3 Reasons the Twins Won’t Lose 90 Games for a 5th Straight Season

Sep 27, 2014; Detroit, MI, USA; Minnesota Twins third baseman Eduardo Escobar (5) hits a three run home run in the eighth inning against the Detroit Tigers at Comerica Park. Mandatory Credit: Rick Osentoski-USA TODAY Sports

There are a lot of areas to which you can point the finger in regards to losing 90 games in a season. For the 2014 Twins, batting was not one of those areas.

In fact, the Twins were actually very effective at the plate for the majority of the year. Their 715 runs were 7th most in the entire league. They also finished 5th in on base percentage (.324), 9th in hits (1412) and 11th in batting average (.254).

They broke the 10-run mark twelve times in 2014. A big part of the Twins newfound success in the batter’s box was breakout performances from several players. Brian Dozier led the team in both hits (145) and home runs (23). Those were both career highs for Dozier, who hopes to build on that performance heading into his 4th year as a professional.

As excellent as Kurt Suzuki was behind the plate, he was just as good to the left of it. The 8th year catcher also had his best year as a pro, finishing with the Twins’ highest qualifying batting average (.288).

Danny Santana barely didn’t have enough plate appearances to qualify, but he finished with an average of .319 on 405 at bats. Not bad for his first year in the big leagues. The speedster also finished with 27 doubles and 7 triples.

Finally, Joe Mauer will have a much better year in 2015. 2014 was on of those ‘lock it up and throw away the key’ type of years. I don’t know if it was the position change or simply a down year, but Joe had his worst year since joining the Twins in 2004. He battled back towards the end of the year to get his average to a respectable .277, however that was still about .040 below his career average of .319. I think Joe will be much closer to his average this time around.

Some other players to watch are Trevor Plouffe (led team with 40 doubles), Oswaldo Arcia (20 home runs) and Eduardo Escobar (batted .275).

Next: Revamped Pitching