@aarongleeman @twinsgeek For the first time ever, Aaron was COMPLETELY wrong in an argument with John. But unfortunately, John didn't even address the points at which Aaron was wrong.

Aaron keeps harping on the Twins "decade of success" being overrated because they were actually only winning "85 to 88 games a year in the worst division in baseball."

Both of those statements are objectively false.

1. AL vs NL. The disparity between the AL and NL is well-known, yet neither Aaron nor John mentioned it. For most of the past decade, the Twins were better than at least 14 of the 16 NL teams. Here is just a short list of NL divisions in which nobody topped 90 wins: 2001 East (88), 2003 Central (88), 2005 East (90), 2006 Central (83!), 2006 West (88), 2007 ALL THREE NL DIVISIONS, 2008 NL West (84). Aaron's assertion that the AL Central was the worst division in baseball is laughably false.

2. From 2001-2005, Aaron was partially right. The Twins averaged 88.8 wins in the worst division in the AL. But in the 3 years that they won the division, they won 90, 92, and 94, and the Central was still better than various NL divisions, so Aaron's statement is still false.

3. From 2006-2010, Aaron was completely wrong. During that period, the AL Central was dramatically better, as Chicago, Detroit and Cleveland all improved, and the AL West was dramatically worse, as Seattle and Oakland cratered. In 2006 the Twins won 96, one of three AL Central teams with 90+ wins, in the best division in baseball. In 2008 the Twins only won 88, losing game 163 to Chicago, but the division was better than the AL West. In 2010 the Twins won 94 games and once again the division was better than the West.

Overall, the Twins won fewer than 90 games just once in their six division title years, and overall the AL Central was approximately the third best division in baseball, and dramatically better than the NL West and NL Central.

By comparing the AL Central only to the AL East (and the Twins to the Blue Jays), Aaron misses the point. In the AL East, Aaron is right that we wouldn't be thinking of the Twins decade of success in the same terms. But the environment that 25 teams compete in is not the AL East. Had the Twins been moved to the NL Central instead of the Brewers, they'd not only have at least as many playoff appearances, but given the absence of the Yankees in the postseason, they'd probably have a couple of World Series appearances.

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