OK, so it's not really "The End." Sorry. In honor of me counting out the Twins too soon, let's call this the "Aaron is an idiot weekend open chat." Talk about the games, thank Trey Hillman for not caring enough to intentionally walk Joe Mauer or bring in a right-handed pitcher to face Michael Cuddyer, call me bad names, try to make peace with rooting for the White Sox, comment on my Tweets. Whatever you like.

Alfredo Figaro vs. Freddy Garcia tonight. Justin Verlander vs. John Danks and Carl Pavano vs. Luke Hochevar tomorrow.

They needed to take three of four games in Detroit to give themselves a reasonable shot at the playoffs going into the final weekend, but instead two poor pitching performances, a ton of small ball-obsessed over-managing from Ron Gardenhire, and an injury-depleted, scrub-filled lineup has all but destroyed the Twins' hopes for a division crown even before the final game of the Tigers series. There's still room for a miracle if things break perfectly for the Twins and horribly for the Tigers, but short of that it's over.

Playing meaningful games during the final week of the season perhaps makes it seem like 2009 was a success for the Twins, but that entire notion is just built around the AL Central once again being bad enough to allow a flawed, mediocre team to stay in the race. Yes, they hung with the similar flawed and mediocre Tigers until almost the very end, but the Twins would have been eliminated from contention weeks ago in any other division in baseball.

With four games remaining they have the seventh-best record in the league and the 15th-best record in baseball, which basically epitomizes mediocrity and seems like a waste of Joe Mauer's amazing year. Last season Bill Smith and company completely failed to address obvious weaknesses and the Twins lost the division by a game. This season the front office waited until the team had dug itself a big hole before making some modest midseason additions and will likely lose the division by 2-3 games.

Injuries to Justin Morneau, Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins, and Joe Crede obviously played a huge factor in their being an 85-win team rather than a 90-win team, but some semblance of depth would've made those losses much easier to take. Instead the Twins will end up giving 700 plate appearances to Nick Punto and his doppelganger Matt Tolbert, starting Delmon Young's bad bat and worse glove 90 times, and trotting out Rochester-caliber pitchers for a couple hundred innings before calling in some cavalry.

As has been the case for most of this decade, the Twins had the elite, top-end talent to be an excellent team and struggled mightily filling in the rest of the roster with capable role players. So for all the good Mauer, Morneau, Denard Span, Jason Kubel, and Michael Cuddyer did at the plate the Twins are just a league-average team offensively, which combined with a tremendously disappointing season from the rotation and a terrible first half by the non-Joe Nathan relievers adds up to ... well, an 85-win team.

Of course, the season was far from a disaster. Mauer stayed healthy after spending all of April on the disabled list and put together one of the greatest seasons of all time by a catcher. Span solidified his standing as one of the team's long-term building blocks and one of the AL's top all-around outfielders. Kubel took a step forward as one of the league's top hitters. Nathan was once again among baseball's most dominant closers and Jose Mijares showed that his September debut last year was no fluke.

Scott Baker rebounded from a homerific April to basically perform just like he did last season to earn a $15 million deal. Cuddyer bounced back nicely from an injury wrecked 2008 and Matt Guerrier shook off any workload-related concerns. Jesse Crain salvaged his season and perhaps his career following a demotion to Triple-A. Jose Morales looks ready to take over for Mike Redmond as Mauer's backup. And after 15 months of ignoring bullpen problems Smith added Jon Rauch for this season and next.

Ultimately, though, I'm left feeling like the Twins wasted an excellent opportunity for the second season in a row because their big moves were disastrous and their small moves were too little or too late. Yes, playing meaningful late-September games in back-to-back seasons beats the alternative that everyone suffered through in 2007, but being good enough to finish a close second in a terrible division is hardly success for a team with the Twins' core. Smith and company need to get their act together this winter.

Been down so long, getting up didn't cross my mind
I knew there was a better way of life and I was just trying to find
You don't know what you'll do until you're put under pressure
Across 110th Street is a helluva a tester

- Bobby Womack, "Across 110th Street"

Not much left to say at this point. The weekend went nicely for the Twins, as they won two out of three in Kansas City, losing only to the top pitcher in the league, and the Tigers lost two out of three in Chicago, winning only when the White Sox coughed up a 5-0 lead. With seven games remaining the Twins trail the Tigers by two games heading into a four-game series in Detroit, which basically means they need to win three of these four matchups to have more than slim playoff odds going into the final weekend:

TONIGHT:
Nick Blackburn      192 IP    4.2 SO/9    1.9 BB/9    45.4 GB%    4.85 xFIP
Rick Porcello       159 IP    4.5 SO/9    2.8 BB/9    54.6 GB%    4.56 xFIP
 
TUESDAY:
Brian Duensing       78 IP    5.7 SO/9    3.2 BB/9    45.3 GB%    4.97 xFIP
Justin Verlander    224 IP   10.3 SO/9    2.4 BB/9    35.6 GB%    3.40 xFIP
 
WEDNESDAY:
Carl Pavano         189 IP    6.5 SO/9    1.7 BB/9    44.5 GB%    4.16 xFIP
Eddie Bonine         29 IP    4.9 SO/9    3.1 BB/9    55.8 GB%    4.49 xFIP
 
THURSDAY:
Scott Baker         189 IP    7.5 SO/9    2.0 BB/9    33.9 GB%    4.34 xFIP
Nate Robertson       44 IP    6.8 SO/9    5.8 BB/9    41.8 GB%    5.40 xFIP

Based on the pitching matchups each team has an edge in two of the games. Detroit has an edge with Justin Verlander, who's one of the five best pitchers in the league, and Rick Porcello, who's one of the five best rookies in the league. Minnesota has an edge against Eddie Bonine, who's 28 years old and making his ninth career start after posting a 4.10 ERA in 62 starts between Double-A and Triple-A, and Nate Robertson, who's 9-13 with a 6.19 ERA since the beginning of last season.

There's certainly a lot more room for analysis, but at this point we're essentially talking about a series of four coin flips, with each one weighted somewhere in the range of 50-50, 55-45, or 60-40. A split is the most likely scenario and would leave the Twins needing to sweep the Royals while the Tigers lose at least two of three to the White Sox during the final weekend. However, a 3-1 series win for the Twins would put them in a relative driver's seat and a 4-0 sweep would all but lock up the division title.

As a wise man once said, "There's one word in America that says it all and that word is youneverknow."