Fred Benson

Royce Lewis will be anmed if no Twins wins by ballot.

Lopez will have a much better second half.

Buxton will play a tad better in the second half. Just a tad.

WIllie Castro will be the most-valuable-Twin!

No rooms anywhere near Cooperstown. You forget how big the Mauer Family really is. And I doubt most of us like camping.

Ryan Jeffers will take back the role of catching and demand DH at bats.

1) It seems to me that Carlos Correa is the most deserving……….Santana is actually having a very good year as compared to A.L. first baseman……..Griffin Jax is All-Star caliber.

2) Lopez seems to have some real execution issues with his sweeper and his change-up. Fastballs get hit but these other two pitches being left in the middle of the zone too often are hurting him. WALKS are his real downfall - he doesn’t seem to be able to work through giving up a walk mentally - that’s scary. Honestly, he hasn’t been right in more than 35-40% of his starts………. without injury, it would seem that there nearly has to be a fair amount of improvement.

3) Buxton seems to have settled in with a routine relative to playing time and his role. He’s definitely the most talented #7 hitter in the game. I like him down in the order as it stretches our XBH potential through the line-up. I do think he’ll improve through balance of the year with his power numbers. He seems to be a guy that runs into a fastball occasionally - punishes curve balls in zone - OK on inner third of the plate - can’t hit sliders nor lay off sliders (his big hole forever). Gotta get to 15 HR’s through balance of the year……not first half ‘22 output.

4) Yankees? I think Team can manipulate the members of the Pen to make it a strength in October (Paddack - Varland - Stewart) & the strong Pen allows the starters to ratchet up their approach with a 5 inning max expectation. The line-up has nice length right now………should add a guy or two into the current player mix……..may be able to go with 14 guys & 12 arms for a couple series to help get to the Yankees. Arizona was in the Series last year - Twins can beat anyone in October if healthy!

5) No Mauer trip for me but it could be a bunch of fun!

6) I hope Jeffers can find himself over the next few weeks - need him making contact to right side again while popping a few HR’s for Team to have good success.