Stats are Back for the Minnesota Twins! Some Good, Some Bad and Some Ugly Highlights!

Mandatory Credit: Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports

It’s been a long offseason and finally the Minnesota Twins are playing baseball again. Baseball in itself is exciting and fun to have around, but even more importantly, the return of real gameplay means we finally have new stats to analyze! Baseball is a game of averages that takes a ton of innings or at bats, etc. to really figure out how well a player is playing. Hot and cold streaks are a natural part of any players’ game but eventually the players’ true ability/numbers will emerge. Spring Training stats are funny because it is a time when pitchers and batters are tinkering with their approaches and cleaning off the rust of the offseason. Stats barely mean anything during Spring Training because of this and the fact that there just aren’t enough games played for true averages to emerge. However, with that being said, small sample sizes are extremely fun to look at, especially Spring Training ones because they are so easy to over examine and overreact to. Let’s check out the good, the bad and the ugly so far in 2014 with full acknowledgement that each of these guys could end up under a different ranking after another week’s worth of action.

The Good

• In great news for the 8 million dollar man, Phil Hughes has a 1.59 ERA through 5.2 innings.
• Kevin Correia didn’t give up a hit in his three scoreless inning debut. Let’s see if he can stay sharp and avoid falling to his career Spring Training ERA of 5.58.
• Chris Colabello is hitting .500/.647/.667 in 12 ABs so far this spring with some late game heroics knocking in the winning run in the Twins win on Friday.
• Brian Dozier is off to a great start as well with a .375/.412/.563 line in 16 ABs.

The Bad

• In a sign of some sloppy play, Scott Diamond has let in 6 runs but only 2 of them have been earned. Definitely bad luck but Diamond’s pitching style requires completely solid defense behind him to have any chance at being effective.
• Jason Bartlett is still looking for his first chance on the base paths after going hitless and walkless in his first 12 ABs.

The Ugly

• Jason Kubel has struck out in 50% of his at bats (7 Ks, 14 ABs). For someone whose strikeout rates have only risen in the past few years (31.7% K rate in 2013), this isn’t the start Kubel would have wanted as he tries to revive his career by making the club out of Spring Training.
• Vance Worley has a 10.38 ERA through his first two appearances with a 2.08 WHIP (Walks and Hits per Inning Pitched). Not great for a pitcher who is out of options with the Twins.
• Glen Perkins, Brian Duensing, Jared Burton and Anthony Swarzak, all extremely important pieces for the Twins bullpen, have ERAs at 9.0 or above.

Who will be where next week? Only a fresh new week of baseball and stats will tell!