Sneaky Twins

Twins can be very sneaky.
Trust me... I am the father of two of them and they work in tandem sometimes to get what they want.

Well guess what? There are some sneaky Twins in Minnesota.

Now while we have all be looking at the Yankees and Rays and seeing who will get home field advantage and I've been hoping the White Sox make the AL Central another "decided via 1 game playoff" year for the third straight season, I noticed something.

The Twins are only 4 games back of the Yankees.

That's it.

As they take on the Royals, the Indians, the A's and the White Sox over the next few weeks, they have a pretty solid rotation and nobody is noticing them.

Meanwhile the Yankees are struggling with the Orioles and have 7 games against the Rays coming up.

Could the Twins catch the Yankees? Could the Minnesota Freaking Twins take the claim of "Best Regular Season Record" and home field advantage in the Division Series and possibly the ALCS?

Now I would pick the Rays or Yankees over the Twins in a short series... but then again, they ARE Twins.

They are sneaky.

Right now I wouldn't bet against them... whether it is to win the Division or steal another cookie.

Hope for the Twins

OK admit it Red Sox fans… when the Twins were up 2-0 in Game 1, you were thinking “Holy Cow! What if the Twins win this?”



I did… but alas in the end it was men versus boys. 

So the Twins are dead, right? 

I mean I had written for weeks that the only way the Yankees could POSSIBLY be eliminated in the Division Series would be if the Tigers won the Division and Justin Verlander won his two starts and either AJ Burnett or Andy Pettite blow their starts.



That’s over right?



Well I give Ron Gardenhire credit for his strange pitching strategy for game 1. 

Obviously the team was exhausted after the wild end of the season and the amazing one game playoff… and it looked like Gardy basically said “We aren’t winning against Sabathia.”



So did you see what he did? He used his junior varsity pitching staff.



Seriously, did you know who Brian Duensing was? I mean other than members of the Duensing family.



If you answered yes, I might have to go all Joe Wilson on you and say YOU LIE!



Yes he had 4 solid starts down the stretch… but they threw in a guy with 84 career big league innings to start game 1 of the playoffs in Yankee Stadium. And for about 4 innings he held his own…



But when the roof caved in, who did Gardy bring in?



Did Matt Guerrier or Jose Mijares or Jesse Crain or Joe Nathan come in?



Nope. In came Francisco Liriano, who threw batting practice to Hideki Matsui and mop up man Ron Mahay.



Jon Rauch came in and threw 9 pitches.



So the two teams have a day off today and will resume tomorrow.

And when they do, Nathan will be on 2 days rest… as will Guerrier, Mijares, Crain…



And the Twins will be throwing Nick Blackburn, who save for one bad game against Oakland, has been outstanding since the last day of August.



And the Yankees will be starting AJ Burnett, a classic “Who knows what you are getting?” pitcher. If the Twins win that game, they go back to the Metrodome, where they could split the series and send it back to the Bronx for a do or die finale of which the Twins will have nothing to lose and the Yankees will be tight… and possibly pull off one of the great upsets in baseball history.



Oh who am I kidding, the Twins are getting swept and they know it.

Nice job, Todd Tichenor

Seriously, way to put your stamp on a game.

There was a close play at the plate (which this Red Sox fan will admit looked like he had blown in the Boston's favor.) Mike Redmond had a legitimate beef and you threw up out almost instantly.

Do you know how many times Redmond has been tossed in his 12 year big league career? None.

So we are of course dealing with a notorious hothead!

So good job having a short fuse with him and the manager Ron Gardenhire too.

Make sure the interim manager had to use Mauer at catcher and remove the DH.

And the next inning, good job tossing Varitek in about 2 second right after he clubbed two homers (and Francona for good measure.)

Isn't it fun to see a young power tripping umpire put his thumb print all over the game?

Besides, always remember the fans pay good money to see the umpires!

WAIT A SECOND!!! Joe Maddon's Manager of the Year award WASN'T unanimous?

What the hell?

There were 28 votes for AL manager of the year and all 28 first place votes DIDN'T go to Joe Maddon?
Look, no disrespect to Ron Gardenhire.
He did a terrific job! He took a team that had Johan Santana and Torii Hunter stripped from them and got them to a one game playoff for the AL Central... and if they scored 2 runs in that game, they would have been AL Central Champs.

Great job.

Joe Maddon did the baseball equivalent of bending time and space.

The Rays were so bad and had NOTHING going for them
No tradition
No history
No fan base (save for Pat and Christin)
And in a division with the Red Sox and Yankees, no hope.

They had the smallest payroll in the AL.
They were the laughing stocks of baseball.

Their 71st win was the highest the franchise had ever climbed.
And he took on a Red Sox team that defending their World Series title with 95 regular season wins...
And the Rays STILL won the division.

And they didn't go nuts in the free agent market and buy it either, a la the 1997 Marlins.

Moses midway through parting the Red Sea would have said "Wait the RAYS are in first place? Are you f---ing kidding me?"

It is one of the most mind boggling turn arounds in the history of American sports.
And Joe Maddon helmed the team to the single least likely division title EVER!

And someone felt he did the second best managing job of the year?

REALLY?

I'm guessing it was a sports writer named Lou Gardenhire

The Most Interesting Pennant Race

Sure the Tampa Bay/Boston series is exciting with First Place on the line, but both teams are clearly going to play in October… so they are fighting for position, not their lives.

The cluster in the National League is intense with the Mets and Brewers imploding, the Phillies surging and the Astros still hanging around despite getting only 1 hit in their last 2 games. But with the Wild Card, you know 2 of those teams are making it and the Mets and Brewers collapse is kind of disturbing to watch…


Here’s what’s interesting about this race for me.

1. Who saw this coming?

I think the most interesting race still going on is between the White Sox and the Twins. Let’s face it, going into this season the consensus picks for the American League Central were the Indians and the Tigers. A lot of people felt they were legit World Series contenders.

Well a sub .500 record in mid September and being a non factor all year is not what any of us predicted.

Nor could we have seen a White Sox team that was old and falling apart in 2007 to rebound nor a Twins team that shed Johan Santana and Torii Hunter to contend.





2. Who is the underdog?

Both teams are overachieving and both are a great story. And both are under manned due to injuries (Contreras and Quentin) or inexperience (the average age of the Twins is 13 years old.)






3. The Different Styles

The White Sox are a classic beer league softball team, swinging for the fences from their heels and trying to pound the opponent into submission. Even their closer Bobby Jenks has Artie Lange’s physique.

The Twins on the other hand are free of big stars (save for Justin Morneau who just might win his second MVP) and play fundamentally strong baseball. They catch the ball, the pitchers throw strikes, the hitters don’t swing at balls out of the zone…

It’s the Original Ray’s Pizza Softball Team versus Tom Emanski














4. The Managers


Ozzie Guillen is insane. He’s unstable. He’s the character in my favorite baseball comic strip. And he’s the right man for the job.





Ron Gardenhire is the steadier hand but gets the job done as he tries to get the Twins in the post season for the 5th time since they were
threatened with contraction 7 years ago.












5. The Head to Head Match Up

The Twins play the Indians and then 4 with the Rays… then they come back to the Metrodome for 3 games with the White Sox.

The White Sox play 4 more with the Yankees and travel to KC before heading to Minnesota.

Anyone with a baseball soul will want to see the White Sox and Twins either tied or with only 1 game between them for Tuesday September 23rd through Thursday September 25th.



So for the next few days I will alternate rooting interests to make sure that series is indeed a showdown for one single playoff spot.

And here’s hoping Ozzie does something really crazy.