For three years running the Minnesota Twins and their fan base have had to suffer through 486 games of turmoil and lackluster play, en route to challenging the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros for the title of “laughing stock of Major League Baseball”.
But not this year.
The club has been consistently at the .500 mark all season, and currently resides at just two games under as of June 6, according to ESPN.com. This is a far cry from the average of 65 wins and 97 losses that the Twins have posted the last three years, according to twinsbaseball.com.
So why is this year’s version of Minnesota’s favorite baseball team be faring much better than the team’s the club has fielded that last three years? Well, the club has a few newcomers whose bats are a lot more lively so far than past performances would indicate.
ESPN.com reports that the .302 and .295 averages of shortstop Eduardo Escobar and catcher Kurt Suzuki, respectively, are about .050 higher than their career averages, which may not look like very much to the untrained baseball eye, but as every aficionado of the sport knows, these statistics are actually deceivingly significant.
The pitching staff has also bolstered itself as well, with the likes of bullpen dwellers Brian Duensing, Casey Fien, Glen Perkins, and starting pitcher Phil Hughes in the midst of career years, according to ESPN.com.
Time will only tell if these Twins can keep up this relevant renaissance, or if they “royally” flop during the changing of the Minnesota leaves, true to form of the Kansas City team of the same name. Amid the unpredictability that latches onto Minnesota sports like a plague, one thing isn’t very hard to predict: It’ll sure be fun to find out.
Image via Facebook from Phil Hughes