Bonus Resolution 2 - Get Back Into Baseball - All-Star Break Thoughts

So we are approaching the halfway point of the 2013 MLB season, more commonly referred to as the All-Star break, so I thought I would share some quick thoughts on how the Twins have been doing this season. I have been doing a pretty good job at consistently catching a game or two a week. Unfortunately the Twins have been pretty terrible as of late, with a record 37-53 as I write this.

They have been on some nasty skids lately, losing 12 of their last 13 games. Unfortunately they have lost a ton of close games. It seems I have seen them on too many of the wrong ends of extra innings games. Their bullpen has at least been mostly delivering, and I am a huge fan of Casey Fien whenever they throw him in for an inning or two and he just throws nonstop heaters. Burton and Perkins are also highly reliable closers and usually deliver scoreless innings, no matter if they are several runs behind at that point.

Their starting pitchers though have been quite iffy lately. Scott Diamond was the star pitcher from last year but he has been on a bit of a cold streak these last couple of months. It is pretty sad where I can say the most impressive thing I saw Diamond did this past month was get a hit in an interleague game. They did bring up the highly anticipated Kyle Gibson after a few years in the minors who had an impressive win in his Twins debut a couple weeks ago but lost his last couple of games since. Pressly and Pelfry have been underperforming a lot lately too. I am kind of digging Correia as I have seen him pitch his way out of some nasty jams, and get a few lucky breaks. He seems a bit older for a starter, but he is managing to hang in there.

Offensively, I am happy to Aaron Hicks recently return after a month off with a hamstring injury. For a couple of games he finally eclipsed the .200 batting average after going 4 for 4 in a game, but just dropped underneath it again this last game. Joe Mauer is still the stud of the Twins and the only one batting over .300 and 110 hits and has rightly landed the AL catcher All-Star spot. Justin Morneau was at the beginning of the season, but his average has been gradually dropping the last couple of months and is now in the .270 range. Plouffe has been coming through in the clutch this last month, and Doumit has had a few games with some big power hits this last month as well.

Some stupid observations on my part of some Twins' players this season. I like watching Joe Mauer at bats because he constantly looks incredibly confused in between every swing and does not look like he knows what he is doing out there, and yet he is the most efficient hitter of the team. Dozier has been on fire with home runs lately, seems like he has hit four or five of them this past month. Clete Thomas did a sufficient job filling in on the roster the last month with recent Twins injury and I hope they manage to keep him in the rotation more, hopefully taking over Jamey Carroll's spot for the main 10th man player as I have not seen too much out of him lately.

That wraps up my mid season thoughts on the Twinkies thus far, speaking of which they just brought back Woody Harrelson's favorite snack on the market this week! Sorry, I am stretching for optimism here as the Twins definitely are not showing it out there. To motivate myself for catching their game today, I plan on watching my favorite baseball movie, the original Major League before catching them play today!