Twins' week in review: the good, the bad and the ugly

One week is already in the books for the Twins' 2011 season, including a couple of trips to Toronto and New York and the home opener against the Oakland A's earlier today. Here are my random thoughts about the good, the bad and the ugly about the Twins this week:

The Good:

• Denard Span has been a monster on the top of the lineup, getting on base in a close to a .400 clip and having some timely run-driving hits. If it was not for Denard, the Twins could very well have a record of 1-6 or even 0-7


• The Twins won a game in New York, and were close in the others


• Mauer is healthy


• Morneau is healthy


• The Luke Hughes era began, albeit on a sad note


• The Twins are undefeated in Target Field


• Joe Nathan is 3 out of 3 in safe opportunities; and he hit 93 mph today


• Kubel is hitting the ball better than last season, the distance will come


• Glen Perkins has been decent so far as a reliever


• Nick Blackburn has been the best pitcher on the staff so far. Big surprise and I hope it continues


• Delmon Young's defense has been a very pleasant surprise so far

The Bad:

• I have no idea why Dusty Hughes and Jeff Manship are in the bigs...


• Other than Nick Blackburn (and Pavano today) the starting staff has been...bad


• KC and Cleveland are much better than everyone thought


• The Twins have a losing record and are between 1 and 2 games behind the White Sox (the WSox game pending tonight)


• Drew Buttera, Matt Tolbert and Jason Repko are in the roster. And they will start enough games to matter

The Ugly:

• Swisher's slide that will probably cost Nishioka the season was ugly dirty. Period. He was not even close to the base. Can anyone say a Hoey fastball up and in next time he faces the Twins?


• Gardenhire is not using his bullpen any smarter after he got the manager of the year award; and it shows: Kevin Slowey has been day-to-day because of overuse


• The Twins did not win a series away against the AL East. Something that they have to do to go all the way


• Mike Cuddyer has been the worse player on the team. So far he is hitting half of what Punto was hitting, he is running slower than Jim Thome and by playing 6 out of 7 games so far, he severely compromises the Twins' chances to win. If his foot hurts, DL him and get someone healthy in the bigs.


• Kevin Slowey in the pen. Enough said

Still a long season, and there will be lots of ups and downs but there are a few things that the Twins can correct sooner than later and several optimistic things to build upon, but the Central will be harder this season...

What do you think?