Excuses or Reality?
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At about 10:20
today, I’ll be on KFAN with Paul Allen to talk about the Twins. Listen on
am1130 in the Twin Cities, or on one of their affiliates, or even at www. KFAN.com.
The Twins lost 5-4 last night to the
Baltimore Orioles. Nick Blackburn gave up five runs on seven hits and a walk in
seven innings. Take away the two big home runs (to Matt Weiters
and Vlad Guerrero) and he pitched well. Offensively,
the Twins scored four runs. The first came on a Michael Cuddyer
home run. It was his first home run and first RBI of the year. Danny Valencia
drove in three runs. Two on a single up the middle with runners on 2nd
and 3rd, and one later in the game on an 0-2
pitch that he singled sharply into left field.
With the loss, the Twins are now 6-12 on the
early season. We expected the team to struggle early in the season. The bullpen
was expected to take awhile to mesh. The middle infield was new. They had to
play just five of their first 20 games at home. So, it is no surprise that the
team is not playing great baseball right now. However, if they were 9-9 right
now, it would probably have been a little better than expected.
Things that could not have been assumed were
that the bullpen would be completed altered this early in the season. The two
bright spots have been Matt Capps and Glen Perkins. Alex Burnett, Jim Hoey and Eric Hacker have already been called up. No
surprise that Tsuyoshi Nishioka didn’t look great
early in the season, but it is unfortunate that he broke his fibula and lost
that development time. As much as most Twins fans didn’t believe in Alexi Casilla, I don’t think anyone could have anticipated he
would be this terrible.
Joe Mauer is
already on the disabled list with a virus that has made him lose a dozen
pounds. Justin Morneau’s flu has cost him the last
four games. Delmon Young has now missed two games
with the flu and an injury to his side which hopefully is not an oblique injury
because that would mean he would go on the disabled list too.
And, it’s normal for some players to get off
to a slow start at the plate. It’s normal for guys to go through slumps throughout
the season. But for pretty much everyone but Denard
Span and Jason Kubel to be hitting can’t be expected.
I hear people talking about this stuff being
the fault of the manager. I say that is crazy. Look at the lineups the last
three or four games and consider the guys who were able to play that were on
the bench? The manager doesn’t have many choices right now. After the games,
some people don’t like that he says that we need to get some guys back. I think
that’s a fair statement.
In my opinion, it is a testament to Ron Gardenhire that this team is even 6-12 right now. There were
concerns that many wanted the front office to address this offseason, and all
of these injuries and illnesses are really speaking volumes to the team’s lack
of depth. However, the team basically has the same bench as it had last year.
It just never had to go through a stretch like this.
When a team loses its opening day 2, 3, 4 and
5 hitters, and they’re being replaced by the likes of Jason Repko,
Drew Butera, Steve Holm, Matt Tolbert and Luke
Hughes, there is no surprise that they aren’t putting together wins. People can
say that the Mauers and Morneaus
and Youngs weren’t hitting anyway. That is true, but
based on their track records, they will. No worries about that.
Imagine how the Red Sox would be doing if
they had to go a week without Carl Crawford, Kevin Youklis,
David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez. Imagine the Yankees lineup if it didn’t have
Derek Jeter, Mark Teixeira, Alex Rodriguez and Robinson Cano for a week. The
Tigers lost Victor Martinez to the DL, but imagine if they also lost, well,
whoever their 2-3-4-5 hitters are. No team in baseball would be able to win
consistently with that against them.
Are those excuses? Sure. Of
course. But they are, right now unfortunately also the reality. The team
struggled for the first few games of the season with some of those players.
Take them away, and frankly, this isn’t a very good baseball team. The starting
pitching has probably been a little better than I expected. And, the bullpen,
for all its transitions, really hasn’t cost the team more than a couple of
games to this point.
Like I said, I think that the manager deserves
a lot of credit right now for this team even being 6-12 because he doesn’t have
much to work with.
Feel free to comment.
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