Morneau, Series Recap, and Other Notes

Remember back in late April when the Twins faced the Red Sox and Royals and lost like 6-7 and I said "if you score six runs, you ought to win the ballgame" (well, I didn't actually say it so you could hear it, but my husband heard it, so just work with me here)?

I miss those days.

The Twins have officially become "that" team. You know, the team that all other teams, even if they're bad teams, look forward to facing because they know they'll win the series.

"That" team starts trading off all their good players. Yup...no one wants to be a fan of "that" team.

Home stand coming up; let's hope that helps.

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Injury Report

The Twins have placed Justin Morneau on the 15-day DL, retroactive to May 1, with soreness in his surgically-repaired wrist. I'm about 90% certain that it's his left wrist, even though the Twins transaction report on their website, and several news outlets, say that it's the right wrist. He had surgery on his left wrist during the off season. I'm going with left wrist. Justin, if you're reading, can you verify?

It's not such a huge problem to put Justin on the DL; everyone wants him to get healthy. We all get that surgery is a trauma to the body, and sometimes the body fights back during the healing process. We're all also hoping that it's just that -- healing -- and that it's not something that requires re-doing. Putting Justin on the DL was the right move.

The wrong move, however, was waiting until Sunday to make the move. The whole point of the DL is the ability to call up another man to replace the injured player. It's entire reason for being is to make sure teams aren't short-handed when someone gets hurt. So, every day the Twins waited to put Justin on the DL was a day they were short-handed. And with a 13-man pitching staff, their bench was already thin. It's never a good day when the entire available bench is comprised of Drew Butera.

This isn't the first time that the Twins have gotten burnt by waiting. It happened several times last year. It may have been a little forgivable last year, because the Rochester team had been so ravaged by the number of DL stints by the big league club, there was no one left to call up at times. That is not the case right now.

Here's a tip for the Twins: if you deem it necessary to fly a player back to Minnesota to have a specialist evaluate what hurts, it's probably necessary to put him on the DL. That day.

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Roster Moves:
The Twins claimed OF Erik Komatsu off waivers from the Cardinals. St. Louis acquired Komatsu as a Rule 5-draftee from the Nationals. Rule 5 rules still apply: he must remain on the big league club for the rest of the season. If the Twins want to send him down, he must go through waivers, and if he clears them, a trade must be made with the Nationals in order to keep him. The Twins designated OF Clete Thomas for assignment to make room for Komatsu. Thomas has cleared waivers and will report to AAA Rochester.

The Twins have purchased the contract of INF Brian Dozier to replace Justin Morneau on the 25-man roster. Dozier's line is .276 BA / .339 OBP / .371 SLG in AAA Rochester this season.

The Twins have optioned RHP Liam Hendriks to AAA Rochester and have called up LHP Scott Diamond. Diamond's stats in Rochester are: 2.60 ERA, 1.212 WHIP, and 3.71 K/BB ratio.

Sean Burroughs has cleared waivers and has accepted the assignment to AAA Rochester.