Twins IN the Playoffs? That’s What the Schedule Says…

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Aug 12, 2017

The Twins have gone on a 6-game winning streak.

After leaving us to think about Vikings Football and Andrew Wiggins for Kyrie Irving deals a, couple weeks ago, they now have us dreaming of MLB playoff births.

The Twins are now 2 games over .500 and would even be in the playoffs if the season ended after Friday’s games. A glance into the record this season would tell you the Twins have been VERY average all season long.

They haven’t gone on long winning streaks (6 – current) but have also been able to avoid long losing streaks (4). In the early months they would finish just barely above .500; later months would fall just short of that mark.

Baseball-Reference:

Really, the hot start to August (8-3) does nothing more than make up for the fall-off they had in July. And, that’s what the record shows: 58-56.

But what if we look a little deeper…

We have heard a lot this year about how the Twins have played at home vs. away this season. The discrepancy is definitely there.

Baseball-Reference.com

However, this is a hard number to rely on. Let’s look a LITTLE bit closer:

There is another discrepancy available to us that tells a bigger story:

So, the Twins are very good against bad teams (duh..). Well, they happened to have a lot of bad teams on the schedule for the rest of the season.

Once finished in Detroit, the Twins will come back to Minnesota to open up a 3 game series against the Indians. Depending on how the next couple games vs. Detroit go, the series could decide the 1st place team in the Central, once finished. Then, the Diamondbacks come to town. They are currently 13 games over .500.

If the Twins can escape those two series in-tact, the schedule REALLY turns in the Twins’ favor. The next 8 series (27 games) are against teams who total at 54 games BELOW .500.

Once that stretch ends, the Twins will have just 13 games left…

This is NOT saying the Twins will make the playoffs for the first time since 2010. BUT, Brian Dozier will have a VERY GOOD opportunity to prove his opinions right. That the Twins will, and can, make the playoffs RIGHT NOW. That retooling for the future doesn’t need to be as drastic as some think…

So, there you have it Brian. Go prove your front-office wrong. I haven’t gotten my Homer-Hanky out in a while. I am sure I can find it though…

Eric Strack
Minnesota Sports Fan
@RealMNSportsFan

Sources: Baseball-Reference.com

Photo: Pioneer Press

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