Fix My Team!: Minnesota Twins Edition

By The Common Man

Last night, the Twins capped off what has been an excrutiating season by losing their fifth game in a row. In the last four, they’ve scored a total of two runs in the last four games, including one run in their last 32 innings, and hit .153/.191/.194 as a team. Mercifully, they’ve also now been officially eliminated from the race for the postseason, allowing us to speculate about where the team has been and where it should go from here.


The most frustrating aspect of 2011 as a Twins fan has undoubtedly been all the injuries. Joe Mauer’s mysterious leg and back problems, Justin Morneau’s lingering concussion and neck issues, Denard Span’s concussion, Tsuyoshi Nishioka’s leg, Michael Cuddyer’s neck and wrist, Jason Kubel’s foot, Delmon Young’s ankle and oblique muscle, Alexi Casilla’s hamstring, Jim Thome’s oblique and quad, Glen Perkins’ oblique muscle, and the arm troubles faced by Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey, Francisco Liriano, Jose Mijares, and Joe Nathan have sapped this club of energy and effectiveness. It has, at times (including last night), left the Twins looking like a AAA club, relying heavily on the contributions of Ben Revere, Trevor Plouffe, Drew Butera, Rene Rivera, Dusty Hughes, Matt Tolbert, Anthony Swarzak, Rene Tosoni, Jason Repko, Steve Holm, Jim Hoey, Phil Dumatrait, and something named Brian Dinkelman, whose name the team apparently be bothered to spell correctly on the lineup card. What’s worse, the Twins have been incredibly slow to put players on the disabled list, classifying their injuries as “day-to-day,” while sacrificing bench depth for weeks at a time.

Fix My Team!: Baltimore Orioles Edition

Yesterday, the Orioles were eliminated from the postseason, like the Astros before them. Twenty more teams are going to join them before the season finally winds down. We’re looking at those clubs that fall short and consider how to fix them for 2012. What should their plans be? What moves should they make? And who should they count on going forward?


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The Orioles came in to 2011 with high hopes that an infusion of veterans could gel around a young and talented pitching staff. The Orioles started 5-1 in its first week, and fans raised their expectations to epic heights, only to see the club predictably falter and fall to the bottom of the AL East, where they will have finished each of the last four seasons, and to 90+ losses, which they’ve done for their last 6.

The problem, ironically, has been that vaunted pitching staff, which has allowed 5.27 runs per game, more than a third of a run higher than the next closest team in the AL. The team’s defense also hasn’t helped matters either, turning in the lowest defensive efficiency in the American League, and by far the lowest Total Zone and Defensive Runs Saved totals, according to Baseball Reference. Such is the problem with having the statuesque and sloppy Mark Reynolds playing third base.

Fix My Team!: The Houston Astros

By The Common Man

On Monday, the Astros were officially eliminated from playoff contention. Twenty-one more teams are going to join them before the season finally winds down, so we thought it would be appropriate to look at the clubs that fell short of the postseason this year, and consider how to fix them for 2012. What should their plans be? What moves should they make? And who should they count on going forward? Since the Astros were kind enough to volunteer to go first, TCM will tackle them today but all three of us will be tackling the also-rans between now and the end of the season.


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There is no doubt that the Astros will continue to be bad in 2012. They are on pace to lose 109 games this year, and even with some improvement, a huge regression toward the mean and better luck (their Pythagorean W-L puts them on pace to lose just 100), they are not likely to crack the ninety loss barrier next year, especially after trading two (and potentially all three) of their best players before then.

That won’t win anything, so it’s best for the Astros to continue their slow rebuilding effort, adding young and inexpensive talent to the organization, and avoiding big moves. There is no one available in the offseason that’s worth the Astros breaking the bank over given what will likely be significant payroll restrictions in the near future and the natural desire of most elite free agents to play for a winner. There simply isn’t anyone in the mid-tier of free agents worth over-paying for a team this far out.