Random Twins Thoughts

As horrible as the Twins have looked the last three seasons and as bad as they were the last week or so, I'm not sure HOW Gardy can stick around next season.

Most likely the Twins will announce that Gardy is gone sometime today. I cannot blame Gardy completely for the mess that the Twins have become, so much of it has to do with the Twins keeping superstars like Mauer and Morneau and signing them to huge contracts while letting less expensive, talented players leave in free agency. Michael Cuddyer comes first to mind, but we got rid of Carlos Gomez, and J.J. Hardy and Denard Span, too. ALL still have contracts much more appealing that Morneau and WAY, WAY better than Mauer.

And though I hated the idea of bringing back Francisco Liriano this season, knowing that Pittsburgh got him for just a million dollars still irks me a bit. I would not have brought him back, but knowing the drek that the Twins did sign, it kind of bothers me that they didn't try Liriano again. Just look at the TOTAL number of wins the Twins starters produced this year and their average ERA. It's quite possible we had the worst starting staff in baseball history this season.

I can't blame Ryan entirely because he inherited the mess from the last GM. Our young players don't seem to have the fundamentals that you'd expect from well-coached farm club players. They do so many things wrong. They miss the cut-off and they throw to the wrong man. NONE of them can lay down a simple sacrifice bunt, and they haven't for years.

One of the reasons the Twins were competitive even when they didn't have great pitching and great offensive players is that they were sound defensively and could bunt. Yesterday we had THREE errors in the sixth inning alone. And sadly, that has been the norm this season. That goes back to coaching throughout the organization, and not just Gardy's managing.

The Twins are a fundamentally flawed team. And I use that term as more than a pun. Much is wrong. Much needs to be fixed. And none of it is going to get better in the near future with or without Gardy.