Officially...R.I.P. for the Minnesota Twins

This will be the third-ever R.I.P. for the Minnesota Twins post that I've done since this blog existed. Let's look at the previous two, shall we?

September 2009 - Justin Morneau suffers a stress fracture in his lower back and can't play the rest of the season. The Twins get red-hot and force a game 163 against the Detroit Tigers. They get swept by the Yankees in an unexpected playoff appearance.

May 2011 - With the Twins 20 games under .500, another one is written. The Twins get red-hot again and feed off their starting pitching which was constantly turning in eight inning efforts, masking the deficiencies of their bullpen...

Which leads us to August 25th, 2011. This time I mean it, the Twins are dead. (I would have said this earlier, but without a computer...yeah.)

You could say it was a fun ride for those couple weeks in June, but the reality was, this team was going anywhere without leadership in the clubhouse, a staff ace, and a bullpen.

All three are major issues, but looking inside the clubhouse it's clear to me that there is no vocal leader capable of pushing players to perform at an elite level. Back in 2005, a struggling Justin Morneau was confronted by Torii Hunter. Hunter, sick of Morneau's lack of effort and complaining, took a swing at the future MVP. The light bulb went on, and Morneau realized his potential.

Yes, there's Michael Cuddyer, but he's more likely to pull a rabbit out of his cap than take a swing at someone. Then there's Mauer and Morneau. Personally, I still have no problems with Morneau, as he has been the one player on this team that has been trying to get back to his pre-concussion form, but he has ran into multiple injuries. He's not a leader that will get in someone's face, although it seems like he has it in him.

But then there's Mauer. Mauer has played the role of 2005 Morneau on this team. I'm not calling him lazy, but the whole 2 month vacation in Fort Myers in the middle of baseball season might rub people the wrong way. As will the supposed reluctance to play another position (I actually liken the first base move to the old Life cereal commercial. Can you see Gardy jumping up and down screaming "Joey likes it!"?). I would like to see someone take a swing at Mauer, the 23 million dollar athlete with 1 bomb and plenty of general soreness, but that guy is not in the clubhouse.

Second, there's the lack of a staff ace. Remember when we heard that Carl Pavano was going to be our ace and we loved the idea? Pavano has rewarded our trust with a 6-10 record and a 4.54 ERA. Not exactly what the Twins were thinking.

Joe Nelson of KFAN put this perfectly. The Twins need a TRUE ace, and not one of these bargain basement aces. C.J. Wilson (13-5 3.08 ERA with Texas) will be available this offseason, and the Twins need to spend some of this new-found revenue on a guy like this.

If you don't believe ace is a problem, read Tiny Joe's blog. Then take a look across the river. The Milwaukee Brewers looked at their mess of a rotation at the end of last season, and went and did something about it. They acquired two potential aces in Zack Grienke and Shawn Marcum. (Marcum was a bit underrated, but had good stats in the hitter friendly AL East before coming to the NL.) There's a reason for this! Pitching wins championships. Remember the San Francisco Giants from last year?

The Twins need to upgrade their rag-tag, "pitch-to-contact", batting practice machines and get a proven streak stopper like every team in the AL Central has (with the exception of Kansas City, but with that farm system he may be coming.)

Then there's the bullpen. Oh, the bullpen. The Twins tried to convince themselves that they would be fine after letting half their bullpen walk away last January. WRONG! They tried to plug holes by trading J.J. Hardy for two minor league relievers. Then, they tried to use Alex Burnett as a capable reliever, Joe Nathan and Matt Capps as closers, and...you get the idea.

This bullpen continues to be such a disaster that Joe Christiansen of the Star Tribune went nuts over Lester Olivesteros getting a couple of outs the other night. Really? REALLY? Ugh, come on. The Twins may need to get creative to fill these holes, but it will take more cash to do so.

This leads me to a fourth problem: Twins GM Bill Smith. Smith is spending the money to get these guys and if Smith has another failure of an offseason, he may be getting a pink slip. The moves of the Bill Smith have included:

- Trading Johan Santana and J.J. Hardy for nothing.

- Trading away a potential ace (Matt Garza) for a bi-polar hitter (Delmon Young).

- Signing a Japaneese version of Nick Punto.

- Signing Joe Mauer to a shockingly overpaid contract (still could turn around.)

- Letting half of an effective bullpen walk away in free agency.

The truth is this will be the biggest off-season in the Bill Smith era. What he will do with it remains to be seen.