Are the Minnesota Twins Legit?

May 23, 2017 Off By tailgatesports

Off to a 22-18 start, the Twins are hanging on to first place in the AL Central by a thread. With the Indians 0.02 percentage points behind, will they cede to the reigning American League champs?

This early success is important not because the Twins will actually win the Central, but player and team performances indicate the future is bright for this ball club. Before the year, I not only claimed the Twins were to finish in last in this division, but I even went as far as to say that this team would be dreadful. What has transformed to translate to team success?  For one, their pitching has improved from being atrocious to moderately good.  Ervin Santana has been fantastic, posting the 4th best ERA in baseball to date.  Hector Santiago has been dependable as well, and recently they have been boosted by young hurler Jose Berrios.  After struggling with a deplorable 8.02 ERA in 2016, Berrios has lit up the Show in two starts in 2017, letting up just 4 hits in 15 innings.  Of the three, Santana has the track record to be the most successful, holding a good 3.38 ERA last year.  Santiago has always been a solid workhorse though, and the fervor Berrios has pitched with combined with his top end pedigree (top 20 MLB.com prospect entering 2016) leads me to believe he will string together a good year.

The lineup has been worse in league rankings of runs than last year, but again, there are things to love. Namely, Miguel Sano.  This dude is raking at a .304 clip, and he has hit some moonshot home runs (totaling 10 on the year).  Going into this year, after Sano hit .236 in 2016, Twins fans had to be at least a little worried. He makes this team very exciting to watch, and with veteran Joe Mauer hitting solid as always despite his age, there can be games where they can rack up runs in bunches. Eventually, Brian Dozier will turn it on, similar to his mid- season surge of 2016. One big disappointment for the Twins comes from the performance of Byron Buxton thus far.  He continues to flounder, so I think it’s official from his .174 BA that he’s Byron “Buston.”

Overall, where are the Twins in the MLB? I’d say they are still bottom tier, somewhere between 20-32. They are not as bad as I thought, however, and I wrote them off as a boring team.  Not only do they have a lot to like in young talent in  Berrios, Max Kepler and Sano, but they have 4 top 100 prospects in the minors.  Soon enough the Twins will be back, ready to officially take on the AL Central.

 

Watch Sano hit a 466 foot bomb.

 

 

 

Written by Will McGuinness

CategoryHome MLB