Friday, February 5, 2010

Fans Shift Focus From Whining To Constructing Batting Order

How does the Orlando Hudson affect the batting order? That's the question many Twins fans are attempting to answer today by feverishly jotting down lineups. Yes, it's out with the old and in with the new for the Twins faithful, who've spent much of the winter complaining about their teams inactivity.

Most Minnesotans have had these thoughts running through their heads, twitters or blogs:

FIRE BILL SMITH. First he screws up the Santana trade, then he trades for the terrible DELMON YOUNG... And now he's content with this joke of a team that can barely win the WORST DIVISION IN BASEBALL.. . . . The whole organization is CONTENT with MEDIOCRITY. They just want to play for the future instead of GOING FOR A CHAMPIONSHIP. ...ALFONSO SORIANO ..HIGH TICKET PRICES . . . . THE YANKEES.... . .. .WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY...ADRIAN BELTRE.. NEW STADIUM. . . .. . . JOE MAUER.... REVENUE FROM TAX FUNDED STADIUM. . . SWEPT IN PLAYOFFS again. . . . . C'MON!
Now that the Twins have finally pieced together a decent off-season, will their followers finally give them credit? Probably not. And even if they gave Billy Smith his due, they'd forget to thank Joe Mauer; for it was he who included a "sign a decent two-hitter" clause into his new contract. Great job.

No, instead of offering apologies, fans will turn their attention to projecting the batting order. Quick! Look up Orlando Hudson's on-base percentage! Compare it to JJ Hardy's! Does Michael Cuddyer's productive September mean he should bat fourth and complete the lefty-righty-lefty-righty-lefty-righty order? Talk about balance! Brendan Harris would make for an above average 9 hitter, but will Gardenhire's man-crush on Nick Punto take precedent? The answers to a few questions only create more questions! Oh, to be a fan!

Span
Hudson
Mauer
Morneau
Kubel
Cuddyer
Young
Hardy
Harris


Of course, old habits die hard for some Twins fans. While filling out their imaginary line-up cards, some undoubtedly came across "3B" and then started howling for Joe Crede or Robb Quinlan. Some fans inexplicably expect the Twins to sign aging starting pitcher Jerrod Washburn, even though they probably haven't spoken to him since they signed Carl Pavano.

WINDOW OF OPPORTUNITY.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

This post was put up on Friday. In Saturday's Star-Tribune sports section, they had the exact same lineup. Another stunning scoop by AH!


FrontRowSeats

TwinsWin83 said...

switch cuddy and kubal and swap delmon and jj in the BA. boom.

Holmer said...

Ha. The morning of this post, I scratch a similar line-up on a dirty napkin I found on the floor of the car. Only Kubel and Cuddyer were flipped, flapped, flopped.