Sunday Insider: Central Intelligence

Last update: April 27, 2008 - 12:25 AM

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The Twins rocked White Sox lefthander John Danks for seven runs over 21/3 innings on April 9. All he has done since then is throw 142/3 consecutive scoreless innings. Through four starts, Danks is 2-1 with a 3.04 ERA and has held opponents to a .202 bating average.

When manager Ozzie Guillen saw Danks throw breaking balls while behind in the count in a recent outing, he knew he young pitcher was coming around.

"That's confidence," Guillen said. "When you're a rookie and you struggle like he did, you grow up real quick in this game. Hopefully he continues to do it."

The Twins won't get Danks this week when the teams meet for a two-game series at the Metrodome. Don't know who's unfortunate there.

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The Tigers are so desperate for pitching help they might be days away from calling up righthander Francisco Cruceta, who made his season debut at Class AAA Toledo on Tuesday. Cruceta was detained in the Dominican Republic because of visa issues and wasn't allowed to enter the country until this month.

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The Royals believed they had to overpay ($55 million over five years) to get righthander Gil Meche to sign with them as a free agent before the 2007 season. Wonder how they feel about that signing now that Meche has started out 1-3 with an 8.00 ERA?

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Cleveland righthander Jake Westbrook is 1-2 with a 2.73 ERA but is now on the disabled list because of a strained intercostal muscle. That's bad news for a club that's been waiting for C.C. Sabathia to come around. The Indians have called up righthander Jeremy Sowers to replace Westbrook, who's expected to miss a least two starts,

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