October 2006 Archives

It's official, The Twins have picked up Silva's option for 2007 at a price tag of $4.35 million. Yes, we have another fatigue and tummy ache filled season to look forward to.

This is bad news for Twins fans. Liriano is still feeling pain in his throwing elbow after missing the final month of the season. It was originally thought that rest and strength building would be the solution, but that seems less likely.

Early in the week I did a player-by-player rundown of the 2006 season. Now it's time for the pitchers.

The season's over which means it's now time to evaluate the 2006 team and determine who can help the squad in 2007. A decision will be made by the end of the week regarding Torii Hunter's option, but there are a few players that might remain as question marks until the free agent period has passed. Now I'll go through each player and give my opinion on how they fit into the picture for 2007. I'd love to hear your opinion in the comments.

The playoff run didn't turn out at all how anyone (except the A's) wanted it to, but it certainly doesn't leave a bad taste in my mouth about how the 2006 season turned out. At the halfway point in 2006 the turnaround from the dismall start had begun, but the playoffs were unlikely. How well the Twins played in the second half and the fact that they won the AL Central on the final day of the season, makes it the best season I've lived through.

The Twins have now dropped the first two games of the series making an early exit in the playoffs more likely. The supposed dome-field advantage has been non-existant for the Twins in recent years as they've lost 6 straight home games in the playoffs. The Twins will hope to have better luck on the road on Friday.

Arguably the greatest regular season in Twins history is over and the Twins find themselves hosting the Oakland Athletics rather than playing in New York. It's the playoffs, so there's no saying what will happen. One thing is for certain though: Minnesota workplace productivity will drop to an all time low in this first week of October.

It's pretty impressive that the Twins have people in the running for virtually every big award this season. Two of them are official or very probable:

A dramatic Twins season ended in dramatic fashion. The final day of the regular season couldn't have been scripted much better than it played out on Sunday. The Twins headed into Sunday's game needing to win and needing the Royals to complete the sweep of the Tigers. How it all played out was truly unbelievable. On top of all that Mauer headed into the final game with just a slight lead over Derek Jeter for the AL batting title.