The dog days of summer are already here as the Twins took their last off day of the month on Monday in which they get to travel to Cleveland to play as well as play the Red Sox, and of course today’s matchup with the White Sox. The White Sox are a the first “professional” baseball team to earn a Twins Daily word filter, though the filter does not quite bring back memories of Jerry Ryan or a gold glove second baseman with a .300 average… but I digress. They are not what I’d call a professional baseball team either, being the first and only team to throw a World Series as well as a team that proudly continues to employ Hawk Harrelson. While the latter is inexcusable, the first is understandable. After all, the little-known secret was that Chief, in his much younger days, managed to arrange the whole affair due to his hatred for said team. The Twins did not even exist yet, but he knew a special baseball team would one day play in the Twin Cities and that Chicago would be their arch rivals. Things to think about. 1. Denial – this is not just a river in Egypt, but a state that many of us were in at the beginning of the season. We all lived in denial that the Twins would be good, and we are now in denial to the obvious fact that they aren’t. OK, it’s probably not that bad. So now I’m denying denial. 2. Anger – we are all familiar with this. At first it was that the front office kept playing Hicks. Now, it’s that the front office traded Hicks. They clearly don’t promote their guys fast enough, except for Hicks who was promoted too quickly. They traded for Alex Meyer, and now it is that they traded him away. And don’t get me started about pitching. We are angry about pitching. 3. Bargaining – the trade deadline is just over a month away, so it is time to start bargaining. I’ll give you a Dozier for 3 major league ready pitchers, with at least two having upside. I’ll give you a Santana for 5 top 100 prospects. I’ll give you a Breslow for a bucket of baseballs. Let’s get some takers. 4. Depression – We’ve forgotten just how bad this one can be. One only needs to make a trip to the TD archives for most of this decade to see that one in action. More recently however, the kind people at dictionary.com defined depression as “the feeling a Twins fan gets when they see Gibson’s name in the lineup and are looking forward to Hughes’ return.” I personally cannot think of a clearer definition than that. 5. Acceptance – RIP 2017 Minnesota Twins Season. Too Soon? Regardless, go beat the ever living crap out of the bad guys on the south side of Chitown and create a winning streak for diehardtwinsfan’s game threads as well as for the team.