Paul Feiner

Agreed.

It's a direct, not "hypothetical" response to the irrationally negative Twins fans that I encounter every day mostly online, but also offline; those fans who A ) As Charlie said, are more interested in being right than watching a team succeed, or B ) Are doomsayers no matter what. To me, there's a big difference between them and the thoughtfully critical fans who express their point of view on ways the club can minimize flaws, maximize strengths, or potentially make calculated moves to improve our chances to win ahead of schedule. I love those people, and it looks like Twins Daily is full of them—so I'm happy to start talking baseball with you folks.

Just to be clear, I'm a constructive critic and appreciate those of you who are as well. The pessimism I was going after in this article is the joyless kind that says they're not good enough to make the playoffs. Then if they do, it becomes, they'll lose in the first series, and so on and so forth until you're standing beside the parade route with confetti raining down, and all you can say is, "Well, they'll never repeat."

Dear Negative Twins Fan, I understand keeping a level head about things, a wait-and-see approach. I understand looking at advanced stats which say these first-place Twins will probably regress to the mean.But I don’t understand reacting to an incredible 20-win month with this attitude: “The losing streak’s coming. Just you wait. They’ll blow it, and the Pohlads will sell them if they get good anyway.” C’mon, dude. Just enjoy the moment. Image courtesy of Jeff Curry-USA TODAY Sports Dear Negative Twins Fan, I understand keeping a level head about things, a wait-and-see approach. I understand looking at advanced stats which say these first-place Twins will probably regress to the mean.But I don’t understand reacting to an incredible 20-win month with this attitude: “The losing streak’s coming. Just you wait. They’ll blow it, and the Pohlads will sell them if they get good anyway.” C’mon, dude. Just enjoy the moment. This team is winning games and dancing in the clubhouse to fog machines. They’re playing confident, competitive baseball, and it’s fun to watch. If they don’t win the division, or the World Series, well, then that’s what’s supposed to happen. But if they improve by 15 wins from last year, that’s pretty damn good—especially with five of baseball’s top 50 prospects on the way. Part of what I love about following a team is seeing the young kids grow up and learn to win together. Torii Hunter was part of that once, and he’s leading the charge again this time around. And yeah, the current team probably won’t win it all. But with Molitor, Dozier, Mauer, Plouffe, Gibson, Perkins, Buxton, Berrios and Sano… this franchise has again built a winning core. And we’ll need a few more guys to step into that mix—looking at you Hicks, Danny & Ervin, Rosario, Meyer, May, Gordon, Stewart, Gonsalves and all the rest. For the moment, the future is bright, we’re on the up, and what’s the point in being negative? Let the last four losing years go. Forget about them like you forgot about the eight years of winning that preceded. Do yourself a favor, and enjoy cheering these kids on as they learn to win together at the highest level. That’s what I’ll be doing. View full article