Day 30: How to Fix the Minnesota Twins (Part 1)

Needing 163 games to clinch the division title in what might now be the worst division in baseball, the 2009 Minnesota Twins proceeded to get swept out of the playoffs in three games by the Evil Empire. Not surprisingly, all the talk of "momentum" and "being the hottest team" means absolutely nothing when it comes down to game time. The Twins looked positively outmatched in that series, and as much as people want to boil it down and blame the series on a few blown calls (fuck you Phil Cuzzi) it really was their inability to take advantage of runners in scoring position that ended their playoff hopes.

So what? So as Twins fans we move on, we're used to this type of thing by now. We start the x-number of days till pitchers and catchers report to spring training countdown and lament. I've become fairly good at the lamenting part lately, you have to be good at it to be a Minnesota sports fan. But that's not the point of this post, the point of this post was me trying to share my strategy of how the Twins can take their team to the next level and hopefully the next round of the playoffs.

So here we go, off season transactions (so far):

• Trading Carlos Gomez to the Milwaukee Brewers for J.J. Hardy: Outstanding. Some people might argue that now we officially gave Johan Santana away for nothing, but I say so what. We already knew that when it happened, no reason to make the trade even worse for the Twins by being stubborn about the take and forcing these busted prospects into our lineup. Carlos Gomez is a plus fielder with absolutely no business in the batting box. He's a great fielder essentially because of his speed, as these things tend to go baseball players get slower as they age so its safe to assume his outstanding fielding capabilities would eventually decay making it even harder to warrant a spot for him in an already weak hitting lineup.
  
  By bringing in J.J. Hardy the Twins also fill the hole in the left side of the infield left by the (presumed) departure of Orlando Cabrera. Given that "OC" is a free agent now it makes a lot of sense for the Twins to pursue other options rather than giving a barely league average overpaid shortstop any extended tenure. This is not to say that Hardy comes risk free, in fact quite the contrary. Coming into the 2009 season Hardy was one of a handful of promising young shortstops that could aptly be described as "toolsy" (and I don't mean the toolsy that gets thrown around to describe players that really have no obvious talent, I'm referring to a guy who can hit the ball, run the bases, and field his position).
  
  For as bad as his 2009 season ended up being (.229/.302/.357 with 11 HRs and a demotion to AAA mixed in as well) much of it can be attributed to him simply being unlucky. Hardy posted a .264 BABIP through 115 games with the big league squad, when compared to the league average BABIP of .302 its hard to not think something went terribly wrong with his season. It is difficult to compare his 2009 season to his previous four seasons (three really since 2006 was shortened to a mere 35 games due to injury) of MLB experience, but at only 27 years old and only one season removed from .283/.343/.478 with 24 HRs, its hard not to be optimistic.
  
  Side note: This season I drafted J.J. Hardy as my fantasy shortstop, and I stuck with him all the way until all-star break when I declared that he was now an official member of Club DTM and would no longer ever be on a fantasy team of mine...I feel like I owe him an apology.
  
  
• The Twins exercise their $10.5 million option for 2011: Cuddy, as he's been annoyingly labeled, hasn't been the model of consistency for the Twins. Coming off a career year in which he batted .276/.342/.520 with a team leading 32 home runs, this was a fairly predictable move by the Twins front office. I'm not exactly sure as to why they would have pulled the trigger a year earlier than necessary, but that's why I'm not the GM. Cuddyer has been, as I mentioned before, very good at being inconsistent. He's had a well-documented history of injury problems causing him to only have three seasons (out of his eight full time MLB seasons) in which he played in 140+ games. When healthy he's always been a great hitter, although Dickbert tend to blow his defensive skills out of proportion--especially considering how hamfisted he is in the outfield. His one redeeming quality is his cannon of an arm that he can sometimes use to bail himself out. All in all, a predictable move and probably a good one, but I would have waited till the end of the 2010 season.
  
  
• Allowing Carl Pavano, Ron Mahay, and OC (presumably) to declare Free Agency: These were to be expected and the only semi-disappointing move is the lack of effort in resigning Pavano. I recently read that the Twins (just like every year for the past ten fucking years) are looking to add a "veteran" arm to the rotation. Typically these "veteran's" can be described as fat, eclipsed (much like any source of light behind them), overpaid rehab projects, see Sidney Ponson, Livan Hernandez, Kenny Rogers, Rick Reed--it just would have been nice to see a useful pitcher (see Carl Pavano) signed to fulfill this annual shitshow.

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow.