#-1: Twins (Last Week: -2). Well, with the Mild done, the Twinks have the professional sports landscape all to themselves. And you know what? They have the makings of an exciting team.
They have improved to four games above .500 (19-15 to be exact) after going 4-2 this week. They have won back-to-back series vs. Oakland and at Cleveland, and after dropping a close 2-1 decision in Detroit Tuesday, Ricky Nolasco of all people and the club did the uncommon thing and beat the Tigers Wednesday evening 6-2.
The big story, besides a rapidly improving bullpen? Torii friggin' Hunter, of all people. The 39-year-old, who I once (and guess still) believe is only with the squad temporarily before being shipped off to a contender before the trade deadline, leads the team in Home Runs. And he has been part of a vast upgrade in outfield defense, going from abysmally awful to just-about mediocre in Ultimate Zone Rating. That a 39-year-old guy could be a main reason a franchise's pro outfield has gotten so much better in UZR may not say much, or it may show how shitty Aaron Hicks is. Whatever the reason, Hunter stands out as a spotlight in a team that are chock full of them.
After playing the rubber match against the Tigers this (Thursday) afternoon, they host Tampa Bay for three games this weekend, then quickly go back out on the road to Pittsburgh, where they have their annual weirdo two-game series against the Pirates Tuesday and Wednesday.
#-2: Gopher baseball (Last Week: -3). For this survey it's the Twins and then there's everybody else; it makes little sense to give second place to a team that went winless during its screening week, but there is no other team that deserves it. And yes, I am (now) aware that Iowa swept the Goofs down in Iowa City by a combined three-game total of 24-6. And I am (now) also aware that they have an eight-game losing streak.
Still, they have a chance to finish in the top eight of the B1G and advance to next weekend's conference tournament, which will be held at Target Field. It will be next to impossible, of course, but the club will first have to sweep Michigan St. at Siebert Field and then hope that 8th-place Nebraska gets swept at Illinois. Fat chance of that happening.
This will, in all likelihood, be my last chance to catch a Gopher baseball game, so I intend to go the last game of the year, Saturday afternoon at 1. I'm sure the Gophs will be eliminated from tournament play by then, so I'll probably have most of Siebert all to myself. Look forward to it.
#-3: Gopher softball (Last Week: -1). I am putting the U. softball team down here, even lower than a winless U. baseball squad, for what seems to be an inexplicably low placement for the NCAA Tournament. From the bracketology sites I've seen (all one of them), they were absolutely penned in for a regional hosting gig, and they had a puncher's chance of getting lined up for a super regional as well. Instead, they didn't even get a national seed. Instead this team, which arguably is better than last year's team that was seeded and got to host a regional, will in fact travel to Tucson, Ariz. and be a part of 12th-seeded Arizona's regional this weekend.
How did they wind up out of the top 16? Losing their first game of the Big Ten Tournament, a quarterfinal loss to Iowa (where it's single-game knockout, not double-elimination like it traditionally is with most college baseball tourneys), didn't help things. But even that upset loss should not force a program that was knocking on the top 10 in polls down to playing on the road against a traditional softball power like Arizona, which has a fearsome, potent lineup.
The U. starts tournament play (which is double-elimination) Friday evening against New Mexico St.; the Wildcats tussle with St. John's in the other game. Hope and pray that they don't get screwed over by what I figure is a raw deal.
#-Infinity: Wild (Last Week: -4). Well, that absolutely fucking blows. As great of a comeback from the abyss this season was, the Mild were completely laughed out of the Stanley Cup Playoffs by the dreaded Chicago Blackhawks in a fucking four-game sweep. This is certainly not the "next step to take" for this franchise. Progress is beating Chicago, or at least taking this series to six or seven games. But a sweep, and one where the talent gap was starker than some periods of play during the series indicate?
See, such a result is on hell of a bummer, and definitely not the way you want your season to end. But as much as the defeat weighs on me like an elephant, I do not want to succumb to knee-jerk reactions and go, "Fire Mike Yeo!" Like I said last week, the Blackhawks forwards, in particular Patrick Kane, had the talent and speed to carve through the Wild's defense, and for at least this series, Corey Crawford inexplicably had the better of Devan Dubnyk. And that's why this organization has been eliminated from the postseason.
So, what now? I don't see how or why you would blow up the team. They have a bunch of veterans on large, almost onerous contracts (Zach Parise, Ryan Suter, Jason Pominville, Thomas Vanek) that will be very difficult to trade away, and they also have a solid core of youngsters (Charlie Coyle, Marco Scandella, Jason Zucker, Jared Spurgeon) who, Buddha willing, will only get better next year. You can't change/improve the club because of the former, and you shouldn't change/improve the club because of the latter. This team is kind of stuck.
So what can General Manager Chuck Fletcher do? Well, he has to clear the brush between the pipes. Even if you believe Dubnyk just enjoyed a Cinderella-like season and will revert nastily to form next season, you can't just go back to Darcy Kuemper and assume everything will be like 2014. Dubnyk saved this team's ass this season, and so he will get some money and be named the #1 Goalie. Nicklas Backstrom, a stalwart Goaltender and possibly the best netminder the organization has ever had, will probably be bought out and given a gold watch. Josh Harding, according to many reports, will retire because of his multiple sclerosis. At this point, Fletch should trade Kuemper and elevate John Curry to be the #2.
Then it gets hard. Kyle Brodziak will probably get third-line money somewhere else even though he's a fourth-liner on the Wild. Suter, Pominville, and Vanek all had shitty seasons. Do you trim a bit off the top and trade one of those grizzled veterans, maybe in exchange for a role player and a future draft pick? Or do you roll the dice and trade one of the young guns -- say the wiry and oft-injured Granlund -- and get a really good scorer, which was surely lacking in the series versus Chicago? They are about $10 million under the cap, which means the only way to spur turnover in the club is through trade. But as much as fans are going to hold their nose if Fletcher makes no moves, I kind of see how making moves for their own sake could in fact make this team even worse.
Yes, the series was an embarrassment. But isn't it possible the Wild just faced the Blackhawks when the Blackhawks were hot? If so, maybe these teams just need to face each other, intact, next year. And maybe then it wouldn't end in a sweep. A large part of that depends on if Fletcher keeps the team as is, and if not, who are the players to go?
No comments:
Post a Comment