How To Beat The Twins?

[elrockinMT]

Only no one remembers TCQ going out of his way to get up into the knees of the shortstop and roll him during a double play.

 

 

I remember it and that's one of the reasons I like CQ so much. He is one hardnosed ball layer and wants to win badly. He supports his team mates

[caulfield12]

For a long time, it was their speed and athleticism, defense, fundamentals and bullpens that beat us. I liked to think of it as the Martina Hingis analogy...they would just stay in the game with you and wait for you to beat yourselves (which the Sox have often done), but the game had to be close enough for them to do it, and their bullpen with Hawkins/Romero/Guardado was even scarier in 2002-2004 than their recent ones.

 

So, as someone posted it, part of it is having the kind of offense we LOOK to have on paper that can score runs in bunches (like the Yankees as well) and just dominate the game in the first 3-4 innings and then cruise to a victory. The problem typically is we would be up by 2-3-4 runs and then the Twins would slowly whittle the lead down to zero and go ahead (those darned Jenks blown saves in 2008/2010 still haunt me).

 

Clutch hitting with RISP...virtually non-existent for the White Sox in the second half against MIN. We had many, many opportunities to blow those games wide open and failed at a 90-95% rate. Somebody said the Twins blew us out....totally disagree with that. There were legitimately 10-11-12 games you could go back and dissect one or two key situations going against us and the Twins eventually winning. They weren't all so dramatic as the Thome homer off Thornton, but that was another huge backbreaker.

 

I'd guess another way would be for Mauer/Morneau to be out significant periods of time and for them not to resign Pavano. Having Kyle Gibson turn out to be a huge flop wouldn't hurt too much either. They had the likes of Duensing, Valencia and Young come through in unexpected fashion last year. So we need to improve our minor league depth, and we all know that's our #1 weakness and it always has been under KW.

 

Let's say Nathan doesn't return to form and Mauer/Morneau are hurt, that's like $50-60 million of payroll that's both ineffective and also blocking their flexibility to make other moves with the bloated payroll. And I'd still be pretty shocked to Greinke traded within the division....although I'm sure the Royals would take Gibson, Hicks and another prospect for Greinke...at least PRETTY sure. I really believe the Twins simply don't want to pay his salary. They're kind of at that in-between stage where they have players like Baker, Blackburn, Young, Cuddyer (especially) and Kubel all starting to make bigger bank. Also, they had to create some room for Capps....they couldn't just let him go after they gave up their best catching prospect, and Top 3 (arguably in baseball) for him.

 

That's why they let O. Hudson, Hardy, Rauch, Crain, Guerrier and possibly Thome/Pavano were all let go.

 

And it's going to be interesting to see what happens if Nathan struggles (likely at his age and with the two year timetable for being 100%) and can't be the closer but isn't actually hurt enough to go on the DL.

Edited December 18, 2010 by caulfield12

[Lillian]

We shouldn't forget that the Metrodome had a lot to do with their prior dominance. Thankfully, at least the Sox don't have to contend with that obstacle anymore.

 

I guess another possibility is to just compile such a better record than theirs, against every other team we play, so that even if they have a dominant record versus the Sox, they still can't catch us. At least we know that we wouldn't have to face them in the post season, if we can get there.

 

No one has mentioned any player that has had an especially successful career vs the Twins, whom the Sox might try to acquire.

Maybe they need to create a new position; "Designated Player vs. Twins".

If the Sox do acquire another starting pitcher, I hope that he's really good against them. Then they should make sure that he gets a start in every series with Minnesota.

Edited December 18, 2010 by Lillian

[greg775]

Not just the Twins, but we have to stress beating the entire division, the importance of those games.

 

We can't just be the cool, calm collected White Sox. We have to gear up for divisional games. I'd address it more in spring training. Just stress during the dog days of spring training that guys, we have to beat our divisional rivals. Get up for those games, guys. Take care of yourselves better before those games. Show some pride and win those f***ing games.

 

Specifically the Twins, I hope our guys realize by the Twins' annual faceplant that their team is really a postseason pretender. Put them out of their misery during the regular season.

[joeynach]

We shouldn't forget that the Metrodome had a lot to do with their prior dominance. Thankfully, at least the Sox don't have to contend with that obstacle anymore.

 

I guess another possibility is to just compile such a better record than theirs, against every other team we play, so that even if they have a dominant record versus the Sox, they still can't catch us. At least we know that we wouldn't have to face them in the post season, if we can get there.

 

No one has mentioned any player that has had an especially successful career vs the Twins, whom the Sox might try to acquire.

Maybe they need to create a new position; "Designated Player vs. Twins".

If the Sox do acquire another starting pitcher, I hope that he's really good against them. Then they should make sure that he gets a start in every series with Minnesota.

 

The metrodome has a ton to do with this. Remember for years and years the Twins had at least 7 out of their 9 hitters be able to score from 2nd on a single or go from 1st or 3rd on a single. Something very difficult to do with the speed of balls hit on that turf. The balls get to the outfielders on the ground much faster and if you had a team of big lumberjack sluggers unless u hit balls out of park you could have just as many base hits if not more than the twins and not score as many runs. The Twins team was tailored to that athletic groundball/line drive hitting squad, both offensively and defensively. They had guys in the outfield that could cover ground quickly and their lineup was stacked with hard ground ball and gap hitters. Hell even their best hitter, Joe Mauer, was hitting like 12 HR per year for a while and celebrated for it.