Consult reality before crowning the Twins

The Baltimore Orioles won the American League East in 1997 with a 98-64 record and by two games over the New York Yankees. The Orioles lost in six games to Cleveland in the first round of the playoffs.

Owner Peter Angelos allowed General Manager Pat Gillick to spend for several free agents, including outfielder Joe Carter (coming off 102 RBI) and starter Doug Drabek.

Carter joined a 1998 lineup that already featured Cal Ripken, Roberto Alomar, Rafael Palmeiro, B.J. Surhoff and Brady Anderson. Plus, Harold Baines was there for the full season and outfielder Eric Davis was back from injury.

Drabek would be joining Mike Mussina, Jimmy Key, Scott Erickson and Scott Kamieniecki, starters who had combined to win 57 games in 1997. And flamethrower Armando Benitez was the closer in front of Arthur Rhodes, the game's most overpowering lefty reliever.

The Orioles started 10-2. A Baltimore sports columnist, covering the Masters, was looking over another winning boxscore and said to a friend: "This isn't fair. This team is too good."

The 1998 Orioles finished 79-83, fourth of five teams in the East and 35 games behind the Yankees. They have ranged from 63 to 78 victories over the next 11 seasons. That gave the O's 12 losing years in a row, and they went 2-16 to start 2010.

There is a moral to this tale, and it doesn't center on bashing the Orioles. This is a caution to baseball fans -- in this case, Twins fans -- not to get ahead of themselves.

The rest of fandom has no business looking down the road -- particularly in Minnesota, where it has been proven in historic fashion that 162 games might not be sufficient to decide a regular season.

Sadly, I've heard many idiotic things surrounding the Twins in this early stage of the season. For instance:

• Joe Mauer's heel injury led to the recall of Wilson Ramos. The 22-year-old catcher was batting .179 at Class AAA Rochester. He went 7-for-9 in his first two games.

Twins followers sent electronic communiqués insisting that the team start making plans immediately to either A) convert Ramos to third base or B) put Mauer at third and install Ramos as the No. 1 catcher.

Ramos went 0-for-3 in Saturday's first game and is now 1-for-14 since the early splurge. Drew Butera was in the lineup for the night game -- and figures to stay as the backup when Mauer returns to the lineup.

"That will be the test," was a comment uttered.

Whoa, Nellie.

This is baseball, and there are no givens. There certainly are none 28 games into a 162-game (or maybe 163) season.

The O's outpitched and outplayed the Twins 2-0 on Thursday. Baltimore did the same in Saturday's first game -- a 7-3 victory -- before the Twins came back for a split, 6-1 behind Scott Baker in the night game.

Anyone shocked by this? Not with such a team as the Twins -- meaning, any team not the Yankees -- that's never more than three hours away from a potential comeuppance.

The middle of the infield is improved, but it was fine for the last two months of 2009 after the arrival of Orlando Cabrera. A revitalized Francisco Liriano makes for a better rotation, and not having Joe Nathan makes for a thinner bullpen.

How does it add up?

Thirty-one games in, we know nothing, except there's one well-oiled machine in the American League, and it's the Yankees. The rest of 'em -- Twins included -- will have all they require as a challenge most every day.