TwinsTakes – Twins Baseball, Injury Incorporated

The Twins were the only team to start the season with nobody on the disabled list (DL). That makes it sound like they were healthy coming out of spring training but that’s probably not what it meant. Since then, the Twins have been in the injury business and business is good…or…uhhh…bad. I’m not sure. Its one injury after another injury. Call them Injury, Incorporated!* They may even come up with some new injuries that you’ve never heard of before. Hey, if you’re in the injury business, you have to come out with something new every now and then, right? Keep ’em guessing!

*Damage, Incorporated? Unintended Metallica reference but still…that can’t be a bad thing!

The Twins have had a pretty shaky start to the season with many injuries, illness and just flat out bad baseball. So far this season, our Twins baseball team have already had to use 36 players to field a starting lineup and complete 40 games. They went 9-17 in April for the worst start under manager Ron Gardenhire.

May started off better going 3-1 but since then they are 1-9 and had a 9 game losing streak making their May record 4-10. They seem like they are getting close to getting over the hump and turning the corner to some decent baseball. I mean they are showing some heart coming back against Detroit twice in the same game and some guys like Cuddyer are starting to heat up. Yes, I’m looking for the positives in a 9 game losing streak. That’s the way I am. They might start to see some guys coming off the disabled list soon too.

So what have the Twins gone through this season?

The Twins have had a nasty flu bug going through the clubhouse all season it seems. It has apparently affected Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer, Delmon Young, Francisco Liriano and Carl Pavano to name a few. I’m not saying this is the sole reason for their bad play but the flu can knock you out and physical exertion is probably not going to help! Both Mauer and Morneau have lost around 15 pounds due to this virus so it could be a huge part of their bad start. Flu shots, anyone?

The first big injury to the Twins was Tsuyoshi Nishioka’s fractured left fibula against the New York Yankees on April 7th. It wasn’t pretty and it looked like Nishi wasn’t expecting Swisher to use a take-out slide. There’s been some explanation as to why he’s not used to slides breaking up double plays. Nishi appears to be making good progress in his rehab and could be back by the end of May or the beginning of June.

The very next day they put Kevin Slowey on the 15-day DL with sore right biceps so there goes one of your best pitchers out of the bullpen. Sore right biceps doesn’t sound that bad but considering its from the right arm of a right-handed pitcher, it could be more serious than we think.

Kevin came off the DL on May 7th and pitched 4.1 innings and looked pretty good so hopefully he’s back for good. Kevin pitched again on Sunday in relief of Brian Duensing to start the 4th inning. He struck out Corey Patterson, then gave up a homer to Jose “Bawitda” Bautista* and ended up going 6 innings giving up 4 earned runs, striking out 3 and giving up 2 HRs! Yes, both were to good ‘ole Jose Bautista who hit three that day, his 14th, 15th and 16th! The Twins total is 18! Ouch! Slowey has experienced soreness in his arm that he might have to battle through as he adjusts to a relief role.

*Yeah, I just made that up! Up jump the boogy! Do you think Jose hits better against the Twins than any other team? So far this season in 6 games against the Twins, he has hit .480 with a .581 on base % and slugged 1.360 for an OPS of 1.941!!! That includes 7 HRs on 12 hits, 1 double with 6 walks and 2 strikeouts in 31 plate appearances. That’s pretty decent, right? We did catch him stealing! HA! Take that! He couldn’t have punished any other team worse than that, right? WRONG! In 3 games against the Tampa Bay Rays, he has hit .750 with a .846 OBP and he’s slugging only 2.250 for an OPS of 3.096 which includes 3 HRs, 1 double, 1 triple and 3 RBIs on 6 hits with 5 walks and 1 strikeout! WOW!

The big injury we all are worried about came on April 14th as it was announced that the one, the only, he’s one of us, Baby Jesus, one half of the M&M boys, the MVP, 3-time batting champ, 3-time Gold Glove winner, 4-time Silver Slugger, 4-time All-Star, 2-time MLB The Show cover athlete, $184 million dollar man, Explorer of MN, Joe Mauer* was being placed on the 15-day DL with something called bilateral leg weakness, which most of us have never heard of and I’m sure Jim Souhan will say was an injury Mauer invented.

*I could go on. I’m sure Joe has many other nicknames or I could make some up. Joe Mau-Mau (Jo Mama), Lawn Mauer, Joe Papa Ooh Mauer (Papa Ooh Mow Mow) and that’s just right off the top of my head. Might be scary what I could come up with if I spent some time on it. Hmmm…

I don’t know about anyone else but I was almost relieved to find out there was something wrong with our catcher because he wasn’t playing like the Joe Mauer we know. In 9 games, he hit for a .235 average, a .289 on-base percentage while slugging .265. He had 8 hits with only one extra-base hit (a double), 4 RBIs, 3 walks and 6 strikeouts in 34 at-bats. Defensively, he didn’t look right either. Opponents stole 8 of 10 bases so they weren’t worried about Joe stopping their running game.

Some sportswriters think Joe is the cause of this disaster that has been the Twins season. I don’t believe that for a second. It sounds like Joe thought he was ready for the season coming out of Spring Training but probably didn’t take enough time behind the plate to see if his surgically repaired knee could handle the rigors of catching every day. That’s unfortunate but Joe being hurt is not the only reason for this team’s bad record.

Next? Who’s Next? Please take a number as we are swamped today!

Delmon Young missed 8 games from April 19th to April 27th before he was placed on the disabled list on April 28th with a strained left oblique. This is one of the worst injuries to have for a baseball player because it has everything to do with twisting your body to swing a bat or throw a ball.

Delmon was off to a really slow start like the majority of the team. He was activated off the disabled list on May 13th and hasn’t been real good since then. It looks like he’s trying to do too much in his at-bats and his defense has been sub-par. In his last 4 games he has 1 hit and 10 strikeouts in 16 at-bats. Let’s see the Delmon from last season and soon!

Unfortunately, six days later, Jim Thome was placed on the 15-day DL with the same left oblique strain and he was just starting to hit the ball pretty well. Home Run number 591 was pretty impressive! Big Jim is down in Florida taking batting practice in extended spring training and is close to a return.

The very same day, May 4th, Jason Repko was placed on the 15-day DL with a right quad strain. This isn’t a tragedy by any means as Jason’s a reserve outfielder used mostly as a defensive replacement in late innings where the Twins are leading. He’s great defensively and can steal some bases but he’s had his struggles with the bat. He’s close to returning as well which means Ben Revere would probably be sent down.

Most recently, on May 15th, the Twins had to place Jose Mijares on the 15-day DL with a left elbow strain. He told team doctors he was having some elbow soreness on Sunday morning. In Saturday’s 9-3 extra inning loss, Jose’s velocity was down to about 87 mph compared to a usual 91 mph which is an obvious red flag the coaches and trainers.

Jose started off the season alright but since the end of April has been walking too many batters and giving up hits. Jose Mijares can be an important part of the bullpen when he’s on like he was for most of 2010 and 2009. He’s a pretty big piece of that bullpen considering the shape its in at the moment.

Hopefully, the Twins are getting these injuries out of the way now so they don’t have to worry about them later but they’ve dug a pretty deep hole so far this season.

Are they lucky that Cleveland and Kansas City are the teams they’re chasing instead of Detroit and Chicago? You would think so but they need to worry about themselves before they start thinking about the teams above them.

There’s always room for positive thinking! Who cares what history says! Before the first time anything happened, it had never happened before!!! There’s a first time for everything!

The losing streak was broken last night so let’s start a winning streak and get back in this thing!

That’s my Twins Take! What’s yours? Are the Twins already done this season? Do they need to start thinking about cleaning house? Is Twins baseball in decline?

Tell us what you think in the comments section!

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