Twin Killings

The Minnesota Twins have determined that interleague play is their friend, catching fire while beating up on NL opponents en route to a nine game winning streak. With this surge, they now find themselves a half game behind the White Sox for first place in the A.L. Central, and with the Indians and Tigers continuing to disappoint, it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the Twins could find themselves fighting for a playoff spot down the stretch.

Which, when you look at their offense, is really quite amazing. Joe Mauer (1.24 WPA/LI) and Justin Morneau (0.72 WPA/LI) are doing their jobs, but as a group, the rest of the position players are just amazingly bad. Look at the following five players who are playing practically everyday for the Twins:

Carlos Gomez, CF: .272/.302/.376, -0.85 WPA/LI
Delmon Young, LF: .275/.326/.366, -1.31 WPA/LI
Mike Lamb, 3B: .222/.260/.299, -1.06 WPA/LI
Brendan Harris, SS/2B: .250/.310/.359, -0.40 WPA/LI
Michael Cuddyer, RF: .254/.323/.382, -0.17 WPA/LI

Five of their nine regulars are below average hitters, including their entire outfield and the left side of their infield. It’s not like Harris and Lamb make up for it with stellar glove work, either. Gomez can be somewhat excused because he plays a legit center field, so his production isn’t that bad relative to his peers, and Young/Cuddyer probably aren’t in any danger of losing their jobs because of their name values. But Minnesota can’t stand pat with this offense and hope they score enough runs, because this nine is not a playoff caliber offense.

Realistically, the Twins should be in the market for a third baseman or a shortstop, and maybe both, if they want to capitalize on this hot streak and make a playoff run in 2008. They simply can’t continue to get this level of non-production from so many hitters and keep winning games. Smoke eventually clears and mirrors crack.