Twins vs Mariners, 08-28-2012, 7:10pm

[Bark's Lounge]

Geez. A month ago everyone knew that this was going to be a 75 win team at very, very best, but the offense, not perfect by any stretch, seemingly had an upside. Mauer, Willingham, Revere and Plouffe's BA's have each dropped 20 points in that time. You cannot have 50% of your line-up slumping at one time. Synchronized slumping will not win gold metals and as we see now wins very few games. Changes from top to bottom are necessary for this organization to keep the fans interested and involved. I hope the Pohlads understand that they can lose customers and just because we have a pro baseball team in the Twin Cities that sometimes the turn-styles stop clicking.

[Riverbrian]

It's just a giant marshmallow of blasé sticking to everything.

That sentence needs to quoted... The best description of 95 percent of losing baseball teams.

Can I use it and pretend its mine.

[USAFChief]

Stop apologizing for Mauer's arm, Roy.

[Ultima Ratio]

It's just a giant marshmallow of blasé sticking to everything.

That sentence needs to quoted... The best description of 95 percent of losing baseball teams.

Can I use it and pretend its mine.

Go for it RB, though some attribution would be nice.

[Riverbrian]

That'll be tough to do... I'll have to use quotations when typing it and if say it verbally... I'll have to do that quote thing with my fingers.

[wavedog]

Regarding the offense, I didn't think giving up on the season was the Twins Way. But after the last 2 seasons maybe it is the new Twins Way. Maybe something isn't right in the clubhouse or maybe it's just lack of talent.

[Ultima Ratio]

Gardy calling out who's up: "Mauer, Willingham, Morneua!" -- Butera yells, "Sounds like runs!"

[JB_Iowa]

While I don't discount the blase factor, doesn't it have a lot to do with opposing pitching? I haven't gone back and looked at the stats but during the "winning streak" road trip several weeks ao, it seems like they were facing pitching that probably didn't even rise to the level of mediocre. But once they hit the Tampa Bay series, they've faced some pretty good pitching clubs -- Tampa Bay, Seattle, Oakland, Texas, Seattle. And I guess that's why I think this club is more than a couple of pitchers away from being competitive. This line-up doesn't seem to do much against decent (not necessarily stellar, just decent) pitching.

[USAFChief]

I don't really understand how anyone can watch this team and think it's all about lack of talent.

I grow more and more comfortable in my opinion Gardy needs to go, before next season.

Aimless, drifting, moribund, uninspired...pick your adjective. Losing has become the norm. It's comfortable. Nobody expects much, can't disappoint that way.

[J-Dog Dungan]

This part of the season feels like the part in Moneyball where Billy Beane gets pissed that the players are enjoying losing and he dumps half the team and they end up improving.

[Ultima Ratio]

I don't really understand how anyone can watch this team and think it's all about lack of talent.

It's about spirit/spark no matter how silly that sounds. Just looking at this team on paper, they should not be playing so poorly in so many facets of the game. Something else, besides poor talent, is sapping this team's focus, drive, determination et cetera, which I'll just call the mental aspect of the game/wanting and knowing how to win by individual success and team success. In your thread about getting rid of Gardy I said that I'm not up for change just for the sake of change because while we might see an immediate impact from even putting the ball boy at manager for a month, any success due to the change in manager would be fleeting. This is why I agree that I'd like so see changes, but not specific until I now who the replacements will be. Does anyone want Bill Smith back? That would be a change.... for the worse. It's tough to put your finger on real/common cause of the deflated attitude.

[Riverbrian]

Losing becomes a part of you. Game 129 of a losing season. Nothing to play for... Nothing to be inspired by. "a giant marshmallow of Blaise". Is what I like to say.

Just try being sharp at your job spending another day at the office with the guy next to you paying Tetris on his computer while you've lost your 5th account in two months to the competition. Sure you tried harder the first month. It didn't work... Now you are trying to beat the guy next to you because he has the Tetris record.

If you care about winning... You have to oh well the loses away or you will go postal. Think about loss after loss... You have to put it someplace. That's the stuff the shows up as a "giant marshmallow of Blaise"

Yeah... Facing good pitching doesn't help the situation.

[Ultima Ratio]

Losing becomes a part of you. Game 129 of a losing season. Nothing to play for... Nothing to be inspired by. "a giant marshmallow of Blaise". Is what I like to say.

Just try being sharp at your job spending another day at the office with the guy next to you paying Tetris on his computer while you've lost your 5th account in two months to the competition. Sure you tried harder the first month. It didn't work... Now you are trying to beat the guy next to you because he has the Tetris record.

If you care about winning... You have to oh well the loses away or you will go postal. Think about loss after loss... You have to put it someplace. That's the stuff the shows up as a "giant marshmallow of Blaise"

Yeah... Facing good pitching doesn't help the situation.

I see you've dropped the "sticking to everything" portion.

[Riverbrian]

Losing becomes a part of you. Game 129 of a losing season. Nothing to play for... Nothing to be inspired by. "a giant marshmallow of Blaise". Is what I like to say.

Just try being sharp at your job spending another day at the office with the guy next to you paying Tetris on his computer while you've lost your 5th account in two months to the competition. Sure you tried harder the first month. It didn't work... Now you are trying to beat the guy next to you because he has the Tetris record.

If you care about winning... You have to oh well the loses away or you will go postal. Think about loss after loss... You have to put it someplace. That's the stuff the shows up as a "giant marshmallow of Blaise"

Yeah... Facing good pitching doesn't help the situation.

I see you've dropped the "sticking to everything" portion.

I really shouldn't have because it does stick to everything. It's what makes the quote so perfect. I'm glad you let me take it. If I could figure out how to make it a tag line underneath all my posts... I would... Like your man is born free thing.

[jokin]

it's a great story how the Twins practically fell into a guy ready to step up and be a stopper when all around him is chaos.

He's a Rule 5 draftee. Why isn't the story "great scouting, trading to keep him, and coaching"?

You missed the earlier part of my summation of Diamond. The Twins buried him early in ST to the minor league camp, probably in the organization on a one-year tour of duty. No one, I mean no one, was talking about Diamond knocking at the door last March to being on the verge to becoming the "Ace" of the staff. If anything, the trade was a crap shoot at two equal unknown quantities. If you wish to ascribe some credit, it mostly belongs in the hands of Diamond and possibly a little bit to Cuellar and the scout who pushed to draft him.

[jokin]

Geez. A month ago everyone knew that this was going to be a 75 win team at very, very best, but the offense, not perfect by any stretch, seemingly had an upside. Mauer, Willingham, Revere and Plouffe's BA's have each dropped 20 points in that time. You cannot have 50% of your line-up slumping at one time. Synchronized slumping will not win gold metals and as we see now wins very few games. Changes from top to bottom are necessary for this organization to keep the fans interested and involved. I hope the Pohlads understand that they can lose customers and just because we have a pro baseball team in the Twin Cities that sometimes the turn-styles stop clicking.

I guess I was one of the few of the "nothing but negative" posters who felt differently and had to deal with the slings and arrows of the "deniers" to the harsh reality of the Twins situation. Posters were giddily talking about Mauer's next batting title, ignoring both the inevitable late-season Mauer slump as well as the cautionary history of how a typical Willingham season plays out in the 2nd half (badly), and Denard Span going down, yet again, on another seemingly innocuous injury. Revere and Plouffe were/are playing through injuries and weren't even STARTERS, let alone "core guys", on this team in Mid-May, so can't hold much blame on their shoulders. Doumit is who he is.

Sadly, this has to be the only baseball club that likely will stand pat on the status quo once again in the off-season, putting off as usual, the tough decisions that must be made about revamping the program and philosophy from top to bottom.

The Twins attendance dipped below 30000 tonight, anyone want to start a pool on the first sub-20000 game at Target Field?

[Top Gun]

Hitters slump, pitchers do to, sometimes they go on ar oll and win 5 to 10 in a row sometimes they lose 5 to 10 in a row. Baseball is not
played on paper. Players are human too.

[Ultima Ratio]

Gardy on last night's and recent offensive woes.

http://mlb.mlb.com/video/play.jsp?co...y_24304345&v=3

At 1:44 "they work their tails off"

Kinda feel bad for the guy. Sounds defeated, is defeated. But is this a reflection of the team and the player's attitudes or affecting their attitude.... or both. It's a vicious cycle that needs to stop.