Playoff Preview, Yankees vs. Twins (Twins Side)

Another installment in our Playoff Preview gust series.  This one comes from courtesy of Shalva Geffen, certified Twins junkie.  I can vouch for her fanatical and knowledgeable ways because I have witnessed her watch the Twins play on a dirty hallway in an absorption center in Ashkelon, Israel on a borrowed computer with a crappy internet connection...at 4 am! I want to take this time to thank everyone who has contributed to Ben's Baseball Bias.  While every team can't win, I look forward to future previews in the next round. Thanks again!

You want a baseball bias?  I'll give you a baseball bias... the Minnesota Twins are going all the way!  Why you ask?  No, not because we finally pay our players in more than peanuts, and certainly not because of fans' excitement of Randy Moss returning to the land of 10,000 lakes.  It's because we're good at baseball, damn good!

Yes, it is true, Minnesota has a terrible record in the postseason the past few years (let's not even mention 2009's sweep by none-other-than the Yankees).  What's different about this year, is we are not the best team in a mediocre division, we are the best team in a division that as of late had been playing rather competitively.  In the past couple of years the winner of the AL Central was more of a sacrificial lamb than a legitimate contender.  Post All Star break, the Twins have been right on the heels of the Yankees/Rays duo.  They finished the season just two games behind the best team in the American League.  If you ask me, that's an appropriate adversary.

The team's success after losing both their closer and their top hitter is pretty impressive.  If you took Cano and Rivera off the pinstriper's bench I'm not sure how well they'd fare.  The key to this success is the fact that everyone is pretty good at everything.  As broad and overgeneralized as that sounds, it's true.  The Twins don't rely on a couple of guys to carry them, when someone's out, someone else picks up the slack.  No matter where you look in the lineup
you'll find a consistent hitter, so what if they aren't winning batting titles, they are getting on base.  Same goes for the field, no one throws gold gloves at the Twins, but they catch the damn ball and hardly ever make an error.  Minnesota knows the fundamentals better than most, they know where the ball needs to be and they get it there.

The brand spanking new ballpark is nothing to scoff at either.  If anything, it's exciting for the fans.  Beyond that though, the Twins are incredible at home.  Target Field has proved to be a perfect place for this team of scrappers.  Hopefully the Twins last long enough in the post season to require parkas and mittens in their inaugural outdoor baseball season.  With a 53-28 home record, my hypothesis is the Twins take both game one and two among a throng of fans that are out of their minds jacked-up for this series.  We'll see how they fare in the big bad city.