Since he plays for the Twins, which outside of the state, only TFD follows, it might have slipped past you that since June, Johan Santana has been the best pitcher in baseball. (Hey it slipped past Joe Torre.)

The first 2 months of the year, Santana didn't appear to be the same pitcher he had been during his first 3 years in the majors, serving up an ERA over 5.50 and a WHIP over .150. Since then he has been dominant in every way. In June his ERA was 2.39, his WHIP was .172 and opposing batters hit .160 against him. During July he was even better, with an ERA of 1.17, a WHIP of 0.63 and opponents "hit" for an average of .095 versus him! Throw in that since the start of June, during the 98 innings he has pitched in, Santana has struck out 129 batters and only given up 22 walks.

There is no starting pitcher in baseball who has been as nasty. I would take him against any pitcher who will pitch in the playoffs and that's includes Schilling and Pedro, as those guys just don't dominate like they used to. Combine Santana with a reinvigorated Radke, plus the difficulty of playing in the Metrodome (see 1987 and 1991) and I think the Twins are not getting their deserved credit..