Thread: Article: What Would It Take To Come Back?

People, in general, are headline/title readers and likely don't read the full articles before spouting off.

Originally Posted by Nick Nelson

Looking back at that 2003 team, they went from 7.5 GB at the All-Star break to winning the division by four games. That's an 11.5 game swing. Granted, they had to pass two teams and not four, and they were better than this current group, but really they weren't all that different. One great starter (Santana) supported by a bunch of meh (Radke was second on that team in ERA at 4.49), a good bullpen and a capable offense with a couple stars.

Well, the 2003 team was 44-49 at the All-Star break, but had been 43-37 on June 29. So they had been having a fine season, until they just hit a horrific slide in the two weeks going into the break (which they immediately corrected with 5 straight wins to open the 2nd half). And the rotation after Santana (who has no equal on this year's team) wasn't great, but Radke, Lohse, and Rogers were league-average pitchers that season. And everyone figured even at the time that Kansas City was going to fade, and it was probably just a matter of beating the White Sox, who were just a half-game up on the Twins at that point.

The 2004 team, which rolled to a three-peat Central championship by playing .600 ball in the 2nd half, had already posted a 47-40 record and trailed Chicago by just a half-game at the break.

The 2006 team that came back from a 12-game deficit in mid-July actually started winning in the second week of June, and had climbed to a 47-39 record at the break. From June 8 to that point, the Twins were 22-6. Catching Chicago and/or Detroit still seemed unlikely, but we had reason to believe that the team could play very good ball the rest of the way--and maybe one of those teams would stumble, and the wild card might be in play.

The 2008 team, which won 88 games but lost the Game 163 playoff with Chicago, was 53-42 at the break, on a 21-8 tear, and trailed the White Sox by just 1 game.

The 2009 team, which won 86 games plus the Game 163 playoff with Detroit, was 45-44 at the break, in 3rd place, just 4 games behind the Tigers.

The 2010 team, which crushed in the second half to finish with 94 wins, was 46-42 at the break. They had been scuffling in the few weeks leading up to that point, but showed their potential with a 40-29 mark on June 20; and, despite recent struggles, they were still in 3rd place, 3.5 games behind Chicago after the first half.

I see that you've acknowledged a couple times that we're just talking about a pipe dream, but let's also be clear that this Twins team, which stands at 36-49 after playing slightly better than .500 ball since mid-May, doesn't really compare well to any of Minnesota's past playoff teams. Coming back from some midseason deficit has been a common feature to most of those good seasons in the Gardy era (excepting only 2002), which is why Twins fans have come to believe that we always have a shot. "This is what we do." But none of those playoff teams had so many problems at this point. None of them had got off to such a horrible start for 6 weeks, only to "turn it around" with a run of merely .510-ish ball for the next 6 weeks. None of them were worse than 3rd at the break, much less sitting in last place. None of them came back from anything like a 36-49 record. I mean, it's fun to indulge a bit in pipe dreams, what might happen if every break starts to go our way, but let's not fool ourselves into thinking, "the Twins have come back from this sort of situation before." No, they have not.

. . . A miracle of near biblical proportions.

In reality, all it will take is good, consistent pitching and timely hitting which we haven't had all year. We do play enough division games for it to at least be a possibility.

I was listening to Common Man today and they had flirted with giving this article a Preposterous Statement Nomination. That would have been great for publicity for the site!

No chance it happens but still fun to think about. What the last months or so of .500 ball has shown is that pieces are in place to be good again next year. Too much broken with the rotation to fix it in season, but with $30 mil to play with and piece that can get a starter in Span, perhaps moves can be made.

Originally Posted by rocketpig

I disagree. I think teams are still going to be wary of Willingham based on his age, the fact that he was a FA this offseason and they didn't pick him up, and that he's a limited ability corner outfielder.

On the other hand, the Twins have Revere behind Span. Putting Revere in CF actually strengthens him as a player, as CF makes his range more of a factor and his arm is slightly marginalized there.

That means the team needs to find a corner OF for 2013. Thankfully, corner outfielders who can put up Revere's offensive production (though not defensive) are one of the easiest things to find in baseball. It's not even that difficult to find a guy who will hit enough to offset the defensive loss in moving Revere to CF. All the Twins need is a guy who can play corner OF for one season, after which one of the Hicks/Arcia/Benson trio should be close to getting a shot.

Like, say, a one or two year deal to Torii Hunter. It makes sense on so many levels. Fans love him, he's probably open to returning to MN, and he's nothing more than a corner OF at this point and possibly nothing more than a backup in 2014.

I think this is pretty much exactly what happens. Twins trade Span for a starter (Zimmermann?), sign one of the second tier guys (Colby Lewis?), sign Hunter on a one year deal, sign a bullpen arm to replace the soon to be traded Capps, maybe get another infielder, and take another bunch of fliers on arms and hope to hit on a couple. That could be a good enough team for 2013.