Twins Midseason Report Card

OVERALL
In one word, disappointing.  They started off great in their new stadium and were in first place for the first 2 months of the season, then the wheels started falling off.  They were 16-10 in April, 14-12 in May, 12-15 in June and are currently 3-7 in July.  Notice a pattern?  So where did things go wrong?  It seemed to start with injuries to J.J. Hardy then to Orlando Hudson, both got off to great starts but when they got injured all momentum seemed to stop.  Add in shakier and shakier starting pitching and the results were just plain mediocre.  See the next page for more details. 


HITTING
Good for the most part, especially early in the season.  As a team they are hitting at a .271 clip which is 6th in the AL. They have struggled though since the first two months of the season. They've also struggled mightily with timely hitting as is evident by the fact that they've hit into the most double plays in MLB. Hopefully, they can stay healthy and find some consistency.  It would also help if they could find some production out of the 3B spot and the backup Catcher spot (Drew Butera has no business in the major leagues). 

PITCHING
Like their offense the starting pitchers were pretty good in the first two months of the season but they've really fallen off since.  Nick Blackburn has an 6.40 ERA, that is not acceptable at the half way point.  Kevin Slowey has given up 7.90 ERA in his last 26.2 innings.  Francisco Liriano has given up 6.87 ERA in his last 26.2 innings.  They need better than that if they want to make a run, a top of the line starter wouldn't hurt either.


SURPRISES
Brian Duensing - he ended last year very well and has continued to pitch well out of the bullpen this year (1.62 ERA over 39 IP), so well in fact that they may need to consider moving him into the starting rotation, especially if Blackburn and Slowey continue to struggle. 
Delmon Young - he finished well last season and came back even better this year, he has been one of the team's most consistent hitters this year and people are starting to see why he was so highly regarded. 


DISAPPOINTMENTS
J.J. Hardy - he's missed 45 games due to injury and is batting only .226, he needs to get healthy and get his swing back. 
Nick Blackburn - his ERA is 6.40 after signing a fat new contract extension this past off season, that is not going to cut it, they need him to get back to his previous form if they want to make a run. 
Joe Mauer - he's batting .293, that's not bad by most players standards but this is Joe Mauer, I don't think he's ever been below .300 at this point in the season.  His 4 HR's are also disappointing, he hit 28 last year, he will hit nowhere close to that this year.  All of this coming after signing the richest contract in Twins history to boot. He really needs to get on track if the Twins are to have a chance. 


MVP
Justin Morneau - easy choice here, he's batting .345 with 18 HR and 56 RBI, that would also put him in the AL MVP race if the Twins could pull things together in the second half. 


BEST PITCHER
Carl Pavano - easily the Twins best pitcher in the first year, he's 10-6 with a 3.58 ERA over 18 starts, I'm wishing they had signed him to more than a 1 year contract this past off season because he's going to be demanding a hefty raise going forward. 



ON THE FARM
Not pretty, horrendus actually, only Beloit has a winning record and just barely for them.  Rochester (AAA) is 33-59, New Britain (AA) is 26-65, Fort Myers (A-High) is 35-52 and Beloit (A) is 44-42.  Not many top performers either, the best performances in the system are probably a couple of relief pitchers at Rochester, Anthony Slama and Kyle Waldrop, I wouldn't be shocked to see both with the Twins by the end of the year.  Outside of those 2, the best performers have probably been Ben Revere (AA), Kyle Gibson (AA), Angel Morales (A-FTM) and Liam Hendriks (A-FTM).  Miguel Sano with the Rookie League Twins in the Gulf Coast League has also had a nice year, I highly suspect that he will be regarded as the best prospect in the Twins system when the ratings are updated this coming off season.