Uncustomed Heroes of 2022: Twins

 

The Twins have done the '1st place team falls apart and doesn't make the playoffs' thing as recently as 2017. The Twins have done the 'Byron Buxton gets injured and the team shutters without him' thing as recently as last year. And the Twins have done the 'finishes low in a tight race but still doesn't make the playoffs' thing as recently as 2018. 

The Minnesota Twins by the halfway point were playoff favorites, and by the end of the season they were in third behind the exactly .500 White Sox. What a fall. It's not that it was a bad year, as Luis Arraez had an incredible year, and so many young pieces came alive. But two of the team's top 4 performers, Carlos Correa and Gio Urshela, will not be on the team as they suit up in...underwhelmingly-designed new uniforms.

Nick Gordon, after years of bubbling up, finally got a full year to showcase his skills in Minneapolis, and the 26-year-old hit .272 with 110 hits, 50 RBIs and 9 homers. Gordon seems to be a bit more versatile than his older brother [who bowed out with Washington this year], and can be useful as a power hitter, a contact hitter, an outfield bat and a speedster. And, as another one-up on Dee, he's not on any illegal substances.

2023 Prediction: Another full year, some more great production, and perhaps a nice extension of some sort?

Trevor Larnach, like Buxton, was excellent when he was healthy but bowed out too soon to aid the team down the stretch. In 51 games, Larnach hit .231 with 37 hits, 18 RBIs and 5 homers. The goal is for him to be more useful over the course of a full year, but we've never seen such a year from him so far.

2023 Prediction:  Kepler hasn't gone yet, but I reckon he will at some point, after which Larnach will get a ton more reps and a ton more eyes on him. I think he'll notch 20 home runs at least.

Several Twins starters this year fell into the category of 'how the mighty have fallen'. Dylan Bundy was a strikeout artist in his prime, and was a phenom for LA as recently as 2020. However, he struggled mightily last year, and this year he tried his damndest to not rely on throwing hard as much as he had. Bundy started all 29 games, and had a 4.89 ERA, an 8-8 record and 94 strikeouts. An improvement over 2021, but a pretty boilerplate year overall.

2023 Prediction: Minor league deal, maybe a few MLB starts, but the big stuff might be over for this guy.

Similarly, Chris Archer was an absolute stud for the Rays before he lost his footing and never picked it up again. He'd done well in Tampa last year with more control, but his hard stuff is sorely missed. This year with the Twins, Archer, had a 4.56 ERA, 8 losses and 84 Ks in 25 starts. Yes, fuller season than usual, but like with Bundy, the edge is gone.

2023 Prediction: I hate to say it, but I don't think anyone comes calling. Maybe he tries the international leagues.

Bailey Ober starts were fleeting this year due to both call-ups and injury, but he made the most of them, with a 3.21 ERA and 51 Ks spread across 11 starts. Ober is young, reliable, and coming into his own, and if the Twins' rotation wasn't so crowded in 2022, he could have proved it.

2023 Prediction: Thankfully the rotation will be a lot sparser next year, so he'll get 28 starts and be a top arm for this team.

The injuries got so bad at one point that the Twins called upon Voorhees, NJ product Devin Smeltzer, who they'd flirted with giving some starts to in 2019, for some integral starts. Smeltzer outdid expectations, with a 5-2 record, a 3.71 ERA and 40 Ks over 70 innings. Once some more arms got activated and dealt for, Smeltzer's role diminished, and after the year he was cut to make room for...somebody.

2023 Prediction: I really, really hope someone picks him up. You always want local kids to succeed, and he's pretty sharp.

Royce Lewis was the Twins first overall pick in 2017, and it's taken him this long, thanks to injuries and such, to make it to the majors. Ironically, his first ever MLB season was halted in its tracks by another injury, but until then he was actually doing pretty well for the Twins, hitting .300 with 5 RBIs and 2 homers in 12 games. 

2023 Prediction: Correa and Urshela are both gone, Farmer will get one infield position...maybe Lewis tries at another one, and plays more than 12 games this year.

As for the trade deadline deals, the Twins got saddled with some bad luck. Tyler Mahle was a great piece for them, as he'd been stellar in Cincinnati. Mahle only got 4 Twins starts, with a 4.41 ERA and a 1-1 record, before he was injured for the majority of the season. Meanwhile, Spencer Steer, who he was traded for, got some playing time in Cincinnati. 

2023 Prediction: My thinking is he stays healthy and pitches well enough for his own good, but not enough to make much of a difference.

Then, after a phenomenal year in the bullpen for the Orioles, Jorge Lopez landed in Minneapolis with the closing job basically his. The only thing that could stop Lopez was a third party getting in the way, and that's ultimately what Jhoan Duran did, though Lopez' 4.37 ERA and 2 blown saves didn't help either. Lopez filled in as a decent middleman, but was nowhere as dominant as he was in Baltimore.

2023 Prediction: An improvement, but I don't think he'll be used in the ninth as much as he was.

Tomorrow, more about that 81-81 White Sox team.

Anyone Can Pitch: April & May 2022

 

With position players pitching becoming one of the most fun novelties in the sport, I figured I'd bring a new design to Anyone Can Pitch while keeping going my quest to document the best of the canon. 

The first of these came very early in the season, with Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Carson Kelly, now on the IL, taking an inning of relief to round out an early game against the Padres. He did well enough, only allowing 1 hit over 3 batters, and finishing strong in the loss. 

Elsewhere in the NL West, Giants rookie Luis Gonzalez, who has been a few useful addition to the outfield picture, has also made 3 appearances so far in relief. In 4.1 relief innings, he has a 6.23 ERA, 5 hits and 3 earned runs. With the amount of times Gonzalez has pitched by May, he might even make more appearances as we go, which is cool.

In a match with the Giants, longtime Padres power hitter Wil Myers made his first EVER career pitching appearance, which is a big deal. Say what you will about Myers and expectations, but he's still been reliable enough for the Padres over the years, and is the lone survivor of the 2015 contract-a-palooza that A.J. Preller tried. As a pitcher, though, Myers went 1 inning and allowed two home runs. So yes, I think he's better off in the outfield. 

Rounding out our inadvertent trip around the NL West, former Orioles infielder Hanser Alberto, who is now a bench piece for the Dodgers, has gotten 2 appearances in relief, bringing his career total to 4. Alberto has had one crappy outing, giving up two hits an an earned run, and one good outing, giving up only one hit and no earned runs. Both have been against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Matter of fact, most of the NL West appearances here have been against other NL West teams. Weird.

I haven't even made a regular custom of Andrelton Simmons on the Cubs yet, and here I am making an Anyone Can Pitch custom of him. I have odd priorities. Polishing off a recent blowout against the Reds, Simmons made his first ever pitching appearance, and turned the game from a 15-5 loss...into a 20-5 loss, giving up 5 earned runs and ending the night with a 45.00 career ERA. Hell of a contact hitter, but...eeeeesh.

I don't think that Dee Strange Gordon's 2022 season is gonna be a career highlight for him, especially after his years in Miami, but Gordon made his former big league reliever father proud by making his first ever career start for the Nationals. In 1 inning against the Braves, Strange-Gordon gave up 3 balls, 3 earned runs including a home run and walked off with a 27.00 ERA. At least he can say he finally pitched in a game. And if you think that's a cool moment for the Gordon baseball family,

Yep, Tom's other kid pitched as well this year. Unlike his older brother, Nick Gordon actually had a decent go of things on the mound. In the only appearance by an AL player in this post, Gordon went for 4 batters to close out a game against the Astros, and only allowed 1 hit and no runs. A more triumphant moment for the younger Gordon brother, and a marker that means all 3 baseball Gordons have pitched at least an inning in the majors.

I'll hope to have some more of these as the season progresses, these are fun.

Uncustomed Heroes of 2021: Twins

 

Nobody does worst to first, and back, quite like the Minnesota Twins.

I mean, they did it famously in 1991, going from last to a World Series. They did it in 2011 after a pair of division wins. They did it in the late 2010s, going from a joke to a contender. And now, after a playoff appearance in 2020, they ended the year in last place, with a lot of dead weight, and a lot of question marks.

In the absence of Mitch Garver for most of 2021 due to injuries, 2020 rookie Ryan Jeffers became the primary starting catcher for the Twins this year. In 85 games he had 14 homers and hit .199, with decent enough defensive numbers.

2022 Prediction: Something keeps telling me the Twins are gonna try to trade Mitch Garver this offseason, so I reckon Jeffers is gonna get even more starting time in 2022.

The other rookie who became a starting piece this year was Trevor Larnach. Like Rooker, Larnach's stats weren't HUGE- he only had 58 hits and 28 RBIs in 79 games, but he had a few big-game moments, especially in June, where he shifted into the main core of the youth movement.

2022 Prediction: With a slightly sparser lineup, Larnach is gonna become a under-the-radar favorite that will get stronger as more people leave. 

The big rookie prospect going into the season was Alex Kirilloff, especially after a brief appearance during the 2020 postseason. Kirlloff flirted with big-league greatness, hitting .251 with 8 homers and 34 RBIs in 51 games, but in a crowded outfield schematic, he spent some of 2021 in the minors as well.

2022 Prediction: The big statement season. I think he laps Larnach for a starting spot and starts getting some traction as Twins hero.

Willians Astudillo continued to be one of my favorite unsung heroes whose team has no idea how to use him. In 72 games, La Tortuga hit .236 with 7 homers and 21 RBIs, including a few big clutch hits along the way, but with most positions full, and with Astudillo not exactly known for his defense, he mostly spent the year as a bench bat.

2022 Prediction: Will sneak onto someone's roster and be a force at some point.

Another long-gestating rookie prospect was Nick Gordon, Tom's kid and Dee's step-brother, who was a decent name in the minors for the Twins in the last few years. Unlike his brother, Nick seems to be more of a power hitter, and hit .240 with 23 RBIs and more strikeouts than hits. 

2022 Prediction: Similar swing OF position with some replacement perks down the stretch.

As far as pitching is concerned, one of the big letdowns of 2021 was Alex Colome in Minnesota. After some strong work in Chicago, Colome buckled under the weaker roster, and only had 17 saves, with a 4.15 ERA, in 67 appearances. 

2022 Prediction: Will be picked up as a reliever, not necessarily as a closer. Which isn't to say he won't work the ninth once or twice next year, just...his time of being an elite closer might be over.

As for the rotation helpers, Bailey Ober came into the equation in June and was a decent young starter, with a 4.19 ERA and 96 Ks in 20 games. It was hard for him to really establish himself positively in the shadow of Berrios and Maeda, but he did as good of a job as any, I reckon.

2022 Prediction: Ober will be the second man behind Kenta Maeda, and may eventually have to act as makeshift ace. I'm expecting Scott Baker-esque numbers- good for a barren rotation, but maybe not a league-wide talent yet.

Meanwhile, as sad as the departure of Nelson Cruz was, the Twins still got a decent return in Joe Ryan, the longtime Rays farmhand. In his first taste of the bigs, Ryan wowed crowds, with a 4.05 ERA, 30 Ks, a 0.788 WHIP and 2 wins in 5 starts. It was a big exclamation point to end the very blah year with.

2022 Prediction: Will win a rotation spot over Griffin Jax and will have similar strikeout numbers with a few more human moments. 

Tomorrow, a few extra customs for the White Sox team that almost made it.