Shocker! Tigers Sweep Twins!

I started the weekend here on MCB with an article that basically put forth in a tongue-in-cheek manner what the real cure for the Tigers offense would be…the Minnesota Twins pitching staff. Given the Twins pitching staff’s numbers so far this year, I don’t really think I was going out on a limb predicting success for Tigers hitters this weekend, but I was happy to see that the Tigers made me look good. Especially considering the link that article received from the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Friday afternoon.

I suspected that when I discovered the link, there would be some dislike for my article in the comments section, and of course that held true (some completely knew where I was coming from). No big deal. I understand. Any time a rival website writes about your team, the defenses are likely to come up. Plus, they aren’t regular visitors here at MCB, so they likely aren’t aware that we are fair in our critiques of the Tigers here.

The results from the weekend though? I certainly wasn’t wrong.

The Tigers offense did indeed wake up this weekend against the Twins. The Tigers scored 20 runs on 40 hits in a three game sweep against the Twins, the weekend capped off with a two run homer in the top of the ninth by Miguel Cabrera. For a Tigers team that came into Minnesota limping after a sweep of their own at the hands of the Cleveland Indians, this couldn’t have come at a better time.

After the Cleveland series, Justin Verlander alluded to the fact that the Tigers needing to get going, and at some point the excuse that it is early still doesn’t hold water. Maybe those words, and his dominant 8th inning before the Tigers left for Minnesota had something to do with the series the Tigers just played.

Still, contrary to what some of the commenters at the Star Tribune’s website might believe, I am under no illusion that this means the Tigers are all of a sudden World Series bound. The Tigers are still at 23-24 after the sweep, and trail both the Indians and the White Sox in the standings. They haven’t played near what they are capable of at this point, and anything less than a sweep of the Twins this past weekend, some Tigers fans anger may have boiled over in their frustration with the anemic bats. Thankfully, we were allowed a slight sigh of relief.

Minnesota fans also shouldn’t be under the illusion that they are anything but a last place team at this point. That may be harsh, but you can’t fix problems until you recognize them. That once proud franchise (whom I actually do have a lot of respect for), is going to hell in a hand basket, and fast. It doesn’t look like it will get fixed any time soon either. With injury prone stars signed to big contracts, and no pitching to speak of on the horizon, it may be a while before things get better in Minnesota. There is some decent prospects on the horizon for the Twins, but most are two to three years away, and they play in the field.

Either way, if this article should make it to the Star Tribune, I hope they understand that disrespect wasn’t the intention, just a statement of fact in a tongue-in-cheek way on the status of a struggling pitching staff. The Twins organization needs to take a serious look at their philosophy on the type of pitchers they look to develop, because right now, it clearly isn’t working, and it will be interesting to see what they do in the upcoming draft.

Right now, up until this point, what the Tigers have done hasn’t been working either. But let’s be honest, it’s clear the Tigers are better positioned to make a move towards winning the division right now.

And like it or not Minnesota fans, what I’ve said or written doesn’t change that.