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Congrats on the AL Central- From a Twins Fan


1987-1991

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Congrats on winning the 2008 AL Central Division Title. Some May say it is still too early to concede, but with a young pitching staff, tired bullpen, and a hell of a road trip to come, I can comfortably say that the Twins are out of this race. Yes we may be only one game behind you guys, but realistically the stars would have to align for the Twins to win the division. Our pitching staff is too young and inexperienced down the stretch, our bullpen can not hold an eight run lead and they suck even more on the road. Maybe this is an attempt to create a jinx, I would love to eat my own words, but in all seriousness I see the Sox widening the gap in the next few weeks and securing the division. Congrats on the Great year. GG :gosox1: Yes I am a fan, but more of a realist. There is always next year

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Please delete. This is a jinx. Or someone should concede to the Twins...like after Friday's game in Oakland!

 

The Twins have a 50/50 chance because...

 

1) They have Liriano, who looks like he will win 90% of his starts again

2) They can manufacture more runs

3) They still have Nathan

4) Casilla is coming back and Everett won't be out for long

5) Their strength of opponents is lower than the White Sox

 

 

The Twins have problems...

 

1) With almost their entire bullpen, with the exception of Reyes and Nathan...and Nathan's having to close off threats in the 8th now

2) Still not close to the 2001-2003 teams defensively, but improving

3) Innings pitched/past injuries and young arms being protected will factor in with Perkins, Liriano and Blackburn

4) Many of the young players like Buscher, Harris, Span, Gomez and Kubel have not been huge parts of a pennant contender

5) Cuddyer's injury (although I would prefer Span if I was a Twins' fan)

6) The last series against CWS is at home

7) Some of the teams they play on that road trip aren't playing very well...the Angels have been struggling...can't remember if they play the Rays and Blue Jays, but those would be two of the tougher road opponents, and I think a 2-2 split in Anaheim is possible, with the Angels now in "cruise control"

Edited by caulfield12
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Its funny he says "the stars would have to align" and notes the young unproven pitching on their staff. U want to talk about being real, look at Alexi and CQ as well as the unproven Danks and Flloyd, all are having monster years at the same time. If thats not the stars aligning than I dont know what is. It goes both ways sometimes u are very fortunate and sometimes not. The twins are fortunate they play in that dome, creating a huge homefield advantage (thats very ackward to many road teams). The sox are very fortunate they play in a small ballpark with short pull dimensions and a small outfield. We have a lot of power from pulling the ball which gets inflated at home as well as non traditional CF with not such good range (great for our small outfield). So the stars tend align in more ways than one.

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Hopefully you represent the Twins in some way and this is an official surrender.

 

In which case I accept the unconditional surrender of the Twins.

 

If not well, there is a lot of season to be played and I wouldnt count anything done until the final games are played. There is still a chance both the Sox and Twins make the playoffs while neither the Red Sox or Yankees do.

 

And I dont believe in jinxing something when your not there nor taking part in it.

 

There is a big difference between a player having a superstition and some fan thinking that they have an actual impact on the game. Yeah I wish me watching would make a difference, but unfortunately in the real world it really doesnt matter what I say or do.

Edited by Soxbadger
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Both teams are fairly fortunate...the Twins that Liriano was even able to make a comeback.

 

One year ago, I would have thought that Garza and Bonser would be two of their better starters. Maybe Perkins. I didn't see Blackburn and Slowey having this much of an impact, so quickly and so quietly.

 

We've lost Linebrink, Crede and Contreras...in 2005, the only major injury we had was Pods, and we had a pretty signifiant division lead to final hold the Indians off with.

 

The Twins have absorbed the losses/non-performance of Livan Hernandez, Juan Rincon, Pat Neshek, Craig Monroe, Alexi Casilla, Michael Cuddyer, etc., it's just that they have had a much better farm system to replace position players over the last decade. Kubel has finally started to come into his own, after being so highly-touted, like Cuddyer. Those two guys were more like Crede in their delayed big league impact/s. D. Young is starting to play like the Twins thought he was capable of, but his power numbers are still mysteriously lacking.

 

Gomez has been a huge disappointment for them as well...if you look at it statistically, the White Sox should be 4-5 games ahead, but the White Sox find silly ways to lose ballgames the Twins usually hold onto (with just a few exceptions, like the SEA trip) and the Twins' AVG w RISP is incredible, which leads one to think that 1) they're a team of destiny again, or 2) that they will cool down on the road trip.

Edited by caulfield12
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QUOTE (WilliamTell @ Aug 19, 2008 -> 12:04 AM)
Twins will win the division, I'm throwing it back at you 1987-1991, haha. It says this person signed up on July 30th, odd to have the first post 3 weeks later, but whatever.

 

he was waiting for the Sox to finally get a 1 game lead in the division to post this thread ... hahah

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PLAYOFFS ODDS REPORT

 

AccuScore ran 10,000 simulations of the remainder of the 2008 baseball season – and so few of them showed scenarios in which the Angels didn’t make they playoffs, they simply rounded up to 100 percent. The rest of the AL playoff race has three spots for four teams, with the Blue Jays – currently in fourth place in the AL East – actually a better longshot than the Yankees.

 

Aside from the Cubs, who have the NL Central locked up, the race is wide open. Milwaukee, likely the wild-card team, is actually in the second-best position, according to AccuScore, and the Mets and Diamondbacks (actually, not true, Dodgers are favored 57/43% over AZ) are favorites in the East and West.

 

American League

Los Angeles Angels 100 percent

Tampa Bay Rays 94.9 percent

Boston Red Sox* 69.9 percent

Chicago White Sox 67.6 percent

Minnesota Twins 57.0 percent

New York Yankees 5.4 percent

Toronto Blue Jays 3.8 percent

 

More reasons to be nervous...from yahoo.com/sports (Passan)

Edited by caulfield12
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QUOTE (caulfield12 @ Aug 19, 2008 -> 04:28 AM)
PLAYOFFS ODDS REPORT

 

AccuScore ran 10,000 simulations of the remainder of the 2008 baseball season – and so few of them showed scenarios in which the Angels didn't make they playoffs, they simply rounded up to 100 percent. The rest of the AL playoff race has three spots for four teams, with the Blue Jays – currently in fourth place in the AL East – actually a better longshot than the Yankees.

 

Aside from the Cubs, who have the NL Central locked up, the race is wide open. Milwaukee, likely the wild-card team, is actually in the second-best position, according to AccuScore, and the Mets and Diamondbacks (actually, not true, Dodgers are favored 57/43% over AZ) are favorites in the East and West.

 

American League

Los Angeles Angels 100 percent

Tampa Bay Rays 94.9 percent

Boston Red Sox* 69.9 percent

Chicago White Sox 67.6 percent

Minnesota Twins 57.0 percent

New York Yankees 5.4 percent

Toronto Blue Jays 3.8 percent

 

More reasons to be nervous...from yahoo.com/sports (Passan)

That was before we beat Seattle last night and Minnesota lost.

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