Minnesota Twins’ pitching woes continue – MLB Update
Minnesota Twins’ pitchers struggled to achieve considerable results during the 2011 regular and post season. Striking out a total of 940 hitters in 2011, it was the lowest by any team in the Majors League by a margin of 84. Cleveland Indians finished with
second lowest total of strike outs, finishing with 1024. Twin’s management needs to do a lot of thinking to get things back on track as the biggest gap between any other two teams in the same season was only 33.
It will not be wrong to say that the Twins’ pitching department struggled to execute their game plan and they were the least fertile strike out teams this season. The strikeouts total was the lowest since 1999, which meant that the opposition teams managed
to put a lot of balls into the crowd and dictate terms. Unable to handle the pressure and committing a large number of unforced errors, the Twins allowed more runs and hits than all but one team during 2011.
They had a poor defense that leaked runs at crucial stages of the league and eventually led to poor results. To do well in the upcoming season, the Twins need to analyse their game play and come up with a more attacking approach.
Fielding is also something the Twins will be very concerned about. To overcome other good teams in the Majors, they need to bring considerable improvement in this department of the game. Although the Club’s owners have taken steps to tackle this nagging
issue in 2012, the sky high contact rates are going to be a big issue if not addressed on time.
With Jason Kubel leaving the side this week, reports have surfaced that more pitchers will be added to the Twins side to get all round performances. There are rumours that Jeff Francis, Joel Pineiro and Jon Garland have been approached by the Twins. Jeff
Francis is the guy who can do the job for the Twins as he pitched in 183 innings in 2011, striking out 91. Pineiro was absolutely brilliant in the season 2009 and 2010. However, since then, he has gone cold and he managed a mere 5.13 ERA in 2011. At the age
of 33, he is a decent bet to rebound.
Garland is a legend of the game. He is a veteran with great reputation in the Majors League. With more than 190 entries each year since 2002, the player has an incredible career K/9 ratio of 4.9. Having spent so much on their hitters already, the Twins have
a very limited budget to work with. If they are looking for pitchers who are good bets to take on pitching roles, they have a very few choices to pick from.
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