Twins In Driver's Seat In Wild-Card Race

All i know this is fun! We are building a real exciting team. As with any tournament it's getting to it at the right time. Can the Twins sustain their surge? I would not be surprised. There seems to be a vibe that they like winning and don't except anything else. Plus I have faith in the new FO and the youngsters coming that we are about to see some exciting baseball in Minnesota.

Garver is a better hitter than Vargas, so hopefully its the former that will get more PAs at DH.

Vargas against righties

With the Twins road record being second in the wild card race is s bonus. It would be sweet to roll up the Yankees in a 1 game winner survive and advance game. A little vindication for past tribulations.

I don't know how you can not like the current MLB playoff structure.

1) It's the most exclusive in major sports. Over half of basketball teams make it, same with hockey. Football has 12/32, baseball has 10/30. It's hard to make the baseball playoffs, which makes it better.

2) They fixed the wild card issue. It sucked when teams didn't really push hard down the stretch for the division because they had the wild card sewn up and that meant a full series. That winner-take-all game is great and makes it so teams really care about the division title.

3) I love that having the best record in your league gives you a sizable advantage. You get to face a team that just played a game where they likely started their best pitcher - they're all out of whack and you get to be rested and ready to go. There should be an advantage to finishing first. 

Baseball's playoffs are great as is now. The wild card is fun but is truly a wild card and there's a clear advantage to finishing first. They should not change it at all.

With the Twins road record being second in the wild card race is s bonus. It would be sweet to roll up the Yankees in a 1 game winner survive and advance game. A little vindication for past tribulations.

Agreed. And Sonny Gray is a nice pitcher but he's not unbeatable - it's not like getting a Kershaw, Sale or Scherzer in that game.

Vargas against righties

Yeah, Garver should be the other half of the 1B platoon and get some occasional work at DH/LF. I'd like to see Vargas get 10 days with 9 starts. He's killed it in AAA and he's a guy you'd like to get another look at since he'll be out of options next year.

Crazy how Buxton can go from a guy who looks so lost he doesn't even belong in professional baseball let a lone MLB. To a guy this exciting to watch. Regardless of who the better hitter is I'd rather see Garver be given a real chance to contribute as either DH or 1b. Or spelling Kepler vs tough lefties.

It will be interesting to see how the Twins do in the five games against the White Sox.  The WS are on a down cycle but they always seem to play the Twins tough, lets hope the Twins have the fortitude to bear down and stick it to them.  Winning four out of five would be nice but I'll settle for three out of five.

How the 2016 Twins transformed into the 2017 Twins, we don't quite know but all of Twinkieland is loving it.

I'm intrigued by this aspect of it. All of last year, the main line of thought was that the 2015 Twins were a fluke. Hard to blame people for thinking that way. But with 2017 going well (with largely the same group as 2015), do we change our mind? Was 2016 the fluke?

Pythagorean only goes so far and the Twins are a team that seems designed to mess with it's efficacy. Strong pitching at the front of the rotation and terrible pitching at the back. An offense that can win high scoring close games but that is also prone to getting shut down by good pitching. 

How the 2016 Twins transformed into the 2017 Twins, we don't quite know but all of Twinkieland is loving it. In spite of very minor acquisitions, somehow this is a new team--a resilient team that just won't quit. I think James Rowson deserves a lot of credit for the success of the young hitters. Buxton finally looks so relaxed at the plate and he has us raving about his bat as well as his glove. Rosario still swings hard, but not at every pitch that lands within shouting range of the catcher thrusting him into the top ten in average. You can see their confidence level rising every game. Yes, even Mauer has joined the hit parade--we must be due for a total eclipse or something.

 

The playoff structure of MLB is so good for the game, keeping mediocre teams in it and thus fans watching to the bitter end. I wish our passion for the hitting was matched by the pitching. I think the young relievers have been a real find, but the starters are still just a roll of the dice as to whether they will give us a chance to win. If good Berrios or Santana shows up, we would have a genuine shot at a wild card playoff win. I don't like our chances in a best-of-seven playoff, but hopefully Falvine finds a couple good starters in the off season so next year we are talking division and not wild card.

I think 2016 can be attributed to the horrendous start, the poor line up decisions (Sano and Santana in the outfield), and just generally not giving the young players a chance to succeed. 

They were about a .500 team in 2015 and that's what they are now. I just really hope they can make that next step. We just need a few more pitching prospects to figure things out.