This season for the Twins was fun, a lot of fun. Sure it is
disappointing that they didn’t make the playoffs, but they were in the mix,
they had a chance going into the final weekend of the season. Watching your
team with a chance right to the bitter end. That is when sports are fun to
watch even if things don’t turn out as hoped. This is especially true since no
one thought that the Twins would fare any differently than the past four years.
I can’t help but wonder what set this team apart from the teams
of the previous four seasons. I don’t know if their pitching was really that
much better. There seemed to be more quality starts, but there were plenty of
bad ones too. The bullpen had its good moments, but it certainly had plenty of
bad ones too, and the troubles that Glen Perkins had in the second half definitely
put the bullpen in a tough spot. The team batting average was sub-par. Although
they did hit pretty well with runners in scoring position. They had some decent
power thanks to Brian Dozier, Trevor Plouffe, Torii Hunter, and Miguel Sano,
but this certainly wasn’t a huge home run hitting team. The defense was
certainly solid thanks to Eddie Rosario, Brian Dozier, and others. I don’t know
if slightly better defense is enough to win 13 more games though. Miguel Sano
certainly carried the team on his back at times. All things considered though,
I don’t know if there is a way to quantify why this team was better. I think it
was just the intangibles.
Two intangibles that stand out in my mind are the leadership
and attitude that were brought to the clubhouse by Paul Molitor and Torii
Hunter. In the offseason, I didn’t think that a change at manager was going to
make much of a difference, but in the end, it appears that it made a huge
difference. There was just a different feel in the dugout, and the change at manager is one obvious
difference between this year and the previous four. Molitor should be manager
of the year. Unfortunately, that honor is going to go to A.J. Hinch simply
because Houston made the playoffs and Minnesota didn’t.
When Torii signed with the Twins this offseason I thought
two things, “It will be fun to have Torii back on the team” and “It really doesn’t
make any sense for him to sign with the Twins because all he needs at this
point in his career is a World Series.” I guess Torii saw something that I didn’t.
I am glad he did because it was definitely fun to have him back on the Twins’ roster.
The Twins players seemed to be having more fun this year both on and off the
field thanks to Torii (and his dance parties after wins) as well. This gave the
team a looseness this year that I haven’t seen in a while. There is no doubt
that Torii’s extensive playoff experience and veteran leadership made a difference
too. Even though Torii struggled on the field at times, having him on the team
made a huge difference.
Still, it wasn’t just Paul Molitor and Torii Hunter. It was
the whole team that had a different feel, even the players that have been with the Twins for a while. I just can’t quantify it. I think I can
describe it with one word though: resilient. Man was this a resilient team! There
were so many times that they could have packed in the season. Think about it.
They started out 1-6. Considering the previous four seasons they could
have easily continued sliding in the wrong direction, but they battled back.
With one week left before the All-Star Break the Twins were slowly leaking oil,
but again they battled back thanks to late inning heroics by Brian Dozier
certainly fueled by his All-Star snubbing. When they were getting bombed
by Toronto in August on the way to a four game sweep the Twins could have
rested on their solid first half and called it a good enough year, but they
battled back. When the Twins lost three ball games that they should have won in
the Bronx a few weeks later, the Twins should have been left with no petrol in
the tank. Again though, they battled back. This time by taking four games at
Camden Yards against an Orioles team that was on the rise and following that by
taking the first two games in Tampa. Having already clinched a winning season,
the Twins certainly could have called it a year after Tyler Duffey gave up a two-run home run to lose the lead late in the game against Cleveland last Thursday.
Once again though, they battled back, won the game, and gave the fans in
Minnesota some hope on the final weekend of the year. Unfortunately, the final
weekend didn’t go as planned, but boy howdy was it fun just to have a chance. On May 28th I told you to " just enjoy the
ride." I did. I hope you did too.
