Minnesota Twins Report

MN Twins report: April 27, 2003
(record and stats are through Sat. April 26)

Record: 10-13
Games back: 8 games behind the Royals

Am I a Jinx?
It seems that I may be a jinx for any Twins player who happens to be on a hot streak. Just about every player I mentioned in my last report hit the skids the past 2 weeks. Maybe I should just write about all the players struggling and then they may get hot. But writing an acticle about all the struggling Twins would take me forever since the offense continues to sputter and the starting pitching has stunk. I know we are only 20 odd games into the season, but if the Twins fall any further behind the Royals, they may not be able to recover.

Offensive Woes Continue
The Twins offense just can’t seem to get on track. They have a good game here and there and you think maybe this is the turning point. But then they come back the next game and lay an egg. One of the areas of concern is HR’s. The only time the Twins seem to hit HRs is when no one is on base. They have only 1 3-run HR all season. The only player who continues to swing the bat well is Bobby Kielty (I’ve probably just jinxed him also). The Twins have only 4 players hitting above .300. Two of them are bench players in Chris Gomez and Tom Prince. Kielty and Jacque Jones are the only two regulars near the .300 mark.

New Everyday RF?
This past week Bobby Kielty has established himself as the new RF. Kielty is leading the Twins regulars with a .345 batting average. Combine that with his walk total and his on-base percentage is well over .400. Kielty also leads the Twins with 4 HR’s. Kielty has shown good power from both sides of the plate as he has hit 2 HR’s left-handed and 2 HR’s right-handed. The main concern with Kielty playing everyday is getting injured. He has shown in the past to get nicked up when playing everyday. But since he is the only offensive fire power the Twins have right now, they need to risk it and play him everyday. He may well be worth a pick up in all leagues and especially in AL only leagues.

Starters Stink
The offense can’t take all the blame for the Twins awful start to the 2003 season. The starting pitchers have to take some blame as well. Here are the 5 starters ERA’s through their first 23 games:

Brad Radke – 6.28
Joe Mays – 4.85
Rick Reed – 7.52
Kenny Rogers – 4.13
Kyle Lohse – 4.80

Those five ERA’s won’t allow the Twins to win 70 games this year. Unless these 5 guys start pitching better, it won’t matter if the offense turns around or not. So far, Joe Mays is the best out of this group. Besides a rough outing against the Yankees, he hasn’t been to bad. But since I wrote how Lohse may be the staff ace, he has gone in the tank (I know I jinxed him).

Bullpen Still Pitching Well
The only area that the Twins continue to excel at is their relief pitching. Mike Fetters, recently back from an injury, Latroy Hawkins, Johan Santana and Eddie Guardado continue to be lights out. All four have ERA’s under 1.20 and all but Santana have WHIP’s under 1.00.

Mike Fetters – 0-0 0.00 ERA
LaTroy Hawkins – 1-0 0.00 ERA, 8 K’s in 8 innings
Johan Santana – 0-0 1.08 ERA, 23 K’s in 16.2 innings pitched
Eddie Guardado – 0-1 1.17 ERA, 6 Saves

Up Coming Games
The Twins have an off day on Monday, April 28 before opening up a 3 game homestand against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. After that the Twins head to Boston for 3 games. With a rain out in KC last week, and an off day on Monday, the Twins rotation has been juggled. I will post in the Twins Forum the weekly rotation