Twins Players of the Week

This is the fourth installment in this series. You can find all of them here in reverse chronological order. I will be doing these approximately weekly or at the end of every 2 series.  

In the last 2 series against the Royals (abbreviated 2-game series because of a rain out) and at the Angels the Twins as a team hit an underpowered .214/.276/.321 with 1 HR and scored 16 runs. This helped them finish only 1-4 in these series.  

The Twins Hitter of the Week was: 

Danny Valencia

 

.400/.400/.600 6 H, 2 2B, 1 3B, 3 RBI, 2 R in 15 plate appearances  

As with the hitting, the Twins' pitching in the last 2 series was equally responsible for their 1-4 record against the Royals and the Angels. As a team, the Twins pitched to a 5.79 ERA, allowing 49 hits (including 9 home runs, 8 doubles and a triple,) 28 Runs (all but 1 earned) in 42 innings, facing 183 batters. They threw 636 total pitches and 392 of them were strikes. The walked 11 and struck out 13. This results in a 1.43 WHIP, 2.8 K/9 and 1.2 K/BB.  

The Twins' Pitcher of the Week was:  

Jared Burton

   
2 Games, 2 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 1 BB, 0 K

Twins Players of the Week

This is the third installment in this series. You can find all of them here in reverse chronological order. I will be doing these approximately weekly or at the end of every 2 series.  

In the last 2 series against the Rays and Red Sox the Twins as a team hit an underpowered .241/.326/.310 with 1 HR and scored 21 runs. This helped them finish only 1-5 in these series.  

The Twins Hitter of the Week was: 

Joe Mauer 

 

.409/.500/.409 9 H, 4 RBI, 2 R in 26 plate appearances  

As with the hitting, the Twins' pitching in the last 2 series was equally responsible for their 1-5 record against the Rays and the Red Sox. As a team, the Twins pitched to a 6.23 ERA, allowing 58 hits (including 9 home runs, 11 doubles and a triple,) 38 Runs (all but 2 earned) in 52 innings, facing 224 batters. They threw 891 total pitches and 553 of them were strikes. The walked 17 and struck out 40. This results in a 1.44 WHIP, 6.9 K/9 and 2.4 K/BB.  

The Twins' Pitcher of the Week was:  

Anthony Swarzak

   
2 Games, 5 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 4K

Twins Players of the Week

This is the second installment in this series. You can find the first one here and all of them here in reverse chronological order. I will be doing these approximately weekly or at the end of every 2 series.  

In the last 2 series against the Yankees and Rangers the Twins as a team hit a respectable .279/.328/.434 with 6 HR and scored 28 runs. This was not enough to get them to finish better than 2-5 in these series. Part of the problem was striking out 52 times in 271 plate appearances, grounding into 6 double plays and stranding 54 runners, an average of 7.7 runners a game.  

The Twins Hitter of the Week was: 

Justin Morneau 

 

.261/.370/.652 3 HR, 4 RBI, 6 R in 27 plate appearances  

Unlike the hitting, the Twins' pitching in the last 2 series was primarily responsible for their 2-7 record against the Rangers and the Yankees. As a team, the Twins pitched to a 5.46 ERA, allowing 79 hits (including 13 home runs, 15 doubles and a triple,) 37 Runs (all earned) in 61 innings, facing 272 batters. They threw 959 total pitches and 612 of them were strikes. The walked 14 and struck out 35. This results in a 1.53 WHIP, 5.2 K/9 and 2.5 K/BB.  

The Twins' Pitcher of the Week was:  

Jared Burton

   
3 Games, 3.3 IP, 0 R, 0 H, 0 BB, 5K

Twins Players of the Week

The Twins are 2-4 in this early season, after being swept in their first series at Baltimore and winning the series against one of the AL darlings, the LA Angels at the home opener at Target Field, 2-1. This series win is very hopeful, because if they Twins win 60-70% of their series, they will be in the post-season. They stand at 50% right now and winning the Rangers' series, will put them at 66%, which is right on course.

A position player and a pitcher stood above and beyond the Twins' peers this week and they are the Twins' players of the week.

Position player: Josh Willingham:



.409/.458/1.000 4 HR, 7 RBI, 1 2B, 1 BB, 5 K, (24 PA)

Pitcher: Glen Perkins:



.000 ERA, 0.545 WHIP, 2 H, 0 BB, 6 K (3.2 IP)