Colorado Rockies: This team is a weird bunch historically

MINNEAPOLIS, MN – JULY 22: Hall of Fame pitcher Bert Blyleven congratulates former teammate Jeff Reardon after a ceremonial pitch during a pregame ceremony honoring the 30th anniversary of the 1987 World Series Championship before the game between the Minnesota Twins and the Detroit Tigers on July 22, 2017 at Target Field in Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images)

Prior to the 1994 season (which would later would see the last two months of the season and the postseason wiped out due to the 1994-1995 Player’s Strike), there were only two divisions in each league and no Wild Card.

So, it may be a bit surprising, especially considering that the team featured 3 future Hall of Famers, to see that in 1987, the Minnesota Twins won the American League West division with just a record of 85-77. If they were in the AL East, they would have been in 5th place.

Even more surprising is that they had a run differential of -20.

The Kansas City Royals, which featured current Rockies manager Bud Black on their pitching staff, had run differential of +24 but they finished at 83-79 and 2 games back of the Twins and in 2nd place in the West.

The Twins would face the Detroit Tigers in the ALCS and they would defeat them in 5 games. They would go to the World Series and face the St. Louis Cardinals and the Twins were able to prevail and defeat the Cardinals in seven games for the Twins first World Series title.

This Twins team also featured 4 guys who had at least 28 homers and 85 RBI as well as a future Rockies manager in Don Baylor, who was in his second of three seasons in a row of making the World Series while with 3 different teams (all in the American League). Baylor hit .389 that postseason in 18 at bats with a homer and 4 RBI.

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