It’s Okay to be Disappointed in the Twins

Quick question, and maybe I missed something, but why is it a lot of recent OP posts have been blocked for a day or two to make contributions? Updates being made, a glitch, or just time for us to reflect before being allowed to comment? 

I really, really wanted to comment on this particular OP the minute it was posted.

THIS TEAM HAS ME MORE FRUSTRATED THAN ANY TWINS TEAM I CAN THINK OF IN RECENT MEMORY. 

Sorry for shouting in CAPS. But I not only LOVE the Twins, I absolutely love this team and how it was constructed, with very few exceptions. 

EXCEPTIONS:

1] I wanted a powerful OF/1B bat from the RH side. I quickly changed gears when Taylor was brought in as I saw the reasons why. It made sense to me, defense and speed and help for Buxton.

2] Pagan should have been gone for many reasons. Forget decent low leverage results to end 2022, and decent numbers so far this year, despite a couple of horrific performances. His $3.5M should have been used, along with a couple $M more, for a shot at a possible improvement as to deepen the pen and not automatically assume Alcala was going to be ready.

That's about it in my EXCEPTIONS to the offseason

A recent TD poll asked us to rate the Twins performance so far. The overwhelming grade was a "C". I almost agreed due to frustration, but I went "B" in my grade.

Why?

Becausn while there is seldom such  a thing as a "moral victory", it has a place in the right context.

Let me explain with recent context. Despite the fact that our beloved Twins were EGREGIOUSLY screwed on a number of poor umpire calls in their recent west coast swing that SHOULD have allowed reprimands,  demotion,  or similar, they were IN those games to win, despite the egregious calls. Crap happens. You win a few, you lose a few. 

I don't care about the state of the ALC as a division. This is MY OPINION of the Twins:

1] The rotation has been one of the best, if not the best, so far in MLB. The best the Twins have had in YEARS, despite the Mahle and Maeda situations.

2] While they SHOULD have said goodbye to Pagan and spent his $ elsewhere on a hope, he isn't the biggest problem, though he surely hasn't helped. Duran, Jax, Lopez, Theilbar was a great start to the pen. HOPE was Moran and Alcala filling in the 5th and 6th spots. Moran is starting to look good. Alcala looked OK for 1 inning at a time, but blew apart going more. Was he misused? Maybe. But now he's out. Take away 2 horrific appearances by Pagan, and I guess you have an acceptable pen arm. But history has proved how bad he really is. They should have added SOMEONE to  be a better potential arm than him.

So if the Tsins can just settle down Jax after some extreme bad luck and possible lack of confidence, get Lopez back in a groove, and these guys have previously shown what they can do, and then factor in Thielbar healthy in a couple weeks, along with Morzn suddenly finding himself, and the surprising Stewart, suddenly this pen looks damn good. And there are a possible few helpful arms Ike DeLeon who might help as well.

A few bad games from a RP are magnifed....not talking Pagan level implosions...but they can do better. And the good news is they CAN do better and actually have some good arms to work with.

But even the best pens will allow a few runs here and there. So where is the offense?

3] The loss of Arraez, no matter how good of a player/hitter, does NOTHING to excuse the variance of offensive performance from game to game. WITH Arraez, the Twins still had an up and down offensive performance in 2022 before their eventual collapse. I grant you Polanco missing the first couple of weeks, raking on return, slowing, then getting hot again before his recent IL stint doesn't help. But Correa has been cold except for a few games. Miranda unexpectedly imploded. Where do we even begin with setting records for ineptitude with the bases loaded?

With a mix of veterans and young talent, I don't expect the BOMBA SQUAD of the past. But there's still too much talent here to be so damn poor and inconsistent with production. It usually takes a while for the young talent to settle in. A silver lining for some of the recent injuries might be the audition and experience of the prospects. 

Truth is, the pen might not be that hard to fix.

The biggest problem is an offense that can't support its pitching staff, despite opportunity, and despite talent. The Twins should be about 10 games over. 500 right now, if the offense hadn't let them down and disappeared in so many critical times. 

The pen needs to get right, but they've got some arms to do it.

The lineup needs to PRODUCE way better than they have been, especially based on talent. The offense has cost more games than the staff has.

The Twins should be a 92+ win team with this rotation, and the potential of the pen and lineup. To me, it seems easier to right the pen  by getting Jax and Lopez right. Do we get the lineup better by playing the kids? 

IDK the answers, but damn projections, this SHOULD BE a 90+ win team. It almost feels, at times, like they just realize how good they are, or might be,

Excellent well written article.  This team the past 2 years and now this year is a very boring and frustrating team to follow.  Way too many wins left out there.  But the team is content because there appears to be little or no consequence for poor play and results.  Thanks for writing an article that explains why many of us fans are frustrated with the play of the Twins.