Did The Twins Just Whiff on Their Season Yesterday?

As of today the Minnesota Twins sit seven games back of division leader Detroit Tigers. Yesterday was the trade deadline for Major League Baseball, and the whole sports nation witnessed both the Tigers, and the Cleveland Indians upgrade; while the Twins are waiting patiently for their roster to get healthy.

If the Twins trade deadline history could speak it would tell us that the Twins are has aggressive has Charlie Sheen is at trying to get back into Two and half men. As a baseball follower, and writer its hard to believe General Manager Bill Smith, when he says the Twins are still contenders; when the Indians traded for Ubaldo Jimenez on Saturday.

With the highest pay-roll in club history this year, the Twins should ditch their old ways, and become aggressive. With a roster that has greatly underperformed this year, and division rivals upping the ante by going out, and upgrading their team's; the Twins in my mind have been left in the dust.

If the Twins honestly wanted to become contenders, then they should of pulled the trigger on the Span-Storen deal; or go out and shock the world by trading for Felix Hernandez, yet we witnessed the Twins, keep a crowded outfield, a Triple-A bullpen, and D-plus rotation(besides Scott Baker).

Could it be that by trading away J.J Hardy doomed the Twins? Hardy is just on fire in Baltimore, and the Twins have a great Japanese ballplayer at shortstop, but the problem is, this is not Japan. We have a MVP caliber first baseman when HEALTHY, and a future Hall of Fame Designated Hitter in Jim Thome; how could the Twins be this bad? You can point the finger at injuries, or point the finger at the front office; both deserve the blame.

I wont go in depth with the injures because any Twins fans knows that, but instead lets look at the Front Office. For one they signed Joe Mauer to a ridiculous contract; which will cripple the Twins for the next seven years. They let both Jesse Crain, and Matt Guerrier go, and thought a bullpen filled with minor league caliber players could compete(Fail). They redid the middle infield, which now looks like the worst thing to happen to the Twins since letting David Ortiz leave. Another thing was not signing another established starter, because besides Carl Pavano, and Scott Baker the rotation is embarrassing. And last but not least, yesterday the Front Office did absolutely nothing to improve this team, but stand to the side and pick their nose, and watch every other American League contending team improve their respective teams.

Lucky for Minnesota fans the NFL lockout ended so we can now start looking forward to watching the Vikings, because the Twins pretty much just threw in their towel yesterday. I am not counting the Twins out just yet, because they could still come back, but it will be harder then ever now that the American League Central just got a little bit tougher, yet just over the horizon for the Twins is Denard Span, and Justin Morneau coming off the DL. The Twins still have till August 31st for the Waiver deadline to improve, that means Bill Smith better be looking at potential waiver deals, before the hole he has dug this team in, will be to big to climb out of.