Starting 2019 with two divisional series gives the Minnesota
Twins some immediate opportunity. Rocco Baldelli’s club took the opening series
against the AL Central favorite Cleveland Indians, and they’ll now have a
chance to grab more important victories against the Kansas City Royals. Looking
back at 2018 and how it played out, it’s clear that the key to this club taking
the next step lies in grabbing the victories they’re supposed to.
Last season the AL Central was historically bad. Minnesota
played into that futility, but they certainly didn’t find themselves in the
doldrums inhabited by the White Sox, Tigers, and Royals. Knowing how bad those
three clubs were, it was important for the hometown club to get fat while
competing against them. They accomplished that feat going 12-7 against both
Chicago and Detroit, but a 9-10 record against Kansas City certainly wasn’t
going to get it done.
Looking over the results put up against the competition,
there’s lots of area for extra wins to be squeaked out. The Royals are the most
notable club in which Minnesota must wallop, but the reality is that they need
to play much better against everyone outside of the division as well. Baldelli
is going to want to improve upon an 8-12 interleague record and being on the
wrong end against too many American League foes was a suboptimal reality.
Beyond the teams they lost too, it was the losses themselves
that were unfortunate as well. In one run games, the Twins went 15-21 a season
ago. There’s a decent amount of luck in close games, but there’s also bullpen
factors that generally didn’t play in favor of the Twins. Blowout games had last
year’s club looking at a 20-22 record with a -39 run differential. Although not
incredibly lopsided, the run differential led to a Pythagorean win total of one
game less than where they ended up.
It’s unfortunate that Minnesota doesn’t see Cleveland more
while they’re dealing with injuries here in the early going. They do get Kansas
City for two though, and then have ten games against the Blue Jays and Orioles
within a two-week span to end the month. It’s those opportunities that have the
potential to be season defining for this collection. Beating teams they should
needs to be a mantra in 2019, and there’s a trio of opponents within the
division that fall into the same category.
There’s no reason to draw significant conclusions from the
early going in a 162-game regular season, but the reality is that taking care
of business from the get-go sets up a road that is much more manageable down
the stretch. Baldelli can’t let this team leave April with a record reminiscent
of the 9-15 they were last season, and there should be plenty of opportunity
for them to be much better than that.
