The Minnesota Twins have been a disaster this season and sport the worst record in baseball at 11-32. It is only May 23, and they are already 14.5 games back in the American League Central race. But Dick Bremer—Minnesota’s TV play-by-play announcer for Fox Sports North—said one player still thought he should be more positive in his analysis.
Bremer appeared on Mike McFeely‘s radio show on 970 WDAY in North Dakota last Thursday and said a player confronted him because of his criticism of the team:
I make it a practice to go in the clubhouse every day and go down on the field, so if a player has a complaint about something I’ve said on television they have that opportunity. I was confronted in the clubhouse in the last homestand. I didn’t say what I wanted to say, which was, ‘Well, play better and the commentary will be more positive.’ You can’t mask the fact this team is a quarter of the way through the season with 10 wins.
McFeely wrote on the show’s official website that Bremer’s broadcast partner, Bert Blyleven, was recently critical of the performances of two players on the air—”a rarity” for him—but Bremer pointed out, “We know the difference between good baseball and bad baseball. You can’t really sugarcoat it, although I’ve been accused of that from time to time.”
It is Bremer’s job to describe the action on the field, and there is little positive to say about the Twins’ start. They are realistically out of the division title chase, having lost six of their last seven games, and the calendar hasn’t even turned to June.
What’s more, Minnesota foreshadowed what was to come when it started an abysmal 0-9 right out of the gate.
Matt Snyder of CBS Sports praised Bremer for refusing to reveal the name of the player who was critical of his analysis and said “worrying about what a broadcaster is saying seems a sign of mental weakness.”
McFeely noted Bremer makes a weekly appearance on his radio show and has bemoaned a number of topics surrounding the Twins in 2016. Bremer did say he doesn’t think firing manager Paul Molitor would do much good and believes general manager Terry Ryan will at least keep his job throughout the 2016 campaign.
Bremer also said factors such as a lack of leadership inside the clubhouse and a group of young players who were not properly prepared in the minor league levels have also contributed to Minnesota’s lackluster start.
The statistics underscore just how futile the team has been on the field this season:
The Twins have not shone in a single aspect of the game this year, although the silver lining is the fact the season is a long 162 games. There is still enough time to turn things around, although the American League Central features three teams over .500 (as of Monday), including the 26-18 Chicago White Sox and the defending World Series champion Kansas City Royals.
The Detroit Tigers were also a mere one game under .500 coming into play Monday.
Minnesota is facing an uphill battle that likely won’t end in success, especially if the players appear to be concerned with what the announcers have to say.
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