It is that time. No, I'm not talking about your COVID-19 shot (I've already got mine!) or when to start planting your garden, but time for my annual Minnesota Twins baseball forecast.
It is my annual foray into the dangerous waters of forecasting the wins and losses for the Twins in this 2021 season. I had a forecast started for last year, but a virus got in the way.
But, I'm back now full of pep and you know what, and for the pleasure of those who breathlessly await the numbers for this season's hoped for full 162 games.
You may notice that this column is coming out a week after the Twins started the season. The reason for that is simple: I had to look up all the names of the players because I recall only a few of them. Gone are the days when my generation remembered names such as Puckett, Hrbek, Gagne, Morris, Randy Bush and Gary Gaetti.
Those names are branded into our cumulative brains because they were on teams that brought the first World Series championships to Minnesota - an event we rarely see up here on the tundra. It was so much fun!
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Today we have a basically new team from those glory days. Baseball players get older just like my generation, and they fade into the background like old soldiers. The new kids on the baseball field have barely started shaving, it seems to me.
Some of the names I have trouble pronouncing; but hey, if they can catch a ball and hit it once in awhile, I'm satisfied. I think we have a great manager and if he's satisfied, I am too.
Looking at spring training and the first few games of the season, my forecast is fairly rosy. They did have a couple of hiccups during those games in Milwaukee, but I was happy to give them another week before I start to utter negative comments under my breath.
Winning the division by one game in last year's shortened season does give me concern. Again this year the White Sox and Cleveland will be biting at the Twins' spikes. I see a number of our former players have been traded to those two teams.
I don't like to have our team play against teams that have hired our former sluggers. It seems when they come back to play us it is not pretty. It seems they have a chip on their shoulder for some reason.
But, back to this year's hoped for full season. The Twins have had enough trouble keeping the players healthy. Donaldson has already gone down with a strained hamstring. I'm hoping the stadiums around the league put extra padding in the outfield wall, or else Mr. Buxton will no doubt crash into one of them and put himself on the bench.
We need that guy.
If the bullpen can get anyone out in the late innings it could mean more wins than losses this year. There is nothing more demoralizing than going into the ninth inning with a three-run lead only to lose due to a curveball that doesn't curve.
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And so, I've put it off long enough. I gave myself an extra week to try to figure out the wins and losses. I've counted the number of acorns the chipmunks have stored in my hunting boots, multiplied that number by the number of days we experienced below zero temperatures this past winter, divided that number by the number of walleyes I caught last summer (0) and then took the square root of that number and divided that by the number of Oreo cookies that my daughter and I ate last deer season and I've come up with my forecast.
This 2021 season I predict the Twins to win 90 games and lose 72 games. Write it down so you might chastise me in October.
I do believe that if all goes right they will win their division. What happens after that I cannot predict.
After getting sent home after one wild card game last year, I'm still sore. Only one of Kent Hrbek's "meal in a glass" bloody marys might have soothed me! I'm over it.
Play ball! See you next time. Okay? Stay safe!
