Twins vs All-stars

With only one position player from the Twins historically good first half offensive making the all-star game this year, I got to wondering how the Twins 2019 starting lineup would fare if playing against AL all-star starting lineup. Of course Polanco would have to play all time offense and would be a push but how about the rest of the team? Here’s a look at stats position by position. While it’s clear the all-star starters would have the upper hand, the Twins as a team would be only 69 points behind in OPS and 20 points behind in Slugging. Those would be pretty evenly matched offenses and by the numbers, the Twins should really have had 2 more starters on the team. But who cares about an exhibition game. Pretty cool that the Twins have been fielding a near All-Star caliber lineup top to bottom this year. Let's enjoy it!

Centerfield Stat Analysis (Part 2)

Our three starting centerfield candidates all have had another ten plus at bats and the difference in these numbers from the ones in my last post just goes to show how meaningless stats are at this time of the year. That being said I still continue to look at them in an attempt to understand who is winning the battle and will be wearing a Minnesota Twins' uniform in centerfield on opening day. Let's run through our three candidates and see which direction their numbers are moving.

Denard Span -- His numbers are slightly lower then my last analysis but overall he's remained very consistent as he still is hitting 276 with an on base percentage of 400. That on base percentage would look pretty good in the lead off spot if he can keep it up all year.

Jason Pridie -- His numbers have actually slightly improved though like Span he is staying fairly consistent. His batting average has dropped a few points to 297 but his on base percentage and slugging are both up a bit. He did finally get an extra base hit but still has a very empty batting average. The biggest problem I see is that he has stuck out 7 times to only on walk. Yikes!

Carlos Gomez -- Here is where we see the biggest improvement as Gomez raised his batting average almost 100 points to 263 as well as his on base percentage to 286. Not great numbers by any means but considering where those numbers were a few days ago, that's a huge step in the right direction. His slugging went up even more drastically from 292 to 500 as continues to make his hit's count in big ways. In that sense he's the exact opposite of Jason Pridie. Gomez has been exciting once he's gotten on base as well as he stole 3 more bases in the last few days doubling his total.

I got to watch these guys play on TV this weekend and I'm definitely pulling for Gomez. Span still continues to look consistent and is probably better suited for the lead off spot but Gomez is going to be a pretty exciting player and should continue to improve. That is probably the most valuable thing from looking at these meaningless statistics again. None of these players are putting up jaw dropping stats but one of them looks like he could. And who knows, in another week maybe he will.

Looking at the Twins Centerfield Candidates' Stats

It’s still Spring Training so we can’t really put much stock in player stats but since I have no way to watch most of the games I find myself keeping a close eye on the stats being put up by the Minnesota Twins' three centerfield candidates. As of Wednesday morning a few things are standing out to me so I figured I’d share them.

The first thing I noticed was that Carlos Gomez leads the team in at bats with 24 (not surprisingly) and yet he only has a 167 batting average. Compare that with Jason Pridie who is hitting 304 so far and Denard Span who is hitting 278 and Gomez appears to be less than impressive. This got me a little more excited about Pridie though and my initial reaction was to think that he probably has the best chance to win the centerfield job. Looking closer at his numbers though reveal that his batting average is extremely empty as he has no extra base hits and no walks to go along with four strike outs. Then I looked at Denard Span’s stats and found that he is currently the doing the best of the three and it isn’t even close. Spans 278 average is nothing special but he has backed it up with a couple of doubles, four walks and no strike outs giving him a 435 on base percentage which is head and shoulders better then the other two. Of course it’s early but the winner after the first couple weeks based on the stats alone is clearly Span. Of course stats this time of the year mean next to nothing but it’s still surprising to me to see Span leading the charge.