Considering this week included Minnesota's first two home series of the season, I thought our second week might come away looking marginally better than the first. That'll show me.
Twins Record This Week: 2 - 3
Twins Record Overall: 4 - 7
This Week's Fan Confidence Rating: 53
The Bullpen
For all the bad things that have happened to this team so far, and for all the bad play we've seen so far, the bullpen has actually pitched reall well. In eleven games this season the Twins are relying on their relievers for more than three innings a game and they're delivering.
Going into play today our bullpen has notched a very respectable 3.09 ERA, even after Dusty Hughes blew up yesterday. Batters are hitting .233/.305/.317, which is a mark 62 OPS points better than MLB average. This has been huge for a team struggling to score runs.
The Offense
Speaking of a team struggling to score runs...um, yeah. Minnesota has scored all of 33 runs, good for an even three per game. Even if our bullpen had pitched all nine innings of every game while maintaining their fantastic work, we'd still be expected to lose every game.
As a team the Twins have put together a .589 OPS, and have combined for three home runs. The next lowest OPS belongs to the Rays (.601), while the next lowest home run totals for a team doubles us up (Padres, with six). But we've gone over the lack of runs at length this week, so I'll stop kicking a dead horse now.
The Defense
Errors are not a good way of judging individual defensive ability, but looking at how many errors the Twins have committed already this year will give you a very accurate idea of how this team is playing right now.
Basically they're still playing like it's the first week of spring training. I know, I know, it's just a slow start, but that doesn't change how they've looked. In just 873 innings they've already committed ten errors, good for the third-worst fielding percentage in baseball at .976. Tsuyoshi Nishioka (a miserable .615 Revised Zone Rating in a small sample) and Danny Valencia (a still-disappointing .714 mark) each have a pair of errors to lead the team.
But you know what? Forget the metrics. Players are diving for balls and missing, or popping up and forcing the issue and making a bad throw as a result. Nishioka and Alexi Casilla have been throwing rainbows to first base. Justin Morneau has been closing his eyes while trying to scoop throws. Michael Cuddyer is being forced to play out of position, Jason Kubel and Delmon Young don't move well, and even a couple of pitchers have got into the act. It's just been a really, really bad start for the Twins this season, on most fronts.
The good news is that this team is too good and too talented to continue playing at this level all season, and after all we're still just eleven game into the season. Tonight is another chance to start over as we kick off another series, this time against the Manny-less and struggling Rays. Here's hoping the week three review can look a bit greener.