Before the road trip, people were slamming LaVelle for predicting a 7-7 record. Now, everyone is wishing that was true.

It is not about being cheap any more.
It’s about correctly evaluating veterans before signing them.

September 4th, 2008 at 11:14 am

“I don’t know, LaVelle, but I’m sure you do: Do they ever GET angry or fired up after a loss or string of bad games? I’ve read about the exuberance after a big win or series win, but after games like last night I only see quotes like Nathan’s above or Gardenhire’s subdued finger-pointing. No one seems to get angry and try to rally the team to snap out of it and start playing like professionals. Maybe they ARE angry and fired up when they make statements like Nathan’s or Morneau’s the other night…it just doesn’t come through in print. So tell us. What IS their mood? Are they dumbfounded? Resigned? Tired? Or are they anxious to get out there with the confidence that they WILL win tonight?”

I couldn’t agree more. How many times have other managers (Sweet Lou’s famous tirade, or any number of Ozzies as a few examples) exploded and fired up their team? Even Gardy- but only so occasionally- like when he kicked his hat. We won that game and were losing it when he did that. This team doesn’t seem to have a burning passion…or at least a leader to bring it out. I want to see the players/coaches get mad. Get determined. Hit the ball with a vengence. I know Mauer, Morneau, Span, and Gardy (as the top examples) don’t really get mad, but it seems like someone should lite a fire under this teams’ ass. I would like Gardenhire to go off on his team a little. Give them a big speech. Call a special team meeting. Something. It just seems to me that a thing like that would really work for this team. I think they would respond to it. Maybe this offseason the Twins need to sign a leader. A vocal leader. Reguardless of how good he is (within reason of course).

Anyway, onto the game and by extension, the series. This series epitimized the whole road trip. We failed to get create many scoring opportunities, and usually failed to score even when we did get them. The other team- even if they were complete nobodies- hit homeruns with relative ease, while the Twins were lucky to get one a series. That REALLY gets old. Fast. We got pretty good starting pitching, but the bullpen was a complete mess. Props to Reyes and Breslow, but everyone else was terribly unreliable. With just a few exceptions, we faced no-name starters that looked like Cy Young. Teams that were WELL below .500 looked like they were making a World Series run against us. I, personally, was finding it tough to even tune in a game during this road trip. We even won the first two games (which seems like years ago) meaning we finished just 3-9 on The Trip. To finish with an above .500 avg. on the road this year, we’d now have to win All 10 remaining road games. Not gonna happen. To finish at .500 over our final two road trips, we’d have to go 7-3 on our last trip. Again, Not gonna happen. We’ll be lucky to go 5-5 on the final Trip. Lucky. (Remeber 4 games at Tampa in there).

All that being said, this division race is all but over. If the Twins want it, they’ll take the pennant. How? Why? We started this Long road trip 1 game out. We went 5-9. We lost a total of .5 game in that span. (I think that’s what it was, if not, something close to that). The W. Sox did nothing to win the division when we were playing poorly. Now we’re coming home, where up to this point anyway, we’re almost unbeatable. To make things better, we’re playing division opponents, who we’ve played well against this year. And, the last and biggest factor, The Series. Hosting the W. Sox at home with 6 to play. If we were on the road, might be trouble. We’re not. The Twins should win the pennant. Again, what this means for the Post Season, I don’t know, but the division is ours…if we want it.

Sorryforthelongpostnight.

**The Twins should have made a trade at the deadline…And they lost on my birthday**