I think we can all agree that the Twins have slithered and withered through a season in which we could have easily expected them to be 10 games better than they are right now, which would give them a pretty comfortable lead in the Tri-Metro Conference of major league baseball. And for those of us who had given them up for roadkill in recent weeks, we were justified in doing so based on the problems the Twins haven’t been able to remedy throughout this frustrating season. And, yes, there are an assortment of issues that need to be addressed during the winter regardless of whether or not the Twins somehow find themselves as one of the eight teams playing October baseball.

All of that being said, it’s time to roll with the excitement of this weekend, put aside the quibbles/distress/understandable skepticism and get ready for some games that matter.

The Tigers are coming to town with a four-game lead and on a 10-game skid of terrible baseball. One of the office skeptics at the Star Tribune wandered by my desk a few days and said, in a hushed tone, “I think they’re gonna win the division.”

Might as well.

It’s the last hurrah at the  house of plastic, time for Twins fans to assert themselves by playing up the silly home-field advantage one more time and — more importantly — time for the Twins be the sum of their parts instead of talking about giving 110 percent and playing only about 75.

Baseball is a game when someone can play above their head for a few weeks and make a name for himself that can’t be backed up when you look at the sum of a career.

In the Twins case, in the here and now, such a player is the blogging poster child for player abuse — Nick Punto. Yes, kids, while you’ve been getting excited over Brett Favre and wondering when Macalester will win a football game, Mr. Punto has put together a .366 average and .422 on-base percentage over his last 14 games. That changes little about the big picture, but makes all arguments about who should be playing second base right now ridiculously moot.

There’s really nothing we can do right now about Delmon Young’s .285 OBP or the .274 OBP that Orlando Cabrera has put together since joining the Twins. In the big picture, looking at 2010 and beyond, this is a team that needs to address its middle infield (and middle relief and third base and Joe Mauer’s contract and a couple of other things). In the here and now, you need to hope they play above their heads for the rest of ‘09 while the Tigers continue spinning downward. While you can give the Twins front office grief for big-picture inertia, give  credit for not burdening the team with Jarrod Washburn ( 7.33 ERA in eight starts since joining the Tigers and now sidelined) and Freddy Sanchez (.290 OBP and a DL stint in San Francisco).

The Twins aren’t who we thought they would be this season. But to look the gift horse of a title chase in the mouth and spit contemptuously seems self-defeating. Yes, it could all blow up this weekend and Detroit could leave town with a seven-game lead that would make most of these words look silly.

Right now, though, saddle up and enjoy the ride. As morose as this team has sometimes made me, that’s my plan.

***

Update: If you’re doing the k-bro Food Shelf challenge – two items of food for every Twins win in September and one for every Detroit loss in September, your current count is 24 items (or $48 in donations, if you use the Section 220 conversion guide). Not too late to get on board with that one. Hoping to be at 33 items/$66 by Sunday night.

This entry was posted on Friday, September 18th, 2009 at 10:31 am 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.