Turd in the punch bowl

I didn't see any of the Twins 9-8 come from behind win over the Royals. I was in Vermillion playing third base for the Roadrunners, who opened their season with an 11-6 win (I doubled off the wall in my first at-bat of the season - I rule).

I was pretty excited when I heard what happened, and have spent the last 20 minutes or so combing through the box score and reading reaction from other blogs (my favorite is this one, from Royals blogger Rany Jazayerli). I can only imagine what kind of verbal orgasm Dick Bremer had on the air when the Twins put their 9th inning rally together, and I'm glad I didn't hear it.

And I hate, really hate to say it, but all I can see are the negatives. Yes, Craig Monroe and Justin Morneau hit big homers, but that's not a huge surprise. Yes, Brendan Harris and Mike Lamb both had good days at the plate as they continue to push their numbers north, but that shouldn't be a huge shock, either.

I was hoping to see that Delmon Young and Michael Cuddyer had had big games, maybe even homered. I was hoping that Joe Mauer had maybe gone deep.

I wasn't hoping to see that Cuddyer, Young and Mauer were all hitless. I wasn't hoping that Young committed two errors in LF one night after nearly costing the team a game with a misplay in the field. I wasn't hoping that Livan would give up 13 more hits (he's on pace to surrender over 300 on the year).

I couldn't help but notice that Matt Garza threw another gem for the first place Rays Wednesday night. Garza is now 4-1 with a 3.78 ERA.
Young is still, uh, young, but his poor performance thus far is troubling.

I wonder, at this point, if we won't look back at 2008 as the season that:
A - The Twins made one of the worst trades in their history (Garza-Bartlett for Young-Harris)
B - The Twins signed one of their worst contracts in their history (Cuddyer, 3-years, $24 million)
C - Pat Neshek's career ended.
D - Francisco Liriano's comeback failed

Am I being overly negative? Of course. There's still a lot going right with this team. But lately I've had a hard time ignoring how many things are going wrong.