Friday Links-N-Thinks

The first week of Twins baseball has not been perfect by any means but the team has shown signs of life in the last couple of days. Those games were against two very good pitchers from the Angels, Jared Weaver and Dan Haren, so the team might be moving in the right direction. In a rare occurrence on Thursday afternoon, Joe Mauer hit a home run at Target Field for only the second time since the stadium opened in 2010. Besides glimmers of hope, the Twins offense needs to continue on it's upward trejectory if the team wants to find success in 2012.

The two-time defending American League Champion Texas Rangers are coming to town this weekend with a couple of issues themselves. Former Twins closer Joe Nathan has struggled in two of his outings with his new club and both times his team would end up losing the contest. Yu Darvish, the Japanese pitching phenom, is scheduled to pitch on Saturday along with the unveiling of Kent Hrbek's statue outside of Gate 14. The first weekend action of the 2012 season at Target Field should be full of some great games and the Twins hope to get their team moving in the right direction.

Another work week has come to an end so I hope you enjoy the following stories that I found from throughout the last week. Baseball is back and it has been great to see my Twitter feed explode with excitement in the last seven days. The Twins aren't off to a perfect start but it is a long season with plenty of baseball left to play.

• Earlier this week, Seth Stohs had a great podcast with multiple guests including an interview with shortstop Brian Dozier.
• If you want to find out more about the New Britain Rock Cats, make sure to check out Twins Fan From Afar. He wrote about Alex Wimmers' first start of the year.
• ESPN's Jim Bowden (an Insider article) thinks it's possible for the Twins to move Justin Morneau at some point this year.  
• A looks into the most infamous Twins jerseys of all time, the "Dairy Queen" red jerseys.
• John Sickels likes what Brian Dozier has been able to do so far this year at Rochester.
• Over at Circle the Bases, they examine the possibility of Scott Baker's career being done with the Twins.
• The Twins saw Peter Bourjos move around the bases at Target Field in under 15 seconds on Wednesday night. 
• Jim Crikket at Knuckleballs wrote a very good piece on how the Twins need to strive for greatness and not just let it be a tradition for the franchise.
• Over at Twins Daily, they ask the question, "What kind of fan are you?"
• Twins relief pitcher Jeff Gray only had one-career win before the last two days and now three pitches later he has two more wins.
• Twins draft pick Hudson Boyd and three of his high school teammates are trying to make it to the big leagues.
• Shawn Berg over at Twins Target has been counting down his top prospect and he profiled his sixth best player this week.
• This picture of the Orioles Robert Andino shows how tough a few years in Baltimore can be for a player. 

• A rare Bryce Harper trading card is listed on eBay for $25,000 and it isn't even autographed by the young star. 
• During the Twins first game of the year a man ran on the field wearing only his underwear and a Batman cap. Now he is banned from Camden Yards for life.
• Even Babe Ruth's daughter doesn't like the Yankees.
• Baseball teams are getting a lot more money for the exclusive rights to broadcast their games.
• Torii Hunter got into a fight with the wall at Target Field... it didn't end well for somebody.

My Weekly Rundown:

• Monday: Rough Opening Weekend has silver lining
• Tuesday: Dozier's hot start is hard to ignore
• Wednesday: Lost generation of Twins fans brought back in 2002
• Thursday: Will April showers bring second half flowers?

Video of the Week: Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau homered in the same game for the first time since July 2010. The event also took place at Target Field where Mauer came into the game with only one career home run. Morneau's shot was a towering blast deep into the seats. Here is the video evidence of both of those balls leaving the park.