The Minnesota Twins opened the decade in a new ballpark over at Target Field in 2010 and everyone was excited about Twins baseball. Why not? The Twins had won 87 games in 2009, drawn 2.4 million fans in their last season calling the Metrodome as home and advanced to the playoffs and now the team would finally play outside for the first time since the 1981 season at Met Stadium allowing fans to get to enjoy the sunshine and oh yes, the rain, snow and cold too.
The decade started with a bang with the Twins winning the division with 94-68 record although they once again lost in the first round of the playoffs three games to none to the hated New York Yankees. Twins fans couldn’t wait to see Target Field and 3,223,640 fans paid to see the Twins play ball. No one knew at that time that it would be all down hill for the Minnesota Twins and their fans from there.
I always follow the Minnesota Twins win or lose and have since 1961 but even I did not realize how bad the Minnesota Twins have been this current decade. The Twins are going to need to finish with at least a 85-77 record in 2019 to avoid their worst decade in Twins history. To fully appreciate how bad the Twins have played from 2010 through 2018 you need to look back at Twins history.
1961-1969 – The Twins played .542 baseball and had a record of 789-666, the fourth best record in the American League trailing only the Orioles, Tigers, and just one game behind the Yankees. Their record was good enough to be eighth best in all of baseball.
1970-1979 – The Twins had a 812-794 record and played .506 baseball. Only the Orioles, Red Sox, Yankees, Royals and A’s finished the decade with a better record than the Twins did. A drop from the 60’s but still the Minnesota Twins had the ninth best record in MLB.
1980-1989 – The Twins won their first World Series in 1987 and were the talk of baseball but their record that decade was just 733-833 and a winning percentage of just .468%. In the American League only the Mariners, Indians and Rangers played worse baseball in that time period. Out of the 26 teams in MLB at that time, the Twins ranked number 21.
1990-1999 – The Twins hoisted another World Champions flag in 1991 but their play in the 90’s was the worst in team history and they played .463 winning baseball and had a record of 718-833, bad enough to rank just 24th in MLB and only the Rays, Angels, and Tigers had a worse record in the American League.
2000-2009 – As the century clock turned over the Twins won a total of 863 games and lost 758 for a .532 winning percentage. The Twins had the third best record in the American League behind the Yankees and A’s and the sixth best record in MLB.
2010 – 2018 – Horrendous baseball played by the Twins this decade, posting a record of 664-794 for a winning percentage of a pathetic .455%. That record is the worst in the American League, seven games worse than their closest AL competitor the Mighty Whities by seven games and only 15 games better that the MLB worst Marlins who have the worst record in baseball over this time period. Two winning seasons this decade. On the bright side, we have no place to go but up.
The Pohlad family should be embarrassed to own a team that has performed so poorly over this extended period of time. Under the Pohlad family starting in 1985 the Twins have posted a record of 2,649-2,791 for a .487% and ninth best in the AL.
So why are the Twins so bad this decade?
Let’s start with pitching:
- leagues worst pitching ERA (4.52),
- fewest saves
- most hits allowed with closest competitor 647 hits behind
- most runs allowed
- most earned runs allowed
- fewest strikeouts
- leagues worst WHIP
- league worst H/9 at 9.6
- league worst SO/9 at 6.8
On to hitting
- Tenth out of 15 in AL in runs scored per game at 4.39
- Seventh out of 15 in AL in hits
- Third out of 15 in AL in doubles
- Fourth out of 15 in AL in triples
- Thirteenth out of 15 in AL in home runs
- Ninth out of 15 in AL in RBI
- 11th out of 15 in AL in SB
- Seventh out of 15 in AL in BB
- Fourth worst out 15 in AL in SO
- Tied for seventh in AL in batting average at .253
- Eleventh in OPS at .720%
- Hardly ever HBP with only the Astros batters hit fewer times
- Fifth highest in LOB in the 15 team AL
In spite of the Twins bad play this decade the team has drawn 22,090,802 paying fans to Target Field in the last nine seasons for an average of 2,454,534 per year. That is pretty amazing in itself.
In 2010 according to TMR the average ticket price for a MLB game was $28.74 and the Twins average ticket price was $31.47 making it the seventh highest average priced ticket in MLB. The MLB average 2010 Beer price was $5.79 and the Twins average beer price was $7.00.
By 2018 TMR said that the average MLB ticket was priced at $32.44 and the Twins had the 12th highest average ticket price at $32.68. The MLB average 2018 Beer price was $5.98 and the Twins average beer price was $8.50.
*Between 2010 and 2018 the Minnesota Twins average ticket price averaged the eighth highest in MLB ranking as high as fifth highest in 2012 and as low as 12th highest in 2018 while the team had the second worst performance in all of MLB during this same time period. The last time that the Twins average ticket price was below the MLB average was in 2009. What is wrong with this picture?
It should be noted that the Twins are advertising 2019 single game tickets in March, April and May at Target Field at 19% off (excluding Opening Day) for a limited time. WOW!
* = Based on annual TMR Fan Cost Index publications
I will take a decade like the 80s or 90s over 2000-2009 any time. It’s all about winning a championship. It feels terrible as a fan to underperform in the playoffs after a solid regular season.