Rock Bottom at Target Field...

The 2011 Minnesota Twins season has officially hit rock bottom.

The Twins started the night 21 games back in the AL central and in last place. For a team whose payroll for the year is approximately $113 million, finishing last in the awful AL central is unacceptable. The Twins have the third worst record in all of baseball! Are you joking? Tonight's starting lineup against the White Sox hardly resembled a big league roster with the likes of Joe Benson, Trevor Plouffe, Chris Parmelee, Luke Hughes, Rene Tosoni, Brian Dinkelman, Rene Rivera and starting pitcher Liam Hendriks taking the field at the brand new Target Field.

Sorry to say but the future doesn't look much better. With all of the minor leaguers that are worth a damn up in the big leagues already, the future looks pretty bleak. The Twins farm system is bare and their current roster is contract lopsided and set to get worse. With Joe Mauer making $23 million this season, Justin Morneau $15 million and Joe Nathan making $11.25 million, the Twins are in major financial trouble thanks in part to GM Bill Smith. Add into the mix the likelihood of the team losing Michael Cuddyer and Jason Kubel to free agency, the Twins are likely to be bottom feeders in the AL Central for years to come.

Since Smith took over for Terry Ryan as GM, the Twins have not made a good personnel move. It all started with the Johan Santana trade which was a complete and utter disaster. The Twins have no player left from the trade after giving away an under performing Carlos Gomez to Milwaukee for an injury riddled shortstop J.J. Hardy who was then traded away to Baltimore after one unsuccessful season with the Twins for a less than mediocre reliever Jim Hoey. Not to mention the awful trade for Matt Capps...we traded away a reliable offensive catcher in Wilson Ramos only to rely on a under performing, overpaid catcher in Joe Mauer (2011 stats so far-.291 average, 2 HR, 29 RBI).

Last but not least, Tysuyoshi Nishioka. Let me get this right, we paid money to negotiate with this loser? I wouldn't want him to play on my softball team. He isn't even close to a big league player, let alone an AA player. Trading away Hardy (who of course is having a great season) and assuming Nishioka to be your everyday shortstop without ever seeing him play a game in the major leagues is completely ridiculous.

The Twins are in big trouble for the foreseeable future. They have gotten old and the salaries are out of control. Smith has run this franchise into the ground with every single personnel move he has made since taking over. Good thing we have a new stadium to help pay the salaries among other things, however, if they keep feeding on the bottom of the division it is going to be harder and harder to sell tickets.

I know I am not paying any money out of my own pocket to go see a game at Target Field until some major changes are made in the front office.

Good luck Twins fans, we are going to need it and thank you Bill Smith.