It will be Twins and Yankees

The Yankees wound up the wild card winners, so the AL matchups will be Tampa Bay (the top seed) vs. Texas and New York vs. Minnesota.

Which is the way the majority of poll respondents wanted it. We had 36 participants, 20 of whom (55 percent) wanted the Twins to face the defending World Series champs in the first round, while 16 (45 percent) wanted Tampa Bay.

None of the four AL teams are playing particularly well right now.

New poll question is up.

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I can't help but note that Edwin Encarnacion hit yet another home run Sunday against the Twins. Somehow, for some reason, the Twins make him look like a Hall of Famer in the making.

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LaVelle E. Neal reports that Jose Morales won't be on the playoff roster; the Twins instead will go with three utility infielders (Nick Punto, Alexi Casilla and Matt Tolbert) to go with the backup catcher (Drew Butera) and reserve outfielder (Jason Repko) as their bench. Question: If (when?) Jim Thome's back acts up on him in the chilly night games we can expect in this series, who will DH?

Also from LaVelle: Scott Baker isn't likely to be on the roster. Kevin Slowey is expected to be the long man. As I said before, I'd rather see Glen Perkins in that role.

Playing around with the playoff roster

Alexi Casilla shares it with the fans

Now that the party's over — watching the celebration on TV, I had the sense that the players wanted to pour the beer and sparkly and get the heck out — let's take a quick run at the 25-man roster for the playoffs.

The Twins have typically gone with 12 pitchers, during the regular season, but Ron Gardenhire appears to have it in mind to go with 11 in October. The sure-things (barring injury) will be in regular font; the italics are for the questionable choices

Pitchers

Starters (4): Francisco Liriano, Carl Pavano, Brian Duensing, Nick Blackburn

Relievers (7): Matt Capps, Jesse Crain, Matt Guerrier, Jon Rauch, Brian Fuentes, Jose Mijares, Scott Baker

(Outside looking in: Kevin Slowey, Jeff Manship, Glen Perkins, Randy Flores, Pat Neshek, Alex Burnett)

Comment: The conventional wisdom has Blackburn, Baker and Slowey splitting two roster spots. I suspect Perkins would be a better choice for the last bullpen spot. If the Twins face the Yankees, Perkins gives them another lefty; if it's the Rays, he's more likely to be able to give the catcher a chance to throw out a basestealer. He certainly getting opportuntiies to pitch of late, albeit in low-leverage situations.

Position players

Catchers (3): Joe Mauer, Drew Butera, Jose Morales

Infielders (6): Michael Cuddyer, Orlando Hudson, Danny Valencia, J.J. Hardy, Nick Punto, Alexi Casilla

Outfielders (4): Delmon Young, Denard Span, Jason Kubel, Jason Repko

Hitter (1): Jim Thome

(Outside looking in: Matt Tolbert, Ben Revere, Justin Morneau, Trevor Plouffe)

Comments: Should Morneau be ready to return — and I don't know enough to rule it out or in — Morales doesn't make it.

Punto, Tolbert and Casilla are all essentially the same player: switch-hitting middle infielders who can run. When all were healthy this year, Tolbert was the odd man out, if only because he had options left. That's not a factor in postseason. If all are healthy now, Tolbert still loses out because Casilla is a better pinch-running possibility and Punto is the best defensive infielder. I expect we'll see quite a bit of all three in the next few days to see if anybody plays his way on or off the roster.