Twins 2015: Improved Work In Progress

Gulf Coast League Twins (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

For the first time in five years, we have reasonable expectations that the Minnesota Twins will not be one of the worst teams in Major League Baseball this season.   Which is surprising to those of us who had given the team up for dead after four awful seasons, and the Target Field 'new car smell' had just about given way to something worse.

The Twins have the second-best record in the American League this season at 49-40, good enough for second place in the Central division headed out of the All Star break.  Ahead of them is the Kansas City Royals, another team that came from the gutter back to prosperity as the defending AL champions.

What changed?  Manager Paul Molitor is credited with turning this sorry bunch of Twins around, but a few other things came together.  The starting pitching has improved with Phil Hughes, Kyle Gibson and Mike Pelfrey turning in some more-than-decent performances.  Fielding mistakes are fewer.  Brian Dozier and Trevor Plouffe have been contributing plenty to the Twins' offense.  And veterans Joe Mauer and Torii Hunter are hitting the ball like they used to, though not as much.

What still needs work are the middle relievers who give up so many runs that closer Glen Perkins seldom has a chance to save games.  The jury's still out on those much-publicized rookies the Twins brought up from the minors.  Byron Buxton is injury-prone.  Aaron Hicks is hot and cold in the outfield.  Miguel Sano has a hot bat, but has yet to prove he can cut it in the outfield.

If the Twins want to compete with the Royals the rest of the season, they will need to play above-.500 ball.  The way to do that is to keep leaning on the pitching staff, which includes the just-back-from-drug-suspension Ervin Santana.   The offense can't just be a few runs in the early innings, then taking the rest of the game off.  And those rookies need to justify the hype.

With the new MLB playoff system, the Twins don't need to win the division title to make the post-season.  They could be one of two wild-card teams that will face long-shot odds to make it to the World Series, just like the Royals did last year.  The American League will have home-field advantage for the Series, having won the All Star game in Cincinnati on Tuesday.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves, aren't we?  Nobody expected the Twins to be this good this fast, and we will soon see whether they can handle the pressure.

Women's World Cup: U.S. Claims Another Title

English: Carli Lloyd of the United States Women's National Soccer team warming up prior to a friendly match against Canada on September 17th, 2011. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The United States won the FIFA Women's World cup for the third time Sunday in Vancouver, British Columbia.  The last one was in 1999, back when Hillary Clinton's husband was President, and Brandi Chastain flashed her sports bra in celebration after she scored the winning penalty kick against China at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, California.

No such histrionics this time at B.C. Place Stadium, as the U.S. coasted to a 5-2 win over Japan--who they had lost the World Cup to in 2011.  The Americans scored four goals in the first half--three of them by Carli Lloyd, who was rewarded with the most outstanding player trophy--before the Japanese team knew what hit them.  Tobin Heath and Lauren Holiday also scored for the U.S.

This was clearly the Americans' best performance in a tournament where they had been criticized for their sluggish offensive play, which was the game plan of coach Jill Ellis.  It must have worked because it got the U.S. team to the final.

This World Cup had its problems before the opening kickoff, indicating that FIFA hasn't quite put the women's tournament on a par with the men's.

• Matches were played across Canada from Vancouver to Moncton, New Brunswick.  But where was Toronto, the most populous Canadian city?  That's like holding the World Cup in the United States, but New York and Los Angeles aren't involved.
• There were complaints that some of the Canadian Football League venues being used had artificial turf instead of a natural surface.
• Hotel accommodations were less than ideal, with some teams lodging in the same building.
• The apparent sexism of FIFA's worldwide TV feed, which included shots of Hope Solo looking like she's suggestively hydrating herself.  And why were women crossing their arms during the player introductions?
• FIFA president Sepp Blattner is reportedly having second thoughts about his decision to resign.  Considering the mess the organization's in right now, Blattner should stick to his first thought.

Fox's TV coverage was a relief to those who had feared the worst when they took over the World Cup broadcasting rights from ESPN.  The best you could say about it is that it wasn't terrible, unlike the U.S. Open golf coverage.  Having been on a steady diet of British soccer voices the past few years, it was quite a jolt to hear Americans call the tournament for a change.  Other than J.P. Dellacamera, who has been doing this for decades, the rest of the Fox announcing crew sounded like refugees from a college sports channel.

The U.S. team has its share of stars that will carry them into future competitions:  Lloyd, Heath, Holiday, Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan.  Abby Wambach is leaving the game a winner.  Hope Solo?  Once the afterglow of this championship has dimmed, Solo will be back fighting the domestic abuse charges that made people wonder whether she should have played in this World Cup in the first place.  Her performance in goal should have settled that question.

This was the most watched soccer event in American TV history, with Fox claiming 25 million viewers for the final match.  That's more than for the NBA and NHL finals.  Which is easy to do on the Fourth of July weekend against summer reruns and a rain-delayed NASCAR race.

The jury is still out on whether Americans will watch women in sports beyond the Olympics and the World Cup.  It's hard enough to take female athletes seriously, given that pro leagues in soccer and basketball are struggling to find an audience, without having to sex them up.  They deserve better than that, and not just every four years.