Why Minnesota Twins Fans Shouldn't Fear the Cleveland Guardians

[Patzky]

Bad news.. two of the Pirates starters will be just as tough as the guys we just faced.

[roger]

Unless the Twins can win a big majority of the 8 games remaining with the Tribe, nothing written above will matter.  Considering they are 0-5 to date, that may be asking too much.

As for who has the better team, good question.  I love how they play the game.  Reminds me a bit of the old paranas from back in Gardy's day.  Loved that team and style of ball.

[CATS44]

Two things not mentioned in the article...

 

1) Strength of schedule is obviously determined by opponents record. Cleveland present SOS is lowered by winning five games over the Twins. Its future SOS is lowered by those five games, too. In both cases, the Twins SOS's are higher, because of those losses to Cleveland.

 

2) A lot of the future may be dependent upon acquisitions made at the deadline...but Cleveland is gonna get the equivalent of a solid starting pitching addition within the next few weeks in Gavin Williams. That looks like a big boost to Clevelands biggest weakness.

[bean5302]

14 hours ago, Aerodeliria said:

Only wins and losses matter. The Guardians are as good as their record says they are.

At the end of the season, this is ultimately true. 1/3 of the way into it, not so much. The Guardians are being floated by a ridiculous BABIP with RISP, and only a couple of their batters look like they might continue this breakout. Their rotation is poor, and their bullpen is going to get worn down. Right now, the Guardians have been lucky. If they are going to keep their winning ways up, they're going to have to play a lot better overall, not just unsustainably great only when runners are on base.

[Linus]

The other problem the Twins have is their streakiness. They are going to need to win 90+ games. That can be done but not if you lose multiple games in a row with regularity. I fear their offense just isn’t good enough to avoid those bad streaks. Kind of like right now.