Ober-Stocked

 

Every time I think about it, I really do think the Twins might have the best rotation in the game this year. Sonny Gray, Pablo Lopez, Joe Ryan, Bailey Ober and Tyler Mahle, or Louie Varland at the current moment, are all having fantastic seasons and are one of the biggest forces behind this season's 1st place record so far. 

Like, there's not many other teams where your sigh of relief that you don't have to face Gray, Ryan or Lopez is immediately permeated by Bailey Ober, standing 6'9 and throwing smoke. Ober had a decent enough year last year but was held back by injuries, so to see him getting a starting spot and delivering is very nice. So far Ober has a 2.61 ERA, 47 Ks and a 0.968 WHIP, which is only outdone by Joe Ryan's 0.966 WHIP. This is the kind of rotation we're talking about here, a degree of 0.002 separates the excellence of two of your pitchers. And this is the fourth-string guy, too. This is how fearsome the fourth-best guy in your rotation is.

There's a lot of great pitching performances happening in Minneapolis this year. Jhoan Duran's still putting on a show in the ninth and has a 1.44 ERA so far. Brock Stewart's only allowed 2 earned runs in 20 innings. Joe Ryan's 7-3 and as untouchable as ever. Jose de Leon actually seems to be doing something impressive in the majors. Even Louie Varland's a decent number five.

Unfortunately, when you compare that to the lineup, with so many players injured, underperforming, not hitting for average or...doing whatever the hell Carlos Correa is doing, it's insanely lopsided. Like clockwork, Byron Buxton is injured again, and Jorge Polanco went with him. Kepler, Vazquez, Larnach and Taylor aren't picking up the slack. It's a lot of odds and ends guys, like Donovan Solano, Willi Castro and Ryan Jeffers, who are coming through more often that not.

This does explain why a team with one of the best rotations in baseball is only a little over .500. But with a division like the AL Central, that's gonna happen.

I do think the Twins have the energy to keep ahead of the pack, especially with this rotation, but they're really gonna need their hitters to show up or it'll be another late slide like last year.

Coming Tomorrow- Bartolo Colon had his time. Now he has his.