Section 219: Hope and frustration in equal parts

The phrase "pitchers and catchers report" has been cited by some of my blogging peers as reason for excitement.

In most recent years, it has come with a sense of excitement and anticipation about the Twins chances -- with the debate being whether they had done enough during the offseason to go from being postseason material to win-it-all material. At this time last year, we were talking about Delmon's breakout 2010 and the Japanese shortstop and Liriano's return to form ...

Offstage voice: "Shut up, Howard!"

In 2012, it's exciting just because it's baseball. Basically, "pitchers and catchers report" means the calendar is intact.

Discussion about being a contender isn't taking place this spring except among the most optimistic. I don't want to call that group delusional because it's fine to create a scenario or two of hope this time of year. If this happens + if that happens + if the other thing happens = Success.

The "ifs" are about Mauer and Morneau: Standouts based on their contracts and question marks based on their 2011 performance. The "ifs" are about Baker and Liriano: Can the former stay healthy for an entire season and can the latter finally regain what made us so excited a half-dozen years ago, and again for a good chunk of 2010? The "ifs" are about the bullpen and the replacements for departed players and the young players who are expected to begin being a factor.

There are holes in this team that are frustrating. The bullpen market turned out to be depressed enough that the Twins should have done better than the group that has reported to Fort Myers. The Twins are short a back-up first baseman if Morneau can't be 100 percent for an extended period of time. (Ryan Doumit, the free agent from Pittsburgh, has played 42 innings at that position in the last five seasons; Chris Parmelee is better served by a season in Rochester.) I will not try to sell you on the middle infield being settled because the 38-year-old shortstop, Jamey Carroll, has primarily been a second baseman during his career and the second baseman, Alexi Casilla, has never played well when he's come to training camp as the favorite for a starting job.

I want to believe in the journeyman veterans, compared to the fill-ins of years past. Carroll > Juan Castro, Jason Marquis > Ramon Oritz, Doumit > whomever. I want to believe that Danny Valencia 3.0 will be more like Valencia 1.0 than 2.0. I want to believe that extra days of spring training and Gardy's tougher talk will yield results. I want to believe in Terry Ryan's crew. I want to believe Detroit will implode.

Right now, the bullpen crew that will be expected to get the final six to nine outs on most days doesn't pass preliminary muster. I want to believe that the candidates of 2012 are better than the group that was brought to camp in 2011, but if you're skeptical about that, we're on the same page. Hardly anything in baseball is bigger buzzkill than watching a bullpen that routinely spits up leads. I want to be wrong, though, so that someone can remind me come summer that I was awfully smug to suggest that it wouldn't have been hard to assemble a better crew.

If my job was to cover this team, I'd be sending up warning flares and sounding pretty dour in my February analysis. I would take you deep with the secondary statistics that, while valid, can suck the enjoyment out of the game. You'd be reading stories of optimism and comparing the words of the players and management with numbers and analysis that say something else. That's the tone La Velle has set in his early reporting from Florida.

I was happy to read Mauer acknowledge that he was "just embarrassed" about 2011. I am also wise enough to know that recognition of a problem is talk, and talk is cheaper than a rookie's contract, not to mention Mauer's.

We deserve the right to be optimistic right now -- to imagine things that we can't back up with much more than hope. I'm not going to be the one who will tell you that a .500 record will be a good season for the Twins. I want to have more hope than that.

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