Every Wednesday, FOX Sports North takes a look at which athletes' stock is trending up and whose is trending down.
In other words, who is making a meteoric rise, and who is quickly plummeting.
With that in mind, let's "take stock" of the current sports scene in North, shall we?
UP
Nemanja Bjelica, Wolves forward
The season might not have gone as planned for the Euro import, but this past week Bjelica has offered a nice glimpse of his capabilities. He scored in double digits in all three games -- including a career-high 18 against Sacramento -- and had double-doubles against both Portland (11 points, 10 rebounds) and Houston (11 points, 14 rebounds). Oh, and he made 7 of 11 3-point attempt (and 13 of 20 shots overall).
Joe Mauer, Twins first baseman
Is Mauer back to his old form? He certainly showed it last week with a slash line of 350/481/500. Mauer not only had seven hits, including a home run, but he also walked (5) more than he struck out (3).
Ricky Nolasco, Twins starting pitcher
Remember that guy everyone thought had no shot at the rotation and would have to be used out of the bullpen, where he'd rarely been used since his rookie season? Well, Nolasco quieted naysayers for at least one week as he had probably Minnesota's best start in the last seven days, allowing just one run on three hits with no walks and five strikeouts in seven innings against defending champion Kansas City.
James Johannesson, Gophers running back
Yeah, take statistics from a spring game with a grain of salt, but someone has to stand out and in Minnesota's case it was redshirt freshman Johannesson, who rushed 22 times for 130 yards while scoring the game's only touchdown. With Shannon Brooks and Rodney Smith on the roster who knows how much playing time Johannesson will see once September rolls around, but at least he made an early case.
Rod Carew, ex-Twins player
How cool was it seeing him (and Tony Oliva) out there for the first pitch? Carew always trends up.
Timberwolves
Entering the final game of the season, Minnesota was 6-5 since March 23 with many of the young Wolves stepping up down the stretch. The Timberwolves surely will be one of the hot picks for a big gain in 2016-17.
DOWN
Ricky Rubio, Wolves point guard
Rubio has had a fine season but maybe is running out of gas at the finish line. In three games last week he shot just 30.8 percnet from the field and averaged 3.7 points. He averaged "only" 7.3 assists, which brought his season average down to 8.6.
Glen Perkins, Twins closer
A blown save and a trip to the disabled list is not how Perkins, who struggled in the second half last year thanks in part to injuries, envisioned his 2016 starting off.
Gophers quarterbacks
Again, that whole grain of salt thing, but with starter Mitch Leidner sidelined for the spring game after undergoing offseason surgery, none of the three quarterbacks who saw significant action stood out (at least not in a good way). Demry Croft, last season's backup, completed just 8 of 19 passes for 45 yards with two interceptions. Heralded recruit Seth Green was 2 of 6 for 15 yards with an INT and junior Conor Rhoda was 4 of 8 for 37 yards.
Twins
Let's face it, when you are being mentioned in the same sentence with the 1904 Washington Senators, who went 38-113, that's not a good thing. It's hard to sugarcoat an 0-7 start, but, hey, as coaches always say, it's a marathon not a sprint.
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