The Cure for World Series Fever

Another Minnesota Twins baseball season has come and gone.  They didn't make the playoffs, finishing worse than they did last season, in an American League where teams were FAR worse than they were in 2017.  There's only one word for the Twins in 2018; disappointing.

This is the first year I didn't go to a single game since 1999.  Seriously!  I was always good for three or four games a year, but this season, my kids sports commitments made getting tickets before August near impossible.  I still intended to get tickets for at least two late season games, but I stopped.  When it became obvious the Twins were having trouble putting away some of the truly atrocious teams on their schedule, I couldn't find the power to hit the 'buy' button.  Then the Twins surrendered.  They were within striking distance of the American League Central leading Cleveland (albeit a tough road) with 7 games remaining between the two teams, and the Twins traded away two of their biggest cogs in the lineup, an insanely underrated Eduardo Escobar and fan favorite Brian Dozier.  In return we got a bucket of pebbles and a bag of sticks.  I decided to close my wallet.

Manager Paul Molitor is now gone, and that's a good thing.  Molitor did okay for a former superstar entering the managerial ranks (most of the time Hall of Famers managing, in any sport, is a nightmare), but he missed a lot when it came to the ins and outs of baseball.  I'm not touting myself as a master baseball mind, but I know circumstantial positioning, pinch hitter strategy, lineup nuance and when not to get thrown out of a game.  When I can say 'why is he doing that?' that's a bad sign.  I shouldn't know more than a major league manager.  Molitor at times seemed lost on the field.

Then there was the crashing to earth of what was supposed to be Minnesota's next great players.  Both Miguel Sano and Byron Buxton already have honorary lockers in the dugout but neither seems to be someone we'll be able to pencil in for a season worth of games.  Sano can't stop eating and (bluntly) he's not doing the work to make himself better at this level.  That's why the Twins demoted him to A ball this season, something which should've been a wake up call.  Buxton, for as fast as he is, can't hit to save himself (90 AB's, batting average .158.  WOW!) and has suddenly become fragile, with multiple injuries which seemed improbable, but yet took him out for the season.  The Twins need to move on from these two failed experiments, but they won't.  The Twins are terrified of having another David Ortiz situation; where they give up on a player and see them turn into a superstar someplace else.  I could easily see Sano and Buxton go to another team and excel.  Player development is another major issue with the Twins.

Finally, let me talk about Joe Mauer.  Before you think I'm going to unload on him (like usual), let me start by saying I have a ton of respect for him.  Seriously!  I now understand what changed about him.  It was something non-baseball in the final game of the season where his career trajectory finally made sense.  When Mauer's daughters were born, I think he reshuffled his priority list and put 'Dad' at the top.  You could see that when he brought his daughters out onto the field in the final game.  I respect the heck out of that.  Well done Joe!

On the downside, his glory days are behind him.  The final game of the year gave the fans a swan song, Mauer going old school, strapping on the catchers gear and jumping behind home plate.  It'll be a great finish for him...if the Twins allow this to be the end.  Part of me feels the team might be trying to lure him back for a farewell year or two, offering an obscene amount of money to be either DH, or a mediocre 1st baseman.  Twins, let him go.  Give him the front office job, allow him to create a niche between work and family, and move on.  He will not make the Hall of Fame (his early stats will not wipe away the later part of his career), but the Twins will celebrate him multiple times every year, for many years to come.

I'm rooting for a Dodgers/Red Sox series.  That would be fun, but I still hope the Twins will have a quick rebuilding process and find their way back into the post season before 2030.  The way baseball is set up, I'm not getting my hopes up.  Seriously...