Muck Finnesota!

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So today I'm wearing one of my favorite t-shirts - the one I bought from a street vendor a few years back. It says, as you can guess from the post title, "Muck Finnesota." I remember the first time I saw one of these types of shirts, at Wrigley actually, I think degrading the Packers, and thought it was freakin hilarious and clever. Years and years later, I finally found a team I hate enough to warrant such a shirt and just happened to find a vendor dealing one. Happy times.

Look, I actually respect the living balls out of Minnesota. The way they teach baseball, develop talent, and run their organization is the way I wish the Sox would. The dream? Take everything the Twins do organizationally, from their perfect philosophy on what dictates success in baseball to their immense skill judging talent, and pair it with the Sox mostly brilliant use of their good (but not silly) resource level as well as their aggressiveness and creativity in building a winner, and you'd have a team that could challenge for a title every year (like the Yanks and the BoSox do... except replace all that skill and stuff with throwing boatloads of money at everything).

Instead, the Sox frustratingly trail the Twins in consistency of success and still repeatedly fail to commit to the top-to-bottom organizational belief in fundamentals. Oh, Ozzie and Kenny give it lip service, but the reality is that the Sox don't bunt, run bases, play defense, or approach the game anywhere near as good as the Twins do. And the simple reason is that the Sox organization just doesn't think it's as important as the Twins organization does.

Fortunately, the Sox have some other advantages, mainly their resources, but also their own skill in judging talent, in building the right sort of teams (pitching, pitching, and more pitching), and in demanding a winning team every year (the single most important trait of any organization... just ask Cubs fans).

The result - the Sox and Twins have done battle for a decade now, starting with the Sox emergence as a legit power in 2000 and the Twins following suit in 2001. Since the Twins have earned more playoff appearances and have a much better head-to-head record (especially in Minnesota), but the Sox have a World Series title and the 163rd game victory in 2008.


Once again, 2010 has these two teams epically battling for the Central division (with a very quiet possibility of a wild card to the vanquished... these are the two hottest teams in baseball, so the 5 game deficit they have to make up is very doable). And starting today, with the two teams locked into an absolute tie in the AL Central (same overall, home, and road records), we get ourselves a three-game series that will give the edge to one of the teams with under 7 weeks to play.

This 3-game set at the Cell this week will then be repeated at Target Field, the Twins new outdoor digs, next week. With those six games finished, the Sox and Twins will meet head-to-head only once more, in mid-September at The Cell. And then maybe again in Game 163.

In fact, the possibility of Game 163 adds yet another level of importance to the games the Sox and Twins are playing now. Unlike in the past, the site of the 163rd game isn't decided by a coin flip. Instead, the team with the better head-to-head record earns the right to host. Now this is total BS, given that often times teams don't play an equal number of home and road games in their season series.

Personally I think that should be the host-site determination - which team has hosted the fewest head-to-head games amongst the two teams. If the Twins have hosted 10 of the 19 games, then it only seems fair that #20 should come at The Cell, correct? If they've played an equal number, then you defer to head-to-head standings. And if that's equal, then you defer to divisional record, then league record, then a coin flip.


But I digress. The point is that these games are huge. This first series especially, because the Sox need to take advantage of home field to give themselves back a division lead. Ideally they take advantage of superior starting pitching (they don't face surprising Minnesota Ace Pavano and the Twins scheduled starter for Wednesday - Slowey - has been ruled out) for the sweep, propelling the Sox to bit of breathing room we haven't yet seen in 2010.

Personally, I think the Sox are in a good place to do so. Yes, the Twins have been wicked hot of late. But the Sox have played the Twins well all year, including what should have been a split of the first six games in Minnesota, had Jenks not crapped the bed like always. And the Sox are fierce at home, mainly because their pitching remains as good as ever but now it has a boatload of offense supporting it.

As for the recent road trip - I know it doesn't seem that way after losing 3 of 4 to the lowly Os, but I'm telling you, it was a good one. 4-4 on the road is always a positive, but especially when four of those games are against one of the best home teams in baseball, the Tigers. Sure, you can argue that the Tigers are a shell of a team that posted their stellar home record to date, but then you've got to give the Os their full credit for finally harnessing the young talent (especially pitching) they've assembled after years and years of losing. There's no question Buck Showalter has tapped into something. It probably won't last, but over the last week, the Os have played as tough as anyone.

So yeah, 5-3 would have been better, had we been able to win either of those extra inning games with the Os. But if things went as expected, the Sox would have taken a 1-3 series against a powerhouse home team in the Tigers and then a 3-1 romp through the lowly Os, so why care about the details if the end result was the 4-4 we probably would have hoped for?


Moving forward, I'm looking to see a whole lot more of these good things out of Ed Jackson. Don't know if they figured out a flaw, if he just looked good against a pair of iffy offenses, if he's just an AL-only pitcher, or if he was rejuvenated and re-focused pitching for a contender that is red hot. Whatever it is, I really like the look of this kid. Especially because it does seem like Ed picked up the disease that's infected the rest of the staff - the "I ain't gonna be the only starting pitcher to let this team down" syndrome that's had me so excited of late.

I'm hoping that these offensive struggles in Baltimore make Kenny aware of the joke that is Andruw Jones and Mark Kotsay at DH. These guys are good role players, so put them back into the role that suits them - 4th OF and lefty bench bat. Bring in a legit hitter - even if it's a righty - and show what this team can do with a complete 1-9 of dangerous bats. Give yourself some depth in case an injury strikes down the stretch.

And in the meantime, quit giving so many starts to Druw and Kotsay. I don't care if they are proven vets... Ozzie needs to get over the security blanket of that and show a bit of sack. He needs to ride the hot bats that are Lillibridge and Viciedo, even against righties (most righties do just fine against other righties, by the way - they have to, as most pitchers are right-handed).

These guys can provide a spark down the stretch, Lillibridge with his surprisingly good hitting (especially in the clutch) and great speed, Viciedo with his dangerous power and ability to destroy the baseball. Get them in the lineup and let Jones and Kotsay help this club in the late-innings, when so many key games will be won and lost.


Well, six big games against Minnesota, intermixed with three very winnable series (hosting the slumping Detroit this weekend, heading to the weakened KC next weekend, and then hosting the currently hot but not likely to last O's two weeks from today). Then things get real, as the Yanks come to down, we travel to the resurgent Cleveland before a weekend series in Boston and a four game set in Detroit.

From there it's a nice 9-game homestand (including our final three with the Twins), a very scary west coast trip (tho winnable against an iffy Oakland team and a most likely walking dead Halos team), and then one last 7-game homestand (including what could be a huge 4-game set with the BoSox, if that team can find the juice to stay alive in the AL East).

So still a ton of baseball left. And it all starts tonight, on the Southside, with the Sox showing the Twinkies how it's done. Let's hope the Sox faithful come out in full force as we Muck the crap out of Finnesota for three days.

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