Rock Bottom

Last night, an awful 8th inning in the field for the Twins helped Kansas City to a 4-3 win. It marked the fourth straight defeat for hometown 9, bringing their record to 9-16. They are currently tied with the South Siders for last place in the AL Central. If you have seen any Twins games this week, it makes you nauseous. And one can only think, it can't get much worse.

Injuries have plagued the Twins so far in 2011. Starters Joe Mauer (leg weakness/viral infection), Tsuyoshi Nishioka (broken fibula), and Delmon Young (Flu/Oblique) all have missed a good portion of April. Other mainstays such as Justin Morneau and Jim Thome have battled minor ailments, but they kept them out of the lineup for a few games. So filing the lineup card on a daily basis has not been easy for Manager Ron Gardenhire.

And when your key players are spending more time in the trainers room, than being on the field, your run production is going to suffer. The Twins rank at the bottom of the Major Leagues in runs, home runs, on base percentage, and slugging percentage. To prove how bad it is, the Twins have played 225 innings this year. In those 225, they have had just 8 innings where the offense has gotten four or more hits in an inning. That comes out to three and a half percent.

But perhaps the big problem of the offense is having inept hitting catchers Drew Butera and Steve Holm behind the plate. Together they have hit a combined .118 with 4 RBI. And what makes it worse is that former C's Jose Morales (.227 AVG, 4 RBI, .346 OBP in 8 games with COL) and Wilson Ramos (.373, 2 HR, 6 RBI in 16 games with Washington) are doing much better than Butera or Holm.

And lets not forget that Twins pitching has been sub-par this year as well. Francisco Liriano (9.13 ERA) has just been shelled in seemingly every one of his starts. Joe Nathan was removed from the closers role because his velocity and command have been very bad. And besides Jose Mijares and Glen Perkins, the middle relief has been horrible.

But perhaps my biggest cringe this year has been watching Alexi Casilla play shortstop everyday. He will make some good defensive plays, but then it gets evened out with his booting of a routine play (i.e. last night's 8th inning). Offensively, it has gotten predicable. Lately all he seemingly does is flyout weakly. A guy with decent speed that he possesses should be trying to hit the ball on the ground and use that speed. He only carries a .227 average coming into tonights game. So the leash on him has to be getting close to choke level, especially with Trevor Plouffe continuing his offensive surge down at AAA-Rochester (.261, 5 HR, and 12 RBI).

This is by far the worst I have seen this team play under Ron Gardenhire. Everyday it seems like the same story that results in another loss. The last time the Twins were in last place this late in the season was in 2000, and that team finished last at season's end. So you have to ask yourself, it can only start getting better...right?

Not A Start We Envisioned

Last night, the Twins were crushed 11-0 by the Baltimore Orioles. The Twins are off to a 6-11 start and currently reside in the cellar of the AL's Central division. They have yet to score more than 5 runs in a game, and their bullpen has been what was expected of it...not good. Many people are beginning to push the panic button. Something I refuse to do this early in the season, despite the signs that this team might just play like all other Minnesota sports this past winter (Meaning they will underperform and fail).

There is some good news with this slow start. The Twins will be done, for the most part, with the AL East. Its a big powerful division that, in years past, has feasted on Twins pitching. This year has been no exception. The Twins were just 15-18 against the AL East in 2010. The only team in that division that had a losing record against the Twins was the last place Orioles, a team that is much improved in 2011. After this month, the Twins only have one more East coast trip and that is to Boston in early May. They do have home series against Baltimore, Boston, New York, and Toronto remaining, but the Twins are a much different team at home compared to the road. So clearly the schedule is in the Twins favor going forward.

Here is some more reason for optimism: The Twins play in the AL Central. A division where Cleveland and Kansas City begin the day at the top. If someone were to look at the division, they would say it is in inverse order (Cleveland, Kansas City, Detroit, Chicago, Minnesota). Many have picked the latter three to contend in this division while the front two were nabbed as the cellar dwellers. It will be interesting to see how the Indians and Royals fare as the season goes along and the Tigers, Sox, and Twins begin to heat up. Trust me, these teams will not go down quietly. And with the lack of experience on the Indians and Royals, I still believe one of the bottom three will take the division.

Here's the bad news: The Twins offense has yet to appear. The Twins currently rank last in the majors in runs (50), walks (40), slugging percentage (.315), and home runs (5). Again, some of this is due in part to the team playing the AL East, but some of this is in part to key players missing a significant part of Spring Training. Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, Michael Cuddyer, and Delmon Young missed half of Spring with various injuries. And Mauer, Morneau, and Young have/or are currently missing time with aliments during the past week. So the hope of them getting their timing down has to be put on hold. And not forgetting that 2B Tsuyoshi Nishioka has been out since the first week with a broken fibula, the manager has had to pencil some role players into starting jobs. So clearly there is a way to go for the offense.

So please, I urge you to keep the faith in this team. Yes, It wasn't supposed to start like this. But, they will get healthy, they will score some runs, and they will put up a fight before the year is over. Because these players are not used to losing.