Thursday, April 2, 2015

Twins Poised For Big Opening Day

As we sit today, 11 days away from the home opener at Target Field, the Minnesota Twins find themselves in a great position. Coming off of four straight 90 loss campaigns, there is plenty of reason for the local fan base to be skeptical of this year's club. However, whether you want to blame it on the cold winter, or the revamped pitching staff, it appears that there is plenty of buzz around the 2015 Minnesota Twins.

The club announced this morning that the home opener against the Kansas City Royals on Monday, April 13 is in fact sold out. A quick perusal of StubHub also shows that while standing room tickets can be had, the $30 price point is markedly higher than is typically expected for the Twins.
Sure, the club is giving away a free Twins hoodie to every fan that enters on the 13th, but it would be crazy to attribute the influx of excitement to that. Should things stay in their current order, Ricky Nolasco is set to take the bump for the Twins. Although he was terrible last season, there's plenty of reason to believe the former Marlins pitcher bounces back in a big way.

In throwing out some of the lesser reasons that fans will be flocking to the home of Minnesota baseball on the 13th, that leaves us with the only obvious answer. This team actually has a chance to be good. Now, stick with me here for a little bit because I know that's not something warmly received in these parts. However, we've been over this time and again. The Twins are very realistically going to be around 79 wins this season, but with things going their way, the ceiling could conceivably be even higher. Knowing that the opportunity to improve the bullpen from within, as well as the every day lineup, Minnesota has options as to how they go about diagramming their season.

While they will have already played through series with both Detroit and Chicago, the Twins will come home with renewed hope for the upcoming year. The American league is a wide open race, and although the Twins won't be near the top of it, the Central would do well to not take them lightly.

For the fan sick of losing, the home opener represents a chance to start anew. With a whole slate ahead of the team, writing them off from the get go would seem to be a poor decision. The construction of the current roster is no doubt in better shape than previous history, and it would appear that the ticket sales suggest people are more than aware.

Find a way to hold off judgement until the summer, things will take shape on their own. Until then, continue to enjoy something Target Field hasn't seen for a while. Sellout crowds.
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