#-1: Twins (Last Week: -5). Holy fucking shit ... did they just go 5-2 in the past week? And that included taking three of four of the Boston Red Sox, who might have had not too long ago the best record in Major League Baseball? And did the Twinks, with their 10-3 win over the White Sox Monday night, just get over .500 this late into the season at 18-17? That's worthy of the top spot in the survey.
With them coming back from a long roadtrip, many sportswriters thought it'd be a good time to take stock of this team. And there appears to be a consensus: This team clearly does not suck, at least not as bad as the shocking failure of a 2011 team presumed to have division-winning talent nor last year's edition, a season where the entire organization bottomed out. Nothing on the team appears to scream contender, and outside forces may still dictate moving on Josh Willingham and even Justin Morneau. Also, the pitching still, more or less, blows. But the young'uns called up to the majors appear as a unit to be able to play some, and it looks like altogether the Twins cannot be as putrid as they have been the past two years.
Monday was a breakout game, if not a turning point, for Centerfielder and hope for the future Aaron Hicks. He sandwiched home runs (not only his first multi-homer game of his pro career but his first multi-hit game of his pro career) with a spectacular, leaping, Puckettesque/Hunteresque catch above the wall in the two of the sixth to rob Adam Dunn of what would have been a game-tying two-run home run.
This week the homestand is complete; after Chicago, Boston comes to town. They then face the Braves in Atlanta starting on Monday.
#-2: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -3). Well, whatever faint chance the Gophers could get into the NCAA Tournament as an at-large evaporated with a very bad 1-3 week. Do not know what is worse: Dropping a 2-1 decision at home Wednesday to Wisconsin-Milwaukee, or losing two-of-three at Siebert to Nebraska (the first conference series they lost, by the way), where those two losses were shutouts and the only win was a 4-3 squeaker. As of today, the Goofs stand at 12-6 in the Big Ten and have given up their lead in the conference to Indiana. I don't think the Selection Committee looks kindly at a team who have lost four of their past five and are stumbling before the conference tournament despite the fact that the squad managed to schedule their last seven regular season games at home.
On the bright side, pitching ace Tom Windle, who struck out nine Cornhuskers in 7 1/3 innings but still got hung for the 6-0 loss on Friday, remains projected to be a solid second-round pick in the MLB Draft in early June.
The final regular season series this weekend is versus Illinois. I hope to make it to a game.
#-Infinity: Wild (Last Week: -4). Well, their season ends in a five-game series loss to the Chicago Blackhawks, the best team in the National Hockey League. I really hated, hated this team after hearing the next morning of the death of their season, especially knowing that they appeared non-competitive in Games 4 (3-0) and 5 (5-1). Their only win, in fact, was Game 3, and they had to go into overtime before Jason Zucker saved his team's bacon.
Now, with four days of cooling off and thinking about it, I'm less pissed off about the Mild's performance. I do not like the fact that they just got their asses handed to them, but right now, Chicago is a much better team. And Minnesota is young and their future is ahead of them. Hopefully they will learn from this embarrassment.
But the scuttlebutt I heard, not just from irate fans but from media types, is that heads had to roll. Fire Mike Yeo! they say. Trade Mikko Koivu! they yell. I understand the anger, but it doesn't make sense. This organization was the eighth seed and had just clinched its first playoff spot in five years. I know this is the Stanley Cup Playoffs, where four of the six teams that won their divisions just lost in the first round. Hockey playoffs are more of a crapshoot than any other sport, but people are and/or were acting like it was an absolute disgrace that the Wild were somehow upset by these upstart 'Hawks who had no business of being in the playoffs, let alone winning this series.
Guys, chill. Heads shouldn't roll just because of a five-game series defeat. Now, that doesn't mean that there won't, or shouldn't, be changes. Roster turnover is inevitable, and Koivu, a guy who was underrated when the Mild had no superstar players, probably is expendable now that he's been exposed as overrated since he's been teamed up with two guys, Zach Parise and Ryan Suter, who have a proven track record. I'm OK with that; he was a virtual non-entity in the Chicago series. (So was Parise, but hey, Owner Craig Leipold promised him $98 million, so he's not going anywhere.) Rumors are that Pierre-Marc Bouchard is as good as gone. Matt Cullen, a guy who turned in a good year this year, may be gone. Dany Heatley, injured for the entire series (do not forget that the team did not have Heatley for the whole series and Jason Pominville at 100% even one game) and whose scoring was sorely missed on the team, probably is gone -- which is a shame, because this club needs as much offensive punch as they can get. If I were General Manager Chuck Fletcher, my #1 priority is Heatley.
But people want Yeo gone. Who are you going to get to replace him, Lindy Ruff? Will a third coach in four years give this organization stability? And yeah, I could see moving longtime Goalie Nicklas Backstrom, who also was hurt and completely unavailable this postseason. But do you think Josh Harding did enough to be given the #1 slot? Are you OK with Darcy Kuemper? Would you trade for Roberto Luongo? A change could do the Wild good. But it might not, and right now, it appears as if many people think change for change's sake is good.
Look, Jonas Brodin looks to be a keeper. Jason Zucker too. I'm high on Charlie Coyle, though some think he still needs work. I would trade their current top blue-chip prospect, Mikael Granlund (a guy I think will underwhelm because he's too small; if he were so good, he'd be playing better by now), for a defenseman or a future first-round pick. Otherwise, stay the course. Five years of sucking has seeded the farm system, and you have to give the youngsters time to play together and prove to us whether they can play or not. The upside could be enormous, yet trading some building blocks for new players they would have to develop chemistry with all over again could damage that upside. And BTW, let Yeo stay.
(Another BTW: I have just written the blurb for the Wild first, even though they are at the bottom of the WMNSS. I think this is the first time I have ever done a WMNSS out of order.)
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