.500 record attained - where is the celebration?

[Monkeypaws]

Not expected. Attained. 1 more win, the Twins are over .500 2015. One step at a time.

 

This lineup plus Berrios. a full season of Santana, maybe a resurgent healthy Nolasco, a less gawk-eyed Buxton, a non-gimped Sano, a growing Rosario, continued goodness at 2nd, 3rd, SS with Escobar.

 

Very happy Twins fan tonight, regardless of a single game carrot. 2015 is a win.

[DaveW]

I am happy with the season thus far, but being this close to the playoffs? It will be hard to be anything but slightly dissapointed if the Twins somehow miss out. (The only way it wouldn't be as dissapointing if the Twins end the season going 6-1 or something and the Stros or Angels match it)

 

Regardless of the rest of the season, TR and Molly's goal for next season should be 90 wins and compete for the division.

 

Exciting times for sure to be a Twins fan.

[stringer bell]

I see 2016 as a free-for-all in the Central. The team the Twins beat tonight might be the team to beat next year.

[DaveW]

Also, not to sidetrack too much, but I "expected" .500 this year, anything less (from the beginning) I said would be a dissapointment. They have a team that spent some cash in free agency (most in club history) and had a whole bunch of young guys waiting in the wings or looking to build on a decent 2014 campaign (Sano, Rosario, Arcia, Buxton,  Vargas, Meyer, Danny Santana, May, Milone, Gibson, Rosario, Kepler, Berrios, Hicks)

 

some of those guys did well and a couple more didn't do much (or didn't get up at all/stayed flat)

 

i.e.
Sano
Rosario

Hicks

 

All have done fantastic.

 

Buxton

Arcia

Vargas

Meyer
Santana

 

Honestly have been dissapointing in their performance overall contributed to the big league club (Not saying any of them are "done", but from we were hoping for and expecting in some cases? Dissapointing from all of them IMO)

 

May

Gibson

Milone

 

May has been nice in the pen no doubt, but many were hoping for him being a solid member of the rotation. Gibson, didn't step up IMO to be a #2 type, Milone: Up and Down, looks like #5 type instead of #4 type we hoped for after strong 2014. This is the group that didn't dissapoint, but didn't really "Step up" as well, so they are solid players that we hope could have been more in 2015.

 

Kepler

Berrios

 

TBD obviously.

 

Mauer, Hughes, Nolasco, Suzuki were all dissapointing overall as well.

 

Dozier, Plouffe, Escobar, Boyer, Perkins, all nice surprises TBH.

 

So at the end of the day, I am THRILLED we are playing meaningful games with 6 left. But I am not going to throw a parade at this point for going .500, since that should have been the minimum expectations to begin with.

 

 

[jokin]

 

I see 2016 as a free-for-all in the Central. The team the Twins beat tonight might be the team to beat next year.

 

Yep- totally agree- I thought they'd challenge KC this year to the end. If Carlos Santana bounces back to career norms- their 1-4 hitters would be as good as anyone in the AL, save maybe Toronto; Plus their quality, deep pitching staff all coming back and healthy (and a new stud acquired from the Cards om the Moss trade),\; Plus for depth coming up- they had 3 straight years of drafting 3 stud center fielders in the 1st round- who are all close to knocking on the door in 2016 (combine the best K/9 rate in both the AL and NL with an OF defense that potentially matches the Royals, and you'd have a pretty imposing problem trying to score enough runs to beat the Indians)

[Old Twins Cap]

Twins did surprise this year, surprised everyone.  And they won games with average pitching, below average bullpen, below average hitting, but above average defense and hitting with RISP.

 

RISP is not a repeatable stat.  They could easily pitch better next year and win fewer games just based on hitting in RISP.  Hopefully they get more guys on base and can _{still win games through bulk opportunities to score.}

 

_{But, just to say, yes, 2015 has been a surprise and there are no guarantees about success going forward.  So, let's win the next game and worry about the rest later.}

[Monkeypaws]

The optimist in me hoped the change in coaching would prevent us from losing 90+.

 

The emergence of the prospects was a very peasant surspise though.

 

Given that Arcia, Santana, and Vargas have dropped out of the picture, their success this season has been astounding. 

[USAFChief]

Events have conspired to have the Twins playing important games the last week of the season.

 

I'm sure I'll be disappointed if they miss the WC, but I certainly would have been happy if guaranteed that in April.

[jokin]

 

Events have conspired to have the Twins playing important games the last week of the season.

I'm sure I'll be disappointed if they miss the WC, but I certainly would have been happy if guaranteed that in April.

 

Chief, do you remember last May when I asked you about the best description for the Twins as being Luck meeting Destiny?  There have been at least a dozen times since then when they would have completely folded it up in previous years, and yet on September 28, here we are... a pretty improbable, but thoroughly enjoyable run.