'06 - Just the Beginning

That's the hope at least. That the Twins postseason failures can be shrugged off for the fact that almost the entire core of the team is still young, and the prospects for improvement, particularly with an entire season without Tony Batista and Juan Castro, are good.
Still, let's forget about that for a minute and appreciate something.
2006 was an amazing season.
It's certainly disappointing to have seen it end so soon, but the journey from 25-33 to division champs was an amazing one.
I predicted the Twins would win the division before the season, though I didn't quite envision it playing out the way it did.
(And just to brag a little, I also predicted that the Tigers would be the surprise team of the AL, that Cleveland would be a disappointment, and that Justin Morneau would hit 34 homeruns - you can look it up in the archives if you either dont believe me or are a total loser)

Youth is served
When the season began, many were basing their predictions on the Twins on their opinions of the additions of Rondell White, Tony Batista and Luis Castillo.
I was excited about the additions of White and Castillo, and though I didn't like the Batista signing, I held out hope that he might at least hit some homers.
But what people were missing was that the Twins fortunes had less to do with those three and more to do with the potential of Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau, and perhaps Michael Cuddyer, Jason Bartlett and Jason Kubel.
Mauer's season (.347, 13, 84) didn't surprise me. Neither did Morneau's 34 homers or Cuddyer's 24 homers.
What definitley surprised me was Morneau's .321 average, and Cuddyer's 109 RBIs. Not to mention Torii Hunter's 31 homers, Bartlett's emergence, and Nick Punto inexplicably turning himself into a useful player.
Failed experiments
For the first three months of the year, Rondell White wasn't good enough to play for the Canaries. And to be honest, Batista and Castro probably weren't either.
No one could've predicted Punto would become the player he did, but the whole Castro-Bartlett thing was shameful.
This team might've won 105 games if they hadn't wasted their time with these three. Though in the second half, White was pretty much the same guy he always has been in the past. His resurgence made the fade-off of Jason Kubel less harmful.
Bad pitching
For the first two months, the Twins strength, starting pitching, was bad.
Carlos Silva, Brad Radke, Kyle Lohse and Scott Baker were all terrible.
Radke got on track and pitched like a Cy Young candidate from June through August.
Lohse was traded for a prospect, Baker was mostly horrible with just a few good outings, and Silva was inconsistent but mostly bad.
This contributed to the team's rough start, though it should be pointed out that when Batista and Castro were replaced with Punto and Bartlett, the pitching got noticably better.
A magical run
In early June, they started winning every damn day. They made it look easy.
11 in a row, 20 out of 21. In the time it took them to lose their first 33 games, they won 25 times. In the time it took for their next 33 losses, they won 71 times. And amazingly caught the Tigers for their 4th division title in 5 years.
I pick on Ron Gardenhire a lot, and he deserves it a lot. But this season was a reminder that managers are not made by their strategizing; anyone can do that (except for maybe Gardy). What makes a manager is his ability to communicate, manage personalities, run a clubhouse, and instill a winning, confident, upbeat and positive attitude.
Gardy did that and then some. To will a team from 25-33 to 96-66 takes leadership of the highest level.
Still the best
As in Johan, Joe Nathan and Juan Rincon.
Johan will win his 2nd Cy Young award, as he won the pitching triple crown. I think my favorite stat in regards to the Twins is this: Johan led the team with 47 walks. I dont mean led the team as in that was the fewest walks - that was the most. 47 walks in 34 starts, and it was the most anyone on the team allowed. In 162 games, Twins pitchers walked 356 batters, while striking out 1,146. That's, umm....good.
Joe Nathan only had 36 saves because the Twins won so many games by more than three runs, but he had probably his best season.
In 68 innings he had 95 K's and went 7-0 with a 1.58 ERA. He blew only two saves, and the Twins came back to win both of those games anyway. When was the last time a closer went undefeated?
Surprise!
We already mentioned Punto. He had always, always sucked, and suddenly, he was good.
But he wasn't the only one.
Jason Tyner hitting .312?
Dennys Reyes - 0.89?
Boof Bonser becoming the No. 2 starter?
Pat Neshek? Without these guys playing seemingly over their heads, the Twins dont win the division.
And that kind of sums up the season. It didn't make sense. Didn't add up.
At times what was going on was literally unbelieveable.
But history will remember them as the 2006 American League Central Division Champions, and that's something that I didn't believe I'd see until the day I saw it become official with my own eyes.
Thanks Twins, for one hell of a year.

2006 Minnesota Twins Leaders
Batting
Games: Morneau 157
At-bats: Morneau 592
Avg: Mauer .347*
Runs: Cuddyer 102
Hits: Morneau 190
Doubles: Cuddyer 41
Triples: Punto 7
Homers: Morneau 34
RBI: Morneau 130
Steals: Castillo 25
Walks: Mauer 79
Strikeouts: Cuddyer 130
GIDP: Mauer 24
SLG: Morneau .559
OBP: Mauer .429
Hit Streak: Punto 19

Pitching:
Games: Rincon 75
Starts: Santana 34*
Innings: Santana 233.2*
Wins: Santana 19*
Losses: Silva 15
K's: Santana 245*
ERA: Reyes 0.89** (lowest in team history)
ERA (162 innings+): Santana 2.77*
Saves: Nathan 36
Hits/9 inn: Santana 7.16*
K's/9 inn: Santana 9.44*

*Led League
**Led all relievers with 50+ innings