Mandatory Credit: Kim Klement-USA TODAY Sports

This week Cody and Eric dive into the poor pitching management of Ron Gardenhire, Joe Mauer‘s hit-streak amid a season filled with strike-outs, and then we discuss the possibility of seeing Kyle Gibson in a Twins uniform and the outside shot of a 6-man rotation in Minnesota.

We name our Twins hitters and pitchers of the week, and then go Down on the Pond and talk about Low-A Cedar Rapids Kernals first basemen Dalton Hicks.

We finish up the podcast talking about beers from Europe and making a trip Around the League (including a fabulous Korean bat flip).

Only an hour of fun this week, but we’ll be back next week with a special patriotic Talk to Contact in honor of Memorial Day.

You can follow Cody on Twitter (@NoDakTwinsFan) or read his writing at NoDakTwinsFan.  You can follow Paul on Twitter (@BaseballPirate) or read his writing here at  Puckett’s Pond.  And of course, you can find Eric on Twitter (@ERolfPleiss) and read his writing at Knuckleballsblog.com

Winner: a person or thing that wins (see, win)

The words win and winner, by definition have been vacant this season for the Minnesota Twins.  They have lost more games than they have won and by a significant margin. Despite the team’s efforts to keep themselves relevant in the American League Central race, a few (hundred) bounces or calls have not gone their way and all of their opponents seem to be banning them to the basement of the Central Division as punishment.  I can only think of one conclusion as to why the Twins are bottom-feeders in the AL Central once again this season, and the answer is the antonym to the words win and winner: loser.

The Twins seemingly have grown used to defeat after starting the season with back-to-back losing months, winning only 6 of 22 games in April and 12 wins versus 16 losses throughout their 28 games played in May. Two months like those will put a bad taste in any team’s mouth to begin the season.

Despite the rough start, the Twins bounced back in June by achieving their first and, barring a series sweep of the Detroit Tigers this weekend, only winning month. Obtaining only one winning month in an entire season not only tells a fan their team is not as good as they had hoped, but also shows that a professional team has grown accustomed to losing, only striving for mediocrity. I am no where near saying the Twins had given up on the season, nor did they not play every game with all of their hearts. However, when was the last time you heard a Twins player get intense in a post-game interview at the performance of the team? Where is the fire? That fire is nonexistent for the lowly Twins who are in a heated race to be the second worst team in the AL Central with the Cleveland Indians. The Indians are a team who recently fired their manager Manny Acta as a result of a once promising season that took a downward spiral just after the trade deadline. This is the team the Twins are trying to “beat out” for the title of “Not Worst” in the AL Central. Acta was axed, and some people throughout the last few years have pondered whether or not it is Twins manager Ron Gardenhire’s turn.

Gardenhire has been the Twins manager since 2002, compiling a winning percentage of .524 (931-846) throughout his tenure and winning the Manager of the Year award in 2010. The award in 2010 was his first, but it was not the first time he had been considered for the award; he was runner-up in 2009, 2008, 2006, 2004, and 2003, then voted second runner-up in 2002. (List of MOY award winners) His résumé  is quite impressive and one could place him among the top managers in the American League. However, despite his extensive managerial stat-line, he has won zero World Series championships and only made it out of the Divisional playoffs once since his inaugural season. There have been rumblings of letting go of Gardy, as the fans so affectionately call him, in previous seasons. Back-to-back atrocious seasons have never sat well with upper management for ball clubs, especially since the owners and general managers (Terry Ryan and Bill Smith most recently) have felt they had brought in the required pieces of the World Series puzzle.

So who is to blame? I honestly do not believe it is Gardenhire’s fault for the last the last two failed seasons. Injuries have riddled the Twins roster the past couple years and sometimes there is not enough Major League ready talent in a team’s minor league system. Sadly, Minnesota sports fans habitually forgive their favorite teams for not succeeding in the regular season and failing to bring championships to a very home-town biased fan base.  Aside from the Minnesota Lynx WNBA team, no other franchise in the four major sports: baseball, basketball, hockey, and football, have brought a championship to the land of 10,000 lakes since the Twins did so in 1991. That is a long time for one metropolitan to not have a championship when they provide enough income and fan support to carry a team in every one of the major sports. Thus, are the fans to blame for the Twins losing season this year by not standing firm enough in wanting the high ticket, game-changing free agents or trading block players? Who knows for sure, but I know at the beginning of the season I will be backing my favorite baseball team and hoping for the best, as usual.  

Sep 20, 2012; Cleveland, OH, USA; Minnesota Twins manager Ron Gardenhire (35) bows his head during the national anthem before a game against the Cleveland Indians at Progressive Field. Cleveland won 4-3. Mandatory Credit: David Richard-US PRESSWIRE

You see, the Twins have been following an eerily consistent pattern since Ron Gardenhire took over as the team’s manager in 2002. That year, they won 94 games, a nine game improvement over 2001. In 2003, the team slipped a bit and finished with 90 wins. Still good, but less than the year before. No problem; they improved to 92 wins in 2004. Then they slipped to 83 in ’05. The roller coaster continued: improve to 96 in ’06, drop to 79 in ’07, improve to 88 in ’08. The 2009 team can be considered more successful than the 2008 version, because they earned a playoff berth, but in the regular season W-L columns they were actually slightly worse, with 87 victories. In 2010, they were clearly better, with 94 wins. Then they slumped to a pitiful 63 in 2011 before rebounding a bit this year.

In case you didn’t read all those numbers, here’s the summary: the Twins’ record always improves in even numbered years, and it always declines in odd numbered years. Since Gardenhire got his job, the Twins have never had two consecutive seasons where they get better, nor have they gotten worse in two consecutive years.

The pattern breaks down if you look back before 2002. The 2001 team won a surprising 85 games, which was a big improvement in an odd year. Before that, the Pattern held up from 1995 through 2000, when the team won 56,78,68,70,63, and 69 games respectively. 1994 probably would have fit the Pattern too, but there was a strike that year, so the Twins’ win total dropped. Before that, though, the pattern completely breaks down. In fact, the Twins’ two World Series seasons – 1987 and 1991 – were both odd years. So it’s really just since the beginning of the Ron Gardenhire era that the Pattern has been unbreakable.

At the beginning of this season, the pattern was a comfort, since it meant the Twins had nowhere to go but up. But next year it’s a pretty ominous sign. The 2012 Twins are likely to finish with fewer than 70 wins, so if they’re guaranteed to be worse in 2013, things could get pretty ugly. The pattern doesn’t seem to tell us how much worse the 2013 team will be – they could finish with one fewer win or 20 fewer wins – it just says they won’t be as good. Being worse than this year’s team seems like a difficult task, but the Twins always seem to find a way to uphold the pattern.

So the trick is to find a way to break the pattern. How can they do that? Your guess is as good as mine. They should probably start by calling in a mathemetician or a witch doctor or something.

Ever since this guy became the Twins’ manager, their seasons have followed an eerie pattern. Photo by Tim Heitman-US PRESSWIRE