Twins lineups have been suspect as of late
Following are opinions from Mille Lacs County Times editor-sports editor Gary Larson, reporter Luther Dorr and former Times intern Logan Marxhausen who’s now on the sports staff at the St. Cloud State University Chronicle. Note: This feature is written on Monday each week.
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•Question: The Minnesota Twins are 5-7 so far in June and have, overall, been playing less than sterling baseball. What’s their problem?
-Dorr: There are a couple things that stick out. The team has not had its starting lineup together for weeks now, for various reasons, and that has played a part in their poor performance recently. Yes, other teams have injuries but the Twins have been especially hard hit. Their lineups the last two weekends (three players hitting under .170 on Sunday) have been horrible. And, let’s face it, the performance with runners on base, especially with the bases loaded, have been pathetic. And no matter what the manager or the top brass say, they didn’t sign Joe Mauer to that kind of contract to have him hit only two homers and have fewer than 30 RBIs this far into the season. Pat Reusse, the usually sharp-tongued columnist for the Star Tribune who knows baseball as well as anyone, wrote a column sticking up for Mauer last week but Reusse must know Mauer just isn’t doing what was expected from him so far. Getting healthy is very important for the team but improving the performance with runners on base is at least as important.
-Marxhausen: The problem started at the beginning of the month when the Twins lost three games to the terrible Seattle Mariners. The Twins have made mental mistakes that cost them close games and have the bad habit of leaving runners standing on base. The adrenaline of the new season and the new field have phased out a little for the players and they need to get back to the same performances that they were displaying at the beginning of the season. The Twins really need to finish this inter-league stretch with a positive result for them to get back on track for division games.
-Larson: Injuries have been a big factor in the Twins’ June slide. But, there are other things.
When Minnesota signed slugger Jim Thome it gave up a “position” player spot on its bench, limiting manager Ron Gardenhire’s flexibility in making moves. Injuries have compounded that.
A result has been the Twins calling up players from their farm system who aren’t ready to face Major League pitching.
Somebody, maybe hitting coach Joe Vavra, needs to take Gardenhire aside and explain some basic math to old Gardy. A player batting .130 (Trevor ) or .152 (Matt Tolbert) isn’t going to get on base as often as a player batting .319 (Joe Mauer), .350 (Justin Morneau) or .277 (Michael Cuddyer). Gardy has reverted back to forfeiting that No. 2 spot in the batting order, and even the leadoff spot where he had Nick Punto (.221) Sunday against Atlanta.
Mauer isn’t hitting home runs this season, but he is getting on base. Move him up to No. 2 and when you rest Denard Span, put Mauer at leadoff where he may get an extra at-bat in a game.
This road trip, with stops in Philadelphia, Milwaukee and in New York against the Mets, and upcoming home series with Detroit and Tampa Bay will tell us a lot about where the Twins are headed.
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•Question: The Twins have recently had great success selling “standing room” tickets for $22. Would you buy one?
-Dorr: I’ve already bought one this season and, depending upon the game, might again. I was told yesterday (Sunday) at the game that the demand for tickets this Thursday, because of the pitching match-up, will be very strong and that SRO tickets will be sold by scalpers for $40. The Twins have figured out that, at least for this season, ticket demand is very high and that they can add to their bottom line by selling hundreds of SRO tickets. If the Twins stay in the race all season those tickets will become even more in demand.
-Marxhausen: The first thing I heard from one of my friends who took a tour of the stadium before the Twins started the season was that there was not a bad seat in the house. When I went to my first game at Target Field all I could think about was how true that statement actually was. Target Field may not hold as many as the Metrodome may have, but the cheapest seats are worth way more than some of the expensive seats in the dome. Standing room is great for socializing and watching the game at the same time. I’d buy standing room tickets and quite often if I lived closer to Target Field.
-Larson: My first thought was nope, I’m not shelling out $22 to stand. But, it might not be a bad option. Apparently, several hundred fans have been scooping up these tickets since they went on sale for the Milwaukee series in mid-May.
Let’s look at some advantages of the standing room tickets.
-You don’t have to stand up every time someone has to leave his or her seat to use the rest room.
-You’re closer to the rest room. And, the hot dogs, the brats, the peanuts, the beer, the….
-You’re already standing when someone hits a home run or makes a great play in the field. It’s like you knew what was going to happen and got an early jump on those suckers who are seated.
-If you don’t like your standing room spot, look around and you can claim a better one. Good luck with moving from your seat to a better one.
-You can choose who you’re standing next to, something that you can’t do in a seat. Probably not a lot of parents holding two-year-olds who don’t want to be at the game in the standing room section.
-Nobody is going to question if you’re in the right standing room spot.
Standing room is sounding good. Real good.
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•Question: Nebraska is headed to the Big Ten Conference and Colorado has been accepted by the Pac 12 Conference. The Big Ten may be adding more schools and it appears the Big 12 Conference may fall apart, with schools like Texas, Oklahoma and Texas A&M on their way out. It appears we’re headed for the formation of three or four “super conferences.” Television revenues appear to be driving this and is it good or bad for collegiate sports?
-Dorr: You can label me a traditionalist but I think it’s horrible for collegiate athletics. Understand that I want to go back to the days of the Big Ten playing in the Rose Bowl against a Pac-10 team and having a Big Eight team in the Orange Bowl, while getting rid of a poorly-constructed BCS mess. I was also against admitting Penn State to the Big Ten in 1990 so that tells you where I am on the whole thing. It would have made much more sense to add Notre Dame to the Big Ten if conference alignments needed to be changed. But it’s apparently all about money, money, money and Notre Dame has been unwilling to make the move to the Big Ten where the very successful Big Ten Network just isn’t enough for the Fighting Irish. I fear my interest in the Big Ten will wane.
-Marxhausen: I was pretty satisfied with the system the way it was except for the fact that the Big Ten did not have 12 teams to split the conference into two divisions. If Notre Dame would have just taken its place at the table with the Big Ten, then this whole fiasco may not have arisen. Colorado moving to the Pac-10 conference does not make sense to me either other than the obvious promise of more money to be made. Texas is currently trying to maintain the Big-12 Conference with a possible chance at a cable deal that could promise each of the schools a lot of money to stay in the Big-12.
-Larson: Like Luther, I liked things the way they used to be. But, TV revenue is driving the changes. I wonder if fans will be able to keep up with the changes. One criticism of Minnesota’ prep sports I constantly hear is that conferences, and especially sub-section and section alignments, keep changing.
I wouldn’t mind if the Big Ten were to still add Notre Dame and one other school, like a Pittsburgh or Syracuse, and expand to two eight-team divisions. In that scenario Notre Dame would likely end up in the same division as Minnesota.
Yikes!
This shifting of schools is likely to boost the revenue of the “name” schools much more than the Vanderbilts, Indianas and Minnesotas.
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•Question: It’s likely that Nebraska will be put in a Big Ten division that includes Minnesota. Bad news for the Gophers?
-Dorr: Probably in football, yes. In most of the other sports, no, although they’re usually very good in volleyball. I remember sitting at old Memorial Stadium, and then the Metrodome, when there was a sea of red-shirted Nebraska fans in the stands. Long ago I was in Lincoln, Neb., for a Nebraska football game and, much like in Iowa City or Madison, it is the only game in town and thus everyone’s top priority. It’s a religion in those towns.
-Marxhausen: It’s likely that Minnesota will be on the losing end of this battle, at least on the football field Nebraska has a very strong football program that recruits a lot of great players from the Midwest. They also will have the big probability of under sizing the Gophers in basketball and baseball. The Gophers will have a new-found rivalry with the Cornhuskers come the beginning of their first game.
-Larson: Minnesota vs. Nebraska in football wasn’t much of a rivalry when the series was discontinued. The Cornhuskers shut the Gophers out 56-0 in their last meeting in 1990 and Nebraska had a string of 14-straight victories, including an 84-13 embarrassment in 1983. It’s unlikey the Gophers will be much of a match for Nebraska when the series resumes, possibly as soon as 2011.
Nebraska has had good success recruiting in Minnesota in recent years and it’s likely to attract more Minnesota prep talent now that it’s in the Big Ten. The buzz over Minnesota’s new TCF (S.D.) Stadium was already starting to wane at the end of last year’s disappointing Gopher season and in a couple of years there may be more red in the seats than maroon and gold when the Cornhuskers come to Minneapolis.
Nebraska won’t dominate Minnesota in other sports but it’s move to the Big Ten was all about football. It sounds like the Gophers will be in a division that includes Wisconsin, Iowa, Nebraska, Northwestern and Illinois. With the exception of Illinois, and maybe Northwestern, those football programs are ahead of the Gophers. Way ahead.
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