Imagine the chatter if the Twins had played like they did tonight in front of the full house that slogged through the snow and slush to take in the opener. The season would have been even more written off that it was during the preseason predictions that had optimists choosing third and those with less faith picking the Twins to finish fourth or even last. Game 2 featured balls thrown around the infield in somewhat random fashion, slimmed-down-but-not-trim Boof’s balls being belted to the wall. Jon Garland rendering Minnesota bats mute and an ineffective succession of Twins relievers whose last names do not begin with the letter N.

This is the bad that will have to be taken with the good. The Twins can claim from here until October that 2008 isn’t a rebuilding year, but there can be no doubt that there are puzzles to be solved within the team’s current makeup. The young and talented (Gogomez and Young) won’t reach their ceilings in ‘08 and there’s no telling yet how the established stars and the lesser lights will blend. Tonight, they didn’t blend well. Everett, the defensive ace at shortstop, made a throwing error and has challenged Morneau with a couple of other throws so far; Harris made an out-of-control flip throw. Boof got battered early. Morneau is now 0-for-2 games. Gogomez only reached base once and didn’t have a chance to show off his speed.

In defeat it feels much less relevant that Torii is still on pace to have 0 hits this season.

If this game had been the opener, folks would have trudged back to their cars disappointed and ornery, some vowing not to return until who-knows-when. The reality is the road that the Twins have chosen to travel will include painful games like this one.

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Click here for a funny story from Section 220’s “Washington Bureau” about learning that Torii was planning to leave us. Matt, thanks for sharing it.

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At the start of every game, umpires and both teams’ managers or coaches meet at home plate to review the ground rules. This seems like a good time to go over Section 220’s ground rules, which are blessedly few in number.

Don’t be abusive or ridiculously repetitive… Keep comments on point (or interesting)… Try not to make 5 comments in a row… Spell well and DON’T SHOUT… Criticize the message not the messenger… Don’t turn every post into an excuse to demonize Nick Punto… Think of commenting as an open house. Come in, feel comfortable, meet new people and have fun. Don’t put your muddy feet on the furniture or go through the medicine cabinet… Any ball that hits a speaker is out of play.

other people are here too

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 1st, 2008 at 11:00 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.