Arguably the greatest regular season in Twins history is over and the Twins find themselves hosting the Oakland Athletics rather than playing in New York. It’s the playoffs, so there’s no saying what will happen. One thing is for certain though: Minnesota workplace productivity will drop to an all time low in this first week of October.

Let’s take a fully biased view of the series matchup, one area at a time:

Starting Pitchers

• Game 1: Santana (MIN) vs. Zito (OAK) [Advantage Twins]
• Game 2: Bonser (MIN) vs. Loaiza (OAK) [Slight advantage Athletics for experience]
• Game 3: Radke (MIN) vs. Haren (OAK) [Advantage Oakland for health reasons]
• Game 4: Silva?? (MIN) vs. Harden (OAK) [Advantage Oakland because who knows what Silva will do]
• Game 5: Same as game 1

Rich Harden is coming off an injury so no one knows for sure what he’s got, but you still have to give Oakland the advantage in starting pitching depth. Still, Bonser and Radke could come up with good outings that swing the advantage to the Twins side. There’s really no telling what will happen.

Bullpen

Oakland’s advantage in starting pitching depth is wiped away when you factor in the Twins strong bullpen. The Twins really just need the starters to hold the team close through 5 or 6 innings and they’ve got a good chance to win. The Twins are a come-from-behind team that can never be counted out.

Lineup

The Twins have the batting champion and another guy who could be an MVP in the middle of their lineup. Combine that with Michael Cuddyer and the resurgence of Torii Hunter and you have a pretty good lineup. They are susceptible to droughts though, as the last week of the season clearly showed.

Oakland has two guys, Frank Thomas and Nick Swisher, who are capable of changing a game with one swing of the bat. Overall their offensive numbers as a team are less than impressive, but keep in mind that they’ve battled injuries all season so the regular season numbers aren’t necessarily a good predictor of what to expect in the postseason. Regardless, the advantage has to go to the Twins.

The Twins are also much better on the basepaths which can make a difference in the postseason when games are generally lower scoring.

Manager

Ron Gardenhire has done a great job of managing this team out of it’s slow start into Division champions. However, he’s also not renowned for his in-game managerial skills which is even more magnified in the post season. He’s made a number of puzzling decisions all year (Tyner at DH, Nevin not playing much, Kubel pinch hitting after not playing for months, etc.), but it’s hard to argue with a guy that just managed the Twins to their best record in more than 30 years.

Ken Macha is certainly a good manager, but doesn’t get as much fanfare as other managers in the league. Oakland played in a far weaker division than the Twins, so he certainly didn’t have as much to contend with as far as the playoff race went. However, he faced a lot of injuries throughout the season and still managed to make the playoffs, so he deserves a fair amount of credit.

My bias tips the scale to Gardenhire as the advantage here.

Momentum

There’s no doubt the Twins have the advantage heading into the postseason. They finished the season in an unbelievable fashion in which they took over the lead of the Division for the first time on the final day of the season. Oakland didn’t play so well in the final 2 weeks of the season, but they also didn’t need to. One could also argue that Oakland is perhaps a little more fresh since they need to play down to the wire. However, it’s hard to stop a freight train and that’s what it seems like the Twins are right now. Advantage Twins in the momentum department.

My Prediction: Twins in 4