Slugging Minnesota Twins.
JoeBanzai
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First team to have 5 players hit 30 home runs in the same season!
Nelson Cruz and Max Kepler have a shot at 40.
It has been an exciting year so far.
GO TWINS!
2013,14 and 15 Certificate Award Winner Harmon Killebrew Master Set and Master Topps Set
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Wow first team to have 5 30 HR guys? That’s pretty cool
The Twinkies can definitely swing that lumber, but their pitching staff..... 👎
*They will not stay afloat, as the playoffs deepen.
Houston looks unbeatable. The games are not won on paper.
Historically the Twins have had some success against Verlander and Grienke. Verlander can be almost unhittable when he's "on", so whoever is pitching for us that day will have to "step up".
I am certainly not betting any money on the Twins. Beating the Yankees (something we have been unable to do) would make me happy. They can really hit the ball too! Yankees/Twins could be a record setting slugfest!
If Berrios and Odorizzi can keep us in the games, the bullpen has gotten better with the addition of Romo, a couple of regulars have been solid and call up Graterol hits triple digits. Rogers is a very good closer, the Twins have enough to win it all. The key could be if Berrios can be a dominating pitcher. He certainly has the "stuff".
You don't need 3-4 great starters in the playoffs. The Twins proved that in both 1987 and 1991.
Twins hitters are going to put a lot of pressure on the opposing pitchers. They have 7 players with a .481 SLG and another with .470. Six starters have an OPS of over .850, the other three are all above .782. The reserve players can hit well too.
Another big concern is the Twins fielding, they seem to me to make too many errors. Buxton being done for the season is a big loss defensively.
By the way, welcome to the boards!
Thank you kindly, Joe! It's a pleasure to jam with fellow baseball fans like yourself.. Cheers!
You certainly offer a nice array of compelling points, Joe.
And regardless of how far they tread within the playoff scene, this has been a very successful season for Minnesota.
From my vantage point, their pitching staff simply gives up too many runs; and unlike Washington, Houston, and Los Angeles, the starting staff is not comprised of any bonafide STUDS. (Though Berrios and Odorizzi are certainly above the AVERAGE PAR.)
I am right with you on the Houston Astros front.
...but if the 'Stros stub their toes, then Los Angeles, Oakland, Washington, or Atlanta might be in line for that WS crown.
I'll pass on the Yankees this year. (Which may bring an agreeable smile to your nod.)
Cheers, my friend!
You make a good case yourself.
Minnesota is definitely the underdog!
Anyone but the Yankees.
Pitching always wins in the playoffs with a shortened rotation
Not always, but certainly more often than not. As I said already, the Twins won it twice with less than great pitching and a solid lineup of hitters.
The shortened rotation also means you don't need as many pitchers. Three front line starters is not a big advantage if two of them are pitching well. It's better to have two good/great starters and a good bullpen with a great closer.
Berrios will be a key factor, he has pitched much better his last couple of starts. When he is on, he is almost unhittable. The bullpen has some promise, Romo is a proven pitcher and Taylor Rogers looks like a very good closer, although he hasn't had post season experience.
Realistically the Twins don't have the pitching, BUT with their lineup, if the pitching gets "hot" they could cause a lot of trouble. Might not go all the way, but they could knock off a favored opponent.
GO TWINS!
I know not too many cars about the Twins, but I looked up their team ERA and it's better than I thought it was.
Hmmmmmmm you just never know.
Didn't the Twins beat STL in the WS back in the 80's?
yes, in 1987. they won their 2nd world series against the Atlanta Braves in 1991
and the Vikings are going to beat Chicago tomorrow
The Bears have a pretty good defense, but not much of an offense. So it could happen.
Told you earlier that your Twins looked strong this season. Congrats on the division title. It was a much better season for them than for my Phillies. It will be interesting to see how far their bats can carry them in the playoffs.
True, but other than Houston, their pitching is as good as any in the AL.
Berrios seems to be pitching better of late. If both Odorizzi and Berrios pitch well, the Twins have as good a chance as anyone.
Go Twins!
Yes and Stl was considered the better team by many. Four years later they beat a Braves team with pretty good pitching too!
GO TWINS! ;-)
That was back when they had Kirby Puckett. I always liked him.
Great leader!
JoeBanzai- Congrats to the Twins. Great season. Hope they do well in the playoffs.
PLEASE beat the Yankees! They have been killing us for years.
REVENGE BABY!
GO TWINS!
Congratulations to the Twins, they may do well in the Playoffs but we should look at everything in a proper perspective.
they played 76 games against a Division with a combined winning percentage of .419 and that includes going only 10-9 against the Indians who pushed the Twins to the brink until the last 10-14 days of the season. add to that the injuries that decimated Cleveland, primarily their pitching and we get to the real problem for the Twins: Pitching. though they have improved their BullPen since the All-Star Game they haven't changed their starting rotation much. Odirizzi can't start every game and past him their rotation is suspect.
the Twins will score, but can they keep the opposition from doing the same, that's the big question. additionally, they have shown lapses in the field lately. in the Playoffs, pitching and mistakes are magnified and Home-Field advantage does become an advantage, though Minnesota has played quite well on the road. I see NY in seven games and then the Astos in five.
All fair points,
The Twins have had some injuries too, (Buxton is a game changer and he is out for the season with surgery) not as many as Cleveland though. The Indians did end up with a lower team ERA so I would say their hitting was the problem. I look for Cleveland to win the division next year, perhaps quite easily, if they keep the hitters they acquired and get the pitchers healthy.
Cleveland did come to Minnesota late in the season, take 3 out of 4 and leave town in first place. The Twins shook that off and played very well down the stretch while Cleveland, even with their additions couldn't keep up. I am not an expert on the schedule, but didn't both teams play a similar group of opponents? I seem to remember that the Indians had a brutal August.
The Yankees and Twins look to be pretty equal in the hitting area, with Minnesota being a little better in pitching.
PLEASE beat the Yankees!
Berrios will be the key, and yes, as I have mentioned, the Twins fielding is nothing to brag about. Disappointed in Dyson needing surgery for a problem he had with the Giants, we gave up 3 prospects for him and got nothing.
What I see being overlooked is the fact that the Twins have such good hitters at EVERY position, including very good back ups at Catcher and 2B. They are going to put a lot of pressure on the opponants pitchers. They are putting a team that has a SLG of at least .450 at every position with the top three guys ranging .570-.640.
The same can be said for the Yankees and with their bullpen, you better not get behind.
On paper the Astros look to be far superior to the rest of the AL field. Excellent ballclub.
The best team doesn't always win it though.
Its not like the Twins are only in the playoffs because they're in the Central.
Their winning percentage against the East and West is .651, against the Central .657, not even
1 percentage point of difference.
to be accurate, .625/East, .657/Central, .676 West and .400/Inter-league. what surprises me is how well the Twins played on the road, much better than at home.
everyone plays everyone else within the Division so it's a good gauge and doesn't lie. Minnesota did benefit from a schedule which was front loaded and left them with weaker Teams at the end of the year, but they played pretty consistent. the main advantage that gave them was in August when the Indians had two off days and played a tougher schedule. to my thinking, the last challenge the Twins really had was when they came to Cleveland for three games around September 10th. at the time the Indians were three-games back. on Friday they got to Odirizzi early and had a lead but the game was rained out and re-scheduled as a doubleheader on Saturday. the Twins swept them both rather easily, lost on Sunday and Cleveland never challenged them again and played poorly down the stretch.
that's a scheduling SNAFU that MLB lives with, end of the season Pennant race and no time to schedule the make-up. I hate those games when Teams do the "BullPen Game" which sort of distorts thing.
all things considered, the Twins played very consistently the entire season. they only slumped ever so slightly at the end of July, recouped and finished really strong. they probably would have liked to be playing today, the off days mess with Teams.
after Game 1 it is looking apparent to me that the biggest "negative" for the Twins is the rookie Manager, especially his pitching choices. Berrios has been a solid dud since late July and Dobnak is up for Game 2. he must want Odorizzi to be well rested when the series moves to Minnesota with the Twins down 0-2. that makes no sense to me, especially when it appears certain that the BP staff will all have been used, maybe over-used.
as had been mentioned earlier, lapses in the field will prove pivotal and that happened early yesterday. Judge slid cleanly into second base but I think rookie Arraez saw a locomotive about to crash into him and let loose a bad throw to first, another rookie mistake on a play he made dozens of times effectively during the season. the game sure speeds up at this time of year!!
Can anyone tell me why Berrios was removed? He seemed to be pitching well enough. I was following the game on "Gameday" so I wasn't seeing the action.
Looking at the box score is also confusing; Littell and Stashak are not guys who usually came into games this year and Gibson was one of their starters. Littell did have pretty good numbers, but he's pretty much a rookie. Looks like Baldelli "saved" Trevor May and Sergio Romo when the game was still 3-2. Those two were the regular relievers all year. This kind of disaster happens when you have the "new age" bullpen where everybody can pitch only one inning.
This doesn't make sense to me.
Apparently Odorizzi has a hamstring issue and They are resting him until the season will be down to the final game?
Hopefully the Twins can win a "bullpen" game tonight.
Not feeling good here, the Twins need some luck, or a great pitching performance out of whoever pitches tonight. Dobnak? Another rookie? In Yankee stadium?
Maybe we can outscore them for a game and get things tied up!
Go Twins!
Baldelli probably didn't want to test Berrios any further since the game was still close after four innings. additionally, taking him out early with that in mind keeps him fresh for the next game. Minnesota's weakness is still what it's been all season, starters are questionable and the BP can be the same. let's face it, the Team won quite a number of games simply because they hammered the opponent at the plate, they out scored them.
I think it's easy, if the Twins lose today they're done.
the twins were actually ahead for awhile, too bad they didn't turn that double play, the defense is their weak point. would love to see a upset in this series
Well, since Berrios might not even get a chance to pitch again, pulling him early, and then not going with the "best" bullpen guys is baffling. All year it's been May/Duffy/Romo/Rogers and all four of them pitched pretty well.
Hoping that Odorizzi can win a game and Berrios can come back and win one, but who pitches a theoretical game 5? Not looking good right now, not getting another starter is looking like a mistake, especially with the three prospects they "wasted" on Dyson who was hurt before we acquired him.
Agreed, I brought up their defense earlier, it let them down big time! You can't give a good hitting team extra outs.
Go Twins!
Can't give the Yanks extra opportunities; they will make you pay. Twins desperately need game two. Good luck. I'm rooting for them.
so it looks like an early exit after an unforeseen spectacular season.
Stick a fork in'em they are DONE!
I really hate seeing guys pitch for us that weren't really part of the core group of guys that we won with during the season.
Tonight's game was bad. Odorizzi is our last hope.
Go Twins!
like I said
Just hoping to not get swept...
Minnesota has suffered because they don't seem willing to challenge the Yankee batters. on many occasions they haven't had trouble getting to two strikes, but then they stay away and hope for the batter to chase a bad pitch. Duffey has been maybe the worst example of this as his "out pitch" is a slider that moves down and away from a righty. he seems crippled against the more disciplined, patient New York hitters who know that and wait.
I have watched him and waited for the pitch that is thrown at the batter and breaks over the plate as the hitter bails out of the box, but it never happens.
At least Duffy was a guy that "got us there". You can't fault him for game one.
I am pretty simple minded. You need to win at least one of the two games in Yankee Stadium and your most consistent starter hasn't thrown an inning.
I don't argue with the decision to pitch Berrios in game one. He has the "stuff" to shut down anyone when he is on. I doubt that a "baseball guy" like Molitor would have pulled him after four innings, he was pitching well enough, giving up only one earned run in the third inning and got the Yankees out quite easily in the fourth on 12 pitches. He had only thrown 88 pitches at this point, why on earth do you take him out? The decision was probably already made, but the Twins tied the game in the top of the fifth, Berrios should have been kept in, it was "his" game.
As baffled as I am by this, Baldummy then puts in a guy who I have barely heard of, who promptly puts two guys on base. Finally Baldoofus puts in a guy who can pitch, who strikes out three batters and walks one but he gives up a double to shortstop (double to SS?) and the Twins are promptly behind, this time for good.
If Baldoorknob has already decided he is not starting his other good starter in game two, why on earth does he pull Berrios for Littell? Why pull Berrios at all? My only answer is he's an analytics guy. Analytics work well over 162 games, but in this case, I don't like them. Stick with Berrios for the 5th, if he's still doing well...... the 6th. Now your set up for the next three innings with your four solid bullpen guys. Or maybe even let Berrios pitch 7 innings or MORE?
I don't even want to discuss game two. Why didn't I get a call to start? I have never given up a walk or hit or a run in MLB situations. Never mind that I am 62 years old and fat, I could have sucked and saved the bullpen completely.
Rumor has it Odorizzi has a bad hamstring, that could explain game two a bit. At this point, you go out there and do it unless you are actually injured and unable to throw.
Months ago when the Twins were "buyers" before the trade deadline, I said that an injury to one of their two starters could be disastrous.
Win or go/stay home.
Come ON Twins!
Joe, you were correct at the deadline about picking up pitching but they pretty much stayed "pat" with what they had. as to Berrios, he had been "iffy" since late July and there may be some reasoning to pulling him, maybe the bench saw something we aren't aware of or maybe it was the choice of a rookie Manager.
like I said earlier, a rookie Manager facing this is tough. he no doubt knew what he has but I wonder if he had a "pulse" of the Team or a sense of what they would do. this time of season is the Culture of what the Yankees are made of, they have been through it before and always expect to be here so they perform better.
overall, New York has done to Minnesota what the Twins did to the American League all season.
No argument here. Romo was a very nice pick up, but has indicated from day one he liked playing with the Marlins, so he was a rental, and that's ok.
Dyson was a blunder. He was hurt before we got him. With Pineda getting suspended, that put them in a bind because they decided not to go after a quality starter. Hindsight is always 20/20.
Berrios was dominating early, stumbled and was better at the end of the year, although not nearly as good as early.
If he's your pick to start game one and you are planning to start a rookie reliever in game two, you don't take Jose out of the game in those circumstances unless he is hurt. Then you put in Littell?
If I am going to get beat, I want to get beat with my best options in there.
Hoping the Twins can win game 3 and at least have some hope.
Odorizzi will probably be toast by the fourth inning because the Yankees smell blood. his "out pitch" all season has been high heat out of the zone. as long as the Yankees show a little patience it may be a rough night.
Hopefully he can pitch well and the hitters can put up a fight!
Hello! HITTERS! Time's running out!
Congratulations to the Yankees!
Did that ever hurt. :-(
Lots of men left on base.
another first to add to their resume, first 100 win Team swept in an ALDS. the "Slugging Minnesota Twins" need to figure out some pitching.
now the Yankees see if they can figure out the Astros.
My thoughts at the end of the Twins season;
Thank you to Jake Odorizzi for a fine year! Nelson Cruz as well! Those two additions to the team were HUGE.
Several other players (obviously) played very well; Kepler, Polanco, Rosario, Berrios, Garver, even Sano played in 100 games and hit 34 HR, he has the potential to hit 50 if he can stay healthy, fields his position well for a giant too!
Taylor Rogers emerged as a first rate closer and Duffy and May solid out of the pen. Sergio Romo was a great pick up, what a fun guy to watch!
New manager would be a good idea. Is Paul Molitor available? I heard he won Manager of the Year recently?
Note to Baldummy; closer pitches at the end of the game. What an idiot. Or as Bugs Bunny would say;
This has got to be an interesting fact, if not a record, swept when your starting pitchers only give up 3 earned runs in a series.
Good news that the Twins, (beginning under Paul Molitor in 2017) have proven they are a team capable of challenging for the division. This season was a BLAST!
Bad/uncertain news Odorizzi, Pineda, Gibson, Perez and Romo are all Free Agents and Berrios, Rodgers, May and Duffy are all at the end of their current contracts. Twins might be looking for 4 starting pitchers for next year and Berrios will likely get a huge raise. Romo looks like he will leave and Rodgers, May and Duffy are at the end of contracts, but not free agents and they will all be looking to get paid.
Please note, I am not an expert on how contracts work in MLB. Looks like the ENTIRE pitching staff. I only looked up the main guys.
Yes, Twins will need to figure out quite a bit in the pitching department.
Position players look to be in better shape with the exception of Rosario and Sano, both will be looking for raises. Rosario is an excellent all around player! We have Cron and Cruz for at least next year. Schoop is a F.A. but the Twins seem to have 2nd base figured out, Buxton's contract is up, that will be interesting, he plays 50% of the time. Amazing talent!
I think next year's team is going to look a LOT different. With the miserly, penny-pinching that usually goes on here, we could be in big trouble.
The Twins do have two highly rated players in the minors, Royce Lewis and Alex Kirilloff. Both are ranked in the top 15. Our other top prospect, Brusdor Graterol was a late season call up and can hit 100MPH, he looked pretty good in his limited action against big leaguers.
Manager is an idiot, let's hope his analytics help him next year. Maybe just resign Berrios and go out and get all relief pitchers. Everybody gets one inning and then..........next man up!
Put your money on Cleveland next year fellows.
Go Astros!
We are slowly getting rid of the Chaff and down to the good teams.
wrong again, that happened a week ago at the end of the regular season........................next.
I heard that the Twins have set a new record for the most consecutive losses in the post season. As a Red Sox fan in the 1990s, I understand your frustration. One year, my Boston employer had a “Go Red Sox!” Slide at the end of a company presentation. “Yea right!” I thought. Sure enough the Athletics swept them again in the playoffs ... again. You get used to it. After a while, you just don’t care about the post season because it ends up the same way year and after year.
I hate the Yankees.