A couple of years ago, Rob Neyer and Rany Jazayerli used to write one of my favorite baseball columns, Rob and Rany on the Royals. Both Neyer and Jazayerli are brilliant baseball writers. And both of them are great Royals fans. And it was always interesting to watch them sink into the abyss that is Royals baseball.
One day, before the start of the 2003, Rob Neyer gave up. He said he didn't want to go on writing about the Royals. Sadly, I know exactly how he feels right now.
Right now I'm staying with friends in Oregon. And as such, I opened yesterday with three shots of tequilla and didn't stop drinking until I passed out. All throughout the day, there was a sick sort of rumbling to my stomach. I thought it was the tequilla. Turns out, it was something more.
The Twins will open the 2006 season with the worst possible line-up. Juan Castro and Tony Batista and their sub .290 OBPs will combine to create the Dead Sea effect on the bottom half of the line-up. Jason Kubel has promise, but there is still obvious signs of rust on him and opening him in Rochester probably was the best possible decision. Michael Cuddyer, who looked promising in Spring Training, suddenly becomes trade bait. Even though he's about 3 times better of an option at third base than Tony Batista and slightly better than Jason Kubel in right at this point. Add in Ron Gardenhire's need to keep two utility infielders, and the potential for disaster runs high with the Twins this year.
The upside is that improvements from Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer will keep the team from last in runs scored again. But at the same time, this team could win 100 games with ease if it finds a way to score 800 runs this season. Right now though, 700 looks like it will be a stretch. And there's only one man to blame for that. Ron Gardenhire.
The burning question for the Twins success is going to be when are they going to realize what their greatest liability is?
5 comments:
You really think the Twins are going to only improve by 17 runs? Castro replacing Castro is a wash. Batista replacing last year's Cuddyer might be a down grade. But every other spot in the lineup stands to improve either by health, maturity or new acquistitions.
The manager only picks which nine players to play. The GM picks the 25 players the manager can pick from.
Ryan and Gardy think too much alike. Sometimes Gardy is the opinion leader. Sometimes Ryan is just deferential.
You really think the Twins are going to only improve by 17 runs? Castro replacing Castro is a wash. Batista replacing last year's Cuddyer might be a down grade. But every other spot in the lineup stands to improve either by health, maturity or new acquistitions.
At the same time though, you're looking at a line-up of nine players. 7 of them have considerable injury questions about them. The other two are Batista and Castro. Does that really give you much faith that everyone is going to be healthy?
The Twins are one Joe Mauer knee flare-up away from one of the worst offenses ever assembled. Losing two out of the foursome of Hunter, Stewart, Kubel and White would be just as painful. The jump from Justin Morneau to Garrett Jones is more devestating than any of those. In a perfect world what your saying makes perfect sense. Is this a perfect world though?
Ryan and Gardy think too much alike. Sometimes Gardy is the opinion leader. Sometimes Ryan is just deferential.
I'd say what Gardenhire wants, Gardenhire gets roster-wise. Ryan has pointed things out like Batista's horrid OBP in the press or that putting Liriano in the pen wouldn't be the best thing for his development. The problem is he's more milquetoast than a Democratic Senator, and gets pushed around just as much. Ryan has a lot of good traits to him, but this is what keeps him from being a great GM.
Alternate question, how long would Gardenhire last as manager if he were pulling this crap on Billy Beane or Theo Epstein?
Used to?
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