Curse Breaker?

I recently wrote about the seeming curse that’s haunted the Twins ever since Corey Koskie’s departure. The hole at the hot corner has been detrimental to the team’s offensive and defensive weaknesses over the years. This past month, however, a ray of sunshine has burst upon us as Trevor Plouffe has unleashed his bat. His recent barrage has me thinking: “Is the curse broken?”

Taking a slight detour, I need to mention that in titling this piece, I was googling the words “Curse Breaker” in hopes of finding some inspiration or a catchy title. One of the first links suggested took me to a page describing a fictional baseball bat from the video game, “Fallout 3.” I’ve never heard of nor played this game, but this baseball bat described here seemed too perfect to be true. It “is a unique baseball bat” that “deals more damage [than] a common baseball bat. Curse Breaker can strike a total of about 923 times…before breaking.” It “cannot be found anywhere [else] in the game.”

I’m here to hypothesize that Plouffe has somehow stumbled upon this mythical Curse Breaker bat. With it and a glove that hopefully improves each passing inning spent at third, I am beginning to have no doubt that we will soon be rid of the curse of Corey Koskie.

On a serious note, I want to avoid repeating facts that have already been so well reviewed on this site in previous articles. I will still mention some, since seeing Plouffe hit 9 HRs, drive in 16 RBIs, and hit a line of .396/.420/1.042 (an OPS of 1.462!) over a span of twelve games is exactly the ray of hope that Twins fans need at this time. While I doubt he hits 73 more HRs this season (which such a pace as this would lead him to), I can see him becoming exactly what Nate Gilmore wrote about earlier this week: a core player for the Twins, around which the front office can build. If Plouffe can join Revere, Diamond, Dozier, Mauer, Perkins, Duensing, and Parmelee as core players, then I will be the first to pronounce the curse of Corey Koskie broken. A core player doesn’t have to be an All-Star; but rather a player that can contribute positively for several years until the next wave of first-round picks and other top prospects arrive ready to contribute at the big league level. That’s what we drafted Trevor to be, and right now, he’s showing us his potential.

Being rational, I realize that this short 12 game stretch makes it far too early to pronounce anything definitively. So I will hold off on that…but will continue to whoop and holler each game as Plouffe sends baseball after baseball flying into the seats in left field. If his bat really is Curse Breaker, than it’s got over 900 home runs left in it!