The Twins (and every other team) Near Top of A.L. Central

Parity appears to have struck Major League Baseball during the first quarter of the season. What appeared at first to be merely a temporary flip-flopping of the standings due to several teams’ slow starts has developed into a full-blown reshuffling. No team has emerged as dominant, with the possible exception of the Diamondbacks, and no team looks poised to challenge the 100 loss barrier. Even the Texas Rangers are near .500.

But unlike the NFL, where the salary cap and other measures seem designed to leave every team with a record between 10-6 and 6-10, the early portion of the 2008 baseball season has achieved its mediocrity, I mean, parity, the old-fashioned way through major injuries and early-season slumps. And no division in baseball better exemplifies this trend than the American League Central. As of today, the Cleveland Indians were leading the division with a record of 21-19, thanks to a run of seven wins in their last ten games. But just when ace C.C. Sabbathia emerges from his mysterious early-season funk, the offense, most notably Travis Hafner, goes into a slide. The White Sox held the divisional lead earlier in the season, only to slide back into third at 19-20. Kansas City is 18-21, 2.5 games back, but the Royals are probably the only team in this division not disappointed in their start. Of course rounding out this division is the Detroit Tigers, who apparently rode into this season on the Hindenburg. In spite of their poor start, which is bound to turn around any time now according to everyone, the Tigers are only 5 back, at 16-24. This in spite of losing eight of their last ten.

The Twins were leading the division until they lost two in a row against Toronto. The Twins are 13-8 against their divisional foes and 7-11 against everyone else. They are also sporting a 14-9 home record versus a 6-10 road record. Offensively and on the mound the Twins are in the middle of the pack in nearly every statistical category. Two notable exceptions at the plate are in batting average, where the team is 9th in MLB with a .266 average, and in stolen bases, where the team is 7th with 35. Unfortunately, they are also 28th in MLB with 23 home runs, 28th with an OBP of .313, and 24th with a slugging percentage of .379. They’re also last with 89 walks.

Leading the offense is the two-headed monster of Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. Mauer leads the team in runs, hits, doubles, walks, OBP, and batting average. Morneau leads the team in home runs, RBIs and total bases. Outfielder Carlos Gomez leads the team with 16 stolen bases, 2nd overall in the majors. DH Craig Monroe leads the team with a .514 slugging percentage.

On the mound the Twins have been led by new acquisition Livan Hernandez. At 6-1, Hernandez is having something of a renaissance. With an ERA of 3.90, and an average of 6.1 innings per start, Hernandez has been more than what just about anyone expected of him. Which is good, because the Twins don’t have much else to hang their hat on in the starting rotation. Ok, that’s not quite true. Scott Baker is 2-0 in six starts with an ERA of 4.09, and Nick Blackburn is 3-2 with an ERA of 3.93. But there’s a reason the Twins were so desperate to get Francisco Liriano back into the rotation (for the record, Liriano went 0-3, with an ERA of 11.32 in 10.1 innings). Boof Bonser is 2-5 with a 5.37 ERA. Kevin Slowey is 0-3 with a 5.79 ERA.

The bullpen has been a source of strength so far. Dennys Reyes has allowed one run in 11.1 innings. Joe Nathan is 12/12 in saves and sports an ERA of 1.80. Juan Rincon has struck out 13 in 16 innings. Brian Bass leads the bullpen in innings with 25.2 and has an ERA of 3.86.

The good news here is that the Twins still have Ron Gardenhire managing. Gardenhire, who took over for Tom Kelly in 2002, had a streak of five consecutive winning seasons snapped last season. He’s the first Twins manager to have such a streak. If anyone can cobble together wins out of this team, it’s Gardenhire.

So here’s hoping that someone, anyone, takes command in the A.L. Central. Maybe the Indians have finally righted the ship. With three of the best starting pitchers in baseball, they have the pitching to go a long way this season. Or maybe the Tigers will finally start hitting and Justin Verlander will get it together. But for now, this division is one that only the NFL could love.