Sport: MLBPick Selection: Twins
At 8:05pm our complimentary selection is on the Minnesota Twins over the Texas Rangers. Second-year righthander and 26 year-old Minnesota Twin Nick Blackburn is vying with with Oakland's Dana Eveland to be the best starter of 2008 that nobody has ever heard of. Blackburn is having an outstanding season so far with a 2.49 ERA and 1.22 WHIP and the only disappointment is his 1-1 record after four starts. However, three of Blackburn's outings have been against very good, high-scoring clubs (Detroit, Cleveland, Los Angeles) and tonight should be a bit of welcome reprieve against what could be the worst team in the American League right now. Texas may still have some decent bats like Michael Young, Ian Kinsler, and Josh Hamilton, but their pitching may well be at an all-time low right now. When you let guys like John Danks, Edinson Volquez, and Francisco Cordero go to other teams, you better have something in reserve to make up for it. But in Texas' case, whatever they thought they had either wasn't ready, or is on the DL. Consider a bullpen ERA of 6.30 on the year and an almost-incomprehensible 10.26 over their last three games going into Thursday. Righthander Kevin Millwood is one of the only bright spots on this pitching roster, but Millwood is not a nine-inning starter and he will eventually have to turn things over to the worst bullpen in baseball. The fact that they have to try and perform in one of the biggest hitters parks in the league does not help inspire confidence. Take the Twins. As always, good luck...Al McMordie.
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