A week ago the Wolves were poised to win the lottery, the Twins were floundering in the AL Central cellar and the end of all things mere days away. Unfortunately the world did not end, so now we have to deal with the #2 pick in the NBA draft and the continued struggles of the worst team in baseball. For six weeks, Twins fans everywhere have been telling themselves not to panic. That this season's struggles in the earlygoing were simply history repeating itself. Today, there's still no panic, but that's only because the 2011 Twins season is officially over.
As a collective sporting public, Minnesota fans were, as usual, hanging their hat on the baseball club to be their saving grace. Not a damn thing had gone right in 6 months of flawed football, brutal basketball and half-*ssed hockey. Even the weather sucked. It was time for the only team in town that consistent met expectations to salvage something from this turn of the calendar. Unfortunately, the play of the team so far has not only been bad, it has been sickeningly brutal, to the tune of the worst record in the league and incompetence in every single phase of the game. When the pitching has been good, the bats have vanished. On the rare occasion the runs do appear, the starter gets shelled or bullpen implodes. Usually both. The idea of a Twins team this brutal is not completely unfathomable, after all, there is the 1990s for comparison. But the idea that a team could spend over $100 million dollars and have this little to show for it? Well that's just disgusting.
We thought that injuries were the problem, and once the lineup was intact, the ship would right itself. Unfortunately, the guys that have been playing are as bad or worse than the call-ups who are filling in, offering no hope of a turnaround even when (if?) the projected starting nine suits up. There's an undertone of soft and distinterested running through the whole roster at the moment. If being a professional baseball player was easy, everyone would do it. But that doesn't excuse the fact that some of the players are making the same mistakes over and over, with body language that can only be interpreted as careless indifference. Delmon Young has regressed to waving at any pitch thrown his way ala 2009, at least during the few moments he hasn't found himself on the DL with some minor ailment. Every time Alexi Casilla plays shortstop, it looks like the first time he's seen a baseball glove. On the rare occasions he does field a ball cleanly, there's a 1 in 3 chance it ends up in the 4th row behind first base. But hey, at least he bothers to get it out of his glove before the runner crosses the bag, unlike some other infielders we could mention.
The hitting is atrocious, Michael Cuddyer should dig the ski mask he wore to the ballpark during 2007-08 out of storage, because he is once again stealing from this team. Justin Morneau may eventully regain his timing, but at the moment he'd be better served walking to the plate holding a loaf of French bread. It certainly wouldn't cost him any hits, and you never know, the pitcher might be hungry, get distracted and walk him. The rest of the lineup is mostly retread prospects on their third or fourth spin through the minors. A bunch of once-promising never-will-bes with more holes in their game than Osama after his run-in with the SEALs. If we could just combine these guys in a lab somehow, say mixing a bit of Tolbert's fielding with Plouffe's bat, then we might have something. As it is, we have a collection of stiffs, and that might be the most depressing part. Bad seasons happen, but knowing you have exactly zero competent MLB players in the high minors? Well that's the sort of thing that dooms an organization.
And the pitching, good lord the pitching, where to even start with this nightmare. I'm not ready to say Joe Nathan is done as an MLB reliver, but he's definitely done getting paid double-digit millions to do so. Most Matt Capps outings these days make it seem as if he's determined to go down in Twins lore as "the guy we traded Wilson Ramos for". Just like the hitters, the balance of the pen is a bunch of guys who would seemingly be lucky to stick on a AAA club, it's gasoline on a fire every time they get the ball. The starters are decent some days, atrocious others. The oddest thing about this staff is the fact it's best pitchers (Baker, Blackburn, Perkins) were guys who totally flopped last season. Factoring in bounce back seasons from Span and Kubel, perhaps there's something to be said for a player re-focusing after a bad year. If that's the case, then this team should win the World Series next season, because just about every one of them is due for a career year.
It's tough to stomach just how bad the Minnesota Twins are right now, mostly because it all turned so quickly. Some bad luck has been involved, but there also seem to be no leaders on this team, and no fire to shock them out of their current funk. I'm sure a lot of guys are upset about their struggles, but a clubhouse full of monotone voices offering cliches and shrugs just doesn't convey much urgency. Nobody saw things disintegrating to this degree, but there were a few who were uneasy with the lack of offseason moves and spring training struggles. "It's only spring training", "the players just need to get their timing down" are the lines we hear, but it's clear now that more fundamental issues exist in the way this team approaches it's business. I get the impression that things might've been a bit too laid back, that after a few division titles, the players might've taken a playoff spot as a given, and let their focus slip. That's easier to swallow than a roster full of established players with productive histories all losing it at the same time.
So now I'm f***ing bitter, not at anyone in particular, just the whole situation. People may hammer the GM for not making moves, the manager for being too low-key, but that seems to miss the point. It was easy to rip a struggling Twins team when they were spending $60 million and grabbing cheap retreads off the discount rack, not so much when they have a payroll that puts them among the Top 10 in baseball. It must be mentioned that part of this is due to unfortunate timing. Nathan and Cuddyer having a year left on their overpriced contracts the same year Mauer's kicked in is a tough spot to be in. While they probably should've used the $7 million spent on Matt Capps to shore up the bullpen or middle infield, it was a defensible move. After all, when you hand over a highly-touted prospect for two months of a mediocre relief pitcher, you have to save face somehow.
Other than that, it's tough to kill the organization for what's happening here. The players that were being depended on to produce simply aren't. It's fair to wonder how so many draft picks have apparently amounted to nothing of value in the minor leagues, but that's the least of their problems. In a town this lousy, even the worst record in baseball can offer a silver lining, and that's the fact that this situation should be temporary. If this were the Wild, Cuddyer would be locked in at $15 million for the better part of a decade and they'd still raise ticket prices this offseason. To go back to the familiar mantra, things could always be worse.
That might not seem possible right now, and I'd agree it's tough to fathom a deeper hole, but sinking lower still is always in play. The Vikings finished last, the Wolves remain a rudderless joke of a franchise, the Wild are locked into at least two more years of mediocrity due to crippling contracts, every team at the U of M is lousy and now even the reliable Twins are hoplessly inept...okay, where was I going with this? Oh yeah, things could still get worse.
Joe Mauer rumors are swirling, everything from Lyme's disease to multiple sclerosis, how about throwing a bona fide tragedy on top of the overblown one?
The NFL could start cancelling games here pretty soon, that would certainly add to my depression as a sports fan.
The Wolves could use the #2 pick in the draft on some foreigner who'll go years without playing for them (actually that's probably too crazy, we know they wouldn't do anything that stupid).
The Wild could extend Martin Havlat and Nicklas Backstrom for another 5 years.
That's what we've been reduced to here in Loserville, things are so bad on every front, we now have to invent potential bad things that haven't happened, just to make what is going on more palatable. All hope for our ballclub is dead, and it's not even Memorial Day yet. My third set of Twins tickets is on deck for this Saturday, a game I've been looking forward to for weeks. I expect it to rain, and I expect them to lose, as both seem to happen every single day. I will enjoy myself, because I will be with friends, and if there's one thing we know how to do, it's shrug off disappointment. I can't muster anger anymore, and disappointment has also fallen by the wayside. I've simply resigned myself to this unfortunate situation, as it will likely last forever.
So that's it, close to book on the 2011 Twins, it's over. But hey, at least it's only a couple months until football seas....oh yeah...f**k.
Reading as I watch, wow, Swarzak with yet another great start for this team that looks as though it will be wasted as we can't score even one run in support. Quality starts in something like 15 of the last 21, and losses in something like 12 of those...it's sure a tough run here lately.
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