Restless Natives
With only one week to go before the opener, there definitely has been a buzz in the air about the upcoming baseball season. It shouldn’t come as a surprise either as the young Twins team won 88 games last year and have many of the same faces returning. Even with the buzz, however, there have been a lot of fans crying foul and nay saying each and every move the team has made throughout the off season and into spring training.
The new 2-year deals for Nick Punto and Jason Kubel were met with a ton of criticism. Fans clamored on and on about adding to the weak left side of the infield and several names had come and gone with the spot finally being filled by Joe Crede. Due to previous injuries, though, Crede was also met with a lot of criticism and skepticism from the fans.
Nagging injuries have also been a source of nagging fans in the case of Boof Bonser and Joe Mauer. Almost immediately after arriving to spring training, Bonser was sidelined with soreness in his shoulder. He was first given cortisone shots to help with tendonitis but an MRI revealed that partial tears in the labrum and rotator cuff in his right shoulder.
Mauer, who had kidney surgery in the off season, hasn’t participated in a single spring training game. His current injury, however, seems to be unrelated to the kidney surgery as he is suffering from an inflammation in the joint between his spine and pelvis. The injuries suffered by both Mauer and Bonser have been used as fodder for fans to criticize the way the team and players operate and react to pain.
The Twins also have had to deal with having too many good outfielders and not enough positions. Almost every single outfielder has been fed to the fan firing squad as to who should be traded, who should stay in Triple-A, and who should be starters. I’m not sure when having too many good players was a problem, but I guess it is in Minnesota.
I recently brought this up to a colleague of mine and his response was simple – typical Minnesota sports fans. Thinking on that for a moment, I felt that he had hit the nail on the head with that remark.
At any rate, the Twins have been given more than their fair share of criticism, warranted or not, leading up to this season. The AL Central is one of the few division that is totally up in the air as to who can walk away with it, but the Twins should give it a good run if not have the best chances to win the title, no matter how pessimistic their “fans” seem to be.
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