Article: Overshadowed Twins Pitching Staff is Roundly Excelling

[slash129]

 

Lance Lynn was generally hailed as a smart pick up, and it looks like he's rounding into shape. Lynn may be the poster child for "holdouts won't help you get that fat deal", 

The holdout just helped him get fat, and he's been round in shape all season.

[tarheeltwinsfan]

 

Great article Nick. Twins have gotten a lot of bad bounces this year so far. That kind of luck can change... but it also might not.

I think I can, I think I can!

[Tom Froemming]

 

Twins' starting pitching ranking in the majors:
12th ERA
18th FIP
12th fWAR
10th K%
14th K-BB%
18th WHIP
17th SIERA

 

Improving?  Absolutely.  They are now a solid middle of the pack starting pitching staff.  

​Excelling?  No way, unless most of these rankings are in the top 5-10...

Right, but something to consider is how much the guys who are no longer on the roster pulled down those numbers. Hughes, Duffey, Moya, Busenitz, Kinley, Hale, Curtiss and LaMarre (OK, I guess he's technically still active) combined to give up 43 earned runs in 34 innings.

[Vanimal46]

Right, but something to consider is how much the guys who are no longer on the roster pulled down those numbers. Hughes, Duffey, Moya, Busenitz, Kinley, Hale, Curtiss and LaMarre (OK, I guess he's technically still active) combined to give up 43 earned runs in 34 innings.

Good point. But I'm sure every team has a collection of Hughes, Duffey, Moya types that drags their team ERA too.

 

Can't we be happy that we are seeing an average to above average pitching staff? Especially after 7 years of pitiful pitching stats...

[bcs4]

The Twins' pitchers have a combined ERA of 3.06 in May.

 

Polanco isn't going to produce offensively when he returns.  I gotta think he's going to take 2 months to get over the suspension.  Adrianza is getting better ABs though. Sano and Buxton won't turn into Sano and Buxton this year either.  I don't mind Buxton because he's so good defensively, but Sano is a marginal 300+ pound player with bad legs.  I know people are thinking that he might turn into Ortiz if they get rid of him, and maybe he will, but I don't think Ortiz would have turned into what he became if he had stayed with the Twins.  I never thought I'd say this, but they need Mauer back at first.  Hopefully they can get something for Dozier, This might be the year where he puts 2 bad halves together.  Hopefully they'll convert Gordon to 2B  Did I read somewhere that Lewis or Gordon is getting some time at 2B?

 

In any case, what a waste of a month.  I bet it's the best full month (not counting what's going on tonight) going all the way back to Liriano and Santana.

[adorduan]

Well, it sure looks like this article jinxed the pitching staff.....  

[diehardtwinsfan]

Right, but something to consider is how much the guys who are no longer on the roster pulled down those numbers. Hughes, Duffey, Moya, Busenitz, Kinley, Hale, Curtiss and LaMarre (OK, I guess he's technically still active) combined to give up 43 earned runs in 34 innings.

I wanted to make a similar point, though to be fair to Thrylos, he quoted starting pitching. Hughes is gone. And I'd argue that Lynn probably gets a mulligan for April at least. If you factor that in, those numbers are a bit better. Context matters.

 

I'll say this, looking at 2019, the rotation of Berrios, Romero, Gibson (hopefully he's figured it out), Odorizzi and Pineda looks pretty good, especially with reinforcements of May, Gonsalves, Littell, and Slegers.

 

The hitting on the other hand... We have to fix Buxton and Sano (though to be fair, Sano has looked better of late).