Brian's Twins Tweet

Oh, the ups and downs of a baseball season, especially for teams like the Twins! Consistent play for the first two months of the season had the Twins 11 games over .500 with a fairly firm hold on the top spot in the AL Central, but then the struggles of June and pre-All Star July came around, and the Twins were about as far from a sure thing as my chances of making a couple bucks on an evening trip to Deadwood. It's amazing to me, though, how the All Star Break was apparently all the Twins needed to get the ship righted this year - kind of like back in 2001 when the Twins were a surprise team with a 5-game lead at the break, only to show early in the second half that they really didn't have a chance of holding anyone off, as Cleveland won the division after a hot start to the second half of the season.

This time around, going into another big series against the White Sox at home tonight, the Twins stand 22-8 since the All Star Break, which I believe is the best in the Majors. And if anyone forgot in the first half, that Joe Mauer is still pretty good, isn't he? The pitching seems to be back to the level it should be too, and as long as that holds out, the division will once again be the Twins' to lose. I could go on and on about the if's of the rest of the season that could carry the Twins to the postseason again, but let me now explain why there won't need to be any IF's, and just tell you why the Twins are a stone cold LOCK to win the AL Central.

I've noticed this fact for a while, and maybe I haven't been listening too closely, but I haven't heard anyone, be it the TV or radio announcers or network analysts or anyone, mention the disparity among AL Central teams and their records against the other teams within the division. Check this out -- against other teams within the division, the Royals are 16-22, which is fairly respectable for them. The Tigers, though, are also 6 games under .500, at 19-25, which is a big indicator of why they have fallen off the AL Central map lately. The White Sox actually aren't much better, still under .500 at 22-25....that ain't gonna get it done, Ozzie! The Indians haven't been too bad - they're 21-20 within the division and have given the Twins some fits at times, as well as everyone else.

But then far above all others, there are the Twins, who have a beautiful 31-17 record within the division -- 14 games over .500!! That would be a 6 1/2 game lead over Cleveland for the division lead if that's all that counted, 8 1/2 games over Chicago, and a full 10 games over Detroit and KC. Teams are supposed to beat each other up within their own division, but the Twins have clearly been the cream of the crop. In fact, in comparison with the White Sox, who are currently 3 games back, the Twins have better records against the AL East and AL West than Chicago does as well. Ironically, the Twins, who have historically been one of the best teams in baseball in inter-league games, slipped to 8-10 this year, while the White Sox ripped off a 15-3 mark, including 10 straight wins in mid-June. That's really the only reason we have a race at all in the AL Central! But since there are no more inter-league games this season, I'll just offer 3 words: Game...Set...MATCH!!

Okay, here are some more words. Yes, we still have a month and a half of the season left, and yes, if Chicago has a good series at Target Field in the next 3 days, then the race is still on. But if the Twins should happen to sweep the Sox to go up 6 games....well, at the risk of being a jinx, I'll just let you fill in your thoughts from there. The Twins have 12 home games and 12 road games left against division teams this season. Assuming they take care of business in those 24 games, the rest of schedule could be quite favorable. The Angels come to Target for a set this weekend, but the biggest games have to be the 7 games left against the Texas Rangers. Texas leads the AL West, and right now, probably for the first time all season, is behind the Twins in the potential seeding for the postseason, but only by a half a game. Those could be fun games to watch, but for what it's worth, the Twins did sweep 3 from Texas at home at the end of May. Whatever happens against the East and West teams from here on out, the Twins' success within their division, similar to the middle part of this past decade, is why you can already put the Twins in the postseason once again this October. I won't encourage you to call Vegas and put a large sum of money down on that bet, but if you did do something like that, I'd probably ask you to borrow a couple o' bucks. And you can put THAT on the board. YYYES!!