2009 Twins to date

Since this is my first post with real content I thought I'd start with my thoughts on the 2009 Twins to date.

Pre-season 2009 

Here is a quick review of what my general thoughts were about the Twins heading into the season.

Strengths

1. Starting pitching  -  5 returning young solid starters from 2008
2. Defense  -  Gomez, Span, Cuddyer, Crede, Punto, Morneau, Mauer all good if not great defenders
   
3. Speed  -  Gomez, Span, Casilla, Punto use there speed to play "Small Ball"
4. Closer  -  Joe Nathan is rated by many as a top 5 closer in MLB

Weaknesses

1. Middle Relief Pitching -- Neshek and Reyes gone who will pitch 6th & 7th?
2. Hitting for Power  -  After Morneau, no one is a major power threat: Crede & Kubel considered OK.

2009 April & May reality

Its actually comical to look at that pre-season analysis and see how different it has played out so far.

We have been right about 1 Strength & 1 Weakness.   2 out of 6 in baseball terms isn't too bad ;)

Lets revisit each item:

Starting Pitching -- Only Mediocre definitely not a Strength

• Liriano (2-6 ERA:6.42) has been disappointing and can't locate fastball
• Baker (2-5 ERA: 6.52) was injured and had a very rocky start, starting to show improvement.
  
• Slowey (6-1 ERA: 4.23) has been OK and benefited from a lot of run support
• Blackburn (4-2 ERA: 3.55) has been Twins best pitcher, a solid middle of rotation guy.
• Perkins (1-3 ERA: 5.36) started really well but got no run support, but has struggled in his last several starts before landing on DL.

Defense -- Very Strong 

2nd fewest Errors in MLB!  Crede has been great, Punto has been Punto, Gomez & Span seem to track down everything in the outfield, even Delmon Young has played well defensively lately.   Morales and Redmond weren't great but held there own in April until Mauer returned.

Speed -- Mediocre at best

Small ball hasn't really happened like we like to draw it up, mainly because Punto, Casilla (when he was on the team) and Gomez haven't been on base!  Their horrid hitting has hurt our ability to play traditional Twins Small ball.  The lone bright spot has been Denard Span, who looked awful in spring training, has been hitting for average and drawing walks, he leads the team in stolen bases (with 10)

Closer -- Average

Nathan hasn't had a lot of work (18 appearances but only 9 save opportunities), but 22% of his saves chances have been lost, that isn't very Nathan like.  He hasn't looked dominating even when he gets the saves.  I'm not too concerned, Joe has underperformed to date, but hasn't had the regular work, so hopefully with regular opportunities he will get into a rhythm.

Middle Releif Pitching -- Poor

Ayala hasn't worked out too well, Guerrier had a bad April but has been markedly better in May.  Crain has been a headcase so far.  Mijares has been OK, but not as good as September last year, Dickey has probably been the only one I can actually say has been better than expected.

Hitting for Power -- Unbelievable!!!!

Morneau we expected to do well, but 14 HRs before the end of May is even better than we thought.  Mauer has only had 1 month but is already hit 11 HRs, where did this sudden power surge come from!?!?!   Cuddyer had a slow April but he is hitting well (8 HRs), Kubel had a better April and is slowed by a swollen knee.  Crede is also hitting it into the crowd (8 HRs).  5th most HRs in the majors as a Team!!

What To Look For in June

Twins need to get the bottom of the lineup to play small ball like they did last night for 1 inning versus Boston, so the big guys can clear them off the bases with all this new found HR power (again like Morneau did last night).  If they can do that the team speed will start to show through.  Starting pitching needs to improve and get into the 7th Inning to keep workload down on guys like Guerrier and Mijares so they can be more effective when they do pitch.

Go Twins!