2019 MLB season: Which is the best team in the AL?

2019 MLB Season: Best AL Team

The Minnesota Twins

The Minnesota Twins are where they are at the top of the AL Central for the sole reason of their prolific power. The pitching and bullpen are solid- Jake Odorizzi and Jose Berrios standing out from the pack.

They currently have eight batters with more than 20 home runs and two players- Max Kepler and Nelson Cruz– who have posted 35 or more long balls. In essence, their lineup is reliant on the home run and those disappear in October.

Of course, the best hitters still run into them, the issue is when a team is only striving to hit the ball over the wall, a pitcher can easily take advantage of that. Minnesota is in the top 10 in the league in regard to the fewest strikeouts.

Thus their team is driven by great hitters, who of course, drive the ball with such force that it gets out of the stadium with relative ease. In fact, they lead the league in OPS and SLugging percentage.

The pitching is also quite solid according to the numbers, as they hold the eighth-best ERA. The main issue is the depth because they will not have the advantage of facing the hapless Tigers, White Sox, and Royals in the postseason.

The Twins pitching staff will be challenged in the postseason and if they are up to the task, they can be much more formidable than anyone is willing to give them credit for. However, their inexperience will cause most analysts to bet against them- fair or not.

In conclusion, despite a relatively solid 2019 MLB season from the Twins staff has a lack of swing and miss stuff, which the Yankees and Astros are saturated with.