Snooty Twins fans could use a dose of realism and ought to chill a bit

The Twins will return to Target Field with a 4½-game lead in the Central Division, the largest division lead in the American League.

In their past two games, they gave up just one run to the hot-hitting Philadelphia Phillies in one of baseball's best hitters' ballparks, as Pablo López and Sonny Gray combined for 12 shutout innings.

Those became two of the most impressive outings from the best and deepest rotation the Twins have fielded since 1970.

The 2023 Twins are on pace to win 84 games. The most celebrated men's professional sports team in Minnesota history is the 1987 Twins, who won Minnesota's first major sports championship.

The 1987 Twins won 85 games, holding off the Royals by two games to finish at the top of a terrible division. Then the '87 Twins, with two reliable starting pitchers, won the World Series.

These realities do not seem to be registering with a horde of dissatisfied Twins fans, who loudly lament their team's inability to run away with the division title.

Which makes me wonder.

When and how did Minnesotans become the cork-sniffers of the sports world?

If the Gophers football team won the Big Ten West, you would have seen parades and burning cars in Dinkytown.

Somehow, the Twins putting themselves on pace to enter the playoffs with a strong rotation and a rising ace in López in the first round is just not good enough.

This mentality is understandable, if you relate it to wine snobs.

"The Twins are a reasonably tasty bargain vintage, but they present an indifferent mouthfeel, and there is a hint of overripe elderberries on the finish. This bottle would be more vivacious if the grapes were grown during the rainy season in the Bordeaux region. My rating: negative 12 stars."

It's easy to discern what has gone wrong for this team: Byron Buxton and Carlos Correa have disappointed at the plate, and setup man Jorge López dealt with performance and mental health issues.

Look at what's gone right.

Donovan Solano, Willi Castro and Michael A. Taylor were overlooked and underrated additions. All three have excelled within their expected roles. Solano is one of the team's best hitters and has played surprisingly well at first base. Castro has been an excellent utility player. Taylor has saved the Twins in center field.

The recent addition of Jordan Luplow paid off immediately. Luplow is 6-for-18 with a home run and double.

Edouard Julien, Matt Wallner, Royce Lewis, Alex Kirilloff, Brooks Lee, Walker Jenkins and Emmanuel Rodriguez highlight as good a group of young hitters as the Twins have had since Kirby Puckett was a skinny singles-hitting prospect.

At a time when most people, including me, would have cut Max Kepler, they stuck with him, and he has rewarded them with an All-Star caliber OPS (on-base percentage plus slugging percentage) of .894 since June 30 and .932 since July 14.

The Twins have survived the struggles and departure of Jorge López — and the injury to the remarkably talented Brock Stewart — with a cast of seeming thousands. On Sunday, Griffin Jax, Caleb Thielbar and Emilio Pagán got the ball to Jhoan Duran for a tense victory over the kind of team the Twins might be facing in the playoffs.

What's most interesting about the dissatisfaction with this team is that when the Twins' brain trust has erred, it has done so by acting aggressively. For decades we have heard complaints about the Twins' spending and passivity. If anything, they were too aggressive and ambitious in signing Buxton and Correa to long-term contracts and dealing away quality prospects last year at the trading deadline.

I approved of the Buxton and Correa signings because they are supreme talents, and it is the job of the front office to amass as much talent as possible.

I wasn't as high on trading prospects at last year's deadline, but the Twins' current stock load of quality young hitters might make those losses moot.

But go ahead, Minnesotans, turn up your noses at a potential division winner. When your state is awash in championships, you have every right to be snooty.