The motto for the 2013 Minnesota Twins seems to be “All or Nothing”. Just last week, fans and news outlets alike were lauding the Twins for putting together the ‘best case scenario’ for their young season. The offense was finding the right time to get a big hit, the starting pitching was keeping the team in games without burning up the bullpen – which was doing a great job on their own.
What a difference a week makes.
Just as the Twins hit every best case scenario in their 4-2 start, they’ve now regressed to every worst case scenario in their recent 5 game losing streak. Now, at 4-7, the team is looking every bit the disaster that the experts and fans thought they’d be. Their starting pitching has been poor, with Vance Worley the supposed staff ‘ace’ holding a 10.50 ERA with an astounding 2.417 WHIP. Meanwhile, Mike Pelfrey’s 7.36 ERA and Scott Diamond’s (admittedly limited sample size) 8.31 ERA have done little to assure fans that 2013 won’t bear a striking resemblance to 2012.
The Twins begin a 3 game set with the struggling, but always dangerous Angels with Correia, Pelfrey and Worley taking the mound. Top prospect Oswaldo Arcia was called up Sunday to fill in for Wilkin Ramirez, who will be out for 3 days on paternity leave. It will be interesting to see where the Twins play the powerful Arcia, as his natural position of corner outfield is occupied by Josh Willingham and Chris Parmelee. Youngster Aaron Hicks has been struggling mightily in the big leagues so far this year, and while Arcia is not a natural CF, he does have the ability to play that position as well.
Arcia’s call up is likely to be limited to 3 games, but it will be interesting to see how he performs during that short span. Does a breakout performance force the team to reconsider their current roster layout? Will a hot start from Arcia force the Twins’ hand in moving Willingham or Monreau? At this point, these are the story lines we’re most likely going to be interested in this season as the team on the field looks to be of little improvement from the squads of 2011 & 2012.
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