Twins Lose

Mike Pelfrey pitched another great game. The Twins only score was Brian Dozier's 15th home run of the season.

Oh, and we FINALLY got rid of Justin Morneau. Ever since Curt Flood started free agency in the early 1970's, fans have found out that players care more about their money than their current teams. I personally see nothing wrong with that, though I'm still a bit confused how some fans could be angry that we got rid of him. You either trade him and get something or let him become a free agent at the end of the season and get even less (or potentially nothing.) I'm happy Morneau has joined a contender like the Pirates. Maybe he and Liriano can make a difference in the Pirates title run. Go Pirates!

Did we get anything for him? Not really. But, that's how the game of baseball is played. You have to ask yourself is Alex Presley and his future worth one MONTH of Justin Morneau's service to the Twins? NO TEAM is going to give you their best young players for a month of Justin's services, so getting ANYONE at this point is a good deal for the Twins.

For all I know, the Twins might be one of the few teams to offer Justin a free-agent contract deal before next season that would be good enough to bring him back. Justin had his best month since the concussion in August and yet the Twins went from 10 games below .500 to 18 games below.500 in that time. It's not like his resurgence was truly helping us in any measurable way.

I don't see the Twins getting any better in any kind of reasonable time-frame either. The ONLY free-agent starting pitcher we signed this year that has been good for five innings per start has been Pelfrey. And we only signed him to a one season contract. Corriea has managed one win in two months. And we haven't heard from the Vanimal since he went to AAA ball to find himself.

Add that to Deduno now with a bad arm, Gibson back in the minors, and Albers getting ZERO run support and you start to wonder if this team has any hope for the future at all. Liam Hendriks is in that mix somewhere, but he's not getting people to stand up and take notice despite Friday's performance. Don't forget that he's 2-12 in his Twin's career with an ERA of 5.60. His track record doesn't instill confidence.

I'm hoping that Joe Mauer, at this point, after losing his buddy Justin to the Pirates, will go to Twins management and ask for a trade. Again, we probably won't get much for him, because that is how baseball works. But I'd rather take my chances with a couple of young prospects at catcher and first base next season and spend the money we'll save on Mauer and Morneau's contract to acquire some good starting pitching.

Or become a team of nothing but good relievers.

Either way, getting rid of Joe Mauer at this point makes more sense that having a $25 million MVP on a team that loses 95 games a year.

I'd rather start from scratch, than pay that much scratch to someone who can't help us enough all by himself.

AND while we're at it, let's sign Dozier to a long-term deal before we lose him, too. HE should be the Twins new guy to build around.

Out with the old. In with the new. And let's hope Gardy doesn't let the door hit him on the way out.