​Jul. 15—In the classic 1989 sports comedy ‘Major League’ Clew Haywood’s second home run in as many at-bats against Ricky Vaughn sends the Yankees to another win over the protagonist Indians, dropping them to 60-61 on the season.After the game, general manager Charlie Donovan visits manager Lou Brown in his office to tell Brown what a fine job he’s done to get his team to within a game of .500.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisement”60-61 is hardly a great job,” Brown grumbles.”With this club — it is,” Donovan replies.Back in real life, the Minnesota Twins enter the All-Star break within a game of .500 under first-year skipper Derek Shelton.Is 48-49 a great job?With this club — it is.After all, this is a team that went 70-92 last year after a trade deadline fire sale and then made few significant additions in the offseason. Expectations were not high when the team reported for spring training in February.But now as the season reaches its unofficial midpoint and Minnesota finds itself in the thick of the (admittedly watered down) playoff race, it’s amusing to observe the parallels between this year’s Twins and the fictional Cleveland team from ‘Major League’.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementWhile Tom Pohlad is no Rachel Phelps — I have no doubt he wants his team to win — Twins ownership remains a villain to much of the team’s fans. Shortly after the Twins won their first playoff series in two decades, in 2023, they cut payroll and stopped investing seriously in personnel, reverting back to Metrodome era payroll spending. Then came last year’s fire sale, which was as much a symbolic slap in the face than a series of bad baseball moves.When it came time to assemble the 2026 roster, what did the Twins do? Very little. Castoffs like Ryan Kreidler, Alex Jackson and Tristan Gray were signed despite having track records that suggested they’d be among the worst hitters in the majors. Almost no effort was made to build a competent bullpen.And early on, it looked like the Twins got exactly what they paid for, as they lost six of their first nine games. They rebounded to win eight of nine but that appeared to be a mirage when they then lost 11 of their next 13 to fall to 13-18, a 94-loss pace.But Shelton, who knew exactly what he was getting into when he took this job, replacing the fired Rocco Baldelli, just kept believing in his guys.AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIn that scene in the manager’s office in ‘Major League’ where Donovan and Brown discuss their team’s flirtation with contention, Brown earnestly expresses his belief in the young talent on his team, unaware that they were assembled to lose on purpose.That’s not how the Twins were put together, of course, but did they really anticipate, say, Kreidler having an above-league-average .743 OPS at the break? The guy had a career batting average of .138 in 89 games before this season.Did they really think a 30-year-old Kody Clemens would be an impact player after hitting .216 last