Minnesota Twins: Midseason Report

But what happens to him when Cuddyer gets healthy? Young is hitting in the .280’s and has been hot lately, yet has shown none of the power that gained him many accolades during his rookie year in Tampa.

So where does that leave us? I’m going to go out on a limb and say that each of these guys will continue to improve as the year goes along and will, at the very least, give the Twins and their fans a ton of hope for the future.

Coaching

What kind of lineup decisions are in store?

Loyal readers know that I’m nowhere near being a fan of Gardy’s. I think he makes sketchy lineup decisions and constantly misuses the bullpen. It is scary to think about the lineups that he will come up with once the team is entirely healthy.

I still think it’s a mistake to bat Mike Redmond third when he plays for Mauer. I know he’s a .300 hitter and all, but for some reason this organization just doesn’t understand the concept that a No. 3 hitter should drive the ball and drive in runs.

The decisions that are sure to cause a lot of talk and head scratching will be who Gardy plays at short and third on a day-to-day basis. It’s a given that his boyfriend will play at one of the infield positions virtually every day, but the rotation at third will be the thing to watch.

Brian Buscher has been ripping the ball and hasn’t been nearly as shaky in the field as he was said to be. Yet somehow he can’t find his way into any playing time. Apparently a .330 hitter with gap and HR power isn’t good enough for Ron.

That leads to things like Harris playing third and Lamb somehow being our late inning lefty pinch hitter. Because, you know, that makes sense…

How will Gardy use the pen—especially Nathan?

I’m going to try and keep this brief (because I can, have, and will go on at great length about all of the mistakes I think Gardenhire is making with this team) and just let you know about a few things that are guaranteed to happen in the second half of the season.

1) Gardy will continue to refuse to use Joe Nathan in non-save situations even though it would make sense to have your best reliever come in during the most crucial situations.

2) He will continue to pitch the “Bassman” (Gardy’s pet name for Brian Bass—gawd, he plays favorites more than any other manager in the game) in situations where he has no business pitching.

3) Someone in the bullpen will get overworked to the point that their arm and performance suffers (like he did with Neshek last year). The leading candidate at this time is Guerrier.

Schedule
Will the team’s brutal July schedule be the downfall of this season?
Well, we’ve already seen the less-than-encouraging start to what appears to be a very difficult month of July. Along with the Boston and Detroit road trips that lead up to the All Star break, the teams has dates with the Yankees, Tigers (again), and White Sox, among others, still to come this month.

The team’s struggles against the Bronx Bombers have been well documented, and shouldn’t come as any surprise should they struggle. They key to the month will be how well the Twins play against division rivals Detroit and Chicago.

I know the media is trying to convince you that the Tigers are “coming around” right now, but that team doesn’t really scare me at all. I think we take five of seven against them. Thus, if we can simply hold our own against everyone else, we should be fine heading into August.

How much will the long road trip in August affect them?
In an extremely rare scheduling quirk, the Twins will play 14 consecutive games on the road at the end of August. The majority of these games will be on the West Coast, which makes it even more daunting.

With the AL West looking relatively tough at this point, except for Seattle of course, this might be a more important stretch than that brutal end to July that we just went over.

If they can play well during that trip, it should give them the confidence to try and make a playoff push during the month of September. If not, it could be the beginning of a 2001-like collapse.

Of course if we’ve already fallen out of contention by that time, all of this will be a moo point (you know, like a cow’s opinion—it doesn’t matter).

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