If We're No Longer Saving Daylight, Are We Spending It?

Man, it sure gets dark early now, and for some reason, it surprises me every year. And now it's the first Sunday night since March 30th that there isn't any baseball on TV. I always watch Sunday Night Baseball (at least until Desperate Housewives comes on -- then I flip between the two if the game is good, unless DH is a repeat -- then I just stick with the game).

But, just because it's dark (both literally, and baseball-on-TV-figuratively), that doesn't mean I don't have some opinions bouncing around in my head regarding baseball -- I have plenty, for whatever they're worth. When it comes to opinions about baseball, my motto may as well be, "Often wrong, but never in doubt."

I'm going to resist the urge to ramble on and spit all my ideas out now. I'll just stick to one for now. Of course, by waiting I run the risk of reality spoiling my fun before I get around to discussing all my topics, but I'm willing to take that chance. Otherwise, I will probably run out of things to say.

Today's topic: Matt Garza. Can we all please stop talking about him? Or at least when we do talk about him, can we stop whining about how horrible it is that he's not a Twin anymore? Now, I am thrilled for him that he had such a great season for the Rays. I'm thrilled for the Rays, too. But I am absolutely convinced that he would not have had the same success with the Twins. In fact, he pretty much said so himself. He attributes his good season to maturing and to getting back to relying on his fastball. The maturing probably would have happened with the Twins; the relying on his fastball -- not so likely.

It's been well documented that Garza and the Twins had a difference of opinion regarding pitching philosophy. The Twins like to employ a trust-your-stuff-and-throw-any-pitch-at-anytime-for-strikes philosophy, whereas Garza likes more of a everything-keys-off-the-fastball style. Both are fine approaches, but they are different. And, according to him, the Rays support his style more than the Twins did.

We all know that the Twins have done a lot of great things to create a lot of good pitchers. However, no philosophy is perfect and works for every pitcher. So, yeah, while it would be nice to have another soon-to-be-great pitcher on the staff, he (and the Twins organization) is probably better off just the way things are.

Besides, he's still working on that maturity thing. Remember that little incident with his catcher, Dioner Navarro? Can you imagine that happening with Joe Mauer? The thought makes me laugh.