Twins Season 25% Done - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly

As odd as it seems, the baseball season is roughly 25% complete. The Minnesota Twins, who were predicted to struggle in 2008 by virtually everyone, are playing .500 baseball after their first 40 games. They sit at 20-20, 1 and 1/2 games behind the hated Cleveland Indians in the AL Central (Norris) Division. The pre-season mantra went basically like this: the starting pitching will suck but the bullpen will be solid. The hitting, especially power hitting, will be much better than it was in 2007. The fielding will be a question mark because of the new cast of characters. Well folks, after the first 40 games, here is the Good, Bad & Ugly for the Minnesota Twins so far in 2008.

THE GOOD...

1. The M & M Boys. Joe Mauer is healthy again, and is second in hitting in the AL with a .328 batting average. He leads the team with a .411 On-Base Average and has been able to catch almost every day. And after a slow start, Justin Morneau is hitting .302 with 7 Home Runs and 32 RBI's. The so-called stars of the team are playing like it.

2. Livan Hernandez. Livan (likes his money) Hernandez has been nothing short of a miracle. Check out these stats: 6 wins, 1 loss with a 3.90 ERA. He has 21 strike-outs and only 11 walks after 57.3 innings pitched. This for a guy who throws a max 83-MPH fastball and his off-speed pitches are in the high '50's/low '60's. How? I don't know. But I hope he keeps it up.

3. Carlos Gomez. Possibly the fastest guy in baseball and already one of most popular players on the team. The Twins got ripped in the media after the Santana trade, but now it looks like they may have taken the best deal. Gomez barely made the team after spring training, but has responded by hitting .270 and stealing 16 bases in the lead off spot. Granted, he has made some bone-headed mistakes, but he is only 22 years old. Gomez has brought a spark to this franchise that has not been around since Kirby Puckett.

4. Joe Nathan and the Bullpen. The Twins signed Nathan to a contract extension before the season and he has responded with 12 Saves, 0 blown saves and a 1.69 ERA. He continues the nice run of closers the Twins have had over the years with Reardon, Aguileria, Guardado, etc. (Note that I did not add Ron Davis to that list). The rest of the bullpen has been solid, particularly Brian Bass and Denny Reyes (!). Once again, we may have passed into an alternate universe with Reyes at a 0.75 ERA.

THE BAD...

1. The left side of the infield. So much for the Mike Lamb experiment, at least so far. The guy did have a clutch ninth-inning single to beat the Red Sox. Other than that, not a lot to cheer about. No home runs and a .223 batting average. And, at third base, you'd think he was standing in a tar pit. No range. We used to make fun of Scott Leius back in The Day. I'd take Leius in a heartbeat now. And at Shortstop, we have Adam Everett. He's a good fielder, but he is - hands down - the worst "non-pitcher" batter in baseball. I have never seen anything like it, and that includes my days watching Houston Jimenez. Everett's batting average? That would be .190. Not so good.

2. Power Hitting. What power hitting? The Twins have a total of 23 Home Runs in 40 games. Lamb? None. Delmon Young? None (we'll get to that later). Mauer? None. The only question that remains whether or not a single player on some team will out-homer the Twins this year.

3. Scott Baker's Health. I really thought that 2008 would be Scott Baker's breakout year. He was 9-9 last year, but showed flashes of brilliance. He even took a no-hitter into the ninth inning in one game. Now, he has the dreaded "groin-strain." He rests for a few days and then "tweaks" it in a bullpen session. 60-day Disabled List, here we come. Jase - sound familiar? Ben Sheets?

4. Fielding. No matter how bad the Twins were over the past 30 years, you could always count on their fielding. They could "catch the ball," like Tom Kelly used to say. Not anymore. Lack of range on the left side of the infield, misjudging fly balls, throwing to the wrong base, missing the cutoff man. Tom Kelly would be turning over in his grave if he were dead. Not good for Ron Gardenhire's blood pressure.

...AND THE UGLY.

1. The Mystery of Delmon Young. What the hell is going on? OK - it's only 40 games into the season, but come on. I heard "possible M-V-P" mentioned in the same sentence with Delmon Young when the Twins acquired him from Tampa Bay. He is supposedly a specialist at driving the ball and hitting for power. Were they talking about his crazy brother Dimitri? Check out Delmon's stats:

152 AB, 40 Hits, .263 Batting Average, 3 doubles (bloops), 1 triple (parallel universe), ZERO HR's

When Delmon comes up to bat now, I wonder to myself "will he ground out weakly to second or short?" He can't hit the ball to the outfield. What the hell is going on? Gardenhire has already dropped him from 5th to 7th in the lineup. Articles are being written about him.

The most confounding aspect Delmon Young is that, according to reports, he doesn't think anything is wrong. According to Pat Ruesse, he is not listening to hitting coach Joe Vavra, and refuses to change his swing. He seems to be a Contrarian in the vein of Randy Moss and Latrell Sprewell. MVP? Not this year.

So far, the Twins are actually playing a bit better than I thought they would. I am going to stick with my prediction of around 75 wins, however. What's your assessment so far?

Jeff