Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Three Years (and a vacation)

The Twins have been so bad lately that I eulogized their 2005 season here Monday, rather than discuss the fact that it was this blog's three-year anniversary. And you know me, I love to celebrate such things. Actually, I couldn't really think of a great way to celebrate it, other than to point it out and say thank you to everyone who continues to stop by here on a regular basis.

So, thank you.

This blog has gone from something I started up when I was bored one day to a real passion of mine, and in the process I have been fortunate enough to gain a loyal audience that keeps me motivated to continue pumping out new stuff. It has also led to numerous other writing opportunities and has allowed me to befriend a ton of really great people, and for both of those things I am grateful.

Ever since I can remember, my dream has been to write about sports, and specifically baseball, for a living. While I'm a long way from being Peter Gammons or Rob Neyer, I have begun to realize that dream. If you'd have to told me that three years ago, when the only person reading this blog was my mom and I was trying to get over being rejected by the school newspaper, I certainly wouldn't have believed you.

So thank you, whether you're a big fan of mine or you think I'm a complete hack. Thanks for coming here, thanks for telling your friends to come too, thanks for e-mailing, thanks for instant messaging, thanks for linking to my articles on other sites, and thanks for commenting. The last three years have been great and hopefully the next three years will be even better.

And on that note, I'm going on a little vacation (there's something you haven't read much over the last three years). I leave tonight for Toronto, Canada, where the 35th annual Society for American Baseball Research convention begins Thursday. I attended my first SABR convention last summer and had such a wonderful time that I can't imagine ever missing another one.

I'll be back in this country late Sunday night, but may not be recovered enough from all the poker and drinking (oh, and baseball) to have a new entry for you to read Monday. Assuming the good people at the Toronto International Airport get things straightened out, I'll have a full report at some point early next week. In the meantime please play nice in the comments and be understanding if your e-mail isn't answered over the weekend.

Monday, August 01, 2005

The End

And so it ended.

For years we've watched as Torii Hunter fearlessly took on outfield wall after outfield wall, usually winning and miraculously walking away in one piece each time. He finally met his match this weekend, when his left ankle went up against the triangle in Fenway Park and lost in a knockout.

It was a perfect example of the all-out, 110% effort Hunter has given the Twins over the years and the play that may have ended his season -- a double off the bat of David Ortiz landing just beyond Hunter's outstretched glove as he crashed into the wall -- is a perfect example of the almost-but-not-quite year the Twins have had. And it may have ended their season as well.


With a record nosediving toward .500, an offense looking completely helpless for going on a month, and the team's leader being taken off the field on a cart, Terry Ryan could very easily have panicked. He could have pulled the trigger on any number of deals, dealing prospects for veterans with the misguided notion of saving the 2005 season.

Whether he tried to do just that and simply failed, or instead realized at some point that it wasn't worth doing at all, is uncertain. Either way, things worked out for the best. Alfonso Soriano wasn't going to save this team, and neither were Bill Mueller, Kevin Millar, Shea Hillenbrand or any of the other veteran stop gaps the Twins were reportedly pursuing over the last couple weeks.

This season was gone the moment Hunter's ankle hit the wall in Boston, and probably quite a while before that. Dealing away the future in the form of Francisco Liriano, Scott Baker, J.D. Durbin or even Boof Bonser to chase what just isn't there would have been disastrous. Instead, this season can serve as a transition year, a learning experience, and the Twins can reload next year with all their bullets intact.

Things could have gone a lot better, of course. The offense could have provided the pitching staff with just a little support, the Twins could be fighting off Oakland and New York for the Wild Card, and perhaps a trade for someone like Soriano could have spurred the team to a strong finish like the acquisition of Shannon Stewart did in 2003. But for whatever reason, it just didn't happen.

I would have liked to see Ryan take advantage of an extreme seller's market to unload guys who won't (or shouldn't) be around next year, like Joe Mays and Kyle Lohse, and trading J.C. Romero when his value is seemingly at an all-time high wouldn't have been bad either. But asking a general manager to realize his team is going nowhere when they're still just a few games out of the postseason is tough, asking him to realize that and then start cashing in spare parts is almost impossible.

The next two months are probably going to be pretty tough to take, but the good news is that there are better days ahead and the events (or non-events) of this weekend put the Twins in a better position to succeed in the future. When Liriano and Johan Santana are forming a beautiful, left-handed 1-2 punch in the rotation, the idea that the Twins were thisclose to giving him up for 60 games of Soriano will be just a distant memory.

As will this season, hopefully.


Today at The Hardball Times:
- Analyzing the Deadline Deals: 2005 (by Aaron Gleeman)

Today's Picks (84-71, +$1,165):