How do you grade the Twins' first half?

[Izzy]

How do u grade this team's first half? There are many things that have happened since the beginning until now such as Livan's hot start went cold lately. No free agents are making some big splashes. How our young players kept us in the race, and more.

[henks]

A-

For a few reasons:

-Our young pitching is doing a great job...a lot better than people expected so soon.
-Trade with Mets...still not "payed off"...but it is paying dividends. The break is perfect timing for Gomez to chill for a bit.
-Harris has picked it up nicely towards the end of the first half, and what about Casilla?!?!?!!!!!!!
-Third base by committee is doing fairly well, WITHOUT the help (or lackthereof) from Mike Lamb.
-M & M Boys are swinging as usual.
-Delmon Young started out slow...he's starting to pick it up a bit. He says he's a 2nd half guy...we'll see.

[Izzy]

I grade them an A as well. I think the Twins has exceeded my expectations so far. I personally had them 3rd or 4th in their division. Maybe 4th. Instead of 4th, they're in a close second just a few games below the Sox and still in a good race.

Casilla & Span are very impressive. Casilla is unlike his last season, and Span is playing much better than he did in the minors combined. They're young, they'll learn.

The young pitching started off struggling, made some bold moves, giving the young pitchers faith to lead the team. That's how they did, well done Blackburn, Baker, Slowey, & Perkins. Injuries are part of their process, but that didn't stop them.

There are several more that are contributing to Twins' success so far, but I don't know how to put them into words.

Henks, I hope you're so right about Young and him being the 2nd half guy. I don't know why many people are already given up on him.

[mntwinsfan]

B+

Livan is a joke and that the only reason this club would not be an A. Young team otherwise is playing better than the experts expected. Liriano should be called up very soon. He might be the guy to give the Twins the extra spark to get the going.

Gardy as a manager C-

He still makes some stupid moves. But its not as bad as last season.

[catman]

I would give the team a B- right now, although they have exceeded my expectations. Gardy did a nice job of getting Bonser out of the rotation, and Hernandez will be the next guy out, IMO. Liriano is pretty much ready to go again. Brian Bass is the guy I'd release or send down. He has been very disappointing to me. Craig Breslow has been a pleasant surprise.
In the infield, nothing is going according to plan, except at 1B. Harris was supposed to be the 2B, Everett was going to play SS and Lamb was going to be at 3B. Everett got hurt forcing the team to bring Casilla up, which turned out to be a very smart move. Lamb has been ineffective and Buscher has done a nice job of handling the job, both offensively and defensively.
Losing Cuddyer has been tough, offensively, but Span has done a very good job since his return. I hope to see him stay up with the team after Cuddy is ready to play full-time. Craig Monroe would be one guy that could be released or traded for a box of shag balls. He has been another disappointment to me.
When I predicted 88 wins for this team, people laughed at me. I don't think they are quite as surprised by my prediction now.

[ljshorty89]

I'm gonna say a B+. The way I see it, they have exceeded expectations by so much that they are clearly a very good team, and they will continue to be competitive. They play the field well, they have a good group of young big hitters, they have a bit of a weakness in the rotation, but even that has shown it can be consistently good for decent periods of time. So, They're not quite a WS contender, but they're definitely not going away anytime soon.

[mntwinsfan]

There better than the experts thought thats for sure. I think with a trade the club and win the division. I do think Monroe should be traded or released and Hernandez needs to be traded for a bag of chips and a keg of beer. Now that teams have seen him in the AL he is easy to hit off of.

Twins need to get hot right away and pass Chicago! The Soxs are good but this good??

[henks]

Here's a copy of the Twins' midterm report from their website.

Report

[Bon Bon]

I would have to grade this team an A. In the beginning of the season just about everyone was prediction them to finish even behing the Royals. With the young pitching hitting their stride and the hitting coming along this team could be in the hunt for the rest of the season.