Lord Byron

First of all, I wanna weigh in on all of these Players' Weekend uniforms, because a ton of them have been landing on the blog in customs lately, and you're probably wondering what I think of them.

Well...I like them. I think they're a really cool change of pace, similar to the 'Turn Forward the Clock' week back in the late 90s, and I think it's a nice way of paving the way for players' creativity and looseness on the ballfield. This can be a serious game, but those uniforms remind me that, above all else, the starting nines are there to have a good time.

Right. Onto the Wild-Card-contending Minnesota Twins.

The Twins are far enough ahead of the pack that you can guess that they'll be ending up in the postseason. Their closest competitors are the Angels, and as much as they're heating up, they haven't had the full, competitive season the Twins had. The Twins had some come-ups, some breakouts, some really nice performances, but we also saw the return of the 2015 ideology that simply good managing and good units can get a ton done. I'll give Molly some credit there, even if I thought he'd be out of a job by this year.

Byron Buxton's having a fantastic, full season, being a menace on the base paths and in the outfield, leading the team by example. Yes, old heroes like Max Kepler, Brian Dozier and Joe Mauer are also doing pretty well, but Buxton was one of those guys who we all worried would never live up to his status as a (sigh) TOP PROSPECT. And now he's leading the team into the Wild Card game.

The pitching worries me slightly, but Ervin Santana, Jose Berrios, and (GASP) even Bartolo Colon are doing pretty damned well, even if they probably won't have the pitching numbers to combat probable wild card rivals the New York Yankees.

This team has come so far in a year, and I'm excited that they have a chance to make it far this year, no matter how unlikely it may have seemed.

Coming Tomorrow- Hopefully the last one of those stinking Cardinals I need to make this year, this one a powerful rookie infielder.