Twins Video
Like the soon to be King Richard, our Twins are introduced to us as deformed, unfinished, sent before their time into this breathing 2017 season. It is supposed to be a time of happiness, a time of peace, because our family troubles have come to an end with the removal of King Ryan but yet, here we are anyway, an actor on the stage talking to himself, preparing the upcoming misery.
Another comparable… Actors who portray Richard III tend to overact significantly and the construction of these Twins has caused severe overreacting on TD.
Overreacting just like I over-wrote this beginning by starting 2017 with Shakespeare. I could have gone anywhere else. It’s 2017 and the Twins return with the same rotation and with minimal improvement to the bullpen… that was our off-season… that was “The winter of OUR discontent.”
Here are some things to think about:
1. Opening Day – Despite the obvious negative tone of the introduction, it is opening day and the possibility of 162-0 still exists no matter how unlikely and that alone should be cause for the slightest of optimism. There are many ways to skin a cat so it’s possible that we are about to witness a new way to do exactly that. Although, we would all feel better about that possibility if they actually located a cat and if they were not holding a spoon while waiting for one to come near.
2. Our Twins – We are curious to see if Dozier can come close to duplicating last year. We are curious to see if this is the year that Buxton and Sano breakout. We are curious to see if Kepler, Rosario and Polanco can demonstrate major league capability. (Pause)… I just realized that it was curiosity that killed the cat. No wonder Falvey/Levine can’t find the damn cat.
3. The Royals – The Royals will be an interesting team to watch this year. The Royals hit a fork in the road this off-season with two paths to choose from. With Hosmer, Moustakas, Cain and others heading to free agency at the end of the year, one path was to trade these players with value remaining for younger talent and start the rebuilding process right away. The other path was to hang on to these players and go for it one more time and this was the path they chose. A baseball season is a long run and like Led Zeppelin said, “In the long run… there’s still time to change the road you’re on.” I had to make a similar decision once… Should I get some more gas before my car runs out or keep driving hoping to reach my destination before it does. I chose to keep driving my car and it worked just fine. The moral to that story is this: Never buy gas for your car!!!
4. Today’s Joe M Conversation (For all of 2017… I’ve decided that thought #4 will be a conversation between Joe Mauer, Joe Maddon and Joe McCarthy) --
Maddon: Hey Joe, what are you doing.
Mauer: Well… McCarthy was hungry and I needed to work on my hitting to left field so I’m dropping apples into my Joe Mauer quick swing while McCarthy waits for the apple chunks to eat in left field.
Maddon: That’s brilliant… The apple is the right size for the tubing. You are getting your hitting in and McCarthy gets some food… That’s a great idea.
Mauer: It also works with those nice round dinner rolls but they don’t go as far so McCarthy has to move in a little.
McCarthy: (Coming in from left field to join the conversation). Yep… Apples and Dinner Rolls work great. We also tried Meat Loaf but it got stuck and it didn’t work.
Maddon: Ahh… yes… I suppose… Meat Loaf… well… Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad.
5. Perfection – I read a lot of resumes in my job. I've come to the conclusion that these pieces of paper are the closest to perfection that these people will ever come to.
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Game-time forecast: 53 deg F, cloudy with a 55-65% chance of rain, winds from the NE at 11mph.
Lineups:
ROYALS
Alex Gordon (L) LF
Mike Moustakas (L) 3B
Lorenzo Cain (R ) CF
Eric Hosmer (L) 1B
Salvador Perez (R ) C
Brandon Moss (L) DH
Paulo Orlando (R ) RF
Alcides Escobar (R ) SS
Raul Mondesi (S) 2B
Duffy, P
TWINS
Dozier (R ) 2B
Robbie Grossman (S) DH
Byron Buxton (R ) CF
Joe Mauer (L) 1B
Miguel Sano (R ) 3B
Jason Castro (L) C
Jorge Polanco (S) SS
Max Kepler (L) RF
Eddie Rosario (L) LF
Santana, P
Win Twins! Play ball!
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