New Twins Uniforms and Bill Smith Disappoint Me.

Not only are the Minnesota Twins moving into a new stadium next year, they will also be sporting new away uniforms, a 1961 throwback home uniform,  and new patches commemorating their 50th year and the inaugural season at Target Field.

http://www.startribune.com/galleries/70201377.html?elr=KArks:DCiUHc3E7_V_nDaycUiacyKUUr

Personally I love the throwback, which they will wear for the home opener, but don't like the other choices at all.  First of all, the new away uniform looks exactly like the Detroit away uniforms, in my opinion.  Just replace the Twins red outline for orange (not a big difference) and switch the city names and presto, the Twins uni is now a Tigers uni.  Secondly, my favorite uniforms from last year were the home white ones without pinstripes, which it looks like will be absent from the rotation this year.  So, in conclusion, Bill Smith has made another bad move, and our favorite team will look worse for it. 

Since we're on the subject of Bill Smith, I also am not as enamored with the JJ Hardy trade as everyone else in Minnesota.  Assuming Hardy can regain a batting average that will get him on base more than Nicky 'Nails' Punto, I think that at best this trade will be a wash.  Here's why:  not only are the Twins no longer one of the best defensive teams in the league, they aren't even in the top 20.  The departure of Carlos Gomez creates what I call a triple whammy effect (it's a technical term, don't bother yourself with it) in the outfield. 

Whammy 1: Denard Span is now our full-time center fielder, which creates a legitimate decline in center field defense.  I know, everyone loves Spansy, and so do I, but even though he is quick, he doesn't cover near the ground Gomez did, and has about half the arm strength.  The combination of less speed and weaker arm will definitely be noticeable.  We might not have one outfield assist from center in 2010, put it that way.   

Whammy 2: Delmon Young is now promoted to full-time left fielder.  For an explanation of this one, consider the drop off from Gomez to Span a mole hill and the dropoff from Span to Young K2!  Our beer league softball left fielder is ten times the outfielder Young is.  You just can't get better by taking significant declines in 2 out of the 3 outfield spots.

Whammy 3:  I'll start this one as a question, how often over the last couple years did Young play in the outfield (outside of the last few weeks of last year when Young briefly flashed the potential that keeps him north of Rochester)?  Right, probably a couple games a week.  Whenever any of the three functional outfielders needed a day off, Young would come in and bobble the ball around in the corner for them.  Our new Delmon Young is Jason Kubel.  If you think Young is uncoordinated and can't run in the outfield, wait until Kubel is our primary backup at left and right field.  It's going to be scary, and not Joe Nathan thinking about a lineup with Jorge Posada batting ninth for the Yankees scary; more like brain hemmorhage scary!  We will all likely be sitting in our prime seats at Target Field yelling, 'stop the bleeding,' to the sound of Jason Kubel shredding a knee and/or Delmon Young losing his last shred of dignity.

And who's going to DH when Kubel is 'playing' the field??..

On the other hand, Hardy is an upgrade defensively at SS..  But couldn't we have avoided this whole mess by just keeping Bartlett and Garza??