The Minnesota Twins had an abysmal 2011 season.
There were a lot of negatives. No one within the Twins organization or any one in baseball could have predicted it would finish with the worst record in the American League and second worst in all of baseball.
The big question is what went wrong.
In part three of this series I am going to look at the pitching.
As a staff, the Twins’ starters and relievers amassed a 4.58 ERA, which was the 29th best total in the Majors. Only the Baltimore Orioles had a worse staff ERA.
The Twins knew the bullpen was a question mark, but it had no idea the starters were also going to struggle.
The pitching staff ranked in the bottom half of the Majors in: home ERA (25th), total runs allowed when leading (20th), total runs allowed when trailing (29th), total runs allowed with the score tied (18th), total runs allowed late in close games (18th), total runs allowed by the starting pitcher (29th), total runs allowed by the relief pitchers (27th), allowed inherited base runners to score (29th), total runs allowed in the seventh inning or later (27th), total runs allowed with two outs (26th), total runs allowed when ahead in the count (29th) and total runs allowed with two strikes on the batter (29th).
Here are the stats of the five opening day starting pitchers from this season and last:
Record ERA Innings
Scott Baker 2010 12-9 4.49 170.1
2011 8-6 3.14 134.2
Nick Blackburn 2010 10-12 5.42 161.0
2011 7-10 4.49 148.1
Brian Duensing 2010 10-3 2.62 130.2
2011 9-14 5.23 161.2
Francisco Liriano 2010 14-10 3.26 191.2
2011 9-10 5.09 134.1
Carl Pavano 2010 17-11 3.75 221.0
2011 9-13 4.30 222.0
All five stepped backward in at least one statistic.
Starting pitching was supposed to be a strength for the Twins in 2010, but instead all the guys that started games struggled to keep leads or the team in the game consistently through the season.
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