Reviewing My Minnesota Twins Second Half Predictions
During the All-Star Break, remember those good ol’ days, I published an article titled ‘Minnesota Twins Second Half Predictions Sure To Be Wrong’. Little did I know how incredibly accurate that title would be.
I made predictions that I thought would be correct and virtually none of them were. Let’s look at how wrong I was by looking into the crystal ball again because even I can’t screw up looking backwards through a crystal ball.
As long as I don’t drop it.
PREDICTION ONE: The Minnesota Twins will desperately try to trade Josh Willingham, but will fail.
Someone bit! I truly didn’t think that anyone would touch Josh Willingham, but someone did and that someone is now in the American League Championship Series. Congratulations to Mr. Willingham for making it to a round of the playoff the Twins never have in my lifetime.
The Twins got a guy named Jason Adam in return for Willingham. Adam was at Triple-A for the Royals, the Twins put him in Double-A where he appeared in only two games for the Rock Cats.
PREDICTION TWO: Only three Twins players will finish with an average above .300.
I had so much faith. I threw out the three players that I thought would go over the .300 mark. I got one right, but only the one actually had a batting average over .300 for the season.
Danny Santana. Santana finished the season with a .319 batting average, far and away the best mark on the Minnesota Twins.
I predicted that Kurt Suzuki would stay above .300. Suzuki faltered later in the season and fell to .288.
I predicted that the former catcher, current first baseman Joe Mauer would find his Mauer of old and finish over .300. Mauer finished at .288.
One out of three. At least I hit .300.
PREDICTION THREE: Alex Meyer and Trevor May will be in the rotation.
Good news is that Trevor May made it. Bad news is that it really wasn’t pretty after he got up to the bigs.
We still await the major league debut of Alex Meyer. Ah, the future.
PREDICTION FOUR: Ricky Nolasco will not finish the season in the rotation.
I wish I would have been right on this one. Nolasco was horrid for the most part, but the Twins kept putting him out there on the mound. Ricky’s offseason has been highlighted by tweeting he wished he was still pitching for the Dodgers, so buy your Nolasco shirseys while you can.
PREDICTION FIVE: People will complain about Joe Mauer for no reason whatsoever.
Push? Let’s be honest, we all kind of tuned out by the end of the season, right? I did to a larger degree than I really expected.
Mauer had some clutch, as clutch as can be considered for a 90-loss team, down the stretch, but I’m sure we had some complaints. We always do.
Like I said in July, Joe Mauer could save a baker’s dozen of puppies and a box full of kittens that were about to meet their impending doom while stuck on light rail tracks, but people would still say that they wouldn’t have even been there if he could only hit home runs.
PREDICTION SIX: Kendrys Morales goes on a dinger parade.
I’ll admit that I was drinking the Kendrys Morales Kool-Aid. Kendrys Morales and I are basically body-doubles. He gave me hope. He gave all ‘athletic’ guys hope. I was hoping that ‘muscle’ would show in the home run count.
Morales hit one home run with the Twins. After he was traded to the Mariners, he hit seven more. He was just a couple short of the 20 I thought he might reach. Woops.
PREDICTION SEVEN: The Twins finish closer to .500 than 90 losses.
I’m seriously not this much of a homer. We still held on to hope in July. We didn’t hold on to it for very long, but it was there.
In all honesty, I don’t think the Twins are as bad as their final record indicates. Offensive wise the Twins were one of the best teams in the league. Pitching wise… well, we won’t talk about that.
CONCLUSIONS
My predictions are not worth the paper they are printed on. Unless, you printed out my original article, that means they are worth absolutely nothing. I know one prediction that I will get right, I will make more predictions about the Twins and they will surely be wrong.