Here are three thoughts following the Twins' 3-2 victory over Detroit:
WHAT IS WITH PELFREY?: He's around the paint more. He's hitting corners. He's getting strikeouts. Who is this impostor? Pelfrey is confident, he;'s working fast and working over opponents. He's definitely caught a wave, let's see how long he can ride it. Two or three times tonight he told us this is what he expects when he's healthy. But he also has added split-fingered pitch and improved his breaking ball. ``I'm healthy," Pelfrey said. ``I busted my tail this offseason to come back and try to put myself in the best situation to succeed. I feel like I've gotten better. I worked all offseason on making the slider better and I think talking to (bullpen coach) Eddie Guardado this spring about my split, tweaking it a little but, that has been great for me. Some secondary pitches have gotten better and that has made me better."
ARCIA'S MAD DASH: Oswaldo Arcia decided to blow by the stop signal held up by third base coach Gene Glynn in the fifth inning. He made a mad dash for home and was tagged out easily.
Arcia had hit a one-out single, Suzuki followed with a single and Danny Santana hit a two-out single to right when Arcia made his ill-advised decision to try to score. Torii Hunter, who was on deck at the time, spoke to him for a few seconds as a stunned announced crowd of 18,169 looked on. Twins manager Paul Molitor said it was due to, `miscommunication," that Arcia tried to score. Glynn, when asked, fell down in front of the bus. ``If he was confused there's no doubt that it's me," Glynn said. ``Trying to score the tying run, I give him a ton of credit. All I can tell you is that I probably confused him. That has to be on me." Okay, the part of the replay we were able to see suggested Arcia never looked up as he rounded third. On April 20 in Kansas City, the Twins started their six-game road trip with a clunker against the Royals. One of the low points of that game was when Arcia had a routine soft liner in his range and, somehow, missed the ball. Can the Twins handle Arcia making one glaring mistake a week?
JUST SPECULATING: The Yankees, Red Sox, Dodgers, Cardinals, Reds and others are all in need of starting pitching because of injuries or other developments. If the Twins want to solve their six-starters-into-five-rotation-spots problem it shouldn't be too difficult to find someone to trade with. The Dodgers actually had a scout at the game Tuesday. But I don't see the Twins willing to pull the trigger on something like that this early in the season. But they will have to before the year is over because they must take a look at Alex Meyer if he's going good. Another reason to make deal: I wrote during spring training that, according to sources, the Twins have a real shot at landing Dominican shortstop Wander Javier. It will eat up all of their international scouting bonus pool. This year's class is a good one, and the Twins will have to trade for pool money - which is allowable - if they want to sign more players than Javier. My prediction is that the Twins will stand pat, which I disagree with. I know they don't have Cole Hamels to trade but several clubs need starters NOW.
