The Twins entered the weekend with the best record in baseball. Looking back on the past 10 years of MLB history at teams who had that distinction at this point in the season, nine made the playoffs.
The outlier: Baltimore, which two years ago sprinted out of the gate but finished below .500 and well out of the playoff race.
If we expand to the teams that were at least 10 games above .500 through May 9, we have a larger sample and a few more cautionary tales — but we still get a pretty optimistic picture for the Twins.
Of the 17 teams that fit that criteria over the past 10 seasons, 13 of them reached the postseason. And it includes the past three World Series winners: Boston in 2018, Houston in 2017 and the Cubs in 2016 were all 10 games or more over .500 at this point.
But in each of the past three seasons, there has been a team 10 games over .500 at this point that missed the playoffs.
Read Rand's blog at startribune.com/randball. mrand@startribune.com
