Loss of 4 Twins stars reflected in standings

If you want to analyze why the Twins are struggling, you have to look back and conclude how much they miss pitchers Johan Santana and Matt Garza, shortstop Jason Bartlett and outfielder Torii Hunter.

It's a miracle the Twins are only 4 1/2 games out of first place in the American League Central Division after losing to the Cleveland Indians on Thursday, considering the replacements they received for these four outstanding players -- three of whom were All-Stars this year.

The only player on the Twins' major league roster that came from the Mets in the Santana trade is outfielder Carlos Gomez. He has been great in the field, but not so good at the plate, with a .236 batting average and 26 RBI. And he certainly is not the hitter Hunter was while playing center field. The three pitchers who also were in the deal -- Phil Humber, Deolis Guerra and Kevin Mulvey -- have not helped the Twins.

Delmon Young and Brendan Harris are the players on the Twins' 25-man roster who were involved in the trade with Tampa Bay for Garza and Bartlett.

Harris is hitting .263 (Bartlett is at .338) and at times has done some good work in the infield. Young, however, has been a complete disappointment, hitting .261 and driving in only 27 runs.

All the Twins got for Hunter, who left as a free agent, was two extra draft choices.

You can't lose four players like the Twins did -- all of whom are having great years with their new clubs (though Hunter's 17-homer, 65-RBI season has been disrupted by an injury) -- and not suffer.

A year ago Thursday, the Twins were 63-51, a half-game behind the White Sox for first place in the AL Central, playing without these four players. That hasn't been the case this year, and you wonder how much they will miss the quartet in the future.

First impression At training camp in Mankato the other day, Vikings coach Brad Childress was talking about his introduction to tight end Jim Kleinsasser. "The first time I saw Jim Kleinsasser I was trying to clean up our locker room [from visitors]," Childress said. "There was everybody in our locker room from the suit guy to the jewelry guy to the car-detail guy. I came out of the coach's locker room, and there was a guy on a Stairmaster with coveralls on. It was the middle of the winter, and he had a full beard with what I call a pork hat, kind of a toboggan. He had some paint on his coveralls and we were doing construction, painting the media rooms. I said, 'Son of a gun, the workers have to stay away from the players.' We're down here working and guys can't be bothering people [players]. Who is this guy and where did he come in at? I walked by him and had no idea who he was, but it was Jim Kleinsasser. He looked like he was out sawing logs. He was probably ice fishing or something [before he worked out]."

As a player, Childress said that Kleinsasser came back to Mankato in great shape. "There isn't another 270-pounder who is in the low teens of body fat percentage," Childress said. "He has great body mass and great strength. At 10 years [in the NFL] he does a great job. He has taken a beating over a period of time, but does a good job with what he has got. Maybe he looks like he has lost weight because he shaved his beard, and that always makes him look thinner."

Childress must rank Kleinsasser with the best of the tight ends because he was re-signed as a free agent.

Jottings With most of the 200 employees of Mortenson Construction out of work now that TCF Bank Stadium is almost complete, you would think this would be a good time to start raising money and getting bids for a new Gophers baseball stadium. But Paul Molitor, the former Gophers star and Hall of Famer who would be one of the leading fundraisers, hasn't heard a thing from the university about raising the money. Neither have other Gophers who could help get the stadium built.

Vikings punter Chris Kluwe plays bass in a band called Tripping Icarus and they are playing at the 7th Street Entry at First Avenue at 9 p.m. Oct. 23. "Andy Reiner, our lead guitarist, he's the executive editor of Game Informer magazine and Jesse Revel is our singer and Matt Marshall is our drummer," said Kluwe, one of the best punters in the NFL. "They're all local guys. ... I've gotten to know Andy and Matt pretty well." Kluwe said the band has been together about four months.

Not only was Rick Spielman, Vikings vice president for player personnel, a member of Miami's front office but George Payton, Vikings director of player personnel, was Spielman's assistant when Sage Rosenfels was with the Dolphins. They made the trade with the Texans for the now-Vikings quarterback.

Former Gophers tight end Ben Utecht, now with the Bengals, gave everybody on the team a scare after lying motionless face down on the field in Wednesday's practice for several minutes after a collision. His injury was diagnosed as a concussion after spending time in the hospital. All studies on Utecht at the Georgetown (Ky.) Community Hospital came back normal.

The Gophers' nonconference men's basketball schedule will include exhibitions with Minnesota Duluth and Minnesota State Moorhead, and games with Stephen F. Austin, Utah Valley, Brown, Morgan State, St. Joseph, Northern Illinois and South Dakota State. The Gophers will open the Big Ten schedule at home on Dec. 29 against Penn State. ... Gophers assistant baseball coach Rob Fornasiere believes Eric Decker would be a major league player in three to five years if he attended graduate school next year and played another year of baseball with the Gophers. Some of the Twins scouts believe the same. But right now, the receiver is focused on football, and apparently plans to concentrate on that sport.

Tim Peterzen, a sophomore on the Gophers golf team from Elk River, qualified for the U.S. Amateur Championship, which will be played Aug. 24-30 at Southern Hills in Tulsa, Okla.