Company bankrupt; turf may not be installed on time
Minnesota has won two years in a row, which means that players get raises and force a budget exit strategy. Gone are relievers "Everyday" Eddie Guardado and LaTroy Hawkins to free agency, starter Eric Milton and All-Star catcher A.J. Pierzynski had to be traded. But the Twins have so many good young players that they begin spring training as the team to beat. Catcher Joe Mauer is the most watched rookie of the spring, the player drafted in front and instead of Mark Prior. They have a bunch of young arms to help Joe Nathan and J.C. Romero (if he comes back from a disappointing season) in the pen, like Juan Rincon, J.D. Durbin, Grant Balfour and Jesse Crain.
With Johan Santana, Brad Radke, Kyle Lohse and Joe Mays, they believe the starting pitching is adequate. The Twins re-signed Shannon Stewart because he's a force at the top of the lineup and allows Jacque Jones to move down the order. If young hitters like Mike Cuddyer and Mike Restovich break out, they believe they will be strong enough in the second half to win the division for the third straight year.
Some of y'all may have forgotten, but the Minnesota Twins have won the American League's Central Division for the past two years. In some ways, though, coping with mediocrity was a whole lot easier than dealing with success. With winning has come increases in player salaries, and with Minnesota's limited resources, this offseason took a toll on the Twins' roster. Gone are mainstays like Eddie Guardado (Seattle), A.J. Pierzynski (San Francisco), Eric Milton (Philadelphia), and LaTroy Hawkins (Chicago Cubs). Repeating as AL Central champions will prove to be a tall order, especially when you consider that their everyday catcher will be 20-year-old Joe Mauer, a phenomenally talented St.Paul native with no appreciable Major League experience.
In the Twins' defense, they have been extraordinarily adept at developing talent. They have to; it's not as if they can be a player in the annual offseason free agent bidding wars. The Twins, in the words of Peter Gammons, "have an organization that continues to develop talent to withstand the losses of players they cannot afford." It will be interesting to see if the Twins will be able to compete at the level they have for the past two years. Whatever happens, though, I will say this for the organization: they do things the way things SHOULD be done. For Minnesota, it's about developing players, not buying championships. Given that the do not have the financial depth of George Steinbrenner's Yankees, this is the only strategy they CAN follow. No one whines about the injustice of it all; they just go on about the business of building a team they think can compete.
Realistically, Minnesota will likely not win the World Series this year. They will be fun to watch, though, and they will play hard. This is a Major League Baseball team that does things the right way. It's just too bad that the other 31 teams can't take a clue from the Twins' philosophy.
Beyond all of this, though, there is this question: just what, exactly, will the Twins be playing on this year?? What happens when the company you've hired to install artificial turf goes belly-up and files for bankruptcy?? Damn, I'll bet the Yankees never have to worry about this sort of thing....
