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It’s May 4 and the Twins are in 1st place
Thursday’s Say Hey, Baseball looks at the Twins’ surprising start, more Red Sox/Orioles fallout, and a banner-hitting dinger.
Photo by Hannah Foslien/Getty Images
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The Twins sure are in first place. And [looks at calendar] it sure is May 4. Maybe that doesn’t seem weird to you! Given the Twins lost 103 games in 2016, though, and then did very little this winter besides fail to trade their best player — no, really, our “Key Addition” section in their team preview was for their new general manager — it should shock you. Minnesota won on Wednesday, giving them a 14-11 record that puts them percentage points ahead of the Cleveland Indians in the AL Central.
It helps that they’re not necessarily there because of great luck or an absurd record in one-run games or anything like that. The Twins have managed to put up the fifth-best OPS+ in the majors to this point, powered by Miguel Sano, Max Kepler, Brian Dozier, and Robbie Grossman, and in spite of a horrible start by Joe Mauer. Their pitching has been top-heavy, and Ervin Santana isn’t going to look like he’s trying to fit a Hall of Fame career into a single season forever, but the staff has been above-average overall, too.
Will they keep on winning? It’s hard to say! They were supposed to be a decent team in 2016 before literally everything went wrong, and this year a whole lot is going right even with Mauer struggling and Byron Buxton looking like he’s never seen a baseball before. They’ll likely need some rotation help and another bat to either pick things up or be brought in, but there’s no reason the Twins are worse pick to try to challenge the Indians than anyone else in the Central. At least, not while the good parts of the team continue to put 2016 behind them.
- Manny Machado wasn’t threatening Chris Sale so much as pointing out the unfairness of a system that lets pitchers risk harming hitters and forces batters to just sit and hope they don’t get hit in the head.
- There are two great things that came out of Marcell Ozuna hitting a homer so high that it hit a banner. First is that very thing you just read. The second is a reminder that the Rays will hang a banner for literally anything.
- Kevin Gausman was ejected without warning during the Red Sox-Orioles game on Wednesday after a curveball bonked Xander Bogaerts. Later, Adam Jones would be sent to the clubhouse for arguing balls and strikes, so MLB’s answer to the escalating tensions in Boston was “ump show.”
- The Braves optioned Matt Wisler to Triple-A as another part of their rebuilding process is struggling to succeed.
- The Royals might have won a World Series with Alcides Escobar, but it’s time to part ways with the shortstop.
- After a breakout 2016 at the plate, Aledmys Diaz’s 2017 has been a letdown.
- Donovan Tate, former third-overall pick in the MLB draft, is now a freshman college quarterback with Arizona.
- It took the Cubs 108 years to win a World Series trophy, and just seven months to break it.
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