Young220 and I were at the airport Saturday afternoon and boarded our plane just as Cuddyer and Crede flailed unsuccessfully with tbe bases loaded and one out. So it really didn’t come as a surprise when we landed and saw that Cleveland had recovered quite nicely from the thumping Friday night — and that winning the opener was an aberration and not the start of a streak. And Nick Blackburn continued his Sidney Ponson imitation in the finale, another game followed only by web updates and a look at the box score. (Tonight, I think we’ll take in the Tulsa Drillers, as long as the temperature doesn’t get into triple-digits.)

So much for the Twins having the easiest remaining schedule of the teams in the AL Central race. Right now, it feels like it wouldn’t matter if the Twins got a waiver and were allowed to play townball teams for the rest of the summer. For those of you who may have come to the Cities in the last week to make your final appearance at the Dome, my sympathies.

Because I haven’t seen any of the carnage, I’ll refrain from commenting on the specifics. All that’s been said before still stands: Underperformance from just about every place on either side of the middle of the batting order — from the front office to the bullpen and the bench — has turned this into a spectacular flop of a season. The AL Central has withered into the weakest of the three divisions and no team better represents the five-team morass than the Twins.

The good thing about such a meltdown is that it should force a tough look at what’s happened to the organization: A front office that was unable to make the needed moves, a minor-league system with a stopped-up pipeline of talent, questionable personnel decisions and players who have taken steps backward in chilling unison.

A new ballpark will only sustain fan interest for so long. Even signing Joe Mauer to the contract that he’ll deserve is a band-aid if the Twins aren’t assertive about analyzing all that’s gone wrong — and doing something about it. Coming off the 163-game adventure of last season, you had many reasons to be hopeful that the Twins (flaws and all) would be stronger in ‘09.

Right now, looking ahead to 2010, the bare cupboard of optimism needs to be restocked with more than wishes, smoke and mirrors.

This entry was posted on Sunday, August 16th, 2009 at 11:20 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.