By the time Tom Kelly's Twins were good again, he was no longer their manager. The 2002 Twins team was the quintessential TK squad. They were young, cheap, played defense, 'did the little things right', and played with grit. Lavelle mentioned it today: The current team just doesn't grind out wins like the '02-'04 Twins did. Those teams couldn't score runs, but they won anyway. They hit in '08, but they don't win the games they should. It seems they cannot hold onto a lead, weather it's in the division or a game.
These boys are just as young and green as the '02 team was. Are they not excited to play baseball or what? No energy on the road? I mean, c'mon, they're on baseball cards! Or perhaps we're coddling them too much?
Something intangible is missing. So, I'm just going to blame Mauer and Morneau, as they are the veterans who have been there before and should be leading the team.
Friday, September 12, 2008
Grit
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3 comments:
I hope those Minnesota Twins grits are truly instant. They need them now.
I get the same feeling from the outside looking in. It seems like when shit happens no ones there to clean it up.
It all comes down to bullpen. If the bully had been doing its job over the past 6 weeks the Twins would be seen as a young and spunky team that was having fun.
I think that they are uptight right now because everyone is stressed about whats going happen late in the game when its handed over to the bullpen.
It also has a lot to do with Mauer and Morneau. A team tends to take on the identity of its leaders and the Twins couldnt have two more even-keel, unexcitable leaders in Mauer in Morneau. However, people with that kind personality tend to be the best baseball players because it is such a game of failures. They just arent the funnest to watch and cheer for sometimes. Funny thing is, that type of attitude/personality reminds me of Tom Kelly.
I think if it gets down to the wire in the seasons final week with this team and they are within a game or two of first either way you might start to see some real emotions come out.
What it comes down to right now is that they are all to high-strung and just waiting to fail or for something to go wrong instead of just going out there and playing loose and playing to win.
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