DON'T UNDERESTIMATE THE TWINS!

"There is no greater danger than underestimating your opponent." -Lao Tzu

History is just that....history. I know we are all excited about postseason baseball. It's nice that we are finally division champs again. It's been a long time. It may be nice to face the very familiar Twins to start the postseason, but some people are too complacent. Confidence is good, but like ancient Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu said, never underestimate your opponent.

The Yankees have a long successful history against the Twins....but that's all it is, history. It doesn't matter anymore. I've heard a lot of people talk about THESE stats:

2003 ALDS: Yankees win series 3-1
2004 ALDS: Yankees win series 3-1
2009 ALDS: Yankees win series 3-0
2010 ALDS: Yankees win series 3-0

2017 AL Wild Card Game: Yankees win eventually, but the Twins did jump out to an early 3-0 lead.
*The last time the Twins beat the Yankees in a postseason game was 15 years ago on October 5, 2004 and the Yankees have gone 10-0 against Minnesota in October since then.

Those are all nice historical facts, they are nice confidence builders. The Yankees have success against the Twins but they are a good team too. These aren't the same TWINKIES anymore. They hit home runs like the Yankees do, in fact hit one more than we did for the season. The Yankees and Twins match up on paper in many ways. Not only do they hit home runs, they have a good bullpen, they have the same concerns with their starting rotation as we do AND they are banged up just like we are.

This is going to be a battle of two very evenly matched teams, it's not going to be a walk in the park for either team. The Yankees won the regular season series with a 4-2 record and both teams hit a ton of home runs this season, so we shouldn't expect the ALDS to be any different. The Yankees will have to be strategic pitching against Eddie Rosario, Max Kepler, Nelson Cruz, Miguel Sano and Mitch Garver all of these guys hit over 30 home runs whereas the Yankees only had Gleyber Torres and Gary Sanchez hit more than 30.

The pitching is going to be key here. The Yankees have a strategy in mind for the first three games even if we don't know it yet. I wonder if the Twins rely more on an opener after Jose Berrios and Jake Odorizzi. The Yankees need to win games one and two at home, it takes off a little bit of the pressure. This will probably be a tighter series than some think it will be. Tight games will be decided by pitching mistakes, and both teams know how to hit dingers. The Yankees have been hurt this season by home run mistakes, so hopefully we don't make many of them and are able to overcome them.

The start of the postseason isn't going to be easy for the Yankees just because we have a consistent record against the Twins in the past. The Twins are hungry, just like we are. Remember, they are ready to "slay the dragon" so we have to show them what happens when they poke this dragon. We have to be hungrier and live in the present, not the past.

If we are hungrier and play better baseball, then we win. Simple as that. Stay hungry, Yankees.

--Jeana Bellezza-Ochoa
BYB Managing Editor
Twitter: @nyprincessj