As the 2011 season quickly fades away, and the Twins slowly disappear in Detroit's rear view mirror; I woke up this morning wondering this: What are the 2011 Twins good at? We have a roster filled with names. We have former MVP's, future Hall of Famer's, 1st round picks, and former top prospects; yet we can't seem to win a baseball game. Our lineup consists of guys like Span, Mauer, Kubel, Thome, Cuddyer, Young, and Nishioka; but we can't win a baseball game. With the roster the Twins have, we must be good at something, right? Right. We are good at 2 things.
First, offensively, we are really good at not striking out. Currently the Twins are 4th in the American League in least amount of strike-outs as a team. This may not seem like a big deal, but if you look at the teams we are ahead of, that list includes teams like: the Yankees, Red Sox, Angels, Tigers, Blue Jays, Rays, and Indians. That's pretty good company, right?
Second, defensively, we are really good at throwing runners out trying to steal. Right now the Twins sit 3rd in the AL in opponents stolen base percentage, throwing out over 32% of all potential base-stealers. That puts us just behind the likes of Baltimore and Texas. You'd think we would win more games when 3 out of 10 base-stealers turn into outs, right?
This quick research this morning was very depressing. In almost every team statistical category, the Twins sit in the bottom 3 or 4 of the American League. My conclusion was that we aren't very good at anything as a team right now. Our "pitching and defense", the two things the Twins are "known for", are near dead last in every category.
A friend of mine asked me last night as the lead diminished, "Do you think it was worth it to give Joe Mauer that big contract?" I wanted to say "absolutely" so bad, and I want it to be worth it so bad. I love having Joe Mauer, Denard Span, Michael Cuddyer, Nick Blackburn, Joe Nathan, Jason Kubel, Jim Thome and Co. on my favorite team. I want so bad for these guys to be as good as they should be. But when I thought about that question last night, what came to my mind was that we don't have a real competitor. We don't have guys that are going to make the amazing play to win a ball game. We don't have any Ty Cobb's that will create runs from pure effort. We don't have Brett Gardner, Pete Rose, Derek Jeter, or Dustin Pedroia. We don't have Orlando Cabrera - a winner. That is why the two things we are good at are making contact and throwing base-stealers out.
I agree with the idea you're getting at with this piece, but you lost me at "we don't have any Ty Cobb's (does anyone?) that will create runs from pure effort [...] we don't have Brett Gardner, Pete Rose, Derek Jeter or Dustin Pedroia." It's a team game, plain and simple and the only reason that the Jeters, Gardners and Pedroias of the world are as successful as they are is because they have good teams around them.
ReplyDeleteThe Twins do have the talent...Mauer, Morneau, Kubel, these guys have proven themselves. I think more than anything, this year was a sorry confluence of injury and bad luck. Had the Twins carted out a lineup featuring Mauer, Morneau, Span, Kubes, Young, etc for most of this season, I think the results would have been comparable to last year...but they didn't, instead it was heavy doses of Tolbert, Butera, Tosoni, Plouffe, Hughes, etc...