time on the disabled list, which is almost certainly not a coincidence. Perhaps he should have been deactivated months ago with a sprained batter’s eye or herniated bat, but he has lasted long enough to make everyone complain about the weak offense. The injury has given us another opportunity to see what the future hopefully holds at SS, and Jason Bartlett has been much more encouraging, although still somewhat lacking in the power he flashed at AAA. Since the recall, Bartlett has quietly put up a .333 OBP in limited opportunities (32 ABs) without an XBH to date. But the knowledge that Bartlett has some pop from his exceedingly extensive minor league record makes him much more valuable to the lineup that Castro’s glove could ever be.

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With Seattle coming into town, the buzz rightly focuses on Felix Hernandez, the 19 year old phenom who will start at the Dome on Saturday night (incidentally, my first visit to the Dome, or even Minneapolis, of 2005). In 21 IP, Hernandez has struck out 21 batters, walked 3 and given up zero HRs. If he proves able to project those numbers over a full season, he’ll probably be the greatest pitcher of all time by any measure. I don’t expect anything quite that drastic, but he should have a nice career ahead of him as long as the M’s treacherous med staff doesn’t get a hold of him (see examples like Rafael Soriano, Ryan Anderson and Gil Meche, just to skim the top of the barrel).

Other than the possible heir to Pedro Martinez’s thrown, Seattle offers ICHIRO! and his paltry .308 BA and less than 150 hits. He won’t be challenging his personal hit record this year, but he’s still wildly entertaining. Richie Sexson is a three true outcomes guy with 130+ K’s and 30 HRs on the season, making him another player who at least contributes to the price of admission. And if you want to stretch it, seeing Eddie come back to the Dome could be worth a few nostalgia points, but the Mariners are pretty thin on attractions past that point. Adrian Beltre has been enormously disappointing after signing for $68 million for one season of good work. Raul Ibanez and Willie Bloomquist don’t make me want to switch allegiances, not even a little bit. The trio of Joel Pineiro, Gil Meche and Ryan Franklin have managed a best-ball total of 5.16 K/9 (Meche, with the others clocking in below 5.0). And Jamie Moyer ranks as their second best starter in terms of SP VORP, good for 70th in the league. Moyer got out to a quick start, but the when craftiness and wiles are your two primary skills, well, a 5.11 ERA isn’t so surprising. Maybe he should call up the unemployed Shingo Takatsu to help him throw a little harder. His fastball is slow enough that you could put headlights on it and it would scare a deer. Enough. After all, this is the team that almost swept the Twins last week, and I really don’t need to be the 270 millionth American to make fun of Jamie Moyer’s fastball. Anyway, we’ll miss him this weekend, as the M’s will miss Johan in the last gasp for a team who was once a clear favorite.