Twins early season schedule

I looked at the Twins April schedule for the first time and wow is it challenging. After 3 in Baltimore, Go home for 6 against 2 playoff favorites in the Angels and Rangers. Then go on the road for murders row road trip with 4 in NY and three in Tampa against the Rays. Thats follwed with 3 at home against the Red Sox and end with 3 at home against the Royals. My question ifor everyone is this the toughest early season schedule for the Twins in recent years. I can't remember a more challenging April in a long time. Also what kind of record can the Twins expect to have coming out of April, if they can get to .500 I think it is a good month considering the schedule. What does everyone else think?

It's brutal. If they can be near .500 through April, it'll be a pretty big victory. I did a quick look at the Twins schedule the last few years, and while there have been some tough series in April, nothing as consistently tough as this.

FYI - I looked over the Twins schedule last Sept and talked a bit about it here:

http://twinsgeek.blogspot.com/2011/0...roadtrips.html

Another big quirk is that just as the trade deadline ends, the Twins starts a huge stretch against the other AL Central teams. Starting on 8/31 they play 22 straight games against the other AL Central teams. August and September are going to be riveting if this is a close race.

And if I remember right, their last two weeks of the season are brutal too. I think they have two series versus the Tigers and another set against the Yankees then.

Kind of like last year's schedule. I remember that we all just kind of hoped the Twins could be close to .500 through April. And to John's point on the AL Central games around the trade deadline, I think it was the same last year. Didn't they have like 16 against the AL Central (four four game series with each of the other teams).

if i remember right last years schedule wasnt that challenging in the teams they played it was the fact that 70% of the games were on the road. This year it is more even as they have 12 home games and 11 road games in April which is a change. I could be wrong about the level of competition last year, but it didn't seem like it was even close to the teams they play this year in April. By my count 19 of the first 25 games are against teams that either made the playoffs last year or are forcasted to be in contention for a playoff spot this year. That is tough especially counting the fact that the Twins have so many new pieces that they are trying to implement in the team. I believe the old saying is true that division titles can't be won in April, but they sure can be lost in April. If they go like 6-19 in April they will be playing catchup all season and with teams like the Tigers and Indians it will be almost impossible to catch up. If the Twins want to stay in the race they need to stay 3-4 games out of first going into May.