So what's the deal?

Last week's stretch of great baseball has pushed the Twins into a comfortable lead over the Tigers in the Central, with this, a thought has begun to gnaw at me: How do we get from Here (perennial division champs) to There (the World Series, or at least the ALCS)?

Now I may be getting ahead of myself here, after all 2/3 of the season remains to be played, but frankly this team looks like the class of the bunch and only a catastrophic injury could seemingly derail another march to the ALDS. (We were reminded how closely that can lurk aruond the corner on Sunday night, but it appears Orlando Hudson will be fine)  So, having bemoaned in this space several times the lack of the Twins ability to beat elite teams in the postseason, the question is what can be done to shore up the weak spots as the season goes on?

It's pretty obvious that most Twins fans trust the lineup to score and don't feel the need to do much tinkering, short of a standout 3rd baseman.  The pitching on the other hand, though steady thusfar, has a bit of a "House of Cards" feel to it, and not the kind you find in St. Louis.  Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano have the talent, but are prone to mid-game lapses that result in a quick 3 or 4-run inning for the opposition.  Kevin Slowey is a nibbler; to say he's "not overpowering" would give the impression that he is at least "powering", unfortunately, I would characterize him as rather underpowering. (Not sure if those are words, but they are too apt a description of his pitching to ignore, and if underwhelming is okay, I'm going with it).

Carl Pavano seems to employ the "chuck it and hope" approach best characterized by Livan Hernandez' short stint with the team two seasons ago, which went well for a time...and then went extraordinarily poorly for a time after that.  I'm inclined to use the phrase "hope struck out" in keeping with the baseball motif while describing Livan's time here, but nobody really struck out toward the end of things, that was part of the problem.  "Hope hit a towering shot to right" or "Hope lined a bases-loaded double into the gap" would be more apropo.  Keeping with the hope theme is Nick Blackburn, who has been (gulp) the early-season stopper on this club, but reminded us last night why we need to keep our hope close at had when he takes the mound. We either hope the sinker is working, hope Gardy pulls him quickly to minimize the carnage when it's not, or hope the kids sitting 3rd row upper deck brought their gloves, because they will be seeing some hot shots coming their way.

Now this is not to say these guys all stink, in fact they've all done a decent-to-strong job early in the season, it's just... 

Are they bad?  No.

Are the good?  Sorta.

Is there one that jumps out at you as a game one starter in a playoff series?  Um...

And that's the problem.

Maybe all this is just coming to the front of my mind because the team is about to face two legitimate aces in it's next two games, when Seattle rolls out Cliff Lee and Felix Hernandez vs. the Twins duo of Slowey (an eight of hearts) and Pavano (a ten of clubs).  To be fair, pitching isn't everything, if it were the Mariners wouldn't be close to buried in their division with some of the best starters in baseball on their roster.  But in a playoff series, where rotations are shortened to get the best pitchers to the mound more often, the advantage of an elite arm or two becomes huge.

So it's time to finally make that big deal we've always dreamed would happen, but has never quite come true.  It's been a season of firsts for this team, they've broken the mold in many ways and should be applauded for it, but all the moves made so far just seem to scream for a finishing touch, and the strating rotation is the spot to make it.  Now I know we're going to need to bide our time, let teams fall off, get some of the prentenders to come to the realization of what they are and allow the potential of lost stars to loom in front of them.  But when that happens, we need to pounce, it's the only way to move beyond where we've been so many times already. (Just not Roy Oswalt, or any other NL pitcher making $30 million over the next two years, check out what the aforementioned Livan is currently doing to that league if you require any more evidence of it's inferiority)

Now, back to the pesky business of winning this division, stay healthy, build momentum, and don't shy away the coup-de-grace acquisition that could be the finishing touch on a nice looking ballclub.