The End of a Wild Ride

Posted at 9:06 PM on September 30, 2008 by David Zingler (1 Comments)

The Twins began play on March 31 in the midst of a blizzard with Livan Hernandez on the mound. Now, after 6 months and 163 games, the season is over. 21 position players had a plate appearance for the team, including Howie Clark and Ryan Jorgenson. 19 hurlers took the hill for the squad; Brian Bass and Philip Humber were among them.

We saw Carlos Gomez start fast, struggle all summer and finish strong, the return of Francisco Liriano and Eddie Guaradado and said farewell to Juan Rincon. Denard Span burst onto the scene and gave the Twins an honest-to-god leadoff hitter, while nobody proved capable of filling the vacuum at third base.

Bill Smith's first free agent class - Hernandez, Mike Lamb and Adam Everett - were invisible, Craig Monroe provided us with a few memorable moments before his untimely exit and Delmon Young disappointed but showed promise.

The M&M boys continued their ascent to superstardom, Jason Kubel finally had his breakout year and Michael Cuddyer spent a majority of the season in the training room. Scott Baker stepped up and became an ace; Kevin Slowey, Glen Perkins and Nick Blackburn proved themselves to be solid big league pitchers.

Joe Nathan remained an elite closer and justified his contract extension, Pat Neshek's injury left a hole that couldn't be filled, Craig Breslow and Joe Mijares came out of nowhere and the rest of the bullpen didn't come through.

The 2008 season was as memorable as it was unlikely, it's too bad it had to end today, but the best is yet to come.

(Photo by Scott A. Schneider/Getty Images)

Comments (1)

Thank you for this post. It was perfect. I feel a little bit silly being this upset over baseball, but clearly I'm not alone.

Posted by Tricia | October 1, 2008 12:41 PM

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