Twins vs. Twins
Bob Collins has a thoughtful column over at The Bleacher Bums which puts the Twins record at this stage of the season into relative perspective. Even despite the way the team has been stumbling, bumbling and giving away winnable games the last couple weeks, as Bob points out, the team is playing at the same pace it set at this point last season. In fact, a little research turns up, the Twins are playing at about the same pace we've seen them set in late June every year since 2001. The main difference is only that one of our rivals this year has been playing out of its gourd.
So, with that in mind, I've decided to track in the righthand sidebar how the Twins are doing vs. all the other Twins clubs of this decade. I thought about including all the other league/division winners in Twins history too, but I guess it's ultimately not so fair (or flattering) to compare this team to the Killebrew clubs from another era that ended up winning 97-102 games in their best seasons. Anyway, the point of the exercise is just to track whether the club is doing better or worse than what we're used to seeing lately.
However, if you're curious to know where some other Twins clubs stood through 73 games:
The 1991 Twins were 44-29
The 1987 Twins were 42-31
The 1970 Twins were 48-25
The 1969 Twins were 40-33
The 1965 Twins were 45-28
So at this stage, the team's record doesn't compare badly even to most of those highlights of franchise history. When even the '65 Twins would be trailing the '05 ChiSox pace by 4.5 games, I guess that tells you something. Fortunately, we have the wild card still in play, even if Chicago might be on the verge of slipping out of reach.
This morning the Twins trail the Orioles in the Wild Card Standings by 1 game.
posted by frightwig @ 6:22 AM
4 comments
4 Comments:
So, let me ask you. What do you think will happen this year? It seems pretty unlikely that the Twins will catch the White Sox barring an implosion in Chicago.
Can the Twins beat out the other wild card teams? If they make a run and hold off the other teams in that race, it could be argued that this is more impressive than rolling the pretty mediocre competition in the AL Central the last three years. Tip of the cap to the ChiSox, they are out of their minds good. Go get the O's, Yanks, Rangers, et al.
Thanks frightwig. This is very, very helpful. I'll be back regularly to check out your Twins vs. Twins table.
SBG, since I witnessed the Angels collapse and Mariners "Refuse to Lose" miracle run of '95, I still can't entirely rule out the Twins' chances of catching the White Sox this year, even if I know they are slight. If the team is still within 10 games at the break, and let's say 8 games at the end of July, I'll keep some hope alive. We still have 13 games to play with Chicago, I believe, and the Sox have an apparently rough schedule in the final couple months down the stretch.
Before the season, I wouldn't have thought the Central had any chance of taking the wild card slot--but that was when I expected both Boston and New York to make runs at 100+ wins. As long as the Yankees don't catch fire, I'd say the wild card is up for grabs. Baltimore, Texas, Cleveland... yeah, I think the Twins are as good or better than those teams. We stand a fair chance against them.
Lichty, if the Twins are playing a tougher strength of schedule this year but have still maintained their usual pace at this point in the season, shouldn't we conclude that the Twins actually have improved along with the competition--although the record masks that progress?
If the team failed to keep pace with an improved division, wouldn't we expect the Twins' record to be significantly worse?
Post a Comment
<< Home