A real head scratcher

The Minnesota Twins got shafted. 

How can the second best team in baseball only end up with two players on the American All-Star Team? How can the team that has racked up 156 home runs end up with only one batter represented in the All-Star game?

Quite frankly, the Twins got snubbed like none other. For me, it’s a real head scratcher trying to understand how this could happen.

Jorge Polanco is the only Twins batter representing the American League, while Jake Odorizzi is a reserve pitcher. Polanco will be the starting shortstop. Polanco is the first all-star starter for the Twins since 2013. 

It was expected that more Twins, do think for obvious reasons, would be named as reserves Sunday afternoon. 

But nope, didn’t happen. The reserve batters don’t include Nelson Cruz, Byron Buxton, Mitch Garver, Eddie Rosario, CJ Cron and perhaps most glaringly of all, Max Kepler.

Here’s my point: Kepler has an OPS of .892 with 21 home runs, 53 RBIs and a 2.9 WAR (wins above replacement). Austin Meadows of the Rays, who made it into the outfield ahead of Kepler has an .888 OPS with 12 home runs, 41 RBIs and a WAR of 1.8. Need I say any more?

This year the pitchers and reserves for both teams were determined through a combination of player ballot choices and selections made by the commissioner’s office. 

I may be partial to the Twins since it’s the team I have fallen in love with for my entire life, but come on, really only one starting All-Star. Shocking, disappointing and short-changed are just a few terms that I’m confident all Twins fans are making a part of their vocabulary this week.

The Twins are headed for having perhaps the best team ever in their franchise history. It just boils me that other fans and baseball gurus can’t acknowledge their success by giving them a couple more spots on the all-star team.

Minnesota is playing exceptional baseball this season. It’s exciting to see such a young group of guys winning as much as they have been. We certainly don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but let’s hope the momentum continues into the post-season, and the Twins can earn a berth in the World Series and just maybe repeat what they did in 1987 and 1991. 

I’ll never forget those memorable seasons, especially in 1991. I was a rookie reporter for KAAL in Austin and remember doing a live remote at a bar in Albert Lea when the Twins were in the World Series. I honestly couldn’t even hear myself during the live report because the noise was beyond wild. I have no clue what I even said. I just remember holding the microphone out and allowing fans to go crazy on live TV. 

Just maybe we can try to repeat some of those wild and crazy times again this fall.

All-stars or not, I’ll bet the Twins will be in hot pursuit of a World Series title in October. Go Twins!