The All-Star break is upon us, which means we have eclipsed the halfway point of the long 162-game season.
The Twins fell to a game below .500 after getting swept by Baltimore this past weekend. Although the negatives heavily outweigh the positives we only sit a half game behind the Guardians. That positive within itself outweighs all the negatives from the first half. In any other division, we would be down by 5+ games, but hey not our fault our division sucks.
Hopefully, everyone other than Sonny Grey and Pablo Lopez is doing whatever the fuck they need to do over this break to get that bullshit outta there system that we all had to watch in the first half. WAKE THE FUCK UP WE GOT A DIVISION TO WIN BOYS!
New Season Starts Now
Enough talk about the first half, it’s in the past, like I said we have struck gold being in the AL Central… No more complaining.
First things first, we have a little two-week season to start the second half. Even if things go south over the next 16 games, I’m not sure how much we would/could sell at the deadline. Maybe Sonny Gray if the right offer comes?
Twins & Guardians Breakdown Between Now & Trade Deadline
- Trade Deadline: August 1st
- Twins Games: 16. (3 @ Oakland, 4 @ Seattle, 3 vs White Sox, 3 vs Seattle, 3 @ KC)
- Guardians Games: 17 (3 @ Texas, 3 @ Pittsburgh, 3 vs Phillies, 3 vs KC, 4 @ White Sox, 1 vs Astros (before the trade deadline)
Advantage us, and it shouldn’t be too hard to spot why. The Guardians have to come out and play in Texas who have been dominant at home all year. They then fly to Pittsburgh to take on the Pirates, them fly home to take on the Phillies. They then will there easiest games of the schedule against (you guessed it) two AL Central Teams.
Meanwhile, the Twins start the all-star break with a hopefully easy series against Oakland, followed up with 4 @ Seattle. We then fly home for a quick 6-game home stand against the White Sox & Seattle which should be the week where the rumors start to swirl. We then like the Guardians get to face off against the shitty-ass Royals. Like I said it’s easy to tell the Twins have the easy schedule advantage outta the gate. Please capitalize.
Predictions
Back to the title of this blog, “Will The Twins Be Selling By The Trade Deadline”. The answer is absolutely not and I’ll tell you why.
Is 12-4 To Wishful?
The homer in me thinks everyone is gonna go home, hit a mental reset with whatever drugs/voodoo/superstition shit they do, and come out gun blazing to a 12-4 start. It probably sounds insane but let me show you how we can get to that number.
- @ Oakland: First things first you sweep the worst team in baseball. (3-0)
- @ Seattle: This is the series that scares me. It screams a 2-2 split. Buttttttt 3-1 is a must to achieve 12-4. (6-1)
- vs White Sox: The biggest sellers at the deadline? We never sweep them I feel like so 2-1 will have to settle. (8-2)
- vs Seattle: Whenever you play a team multiple times in a short span I feel like the win percentage is closer to split than heavily one-sided. 3-1 might be pushing @ Seattle but no excuses to not win this series at Target Field. (11-3)
- @ KC: Started with the worst team in baseball, finish this stretch with the 2nd worst. If all things behind go to plan, we only need to beat the Royals 2/3 games to achieve 12-4. This could easily be a sweep which would save a game elsewhere but I think we drop one. (12-4).
Lots of faith in a team who hasn’t proved they can do it. 10-6 is the most realistic record, which would be completely fine as I’ll quick go over how the Guardians will do.
Guardians Prediction
- @ Texas: Texas wins there first series in nearly a month 2-1. Guardians Record (1-2)
- @ Pittsburgh: Another 2-1 series, coin flip to who takes it. Heads: Pittsburgh Tails: Guardians… *Flips Coin*, Heads. (2-4)
- vs Phillies: The Guardians are too gritty to get swept against Philly, will they lose three straight series to start? I think so. (3-6)
- vs KC: This is where they finally will go on a little roll when they sweep the shitty Royals. (6-6)
- @ White Sox: Four against the White Sox right before the deadline? Who will be on that team by then? The White Sox will find a way to split this series. (8-8)
- @ Houston: The Twins have a day off before the deadline, while the Guardians will be in Houston taking on the Astros. They will probably lose all three but only one happens before the deadline. (8-9)
Answer: The Twins WILL NOT Be Sellers At The Deadline
After all of that blab-a-blab, we finally get to the simple answer of no the Twins will NOT be sending away players come deadline time. If anything we will be buyers as we would be sitting 4 games up in the division with complete control. Yes 12-4 may be shooting for the moon, but it’s currently 7/10 as I type this and in honor of the holiday I’m also sitting on the moon. The Guardians could easily do better or worse but everything points to them having struggles to start the 2nd half.
Go Twins!
Bon Voyage Twins fans. As I stated earlier we must take the blows from the first half on the chin and realize how lucky we are to only be a half-game back. All you Twins Twitter warriors are insane to watch day in and out bouncing back and forth on the love/hate train. Have faith, I can’t go another year without watching the Twins play playoff baseball. This is the year we would somehow win a couple games or a series just because why not! Hold on tight because this final two & a half months might get crazy!
Some people call me MarTy and some people call me Ryan. Wildcard when it comes to my writing. #FadeMe if I ever tweet out “locks”.