A total of 113,674 fans watched the Los Angeles/Anaheim/Orange County/California Angels pummel Minnesota Twins pitching into submission over the weekend. If any of them doubted just how pointless the Twins’ acquisition of shortstop Orlando Cabrera was when the deal was announced Friday there should be no doubt left now.

That’s not a knock on Cabrera, who even at 34 remains a fine player. But while the Twins have received anemic offense from the second base position and inconsistent play from the middle infield as a whole, the two-month rental was pointless without corresponding moves to fix the biggest problem they have – a dramatically disappointing staff of both starting and relief pitchers.

The Twins’ Web site statistics currently list 12 names that have been involved in the revolving door of a bullpen Bill Smith and Ron Gardenhire have trotted out for fans to watch this year. Among the worst offenders were the ridiculously overmatched Juan Morillo, Kevin Mulvey, Phil Humber and Sean Henn. After starting strong, Bobby Keppel and R.A. Dickey have shown more bad than good in recent outings. And Jesse Crain, a one-time 12 game winner in 2005, continues to be unable to regain his form – despite a demotion to AAA his ERA is over 7.00.

In fairness, setup men Jose Mijares and Matt Guerrier continue sporting solid numbers in bridging the gap to closer Joe Nathan. But none of that is going to matter if the starting rotation doesn’t come around.

That rotation, which was supposed to be a young, up-and-coming strength for Minnesota, Nick Blackburn is the only one of six pitchers with nine or more starts sporting an ERA below 4.00. Four of the six are at 4.86 or higher with Glen Perkins and Francisco Liriano dishing up at 5.95 and 5.56 respectively.

Baseball is not a difficult game. Teams with bad offenses can win games if their pitching keeps them low-scoring and close. Likewise, it doesn’t matter how explosive an offense is if the team’s pitching can’t keep it in the game. Witness the Twins’ two most recent series to see just how true that is.

According to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, the Twins batted .191 in three games against Chicago preceding the weekend series against the Angels. They won all three, however, because the pitching staff produced a 2.67 ERA – meaning the offense didn’t need to produce a lot to win the games.

Against the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, Twins batters produced a respectable 15 runs in three days. But the Twins gave up 35. The starters gave up 34 baserunners and 16 earned runs in 13.2 innings and just one of the three even made it into the sixth inning.

Now, in fairness, the Angels are one of the top three or four teams in the American League right now and they are on a nice, hot streak. But the Twins pitching has ranged from mediocre to putrid for most of the season. And because of it, they’ve been a couple games better or a couple games worse than .500 all season long.

Which means the trade Smith made to acquire Cabrera was pointless. If he didn’t have something lined up to help the pitching staff – dramatically help the pitching staff – he should have saved the prospect he sent to Oakland in exchange. In fact, on its face, this move looks like nothing more than an attempt to placate Justin Morneau, Joe Mauer and Joe Nathan, all veterans quoted in a recent Star Tribune story as saying they get frustrated each year when their competitors in the American League Central make moves to improve while the Twins either stand pat or acquire over-the-hill Bret Boone-types who produce just what you would expect them to.

The problem is I highly doubt those three players and the rest of the team’s vets are foolish enough to see through this transaction. Sure, Cabrera is an upgrade. He’ll solidify the shortstop position enough to allow the team to plug second base with some combination of Nick Punto, Alexi Casilla and possibly Brandon Harris.

But none of those guys is a solution to the biggest problem – pitching that hasn’t consistently kept the team close enough for what is a solid nucleus of offensive players. In my opinion, salvaging the 2008 season at the trade deadline this year was already a long-shot. So instead of a one-year rental middle infielder who they can’t even offer arbitration (Cabrera has a clause in his contract, so the Twins won’t even get draft picks as compensation if (when) he leaves), Smith should have been looking at 2009.

If I were him, I would have been trying to make a splash for the 2009 and 2010 seasons, the team’s first in the new Target Field. Freddy Sanchez was available. He plays the team’s weakest offensive position and is under contract for next season. Roy Halladay was available, albeit for a ransom. No, the Twins weren’t on the list of teams to whom he would approve a trade – but Jake Peavy didn’t originally want to go to the Chicago White Sox either, but he approved the deal at the deadline.

And even if the Twins had made a deal with Toronto that was nixed in the end by Halladay, at least then Smith could look at the guys in the locker room and said without looking away in shame that he had truly attempted to make a real, true splash.

This is a team that is on the verge of being competitive. A solid, ace-type pitcher would likely make guys like Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey (next year) and Blackburn better. A second baseman with a .300 batting average would dramatically deepen this offense. I understand the team’s desire and need to develop its own prospects and build from within. But at some point, when the team truly has a chance to win a championship, it’s time to take a handful of those guys and acquire the piece or two that would put them over the top.

And don’t give me salary and finances. Minneapolis/St. Paul is one of the 15 largest media markets in the country. This team is well below where it was salary-wise the year before it let Torii Hunter go and traded Johan Santana. And it moves next year into Target Field, which will be much, much more lucrative than its current digs under the giant floating marshmallow.

As it stands now, the Orlando Cabrera acquisition does little to address the biggest issues the Twins have this year and it does absolutely nothing to set them up for a run next year. That’s sad. And if Smith doesn’t think Mauer, Morneau and the rest of the roster realize that, at best he’s in denial.

At worst? At worst, this deal and the lack of other transactions prove he is out of touch about this team’s needs and that he’s very likely in over his head. Either way there’s not a whole lot for those 113,674 fans who witnessed this weekend’s brutal butt beating to be excited about.