Lots of hand-wringing over a not-so-inspiring Game 1. Also, lots of opinions about who should get how much blame, most of it centered on either Pavano or the hitters. Well, now that the spring training kool-aid fest has worn off my question is, "whose to blame"? Let's face it Twins fans, Vegas has us as over/under 73 wins for a reason. We didn't get much love from national pundits and magazines for a reason. I'd like to think we could take second place and give the Tigers a run for their money. However, I'm not much inspired by the pitching staff, especially the starters. So, "whose to blame"?

A) Ownership for not committing enough resources to this team in just it's third year in what has been described as a cash-cow ballpark partly funded by the public?

Bill Smith, simply because everything else last year had to have been his fault and he never should've ever traded with those thieves formerly known as the DEVIL rays?

C) Terry Ryan because he didn't do nearly enough to address the "issues" on the roster once he returned?

D) Joe Mauer because, let's face it folks, that contract simply hamstrings the rest of the organization making it near impossible for them to field a competitive team around him? Oh yeah, and he's no #3 hitter anyway, can you say deuce?

Have at it!

B, but for various other reasons not included above.

Is this a joke? They have played one game.

I agree, it's one game. People need to relax and let them play a few games before jumping to conclusions. And can we please stop blaming Mauer for his contract? Tripling a guy's salary doesn't mean he will triple his output. If your company approached you with a huge raise, you'd accept it no question. You wouldn't say, "hey, i might not be worth that much, I'll work for only this much instead." The GM/owner offered that contract and Mauer signed it. Blame the guys who wrote the contract, not the guy who signed it.