As a Twins fan, this was an extremely disappointing year. We went into the season as the favorite, or at least co-favorite with the White Sox, to win the division and wound up in dead last place one game behind Kansas City. The problem started with pitching. We had some serviceable starters to start the season, but they were either traded away (Berrios), injured for a good part of the season (Maeda, Pineda), or just didn't perform up to expectations (J.A. Happ, Matt Shoemaker and to some extent, Maeda fits in this category as well.)
But starting pitching wasn't the only problem. It seemed like every week, two or three more guys would go on the DL. Buxton wound up playing in only 61 games, Mitch Garver played in only 68, Kepler was out for a time, as was Donaldson, Kyle Garlic and Jake Cave were both on the injured list a ton, Nelson Cruz was traded, several of the young players they brought in to replace these guys, like Kiriloff, and Larnach, were also injured.
I follow the Twins quite closely and that includes their minor league system, but they were bringing in pitchers to start that I had never heard of before. Guys like Charlie Barnes, Bailey Ober, John Gant, Joe Ryan and Griffin Jax. Barnes just made the Twins top 30 prospects list (No. 30) this year and Ryan came over from the Rays in the Nelson Cruz trade. Those guys and the others I'd never heard of accounted for almost a third of the games started for the Twins but when you count some of the guys I HAVE heard of (Lewis Thorpe, Luke Farrell) who they brought up from the minors, it's right at a third of the games. They also brought in some no-name relievers due to injuries, Nick Vincent, Ian Gibaut, Ralph Garza.
The Twins have a number of young fire ballers in their farm system, guys who can hit triple digits on the radar gun who have been in their top 30 prospects list for at least a couple of years, and why they didn't bring any of those guys up, I'll never know. What could it have hurt? The season couldn't have been salvaged anyway and they could have gotten some experience facing big league batters. Guys like Dakota Chalmers, Jordan Balazovic, Simeon Woods Richardson and Jhoan Duran.
About the only excitement this year for the Twins was watching Buxton become the only player ever in the history of the sport to have 40 extra base hits in 60 games or fewer played and Jorge Polanco setting a club record for RBIs by a switch hitter with 98. Buxton wound up playing 61 games, as I said and smacked 19 homers and 23 doubles. He hit a double in game 60 to give him 22 along with 18 homers. He homered and doubled again in the last game today for the final total.
But starting pitching wasn't the only problem. It seemed like every week, two or three more guys would go on the DL. Buxton wound up playing in only 61 games, Mitch Garver played in only 68, Kepler was out for a time, as was Donaldson, Kyle Garlic and Jake Cave were both on the injured list a ton, Nelson Cruz was traded, several of the young players they brought in to replace these guys, like Kiriloff, and Larnach, were also injured.
I follow the Twins quite closely and that includes their minor league system, but they were bringing in pitchers to start that I had never heard of before. Guys like Charlie Barnes, Bailey Ober, John Gant, Joe Ryan and Griffin Jax. Barnes just made the Twins top 30 prospects list (No. 30) this year and Ryan came over from the Rays in the Nelson Cruz trade. Those guys and the others I'd never heard of accounted for almost a third of the games started for the Twins but when you count some of the guys I HAVE heard of (Lewis Thorpe, Luke Farrell) who they brought up from the minors, it's right at a third of the games. They also brought in some no-name relievers due to injuries, Nick Vincent, Ian Gibaut, Ralph Garza.
The Twins have a number of young fire ballers in their farm system, guys who can hit triple digits on the radar gun who have been in their top 30 prospects list for at least a couple of years, and why they didn't bring any of those guys up, I'll never know. What could it have hurt? The season couldn't have been salvaged anyway and they could have gotten some experience facing big league batters. Guys like Dakota Chalmers, Jordan Balazovic, Simeon Woods Richardson and Jhoan Duran.
About the only excitement this year for the Twins was watching Buxton become the only player ever in the history of the sport to have 40 extra base hits in 60 games or fewer played and Jorge Polanco setting a club record for RBIs by a switch hitter with 98. Buxton wound up playing 61 games, as I said and smacked 19 homers and 23 doubles. He hit a double in game 60 to give him 22 along with 18 homers. He homered and doubled again in the last game today for the final total.
