MLB Teams: Minnesota Twins

Today we move from the NL Central to the AL Central to look at the Minnesota Twins.

Fellow British MLBlogger Marty has become a diehard Twins fans by following the advice of his Twins-supporting girlfriend (wise man!) and there are plenty of other reasons to make Minnesota your team as well.

Supporting a so-called big name team like the Yankees has its benefits, but for most Brits the prospect of getting behind a small-market team that has to battle against the odds to succeed is much more appealing.  The Twins fit this description, to the extent that they recently had to battle just to stay in existence.

One of Bud Selig’s bright ideas of the late Nineties and early 2000s was to contract MLB to twenty-eight teams.  Of course, that wouldn’t have meant two teams being relegated to a lower division; they would have simply ceased to exist. 

The Twins were one of the main teams in the firing line and thankfully they avoided that fate.  Well, perhaps it’s more accurate to state Minnesota avoided that fate, as the Twins’ owners didn’t exactly seem against the idea and had been trying to move the team elsewhere for years.  As the team sprang back into life during the first-half of the 2000s, the threat of contraction was lifted (with the Expos being ripped away from Montreal and rebranded as the Washington Nationals) and baseball fans in Minnesota can now look ahead to the future with hope rather than the fear of their team being taken away.

That future includes a brand new ballpark.  Target Field is scheduled to open next year and it will replace the unique Metrodome.  I’ll miss watching games on TV  being played there as it made for a very different setting, but no doubt the players and fans are looking forward to a new open-air home (subject to the wind and rain), without artificial turf and a white baggy ceiling that makes flyballs disappear like an Asprin dissolving in a glass of water.

A new ballpark means little if you haven’t got a good home team playing there (pick your own example from several contenders).  The Twins have little to worry about in that respect as they have been a keen competitor in the AL Central for several years and no other team looks set to dominate the division in the near future. 

Their small-market budget makes hanging on to their top players difficult and the passing of time won’t make seeing Torii Hunter and Johan Santana in Angels and Mets uniforms respectively any easier.  However, smart teams are able to replace established stars with younger versions and that’s just what the Twins have done.

The Twins organization has a happy knack of spotting and developing pitchers, as shown by their current rotation containing Francisco Liriano, Scott Baker, Nick Blackburn and Kevin Slowey (along with Glenn Perkins who is currently on the disabled list).  The one criticism of the Front Office in recent years has been their reluctance/inability to go out and add that one extra big bat to make the difference.  Strong regular season campaigns produced five postseason visits between 2002 and 2006, yet they fell at the first hurdle on four occasions and were beaten 4-1 by the Angels in the ’02 ALCS in the only time they got any further.  Just one more piece could have been enough to get them to the World Series, but a trade or big free agent signing never materialized.

Minnesota have brought through some talented position players though, not least the modern day ‘M and M’ boys: Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer.  The former signed a five-year contract extension at the start of 2008 to tie him to the club until 2013 and thoughts are now turning to Mauer’s future as he will become a free agent at the end of the 2010 season.  If they can keep hold of the local boy, the Twins have two excellent position players to build around for years to come.

Just to add to their appeal to Brits, the Twins also have a European link in Bert Blyleven.  Blyleven was born in the Netherlands and is considered by many to be the best eligible pitcher not in the Hall of Fame.  He helped the Twins win a World Series in 1987 (he also won one with the Pirates back in 1979) and now serves as the co-commentator on the Twins’ TV broadcast where he has become known for ‘circling’ fans with a telestrator (look out for all the ‘Circle me, Bert’ signs).

Oh, and their Double-A affiliate team are the New Britain Rock Cats. 

Quite frankly, the Twins are one of the main teams I would recommend to a British newcomer.  They are small-market underdogs with a strong recent history of bringing through home-grown players and they will have the attraction of a new ballpark to go and visit very soon.  That makes for an excellent combination. 

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