Which is the bigger surprise through 10 games?

[wsnydes]

The Twins have now completed 10 games.  A very small sample in the grand scheme of things, but enough to establish some surprises.  The bats have largely been quite, showing the occasional outburst.  While the cobbled together starting rotation has been very solid.  But which is the bigger surprise to you?

[wsnydes]

For me, it's the starting pitching.  A very pleasant surprise thus far.  I hope they're able to keep it up over the long haul.

The quiet bats are surprising to me as well, but it's not a concern yet.  I think they'll come around eventually.

[chpettit19]

I went bats. I expected a relatively slow start for the bats, but a team avg under .200 going into today? Didn't see that coming. Correa and Polanco both looking pretty bad for much of the early going is far more surprising to me than Bundy and Archer being able to throw together 3 solid starts of 14.1 innings. With the starters only being asked to get about 4 innings worth of outs each game I was relatively hopeful they could get off to a good start. I did not expect the offense to look so inept so often. They've looked terrible far more than they've looked good in the early going I think.

[ashbury]

46 minutes ago, wsnydes said:

Which has surprised you more through 10 games?  

Yes.

Not quite fun enough for Fun With Numbers: as of last night's game, Twins relievers lead the entire majors with 67% inherited runners scored.  Yay?

[wsnydes]

19 minutes ago, ashbury said:

Yes.

Not quite fun enough for Fun With Numbers: as of last night's game, Twins relievers lead the entire majors with 67% inherited runners scored.  Yay?

"Yay?" is correct! ?

[Squirrel]

I'll take 'Yes' for 100, Alex ...

Seriously ... I think bats is the bigger surprise for me ... and also the biggest frustration

[Vanimal46]

This tweet was posted before today’s game but it opened my eyes that we're starting off slower than 2016, which was the most painful season in a long time. It’s amazing we’re not 1-9 right now. The starting pitching has really kept it together. 

[wsnydes]

50 minutes ago, Vanimal46 said:

This tweet was posted before today’s game but it opened my eyes that we're starting off slower than 2016, which was the most painful season in a long time. It’s amazing we’re not 1-9 right now. The starting pitching has really kept it together. 

Yeah, that's... awful...wow.

That's quite a testament to how reliant today's game is on the HR ball and also how effective the pitching has been.

[wavedog]

Obviously early on both accounts but no way I thought Bundy and Archer would do so well so far and I certainly would take this starting pitching the rest of the season - maybe assisted by cold weather  but hasn't seemed to help all the relief pitchers.  At least it is encouraging that all the starters can pitch well if even for a short period.  For the offense, given the types of hitters we have not surprised the offense will be streaky.   A lot of potential for dead spots in the lineup.     

[cHawk]

I thought the rotation would at least have a chance at being solid.

I never saw the bats failing to hit. Yes, there have been a couple of injuries but several of their hitters have been struggling.

[Rosterman]

I'm disappointed in three things: pulling the starters, but better to pull at 70 pitches than 80, I guess. April must be spring training for rotation arms.

 

Second, line-up construction. Of course, all players having the ability to strikeout makes this a challenge.

 

Third, bullpen usage. Let's extend the bulpen guy after sitting him between innings. Okay. No one knows what to expect from a group that has no clear-cut roles. Who is the "K" pitcher, or the flyout guy, or the put-in-play arm. No closer? Whata re the strengths of the situational lefties?

[wsnydes]

2 minutes ago, Rosterman said:

I'm disappointed in three things: pulling the starters, but better to pull at 70 pitches than 80, I guess. April must be spring training for rotation arms.

 

Second, line-up construction. Of course, all players having the ability to strikeout makes this a challenge.

 

Third, bullpen usage. Let's extend the bulpen guy after sitting him between innings. Okay. No one knows what to expect from a group that has no clear-cut roles. Who is the "K" pitcher, or the flyout guy, or the put-in-play arm. No closer? Whata re the strengths of the situational lefties?

With the late start and abbreviated spring training, nobody's starters are built all of the way up.  See Kershaw, Clayton as an example of how other teams are handling their staff.

[Brandon]

I am not going to do the research on this.  But how many team walks do we have and how does that compare to teams of the past.  That should be taken into consideration with the crappy batting averages.

[AlwaysinModeration]

I’m surprised at how optimistic I am about the team despite the 4-6 start, the bullpen losing their only save opportunity, Kiriloff, Gray and Buxton out, and the hitting being anemic.

[Shaitan]

I'm more surprised at SP.

I feel like, unscientifically, recent Twins teams just fail to hit in cold weather. (Which worries me if they're ever good enough to play into late October.)

[tony&rodney]

1 hour ago, AlwaysinModeration said:

I’m surprised at how optimistic I am about the team despite the 4-6 start, the bullpen losing their only save opportunity, Kiriloff, Gray and Buxton out, and the hitting being anemic.

Me too. I was thinking 70-75 wins as the most optimistic outlook for 2022 on Opening Day. There are more than few players struggling after ten games, but it seems like they have more potential bodies to step forward this year and I'm hoping for a trade or minor league hitter to help out. Feels like there are some possible improvements coming too. Sanchez looks relaxed and Correa will be fine. Buxton? Maybe he is back on Wednesday and things look better.

[Number3]

The low hit totals in almost every game is surprising. Worse than bad. I was afraid that the addition of Correa would have the opposite effect than planned. I wonder if the locker room effect is worse than the on field effect.

[Dman]

14 hours ago, AlwaysinModeration said:

I’m surprised at how optimistic I am about the team despite the 4-6 start, the bullpen losing their only save opportunity, Kiriloff, Gray and Buxton out, and the hitting being anemic.

I agree with you.  I don't know what it is but this team feels like it will be competitive this year.  Maybe my rose colored glasses are bit too tinted but if the pen can pull things together and the starters stay this hot I am pretty sure the bats will come around they always seem to every year.  Even if the starting pitching falls off a bit I feel good about this team this year.  The 6,7,8,9 spots in the lineup are in flux right now but once Correa gets going and Buxton is back and the warmer weather warms Sano's bat things will likely change for the better.  I like this team and the young players that are close to ready that can make a difference later in the year.  If nothing else we should have good depth.

[LA Vikes Fan]

i wish I could be as optimistic as you are. I don't think they 6-9 spots are "in flux",  I think they're a black hole. I agree that bats like Polanco and Correa will come around. I just think that those 2, Arraez, Buxton when playing, and Urshlea are about all we have. If Sano sort of turns it around they way he usually does, maybe we go 6 deep in the lineup.  And that's only on those rare days that all 6 play together on the same day. Really we're about 5 deep most days. I just don't think that's going to change with the current roster. 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

16 hours ago, tony&rodney said:

Me too. I was thinking 70-75 wins as the most optimistic outlook for 2022 on Opening Day. There are more than few players struggling after ten games, but it seems like they have more potential bodies to step forward this year and I'm hoping for a trade or minor league hitter to help out. Feels like there are some possible improvements coming too. Sanchez looks relaxed and Correa will be fine. Buxton? Maybe he is back on Wednesday and things look better.

Agreed, my greatest concern was the rotation and so far the rotation has been the strength of the team. However, they are on pace for 65 wins (compared to your 70 win estimate) our estimate of How might be off, but the Outcome may not be.

the 6 man rotation last year pitched a combined 558.2 innings last year. They are going to run out of horses as the marathon progresses. The bats and bullpen better start picking up the slack or 70-75 wins might be really optimistic 

[GeorgiaBaller]

 

Rotation.  I have been skeptical of Ryan because his fastball has such a flat plain from his low release, but was tremendously impressed with his last outing.  Not comparing him to a HOF'r, but he has taken the Justin Verlander approach and is all over the strike zone from one pitch to the next, up, down, in out----but in the zone.  That is terribly disconcerting to a batter.  Hopefully Berrios does not watch Ryan now that he's gone---he would be unhittable if he moved out of his constant low zone stuff.  

For me--I would just like to see Rocco get more active in small ball to create runs when we are slumping.  OPO singles, steals, bunts, hit and runs.  Push the pulse with bats not producing.  was encourages to see him intentionally walk over the weekend.  When the bats are going, they don't need a push---but when they are dead, force the pace to generate some energy.  Buxton, Kepler, Gordon all have speed to move.  Maybe a bunt or two would help Kepler see the full field better!

[KirbyDome89]

Pitching, and it's not even close, despite the fact the bullpen already looks awful. 

That said, we're not even a full 2x through the rotation. There was an actual push to extend Martin Perez after a decent 6 games in May of '19. Shoemaker had a really nice 1st start last year, and Happ was pretty damn good for 5ish games to begin '21 as well. 

I'm not panicking about the bats for the same reason I'm nowhere ready to feel the slightest bit comfortable about the pitching. 

[TouchEmAllGuy]

I'm surprised Buxton got injured already.... ?

[Irishman]

Nothing surprises me at all!  Same old things every year!   Nothing changes!   I am not impressed with this team, 

However, I am so glad I cancelled MLB TV last month.  I sure hate watch Twins lose most of the time.  I am tired of it.  

[Twins33]

Bats.

BP being bad is not surprising.

Starters being decent to good, also not surprising to me. I thought Ryan, Ober and Gray would be good. Archer was 50/50. Paddack I wasn’t sure because of the elbow but his FIP last year made me think he wouldn’t be horrible. Bundy is more shocking than anything else that has happened so far. No clue how he’s doing it. I won’t praise him too much unless he’s still doing it in June/July. Shoemaker and Happ had some good starts too.