Tonight Alfonso Soriano and the Cubs make their way to Target Field. Photo by Benny Sieu-US PRESSWIRE

The Matchups:

Friday, June 8, 7:10 p.m. CDT: RHP P.J. Walters vs. LHP Travis Wood

Saturday, June 9, 1:10 p.m. CDT: LHP Scott Diamond vs. RHP Jeff Samardzija

Sunday, June 10, 1:10 p.m. CDT: LHP Francisco Liriano vs. RHP Ryan Dempster

Walters has faced the Cubs on four occasions, thanks to his days with the Cardinals, but thanks to roster turnover, only three current Cubs have faced him. Among them is Alfonso Soriano, whom Walters has struck out five times in five at bats. Diamond has never faced the Cubs. Surprisingly, neither has Liriano, despite being on the Twins’ roster the last two times these teams played each other.

The Cubs’ pitchers will be a complete mystery to the Twins. Wood and Samardzija have thrown a combined zero pitches against Minnesota. Dempster has faced them twice, and the Twins knocked him around for a total of 11 runs in five innings. But the last time he saw the Twins was back in 2006, so the only current Minnesota hitters he’s faced are Josh Willingham, Jamey Carroll, and Ryan Doumit. Doumit is a weak .174/.240/.174 in 25 plate appearances.

The Head to Head:

This is the first meeting between the Twins and Cubs since 2009, and it’s the first visit by the Cubs to Minnesota since 2006. The streak probably does not mean much, given the long time between matchups, but the Twins have won five of the last six in this series. Overall, though, the Cubs have a very slight edge, having won 11 of the 21 games since they first met in interleague play back in 1997.

The Weather:

We’ll have some warm weather this weekend. Like a typical Twins’ fastball, temperatures on Saturday and Sunday will scrape the low 90s, which might make the day games a little uncomfortable.

The Story:

With seven wins in nine games, the Twins are in their first hot streak of the season. They swept the Athletics and then went on to win series against the Indians and Royals. After six starts, Diamond continues to impress. He now holds a 1.86 ERA and a 4-1 record. As strange as it may seem, Liriano is starting to rival Diamond as the team’s most consistent starter. Since returning to the rotation, he has allowed just one run in 12 innings with 17 strikeouts. It’s difficult to tell if Liriano really has improved as a pitcher or if his success owes more to the awful lineups fielded by the Athletics and Royals.

The Cubs might not prove much more of a test than those lightweights. Their hitters have accumulated just a .244/.303/.380 line (the OBP and SLG totals are both 14th in the National League). Chicago is not a great pitching club, either. Their 4.24 ER A is also 14th in their league. If not for the fact that the Cubs frequently pitch to opposing pitchers, their team ERA might rival the Twins’ 5.02 mark.

The good news for the Twins is that the aforementioned ERA is no longer worst in baseball. Colorado (5.10) recently passed them up. The Twins’ bullpen has been downright decent with an 8-6 record and a 3.44 ERA. The starters are still 14-28, and worst in baseball with a 6.06 ERA.

The Bottom Line:

The Cubs are an opponent the Twins can handle. Look for the Twins to win this series, and a sweep is not out of the question if Liriano can keep up his solid pitching.

While he’s at it, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig should take this opportunity to realign all six divisions and allow National League teams to use the DH (allowing for traditionalists, at a competitive disadvantage, to continue allowing pitchers to hit).  The discrepancy between the AL and the NL would essentially disappear and bouncing a few teams from league to league would not be such a big deal.

Geographically, the MLB is heavily weighted by teams on the East Coast and in the MidWest.  There is another nice cluster of teams out on the West Coast, but Between Kansas City and California there is pretty much a baseball wasteland.* I know there are a lot of reasons why there are no teams out there, but it seems like a missed opportunity to add two more teams and have two 16 team Super Conferences, but I digress.

  *If a metro area of at least 1.5 million people is what’s needed to support a MLB franchise (That’s what they have in the Milwaukee area, the smallest metro area that is home to a team), then you should add a team in Portland, Oregon and Las Vegas, Nevada; maybe even stretch to get a team in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Salt Lake City, Utah; if you were really trying to expand to “western markets.”  

In the unlikely event that Bud Selig and the owners adopt such a strategy, here are the 6 new divisions they should adopt.  (more…)

Around the internet various Twins and Baseball writers have been publishing some pretty interesting thoughts and ideas and I’d like to share them with you.   (more…)