By Jordan Long
Major League Baseball is in their last weekend before the All-Star Break. Play will resume on Thursday July 11th with the Houston Astros taking on the Texas Rangers. The other 28 teams will play on Friday July 12th. With that it’s time for my surprise and most disappointing team through the unofficial halfway point of the baseball season.
The surprise team is the Minnesota Twins. Heading into today’s play they sit at 54-32, 6 games ahead of the Cleveland Indians in the American League Central. Minnesota wasn’t supposed to compete in this division. They were 78-84 last season. I thought they would be lucky to make their record .500 this season.
Minnesota is doing more than finishing at .500. They are showing they are one of the top baseball teams in the American League. The offense has been there, leading MLB with a team batting average of .270. Opposing Pitchers must be careful with this lineup because of the long ball. Minnesota is the top home run team in the league with 161 home runs. Hitters are waiting to smack a pitch in the zone and aren’t going after pitches outside the zone with only 690 strikeouts, the 4th least in the MLB.
It isn’t just the offense carrying them but pitching as well. The total team ERA is an outstanding 3.96. Starting pitching is a large part of why the pitching has been dominant. Starters aren’t allowing teams to score runs that easily with a 3.78 ERA and are able to pitch into the 6 or 7th innings, saving the bullpen. The bullpen ERA is 4.26 but they haven’t blown that many games with 6 blown saves. Minnesota’s hitting and pitching will carry them to not only win their division but make a deep run in October.
The most disappointing team to this point is the Seattle Mariners. I thought Seattle would compete in the American League West Division and maybe make the playoffs as a Wild Card team. The opposite happened. They stand at 38-53, 19 games behind the Houston Astros for 1st place in the American League West.
The Mariners’ offense is struggling with a .243 batting average, 21st in all of Major League Baseball. Hitters are swinging at pitches low or outside the zone equaling strikeouts with a total of 891, the most in baseball. The only area where the offense is doing well is home runs with 155, second only to Minnesota.
Besides the offense, pitchers aren’t doing their job. The total team ERA is 5.14. Starters are giving up too many runs with an ERA of 5.31. With the starters not doing their job, it puts pressure on the relievers to keep Seattle in games. They haven’t been able to with an ERA of 5.04. Adding all that together is why the Mariners are not playing well this year and trying to avoid a 100 loss season. There is still plenty of baseball to be played. fff
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