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1. The Gorilla in the Room -- I'm not worried about the 0-9 start. I continue to be worried about the same thing I was worried about back in December... that's the entire American League. Half the National League teams were busy shedding veteran talent for youth and immediately declaring to all that they were punting the year to play youth instead. Meanwhile, almost every American League team was busy patching holes with real veteran talent and improving significantly. 2016 is clearly going to be different than 2015 because every team was going to be harder to beat and the Twins are attacking this problem with youth. If you look around the room and can't find an easy team to beat... you might be it.
2. Beating a Dead Monkey -- To clarify... this thought has nothing to do with Davy Jones. Thought #2 is all about depth and Davy Jones was never the deep Monkee. We all know that Peter Tork was the depth dude. If the Twins had a strength in my opinion... it was depth. If you keep playing the struggling players every game hoping that they play their way out, you are negating your strength while you are beating a dead monkey. I'm not saying that you should bench these struggling players forever but if you have multiple players not playing well, I think you can experiment a little harder. It won't kill Buxton or Sano or Park or Rosario to sit a game or two while they struggle. Arcia may not be the answer but if he has only played once while the entire team is striking out and not scoring runs, when will you play him? You might as well cut him and find a player who can help this team. Is Murphy the guy who will knock out Arcia...? He might be. I'd play Arcia more before you cut him for Murphy; but if you ain't going to play him, what is he doing? Nunez has started once in the past 5 games. Find out who is hitting the hottest and put them in the lineup instead of playing the coldest game after game waiting for them to heat up.
3. The Bullpen Chimpanzee -- Perkins has lost a lot of velocity and is now on the DL. OK... Bullpen... grab your stuff and everybody move up a slot. Jepsen you are now the closer... May you take Jepsen's old role... Fien you move into May's spot. Pressly you move into Fien's and Tonkin you move into Pressly's. Abad you keep being left-handed and Rogers... welcome to the big leagues... let's see what you can do. Ok... look around... it sure looks like we have bullpen depth issues... again. How did that happen? I'm shocked to find that gambling is happening in this establishment.
4. Get the Monkey Off Your Back -- Just win one... Don't try to win 9 games at once... Just win one and then move on to the next game. One foot in front of the other... breath in... breath out. The first three thoughts may seem negative, but here's the deal... I'm just as stupid as the rest of you and the Twins still have plenty of time to right the ship and go the right direction.
5. Planet of the Apes -- It's not that far fetched. I once found myself in a desolate land. I originally thought I was alone but out of the corner of my eye I could see these human shapes covered in fur. I was in Tennessee, but I'm just saying... It's not that far fetched.
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Lineups:
ANGELS
Escobar 3B
Gentry LF
Trout CF
Pujols DH
Cron 1B
Calhoun RF
Simmons SS
Perez C
Giovotella 2B
Richards P
TWINS
Eduardo Nunez 2B
Joe Mauer 1B
Miguel Sano RF
Trevor Plouffe 3B
Oswaldo Arcia LF
Byung-ho Park DH
Eduardo Escobar SS
Eddie Rosario CF
Kurt Suzuki C
Milone P
Game-time forecast: 70 deg F, partly cloudy, winds in from the SSE at 14mph.
Um, go Twins, please!
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