It’s pretty great that despite some injuries already the Twins have weathered them and continue to play well. Like Jester pointed out the starting pitching has been fantastic. My brother texted joking that how do the Twins expect to build up the bullpen with the starters pitching well and often deeper into games! Lol
Interesting start to the season...the Twins rank first in ERA, and third from the bottom in OPS. The hitting has to pick up if we intend to challenge this season...Buxton's 9 consecutive strikeouts is the most puzzling thing right now. Hitting help is on the way though. as Gallo, Polanco and Kirilloff are all expected back soon. Farmer also. I think we're learning that Max Kepler is not a major league starter, and may be replaced by Kirilloff when he is ready. I see their best lineup as:
1b: Kirilloff
2b: Polanco
3b: Miranda
SS: Correa
Lf: Larnach
Cf: Taylor
RF: Gallo
C: Vazquez/Jeffers
DH: Buxton
Nice to have Kepler, Solano, Farmer and Gordon on the bench. I love Julien, but there doesn't seem to be room for him right now. Remember, Royce Lewis is expected back in June, and Brooks Lee may be up this season too. We're not hitting right now, but I think we will be just fine.
FNG wrote: ↑Tue Apr 18, 2023 8:31 am
Interesting start to the season...the Twins rank first in ERA, and third from the bottom in OPS. The hitting has to pick up if we intend to challenge this season...Buxton's 9 consecutive strikeouts is the most puzzling thing right now. Hitting help is on the way though. as Gallo, Polanco and Kirilloff are all expected back soon. Farmer also. I think we're learning that Max Kepler is not a major league starter, and may be replaced by Kirilloff when he is ready. I see their best lineup as:
1b: Kirilloff
2b: Polanco
3b: Miranda
SS: Correa
Lf: Larnach
Cf: Taylor
RF: Gallo
C: Vazquez/Jeffers
DH: Buxton
Nice to have Kepler, Solano, Farmer and Gordon on the bench. I love Julien, but there doesn't seem to be room for him right now. Remember, Royce Lewis is expected back in June, and Brooks Lee may be up this season too. We're not hitting right now, but I think we will be just fine.
I don’t want to defend Max Kepler very much as I would have been absolutely fine trading him this offseason but he has always been pretty streaky so any highs and lows to some extent can be taken with a grain of salt. The streamlines is also why people will say he isn’t a starter which again I won’t disagree much with. The positive about him is when healthy he is an excellent defensive OFer. That also adds to his value bench player.
As for the offense…it will probably get better and some guys will even out in terms of performance. Miranda getting off to a slow start hasn’t helped.
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