2005 MINNESOTA TWINS PREVIEW

By: B -- 4/5/05

I’ll say this: I have never been this excited about a Minnesota Twins team. Never. Not as a kid cheering on the eventual World Champion 1987 and 1991 teams and not during this recent run of division champions. I have a plethora of reasons for my enthusiasm.

No Twins team in recent history has been as balanced as this year’s squad. No team has had the depth, experience and phenom potential. We have the best pitcher in the game, the best center fielder, the best bullpen, the best Minnesota athlete of our generation… Unbelievable.

The Twins are baseball sweethearts, for good reason. With the steroids controversy, the out-of-control payroll and the me-first attitudes from most of the game’s superstars, the Twins represent the forgotten idea of a team, proving that success can still be found by farm system development and a pea-sized payroll. But you’ve heard all this before.

To further explain my excitement, I will now unveil my top eight reasons to love the 2005 Twins.

8. Dick Bremer and Bert Blyleven

Oh, how I have missed these two fun-loving television commentators with matching pseudo-mullets. Their combination of smarts and humor is a trait not often seen in the land of television commentating (and yes, ‘commentating’ is a word). They care deeply about this Twins team and, better yet, teach the fans a great deal about baseball without forcing their knowledge down the viewer’s gullet; an attribute both rare and refreshing.

Here’s to the best commentator team in all the land, in any sport. If the world was fair the Blyleven/Bremer combo would cover the World Series.

But only if they’d agree to drop the “You are hereby circled” nonsense. Oy.

(Question: Let’s say you are in the early stages of a promising relationship. You’ve gone on a few of the best dates of your life, you have a ton of things in common, the attraction is there…it’s been an absolute dream. What would you do if you saw this person, this potential soulmate, on television during a Twins game cheerily holding up a “Circle Me Bert” sign with a group of his or her friends? Do you break up with this person? My answer is yes. I’m sorry, but the fad is that annoying.)

7. The Pat Neshek Factor

I know what you’re going to say, that the only reason I am including this minor league reliever (currently at AA) on my list is because I grew up with him. You may have a point, but I’ll respond with this: this is my website and I’ll do what I want.

Biased or not, Neshek has all the tools to make it to The Show -- low 90’s heater, dirty slider and funky delivery -- and I’ll be his first groupie when he does. That’s right; you’re looking at the future president of the Pat Neshek Fan Club (well, not literally looking at, but you know what I mean).

6. Twins on the tube

This is my second selfish entry in a row, and related to# 8’s Blyleven/Bremer selection, but goddammit I’m excited to watch the Twins on television this year.

You see, I had to endure the last half of the 2004 season without cable. As you can imagine, it was sheer hell. I had to resort to newspapers, the odd trip to the Metrodome, Friday night games on KSTC and the internet. I love ESPN’s Gamecast as much as the next fan, but there is no better after-work weekday than grilling dinner and watching the Twins game. I’m going to have to re-stuff my couch soon due to the ass impressions on my couch cushions. I feel shame.

5. Joe Mays – the Comeback Kid or the Golden Horseshoe?

The good: Joe Mays’ 2001 season. Mays earned an improbable all-star appearance and was the surprise pitcher in the American League. He anchored the pitching staff with 233 innings pitched and finished with 16 victories (along with at least a half-dozen hard luck losses) to go with his 3.16 ERA.

The bad: This is Mays’ sixth season (not counting 2004) and 2001 was his only redeemable effort. Though Mays was injured through most of 2003, his 6.30 ERA was bloody awful. I mean send-him-to-the-minors-even-though-we-owe-him-$11 million awful. Talk about a question mark.

Nevertheless, Mays is one of my two keys to 2005 (see below for the other). He was up and down in the spring, but some rust was expected. He’s got the tools to be a solid number-three pitcher on this team, and he’s still only 29. Reader Andy P. claims that if Mays gets 10 wins, the Twins are in good shape. I’m counting on Mays for 14, as well as a few clutch wins in the playoffs.

4. Remember Torii Hunter?

Just last season, the superstar that Twins fans were pinning their hopes on was Torii Hunter. Johan Santana had had a promising 2003 campaign, but the fact that most of his innings were in relief made Santana a mostly unproven entity. Justin Morneau wasn’t even in the pros and Joe Mauer was the biggest question mark in the history of the franchise. 365 days ago, Twins fans were counting on Torii Hunter to carry the Twins to the Series. He was our superstar.

Now, just one year later, with the emergence of the three aforementioned players as potential superstars, no one has said a word about Hunter. Hunter’s still an all-star caliber player, he’s still capable of joining the 30-30 club (30 homers and 30 steals) and he’s still the best center fielder in baseball. Read that sentence again.

How lucky are we to have Torii Hunter as our fourth most popular player? I’m smiling just writing about it.

3. The underrated Lew Ford

As of today, the 2005 Twins starting lineup looks like this:

1. Shannon Stewart, LF
2. Jason Bartlett, SS
3. Joe Mauer, C
4. Justin Morneau, 1B
5. Torii Hunter, CF
6. Jacque Jones, RF
7. Lew Ford, DH
8. Michael Cuddyer, 3B
9. Luis Rivas, 2B

There are two -- and only two -- glaring mistakes with this lineup as I see it (I consider the presence of Rivas to be unfortunate rather than a mistake) and both involve Lew Ford.

(Note: I have to admit I initially hated Ford when I found out he wasn’t black. What a disappointment. An up-and-comer speedy outfielder named Lew Ford – who would’ve thought it was a Dungeons-n-Dragons-playing white boy?)

Mistake One: why is Shannon Stewart in left field while Lew Ford is on the bench? Shannon Stewart is one of the top leadoff hitters in the game, I’ll give you that, but he looks like he’s throwing with his opposite arm. Good God, he can barely throw the ball to third on the fly with a three-step crow hop. I can claim without a shadow of a doubt that I have a stronger arm than Shannon Stewart. Me. I consider vacuuming exercise. I break a sweat peeling an orange. If I have a better arm than the starting left fielder on a potential World Series-bound team… well, that’s not saying much for the team.

Luckily, the Twins have an option. Ford has a much stronger arm than Stewart, he gets a better jump on the ball and is at least as fast. Unless Stewart has concentration issues when playing DH – which is entirely possible, and completely acceptable – Ford should be playing left field every game.

Mistake two: The second and far bigger problem with this lineup is that Lew Ford is batting seventh. Ford is one of the more perfect number two hitters in all of baseball – and could actually be a great leadoff hitter -- yet the Twins are hiding him in the bottom third of our order. This makes no sense.

Ford’s most impressive 2004 statistic was his team-leading .381 on-base percentage. To put this in perspective, Ford’s OBP was higher than Johnny Damon, Juan Pierre, Carlos Guillen, Ray Durham, Milton Bradley, Jeff Bagwell and Brian Giles, to name just a few. This, all in Ford’s first full season as a Twin.

His 254 total bases, 89 runs, 170 hits and 67 walks also led the team (at least its regulars). Repeat: Lew Ford led the Twins in batting average, total bases, hits, runs and walks in 2004. In 2005, he’s in the seven hole. Am I the only one who recognized him as the key offensive player last season? Why, then, do we have a rookie (Jason Bartlett) poised to get numerous more at-bats than Ford?

Ford is my #1 key to this team. If he can compile a season similar to 2004 while hitting in front of Mauer and Morneau, expect the Twins offense to be near the top in the league.

2. Terry Ryan

I can’t say anything more about Ryan than this: he is the main reason for the recent Twins renaissance. He is the supreme genius in all of Major League Baseball. I need not say more.

I am looking forward to Ryan’s mid-season moves as the Twins begin their playoff push. However, considering his tight allotted budget, the Twins won’t likely be able to shake things up too much. Moves or no moves, I can speak for the rest of the Twins community when I say we wholeheartedly trust Terry Ryan. That point cannot be understated.

1. The superstars: Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Johan Santana.

Mauer is the second coming of Dave Winfield, Morneau has twice the talent as Kent Hrbek and Santana is coming off quite possibly the most dominating second half from a pitcher ever. None of them has hit their peak yet. Enough said.

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