Monday,
October 11, 2010
One Day, That’s It!
A special thank you to all those who joined the TwinsCentric guys at Park Tavern in St. Louis Park on
Saturday night. It was actually great to be able to watch the game
and commiserate with a bunch of other Twins fans. After watching Games 1 and 2
by myself and sitting next to my Twitter account, I’ve now noted that having
people to go through such moments and being able to talk together is pretty
important.
Saturday night’s game was incredibly frustrating, and yet, it may have
been the easiest of the three games to move past because it was over early.
Frankly, Brian Duensing has not been more hittable
all season, and Phil Hughes made the Twins bats look bad. Or, maybe the Twins
bats made Phil Hughes look really good.
Three and out. That’s it. I was wrong. I
thought there was something different about the 2010 team, something that would
overcome the Small Sample Size that the playoffs truly are. Something
that would overcome the fact that the Twins had the higher seed, but the
Yankees were the favorites after having a better record in a tougher division.
Last Monday, instead of going with my head, I went with my heart and picked the
Twins in Four Games. I’m not going to apologize for being optimistic, and I’m
not going to stop being primarily optimistic. And I’m not going to apologize
for believing that what a team does over 162 games means more to me than what
happens in the playoffs. While I say that, I fully understand that the ultimate
goal is a World Series championship. I understand that.
So today on this site, I’m going to give many of you an opportunity to
vent away. But one day, please! Air out your grievances.
Share with other readers what frustrates you. Discuss with each other how a
team that went 94-68 during the regular season could be swept in the first
round.
You can talk about the pitching? You can talk about Gardy’s
6-21 record in the post season or hit abysmal record against the Yankees in his
managerial career. You can talk about the hitting of Joe Mauer,
or Jim Thome, or Jason Kubel;
or you can talk about how there wasn’t a right-handed bat in the organization
that could platoon with Kubel. You can talk about
three utility infielders on the bench. Anything.
Let today be a day of complaining, whining and healing. And then starting
tomorrow, let’s look back and look ahead. We can look back at was an
incredible, memorable season. And we can start thinking about what the Twins
need to do in the offseason.
The one thing I ask is that for any complaint that you want to give in
the comments, be sure to fully explain it, and explain exactly what you would
do differently and why that would work. For instance, if you think Ron Gardenhire deserves all of the blame for the playoff
performance and you want him fired, you can’t just say “Ron Gardenhire
needs to be fired.” Tell me who you would hire and why that person would
guarantee that the Twins would not go backwards, and in fact, guarantee that
the new manager would win a World Series title.
If you think that Joe Mauer is vastly overrated
because he only hit .250 with no extra base hits in the game, tell me what
should be done about it. Should Drew Butera have
played? Should they trade Mauer and bring in AJ Pierzynski?
So again, I’ll give you today to vent. I think it’s important. And I
think it’s healthy. But please make sure that it is a productive complaint, not
just complain to complain.
Alright, here you go. Leave
your comments here.