4 Reasons For The Twins Terrible 8-23 Start
It wasn't supposed to be like this. The Minnesota Twins stopped the bleeding last year after four straight seasons with at least 90 losses.
The Twins won 83 games last year in Paul Molitor's first season as manager. Between returning players, top prospects and some other promising talent, this was the year they were going to make a run and start contending for the playoffs again.
Instead, the Twins started 0-9 and the glimpses of potential have been minimal. They've been swept of six of nine series on the road and have just two wins against teams with an above .500 record. Before Tuesday night's loss to the Orioles, the Twins got off to an 8-23. That's 15 games below .500, which is hard to do this early in the season. The hope is pretty much gone. Here are four reasons for such a terrible start to what should've been a promising season.
Nobody Is Hitting, Except Mauer
The Twins got away with several deficiencies last year by taking advantage of virtually every clutch-hitting situation that came their way. That's not the case this year. As a team, the Twins are hitting just .2367 and with runners in scoring position, they're near the bottom of the major leagues at .223. They're also near the bottom of all teams with 26 home runs, and just two of those have been with runners on base.
The only player consistently hitting, of all people, is Joe Mauer. He's one of the team leaders with a .299 batting average and also has 22 walks and six doubles. But even now, Mauer is in the middle of an 0-for-12 stretch, which by his standards is a slump. Brian Dozier has struggled, Byron Buxton couldn't hit anything before being sent back to the minors. Pretty much everybody has gone through a slump already this season. The Twins need to pick up their offense, especially with runners on base, and sooner rather than later.
Miguel Sano Right Field Experiment Not Working
The Twins suddenly had some shifting to do after winning the bidding rights for Korean slugger Byung-Ho Park. He plays at first base sparingly and is otherwise a designated hitter, that's it. Keeping Trevor Plouffe at third meant that Miguel Sano would need to grab a glove. His bat had to be in the lineup, so that meant Sano and his 270-pound frame ha to go to the outfield.
In 26 games so far in right field, Sano has been average at best. He's had 55 chances and 48 putouts. On paper, he has just one error, but his routes to fly balls are sometimes curious and he doesn't always throw to the right base. It's not hard to tell by watching Sano that he had never played outfield before this season and it was unrealistic to expect the transition to be easy. At the plate, he's hitting just .234 with three homers and six doubles. He looks far more comfortable defensively at third base, so Twins executives have some decisions to make for the future of the team.
Pitching Has Been Awful
The Twins haven't had many leads this year, and their pitchers haven't been able to hold them when they have been in front. Casey Fien had a rough time as a reliever and had a 7.90 earned run average before being placed on waivers. Tommy Milone also was placed on waivers after starting the year with a 5.79 ERA. It's also not helping that closer Glen Perkins has been out with a shoulder injury. Kevin Jepsen has struggled at times, Alex Meyer has difficulty with his control and others have given up big hits at key times. The pitches that have done well so far, Ricky Nolasco, Ervin Santana and Tyler Duffey, have a combined record of 1-5 as starters. The Twins starting rotation, as a whole, is 3-16 on the season with an ERA over 5. Yuck.
Fundamentals Lacking At Key Times
It's a lot of little things that have killed the Twins this year. A pitcher not holding a base runner who eventually gets a steal and scores. A pitcher gets a strikeout, but the batter reaches on a wild pitch and then scores on a double. There have been fly balls dropped in the outfield, players throwing to the wrong base, walks at inopportune times. Molitor has always stressed having an attention to detail in baseball, but the early frustrations of the season have often led to mental miscues in the field at the worst times. Good teams can have one or two mistakes and play through them. But the Twins have been punished for pretty much every mistake. They're at the point where they are trying to be perfect, and you can't play baseball like that.
So what's the good news in all of this? It can only get better, right? If the slide continues, at least tickets will be cheap for a nice summer night at Target Field. Monday night happened to be Scrubs Night at the ballpark, where fans were encouraged to wear sweats or comfortable clothes to the game. Instead and unintentionally, it's a good way to describe the current status for most of the 25-man roster right now.
