Around the Horn, AL Central - 5/12

AL Central	W	L	Pct	GB
Minnesota Twins	19	17	.528	--
Cleveland Indians	18	18	.500	1.0
Chicago White Sox	18	18	.500	1.0
Kansas City Royals	16	21	.432	3.5
Detroit Tigers	16	22	.421	4.0

The Minnesota Twins in 1st place? Is this 2002? No Johan Santana, no Francisco Liriano, no Torii Hunter. But this is an organization that knows how to put a team together. It also helps when you have Joe Nathan closing games.

The Twins lead probably won't last for long, just as the White Sox didn't after April, but right now they're in the mix in a division of over- and under-achievers. Cleveland has gotten back to about where they should be, 1 game behind the division leader. But if not them, shouldn't Detroit be leading the division? They're in the cellar again after losing 6 of 8.

The Twins have relied on their two big hitters, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau, their new spark plug, Carlos Gomez, and and a mix of young and old pitchers.

Livan Hernandez has been the biggest find for the Twins this season. The veteran leads the staff with a 5-1 record and a 3.83 ERA. The season has a long way to go, but most pundits predicted misery in the AL for El Duque's half-brother. Rookie Nick Blackburn has been solid, 3-2, 3.93, as has Scott Baker (2-0, 4.09), who is currently on the DL. With an injury to Kevin Slowey and poor performances from Boof Bonser, prospect Glen Perkins has also gotten a shot to stick with the club.

Gomez has given the Twins some of the spark that left with free agent Torii Hunter. He became the first Twin to hit for the cycle in 22 years, is hitting a respectable .269, and has 16 steals in 19 attempts. Mauer is scorching the ball to a .330 tune, though he has no home runs. Morneau, .286-6-27, is the team's big RBI man as usual. Delmon Young's numbers are average, but his attitude has been good and his game is improving. Michael Cuddyer was injured and hasn't gotten his bat up to speed yet.

Nathan is still a dominant force out of the pen, but he has problably lost key set up man Pat Neshak, for the season. But Dennis Reyes, Juan Rincon, and Matt Guerrier have pitched fairly well. It would help the Twins immensely if Jesse Crain could return to his rookie form.

Cleveland's turn around ties into the thing that always win ball games- pitching. C.C. Sabathia has turned is season right side up. Cliff Lee is pitching like Sandy Koufax. Fausto Carmona has struggled with his control, but is still winning games, and kids like Aaron Laffey have stepped up to fill in for injured Jake Westbrook.

The bullpen has also been left short handed with an injury to closer Joe Borowski, but Rafael Betancourt has made the successful step up to that role and set up man Rafael Perez has snapped out of his April slump. Imagine if Travis Hafner started hitting.

The reason we didn't pick the Tigers to win the AL Central was because of their pitching staff. We still thought they would be the wild card winner, and they may very well be, but their pitching has really been a let down. Kenny Rogers, except when he faces the Yankees, is pitching like a 43-yr old ready for retirement. Jeremy Bonderman's control comes and goes, and Nate Robertson is, well, Nate Robertson. Justin Verlander is not injured, but a 1-6 record with a 6.43 ERA makes one wonder. The job #5 man Armando Galarraga has done, has made the team not worry about the return of Dontrelle Willis (hyperextended knee). The bottom line? The Tigers have a major league worst 5.09 ERA.

Offensively, last year's MVP runner up Magglio Ordonez leads the team in everything. The team missed spark plug lead off Curtis Granderson, who sat out the start of the season with a hand injury, in April. Granderson returned with a flourish, but is hitting just .171 in May. Miguel Cabrera also got off to a good offensive start, but has only 1 home run and 4 RBI since April 23.

The Tigers have tried a variety of set up men to build the bridge to closer Todd Jones. They've started to rely heavily on veteran Aquilino Lopez and youngsters like Francisco Cruceta while they wait for Fernando Rodney and Joel Zumaya to heal.

The White Sox reversed their 11-7 start and are 18-18 after 36 games. To say this team is scuffling for runs would be an understatement. With Jerry Owens injured, the White Sox went with Nick Swisher in the lead off spot. As his averge plummeted towards the Mendoza line, Ozzie Guillen stuck Orlando Cabrera in the top spot in the lineup despite an OBP of less than .300. The White Sox hit just .239 as a team.

Carlos Quentin took advantage of Owens' absence to claim the left field job, and leads the team in average, home runs, RBI, and OPS. Jim Thome (.220), Juan Uribe (.194), and Paul Konerko (.227) are among those with sickly looking batting averages.

The White Sox are at .500 because of their pitching. Their 3.69 team ERA is 4th best in the AL. They've also gotten solid years out of the bullpen from free agent signee Scott Linebrink and closer Bobby Jenks. 4 of the 5 Sox starters have ERAs under 4.00 and Mark Buerhle's 5.31 ERA is bloated by his opening day start.

The Royals started their season 3-0 and everyone went wild. Reality came back to KC, but the Royals have still managed to stay 5 games within .500. The Royals young pitching staff is what has kept this team, the 2nd worst offensive team in baseball, from sinking to the bottom of the league. The Royals have averaged just 3.5 runs pers game, but their pitching staff has allowed 4.3.

The Royals would be even better if their ace Gil Meche were having a more consistent season. He's had 4 quality starts and 4 abysmal starts. The Royals would take something in between. But while Meche has struggled with his numbers, Zach Grienke has come back from the brink of oblivion. Grienke started to show the much talked about promise towards the end of last year and he has continued this season. He's tied with Brian Bannister for the team lead with 4 wins and has pitched to a minuscule 1.80 ERA. AL opponents are hitting just .213 against him.

The Mets have to still be kicking themselves for dealing away Bannister who won 12 games last year with a 3.87 ERA. After a strong start, Bannister struggled and had back-to-back bad showings against the Rangers and Angels. But in his last start he limited the Orioles to just 2 hits over 8 innings to earn the win. Veteran Brett Tomko and rookie Luke Hochevar round out the back of the rotation.

Many teams envy the back of the Royals bullpen. Set up men Ramon Ramirez (1.15), a former Yankees prospect, and Leo Nunez (1.80), and closer Joakim Soria (0.00 in 14.1 IP) have been completely dominant. The three have combined for 48 strikeouts in 45 innings.

Now if they could only find an offense to match. Billy Butler leads the team with a mediocre 5 home runs and 19 RBI.

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