Twins punchless, plummeting

 The The Twins are in the midst of a 5 game losing streak at the hands of two teams from Texas. The Rangers aren't very good, and didn't provide Minnesota with very good opposing pitchers. The Astros are excellent, and sent Justin Verlander and Framber Valdez to the mound. The Twins haven't hit any of them. 

Looking at the run totals for the season, you might be surprised to see that the Twins are actually in the middle of the pack for total runs scored this season. The opening day roster suggests they should have scored more runs. This last couple of weeks has one wondering how they are even that high on the list.

Since this writing, they have also tried Tim Beckham, and I forgot Kyle Garlick. The Twins don't want to be trotting Cave out there either https://t.co/uqlLbeKBEe

— Ryan Henning (@RhinoandCompass) August 24, 2022

Corner outfielders are premier offensive positions, and a huge source of offense for teams. Same with corner infielders and the designated hitter. It's good that the Twins have got offense from Byron Buxton in center, Carlos Correa at short and Jorge Polanco at 2nd, but it's not enough to make up for the dearth of good options in the premier offensive spots. There is certainly something to be said for players not pulling the weight that they should be, notably Max Kepler, Correa and Polanco, but what can you expect when you are forced to send Tim Beckham to play left Field? There have been some bright spots in the corners, of course. Jose Miranda is hot this summer, and having a very good rookie season. He is being relied upon to be the biggest bat in the middle of the order, and that is simply too much weight. Luis Arraez, playing first, has the highest batting average in the league. He's slumping right along with the rest of the team, and his average is fairly empty, with an ISO of .111, and a walk rate of a surprisingly low 9%. The Twins patched up a terrible bullpen and added a top starter to the rotation at the deadline, and subsequently have been losing able bodied players steadily through August. Along with that, they have started losing games, ground on the Guardians and mojo, wherein mojo is the general ability for players to hit the baseball. They survived the bullpen woes thanks to their ability to score runs, but no amount of pitching will help this team if they can no longer score runs. The Twins will start getting some of their injured players back in the coming weeks. As of this writing, the Guardians are trailing in Seattle. If the Twins can pull off a win tonight, they will only be 3 games out of first place, despite not playing well, and being beset by injuries to the better part of their offense late, and their pitching early. The team has projected optimism, even amid the frustration, and getting some guys back to play important positions might allow those feelings to spread back to the fan base.