Johan Santana, Torii Hunter and Carlos Silva are elsewhere, but the Minnesota Twins haven't gone anywhere.
Baseball's Little Engine That Could steamrolled to nine consecutive victories through Thursday, on a sugar high from gobbling up all those National League cupcakes, and pulled to within half-a-game of the White Sox in the ever-surprising AL Central.
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| Alexi Casilla and the Twins have a knack for doing the little things. (AP) |
You'd think after all these years, and after all of the reams of paper used drawing up praises to Oakland and chief architect/genius Billy Beane, there would be some leftover credit somewhere from the chattering masses for the modest ol' Twins.
Nobody in baseball is better at making a season about who's here, rather than who's gone. And nobody does a better job of scouting not only other clubs, but deep into the farm systems of other clubs -- all the way down to the Class-A level. And, nobody is more thorough at teaching the game all the way up the minor-league ladder.
There's a reason why you constantly hear other clubs hold the Twins up as a model to emulate, and the combination of those things factors largely into why. Unheralded second baseman Alexi Casilla, 23, is quietly emerging as one of keys to the Twins' latest surge. They found him in the Los Angeles Angels' system, acquiring him following the 2005 season for accomplished reliever J.C. Romero. Casilla at the time had played only 20 games above the Class-A level.
And amid the din of the Twins losing one of the game's best pitchers (Santana) and the face of the franchise (Hunter) during what may rank as the most difficult winter in club history (Non-Contraction Division), they re-signed Justin Morneau (six years, $80 million), Michael Cuddyer (three years, $24 million) and, in a move that left pundits who didn't think the Twins could compete scratching their heads, closer Joe Nathan (four years, $47 million).
As the personnel moves were unfolding, Cuddyer never hesitated committing to the Twins -- even after Santana, Hunter and Silva were out the door.
"Not at all," Cuddyer says. "I love it here. I love the way we do things."
And as he continued, listen to this: "I love the way we teach the game and I love the way we play the game. It was a no-brainer for me. The way we teach the game here, and play it, to me, that's more important than going out and hitting 30 home runs and trying to get your own numbers.
"You see a lot of teams lead the league in home runs, and they don't win. You see teams lead the league in runs scored, and they don't win. They don't take advantage of running the bases, or hitting with runners in scoring position."
The Twins work on sliding during spring training. They take infield. They are adept at hitting the ball behind the runner. In the minors, they tell their managers and pitching coaches that if a pitcher cannot wind and deliver a pitch to home in 1.3 seconds, he will not even be considered for promotion to the next level.
Small examples of small things that feed into that Twins specialty: The whole is usually greater than the sum of their parts.
