Digging deep for some Twins positives

One of the attractions of going home for Eater weekend this year (along with somewhat significant stuff like seeing family and friends and celebrating the resurrection of Jesus), was being able to watch the Twins' opening series against Baltimore.

Those who shared that experience with me know that the joy of it was slightly tempered by the fact that the Twins played absolutely awful baseball. I'm not a fair-weather fan. Anyone who went to high school with me can probably tell you I was loyal to the team even then when one could count on it finding the bottom of the standings as surely as a catfish finding the bottom of a river. But this is the first time in a long time that I'm just not particularly optimistic about the season. It seems like the franchise is moving in the wrong direction by subtracting Thome, Kubel and Cuddyer without adding a whole lot.

Still, I feel like I gotta try and find some positives from opening weekend — not so much for myself but for my grandma, who will watch most of these 162 games no matter how bad they are (unless my brother hijacks her TV for cable news purposes):

-- Justin Morneau is back (and swinging well): Morneau went 4-for-10 with two doubles over the weekend, taking fat pitches and quality pitches and driving them hard. Morneau's concussion was arguably the most frustrating injury an athlete can suffer. The symptoms can linger indefinitely (just ask Sidney Crosby), even though you look perfectly fine and feel pretty good doing most everyday activities. There's no timeline for recovery and no surgery, physical therapy or herbal voodoo (that I know of) that can help. I've had one concussion in my life and I don't even think it was all that severe, but it still scared the bejeebers out of me, as it temporarily wiped out my short-term memory almost completely. The takeaway? Head injuries are nothing to mess with. It's great to see Morneau back, even just DH-ing, and if he can hit anywhere near his MVP numbers, it would go a long way to off-setting the loss of Kubel and Thome's lefty power.

-- The new additions are doing their thing: Rather than making a splash in the off-season, the Twins made their usual modest ripple. But the returns are good so far. Josh Willingham went 3-for-9 with a homer, a double and three RBI at the plate, provided an unlikely defensive boost when he threw a runner out at home, and appeared in one of the more entertaining Twins commercials in recent memory (The Big Herbowksi). If he continues to hit like that, he'll go a long way to replacing Cuddy's right-handed bat (though I don't think he'll ever throw out runners like Cuddy). The other main addition, Jamey Carroll, hasn't hit a thing. But he was brought in primarily to shore up shortstop and he's done that thus far, with a slew of defensive gems and no notable mistakes. Very important, considering last year's SS experiment, Nishioka, appeared to lose his fielding and hitting ability on the flight over from Japan (kids, take note: that's why you always pack your skill set in your carry-on bag and don't risk checking it).

-- A pretty good outing from a No. 6 starter: Anthony Swarzak was supposed to begin the season in the bullpen, but got a surprise start due to a bout of food poisoning for Liam Hendriks (which gave me a bout of morbid curiosity, wondering if he got it from any place I once ate in Baltimore). Swarzak responded by going five strong innings with a solo homer his only blemish (he probably should have been given the ball for the sixth, which was when the bullpen more or less blew it). Guys like Swarzak and Brian Duensing have had some good stretches as starters in the past and having that kind of depth can only help when the usual bit of elbow soreness, shoulder issues or uncontrollable vomiting rear their ugly heads.

Unfortunately, the back-loading of the rotation that pushed out guys like Swarzak and Duensing also accentuates one of the Twins' greatest weaknesses: the lack of a legitimate (or even close enough to be passable) top-of-the-rotation ace. In short, what they have is about 7 or 8 guys who would make good No. 4 or 5 starters. Carl Pavano might be a No. 3, and he can eat innings, but he's not an ace.

In my humble opinion, this has been the organization's biggest failing of late. The Twins haven't had an ace since Francisco Liriano blew out his elbow. I held out for a Tommy John miracle for a couple years, but it doesn't look like Liriano's gonna get one. He has to rely on his head as much as his arm now, and that's never a good equation for a head case.

An ace would push all the other pitchers back in the rotation, into much more natural spots. But as far as I can tell, there's only three ways to get one: draft one, pay through the nose in free agency or trade a boatload of prospects to get one mid-season from a team that's fallen out of contention.

The Twins haven't been able to draft one, they've shown no inclination to spend that kind of free-agent money (nor should they, necessarily — it's a huge risk) and they seem to no longer have the prospect haul to even propose a trade that a team with an ace wouldn't just chuckle at and move on. That being the case, the Twins may end up being that team that falls out of contention at mid-season. For Grandma's sake, I hope I'm wrong.