Summer of Stun = Summer of Done

Tuesday night's loss to the hated south-siders really hurts right now due to the way it went down at U.S. Cellular. The following are my reasons for being really upset right now....

• Nick Blackburn - surprisingly in my opinion turned in a great outing and allowed 1 ER over 6.1 innings in a hostile environment. That really should've been enough. The offense lost this game, not the pitching. His one mistake with a high changeup out and over the plate essentially sealed the Twins' season.
• M&M Boys - how depressing that our two superstarts (who essentially are as unemotional as they get) went 0 for 6 and looked confused against John Danks whom both of them had previously had success again. Think about Morneau's last 30 trips to the plate this season. He went 3 for his last 30 (an avg. of .100). That isn't deserving of even being in the MVP consideration. Even though his line finishing at .302 w/ 23 HRs and 129 RBI will get him some votes. I pin some of the blame on Morneau. If you play well - the team is in the playoffs and you have a shot at the MVP. Conversly - you played horrible and as a team leader you now deserve some blame.
• Developing Reliever - It would've been fun to see how Jose Mijarles would've progressed in the postseason. Many set-up relievers became huge stars and essentially arrived on the scene kind of like Mijarles did this season. September call-up that essentially rips it up and helps lead a team to a World Series. Mariano Riveria and Francisco Rodriquez would be the most recent examples
• Plate Discipline - In this huge game the Twins hitters at times appeared to be very aggressive, free-swinging (like some of them have been all year), and most importantly lacked patience. They lacked working the count and making Danks work hard as the game progressed. The most annoying example had to be Delmon Young not even really looking at any pitches during the game. Ummmm, Delmon the scouting report is out....throw you hard fastballs to get you down in the count - then throw you junk and you'll swing.

MLB Coin Flip????
This game should've been played in the Metrodome in Minneapolis. Peter Gammons on Baseball Tonight explained this very well. The Twins went 10-8 against the White Sox this year and had a better record against the Sox head to head. What frustrated Gammons was the fact that for example in the AL East this year if the two teams were tied at the end of the season and one would be the division champs and the other would be the wild card it wouldn't even come down to a playoff game....it would come down to head-to-head to determine the winner. Gammons argued that if head-to-head records are being used - let them be used in this situation as well - to determine where to host the game - not come down to a stupid coin flip. The White Sox did not deserve to host this game. This is pretty much what we can come to expect from Selig who also down the stretch took the Hurricane escaped Houston Astros and made them play a neutral site game in Milwaukee? - an hour away from Chicago - to which a Cubs fan in my church calls "Wriggly North"? I guess this stupid coin flip thing just goes along with boneheadedness that Bud Selig has developed over the years (also, calling an All-Star game a tie? - who does that?)

The Royals
The Royals are slowly starting to look like the next Tampa Bay Rays. I mean they are loaded with number one picks in their farm system and once some of these guys start to get experience they are going to be competitive. The Twins really lost this season when they couldn't pony up and take 2 out of 3 from the Royals.