Four Takeaways From the Minnesota Twins' First Half

It's really been a roller coaster year.  Many ups and downs.  They are doing a great job of beating up on the poor teams and poorly against teams with winning records.  SWR has been a nice surprise so far.  Lopez has been a huge disappointment up to this point.  Twins need him to return to "ace" performance for them going forward.  It's been fun watching some of the prospects perform so well.  Gk Twins!!

I don't think starting pitching depth has been a problem, only because our starters have been so healthy. Credit the training staff (and maybe some luck). If we had to go 15 deep for starters like the Brewers, we would be in a heap of trouble.

Other takes I see: Miranda is proving that last year was simply an injury-related outlier. I like him as a dangerous bat, and he has even flashed on a few corner infield plays. At the very least, he has become a nice trade chip. Castro continues his breakout as his playing time has increased. Wish he'd steal more bags like he did last year though. He's like a Cesar Tovar with a better bat and maybe should be considered for a contract extension. Julien, who most people counted on for a full and productive season this year, really fell off the cliff. Here's hoping he finds his way back. Larnach has shown nice improvement in recognizing pitches (and hitting them) this year. Overall, it's been nice to see the hitters cutting down on strikeouts a bit too.

And the pitching...well...we knew. While I was volunteering at the soup kitchen, I ladled another cup of beef barley for a disheveled looking Mr Pohlad as he grumbled about TV deals and how expensive Michael Wacha would be. I gave him some extra crackers.

Time to dump the high priced vets and let the "kids" play......Get what you can...but unload the salaries even if only for a 6 pack......  Farmer, Margot........Santana  I am either way on....and would love to see Vazquez gone...but no one is taking that contract.....guys hitting under .200 just don't belong in the majors.....

Would love to see Lewis, Correa, Lee, and Miranda in the infield in the 2nd half

What a crazy ride so far this season.  They have looked absolutely lost at stretches and world beaters at others.    We are getting a glimpse of what could be a really fun offense if they can jettison Farmer and Margot.

Wallner's power is Nelson Cruzesque!   If he can stay dialed in, he could put up huge numbers.    At the beginning of last year, looked like Austin Martin was going to be a flop.  What a fantastic turnaround and a fun player to watch.   Jose Miranda regaining his swing from two years ago is the most pleasant surprise of the season!    Correia is finally earning his mega contract and know we can see why he got it in the first place.   Legit All star.    And Royce Lewis and Brooks Lee look like cornerstones for the next decade (if they can stay healthy).    Jake Cave must've given the blackmail photo's he has on the Twin's FO to Kyle Farmer.   Please move on from him.

My takeaway is that while there were some brutal stretches of play, overall it was a pretty decent 1st half for the Twins.  13 games over .500 just before the All Star break?  Yeah, I would have taken that back on April 1.

Can't help the crazy hot 1st half for Cleveland, although part of the blame falls on the Twins who played poorly vs the Guardians.  Cleveland might last, might not, but at least the Twins project to make the playoffs.

Enough of the young players are hitting and improving, mostly, even if there are some disappointments like Kirilloff.  That's good and needed because the vets we have are already at their performance ceiling, and for some the ceiling isn't very high.  Injuries have hurt, but that's a league-wide problem and at least they haven't yet affected starting pitching where the Twins have very limited depth.  But the starting pitching.... yeah, we need Pablo to find his 2023 form.  Without that it is hard to envision significant playoff success unless the offense just catches fire in October.

I love that unexpectedly good health from Byron Buxton is overshadowed by many other good developments.

Good first half,but if we're going to catch Cleveland or even TRY to win a playoff series, then we need a solid starter and at least one reliever. Preferably a real good lefty and a good righty. Time to move on from Farmer Margot and Santana. Trade them for whatever we can get, even if it's just a salary dump. We're getting much better production from our prospects and young players and it will be great for their development to play meaningful September games. Should be a fun second half of we can stay healthy, especially the pitching staff.

Maybe hook up a trade with Toronto to bring Berrios back?  

If the team stays healthy and can get past the Yankees (who are falling big time), they have a legitimate path to the LCS. In the playoffs, you only need 3 starters and a good bullpen and we have that. It would be nice to get a horse like Scherzer but I don't see us forking over the money. I can see us maybe getting Berrios or Bassitt or maybe Tallion (whom I like) or a lefty starter from somewhere (but NOT Kukuchi). The key, though, is to be healthy at playoff time. And let's take 5 of 6 from the Indians though Classe won't allow that.

"Expecting a deadline addition for the rotation seems almost too optimistic, but Minnesota needs one."
"The [bullpen] is solid, but an addition or two should be the focal point at the trade deadline."

Agreed with these summaries of the pitching situation. Given the cautious tendencies of this front office, especially in the last year, we should be prepared for less in the rotation—a lower-impact addition or no addition at all. But a late-inning reliever seems like the minimum to expect at the deadline, and adding a second arm would not be unreasonable—an additional reliever, a starter, or maybe a swingman who could slot into either role as roster needs evolve?

Parallel with this, my other takeaway is that the position-player group is likely set for the postseason. Sure, there is some risk of the young guys or guys with less track record (Castro) falling off, and I'm sure the FO will listen on possible moves around the margins—maybe they cycle Margot or Farmer off the roster and improve those spots, for instance. But it certainly seems right now like there's enough depth and upside there to carry the team on the offensive side, leaving more of whatever trade capital they have for moves on the pitching side.

2 hours ago, srlarson said:

Time to dump the high priced vets and let the "kids" play......Get what you can...but unload the salaries even if only for a 6 pack......  Farmer, Margot........Santana  I am either way on....and would love to see Vazquez gone...but no one is taking that contract.....guys hitting under .200 just don't belong in the majors.....

Would love to see Lewis, Correa, Lee, and Miranda in the infield in the 2nd half

League-wide batting avg is the lowest it's been since 1968, "the year of the pitcher" and the year before they lowered the pitching mound. There are lots of guys hitting under .200. Look at the mariners hitting stats!

Lineup and bullpen are good. The rotation needs at least another guy to give them depth who is better than Festa/Varland down the stretch, otherwise Dobnak and Caleb Boushley are going to be making starts in September. Obviously someone better than Ober/Ryan would also be helpful, but expensive in dollars or prospect capital and I don't see that type of trade happening. 

1 hour ago, bean5302 said:

I don't see that as a deal making sense for either side. Toronto wants to compete, and Berrios is a long term asset for them. For the Twins, he's a mid rotation guy, he doesn't slot in at the front and he'll be expensive (both prospect and payroll).

That post was supposed to be just kinda funny.  Since the Twins need starting pitcher depth and Toronto stinks.  

2 hours ago, srlarson said:

Time to dump the high priced vets and let the "kids" play......Get what you can...but unload the salaries even if only for a 6 pack......  Farmer, Margot........Santana  I am either way on....and would love to see Vazquez gone...but no one is taking that contract.....guys hitting under .200 just don't belong in the majors.....

Would love to see Lewis, Correa, Lee, and Miranda in the infield in the 2nd half

Lewis

Miranda seems, at least recently, seems to have let tying a record go to his head.

Lee will probably hit the - we figured you out - slump eventually but he does look like he might be as good as some here were fatuated about at least to a degree.

Wallner, he looks like Lurch's son, is doing a just out of AAA surge. It would be nice he keeps it up.  He is usually smiling and looks like a dude that talking to would be a nice conversation.

The Twin must do very well againt the Phillies, Braves and Cleveland or they could be mired in mediocrity.

My opinion of Santana has changed since the end of May.  Maybe Kiriloff's disappearance has contributed to that, but Santana has shown that while he is not at the career peak form which was no doubt a factor in his price tag, he is still overall a positive factor on this team.   Honestly, Margot is only slightly underperforming his career numbers......he's not going away because he is essentially giving the FO what they expected when they pursued him.  As fans, we expect more but as long as he is healthy we are stuck with him.  

That leaves Farmer as the only obvious position player that we should expect to see go away.  Lee is proving this every day as is, to a lesser degree, Martin.  

This team has been fun to follow, and in ways that a lot of us actually did not expect coming out of spring training.  If only we could actually see them on tv once an awhile, it would be even more fun.

Had we not started so bad we would be talked about one of best teams in baseball, as we have had a top record since our terrible start.  The Yankees are on the other side of the coin, they started off so hot.  They were 50 and 22 after June 14th game.  As of today, they are 56 and 38.  Meaning they have gone 6 and 16 over last 22 games.  That is terrible. That is only 3 games better than how White Sox started their first 22 games.  

Of course each game counts, but the Yankees world is coming down but still is leading the wild card by 4.5 games, because they had huge cushion. Cleveland has yet to have a bad run overall. 

I feel fans here feel like the team is doing much worse than we really are, and since the 7-13 start we are doing pretty well. Since that time we are 19 games above .500.  We are testing our starting pitching depth, and do not have anyone that is considered a cy young person, but we have 5 solid starters overall, no one when they start do I say, well we better score a ton today.

Our offense has become one of best in baseball, and this has been sustained for awhile.  We are 4th in runs scored, 4th in HR, 3rd in OPS.  We really need to work on the pen for the most part and hope health of the rotation holds. 

Few complaints and more smiles than anticipated so far. Only reason they won't catch Cleveland is they can't beat at all head to head. Twins need to spend some money to stay competitive at the highest level. They must stop acting like a second tier practically broke franchise. But they must spend prudently.

Buxton playing regularly and regaining his stroke is a huge plus. Only pray it lasts. Correa is money in the bank..Lee has been a surprise plus so far. Lewis is a stud but can't stay healthy...actually though he was slumping when he went on the IL. Wish Kepler would stop being so streaky.  Right now his bat is dead again. Same with Jeffers who started hot and then really cooled. Biggest pitching disappointment hands down has been Pablo. His 1st half was unacceptable.  He has to be better for Twins to have any shot. Overall it has been mostly a fun team to watch