Another banner will fly at Target Field, we will all cheer and look proudly at our regular season accomplishment. But, for the second year in a row, fifth year in the last eight, the Twins have failed to get past the first round of the playoffs, including two consecutive sweeps by the hands of the Yankees. As a Twins fan myself, I get caught up in the run of it. It's hard not to. My favorite team always has that "chip, chair and a chance." Well we have not seen the American League Championship Series since 2002 (that's the second round for you noobs). Our chip can't buy us anything, our chair gets pulled out from underneath us and our chances are equivalent to Lloyd Christmas's chance with Mary Swanson. The Yankees have gotten to lick their chops with us in our last three trips to the playoffs, beating us nine straight times. We did however get game one on them in 2004, coincidentally the Twins' last playoff win.
Really, there is a reason Minnesota has been dubbed "Loservillle, USA" by radio host Paul Allen. The Vikings, Timberwolves and Wild have a combined 0 championships, The Gophers hoops and football haven't done anything in decades. The Twins are the brightest spot on the list but they haven't been to the World Series since '91, almost 20 years ago.
Is this year the year? Last year the Twins won 94 games, the second-highest total under Ron Gardenhire, yet the outcome was the same. Some blame the injury on Justin Morneau's season as the reason the Twins weren't able to get over the hump. Granted, Morneau was sidelined in the midst of an MVP season, but the Twins didn't have a major problem winning games without Morneau's stick in the lineup. Starting pitching was a regular problem for the Twins last season, yet they did nothing to address the problem this year. It has been very characteristic of the Twins to give their own guys the chances and at times over-value the talent they have in their system. Not trading Brian Duensing for Cliff Lee was deemed "the best trade never made" by the Twins' broadcast crew. Basically they said Cliff Lee is no Brian Duensing. It's uncanny. They did however make a major move sending Wilson Ramos for a certified closer in Matt Capps. It was a great move to bolster the bullpen, but this season they let Jon Rauch, Matt Guerrier, Brian Fuentes and Jesse Crain walk, while not attempting to sign any viable replacements. It could be a mess back there this year.
The Twins lack attitude. From the top down, the Twins project a baseball team that should play their home games on the ABC Family channel. Even the manager resembles Santa Claus. Gardy loves his clubhouse boys, regardless of skill and talent. Nick Punto hustled to first base, Cuddyer does magic tricks and has a good smile, and they are on the manager's nice list but guys like Delmon Young-arguably the MVP last season, are regularly left out of the lineup (until in Young's case, absolutely had to be in the lineup). Attitude is unacceptable here in Minnesota. We like our good guys. We'd rather lose with good guys than win with assholes.
This year there still is hope for us though. I use the term hope in its most defined sense. Danny Valencia is young and maybe picks up from where he left off last year and is our third bagger for years to come. Maybe Alexi Casilla grows up and remembers how many outs there are. Hopefully the rotation figures itself out and can keep the burden off the bullpen. We have to hope and pray that our MVP first baseman has his concussion symptoms behind him and he's able to rake like we know he can. And lastly, I can't leave out our new second baseman Tsuyoshi Nishioka, our hot splash last offseason. Nishioka comes in to replace the O-Dog, Orlando Hudson a great veteran leader with a nice glove. Nishioka comes over with a few Japanese League batting titles on his shelf, so here's to hoping that he can get used to American pitching rather quickly to strengthen the top of our order. The least I can say, it doesn't seem on paper, that the Twins didn't get any worse, they just failed to get better.
There's a lot of that hope I'm talking about swirling around Minnesota baseball this year, again. Hell, we could win the division again this year, even though the Chi Sox and Tigers look like they made some major improvements this year. It's going to be a tough race. Maybe battling with them 36 times this season will toughen the lovable Twins up enough to maybe even beat a team from the east. Maybe. Either way, the Twins need to prove that they aren't afraid of the big boys this year. If there isn't any improvement, the organization needs to take a long look in the mirror.
Here's to hoping. Play ball.
currently jamming on: Atmosphere
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