deJong Online

So, here in Minnesota, we are in the midst of a cool spring (had snow yesterday on May 1st) after the snowiest winter since I’ve been out here. Last year we were spoiled with a warm spring. We had no snow from something like Feb 26th on. A nice early start to the spring and summer. This year, not so lucky. The long range pattern looks very cool, with below normal temperatures expected to continue through the next 2-3 weeks at least. So a shorter summer than last year in terms of the weather.

But I digress…this is not supposed to be a meteorology post. This is a post on the state of Minnesota sports, particularly the Twins. They are terrible. I didn’t expect them to be great, but I also didn’t expect them to be this bad. They lost a handful of pieces from last year’s pitching staff. But injuries and the inability for replacement players to produce has created nauseating games to watch. In one of the silliest managerial decisions in some time (in my opinion) Ron Gardenhire (supposed Manager of the Year ’10), decided our fielders needed to get faster. So we didn’t try and retain JJ Hardy instead of going with Alexi Casilla (more on that later). Last year in some sort of a desperation move, the Twins traded a very good catching prospect, Wilson Ramos,  for an overrated closer on a bad team, Matt Capps. Yes, I know, we have Joe Mauer. But Joe Mauer gets hurt. We need a more than capable backup to give him rest and when he’s hurt, start. Instead we are stuck with Drew Butera and Steve Holm. Yikes. More on them later as well. Also to add to all of this, our MOY decides to make our strikeout pitcher pitch to contact….SAY WHA????

Gardenhire must have forgotten that thing on offense that fielders need to do in order for the speed to help….GET ON BASE.

So here are some tidbits from this years Twins team so far. Their ineptitude is second to none right now. Thanks to Joe for sending these stats along.

• The Twins have scored only 82 runs this season, fewest in the AL.
• The Twins are -67 in run differential, by far the worst in baseball. This means not only can the Twins not hit, but we can’t pitch either.
• The Twins scored 10 runs in a game against Cleveland. That is the only time we’ve scored more than 5 runs….ALL SEASON.
• The Twins have given up a MLB leading 10+ runs, six times.
• Michael Cuddyer has the 3rd best Batting Average at .226.
• The Twins lost 18 times in April, a new club record.
• The back up catching due of Drew Butera and Steve Holm have exactly one combined hit in their last 39 ABs. Thats a batting average of 0.026. Pathetic.
• On the flip side, Wilson Ramos, the catcher we traded to Washington, is batting 0.358, with 2 HRs and 6 RBIs.
• The Twins are slow starters on a limited offense. They have only scored 3 total runs in the first inning of games this season.
• The Twins have the fewest HRs in the league, at 12. The Yankees lead the league with 45 HRs.
• As one would expect, the Twins are also last in RBIs at 78. The Reds are #1 at 143. Ridiculous.
• Twins have the worst ERA in all of MLB at 5.06. The Oakland A’s are almost 2.5 runs better.
• The Twins pitchers are last in strikeouts, with 152. Next closest are the Nationals at 162. San Francisco is #1 at 227.
• Alexi Casilla, in whom Gardy trusts, is batting .190, with 4 fielding errors.
• Oh, by the way, Trevor Plouffe, our SS in the minors is batting .297 with 7 HRs and 2 errors. Why haven’t we called him up yet? Maybe he’s not fast enough.

The overall theme of this is that they Twins are horrible. Those waiting and saying that the Twins will turn it around like they do every year will likely be disappointed. Usually the Twins play good baseball during the summer months, softening the coming pain of the Vikings, T-Wolves, and Wild. But not this year. This could be the worst Twins team in some time, making for a long summer of watching Golf, NASCAR, and tiddlywinks. Hopefully the NFL works out its issues and we have NFL in the fall. But until then…in these guys we trust…:

Alexi Casilla

Steve Holm

Drew Butera (Sorry...couldn't find a picture, so I made one)

#4 SCSU @ #3 Wisconsin Friday and Saturday nights at 7:05pm Central Time

HUGE weekend for SCSU Men’s hockey. SCSU sits in 2nd place right now, only 1 point out of first and only 2 points up on Wisconsin. Also, SCSU has played 2 more league games than anyone else in the WCHA (except for UAA, but they dont count :p ), so these points are important. Also, SCSU sits in 4th position in the all important Pairwise rankings, a BCS-like ratings system that mimics the selection of the 16 teams that will participate in the NCAA Men’s Hockey Tournament.

But there is one problem…it seems like SCSU never wins in Madison.  Anything less than a sweep and the Huskies can kiss their dreams of a regular season championship goodbye. I can’t remember the last time we swept Wisconsin at Madison…if we’ve ever done it. That being said, I would be more than happy with a split, keeping us in the drivers seat for a top 3 finish and more importantly if we would win our first round playoff games in the WCHA playoffs, then we would be guaranteed to NOT play in the play-in game.

And a split is what I’m predicting. I think SCSU will have a bit of a letdown after the shellacking UND gave them last Saturday (8-1 loss at home…ouch!) and lose tonight. Something like 4-1 or 4-2. But then come out on fire tomorrow night and win 5-2.

Go Huskies!