Minnesota Twins: Perception Versus Reality

At 36-36, the Twins are back to .500 once again. They won their last series, and they will win their current set with the Nats, regardless of today's outcome. Should they win the afternoon fixture, the Twins will have had nearly perfect symmetry in their last 10 games.

After getting swept by Chicago, the Twins lost a series to Cleveland, beat the Brewers (negating the loss to Cleveland), and will have a chance tomorrow to sweep the Nationals and all will be square*

*Minus the fact that the Sox series was a four-game sweep and the Nats only played three, but work with me here.

So, it would seem that all the ink spilled after the Twins' humiliating run in Chicago and Cleveland has come to naught. The Twins clearly aren't the terrible team they were accused of being, nor are they the world-beaters some thought they were when heading into Chicago.

The trouble is, the Twins aren't CLEARLY anything. They are a tough team to figure out, frequently beating on good pitching, but then getting dominated by a soft-tossing lefty.

They scored 11 runs last night and may get shut out today. Glen Perkins may throw a four-hit shut out, or he may give up six runs in three-and-a-third innings of work.

What should be done with the listless Twins?

Answer: Nothing.

Counter-intuitive as that may seem, it's important to remember that this wasn't the Twins year to compete. If this was the great year for success, Johan Santana would still be here. This year was about the youth movement.

Armed with a young, but unproven rotation and outfield, the Twins headed into this year thinking that, while the Tigers and Indians beat each other senseless for the division title, they could gradually figure out which players should be part of the team going forward and which holes still needed to be patched.

The trouble is, the Tigers and Indians are terrible. The Twins, still unsettled, found themselves just a game over .500 entering June, about right if you can believe pundit's predictions, but coming off a series win over Detroit and a sweep of KC. They sat just one game out of first place.

This paradigm shift tricked fans into thinking this was a team on the edge of competitiveness. In reality, the team was just one game over .500 in a division that was substantially worse than people expected.

The Twins look good by comparison, but that doesn't actually make them ready to make a serious run at the playoffs just yet.

The Twins have had spells already this year that should give the team, and fans, real hope for the future. The emergence of Alexi Casilla at second base, and the growth of Luke Hughes and Danny Valencia, should give the Twins good options for the infield next year. The rotation seems to be improving its consistency, and the outfield looks talented, but raw.

Mistakes will abound this year, as Delmon Young has shown, but it is imperative to remember that the only reason the Twins look like a playoff team is a perception problem, and that this years mistakes mean fewer next year. This team was built for the new stadium, so anything that happens this year is more or less an appetizer for the feast to come.

Until that happens, cut the Twins some slack. They are, after all, just a bunch of kids.