Over At Last, a Heat of the Moment Angry Rage Diary

by MNPundit on Oct 7, 2006 10:07 AM EDT

My immediate thoughts after the last out (at 5:56pm my time) cross posted from my non baseball blog. As you can see I went from anger, sorrow and humiliation and out the other side to melancholy acceptance and hope at the end.

Dear Team:

Brad Radke's sacrifice and final year? You wasted it.
Liriano establishing himself? You wasted it.
Kirby Puckett's year? You wasted it.
Ozzie Guillen calling us Piranhas? You wasted it.
The Division Crown? You wasted it.
The Homefield Advantage? You wasted it.
The good Karma from the stadium bill? You wasted it.
That 16-2 run in June? You wasted it.
That 96-66 record? You wasted it.

And you know what? Now you have win 95 more games to try again. Think you can do it? You'd better.

...I sure hope you can.

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Think about it... MAN

Think about next year and let your mouth water. The exact same team except:

No Radke. This is the only negative.

Liriano all year and the playoffs. The fact that they havn't done anything else to his arm worries me, but you igure you'll get more out of him next year.

Good Morneau all year. He gets it now, so no crappy May and April.

No Batista and castro. Despite Punto's recent troubling trends, he's still better than crappy Batista, and we get a whole year of Jason "Leadership" Bartlett.

Garza first full campaign. Many believe he'll bust out like Verlander. Their numbers and style have certainly been comparable to this point.

Bonser. he's pitched a lot better lately, and we'll get him all year next year. That improvement doesn't look fluky if you carefully compare it to his minor league numbers either.

Kubel. He should FINALLY be healthy next year, and we'll get a full year of that Awesome June he had.

The pen is back. That's right, it's all back.

Rondell White. If they bring him back, which I hope they will, he should hit like he did in his great, but unnoticed, second half, where he hit .321/.354/.538. He could be switched back and forth between Left and DH with Kubel. Not only would it rest both of their respective injured parts, but it would allow them to field enough to leep their bat going and not have to worry about learning to go full time DH. Just switch them back and forth everyday.

Baker. He HAS to be better. At any rate, whoever takes this spot HAS to be at least somewhat better.

Lohse. Whoever takes over for his innings has to be better too.

Silva. Once again, a player who simply cannot be worse thn he was this year.

Slowey. He'll be available b some point next year if he's needed.

Experiance. All these young players have been there now, and their failure there will hopefully whet their appetite. Not to mention they should be able to avaoid the jitters this time around.

So there are A LOT of reasons why this team will be a fair amount better than they are this year.

Oh, did I mention a full year of Liriano? Did I get that in?

"Baseball is great because you can't take a knee or kill the clock. You have to put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn chance." C Stengel

by AdamOnFirst on Oct 7, 2006 3:23 PM EDT reply actions

I'm on board...

It's all true. I'm already counting the days until spring training. It's gonna be an incredible 2007!!!

by djskilbr on Oct 8, 2006 12:21 AM EDT up reply actions

Problems

I tend to look on the dark side so... my couner list!

I have no confidence in Liriano's arm. None. He was babied along according to reports we've got and did all the training and it did him no good at all. There is a reason he got thrown in with Nathan and Bonser.

Bonser needs to not regress. This is a question mark.

Will Garza get it together?

I have almost lost all hope in Baker.

Mauer had a career year.

Morneau had a career year.

Punto has fallen off a cliff.

Is it possible for Kubel's knees to heal? He was sitting on the bench all year--why didn't they?

Is Hunter back? Is that good? I have no idea.

My inclanation would be to trade Castillo and Baker for a good/decent CF, bring up Casilla and see if you can find a replacement for Punto.

Pitching we have Santana, maybe probably Bonser then Garza? Slowey? Baker? Silva? Do any of those names inspire anything but a confused dread?

So there's my counter response. I have hope for next year but not a whole lot. Have to see what happenes I guess they surprised this year, maybe they'll do it again.

by MNPundit on Oct 9, 2006 2:59 PM EDT up reply actions

M&M

Morneau didn't have a career year. There is no reaso to belive he can't do this year after year. It isn't like we were surprised to see he was a great hitter.

Mauer is a great hitter. He may not win a batting title again, but he'll continue to be a great hitter and continue to develop power.

Have more faith in Liriano's arm. He can get it figured out, even if it isn't perfect net year. Even if he only gets in 150 innings as long as he's healthy for the playoffs.

There's no reason to jump ship on Baker, especialyl when a lot of his sstruggles seem mental. He's shown he has the guts to do it with gutty performances against several teams. Now he just needs to be more consistant.

Of course it is possible for Kubel's knees to heal. He had a massive injury, and perhaps we shouldn't have expected so much in his first year back.

"Baseball is great because you can't take a knee or kill the clock. You have to put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn chance." C Stengel

by AdamOnFirst on Oct 9, 2006 4:39 PM EDT up reply actions

Dark Horses of '07

Kubel is the big guy. Can he get better (yes). The Twins should have shut him down sometime during the second half to allow him to heal and comeback and play a bit in Fall ball, and then rest and come back strong for spring training.

Is Mauer the perfect #3 hitter, or should he bat second. I vote for second...but can't tell you who should bat third.

I hope Bartlett and Punto look at a lot of film and work hard to see where they started to flail during the last month of the season. If they continue to thrive and learn, the Twins will be awesome.

I'm a Tyner fan, but wonder if he is the perfect 4th outfielder (compared to Ford). Both will cost the same. Neither can bat lead-off. Both suffer when they don't play often. Both have similar strengths (field and speed). I want to see someone come north during the year (Romero, Span, Oeltjen) to see if there is a future 3rd (not 4th) outfielder in the system.

I started to think what the Twins would have been like if the Matt LeCroy of '05 was the DH instead of Rondell (I can only hit when I field) White. But LeCroy fell so off the charts during the off-season. That saddened me as he would have been the perfect bench guy alst season (could play first or catch, some pop from the bat, nice off the bench). Nevin is not the answer for '07. White isn't either. The Twins need a DH who can possibly play the field, hopefully back-up first at times, or soemthing. You can patch in Ford/Tyner to give Hunter/Kubel a rest in the field (and have Torii DH a tad more). But still want a much stronger bench than the Twins had in '06. I wish they had called up Garrett Jones in September for at least a half-dozen at bats to see if he could fill the bill. But the team seems to have soured on him for any kind of production beyond AAAA.

by twintown on Oct 9, 2006 7:49 PM EDT up reply actions

Gutsy performances?

Link me cause I don't remember aside from the Yankees. All I remember is his increasing frustration as he continued to... well suck. I mean I'm not expecting Bonser-like improvement, but with Garza you could see that he was clearly making adjustments even if they didn't always work. That didn't happen with Baker, at least not that I could tell.

Technically Morneau did have the best year of his career so it IS a career year. Seriously though I have confidence in him but I don't think he'll be quite as good.

Mauer DID have career year no question. I have no idea about the power but can even Mauer hit .350 for a year again? Not saying he's going to hit .270 with more strikeout than walks or anything, but I'm only looking for an OBP of .400 not the nearly .430 and a +25 in walks v. strikeouts he had this year.

by MNPundit on Oct 9, 2006 9:57 PM EDT up reply actions

Ummm... Glen Perkins?

You mentioned Slowey... but what about Perkins. He certainly raised a few eyebrows over the last few weeks. I'm assuming he'll be in camp come March. If Silva and Baker are still around (I kinda hope one of them is part of a trade for a young third-basemen) they're gonna have to fight tooth and nail for that 5th spot in the rotation. How does this starting five look:

Cytana
Boof
The Cisco Kid... AKA "Franchise"
Garza
Baker/Silva/Perkins/Slowey

Yeah, I'm drooling... so what?

by SDTwinsFan on Oct 8, 2006 3:54 AM EDT reply actions

OK OK

OKOKOK. Fine. Perkins is in there too.

But why is Boof ahead of Liriano on your list? The LHP/RHP/LHP thing?

"Baseball is great because you can't take a knee or kill the clock. You have to put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn chance." C Stengel

by AdamOnFirst on Oct 8, 2006 2:22 PM EDT up reply actions

No order in starters.....

The 1 thru 4 spots are pretty interchangable. The fifth spot is the only one that needs to be defined, as that guy might be skipped a bit or asked to pitch out of the bullpen.

In the long run, Boof may end up as the fifth guy.

Silva could be a #5, but not at $4 million.

by twintown on Oct 9, 2006 10:14 AM EDT reply actions

Silva

If we bring back Silva and it turns out he is only the fifth best pitcher on the team, then his 4 million shouldn't keep him ahead of a better pitcher on the minium. If we're already payig it, our only concenr must be using him best.

"Baseball is great because you can't take a knee or kill the clock. You have to put the ball over the plate and give the other guy his damn chance." C Stengel

by AdamOnFirst on Oct 9, 2006 1:19 PM EDT up reply actions