(Joe Nathan, genuinely disturbed by the “Herbie : Fully Loaded” trailer)

Last night’s 8-1 Tigers victory over the Twins captured two clubs moving in opposite directions ; Minnesota, losers of 9 of their last 12, and Detroit, winners of 7 of their last 8 games.

Time and time again, XM’s Larry Bowa holds up the Twins of a shining example of how to win on a limited budget without drinking Billy Beane’s Kool-Aid. While the A’s poor season is held up as an indictment of Beane’s philosophy, I won’t hold my breath waiting for Terry Ryan’s methods to receive similar criticism. The AL Central is perhaps a season away from being baseball’s best and nearly 40 games a year versus Detroit and Cleveland will no longer be something to envy.