| Doug Benton. 5th July, 2005 - 8:14 pm
 Maybe time has run out on this miraculous run, or maybe the expectations were set too high for players at such a young age. Whatever the reason, the Twins come in Tuesday 8.5 games out of a division they have dominated in years past.
Even though the Twins are playing at about the same clip they did last season, the team is in a far worse position this season as their newest group of kid wonders try to learn on the run.
Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau were expected to lead this team from the plate this season and thus far, this hasn?t been the case. Mauer has struggled the most under these expectations, partly put on him because of his number one selection over Mark Prior. Even at the young age of 22, Mauer was expected to lead this team from the three hole and just hasn?t done it thus far. His batting average at .291 is not the problem, even though the Twins would like to see it at about .320. The problem is his minuscule amount of RBI, which going into Tuesday was at 27.
One would think this would leave more opportunities for Morneau to rack up the RBI, considering he is the power hitter of the bunch. However, Morneau has not been able to build on the success he had in 2004, where he had 19 home runs and 57 RBI in just 74 games. This season has been a different story however, as Morneau has struggled at this dish, only knocking in 43 RBI and batting .269. The average isn?t a major concern, but the Twins would still like to see it raised a hair. This lack of success has even prompted manager Rod Gardenhire to move him down in the order, in hopes of sparking a line-up that is currently 10th in the American league in runs scored.
The Twins have always been a goodwill story in baseball, coming from contraction to compete against teams that quadruple their own payroll. They have been able to do this because of their ability to develop major league ready players who can step in and play right away. While it is far too soon to write off these two players, who are superstars in the making, it does bring up a curious thought. What looks to be the end of the line in consecutive AL Central titles could also be the end of the line of the best farm system in baseball. Each system goes through dry spells after their top players make the show and this might be the dry spell for the Twins as well. |
