Puckett's Pond » Orlando Hudson

The Winning Teams: 2010

Sun, 25 Sep 2011 12:00:21 +0000

This is the final installment of a series examining every Twins team that has made the playoffs. Whether the current version of the Twins is 20 games over .500 or stuck in last place, fans can always hold onto memories of successful teams past.

Previous articles in the series: 1965, 1969, 1970, 1987, 1991, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009

It was just a year ago, but it feels as ancient as the Roman Empire. The same Twins team that has bumbled to a likely100 loss season in 2011 was actually pretty good in 2010.

On September 22, 2010, one day after clinching the Central Division title, the Twins completed a sweep of the hapless Cleveland Indians. It was their 15th win in 18 games, and it tied them with the Yankees for the best record in baseball at 92-60. The first year of baseball at state of the art Target Field was a smashing success. Sellout crowds crammed the seats virtually every game, and the Twins seemed to win almost all of them. Minnesota’s on-field product was arguably the best it had ever been in this, the team’s 50th year of play.

The Twins were far from the biggest sports headline of 2010. LeBron James managed to upstage them, partly because the Twins didn’t take the time to record a one hour prime time TV special. Millions of baseball fans (and millions of Seinfeld fans) will remember 2010 as the year that George Steinbrenner, a titan of the game, passed away at age 80. Meanwhile, in 2010, 33 Chilean miners were rescued after a tense rescue operation that captivated much of the world’s attention. And in Washington D.C., the Republican Party won back control of the House of Representatives. (more…)

Departed Twins: Where Are They Now? (Part 2)

Wally Fish — Thu, 01 Sep 2011 03:10:16 +0000

So many things have contributed to this collapse that it’s hard to recount all of them. For me, the primary reasons are the seemingly endless rash of injuries and the disappearance of Francisco Liriano as an average starter let alone the top of the rotation guy he was supposed to be. Certainly there’s plenty of room for debate and discussion to figure out exactly what went wrong but we know for certain that 15 players that contributed last year were not in the organization on Opening Day this spring.

Would the team’s fortunes be different if any of these players remained on the roster? It’s impossible to know of course since one change could have a ripple effect. Perhaps if the Twins front office had kept the most minor of these guys, Liriano would have been the ace we were hoping for. Perhaps Morneau and Mauer would have managed to avoid the DL. The universe works in mysterious ways after all.

The point of this article isn’t to state, emphatically or otherwise, where the organization went wrong in it’s decision making, but rather just to check in on where each of these guys are and how they are doing in 2011. I hope you’ll follow along, enjoy, and maybe even recall some of the great moments from 2010 in the process.

This is Part 2 of 2. If you missed Part 1 of 2 click here. (more…)

Setting the Bar for Nishioka and Casilla

Sat, 02 Apr 2011 19:24:19 +0000

As the Twins open their season with a new-look middle infield of Tsuyoshi Nishioka and Alexi Casilla, I got to thinking about the off-season again. Losing Orlando Hudson seemed inevitable but was disappointing nevertheless. When the Twins traded J.J. Hardy for a couple of minor league relievers I was furious. I have expressed my doubts about Nishioka all off-season long and Casilla, well, he doesn’t exactly inspire a whole lot of confidence from an offensive-standpoint. When I was thinking about it today, however, I realized that much of my disappointment and concern about this middle-infield duo comes from the potential I perceived Hudson and Hardy to have. What if we judged last year’s middle-infield based on the actual results (objective) rather than what we perceive their potential to be (subjective)? Would that change how I feel about a Nishioka/Casilla duo?

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