Have the Twins reached the point of no return? Is it time to throw in the towel and prepare for the Great July Selloff?
At one point, my friend and I concluded that it is time to pull the plug. We felt the mini-comeback had run its course and the Twins were just a bad team.
Late at night, I gave serious thought to concentrating not on the present, but on the future as the organization tries to build for the coming years. A guy tries to be objective, but it is easy to throw up your hands in disgust and say get rid of the whole bunch. Then the thought came that the Twins really don’t have a bad team in spite of their record.
The outfield of Willingham, Span and Revere is a major league outfield and probably better than most, if Revere continues his high average hitting. One fair and two very good defenders. The infield and catcher seem to be righting themselves, particularly if Plouff continues his slugging. The middle infield has a heady veteran and a promising rookie. More about Justin Morneau at first later. And Joe Mauer, while not what we want him to be, is still one of the top two catchers in the American League. The Twins could, with a break or two, have a better-than-average infield. The position players are not that bad. In fact, as presently constituted, they look very respectable.
The problem with the Twins, as we all know, is starting pitching. It’s hard to be very optimistic about the pitching, although it has improved since the early part of the year. Scott Diamond has shown that he may be a good middle-of-the-rotation starter, which is more than the Twins had during the early part of the season.
Francisco Liriano has pitched well since coming back from his exile to the bullpen with an ERA under 3. I realize that with Frankie you have to hold your breath and hope for the best every time he goes out there. But, his recent performance is encouraging.
As mentioned, I was all set to write the Twins off this year and concentrate on the prospects, but now I’m not so sure, for it seems to me the team is only a couple of pitchers away from being a good ballclub.
Easy said, but how to make that happen? This is not new with me, but try this on for size: trade Span for a good starting pitcher, and I mean good. I know that Span is an elite player both on the field and in the clubhouse. However, you have to give value to get value. Then move Revere to center field and Chris Parmalee to right. I think Parmalee is ready to start hitting and he has a stronger arm than Revere.
Trading Matt Capps should yield the Twins a starting pitcher of some sort. That would help the Twins’ rotation. It’s surprising what another starting pitcher will do for a team.
I know there has been a lot of talk about trading Justin Morneau, but I would let the season play out for Justin. First of all, he wouldn’t net much at this juncture. And, Justin Morneau is of great value to the team whether he hits 30 home runs or 10. Lets see how it goes.
One may feel the need to do something dramatic to help the Twins, but sometimes less is more. And should the season not work out, there is always the opportunity to do more.
