Minnesota Twins: The Good, the Bad and the OK From Opening Weekend

We take a look at the Minnesota Twins version of the Good, the Bad, and the OK from a good first series against the Chicago White Sox.

The Minnesota Twins had a very encouraging opening weekend, taking 2 out of 3 games from the White Sox, so I wanted to take a look at the good, bad, and the okay. We stopped short of using the old Clint Eastwood movie title, “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”, as nothing was really ugly as far as the Twins go.

The Miami Marlins on the other hand, definitely had some ugly, but we’ll leave that alone. Without further ado, the Minnesota Twins Good, OK, and Bad:

Minnesota Twins Good

Jake Cave– A huge grand slam in Game 3 and a key bases loaded single in game 1. He made the most of his opportunities and will need to keep filling that role as the season progresses.

Nelson Cruz– The elder statesmen lit up the stats line and keeps paving the way being named the AL Player of the Week.

Luis Arraez– He likes a gnat at the plate, he just doesn’t go away. Some key hits make him a valuable asset.

Minnesota Twins OK

Kenta Maeda– A solid start buffered with some run support. He may be just what he showed, a 2-4 run sort of pitcher. If the Twins keep the bats rolling, that will be good enough.

Randy Dobnak– The best start of the weekend for the Twins. An encouraging step for the fill-in starter. Don’t look back at Homer Bailey.

Max Kepler– Perhaps he could be put in the good. His 2 home runs in 1st 2 at bats resulted in record book markings. It lead the way for the offense, but his bat dried up after.

Minnesota Twins Bad

Jose Berrios- His fastball lacked movement and his breaking ball was flat. We saw this some from time to time last year, hopefully it was him just getting settled in. His fastball had the mid 90’s velocity so hopefully the command will follow in the next start. I think he’ll be fine.

Josh Donaldson– A slow start for the big free agent signing. It looked to me like he was jumping at some pitches and pulling off the ball a bit, just trying to do too much. He should come around.