Hey Twins Fans!

It’s been awhile since we had a post so let’s get back into it!

As the Twins wrap up their August, let’s take a look at the AL Central matchups and see if we can determine which teams have the most favorable remaining schedule and which have a tough road ahead.  Here were go:

THE REMAINING GAMES IN THE MONTH OF AUGUST: The White Sox end the month on the road (at Minnesota) while the Twins and Tigers end the month at home.  The Tigers play four at home (all 4 vs TB) while the Twins have three at home vs Chicago.  Advantage Minnesota and Detroit, but both the Tigers and Twins are playing against playoff bidding teams.  So it’s just a slight advantage.

WHAT ABOUT SEPTEMBER AND OCTOBER? Nobody has a big advantage here.  The White Sox play 15 at home and 15 on the road, and the Tigers play 17 at home and 15 on the road.  The Twins play more on the road, 17 than at
home, 14.  So perhaps a slight advantage to the Tigers and White Sox.

GAMES VS TEAMS OVER .500: Here is where there is a hugh advantage to the Tigers.  They play just 7 games vs
teams playing better than .500 baseball in their final 32.  The Twins have just 10 games, while the White Sox will play
20 games with teams over .500 in their final 30 games.  ****this includes games this weekend, August 28-31****

GAMES VS TEAMS UNDER .500: Conversely the advantage goes to the Tigers again.  Twenty-nine of the Tigers 36 games will be against the inferior teams.  And the Twins have twenty-two games vs the "bad" teams.  Only the White Sox, with 15 games vs the "bad" teams are at a disadvantage.  I would caution the Tigers and the Twins.  Sometimes it’s harder to beat the "bad" teams (they have little to play for) than it is to beat the "good" teams.

GAMES VS THE YANKEES AND RED SOX (and LOS ANGELES ANGELS): If you consider the Yankees, Red Sox, and Angels to be the three best, and most do, the Tigers and Twins get off the easiest.  Neither the Twins or Tigers have games left with those three teams.  Only the White Sox do, and Ozzie Guillen’s team has four left with Boston (at home), three left with the Yankees (this weekend) and three left with the Angels (out there in September).  A big disadvantage for the White Sox.

GAMES LEFT WITH EACH OTHER: This is where, in my opinion, the Central Division champ is going to be determined. If you consider it an advantage to play the teams you have to beat to win the Division, then the Twins have the advantage.  They play the White Sox and Tigers both home and away, and they have 6 games left with Chicago, and 7 games left with Detroit.  The White Sox and Tigers will play each other 6 times (home and away).  At the end, the Tigers and the White Sox play at Detroit, while the Twins will be closing out the Metrodome with a three game series with Kansas City.

With all of that said, let’s play out the games and I think it is going to be very interesting to see who wins out.  All I
can say is, "keep rooting for the Twins."

"Touch ‘em All,"

John Gordon

This entry was posted on Monday, August 31st, 2009 at 10:48 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.