Let's talk about what's really bugging the Twins

 

After the last couple of weeks, it seems like the Twins have grounded into about 1,000 double plays. The number is still a league leading 71 GIDPs, which is very frustrating, but also it makes sense. Lefties are more likely to ground into double plays, and you can only do that if you have runners on base. Look at how the lineup unfolds most nights. Two of the best table setters in the game, with Arraez and Correa early, often followed by lefties like Jorge Polanco, Alex Kirilloff, or Max Kepler. 

What doesn't make sense is how the Twins completely shut off as games continue on. Fangraphs have a statistic called "Clutch" which measures how a player performs in high leverage situations versus their typical performance. 

The Twins as a team are a -1.06, which qualifies as "poor". Lest you think that this is standard, that teams just naturally perform more poorly in stressful situations, the Twins are 21st in the league in "clutch". Naturally, owing the spurious nature of baseball, especially on something like this which will likely ultimately converge to "0", one might believe that this is something that will settle out this season. Alas, the Twins have been well under 0 for the last 4 season.

One can come up with all sorts of reasons why this might be the case, but the mix of players every season is different, and looking at things more granularly, the "Clutch" score for player to player is inconsistent. Jorge Polanco has been near the top of the list a few times, except when he was near the bottom in 2019. Miguel Sano found himself towards the bottom, but he was one of the best before his injury this season. 

So with a normally spurious statistic, and a lot of noise among individual players, what gives? Why are the Twins so subpar at executing in clutch? The only plausible reason that I can come up with is that curses are real, and the Minnesota curse has struck again.

There is a lot of ink spilled over the Twins and their pitching, but the offense and whatever ancient artifact is spirited away in Tommy Watkins locker.