They Gone!

Congratulations to the AL Central champion Minnesota Twins, who became the first team to clinch a playoff spot tonight when the White Sox lost in Oakland. It must be fun to be a Twins fan and root for a well-run organization. The Twins won the AL Central last year, but after being swept out of the ALDS they upgraded their roster in an intelligent way. Instead of throwing lots of money at mediocre free agents (like some GMs would), they made a couple of low-budget free agent pickups, getting a starting second baseman and a power-hitting DH, who combined are making only $800,000 more than the Cubs are paying the combination of Jeff Samardzija and John Grabow. The Twins also picked up their starting shortstop in exchange for a guy who can't crack the starting outfield in Milwaukee. And they were able to cover for the loss of one of the best closers in baseball for the entire season, and the loss of one of the best first basemen in the AL for the second half of the season, and run away with their division.

Unlike recent Twins teams, this one isn't a hard-nosed, talent-challenged, overachieving bunch of piranhas. They have the second best record in the AL, and they earned it, with the second best run differential in the AL (both trailing only the Yankees). The Twins are a model for anybody who wants to put together a winning team within the confines of a budget, and I'd love it if the Cubs would ditch Hendry and find someone who could copy what they have done.

Eamus Gemini! Eamus Rutili!

Since the Cubs are mailing it in, I'm reduced to rooting for the Reds to finish ahead of the Cardinals in the NL Central, and for the Twins to finish ahead of the White Sox in the AL Central. This is the sports equivalent of the U.S. government's decision to back Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s - the enemy of your enemy is your friend. Unfortunately, this is how it has to be - unless the Bears can overachieve, until college basketball starts, schadenfreude is all I have to go on.