Twins suck! As a matter of fact, all MN teams suck ass. Twins, Vikes, Wolves, Gophers, Wild, even the friggin Lynx....all suck! I can't remember the last time MN sports fans have had it so rough.

I'm sure, like many, you'll stop being negative once the Twins give you a reason to stop. As is, no need to grasp for positive straws when there is a downpour of crappy play.

Right now, here are my positives -

Stewart's batting average (but his fielding has cost the team more runs than his offense has provided which is not all his fault)

Castillo's been as-advertised at worst

Mauer's ability to get hits

Santana has gotten on track earlier than the last two years

- - -

Looking at that list, our only positives on offense have to do with three guys getting a bunch of singles. Wow.

On the radio today, Dazzle was all over the team's body language and talked about how they should still be playing hard.

Maybe it is because they've had to reach more this first month of the year, but it seems like Fox Sports is more a team mouthpiece than ever before. Things like last night's focus on Cuddyer's cut-off and not Stewart's fielding woes, talking about how thrilled the Twins would be if Castro can maintain a .259 average, etc.

Bah.

Twins, Vikes, Wolves, Gophers, Wild, even the friggin Lynx….all suck!

According to the PairWise rankings, and Ken's Ratings for American College Hockey (one of the best strength-of-schedule adjustmet ranking systems you'll find anywhere), and basically every objective ranking in college hockey, the Gophers' men's team was the best team in the nation through the regular season. Unless you put way, way too much stock in one loss to the 16th best team in the nation (basically, your typical 4-1 upset in the NCAA basketball tournament) it's pretty obvious that that team was quite excellent.

And the Vikes last year were fairly mediocre. For the first time in a while, it didn't physically hurt to watch the defense.

And even though the Twins are going through a rough patch right now (they might not be as good as I expected, but they aren't this bad either) we still have Santana and Mauer to admire. Think about what it must be like to be a Royals fan. 3-4 Mike Sweeney at-bats are about all you might have to look forward to when you get to the park.

ubelmann,

Moss would rather let Cuddy, Kubel, and Liriano have the playing time if the results are going to be so dreadful regardless. At least then there's hope and promise for the future. Now, there's just putrid offense to look forward to. The current group of guys cannot impove, and so there is no hope or promise.

And not to trash your point about the Vikes, but really, perpetual 8-8 and 9-7 is impossible to take. Especially from a team with no personality. Wouldn't it have been better to take some lumps and get a top-6 pick like the Pack? (AJ Hawk, anyone?) At least they wisened up and fired the head doofus.

Let's hope the Twinks wisen up and fire the head doofus. In fact, all the assistant doofi can go too, save Rick Anderson.

Minneapolis is the only sports market in the country with teams in all four professional leagues (there are 12 of them) that had all of its teams miss the playoffs last year.

And it wasn't just one game with the Gophers. They were the number 1 seed in the WCHA final five and they finished fourth, meaning of course that they lost their only two games. So, they played three post season games and lost them all. And how about that men's basketball team. And the implosion of the women's team. And the collapse of the football team.

Actually, the Wisconsin Badgers were #1 overall in the Pairwise, and the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament. And I wouldn't say the Gophers going down to Holy Cross was "typical" by any means. It's probably the biggest upset in men's hockey NCAA tournament history. Sorry to be aggressive there, but you kind of stepped in my wheelhouse.

Hopefully the Twins will come together. I have faith that the pitching isn't that bad, but the hitting is. A .500 season is looking like a quite real possibility.

But looking ahead, the Wild weren't that bad, the Gophers football team will get 6-7 wins again, and I'm SURE J.J. Redick will make the T-wolves into the best team in the NBA....

...eek.

Actually, the Wisconsin Badgers were #1 overall in the Pairwise, and the top overall seed in the NCAA tournament. And I wouldn’t say the Gophers going down to Holy Cross was “typical” by any means. It’s probably the biggest upset in men’s hockey NCAA tournament history. Sorry to be aggressive there, but you kind of stepped in my wheelhouse.

First off, if you want to actually check the record, the Gophers were first in the pairwise, in a tie with Wisconsin. You can check the record here if you don't want to believe it:

http://www.uscho.com/rankings/pwr.php

I know hockey, too, and people calling that the biggest upset in men's NCAA hockey is perhaps a testament to the fact that there haven't been hardly any upsets, or people don't want to bother going back through history and looking for more upsets. You're telling me that putting the Gophers in a hostile arena against the 16th best team in the nation, and having them lose in overtime is supposed to knock my socks off and somehow totally change my opinion of the team?

If you take a look at KRACH, you'll see that based on the results of the regular season, we should have expected Holy Cross to win a matchup with Minnesota about 1 out of every 6 times. Add in the essentially home ice for Holy Cross, and you get an unusual, but not unprecendented game outcome. Upsets happen, it doesn't mean the team that lost is somehow a team that "sucks," as was originally stated.

They were the number 1 seed in the WCHA final five and they finished fourth, meaning of course that they lost their only two games. So, they played three post season games and lost them all.

Sorry, SBG, my response to this is--so what? We can choose to look at those 3 losses by themselves, throw up our hands, and say that they suck...or we can look at those 3 losses in the context of an awfully good 40-game regular season run and come to the reasonable conclusion that it was a pretty darned good team.

Am I somehow to believe that the 2001 Mariners were no good simply because they didn't win a playoff series? Or that the Twins are a better run franchise than the A's because the Twins have won one more playoff series in the 2000s than the A's have?

At any rate, the initial comment was that the team sucked. Any time you're in the discussion for best team in the nation, or getting #1 seeds in tournaments, that is clearly not the case.

Moss would rather let Cuddy, Kubel, and Liriano have the playing time if the results are going to be so dreadful regardless. At least then there’s hope and promise for the future.

I agree. Although, I'd rather see Cuddyer stay away from third base. Batista's not the answer, but I think 3B is Cuddyer's worst position. If anything, I think it'd be kind of fun to see what Luis Rodriguez could do at third base given an extended look.

So, as a fan, those three losses were easy to take? Because I thought this conversation was about the malaise involved with being a Minnesota sports fan right now. I'm not even a hockey fan much less a college hockey fan and I thought, man this sucks. I cannot believe this happened.

Yes, the 2001 Mariners were great.  Ask Frightwig if his heart wasn't broken when they lost in the playoffs.  And I felt like I got punched in the gut when the 16-1 Vikings got beat at home in the NFC Championship Game.  Great team, but as a fan since I can remember (and I remember before the Vikings reaquired Fran Tarkenton), that was the most disappointing Vikings game ever.

Yes, the Badgers-Gophers had the same PWR number, but the Badgers were tops in the PWR by virtue of winning more comparisons against the Gophers (head-to-head record). That explains why the Badgers were the #1 overall seed in the tournament and the Gophers were the #2 overall seed.

As for the upset, granted, there haven't been a whole lot of upsets because the tournament only expanded to 16 teams recently.

However, Holy Cross is a school in a minor conference which does not give out hockey scholarships. The Gophers have a significant number of players who have been drafted, some in the first round, one soon to be in the first round, give out scholarships, and play in the best conference in college hockey. That adds up to the biggest upset in NCAA tournament history.

Yes, upsets happen. But you have to admit, the Gophers lost their last 3 games of the year, all in the playoffs. One in a major upset. That's a pretty "sucky" way to end the season.

But, that's all I'm going to say on this issue. Hockey season's over and now I'm concentrating on baseball. And the Twins undoubtedly do suck, so unless they turn things around soon they might lose 100 games at this rate.

So, as a fan, those three losses were easy to take? Because I thought this conversation was about the malaise involved with being a Minnesota sports fan right now. I’m not even a hockey fan much less a college hockey fan and I thought, man this sucks. I cannot believe this happened.

No, it wasn't easy to take, but you move on and try to have some freaking perspective. St. Cloud was something like the 11th best team in the nation this year, and Wisconsin was the best team in the nation. And it still wasn't all that long ago that the Gophers won back-to-back national titles.

Taking a minute to look back, it's really not that bad. Complaining about how the Gophers did this year is like complaining about how hard it's been to be a Yankees fan the last few years, and I don't buy that either.

SBG, you would have enjoyed Bert on Saturday. I don't think I've ever heard him be so openly critical about the Twins, specifically nailing certain players, and he sounded genuinely angry at times. He got so worked up, he even ripped "the guys in the truck" for coming up with such a stupid trivia question. Dick tried to be nice: 'Well, that was one of the more *original* questions we've had....' But Bert wasn't having it: 'You call it *original*. I call it STUPID!' For about 10 seconds, Dick didn't know what to say. It was hilarious. Bert was one of the reasons I stuck with the game all the way through. He should come to the ballpark feeling peeved more often.

I am so glad that you tell it like it is unlike a particularly famous writer in the Twin Cities who has a site in which we can't rip a team. I have more respect for fans that tell it like it is. I am all for positiviety, but there has to be time and place. I am glad you are being negative. You should. This team sucks. Anyone thinks that good things are going to happen to this team is stupid IMO.