Epilogue: 2010 Twins

This has been a fun year. The return of outdoor baseball in Minnesota. I was lucky enough to attend the first-ever exhibition game at Target Field, the Season-opener against Boston and the first-ever playoff game against New York. In between, I had the opportunity to attend games that ranged from 35 degrees to 95 degrees - all an absolute blast. I even had tickets to the first rain out. I had a great time attending all of these games with friends and family. Now that the season's done, I can't help but be a bit bummed. When the Vikes lose in the playoffs, I get mad. When the Twins lose, it just bums me out. The Twins are the one professional team that I have a real fondness for, odd as that may sound.

The 2010 Twins team was a good team. Not great, as we just found out. Good enough to win the AL Central. But, as we've seen all year, they tend to fold when they play quality opponents. This tells me that their talent level is simply not up to the Bostons and (of course) New Yorks of the world. Luckily, Target Field suggests a bright future for the team in which they will continue to compete. Whether or not they reach that "World Series level" again hinges on not only what the Twins front office does in the future, but what happens in Major League Baseball. More on that later. Here are a few observations about the 2010 Twins and the future of the team:

1. The Twins lack "fire." I've written about this before (a few days ago) so I am not going to belabor the point. I'll just say that, most times, teams tend to take on the personality of their superstars. Mauer, Morneau, Span, Kubel, etc. They are all mellow to the point of being comatose. I don't think you can underestimate the impact this has on the team, especially during the playoffs. How do you obtain "fire?" I don't know.

2. The Twins lack "a stopper." I've also written about this. In the playoffs, I'd rather pitch Viola and Blyleven on two days rest than anybody they have on today's roster on five days rest. This is why they were able to win in 1987 with a worse overall lineup than this year's team. They were set up for short, best of 5 or best of 7 series. They were, however, very lucky to be in a bad division otherwise they wouldn't have had to worry about being in the playoffs. The Twins may have to make a trade to obtain a stopper, but this will not come at a cheap price. They may have one in Kyle Gibson in the minors, but this will not help for a couple more years.

3. The Twins are inching closer to "Vikings Syndrome." Whoa, this one is scary. The Vikings are now considered failures if they fail to at least make the Super Bowl. Miss the playoffs? Failure. Lose in the first round? Failure. Lose in the NFC Championship? Big-time failure. And so on. Meanwhile, the Twins have always been considered overachievers and underdogs. Up to this year, they were always consider "The Little Engine That Could" even if they MADE the playoffs. This year, with a new ballpark and the added revenue that goes with it, the expectations just rose. Winning the division, while nice, is no longer good enough, I got the feeling that the Twins were expected to win at least one series. What will the expectations be next year? What happens if they lose in the first round - again?

4. It actually isn't Ron Gardenhire's fault. There is a lot of talk in the media and "blogdom" about firing Ron Gardenhire. He is being compared to Denny Green (great regular season - horrible postseason). I actually believe his legacy is closer to Flip Saunders. If you remember, Flip's Timberwolves teams had great, 50-win seasons and then lost in the first round of the playoffs - all the time (except once). The difference is that Flip's teams, much like today's Twins, always lost to a superior opponent. They always managed to draw the one team that was on paper, and on the field (or court) vastly superior. For the Wolves, it was the San Antonio Spurs or Lakers. For the Twins, it's the Yankees. Always. In each case, I give the manager credit for consistently getting his team to the postseason. Many times, they didn't even necessarily deserve to get that far. Lastly, I'd caution against firing Ron Gardenhire. If you remember, I was a big advocate of firing Glen Mason because he couldn't get the Gophers "to the next level." Well, Mason WAS fired and Tim Brewster was hired. All we all know what happened next. Sometimes the devil you know is better than the devil you don't know. How long this will last, however, is anyone's guess - see #3.

5. Baseball's payrolls. Baseball is the only major league sport with no salary cap. It's becoming a joke. There is a reason that New York continues to dominate each and every year in baseball. This is not a free-market, folks. The Twins, Brewers or Royals cannot pick up and move to New York to compete with the Yankees, with a level playing field and see who comes out on top. Major League Baseball NEEDS teams in different-sized markets spread out throughout the United States to thrive. With no salary cap, in today's world, the Royals have no shot at consistently competing. Football, Basketball and Hockey have figured this out. Baseball has not. I would actually advocate moving to a high salary CAP (say, $175 million) but also to a salary MINIMUM (say, $50 million). This would help level the playing field so teams like the Yankees could not outspend other teams by literally 100 million dollars (the Yankees 2010 payroll was $207 million) . It would also level the playing field so that teams like the Pittsburgh Pirates couldn't force their cities to pay for stadiums and then field a team with a $34 million dollar payroll - and turn a profit. I am not going to hold my breath on this one, however. The MLB players union is far too powerful to ever stand for something like a salary cap.

So all in all, it was a good year. I had a blast.

Here's looking to 2011.

Jeff