2024 Twins Season Midpoint. Comments, Observations, Projections and Predictions.

[Linus]

39 minutes ago, Road trip said:

Indeed.  But people are going to gripe and look for someone(s) to blame when things don't go well.  I think the griping has decreased somewhat in recent weeks as the play has improved.

As a fan base we are processing several relatively new realities, and change is hard.  These new realities would include:

1. Players spending far more time on the injured list compared to a decade or two ago (this is a league-wide issue, but it is always more noticeable on the team you follow closely).  This has led to the perception that the FO has signed/traded for injury-prone players.  This is true, but so has everyone else.

2. Scoring being down dramatically compared to just a few years ago (which leads to the perception that the FO/Rocco can't evaluate and develop hitters, or that they pursue too many platoon bats in a desperate attempt to squeeze out extra runs).

3. The advent of the analytic/corporate Manager, vs the traditional Billy Martin/Earl Weaver/Lou Pinella passionate yeller-screamer.  This is also a league-wide trend.  If Rocco were fired tomorrow, the Twins would almost certainly hire a similar type of manager.  It isn't, however, what many older fans are accustomed to.

4. The failed TV deal...which has just generally pissed off everyone in the Twins home territory, and for good reason.

Overall, I'm content to slightly disappointed in this year's team.  Things are trending upward, and perhaps the Twins really are the 6th best team as determined by FanGraphs.  The problem is that it seems like there is a very wide gap between the very top teams (Yankees, Baltimore) and the Twins at #6.  I've very much enjoyed seeing some of the youngsters progress (SWR, Miranda, and now Lee).  Development is key for this franchise... gotta roll the dice on the kids because the Twins have almost never spent big $s, and certainly won't this year.

I think your points are spot on. I am really enjoying this team especially the lineup. My only regret is that we swung and missed last offseason. Add one more good starter to this rotation and we could go places. 

[OptimisticTwinsFan]

Is Lewis, Correa, Lee, Miranda, Castro, and a hitting Julien the best Twins hitting infield of all time? 

[OptimisticTwinsFan]

In the second half key things that I will be watching: 

• Getting Julien on track: Julien was an 155 OPS+ player last year. I believe that his eye at the plate, ability to lay off balls, and opposite field power is a valuable skillset. I think this skillset fits perfectly at the top of the order in front of Lee, Lewis, and Correa. How can the Twins get Julien back to where he was last season? 
• How does it all fit together: Wallner appears to be getting back to where he was last year, I am confident Julien will figure it out, and Royce will come back. Now, what if AK gets healthy and starts tearing up AAA? There is some slack on the roster with Farmer and maybe Margot. I think the Twins need to figure out who they want to invest into and create more defined and consistent roles for those players. The should aggressively pursue trades to upgrade pitching. There are more hitting prospects coming in Keaschall, E-Rod, Jenkins, and others sooner rather than later. 
• Pablo Lopez: How can the Twins get him on track? His peripherals look really good but he's consistently getting shelled. 
• Adding SP: How can the Twins upgrade their SPing? It doesn't appear that there is additional help in AAA and god forbid there is an injury to one of the top 4. This is a huge risk and in the playoffs I worry that especially with Pablo's struggles we don't have enough high-end stuff against elite bats. Can you go out and get a cost controlled top of the rotation caliber starter? If not, how can you at least shore this risk up. 

[RpR]

3 hours ago, OptimisticTwinsFan said:

In the second half key things that I will be watching: 

• Getting Julien on track: Julien was an 155 OPS+ player last year. I believe that his eye at the plate, ability to lay off balls, and opposite field power is a valuable skillset. I think this skillset fits perfectly at the top of the order in front of Lee, Lewis, and Correa. How can the Twins get Julien back to where he was last season? 
•  

On a different team.