Article: The Bright Side

[Nick Nelson]

You can view the page at http://twinsdaily.com/content.php?r=1352-The-Bright-Side

[lightfoot789]

I like how you think Nelson. .500 is a realistic possibility if the breaks fall our way. I'm a believer until all hope is gone.

[Brock Beauchamp]

Amidst all the pessimism over how badly the free agent market has been handled this offseason, it's easy to forget that with several lucky breaks, this team could easily finish over .500.

 

Yes, it's a longshot. Yes, it's unlikely to happen without divine intervention. But with Mauer and Morneau on the roster (along with Willingham and Doumit), this team will be able to smack the ball around quite a bit of those guys stay healthy (far from a given) and Parmelee and/or Plouffe turn into consistent offensive threats.

 

As for the pitching staff... well, yeah. That's going to require actual divine intervention to succeed.

[Anorthagen]

It's nice to read something positive about the twins for a change. Lately it has been too much negative.

[fairweather]

When I try to think of the upcoming season from a glass half full type of view I point out to my fellow disheartened Twins fans that Vavra has been replaced by Bruno. Hopefully this will bring out the tremendous talent in youngsters like Parmalee Plouffe and Hicks.

[Steve Penz]

Why not? I don't know about 500 but i think there will be improvement. I am excited to see cf workout, to see parmalee get 500 ABs, at the hope that Mauer and Morneau get off to solid beginnings instead of struggling, to see Meyer and Arcia get call ups, and to watch the first time a sac fly happens and a runner challenges the arm of Aaron Hicks. Lets get this season started.

[Top Gun]

I think the Twins can make the playoffs. That is what everyone hopes for, There is no reason that the Twins can't be a wild card team. It's all about getting off to a good start. With just a little confidence the younger players can really rally this team.

[one_eyed_jack]

I can't disagree with anything you've said here. Yes, if a bunch of things break our way, we could win 81 games.

 

However, I share the frustration that Howard and others have expressed - a little bit more help could have made a big difference i - and the fact that the team either wouldn't or couldn't get that help leaves a sour taste in the mouths of the fans who were assured that new revenues from Target Field would be put back into the product.

 

I think that's where a lot of the negativity is coming from. I mean if your absolute sunniest day, highest ceiling, best-case scenario is .a 500 finish in the weakest division in baseball, how can you expect fans to get all that excited about forking over their hard earned money to watch this team? Winning organizations demand success, they do not tolerate mediocrity.

 

I really hope I'm wrong about this team. Sure wouldn't be the first time. Maybe it's still too cold and I'm still bitter over the Timberwolves and the avalanche of bad breaks they've endured in what began as a season with so much promise. But right now, I'm just not feeling it.

[Oldgoat_MN]

It does seem likely that the starting rotation could not be any worse and actually has to improve, lest some little known record of futility fall to the Twins.

Plouffe, Parmelee, Dozier, Hendriks... someone will step up, right? Perhaps several someones.

Let's go with that. It's spring.

[Top Gun]

The super bowl is now over and it's time to cheer for the Twins Just think what would be if the Vikes drafted C. Kaepernick instead of Ponder.

[Willihammer]

http://i.imgur.com/SwHqdom.png

[The Greatest Poster Alive]

Well I believe Diamond can be quality starter. Good #3

 

Worley could become a #2

 

I'm not ready to give up on Hendricks yet.

 

Gibson could rebound.

 

Pelfrey/Harden/Correia could turn into a decent 5th starter.

 

Saunders could run out of options, sign here, and play like a man on fire here hoping for a deal next season.

 

That rotation is enough to get to .500.

 

Hicks, Mauer, Willingham, Morneau, Doumit, Parmalee, Plouffe could produce some runs.

 

This team could sneak into a wild card play-in game if everything falls together.

[glunn]

Thanks, Nick. Things may not work out as hoped this year, but you give cogent reasons to be hopeful. I plan to remain hopeful at least until the end of April, even if the Twins lose their first 20 games.

[Gernzy]

I think the Twins can make the playoffs. That is what everyone hopes for, There is no reason that the Twins can't be a wild card team. It's all about getting off to a good start. With just a little confidence the younger players can really rally this team.

 

If the rotation does decent, our offense can carry the rest of the team I could see us making the playoffs.

 

Remember a few years ago when offense was the big question maek and the rotation was great?

[Han Joelo]

Can someone write a post about potential salary-dump mid-season trade targets? Cliff Lee and Roy Halladay come to mind, although you've always got the no-trade nonsense.

 

Gallardo, Lincecum, someone from the A's...They all sound better than Marcum or Saunders.

[70charger]

I enjoyed this article. Last year, our lineup was reasonably average, our relievers were reasonably above-average, and our starting pitching staff exploded into one of the biggest, bloodiest debacles the Twins have seen in decades. I agree that the Twins didn't do as much as they could have to shore up the 2013 team, but is it relying on an unreasonable amount of luck to think that our staff this year will be better than the combination of Baker, Blackburn, Pavano, Marquis, Liriano, Swarzak, De Vries, etc., etc. from 2012? I don't think so. Hell, even having two or three of our initial starting five make it all the way through the season would be a vast upgrade.

 

I also agree with the idea that we're playing with a bunch of lottery tickets (Plouffe, Parmelee, Hicks, Gibson, et al.), but these aren't Scratch and Win $100 cards. These are the mega millions kind of guys.

 

But hey, what do I know? Apparently I'm nothing but a shill for the front office.

[snepp]

Last year, our lineup was reasonably average, our relievers were reasonably above-average

 

By "reasonably" do you mean they weren't actually that good, but it sounds better that way?

[twinsnorth49]

I think this is how it goes, I think we were reasonably not bad last year and not bad this year.

 

Great

Good

Average

Reasonably average

Not Bad

Reasonably not bad

Reasonably not good

Not good

Bad

[DAM DC Twins Fans]

I am not optimistic for even 500...because our defense is too weak...we will give up a lot of hits that could have been caught with better defense...Hicks is the key lottery pick...because he must cover a ton of ground in OF with Josh and Parmalee in the corners...I fear a lot of doubles against us...we are also counting on Dozier (more optimistic about him) and whomever in the IF.

[70charger]

By "reasonably" do you mean they weren't actually that good, but it sounds better that way?

 

More or less. They were a bit above-average in some respects as compared to the rest of MLB (10th in OBP, 11th in BA), but they were a bit below average in others (18th in OPS). You can weight it however you want, but regardless, you'll find that the Twins were reasonably average. They weren't blowing anyone away, but let's not pretend like they were anywhere close to the Mariners or Astros, etc. when it comes to batting suckitude.

[70charger]

Just to continue this line of thought, the Twins' team relievers were 17th with a 3.77 ERA, while the starters were only "better" than Colorado, coming in at 29th with a 5.40. I maintain that at least a part of the relievers' performance numbers had to do with starters regularly going 3-5 innings, as well as running some crappy relievers out there (*ahem* Jeff Gray) to mop up innings when the Twins were already behind by six runs and didn't really care anymore.

 

So again, lineup: reasonably average; relievers: reasonably average; starters: ****ty.

[Nick Nelson]

Amidst all the pessimism over how badly the free agent market has been handled this offseason, it's easy to forget that with several lucky breaks, this team could easily finish over .500.

 

Yes, it's a longshot. Yes, it's unlikely to happen without divine intervention.

 

I'm not sure it's even that unlikely. Based on their talent, I've got the Twins pegged right now as a mid-to-high 70-win team. Picking up an extra handful of victories to move above .500 wouldn't require a miracle necessarily, just better luck than the past two years.

[Blackjack]

Thanks for the positive article!!! Its a 'ray of sunshine' after all the negativity lately!!

 

Realistically' date=' I'm not looking for that same type of storybook season here. But with more good breaks than bad, the Twins can be a .500 team or better. If it's hard to remember what "more good breaks than bad" feels like after the last two years, [u']check the previous ten for a reminder.[/u]]

 

I've always said that the Twins are usually built every year where everything has to work out just right, even when they win, they're never overpowering, they don't have excess players (or money) to use to fill in when injuries or poor performance happens.

[jmlease1]

One of the advantages to the twins roster going into this season is they have a number of young players that I'm excited to watch and see if they're going to be capable of being building blocks for the future. Seeing what happens with guys like Parmelee, Gibson, Plouffe, Hicks, etc should be fun for serious Twins fans.

 

Last season's roster had a whole lot of ifs attached to it as well. I thought then that if a number of things broke right, the team would surprise a lot of people, but that there were so many question marks it was incredibly hard to predict how they'd actually do. Too many things that needed to go well didn't and the team stunk.

 

My lesson learned? Counting on a lot of things to break well for you is a recipe for failure in that season. Either the Twins haven't learned that lesson, or they've decided that they're better off rolling the dice on a lot of things to find out what they can count on for 2014 and beyond.

[tmerrickkeller]

And between Average and Good is Reasonably Good. We could be reasonably good.

[LoganJones]

The part of the equation that fans are consistently overlooking is the quality of the team's opponents really hasn't changed much. If anything it stands to go down. The Tigers had a guy win a triple crown and still had the same basic offensive performance as the Twins (who lest we forget had 90 games with 5 or more runs allowed) who were nearly always behind in early innings. I know the Tigers have a much better pitching staff, but their O won't be much better, probably could be scheduled for worse, since a guy is likely to regress from a tripe crown season. Also, the Tigers lost basically 7 games to injury in their front line starters. Expect that number to go up. And if it's Verlander? sub .500 is very likely.

 

Does anyone really expect the White Sox to be that good again? The Royals added 1 pretty good starter, but didn't adress their offense. Cleveland? They've added a bunch of people, but they surrendered even more runs than the Twins.

 

It's very likely the Tigers will have a better season overall, since the division is in pretty bad shape, but there's hope. If the Twins can avoid a 6-16 april and a 9-19 August, things could get interesting. Get in, get lucky and it's 1987 all over again.

[ashbury]

You left out:

 

Unreasonably good

Unreasonably bad

Unreasonably reasonable

Reasonably unreasonable

Unseasonably chilly

[70charger]

Is this going to become a thing?

[James]

Is this going to become a thing?

That's a reasonably good assumption.

[Willihammer]

Unseasonably chilly

 

Or, as applied to baseball season, the Twins could range anywhere from

 

Unseasonably bad

Reasonably unwatchable

Don't buy

Risky

Unseasonably watchable

Watchable

Unsellably lullabiable