Twins: No ‘mo’? No problem

The agony on Twitter usually begins around 7:30 in the evenings these days. It’s when Twins fans start lamenting the team’s performance — they’ve lost five straight games — since clinching the Central Division title last week. Many are worried that without any momentum in the season’s final days, the team won’t have any in the playoffs,either. They needn’t worry. It doesn’t matter.

Here’s the highlights of an afternoon spent looking at the final 12 games for playoffs teams since the “wild-card” era began in 1995:

* The average record for the final 12 games for the 120 playoff teams since 1995 is 7 wins and 5 losses. The Twins would have to win all five of their final games to be “average” in this area.

* Teams that won at least 10 of their last 12 games (there have been 11 such teams), won their first round playoff series 72 percent of the time. Four of those teams went to the World Series, but only one of them — the ’98 New York Yankees — won the World Series.

* Teams with winning records over the last 12 games won their first round playoff series only 47% of the time. Only 8 of 75 teams won a World Series.

* Forty-eight percent of teams with a 6-6 record in the last 12 games won their first round. Only 3 of the 12 teams that did went on to the World Series, but they all won the World Series.

* Sixty-five percent of the teams with losing records over the final games won their first-round playoff series. Forty percent of those teams went on to the World Series. Half of them won the championship.

* In their five playoff years, the Twins have had a losing record over the final regular-season games only once. In the only series they’ve won (2002), they finished the season with 7 wins and five losses.

Of course the Twins have been also chasing the best record in the league, which would assure them of home field advantage in the playoffs. Is that a big deal? Absolutely.

There is definitely a correlation between a team’s record in the regular season and its success in the playoffs. The Twins’ best chance of success in the playoffs would be having the best record of any of the playoff teams in the league. If the season were to end today, the Twins would be the third-best playoff team in their league.