While he’s at it, MLB Commissioner Bud Selig should take this opportunity to realign all six divisions and allow National League teams to use the DH (allowing for traditionalists, at a competitive disadvantage, to continue allowing pitchers to hit).  The discrepancy between the AL and the NL would essentially disappear and bouncing a few teams from league to league would not be such a big deal.

Geographically, the MLB is heavily weighted by teams on the East Coast and in the MidWest.  There is another nice cluster of teams out on the West Coast, but Between Kansas City and California there is pretty much a baseball wasteland.* I know there are a lot of reasons why there are no teams out there, but it seems like a missed opportunity to add two more teams and have two 16 team Super Conferences, but I digress.

  *If a metro area of at least 1.5 million people is what’s needed to support a MLB franchise (That’s what they have in the Milwaukee area, the smallest metro area that is home to a team), then you should add a team in Portland, Oregon and Las Vegas, Nevada; maybe even stretch to get a team in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Salt Lake City, Utah; if you were really trying to expand to “western markets.”  

In the unlikely event that Bud Selig and the owners adopt such a strategy, here are the 6 new divisions they should adopt.  (more…)

The Twins were playing with the moxie of a championship boxer. After nearly being KO’ed in the first two months of the season, they rallied through Mid-June throwing jabs and haymakers at their opponents and winning 15 out of 18 games. Last Monday they threw a devastating upper-cut in the 1st inning against Madison Bumgarner, scoring 8 runs in the first and cruising to yet another victory, their 8th straight…and then the other side called a time-out. The Giants were shouting “where am I coach?” and while the trainers swabbed the wounds of the reigning world champions, the coach steadied the fighter with soothing words about Ryan Vogelsong and Tim Lincecum…and the tide turned. Suddenly the opponent was faster, stymieing the once potent Twins attack and taking the final two games of the series. Next up were the heavyweight Brewers who laid waste to the Twins in 3 straight games. Now the eyes are puffy again and while the Twins are now the ones calling the timeout, us fans are left wondering how long it will be until this team throws in the towel.

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Tonight the Twins open up a three game set against the defending World Series champion San Francisco Giants. Minnesota hopes to continue a surprising streak that has seen them win seven in a row, and 14 of 16, to climb out of last place in the AL Central. San Francisco is slumping, having lost four in a row, including a sweep at the hands of their Bay Area rival Oakland Athletics.

Special thanks to the writers at Frisco Fastball for their help with this preview.

Minnesota Twins

2011 Record: , 31-39, 4th in the AL Central (7.5 GB)
263 Runs Scored  (13th in AL) / 320 Runs Allowed (11th in AL)

San Francisco Giants

2011 Record: 39-33, 1st in the NL West
248 Runs Scored (15th in NL) / 254 Runs Allowed (3rd in NL) (more…)