Minnesota Twins May Roundup: A Comparative Look at April-May

We're now just about a full week into June, but today, we'll take a look at how the Twins performed in May compared to April.

In a lot of ways, April was about as bad as it possibly could have been for the Twins. Key players missed time, the starting staff struggled, and the offense -- outside of Willingham -- was largely weak and ineffectual. But May was better, and today, we'll examine just how much better.

Record: April (6-16) / May (12-16)
Batting Line: April (.264/.329/.393) / May (.227/.314/.363)
Team wOBA: April (.318) / May (.298)
Team Pitching (ERA/FIP/xFIP): April (5.64/5.21/4.48) / May (4.96/4.63/4.35)
Starting Pitchers: April (6.75/5.68/4.62) / May (5.74/5.22/4.40)
Relievers: April (3.84/4.45/4.25) / May (3.79/3.75/4.26)
Longest Win Streak: 4 (May 16-19)
Longest Losing Streak: 6 (Apr 21-27)
Longest Game: 3:45 (5-19, W @MIL)
Shortest Game: 2:10 (5-1, L v. LAA)

Hitters (April and May, respectively):
1. Denard Span (.330/.378/.418 wOBA .347) / (.276/.355/.388 wOBA .332)
2. Ben Revere (.278/.316/.333 wOBA .288) / (.311/.354/.444 wOBA .358)
3. Joe Mauer (.325/.419/.438 wOBA .382) / (.273/.400/.384 wOBA .343)
4. Josh Willingham (.347/.447/.681 wOBA .478) / (.220/.366/.473 wOBA .369)
5. Justin Morneau (.230/.313/.459 wOBA .327) / (.264/.317/.642 wOBA .388)
6. Ryan Doumit (.250/.265/.344 wOBA .262) / (.262/.397/.525 wOBA .373)
7. Trevor Plouffe (.121/.275/.242 wOBA .248) / (.185/.254/.400 wOBA .284)
8. Alexi Casilla (.300/.323/.367 wOBA .323) / (.197/.270/..288 wOBA .250)
9. Jamey Carroll (.214/.320/.350 wOBA .266) / (.253/.320/.287 wOBA .274)

Stragglers:
C- Drew Butera (.000/.000/.000 wOBA .000) / (.273/.368/.364 wOBA .330)
IF/OF- Chris Parmelee (.245/.310/.358 wOBA .296) / (.065/.147/.097 wOBA .124)
IF- Brian Dozier (.000/.000/.000 wOBA .000) / (.228/.247/.337 wOBA .252)
OF- Darin Mastroianni (.000/.000/.000 wOBA .000) / (.120/.241/.120 wOBA .195)

Rotation (ERA/FIP/xFIP):
Francisco Liriano (11.02/6.52/6.05) / (4.56/4.30/3.79)
Carl Pavano (4.91/5.00/4.19) / (6.15/2.69/4.36)
Scott Diamond (0.00/0.00/0.00) / (2.27/3.82/2.99)
P.J. Walters (0.00/0.00/0.00) /(2.96/5.33/4.00)
Cole De Vries (0.00/0.00/0.00) / (2.70/8.03/5.98)

Bullpen/Stragglers:
Brian Duensing (4.15/2.91/4.89) / (2.70/3.39/4.40)
Jeff Gray (1.86/5.62/4.86) / (6.00/4.70/4.31)
Alex Burnett (1.42/4.61/4.93) / (3.68/4.87/5.23)
Jared Burton (2.70/5.03/3.71) / (5.59/4.17/3.39)
Glen Perkins (6.48/3.27/2.91) / (1.42/3.03/3.13)
Matt Capps (5.63/5.90/4.44) / (2.45/3.48/4.24)
Liam Hendriks (6.89/6.09/4.50) / (23.14/9.03/5.29)
Anthony Swarzak (5.03/5.67/4.69) / (6.61/2.79/4.79)
Nick Blackburn (6.64/4.70/4.18) / (11.08/7.49/5.57)

A Couple Key Notes:

* Obviously the team was vastly improved in May, and even though four games under .500 isn't particularly exciting, a six-game improvement is certainly encouraging.

* I wasn't surprised to see the Twins pitched a lot better in May (the starters and relievers were worth the same amount of wins (0.9) which I did find surprising), but I was surprised to see that the offense was considerably better in April.

* Morneau and Doumit were absolute maulers in May.

* I'm not surprised at all to see Casilla having struggled in May, and to also see Willingham stay productive despite a plummeting batting average.

* DeVries' splits are downright ghastly. Same goes for Parmelee's May (though he's really picked it up at Rochester).

* Butera has been surprisingly effective with the stick.

* A number of Twins pitchers are just barely clinging onto their numbers, namely Gray, DeVries, and Burnett.

* It looks like Carroll has sacrificed some of his trademark plate discipline in hopes of improving that overall line. It hasn't really worked, either.

* Revere slugged .444 in May. Little else needs to be said.

* Dozier has really scuffled at the plate (6-1 K/BB rate, low OBP) and hasn't been all that good with the mitt either. He looks like he might need a bit more time in Rochester, though I don't foresee that happening.

* Perkins-Burton-Capps is an awesome back end of the bullpen, though I might change up who pitches where. In terms of leverage, that's the order in which I trust them.

* Walters has been good but a bit lucky, whereas Diamond is sustaining his success because he's killing a ton of worms.

* Mastroianni shouldn't even be on the roster, let alone hitting in the two-hole in any game.

See anything I missed, TwinkeTown nation?