Twins miss on being elite

Letting Hunter, Santana go and one bad trade ruins special team

Bob Matthews – Staff writer
Bob Matthews – July 3, 2009 - 3:00am

MARK J. TERRILL The Associated Press

Keeping Torii Hunter could have helped make the Twins elite.

The Minnesota Twins are a decent team. They could have been an elite team.

Baseball fans in Minnesota can only dream about how much better the current Twins would be if they had the seemingly unlimited financial resources and win-at-all-cost philosophy of the New York Yankees, and if they hadn’t made one really lousy trade with Tampa Bay.

If Minnesota had the money — well, the Pohlad family really does have the money, it just won’t spend it if that would put the team in the red — Torii Hunter and Johan Santana still would be Twins. They both wanted to stay, but the Twins decided they were too expensive. If Minnesota didn’t make a poor trade with the Rays on Nov. 28, 2007, Jason Bartlett and Matt Garza still would be on the team.

Here’s the starting lineup and starting rotation the Twins could have had:

Denard Span LF, Joe Mauer C, Hunter CF, Justin Morneau 1B, Michael Cuddyer RF, Jason Kubel DH, Joe Crede 3B, Bartlett SS, Nick Punto/Alexi Casilla 2B.

Santana, Garza, Kevin Slowey, Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano or Nick Blackburn. With Joe Nathan as closer.

Few teams could match that batch of core players.

Rochester Red Wings fans can check out 2008 Wings Randy Ruiz and Bobby Korecky on the ESPN2 telecast of the Triple-A All-Star Game next Wednesday from Portland, Ore. Ruiz (Las Vegas) will start at first base and Korecky (Reno) will be in the bullpen. Ruiz entered Thursday hitting .322 and leading the Pacific Coast League in doubles (33), extra-base hits (49), total bases (182) and RBI (70). He also had 15 HRs. Korecky is 2-1 with 12 saves and a 2.28 ERA in 24 games.

Both Major League Soccer teams won Wednesday night in the third round of the Lamar Hunt U.S Open Cup. The Houston Dynamo beat Austin (USL-1) 2-0, and the Seattle Sounders FC beat the Portland Timbers, 2-1, before 16,000-plus in Portland.

That leaves eight teams alive for the Cup. Here are the quarterfinal matchups for Tuesday:

Wilmington Hammerheads (USL2) at Rochester Rhinos (USL-1)

Harrisburg City Islanders (USL-2) at D.C. United (MLS)

Houston Dynamo (MLS) at Charleston Battery (USL-1)

Kansas City Wizards (MLS) at Seattle Sounders FC (MLS).

If the Rhinos win Tuesday, their opponent in the semifinals (July 21 or 22) would be the winner of the D.C. United-Harrisburg match.

The best way to pressure MLS into playing more regulars in U.S. Open Cup matches would be to have a lower-level team win the Cup again — the way the Rhinos did in 1999. MLS should be embarrassed enough that it has only four of the eight remaining teams in this year’s tournament.

The U.S. Women’s Open will be played next week in Bethlehem, Pa. The women’s major is booked through 2014. Rochester hosted the U.S. Women’s Open twice — in 1953 (Betsy Rawls) and 1973 (Susie Berning) at the Country Club of Rochester.

No matter what happens in the current contentious negotiations between Wegmans and the LPGA Tour, I suggest that Rochester apply to host a future U.S. Women’s Open.

Cheers to David Ortiz for turning his season around. He appeared to be hopelessly over the hill for the first two months of this season, but he had a productive June:

April: .230 batting average (20-for-87), 0 HRs, 12 RBI.

May: .143 (13-for-91), 1 HR, 6 RBI.

June: .317 (20-for-63), 7 HRs, 17 RBI.

Rochester RazorSharks (Premier Basketball League two-time defending champions) coach Rod Baker reportedly was one of the three finalists for the head coaching job at Holy Cross, his alma mater. Notre Dame associate head coach Sean Kearney was named Holy Cross head coach Thursday. Pittsburgh associate coach Tom Herrion was the third finalist. … Did you know that only two NBA players have been selected All-NBA First Team four of the past five seasons: Kobe Bryant (the easy one) and Dirk Nowitzki. LeBron James was All-NBA First Team three times and All-NBA Second Team twice over that span.

For the first time, there could be four Jewish players in the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, July 14, in St. Louis: Ryan Braun, Ian Kinsler, Jason Marquis and Kevin Youkilis. Howard Megdal, author of The Baseball Talmud, says this could be “a glory time” for Jewish players in baseball.

A reader suggests that future music festivals and LPGA Tour stops in Rochester should be held in August or September because June has too much rain. Interesting thought, but I’m not buying it. And statistics bear this out: The highest maximum average precipitation in Rochester, according to the Web site weather.com, is 3.54 inches — in August. September (3.45 inches) and June (3.36) are second and third, respectively.