AL Central Division Standings

After the walk-off hit by Alexi Casilla, who is no stranger to walk-offs having 5 in his career, I began to think 'what if?' The Twins are 11 games back with Cleveland leading the AL Central Division. Detroit, Chicago and Kansas hold the 2nd, 3rd and 4th places respectively.


What if? I don't want to get ahead of myself, so let's crunch some numbers and talk hypothetically.

After this series with Texas, which could be a prime opportunity to pick up some games on Cleveland seeing as the Indians are heading to the Bronx to take on the Yankees and we are, in recent history a difficult team for Texas to beat. We can't hope to take all four games of the series -- Texas is leading the AL West after all, but I don't think two games are out of the question, especially with one already under our belts.

After the Twins-Chicago series next week, we won't face another Central Division opponent until we see Chicago again in the second week of July. Then we have back to back series against the Central Division throughout July looking something like this: White Sox - All Star Break - Royals - Indians - Detroit.

We need to win 3 out of the 4 series AT LEAST... at the very minimum we need 3/4. During this 3-week stretch, our fellow division-mates have the following schedules:

Cleveland
Blue Jays
Orioles
Twins
White Sox

Analysis: we clearly need to win this series. Whether or not the Indians are maintaining their control of the division, we need to overcome the Indians in order to climb to the top. Additionally, if the Indians aren't games ahead, Detroit will be and nothing causes anxiety like seeing the Twins topple your division rivals (think game 163- AL Central Tiebreaker in 2009). It would be best if Cleveland split the series with the White Sox, but if not, the White Sox would be a better winner.

Detroit
Royals
White Sox
Athletics
Twins

Analysis: Similar to the Indian-Twins series, this is a must. The Tigers are on the verge of overcoming the Indians and we need to win at least 3/4 games of this series. No ifs ands or buts. It would be ideal if the Royals could take this series without a loss, but hey we can only ask for so much.

Chicago
Twins
Tigers
Royals
Indians

Analysis: much to my dismay, the White Sox hold an eerily similar schedule to ours. Wannabes. Basically, Chicago can only win 2 out of the 4 series to keep them from pulling ahead too far. One series they must lose would be to the Twins. Ideally, I would like them to beat the Royals so the Twins can fly to Chicago to visit a beaten-up team.

Kansas City
White Sox
Tigers
Twins
White Sox

Analysis: Just like years before, we need to enlist the Royals as allies and hope they can help us beat out the other AL Central Teams, while letting us cruise ahead to first. Kansas should be viewed as a pawn of sorts. Sorry guys! So, I would like Kansas to win every series in these three weeks except for the one against the Twins. If we don't beat Kansas, it seems hard to believe we would meet our goal of 3/4 series wins. Kansas is our stepping stone to bigger and better things.


I tried to be realistic in my observations, whether or not I did so, we will know in a little over a month. Obviously, the Twins need to perform better at home. The game last night against Texas was a good starting-point, but we need more. We need to win 75% of our games at home at least and those wins need to increase against the Central Division.

There are my thoughts. Have at 'em Twins.