Minnesota Twins: Improved Defense Is Key to Better Success

Even though two straight losing seasons is enough humor to last a long time, Twins fans got a good couple of laughs in recently with the hijinks surrounding former members of the club.

It was revealed former All-Star pitcher Francisco Liriano broke his arm in a "bathroom fall", which led to plenty of LifeAlert jokes on Twitter. Ron Gardenhire probably wished he had LifeAlert on a handful of Liriano pitching appearances over the years.

Good luck, Pittsburgh!

Humorous story number two centers around former outfielder Delmon Young, who signed an incentive filled, one-year, $750K deal with the Philadelphia Phillies. One of those incentives requires Delmon to step on the scale six times this season.

The first three weigh-ins Delmon must weigh 230 pounds or less and the last three 235 pounds or less.

If Delmon makes weight he gets an extra $100K per check in.

Good luck, Philadelphia!

Delmon Young is only 27 years old, but it was still very tough to watch him patrol left field for the Detroit Tigers in the playoffs. He’s 27 and just can’t play defense which is a main reason he’s no longer a Twin.

If the Twins want to get back into contention, they need to have a strong focus on solid defense.

The past two years the Twins have committed 226 errors. Way too many. It’s easy to sit and say don’t commit as many errors, but it actually has to happen.

If you’re not playing good defense, it should cost you your job. This Twins team is rebuilding and to do it right you need to have good defense.

Heads up, Trevor Plouffe! You were one of the most dangerous hitters in the American League for a stretch last season, but the second half wasn’t pretty and your defense at times was downright ugly. If you want to keep your third base job, you’ll have to step up your defense. The outfield is being filled up quick if you are banking on a position switch.

Defense should be one of the major factors in figuring out the mess of the middle infield. It should also be held high on the list of need credentials for the starting center field job.

The Twins are just simply not very good at defense and they need to be. Defense wins ball games. If you don’t believe so just remember defense was a major part of how this same organization won six division titles in nine seasons.

Defense is a major mental game. Keep your head in the game and don’t fall down.

And if you do fall down make sure you have LifeAlert.