Twins scouting report

[Prosecutor]

They're a mess right now with a 7-12 record. Joe Mauer is on the DL. Their main problem is they're not hitting.

The Twins have scored 57 runs in 19 games, or 3.0 runs per game, which puts them dead last among all major league teams. Every National League team has outscored the Twins desptie not having a DH. Their team BA is .233 and their OBP is a horrific .285, also last in baseball.

Morneau is hitting .208
Thome is at .191

Jason Kubel and Denard Span are the only Twins hitting over .258. They're at .319 and .312 respectively, so you have to be careful with these two. However, nobody on the Twins has more than two home runs and they only have 8 as a team in 19 games.

Their team ERA is 4.55, which puts them 12th out of 14 A.L. teams. Liriano, who pitches tomorrow, has a 7.40 ERA and Pavano, who goes Sunday, is at 5.47.

Their closer, Joe Nathan, is at 11.37. What's going on with him?

To be fair, the Twins have played 14 of their 19 games on the road, so they're probably not as bad as their record suggests. They're 2-3 at home.

Still, the Tribe gets to play them when they're struggling and without Joe Mauer, so they need to take advantage of this opportunity to stomp on them while they're down.

[swerb]

They just replaced Nathan w Matt Capps as their closer. Nathan has been a mess since coming back from TJ. Saw the highlights of the last few meatballs he threw to lead to his demotion. Ball looked like a beach ball as it crossed the plate.

[e0y2e3]

^ when you don't watch games or follow sports news you tend to not know things like that. It's not like 99% of baseball fans knew that already or anything.

[gotribe31]

^ when you don't watch games or follow sports news you tend to not know things like that. It's not like 99% of baseball fans knew that already or anything.

C'mon, give him a break. He was only demoted like 5 days ago.

[motherscratcher]

^ when you don't watch games or follow sports news you tend to not know things like that. It's not like 99% of baseball fans knew that already or anything.

C'mon, give him a break. He was only demoted like 5 days ago.

Talking about closers, I'm starting to worry about Ryan Franklin too. He hasn't been looking too good lately and he's on my fantasy team.

[BruceK]

You mean "former closer" Ryan Franklin? When I dropped him from my fantasy team, I noticed no one else in the league picked him up (and we are a 14 team league)

[motherscratcher]

You mean "former closer" Ryan Franklin? When I dropped him from my fantasy team, I noticed no one else in the league picked him up (and we are a 14 team league)

I was actually early on that. As soon as rumors started about Franklin losing his job and the writing was on the wall, I dropped him and picked up Boggs hoping that he would get the first shot at it.

[FUDU]

They're a mess right now with a 7-12 record. Joe Mauer is on the DL. Their main problem is they're not hitting.

The Twins have scored 57 runs in 19 games, or 3.0 runs per game, which puts them dead last among all major league teams. Every National League team has outscored the Twins desptie not having a DH. Their team BA is .233 and their OBP is a horrific .285, also last in baseball.

Morneau is hitting .208
Thome is at .191

Jason Kubel and Denard Span are the only Twins hitting over .258. They're at .319 and .312 respectively, so you have to be careful with these two. However, nobody on the Twins has more than two home runs and they only have 8 as a team in 19 games.

Their team ERA is 4.55, which puts them 12th out of 14 A.L. teams. Liriano, who pitches tomorrow, has a 7.40 ERA and Pavano, who goes Sunday, is at 5.47.

Their closer, Joe Nathan, is at 11.37. What's going on with him?

To be fair, the Twins have played 14 of their 19 games on the road, so they're probably not as bad as their record suggests. They're 2-3 at home.

Still, the Tribe gets to play them when they're struggling and without Joe Mauer, so they need to take advantage of this opportunity to stomp on them while they're down.

Joe, why the need to stomp on them NOW, were they really considered the team to beat in the Central anyway?

[GodHatesClevelandSport]

New scouting report: Twins can hit.

And they won the division without Nathan last year. He found out just how replaceable he was. He's probably the least important piece to their puzzle this year.

[Prosecutor]

Well, they can hit Carmona.

Last year the Twins had the best home record in baseball. Looks like getting home was just what they needed to get back on track. Fausto just didn't have it today. He's either very good or very bad so far this year.

The Twins match up very well with the Tribe when they're healthy because they can put six or seven left-handed hitters in the lineup against the Tribe's right-handed starters. Those lefties include:

Span
Mauer
Morneau
Kubel
Thome

That's about as formidable a lineup of lefties you're going to find on any team. The Tribe also gets most of their production from the left side with Brantley, Sizemore, Choo, and Hafner, but the Twins have a couple of lefties in Liriano and Duensing they can use to neutralize those guys.

When the Twins are at home and have a left-handed starter they will be tough for the Tribe to beat. The Twins got 9 of their 13 hits today from the left side and the Indians don't have a left-handed starter to throw up against them. I thought Carmona should have pitched them inside more. He was pitching mostly outside to the lefties and they were taking him the other way and up the middle most of the time. We have a lot more games against these guys so we'll see if Fausto tries a different approach next time.

[Dnthateonthepronk]

Talking about closers, I'm starting to worry about Ryan Franklin too. He hasn't been looking too good lately and he's on my fantasy team.

Im sorry.