#-1: Twins (Last Week: -1). Amazing how the perception of a team changes when it goes into an extended break winning four-of-five. Sure, the Twinks are several games below .500, but when you go on this hot streak on the road, win a series (and a four-game series at that) in Seattle for the first time in seven or eight years, then take two-of-three from Colorado, whom one commenter on a sports blog I frequent said had "the worst ownership no one knows about," you have to give them credit.
Now, to be realistic, they are only a few (maybe several?) wins ahead of last year's pace. Is it significant improvement? No. But it sure beats the alternative of being a few wins behind. Neither the lineup nor the starting rotation shows signs of improving, Miguel Sano is still gone for the year, and Byron Buxton was banged up earlier this year and therefore probably won't be rushed anywhere close to the big leagues this year. So it's up to these guys to look inwards and see if they have anything new to bring to the table.
Now comes what possibly is the other shoe to drop: Life After The All-Star Game. Attendance at Target Field has been dwindling ever since the club went into the shitter three years ago. I fear that a lot of season ticket-holders kept giving them their hard-earned cash to gain priority for the ASG, which was last (Tuesday) night. But now that it's over, they have no incentive to renew. The squad knew they had to show some improvement or hope for the future to have any chance of retaining any of those people with one foot off the bandwagon. I don't know if a sub-.500 club with their two best prospects being a least a year away from the majors qualifies. Translation: Expect to see fire sales from scalpers starting this weekend, and a precipitous drop in season ticket renewals the start of next year. These are frightening times to be a Twink, and deservedly so.
But hey, at least the American League won the game! And even better, in a perfect storybook finish, the closing battery for the Twinks, Glen Perkins to Kurt Suzuki, finished the ninth inning to complete the Amer. League's 5-3 victory!! Congrats to the organization for giving the A.L. home-field advantage for the World Series, a series the Twinks won't even come close to reaching!!!
Major League Baseball needed nine days to set up All-Star Game regalia in The Bullseye, but only two days to tear everything down? Guess it would be faster; after all, you're just striking shit down and you can throw that anywhere. But wouldn't it make more sense to give a stadium a week before and a week after the ASG? You know, just to let things breathe a little there? Instead the Twins immediately begin a ten-game homestand this weekend against the Tampa Bay Rays, then host Cleveland for three games starting on Monday.
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