Playoffs School: The Minnesota Twins

October 2nd, 2006 | Posted by The Postmen

Similar to our big college football preview from Friday - though not as long, hopefully - we’ve decided to ask some of the people who know much more about their individual baseball teams than we do to help us preview their playoff chances by answering a few questions. We’ll be throwing these at you all week.

Next on the list? The Minnesota Twins. We talked to Bat Girl, who runs the hilarious and spectacular Twins blog, bat-girl.com. (Seriously, if you haven’t seen this gem of a post, check it out right now.) We chatted about Liriano and his injuries, the sexiest guy on the team and Ozzie Guillen. (You know R had to get in a White Sox-themed question.)

The Postmen: What’s the deal with Fransico Liriano and all his freakish injuries? And how much will him not being able to pitch in the playoffs hurt the team’s chances?

Bat Girl: I don’t think his injuries are really freakish. It seems like he had something he hurt back in the Giants system and then hurt it again here. It’s the same injury that isn’t quite healing. There’s some talk that he’s relying too much on his slider and that’s hurting his arm. I don’t think there were many Twins fans that thought the team would still be able to compete for the postseason without Liriano, but somehow they’re managed to keep their pace. It’s a miracle, but we can just hope the miracle keeps up.

TP: What did you think of White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen dubbing Minnesota “the piranhas” a few weeks back - and do you agree with his assessment?

BG:The team seems to have embraced it, though for about a week after he did it all the piranhas stopped biting. Torii Hunter says he prefers Kirby Puckett’s term–hyenas, always taking advantage of the weak link.

TP: Fill in the blank : If the Twins do ( ) well, they’ll have the best chance of advancing.

BG: Pitch. We need to pitch the Dickens out of this things.

TP: Is Johan Santana the best pitcher in the AL playoffs?

BG: Silly rabbit, Johan Santana is the best pitcher in baseball.

TP: How do the Twins continue to do so well year after year with such a limited payroll? Do you think their smaller payroll will adversely affect them in the playoffs against a bigger market team?

BG: Well, it’s always hard to go in against a team whose payroll is 4 times yours. It’s not even the same sport. At the same time, the Twins have a record very close to the Yankees, playing in a harder division. And we had Tony Batista on our team for awhile.

TP: Who’s sexier - Joe Mauer or Justin Morneau?

BG: Johan Santana