Article: Time To Take Twins Seriously?

[Thegrin]

I always take the Twins seriously. After a win I watch the Twins postgame interviews and highlights and bask in the glow of their success. When the Twins lose, I immediately turn off TV, stomp around, rearrange my sock drawer, pay bills and do other unpleasant things, since things can't get worse.

However, the difference is, in previous years I barely had hope approaching a game. I expected the Twins to be down 4-0 in the 3rd inning. Any other result was like flowers and green grass in the winter.  This year, I approach each game with optimism. I expect Quality Starts and timely hitting. I think this will continue for the year.

At least I hope so. 

[troyhobbs]

It's not time to take them seriously but it may be time to stop griping about how terrible they are and actually have some things to look forward to.  Plenty of peaks and valleys yet to come, hopefully that 1st week was rock bottom though.

[Vanimal46]

Like most commenters have mentioned I am really enjoying this current string of good baseball by the Twins. Are we contenders yet? Too early to tell. But some promising trends so far: we have a 12-11 record so far in the AL Central. I'm too lazy (and a few drinks too far) on looking up stats, but it seemed like we were getting crushed by teams in our own division the last couple of years. We've also been winning against bad teams so far, which I hope continues the rest of the way.

 

I think 3rd place in the Central is certainly possible this year as the White Sox took over as the division's dumpster fire, and the Indians SP has regressed; specifically Kluber. If we are within 10 games from a WC or division crown in mid-July, who will be our Shannon Stewart circa 2003 that brings us over the hump and back into the playoffs?

[kab21]

I thought going into the season that the Twins were a 75 to maybe 80 win team that began transitioning into a playoff contender.  After the slow start I thought they were headed towards another top 5 pick.  now I think they are back to being the 75-80 win team.  I would consider the season to be very successful if they ended up .500 and several young players began stepping up and showing that they would be average or better players in the future.

[FanFromPhilly]

The Twins offense is 19th in OPS and 6th in runs scored while the pitching is 13th in ERA and 19th in OPS against.  It's nice to see that they are better than their 1-6 start but I don't see how they can continue to play at their current level.  But I sure hope they do!

[DJSim22]

I don't think you can take any team too seriously until June, much like you can't take a players performance too seriously until then.  The number one factor on how the season will play out is injuries as it always is. 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

I don't think you can take any team too seriously until June, much like you can't take a players performance too seriously until then.  The number one factor on how the season will play out is injuries as it always is.

 

what is encouraging about this season, more than previous, is this team can improve with several positions were injuries to occur. Last year it was Logan Darnell to get the next call up to the big league rotation. This year it's Meyer who's next in line with Milone as the fallback. With May already up, and Gibson establishing himself, that's a great step. Is Meyer absolutely going to improve this rotation were Pelf or Nolasco get injured? Not necessarily, but way more likely than Darnell, Johnson, or Milone.

[JB_Iowa]

They have started to catch the attention of the  national media:

Jim Caple story on Molitor:  http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/12839409/minnesota-twins-paul-molitor-enjoying-view-dugout

 

CBS sports:  http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/12839409/minnesota-twins-paul-molitor-enjoying-view-dugout

 

SportsTalkFlorida has them at 8th in their power rankings:  http://www.sportstalkflorida.com/mlb-power-rankings-may-madness/

 

Heady Territory.  Let's hope they stay there.

[Twins33]

I'm enjoying the winning, as others have said. That being said though, I think the Twins were only 4 games or so below .500 in late June last year (June 25th or so). So, I'll keep enjoying the winning while it's happening, but I'm not going to start taking it seriously until they are around .500 after 105-115 games. At least that will be improvement, contenders or not.

Edited May 11, 2015 by Twins33

[ashbury]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3-eavMSBnk

[Jham]

So, after last night's exhilarating win, the Twins improved their record to a surprising 19-15, four games above .500.  Before the season, I compared this squad with the 1991 club that went "worst to first" mostly because I believed this team was not as far away from competing as many believed.  Anyway, on this day, in 1991 the Twins defeated the Milwaukee Brewers to improve to 17-15.  The Twns got a strong pitching performance from Jack Morris and a big home run from Chili Davis.  Mollie must have had a tough time picking up that splitter as he went 0-4 with 2K's against the Big Horse.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/boxes/MIN/MIN199105140.shtml  

 

Our pace is similar to the '91 team. We just need a 15 game winning streak.  On paper, their roster is better than ours.  But we are much younger, so I can't say our team is necessarily less talented.  That said, I think our rotation can be as good as theirs once healthy.  We need some guys to break out and have career years.  And we need a rookie to break out like Knobby.  Not particularly likely, but it's fun to compare and imagine.

 

Also, our bull pen needs to continue to get outs.  I'm still not sure how Boyer's is doing it.  His peripherals are all around his career avg. (according to fangraphs he has a career BABIP of over .300, either lots of hard contact or a lifetime of unlucky).  His K/9 is around half his career avg. so perhaps his success is sustainable, or perhaps he's lost his marginal ability to miss bats, which isn't good considering the career BABIP.  Here's hoping it's the former.  His stuff looks nice, he's been a pleasant surprise so far, and it's hard not to cheer for a guy like this: http://m.twins.mlb.com/news/article/124187556/pitcher-blaine-boyer-finds-groove-as-twins-heat-up

 

 

 

 

[Otto von Ballpark]

 

Our pace is similar to the '91 team. We just need a 15 game winning streak.  On paper, their roster is better than ours.  But we are much younger, so I can't say our team is necessarily less talented.

Average ages, according to B-Ref

 

2015 Batters: 28.9

1991 Batters: 29.1

 

2015 Pitchers: 29.2

1991 Pitchers: 28.6

 

I will second your endorsement of a 15 game winning streak, however.  I'd even settle for 14 games.