Misery loves company, and the Twins’ misery of four straight 90-plus loss seasons isn’t getting a facelift from Sports Illustrated.
SI.com’s Tom Verducci painted a brighter picture for the Twins’ future success, but the 2015 version of the team is one of only a handful of teams that Verducci believes is incapable of contending for a playoff spot.
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Sports Illustrated predicts the Twins will finish 67-95 this summer. That’s worse than the 70 games they won last year and only slightly better than the 66 games they won in 2013 and 2012 and the 63 games they won in 2011.
If that’s not bad enough, an unnamed scout told SI.com that Joe Mauer is clearly overrated.
“He’s a good middle-of-the-order hitter, but he can’t hit the ball over the fence,” the scout said. “His reputation is so strong because of his many accomplishments, and he was a great player for a long time, but when you lose your power and you play a position that requires power, it diminishes you.”
Bovada gave the Twins 50-to-1 odds to win the American League pennant. But even though Verducci, Vegas and most other prognosticators give the Twins very slim chances, General Manager Terry Ryan fully believes his team can contend.
“We have got to get to the point where we’re battling for the postseason,” Ryan told Jim Souhan of the Star Tribune in early March. “I’d be wrong if I didn’t put the sights up there. I don’t care what our record was last year, it’s realistic. A lot of things will have to happen for us to get there, there’s no doubt. But there’s no reason for us not to be in that mix.”
We’re just a couple of weeks from Opening Day, so get ready.
Two weeks. YES. #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/R2Uckk30Sd
— MLB (@MLB) March 23, 2015
