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.
Jason Kubel will DH if necessary with Repko playing left field. It will be a downgrade offensively, but at least it will improve the lousy OF defense.
ReplyDeleteI'm disappointed to see Morales left off too. Is that 11 pitchers then?
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