Been awhile...

It has been a few weeks since my last blog post...and with good reason. I made the trip out east to watch the Minnesota Twins play the New York Mets, visit some family, and take in the sights of New York City. While I expected watching the Twins to be the highlight of the trip, it certainly was not that.

With that said, things have been less than stellar for the Twins for quite some time. While some people want to refer to this as a 'mini slump', the Twins have been struggling for much longer than most people either know, or want to admit.

Since the beginning of May, the Twins are playing below .500 baseball - 30-33 including tonight's 7-3 loss to the Detroit Tigers. In fact, the Twins are 9-9-3 in the series that have comprised the last 63 games. For a team that played so well during the first month of the season, this should hardly be considered a 'mini slump.'

This team has gone from good, to average, to poor quicker than most of us would jump into bed with Kim Kardashian.

What have been the issues? Well, there isn't just one area that you could point to and claim that to be the biggest concern. All three facets of the team - the offense, starting rotation, and bullpen have given plenty to be worried about; and it seems to all come at different times.

When the offense is struggling, the starting rotation is great. When the starting rotation is struggling, the bullpen is great. When that - well, you catch the theme.

The amount of offensive production is down since April; the amount of runs allowed has increased since April. It has been a complete 180 since the Twins were playing their best baseball of the 2010 season - giving optimism that this could be the season when the Twins take the next step. Those were the expectations for this team heading into the season; giving even more reason to be upset and frustrated about their current state.

With the trade of Cliff Lee to a team other than the Minnesota Twins, the dominoes figure to fall over the next few weeks. Will the Twins be involved? One would like to think so - but sitting 3 games out of first place with two games left before the All-Star break (versus the team you are chasing) does not leave much reason to be buyers for the trade deadline.

This team needs help - significant help. Let's just hope the organization realizes that before it's too late; which it may already be.