20/20 Hindsight: Season

[chilidavis]

The 2015 season made me into a happy fan again. The 2015 Twins were fun to watch and I believe there's a bright future ahead. I was absolutely delighted to be watching meaningful Twins baseball into October for the first time in years, and I look forward to another winning squad (and hopefully a playoff appearance!) in 2016.

 

That being said, the season is still fresh on my mind, so I have to provoke this discussion before I can fully accept that it's time to settle into another offseason...

 

What are some realistic things the Twins could have done differently this year that would have gotten us an extra handful of wins/trip to the wild card game? Hindsight can be redundant and I don't want to beat any dead horses, but a few decisions quickly jump into my mind that, if handled properly, could have definitely made a difference for this team's end result. We lost a few wins for these reasons:

 

 

1. Eddie the Stick should have been the given the starting SS job much earlier in the season! They let Santana fail for way too long before finally coming to their senses on that one. It cost us in the end.

 

2. Stauffer was so terrible in Spring Training that he really never should have broken camp. He cost us a game or two early on.

 

3. Not a front office or managerial decision here, but Perkins should have spoken up about his injuries before blowing a handful of games while pitching through pain! He was terrible and it cost us a couple.

 

Anybody else have some obvious ones that come to mind?

[Vanimal46]

Those are certainly 3 poor decisions that come to mind. To expand on Stauffer, I found it strange that he went to AAA for a couple of rehab appearances, got lit up, and immediately got called back up to the MLB. Not sure why he earned that sort of trust early on.

 

Also, since this may be our last time doing this, Brian Duensing. I will say he was serviceable the 2nd half of the year, but he blew quite a few opportunities early on. It got to the point where he only came into the game if the Twins were down by 7+ runs. I hope he catches on somewhere else, just not with the Twins.

[USAFChief]

The Trevor May spot start was teh stupid.

 

Oh wait...you said hindsight.

[Minniman]

Coming out of Spring Training, I thought the Twins could almost reach .500. I was hoping Molitor would make the difference.

 

Coming out of the first week of play, I thought the team would be lucky to win 75 games.

 

Coming out of May, I thought the Twins could get 85 wins but would regress toward the mean.

 

Coming out of the All Star break, I thought the Twins could scrap for 90 if they could pick up some pitching and either a lead-off or power bat. Then they tanked.

 

It was pretty much hoping for a .500 result the rest of the way.  In the end, the Twins exceded my opening day expectations by a half dozen games. I guess that is not bad, but the team had obvious problems that were not addressed in the offseason, so I was never really excited about this season.

[DaveW]

Hindsight:

 

They should have signed Nelson Cruz like I called for.

 

They should have actually fixed the pen prior to the season, during the season and before the deadline like everyone seemed to be calling for.

 

I actually don't mind the Santana expirment, I think they stuck with him a tad too long at SS, but I get why they gave him a long leash.

 

They should have gotten a legit back up catcher, this would have allowed them to rest Suzuki once in a while in the first half.

 

May never should have been taken out of the rotation, especially not in favor of Pelfrey.

[HitInAPinch]

I don't believe in looking back.  Woulda been, coulda been, shoulda been.  meh

What we learned along the way is the future could be considerably brighter.

[ashbury]

I think looking back on a team that underperformed, even if it's second-guessing, can be worth doing. But this team overperformed.

 

I continue to look at the 1984 Twins as a cautionary tale - they made the big jump from a 90-loss team, using many of the core of players that eventually won it all, then wallowed through two sub-par seasons before getting to the promised land.

[Mike Sixel]

I don't believe in looking back.  Woulda been, coulda been, shoulda been.  meh

What we learned along the way is the future could be considerably brighter.

Looking at what you did well and not well is the only way to improve.....

[Brock Beauchamp]

 

I think looking back on a team that underperformed, even if it's second-guessing, can be worth doing. But this team overperformed.

 

I continue to look at the 1984 Twins as a cautionary tale - they made the big jump from a 90-loss team, using many of the core of players that eventually won it all, then wallowed through two sub-par seasons before getting to the promised land.

The 1984 squad is a good comparison. Without a couple of key acquisitions and smart roster management, the 2016 squad could end up with a worse record than their 2015 counterparts.

 

The reality of the situation is the 2015 squad over-performed their stats to the tune of half a dozen wins or more. If Ryan sits on his hands this offseason, it wouldn't surprise me to see the 2016 team end up with 78-82 wins and miss the playoffs again.

[HitInAPinch]

 

Looking at what you did well and not well is the only way to improve.....

Absolutely agree!  But the author was looking more at personnel/position issues.