What are the 2022 Minnesota Twins?

It's fitting that in the time it has taken me to get around to doing this blog, the Twins have already zigzagged a couple more times in a season that is still only a little past the 1/3 mark yet has already felt like about a half dozen seasons.

At the exact moment I am typing this, the Twins are 37-28 and in the middle of a west coast road trip.

I think that at the start of April, most anybody would have jumped at the prospect of being 37-28 and in first place. And by most measures this has been a good team.

So why do they feel so maddening? 

They've certainly had violent shifts in their play. They started 4-8 and looked awful. Then they won 14 of 17 and looked great, until Houston came in here and humiliated them. 

But following that massacre they immediately ripped off a 9-2 stretch. 

But then they had a woeful 3-7 run against the lowly Royals and Tigers, including losing 4 of 5 in Detroit and barely accomplishing the task of scoring a run.

So naturally, with a 9 game block of AL East teams ahead, they were doomed. Well, no. They won 5 of 9, winning series against Toronto and Tampa and even managing a win over the inevitable World Series champion Yankees. And followed that up with a series win in Seattle.

Every time this team looks to be heading for disaster, they bounce back. Every time they look set up to prove themselves a force, they stumble. I do not know what to make of this team.

Rocco Baldelli drives me insane as a manager. He does such moronic, robotic things so often. There is no doubt in my mind that his decision making has cost more wins than it has gained.

The team has had all sorts of injuries. The only starting pitcher to make every start has been Chris Archer. The bullpen has lost some expected contributors (Alcala, Stashak, and Duffey, who sadly isn't injured). They have had injuries to major hitters. Sometimes the fill-ins have succeeded (Where was this Devin Smeltzer before?), sometimes not (Royce Lewis blowing out his ACL in record time). On a near daily basis they are shuffling players between here and St. Paul, and on and off the 40 man roster. I've given up even trying to keep track of who is on the team anymore. 

The lineup has deserving all stars in Buxton, Correa, Polanco, and current batting leader Arraez. The acquisitions of Sanchez and Urshela have both paid off. Larnach looks capable. Kepler, aside from being a COVIDiot, has rebounded some after.a couple bad years. They have missed nothing from the loss of Miguel Sano. Yet this lineup also goes completely catatonic at times, and for long stretches. They just had a stretch of like 35 out of 38 innings going scoreless.

Even throughout their downswings, they have benefitted from the White Sox continuing to lose. Chicago has been arguably the biggest disappointment in baseball so far. They're still under .500. Cleveland is actually their closest challenger right now, and we play them 8 times before the end of June.

So what is this team? Are they just going to be one of those Twins teams that mops up in a bad division, wins it, then is overmatched in October? Or can this actually, mercifully, be the Twins team that can end at least one of these playoff droughts?

All the priority should.be on winning the division. You win the central, you avoid the Astros and the invincible Yankees right away. And maybe....maybe....you can win a playoff game or even a series. And instantly become the most successful Twins team in a generation.