A Guardians Rival’s Insight on the Twins

This is my maiden article for NEO Sports Insiders. My name is Dale Powers, and what makes me a bit unusual is that I’m based in Clear Lake, Minnesota – a town of 600 residents 50 miles northwest of Minneapolis. Of course, I’m a fan of the Minnesota Twins, but not in the traditional sense of “rah rah team!” Rather, I look at professional sports like I look at a regular job. I ask myself “If I performed on my job like [insert team name here] are performing, would I have a job or lose it?” Well over half the time, the answer is no.

I also take a look at unusual stats to formulate opinions on sports teams. For example, I keep track of every MLB team’s record after 6 innings, and compare it to their actual record, I do the same for the NHL, only after 2 periods. A lot of information can be gleaned from that data. As it relates to the 2022 Cleveland Guardians (or Bridge Monuments, as I call them), I intend on sharing with NEO Sports Insiders readers just how magical the 2022 season was for them.

Finally, I believe (oxymoronically) that statistics only tell a part of the story about a team. Sports teams are living and breathing entities, and the value of any individual player can be magnified or diminished by clubhouse intangibles. I intend on sharing that with you, as well. So, stay tuned for more to come on these subjects.

 

How I began to write for NEOSI

How did I come across writing for NEO Sports Insiders? Simple, really. I’m on Twitter (isn’t everyone?), and I happened to have followed one of the writers on here. When my son and I went to the Twins vs. Guardians game at Progressive (or, Flo) Field, we happened to meet this writer in person. [BTW, the game went extra innings. Twins scored 3 in the top of the 10th and coughed up 4 in the bottom of the 10th.] This writer encouraged me to submit copy for NEO Sports Insiders, and the rest is history.

 

Starting off with the Twins

My first column is on the Minnesota Twins and what went wrong in 2022. There were many factors that went into a season that started out with so much promise, only to end up as a dumpster fire. Injuries certainly played a big part. Losing Byron Buxton hurt a lot, but the team knew going into the season that getting 100 games out of Buxton would be difficult. There are players in all sports that just are prone to getting injured. You know the type – a butterfly flaps his wing on a player’s leg and he’s out for a month. Well, that’s Buxton. The Twins front office led by PBO Derek Falvey (an Indians’ alum) and GM Thad Levine (collectively known in Minnesota as “Falvine”) did not adequately factor in the need for another starting-caliber center fielder for 65 – 70 games. Gilberto Celestino performed like a backup; it was too much to ask for him to play like an All-Star center fielder.

The starting pitching staff lost Chris Paddock to injury shortly after acquiring him and Emilio Pagan from San Diego for Taylor Rogers, and lost Tyler Mahle shortly after acquiring him from Cincinnati for 3 high-level minor leaguers. In my opinion, Falvine either didn’t perform due diligence on either player, or decided to roll the dice anyway. The loss of those pitchers forced the Twins to rely on Chris Archer and Dylan Bundy way more than anticipated. Archer in 2022 was a 4-inning pitcher; Bundy a 5-inning pitcher. This reliance for 40% of the teams starts negatively impacted the bullpen, which wasn’t a work of art in the first place (other than Jhoan Duran, who should be AL Rookie Pitcher of the Year). Pagan was a living, breathing train wreck (he coughed up the 4 runs in the bottom of the 10th inning) who by years end was reduced to mop-up duty. Pagan was known as the human victory cigar; when he came into the game, the other team could exhale and light one up.

Offensively, the Twins were decimated by injuries to SS Royce Lewis, OFs Alex Kirilloff and Trevor Larnach, and C Ryan Jeffers. This made the lineup especially susceptible to LH pitching. Minnesota ranked 4th in the AL in hitting RHP (.250), but 10th in hitting LHP (.240). Twins’ opponents would load up on LHPs (even calling then up from AA in some cases) against Minnesota. When you have a team down, you need to pounce on them.

The end result was a team that for the last 100 games of the season was no better than Detroit or Kansas City. The fans “rewarded” the team by posting the worst home attendance (1,801,128) since Target Field opened in 2010.