Records the Twins Can Set This Weekend

[Cody Christie]

The strange and unique 2020 regular season is coming to a close, but there is plenty of things left to be decided for the Twins. Weird records were bound to come to fruition within the confines of a 60-game season. Plenty of fans will look back at the 2020 campaign for what it was: a strange and unusual time in baseball history. Here are just a handful of the records on the table for the Twins this weekend.Best Home Winning Percentage

Minnesota enters the weekend with the highest home winning percentage in baseball history. The Twins enter play on Friday with a 23-5 record at home, which calculates out to a .821 home winning percentage. In 1932, the Yankees went 60-15 at home and finished with an .805 winning percentage. In a quirky season, the Twins have also played an extra game at Target Field and that gets them closer to this record. To beat the Yankees record, the Twins need to win two out of their final three games against the Reds who are also fighting for a playoff spot.

 

Bomba Squad Part Deuce?

A year after setting the all-time home run record, the Twins are quietly close to leading the American League in home runs for the second consecutive season. It’s down to a three-team race with the White Sox currently leading the Twins and the Yankees by one home run. The Bomba Squad likely wants to beat Chicago and New York in the playoffs than beat them out for the home run title, but who says the team can’t have both. Hit a bunch of homers against the Reds pitching staff and let the rest take care of itself.

 

Lots of Sano Records in the Forecast

Miguel Sano has been his usual self this year with some incredible hot streaks and some incredible low streaks. He’s on pace to lead the American League in strikeouts, but The Athletic’s Jayson Stark points out some dubious company Sano can enter this weekend. Sano can become just the third strikeout champ to have twice as many Ks as hits joining Rob Deer (1991) and Mark Reynolds (2010).

 

That isn’t the only feat facing Sano this weekend. He enters the weekend with 11 singles and 12 home runs so far in 2020. Plenty of hitters have done this before, but no strikeout leader has finished a season with more home runs than singles. Sano has struggled in recent games, so some home runs before the playoffs might get him back on track.

 

If Sano collects another homer, he can tie Jacque Jones for 13th on the Twins all-time home run list. He’s also climbing the Twins leaderboard for most home runs through a player’s age-27 season. Sano (131 HR) is two home runs behind Justin Morneau (133 HR) for fourth on that list. Out of the other players on the list, only Harmon Killebrew played fewer games than Sano.

 

When Sano makes contact, it is usually with authority and he is on pace to lead the AL in average exit velocity this season. Currently, he sits at a 95.4 mph average exit velocity which is second best in baseball behind Fernando Tatis Jr. Other AL challengers include Matt Chapman (93.6), Mike Trout (93.6) and Teoscar Hernandez (93.4), but there may not be enough games left for the anyone to catch him.

 

Walk-Off Winners

With Minnesota’s walk-off win earlier in the week, the team has already had as many walk-off wins as in all of 2019. Last season, Twins walk-off wins were more allusive because the team scored 939 runs on their way to the all-time home run title. This season Minnesota’s +57 run differential is the second highest in the AL (trailing Chicago by 11 runs). Cruz, Polanco, Buxton and Kepler have all ended a game in dramatic fashion. Can the team add one more walk-off against Cincinnati?

 

Watch Me WHIP

Kenta Maeda won’t be pitching this weekend, but at the season’s conclusion he will enter some elite company when it comes to his WHIP total this year. Only two pitchers in baseball history, Clayton Kershaw and Pedro Martinez, have posted a WHIP lower than Maeda’s 0.75 WHIP this season. Martinez did it in 2000 on his way to his third Cy Young in four seasons, while Kershaw did it in 2016 when he was limited to under 150 innings.

 

What will you be watching for this weekend? Leave a COMMENT and start the discussion.

 

MORE FROM TWINS DAILY

— Latest Twins coverage from our writers

— Recent Twins discussion in our forums

— Follow Twins Daily via Twitter, Facebook or email

 

Click here to view the article

[bighat]

Interesting stats you dug up here, thanks for sharing!

[mikelink45]

Sano comping with Reynolds and Deer is not exactly the star quality we thought we would have.   Let's balance that meaningless stat - exit velocity - with his helplessness.  Factor in an exit velocity of zero for each whiff and what does he look like.  Until they give you extra runs for distance hit the old tape measure distances mean nothing.  Maybe Sano should know it is not batting practice but a real game.  

 

I just heard the old/new cliché that a K is better than a DP.  Well, Duh!  But is it better than advancing the runners?  Is it better than getting on with an error? 

 

Miguel is already number 8 (tied with Dozier) on the Twins all time K list.   Morneau is number 7 on the list with 700 more games.  In fact when I look at games played I have to go down to number Bobby Darwin - number 35 on the list - to find a player in the strikeout category who has played less that Sano.  To say I am not a fan is an understatement.

 

And, by the way he has the second most errors among 1B behind only Abreu of the WS.