The Twins are 9-3 in their last twelve games, and have gained exactly nothing on the White Sox. I can’t quite decide whether that should be encouraging or discouraging news for either Minnesota or Chicago. Flip a coin, I guess. I suppose, really, it all depends on whether or not you believe the Sox are for real.
As I’ve said before I think Chicago is a much improved team, but I sure as hell don’t think they’re going to continue to play at the torrid pace they’ve managed to sustain into the season’s second month. The White Sox have now had two eight-game winning streaks, and are 16-4 over their last twenty games. The Twins have gone 12-8 over the same stretch.
The pitching staffs, even beyond the top two starters, are probably pretty comparable over the long haul. At the moment, of course, Chicago leads the league in team ERA (at 3.04), and four of the five guys in the rotation have ERAs under three. That said, the Twins –at 3.43– aren’t that far behind, and if anything are performing better than they were last year at this time.
Minnesota clearly has the edge in the bullpen, and has superior control up and down the pitching staff. I also think the Twins have more pitching depth than the White Sox. Barring injury, the key is probably going to be the guys at the back of the rotation for both teams, and if (or when) any of those guys falter Minnesota’s bullpen and depth should be the key factor in the race.
Chicago’s much-ballyhooed small-ball approach has been only modestly successful so far. The team batting average is only .258 (opponents, however, are hitting a ridiculous .228). Paul Konerko leads the team in homeruns with nine, but his batting average is .198. Jermaine Dye is batting just .210. Scott Podsednik is hitting .250, but he’s also walked twice as often as he’s struck out and has swiped sixteen bases.
The White Sox have a marginal edge in homeruns over the Twins, but otherwise Minnesota has a higher team batting average (.283), more total bases, more doubles, runs, and walks. They’ve also played half their games without Justin Morneau in the line-up.
Morneau has obviously been unreal since coming back from his beaning. Despite appearing in just sixteen games (and accumulating only sixty-three at-bats) he leads the team in homers, RBIs, total bases, and triples. Even assuming that he’s in the midst of an astonishing streak and is going to cool off, the guy is already making comparisons to Kent Hrbek look almost foolish. The question right now is really the question it seemed ridiculous to ask six weeks ago: have the Twins ever had two young guys –or two guys, period– hitting in the middle of their line-up who were capable of generating such excitement?
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