This is probably the most sustained successful era of any Twins team. This time period of the Twins made more playoff appearances and won more division titles, partly due to the expanded playoffs. The 1965 to 1970 Twins would have made the playoffs in 5 out of 6 years with a similar play-off format. These Twins teams won 6 division titles and made 7 trips to the playoffs in 9 years. But, as we know in all of those playoff years they made it to the ALCS just once and never to the World Series.

This team had amazing top end talent. They had arguably the best pitcher in baseball in Johan Santana from 2004 to 2008. Joe Nathan was considered by most to be the 2nd best reliever in the game during this stretch behind the great Mariano Rivera. They had the best overall catcher in the game, the best hitting catcher in the game and perennial MVP candidate in Joe Mauer. They had one of the best first basemen who could do everything. Justin played solid first base, could hit for average and power plus drew 60 to 70 walks a year. Their centerfielder was also one of the best in the game. Torii Hunter was a human highlight reel on defense and averaged 25 homers a season from 2002 thru his final season with the Twins in 2007. They also had a very solid RFer in Michael Cuddyer who had 3 years of OPS+ over 120 during this stretch The bullpen had solid members during these years with guys like Jesse Crain, Juan Rincon, Pat Neshek, Matt Guerier, JC Romero and others. The rotation was augmented by a Brad Radke on the back stretch of his career as well as the early years of high draft picks Scott Baker, Kevin Slowey and Matt Garza.

So what happened? How could a team with 5 of the absolute best players in baseball at their respective positions and some decent complement pieces never even make a World Series let alone win one? There are 2 reasons why. This team was doomed by injuries and some very bad personnel decisions.

Let's start with the injuries. The biggest one was when Francisco Liriano blew out his elbow in Aug of 2006. Liriano was having an amazing season before he was injured. 12-3, 2.16 ERA, only 6.6 hits and 2.4 walks per 9 for a WHIP of 1. He was fanning 10.7 per 9 innings. He was absolutely dominant including winning a showdown with the Houston Astros and Roger Clemens on national TV. On June 7th the Twins were 25-33. Liriano had just been put into the starting rotation a few weeks earlier. They than proceeded to go 25-2 over the next month with Liriano and Santana leading the way. Twins were on their way to winning 96 games this year. This team absolutely wins the World Series over Detroit or St Louis that season if Liriano stays healthy. Liriano would have been able to combine with Santana for a dynamic one two punch for the next several seasons. They would have led the rotation that the Twins could have rounded out with the likes of Baker and Garza. Liriano also could have taken over Santana's place as ace once Santana started to decline.

The second big injury happened a few years before this but definitely not only impacted the 2006 season but this entire era as well as some of the personnel decisions that doomed these teams. A lot of people forget or don't realize how good Jason Kubel was as a minor leaguer. His minor league stats are on par with Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. Jason was a 12th rd pick by the Twins in 2000 out of high school. In his 1st full season at Low A Quad Cities he slashed .321/.380/.521 with 26 doubles and 14 homers and didn't turn 20 until the season was almost half over. He had nearly as many walks (41) as strikeouts (48). He really busted out in 2004. At AA New Britain he hit .377/.453/.667 for an OPS of 1.119. He was just as good when promoted to AAA Rochester hitting .343/.398/.560. His AAA power stats projected to 50 doubles and 29 homers over a full season. He only struck out 10.7% of the time and walked .8.9% of the time. He was also a very good athlete stealing 16 bases in those 90 games. In the Arizona Fall League that year Kubel suffered a horrific knee injury during a collision while chasing a pop up. Kubel would miss all of 2005. Kubes went on to have a solid career peaking in 2009 with 28 homers and a .907 OPS. His minor league career showed that his best season may have been closer to his prime averages instead of a borderline outlier season. The 2006 team gave 677 at bats to Lew Ford, Jason Tyner and Shannon Stewart as outfielders. A healthy 24 year old Kubel in his 2nd full season would have dwarfed there stats while also playing a solid left field. The Twins would struggle to get production from LF for the next several season including using a much less athletic Kubel there. This injury not only affected Twins teams in 2005 thru 2008 but it also led them to make a trade to fill the void in LF. I will cover this trade along with a few other disastrous personnel decisions in part 2.

There is no doubt in my mind that the 2006 Twins would have been World Champs if Liriano and Kubel don't get injured. They also would have been set up to contend for additional championships in subsequent years with a healthy and dynamic Kubel and Liriano.