2010 Minnesota Twins season in review
The Minnesota Twins had a pretty good year in their new ball park. They won 94 games, won the American League Central division, and made the playoffs. This team spent 127 days in first place, built a lead as big as 12 games, and went 48-26 after the all star break to lock down the divisional title. They did so by beating up on their divisional rivals; they only went 9-9 against the Detroit Tigers but were 38-16 against the Chicago White Sox, Cleveland Indians, and Kansas City Royals.
The Twin offense is led by Catcher Joe Mauer. He has another great year as he hit .327 with 9 home runs and 75 RBI. As a team they scored 781 runs for fifth best among the 14 AL clubs. Their team BA was .273 good enough for third amongst the AL teams. However they only hit 142 home runs and that is certainly due to their new home and not playing in the homer dome. The really good number here is they struck out only 967 times while drawing 559 walks.
Their pitching staff gave up 671 runs, and the staff ERA was 3.95. They were led by Carl Pavano who went 17-11 with a 3.75 ERA. As a staff they had the least amount of walks (383) of the entire American League. They struck out 1,048 batters which was just the 10th best number among AL staffs. Their closer, Joe Rauch, converted 21 saves and had a 3.12 ERA.
All in all this is a pretty solid club. Let us not forget they played half the season without Justin Morneau. However the Twins are proving that one of the better ways to win in the AL is with a strong rotation and great defense. This team gave up 1,493 hits, but only allowed 671 of those runners to come around to score. That is a very impressive number.
Related Links:
- Minnesota Twins news and notes
- The Business of Major League Baseball
- Joshua Lobdell.com
