You pretty much have to trot out ever dis– word in your arsenal to describe the nightmares of the first five weeks of the 2006 Twins season: Discouraging. Dismal. Disheartening. Disgusting. Disgraceful. Disappointing. Discomfiting. Discombobulated. Distressing. Disastrous, E…T…C….
A team can be some of those things and still manage to be entertaining, but thus far this hasn’t, alas, been one of those teams. I guess there was that thrilling little blip in the early going (the series with Oakland, New York, and LA), but from this vantage that stretch now looks like just a blurry and miserable tease.
If you’re a glutton for punishment or just literally have nothing better to do with your time, you can comb through the numbers all you want, but I can assure you that outside of the performances of Luis Castillo (and please explain to me how a guy can replace Luis Rivas and be even better than advertised and still make absolutely no difference) and a few other guys (who also have made absolutely no difference) you won’t find much in the way of encouragement.
Unless, of course, you find this sort of thing encouraging:
The Twins have now scored three or fewer runs sixteen times.
They have been shut-out four times, and scored just one run in three games.
Opposing teams have more doubles (65) than the Twins have extra base hits (62).
Minnesota has been out-homered 38-22.
The team leader in victories (with three wins) has a 7.29 earned run average.
The team on base percentage is .307, which just happens to be Luis Rivas’s career OBP.
Opponents have compiled an .860 on base-plus-slugging percentage against Minnesota pitching. The Twins’ team leader, Castillo, has an OPS of .858.
Should I expect the clouds to lift anytime soon?
I should not.
Yet I will, nonetheless, expect the clouds to lift, because I am a dog, and I cannot live without hope.
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