Twins Week in Review: April 19th-April 26th

Three Reasons to be Optimistic
1. Taking two of three from the mighty Rays
So what if they gave up 16 runs to do it? Right now I'm encouraged by the offense, because if the pitching gets hot for five days, the Twins will for sure win all five of those games. (Of course, similarly if the hitting goes cold they will lose every game, but I'm choosing not to concentrate on that.)
2. Chris Colabello
Is currently on a tear. He had a huge hit a few nights against the Rays in extra innings. I'm not sure why I keep putting him in this section because he's been just consistently good this first month. If he can keep this up the rest of the season he'll be an all-star. Right?
3. The bullpen
Here's an idea. Let's get rid of all of the starters and just pitch the bullpen the entire game. Deduno can go the first three, then Duensing for two, some combination of Tonkin-Thielbar-Fien in the sixth and seventh before Perkins in the eighth and ninth. That way we can get the unit that threw seven shutout innings in the extra inning game against the Rays and has an ERA of 3.60 this season and, more importantly get the starters out of there.
Three Reasons to be Frustrated
1. The rotation
What the hell? Let's take a look at the rotation. Nolasco: Has surrendered more hits than anyone else in the MLB, huge disappointment so far, making 48 million over the next four years. Hughes: has an ERA of 6.43, making 24 million over the next three years. My exact words on Easter when he had cruised through the sixth were, "I'd take him out right now before he can have a meltdown," Pelfrey: Continues to pitch. Correia: Got shelled yesterday has an ERA over 7, has been a disappointment ever since last May after teasing us in April by starting out 4-1. Gibson: Got hit hard yesterday, but has done well otherwise. Hold on, I'm not done complaining about this.
2. The pitching
Oh yeah, and I almost forgot, this is all happening in one of the best parks to play in for pitchers. What happens if you put Pelfrey in Colorado? I said it at the beginning of the year and I'll say it again. We'll be seeing a lot of 10-9 games.
3. Chris Colabello not on the All Star Ballot
C'mon MLB, leading the AL in RBIs isn't good enough for you? I've already filled out my annual way too early ballot with him as a write in. No, I don't vote irrationally for Twins.
Telling Stat of the Week
.163
Mauer's batting average with two strikes. A huge difference from last year's mark of .291. I still think Mauer will end the year with an average well over .300, after all, he's gotten relatively unlucky this year, having a line drive rate that's higher than last year. But as that stat shows, you no longer expect him to get a hit with two strikes. In the last few years, it almost felt like he had the advantage behind in the count. It's not like that at the moment.
The Dan Gladden Stupidity Moment of the Week
In which we look at something moronic Dan Gladden said while announcing the Twins
I'm cheating here, he actually said this two weeks ago, but it's too good to not mention. While the Twins were playing the Royals, Suzuki hit a fly ball to right and Danny said, "Aoki coming over... and he drops it," I'm thinking, "Yes! now we have a runner on second," before Gladden says "....So Suzuki will get another chance," Oh, thanks for telling us whether the ball was fair or foul, Dan. Does anybody know when his contract is up?