Twins

Once again, the Twins have been relegated to playing the spoiler role here in September, rather than actively competing for a postseason spot. Sigh.

On the bright side, they have a chance to make an impact on the most compelling race in baseball. The Kansas City Royals haven't been to the playoffs since winning the World Series in 1985, and they're trying to get back. But they'll need to overcome a Tigers team that has reigned over the Central for three years straight.

Detroit leads Kansas City by a game and a half, and comes to Target Field this week as the Twins launch their final homestand of 2014.

This post is part of a series in which Mark Armour and I count down the 25 best GMs in history, cross-posting from our blog. For an explanation, please see this post.

There is an ongoing debate in Boston as to how to divvy up credit between Theo Epstein and Dan Duquette for the 2004 World Series title. Duquette ran the team through 2001, so of course many of the better players on the 2004 club joined the team on his watch. This is all true, but undersells the difficulty of turning a good team into a great team.

The last time the Astros won more than 70 games, Ke$ha’s “Tik Tok” was the number one song that year according to Billboard’s annual charts.

If you didn’t remember that or remember who Ke$ha is, you are excused because no one remembers 2010 or the last time Houston won more than 70 games. That was also the last year the Twins won more than 70 games. If you didn’t recall that, I guess that’s the kind of memory you have when you brush your teeth with a bottle of Jack.

Nobody expected 2015 to be much different for the two teams, either. At ESPN, all of the analysts buried the Twins in the Central while most believed that the Astros would be outclassed by the higher-spending Mariners or Angels. Now the two teams, both of whom are in playoff contention, will meet this weekend to prove which can outperform expectations better.

The Twins could have hardly asked for a better finish to the month of March. During their last eight days in Fort Myers, they went 8-0, receiving strong outing after strong outing as their starters stretched out to season-ready form. Hitters looked to be ahead of the curve; six regulars posted a Grapefruit OPS above 850. Everyone was healthy.

Then, the calendar flipped to April, and the team has been under some cruel hex ever since.

It’s been a really long season for the Minnesota Twins and their fans. Way back in mid-February, as spring training was getting underway in Ft. Myers, Nick wrote an article called Dreaming of 200 Home Runs.

In the article, Nick wrote, “For this year’s club it is an unlikely yet not unfeasible possibility.”

The Twins have six games remaining; three in Kansas City and three in Chicago against the White Sox. They are currently sitting at 193 home runs. If they hit seven home runs over those final six games, it will be the first time the Twins have hit 200 home runs since 1964. When the Twins hit their 196th home run of 2016, it will match the number hit by the 1986 and 1987 Twins.

While we believed coming into this season that the Twins had a chance to be a powerful, home-run hitting team, the fact that they will likely finish with the third-most home runs in Twins history is very impressive.

In past years, I posted my first big league Roster Projections on the first day of Twins full-squad workouts. This is a couple of days late. Actually, my first 2017 Roster Projection was done following baseball’s Winter Meetings in mid-December. Here’s the second attempt, though a lot can still happen in the next six or seven weeks.

This is always a fun exercise. Without question, this can and will change at any time. Certainly there are several roster spots that are Givens meaning, if they are healthy, they will make the Opening Day roster. The remainder of the jobs could still be up for grabs. Spring Training statistics should not matter much in decision making, but spring training performance will matter.

So here we are, mere hours away from the first-pitch of a loser go home match-up at Yankee Stadium.

No one can script what will happen in a one-game playoff – Nick Blackburn throwing 6.1 innings of one-run ball? Sure. Bobby Keppel and Alexi Casilla playing hero in extra innings? Why not. – the Twins will undoubtedly have a plan of attack in trying to stymie one of the most potent lineups in the smallest of slowpitch softball fields.

Tonight’s game may come down to one critical factor: How well Ervin Santana can execute his slider.

Chopin’s

The St. Paul Saints are off to a fast start in the American Association, leading the North Division for most of the season. There have been several players that have made significant contributions to that early season success, but the Saints found themselves short-handed recently thanks, in large part, to that success.

This is the second in a four-part series ranking the top 20 player assets in the Minnesota Twins organization. The idea is to think solely in terms of commodity valuation, factoring in things like age, cost, control, and risk management in answering the question: which players are most essential to this team's vision?

Last week we looked at Nos. 20 through 16. Today we continue the countdown with Nos. 15 through 11.

The Twins were able to use a late inning push to improve to 44-21 and retake their lead as baseball's best. The Twins score three runs in the bottom of the eighth to take a one-run lead. Taylor Rogers was unavailable due to a stiff back, so it was Trevor May who was given the ninth tonight. He passed the test.