Paul TostoHope springs eternal. But it shouldn’t — at least when it comes to baseball.
Baseball loves statistics and the numbers show that, despite winning four of the last five games, the Twins have almost no chance of making the playoffs. The projections from two baseball data sites bear that out.
Coolstandings.com gives the Twins slightly more than a one percent chance of making the playoffs this season.
Baseball Prospectus is, shall we say, less sanguine, putting the odds at zero.
On Friday, Sports Illustrated declared the glory days gone for the “bumbling Minnesota Twins.
Fifty years after the 1962 Mets pushed the possibilities of ineptitude to a modern-era low by going 40-120 in their debut season, the Twins are on pace for a 51-win season.
Only four other teams over the past half-century have been so disastrous over a full 162-game season: the 1963 Mets and 2004 Diamondbacks, both of which went 51-111, the 1965 Mets that went 50-112, and the 2003 Tigers, who finished 43-119, the worst record in American League history.
Sadly, the piece reaches for the “Minnesota Nice” cliche and notes, “no one’s throwing tantrums to protest the losses.”
Maybe the team needs to take its cue from ex-Twins player David Ortiz.
Frustrated by the poor start of his Boston Red Sox, Ortiz pulled together a private team meeting, calling on the so-far lousy starting pitchers to step it up.
It’s already paid off, with the Sox winning eight of 10 since the heart-to-heart.
Anyone on the Twins willing to call out their teammates? Maybe more daunting: Who on the team has had a good enough year so far to point the finger at others?
— Paul Tosto