Nov/095
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??
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November 16th, 2009
A few comments….
1. The Tigers and Twins uniforms are not that close…. The only thing that is slightly similar is the use of Gray (which is a totally different shade)…. If you’re content on having the uni’s different than the Tigers you might want to also get pissed at the Braves, Yankees, Dodgers, Red Sox, Rays, Orioles, Angels, White Sox, Indians, Royals, etc…. The Gray uni is in fact RETRO because that is how all of the teams used to do it.
2. I liked the white non-pinstripe jersey however i’m not disappointed that it was replaced with the new old school jersey…
3. I like the hardy trade…. Batting averages aside, Gomez is a very good defender. The problem however is that GOMEZ HARDLY EVER PLAYED…. You try to make the argument that somehow the Twins will fall from a top team to mediocrity. Gomez started only 86 games this year… That is about half of the games. While there might be some drop off defensively it certainly will not put the Twins towards the bottom of the league in fielding.
3. Delmon started in 93 games last year and played in 98. While he is not that great defensively he’s not exactly the liability that you make him out to be. He isn’t flashy and certainly doesn’t look good in the field however he makes most of the plays that go his way…. He only had 5 errors in 2009.
4. When kubel is in the field, delmon will be DH.
November 18th, 2009
Drew,
1. The Tigers uniforms are grey with navy cursive writing and an orange outline. The Twins uniforms are grey with navy cursive writing and a red outline. Red and orange look the same from the stands when it’s a thin outline of color. The other uniforms you listed are all grey, but none of them have navy, cursive writing. The Tigers are in our division, which makes it even worse to copy them, AND they have had those unis for like 50 years
2. I am just sad to see my favorite jersey from last year go. I love the retro, but it will only be worn on Saturday home games, so not very often.
3. The Twins, want to admit it or not, were an average fielding team BEFORE the trade. It will be worse now.
4. Agree to disagree on this one. I think you are viewing Delmon through your Twins-fan lenses. If Delmon was the starting left fielder for the Sox or Tigers you would think he was the worst fielder in the league. We would be sitting watching the game saying, ‘just slap it to left, Delmon can’t catch it!’
5. When Kubel is in the field, Delmon or Span will be getting a day off, not DHing. Only Mauer and Morneau bat on their days off, and they only do it down the stretch when we are battling for the pennant. When Kubel is in the field, Morales or Buscher (if he makes the team) will be DHing.
My point remains, we have taken a big step back defensively from this trade. There has been a philosophical change in the owners box. We used to be about playing defense and breaking hearts; not anymore. The days of having 3 great outfielders (soul patrol) are long gone. With below average pitching and fielding it seems like we are trying to be a power team, but the other power teams have about 4 times the money to spend on power guys. In my opinion we are fighting an unwinnable war. You can’t out Yankee the Yankees. Bill Smith is turning us into the Rangers or Rockies, a team with an average payroll that tries to outscore it’s oponnents because they value home runs over defense. I don’t like it because I want to see us win.
November 19th, 2009
No matter I’m still going to buy one for those lovely arm patches. 50 YRS.
November 19th, 2009
good post,thank you
December 23rd, 2009
I understand your point about losing the outfiled defense with Gomez but even if he was on the team this year he wouldn’t be playing. It became pretty evident down the stretch that Gomez was our fourth outfielder, and would have been next year had he not been traded, when Cuddy moved to first and they put Kubel in the field and DH’d Morales instead of playing Gomez. I get that you wanted Gomez in the outfield but I think that trades need to be evaluated by the context of who the team would be playing (Delmon) and not who we as fans think should be playing. The outfield for this year was set in September with Gomez not being a part of it, so instead of looking at this as losing Gomez’s defense for 140 games a year (he would not have played that much) it needs to be looked at as simply gaining a starting SS with good defense for our backup outfielder who we only used as a defensive replacement in the 9th inning.