Minnesota Twins fans haven’t had much to cheer about in the postseason since 2002, when the club reached the American League Championship Series only to be KO’d by Anaheim. Personally I went to five playoff games at the old Metrodome during that time period and did not witness a single victory…two losses to Oakland and three to the hated New York Yankees. Things did not change in the new ballpark as the Twins once again fell apart in October and were swept away by the Yanks in 2010. The most depressing thing about last year’s crushing defeat is that the negative momentum has seemed to carry over into this season, with the Twins sitting in last place at 12-27 as of 5/17/11. So is the season lost? Not entirely.
The biggest thing to remember for Twins fans is that, despite having played 39 games, the season is still young. The Major League Baseball schedule is a marathon, full of ups and downs and many crazy turns. At the time of writing the Twins are 13.5 games behind the Cleveland Indians in the race for the American League Central Division crown. So let’s think about this for a second, how many times does a marathon runner who leads at the 1/4 mark win the race? Now let’s not get carried away, the Twins are in shambles, but 13.5 games is not insurmountable with four and a half months left in the season.
The other issue we shouldn’t forget is the effect the injury bug can have on a team early in the season. The 2011 Twins especially have been bitten hard. With key players like Joe Mauer, Jim Thome, Tsuyoshi Nishioka and until recently Delmon Young being on the disabled list, the club has been consistenly fielding a crippled lineup with a few too many Triple-A-calibre hitters filling holes. So if the team is able to get to a somewhat clean bill of health, we can certainly expect an increased amount of offensive production and a few more wins here and there.
We should be realistic, will the Twins be back in the postseason this year? From the looks of it probably not. There are some major concerns with this club even when healthy. Despite the overall awesomeness of Glen Perkins early on, the bullpen is massively depleted from last year. With the likes of Jesse Crain, John Rauch, Matt Guerrier, Randy Flores and Brian Fuentes all leaving in the off-season the pen is a big trouble spot. This is an issue that, like last year, can typically be solved at the trading deadline. But that presupposes that the team will be competing in late-July, so for now we have to rely on what we have.
The last thing to remember is that the club has been in similar positions in recent years, though not as bad or as early. In 2003 the club seemed dead behind the Cinderella Kansas City Royals only to trade for outfielder Shannon Stewart and ride a hot streak all the way to the division title. In 2006 Francisco Liriano emerged and helped to turn the season around and win the division once again.
So the prospects of a successful 2011 campaign for the Twins look bleak, but that isn’t a reason to stop watching. Crazier things have happened. As Twins fans we must remember our past, we witnessed the dark ages of ’93-’00 and it can be acknowledged that the organization is in much better shape than it was in 1995. So keep your head up Twins fans, at least we aren’t being contracted!
