I am currently formulating thoughts and ideas for what the Twins should do this offseason, and I’ll post something with more “meat” in the near future.

For now, however, I strongly recommend reading The Twins Offseason GM Handbook, written by the TwinsCentric crew. Nick Nelson, John Bonnes, Parker Hageman and Seth Stohs pumped out a trade deadline primer earlier this year, and they’ve done something similar/better here, compiling every nugget of information available regarding the Twins potential offseason plans.

You’re out of the loop if you don’t have a copy.

Anytime somebody refers to Carlos Gomez’s batting average on line drives, you know they’ve covered everything.

Aside from my duties as Vikings reporter for KFAN Radio and my baseball/sabermetric musings around here, most of you probably know by now that I helped launch Minnesota Poker Magazine about six months ago.

The reception has been fantastic so far, and we thank everybody who’s helped us along the way.

But because I enjoy not having a social life and working 16 hours every day (sorry, friends and family, for being non-existent lately…), I have also teamed up with Bryan Mileski, as well as six casino/cardrooms statewide, to launch the Minnesota State Poker Tour.

These are BRACELET EVENTS with two-day main events and deep stack structures. Needless to say, the tour is going to be awesome!

Minnesota has always been an underrated poker hotbed, and we’re attempting to push things to the next level. You can read about details and locations at MinnesotaStatePokerTour.com, and we’ll be adding more items and specific information in the coming weeks.

The first event takes place December 9-14 at Canterbury Park in Shakopee, MN.

In 2010, we will hold events at Grand Casino Mille Lacs, Running Aces, Northern Lights, Jackpot Junction, Grand Casino Hinckley, and again at Canterbury.

So if I haven’t been diligent about returning phone calls or fulfilling friendship and family obligations lately, I apologize!

But now you know why

* Let me first say, be sure to tune into AM 1130 KFAN throughout Monday morning for postgame audio from Sunday’s game 3 loss. Nick Punto was very candid about his baserunning blunder, and Carl Pavano talked about his potential future in Minnesota. Great stuff.

What a depressing way for the season to end. The Twins flushed away so many chances over the last two games to beat the Yankees. Carl Pavano pitched out of his mind on Sunday night too.

Ultimately, fans will remember three things from this buzzkill of a series: Joe Nathan blowing a two-run lead in the bottom of the ninth of game two, umpire Phil Cuzzi blatantly blowing a call down the left field line in extra innings of game two to rob Joe Mauer of a double, and Nick Punto overrunning third base with nobody out and the Twins trailing by one at the end of game 3.

After spending 30 minutes in the Twins’ clubhouse after the loss, I’ve never seen an athlete feel more terrible after a game than Nick Punto tonight. He looked like he had seen a ghost, but he stood in front of his locker and answered question after question, even the repeats.

Pointing fingers and passing blame is pointless right now. The Twins gave us a hell of a ride, including Game 163 — one of the greatest baseball games ever played.

Instead of looking back and what could have and should have been, it’s important to analyze what IS and what the Twins need to do heading into 2010.

Another post for another time.

As for the Metrodome… well… it’s been a good run. You ran out of baseball magic, and that’s OK. Or maybe the Twins just ran out of ammunition against a team that is far superior.

Probably a bit of both.

Talk to you all soon.

The Twins blew two golden opportunities on Friday night.

1.) Joe Nathan, who clearly has issues wrapping his head around situations of great magnitude, served up a 2-run bomb to Alex Rodriguez in the bottom of the ninth to tie the game. He then proceeded to almost blow the game in the bottom of the 10th, but was bailed out after exiting by a line drive double play.

2.) And of course, with the bases loaded and nobody out in the 11th, the Twins failed to push a run across. Delmon Young hit a laser right at Mark Teixeira, and Carlos Gomez and Brendan Harris both failed soon after.

The most irritating part about Friday night’s loss, however, was the blown call by left field umpire Phil Cuzzi on Joe Mauer’s fly ball in the 11th. The ball was fair by a wide margin, and Cuzzi was right on top of the play. But for whatever reason, he botched the call.

It’s almost impossible for a ball to land in left field without it being fair (much like Fenway or Wrigley). Mauer wound up singling anyways, but there’s a huge difference between having a runner on 1st and nobody out and having a runner on 2nd and nobody out.

In fact, historically, a team’s chances of scoring increase by 20% with having a runner on 2nd in that spot instead of a runner on 1st.

Should the Twins have plated a run regardless? Absolutely.

Should the Twins attempt to find some Major League-caliber hitters for 2010? Recommended.

But should a Major League umpire ever blow a call like that in the playoffs? Especially when there are SIX umps on the field?

No. Inexcusable.

In the words of Leonardo DiCaprio and Christopher Walken though, why do the Twins continue to lose to the Yankees?

They can’t stop staring at the pinstripes.

From KFAN.com

What an incredible end to the most anticipated 24-hour period in recent Minnesota sports history. The Minnesota Twins, three back with four games to play, pulled off a come-from-behind, 12-inning, 6-5 win for the ages against the Detroit Tigers on Tuesday night.

Considering what was at stake, is it a stretch to call this game among the greatest “regular season” contests in baseball history?

“That’s as good a baseball game as I’ve ever been involved in, as far as courage from both teams, never wanting to say die, never quitting, and coming back,” Ron Gardenhire said. “There’s so many things to talk about in the game, but we came through at the end. After that 10 innings I was going, ‘oh my gosh I’ve never seen anything like this.’ It was just back and forth, neither team giving up.

“That was just sick baseball. In young people’s terminology, sick.”

After originally falling behind 3-0 in the third inning, the Twins came back to take the lead 4-3 in the seventh thanks to an Orlando Cabrera home run. Magglio Ordonez dusted a bomb of his own in the 8th to square things up once again at 4-4.

When the Tigers re-took the lead 5-4 in the 10th, it appeared as if the Metrodome would close its doors to Twins baseball forever. But a seeing eye single up the middle by Matt Tolbert scored Cuddyer. Two innings later, Carlos Gomez led off with a single and eventually scored from second base when Alexi Casilla — the man who’s walkoff hit in the third game of the season gave the Twins their first victory — slapped a basehit through the right side of the infield.

“Casilla and Go-Go (Gomez), that’s our loose cannons,” Gardenhire said. “And we were yelling that in the dugout, with Gomez leading off and I knew Alexi was coming up, we were yelling, ‘Let’s have a loose cannon inning,’ and there it is.”

There were countless storylines in this game, from Scott Baker fighting through an early deficit to hold the Tigers to three runs into the seventh inning to the diving stop Brandon Inge made in extra innings, preventing the Twins from scoring what would have been the game-winning run,  to Joe Nathan and Bobby Keppel pitching out of potential season-ending jams.

“A year ago I thought I was done with baseball, and now I’m celebrating in a big league clubhouse to go to the playoffs and play New York,” Keppel said. “This is a dream come true.”

A 4-hour and 37-minute marathon that saw the Twins use eight pitchers, and now they must find the energy to fly East for a match-up with the Yankees on Wednesday evening.

Keppel is right. We must be dreaming.

Clinching Notes, Thoughts and Tidbits

- The Tigers had runners on first and third with nobody out against Joe Nathan in the top of the ninth inning. History says teams score at least one run 88% of the time in that scenario. Watching Nathan and Orlando Cabrera (who caught the line drive and fired to Cuddyer to double off Granderson) run off the field like kittens on catnip was an awesome sight to see.

- One of the best sights of the night happened 40 minutes after the final out was recorded, when a group of Twins players grabbed general manager Bill Smith and showered him with beer. After all, Smith looks like a genius right now for his acquisition of Orlando Cabrera, who finishes the regular season with a 16-game hit streak thanks to his clutch 2-run homer in the 7th inning.

After an extremely slow start with Minnesota (Cabrera was hitting only .244 with the Twins as recently as two weeks ago), the veteran shortstop finished the year batting .288/.312/.419 with the Twins in 254 plate appearances. Not a bad recovery, and not a bad time to turn on the jets.

It’s still fair to criticize Smith and the rest of the Twins front office for not addressing the bullpen and/or middle infield earlier in the season (or in the bullpen’s case, at some point in 2008). But they eventually brought in Rauch, Cabrera and Pavano, and all three have been positive contributors.

For that, props to Smith for making moves that influenced the team in a positive way.

- Many people have said even if the Twins do win the division that they will have an impossible time beating the Yankees and/or Red Sox in a playoff series. I beg to differ. There’s a reason why the Major League Baseball season is 162 games. Baseball is meant to be played out over a large sample size. The best teams eventually rise to the top, winning 85-100 games, but over a short series many weird things can happen.

Variance, if you will. Variance in this case could come with a Twins squad that all of the sudden has a much better bullpen (thanks Rauch, Crain) than they did two months ago, and a few hitters (Delmon, Punto, Tolbert) who woke up from season-long comas to produce down the stretch. Not to mention, Carl Pavano has posted a 3.50 FIP since joining the Twins, meaning his 4.64 ERA in that same time span is not nearly as bad as advertised.

Oh, and Michael Cuddyer has turned into a more family-friendly version of Babe Ruth.

The Yankees are clearly the superior squad here. But since 1987, has there ever been a Twins team that enters the playoffs with less of a burden? Nobody expected them to pull of what they did this week, and nobody expects them to do much more than tip their caps and finish off the champagne they popped open from Tuesday night.

In baseball, anything can happen in a short series. Don’t write the Twins off.

From KFAN.com

With the Brett Favre-led Vikings hosting the Packers on Monday Night Football, and with the Twins playing a one-game playoff against the Detroit Tigers for AL Central supremacy, October 5th and 6th, 2009 may be remembered as the 24-hour period where Minnesota, and more specifically the Metrodome (er, uh, Mall of America Field) sat squarely at the epicenter of the sports universe.

Phase one of this scenario certainly did not disappoint, as the Vikings handed the Packers a convincing 30-23 loss, thanks in large part to a not-so-washed up quarterback with gray hair.

Some might say Favre had this date circled on his calendar as far back as summer of 2008, when he originally butted heads with Mike McCarthy and Ted Thompson over his attempted comeback. The Packers refused to cave into any circumstances that allowed Favre to play for the Vikings.

Of course, we all knew this epic clash was inevitable when Favre finally rode into town shortly after the Vikings returned from training camp in Mankato. And even though both head coaches and Favre himself downplayed the significance of Monday night’s game, it’s hard to deny the emotions and electricity that surged through Mall of America Field.

“They are excited I didn’t give them a Dale Carnegie or Knute Rockne last night,” head coach Brad Childress said. “Matter of fact, I got a little hand. There are games that take care of themselves and other games you need to stoke them a little bit.”

This game clearly needed no stoking.

“I was about as nervous as I’ve ever been before a game going into this one,” Favre admitted. “I didn’t think I would be. As the week progressed I felt fine, but when I got to the hotel yesterday it kind of dawned on me.

“I felt a lot like I did when my dad passed away. Both games I played well, so maybe that’s a good thing.”

‘Played well’ is probably an understatement. Favre dissected his former mates with timely pump-fakes, perfect deep passes, and laser slant throws that whizzed by the ear holes of green helmets. The future Hall of Famer finished the game 24-for-31 for 271 yards and three touchdowns.

“He’s still got great command of the football,” Childress said. “Whether the command is touch or velocity or being able to pump it and let it go, he still has great command of the football. He is what he is. He’s a great competitor. He’s steely-eyed when it comes to competing. Some games tickle you a little bit more than others.”

After so many stalled drives and inconsistencies over the last three years, it’s easy to forget what a high-caliber passing attack looks like. Long gone are the days of Cunningham to Moss and Culpepper to Carter, but at the same time, long gone are the days of Holcomb to Williamson and Jackson to Tahi (although Tahi did make a couple appearances in the passing game on Monday night).

“That’s what we want to do,” said Visanthe Shiancoe, who caught the first touchdown pass of the night. “We want to show teams we are a balanced offense. We’re not just a running offense. We made it a point to show the Packers that we could throw the ball and to show the NFL that we can throw the ball as well and prevent them from stacking the box the way they do to prevent Adrian from running loose.”

And make no mistake, it’s not all about number 4. Favre certainly brings an elite field vision and a rocket, precision arm, but the offensive line was absolutely fantastic against the Green Bay 3-4 front. Favre had all night to pick apart the secondary — a huge improvement from the first few weeks of the season.

“Pass protection was great,” Favre said. “Their style of defense has obviously been chaotic for the teams they’ve played, and they mixed it up again today. I thought we had a good mix of short passes, and just in general, the passing protection was awesome.”

At 4-0, the Vikings are one of only five remaining unbeaten teams. Next week they will face a St. Louis Rams team that hasn’t won a game in nearly one full calendar year. After that, the Baltimore Ravens — widely regarded as one of the best teams in the NFL — will visit Minnesota.

Fun times in Vikingland.

Defense overwhelms beleaguered Packers offensive line

The Packers offensive line came into Monday night having allowed 12 sacks on the season, which is the most by any team in the NFL. With starting left tackle Chad Clifton out with an ankle injury, the Packers were forced to shuffle. Daryn Colledge moved from left guard to left tackle, Jason Spitz moved from center to left guard, and Scott Wells started at center. Halfway through the game, Colledge left with a leg injury.

Needless to say, the aforementioned circumstances did not bode well for Green Bay. In fact, their offensive line played like a tattered, wet paper towel. Jared Allen tallied 4.5 sacks (including a safety) and Aaron Rodgers ran for his life for three hours.

“A couple times he ran right into me, a couple times it was coverage and just hustle and stuff,” Allen said. “I’m exhausted, and it was fun.”

“Jared Allen is a beast, man,” Favre said. “That guy is good, by the way. I just wanted to tell you that. Our defense, they are pretty good. I would much rather have them on our side.”

The Packers did accumulate over 420 yards of total offense, including 342 through the air, but the Vikings forced two turnovers, a safety, and stuffed Green Bay on a goal line stand in the second half.

“It’s a mindset that we don’t even have to talk about,” said Ben Leber about the goal line stand. “Nothing extra needs to be said. We all feel it. It’s juts something that makes this defense great. Everybody knows what to expect, and everyone just gets after it.”

Interesting post-game quotes

“I didn’t expect him to do that. I thought we would have played better but obviously we didn’t, and I give them a lot of credit. He played a great game and apparently he got his wish tonight. He stuck it to us pretty good. All I can do is take my hat off to him. He played a great game and their team played a great game.”
- Packers CB Charles Woodson on Brett Favre

“I knew everywhere you go there’s a camera in your face. The only reason I go out, I’ll be 40 on Saturday, I think, and I need to go out and kind of get loose and throw the ball a little bit, but I felt like it would be more of a zoo than it needed to be.” – Brett Favre on why he waited longer to come onto the field for pregame warmups.

“We definitely fed off of it. We wanted to get this win to move on to 4-0. Me personally, I can speak for myself, I wanted to definitely get this win for Brett. It was a big game for him, even though he downplayed it a lot, but you just knew it. You could see it in his eye.” – Adrian Peterson on the hype and emotion of Monday night’s game.

There, I said it. I don’t care if I’m wrong.

In fact, I WANT to be wrong.

I wrote the Twins off for the first time in early July.

I stood by my opinion in late July when the Twins traded for Orlando Cabrera, because I didn’t (and still don’t) view Cabrera as a huge upgrade over Brendan Harris.

I stood by my opinion when the Twins traded for John Rauch and Carl Pavano as well, because I thought they waited too long to bring in pitching help. I still feel that way.

I stood by my opinion when Matt Tolbert, Nick Punto and Delmon Young finally broke out of their offensive comas, because I simply figured it was impossible for a sub-.500 team to finish the season 10 games over .500 and get to the mid-80s win plateau, regardless of how hot the bottom of the order became.

Well, the Twins hung a 4-spot on Zach Greinke today, en route to a 5-4 victory, and the White Sox knocked off the Tigers again. The American League Central is all square with one day left in the regular season.

When it comes to writing off the Twins, I hope I was dead wrong.

Nothing compares to October baseball. Regardless of the Twins’ flaws, they have a chance to do something special. And in Major League Baseball, unlike some other sports, the playoffs can be somewhat of a crapshoot. Almost anything can happen.

When Michael Cuddyer hit the go-ahead home run in the 8th inning tonight the Metrodome roof blew right off it’s base. As Ron Gardenhire put it, the atmosphere was nothing short of a World Series-type environment.

One time, please.