Twins 2012: Another Lost Season

Gulf Coast League Twins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

When Target Field opened for business as the 2010 baseball season opened, it was expected by everyone involved with the Minnesota Twins--players, fans, the front office--that the outdoor atmosphere would produce as much success as they had at the Metrodome.  More wins, more division championships, more first-round playoff losses to the New York Yankees.

Three years later, the Twins are like an indoor plant that's been left out in the elements too long.  They have just concluded the 2012 schedule at 66-96, the worst record in the American League Central division, and the worst in the entire league.  Only the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros--both with more than 100 losses--are worse.

All the ingredients for a last-place team were there:  bad pitching, weak fielding, nonexistent offense, injuries, frequent callups from the minors, being out of the running by Mother's Day.

Don't blame Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer and Josh Willingham.  They all had better individual seasons at the plate, and were all healthy for a change.  Mauer, for one, was in the hunt for the A.L. batting title that ultimately went to Miguel Cabrera of the Detroit Tigers (who also won the league home run and RBI titles, making him the first since Carl Yazstremski of the Boston Red Sox in 1967 to win the Triple Crown).

But they were offset by two Twins' decisions: (A) Giving Tsuyoshi Nishioka another chance at second base after a stint in the minors.  He performed so poorly that the team ate its expensive investment and let him go back to Japan.  (B) Trading mercurial pitching ace Francisco Liriano to the Chicago White Sox for prospects.

With two consecutive 90-loss seasons under their belt, the Twins are in desperate need of a house cleaning.  That process began with the firing and/or reassigning of several coaches.  For some reason, manager Ron Gardenhire still has a job.

The Twins are going to have to do a lot better than that if they want to remain relevant to its fans.  That means being active in the free agent market.  That means trading popular players to get better pitching talent.  That means, Nishioka aside, signing more Asian players to a team that already resembles the United Nations.  And that means management getting off their duffs and stop pinching pennies.

One thing to look forward to:  Target Field was recently named host of the 2014 All Star Game.  That event has become the last refuge for struggling franchises with a new or refurbished ballpark to show off.  Whether the Twins will have any stars in that game besides Mauer by then will have a lot to do with what happens next season.  It won't be pretty.
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Major League Baseball has decided to stick with its present national TV partners (ESPN, Fox, TBS) through the 2021 season.  What's different is that Fox is getting more games on Saturdays and an increased presence in the playoffs, perhaps in anticipation of its yet-to-be-announced cable sports channel.  TBS is getting fewer games, which might be an acknowledgement by MLB that not every baseball fan can find the channel.  Unless you're a "Family Guy" fan.
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Thanks to the new playoff format, in which two wild card teams from each league goes into a one-game playoff just to get into the next round, picking the two teams we think will go into the World Series just got trickier.  But here goes:  Detroit Tigers vs. Washington Nationals.