Was the Bomba Squad Overrated?

[Adam Neisen]

Twins fans are blinded by nostalgia when it comes to 2019's Twins' Bomba Squad. 

Image courtesy of Wendell Cruz-USA TODAY Sports

In 2019, the Twins put together one of the greatest seasons in franchise history. They won 101 games - second-best in Twins history - and cruised to a division win. Known as the Bomba Squad, the team broke numerous home run records, including MLB’s team record of 307, and they had five players hit 30 or more home runs. It looked like a youth movement was leading the way, but sustained success eluded them, both in the postseason and in subsequent years.

In the postseason, the Yankees swept the Twins. pushing their playoff losing streak to 16 games. People look back at that team as one of the few times the Twins could be considered "true contenders," but in reality, they are blinded by nostalgia. The failures of the team all come down to sustained success. 

Sustained success is something that has been echoed time and time again since Derek Falvey and Thad Levine took over the team in 2016. The reasoning behind it is simple: anything can happen in the playoffs. The more times you make the playoffs, the more chances you have to go on a World Series run. 

The primary way to achieve this level of success is through team control. When trading at the deadline, players are often acquired as rentals. But trading for players with a year or two of team control gives the receiving team much more value. The same goes for signing team-friendly contract extensions. The Twins have committed to this philosophy in recent years through multiple moves.

• Pablo Lopez - traded for with two years of team control
• Chris Paddack - traded for with three years of team control and then a contract extension
• Tyler Mahle - traded for with 1.5 years of team control
• Jorge Lopez - traded for with 2.5 years of team control
• Gio Urshela - trade for with two years of team control

Controlling players for multiple years solidifies parts of the team while also giving the organization the financial freedom to build around these players. In 2019, however, the organization ditched this idea.  

2018 was a disappointing year, and in the following offseason, the Twins decided to fill their gaps with one-year rentals. It started in November when the Twins filled their first base gap by picking up CJ Cron off of waivers. Then they signed Jonathan Schoop to a one-year deal at second base, followed up by a one-year deal (plus a team option) to aging slugger Nelson Cruz. In February 2019, the Twins acquired Marwin Gonzalez for a two-year deal. To "fix" their issues in the rotation, they signed Martin Perez to a one-year deal. 

Notice the pattern here? It would have been easy to write off the season, except all those rentals started off hot and propelled the team into playoff contention. It became even more complicated as the season went on.

By midseason, the one-year rentals were already starting to decline. Cron got hurt and had a bad second half. Perez had a hot start but got rocked the rest of the season. Schoop had a bad month in June and was mostly replaced by the up-and-coming Luis Arraez. Only Cruz continued to shine and was awarded the team MVP as a 39-year-old. 

By the time the trade deadline rolled around, either the front office felt that the early season success truly was sustainable despite warning signs, or they felt pressured to make a move to push the team further into contention. They added Sergio Romo and Sam Dyson. Romo was decent to finish the year, and the Dyson trade is arguably one of the worst of Derek Falvey's time. In the end, the acquisitions didn't matter enough, and the Twins fell short of the Yankees in the ALDS.

The 2019 team produced great memories but had a lack of substance behind them. When one takes a step back and looks at the whole picture, one realizes how deceptive the year was in evaluating the Twins' future. The 2019 Twins were entertaining to watch, but when it comes to their effect on the franchise, people are blinded by nostalgia. 

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[D.C Twins]

Juiced ball year and outlier so.... I'll go with yes

[miracleb]

Seem to be mixing two different things here. Bomba Squad overated (title to the article)  combined with how it affected the Twin's team moving forward.  I don't think they were overated.  Nelson Cruz had a 1961 Harmon Killebrew type of season.....101 wins is firmly on Cruz's back!   Getting rentals to "make a run" also doesn't have any long term affects.  Giving up PROSPECTS to "make a run" is where the front office can get in trouble (with me.)   The risk for the front office is giving up prospects to "make a run at a title" and then fall short.  Now you have weakened your farm system and the longer term future of the team is poor.  Those front office people end up being "former" front office people.

[rwilfong86]

All the homeruns didn't equal any postseason success. I would lean yes but it sure was fun to watch.

[RJA]

I think you need to judge each team based on the results of that particular year.  The Bomba Squad won 101 games and set a major league homerun record.  Yes, the ball was juiced, but it was juiced for everyone else as well.  Every other team faced the exact same conditions as the Twins.  For the conditions of that particular year, the Bomba Squad was not overrated.  They had some success in 2020, but then the roof caved in.  Just because the team did not become a dynasty, does not mean they were not exceptional in that particular year.  Let's forget the 3 game sweep by the Yanks in the playoffs as that is the obvious result of some kind of curse:).

[MMMordabito]

Who cares? That was a fun year.

[mikelink45]

Not over rated, it just meant that they showed us great ball for the regular season and then we were bounced.  The trouble was that we then expected this to continue, but the team and the ball both changed.   In baseball you just celebrate each good year. 

[D.C Twins]

17 minutes ago, RJA said:

I think you need to judge each team based on the results of that particular year.  The Bomba Squad won 101 games and set a major league homerun record.  Yes, the ball was juiced, but it was juiced for everyone else as well.  Every other team faced the exact same conditions as the Twins.  For the conditions of that particular year, the Bomba Squad was not overrated.  They had some success in 2020, but then the roof caved in.  Just because the team did not become a dynasty, does not mean they were not exceptional in that particular year.  Let's forget the 3 game sweep by the Yanks in the playoffs as that is the obvious result of some kind of curse:).

Fair, but the juiced ball year definitely lowers the impact of their 'Team Home Run Record.' 

Best measure of Team Home Run Record would be the difference between Team Home Runs and the median team home runs hit in the league that season (or divide Team Home Runs by the Median Team Home Runs in the league for a ratio) to adjust for the conditions of that year. Those results could then be compared year over year. 

Given that metric, I doubt they would be the best ever. 

Still a fun season with wild success, but overrated historically. 

[Whitey333]

Pretty sad that you have to rip a very fun team to watch in the Bomba squad.  They were at least fun to watch that year.  The team the past couple of seasons have been totally boring.  And everyone touts the prospects.  Yes they are very important but if they were so great wouldn't they be on the major league roster now?  Even the FO must realize we don't have very many major league ready prospects or the wouldn't have need to throw 11 million at a lifetime .199 hitter that whiffs more than Sano and Buxton.

[Riverbrian]

I read a yelp review on a restaurant once where the reviewer gave a restaurant two stars because they were handed 3 menus when the party of 4 was seated. 

Some folks... just search for a negative to hang on to. 

 

 

[RJA]

24 minutes ago, D.C Twins said:

Still a fun season with wild success, but overrated historically. 

Good point on home run record, however I disagree with your historically overrated take.  As for being historically overrated, the 2019 team had the second best winning percentage, .623, in the Twins 60 plus year history, with only the 1965 Twins winning percentage of .630 being better.  In fact, if you add the Senators history to ours, in the 120 year plus history of the franchise, 2019 winning percentage rates the 4th best.  How can a team with the 4th best record in the 120 plus year history of the franchise be historically overrated?

[HoskenPowell]

Fun to watch , but you knew it wasn't gonna work in the playoffs.

[Richie the Rally Goat]

Just now, HoskenPowell said:

Fun to watch , but you knew it wasn't gonna work in the playoffs.

Exactly. The article missed the mark… the problem with the Bomba Squad wasn’t the rentals. The problem was they didn’t have enough pitching. 
 

getting bounced by the Yankees again in ‘19 was getting beaten by a team that hit the second most home runs in the league AND had much better pitching.

frankly I wish the FO would sign more rentals. While I hate the Gallo signing, if I’m proven wrong and he actually can hit a Manfred Ball, that rental could prove to be a huge difference maker on a team that looks poised to prevent runs at a much improved rate, and struggle to score.

[chpettit19]

1 hour ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

Exactly. The article missed the mark… the problem with the Bomba Squad wasn’t the rentals. The problem was they didn’t have enough pitching. 
 

getting bounced by the Yankees again in ‘19 was getting beaten by a team that hit the second most home runs in the league AND had much better pitching.

frankly I wish the FO would sign more rentals. While I hate the Gallo signing, if I’m proven wrong and he actually can hit a Manfred Ball, that rental could prove to be a huge difference maker on a team that looks poised to prevent runs at a much improved rate, and struggle to score.

They didn't have enough pitching to make up for Pineda getting suspended, Gibson getting sick, and Dyson being hurt. Their overall pitching that year was actually really good, but fell apart going into the playoffs due to their lack of depth. They had the 9th best ERA in baseball. 4th most pitching fWAR, allowed the 5th fewest HR/9, were 4th in FIP, and 5th in xFIP.

It's one of the biggest "what if" seasons I can remember for the Twins. What if their pitching was healthy, and not suspended, going into the playoffs? Could've been a different story. 

Note: I'm not saying you weren't just meaning depth when you say "didn't have enough pitching," but I like to point out how good their pitching actually was that year because so many people put that entire season on the 307 HRs, and pretend they had a bottom 10 pitching staff or something. That was a complete team when it was all together. Just wasn't all together going into the playoffs, unfortunately. 

[Finlander]

A corollary subtitle for this article may have been "Was 2019 Hitting Coach James Rowson Underrated". With the juiced baseball that year and his departure afterwards it may be hard to determine. I'll be curious to see how he does in Detroit this year.

As a previous poster pointed out, all major league teams hit the same juiced baseball, so I think that legitimizes the greatness of the Bombas in 2019. I have to believe Rowson had some contribution to it.

[Blyleven2011]

Just read the title ...

Players had career years , juiced ball they say , was a very good season to watch baseball ,  though alot of  those homeruns they hit were solo Homer's ( over 50 percent ) , not a game changer 3 run homer  ...

Lots of double digit wins was very exciting  ...

Now I'll go read the article  and responses ....

[sun]

The Twins Bomba Squad beat the Bronx Bombers head to head in a season competition to set the new bomba record. Setting the new record despite having a larger home ballpark was a much more noteworthy accomplishment than winning the playoff round.

Setting the new bomba record clearly offsets the playoff loss since the Yankees did not go on to win the world series or even play in it because they lost to the Astros in 6 games. 

Future generations will long remember the record breaking bomba season as the year that the Twins bested the Yankees and not the other way around.

Sometimes losing enough playoff games to the Yankees has its just rewards.

[Brandon]

We beat the Yankees by 1 and hold the MLB season team record for HRs in a season.  And we beat the Yankees by ☝️ so it was a huge success and to cheapen it in anyway is to be a Yankees fan.

[Blyleven2011]

I wish the twins were capable to retain their coaches when they got a good one  , hitting coach left , bench coach left , pitching coach left mid season of 2022 ... 

Rocco needs smart people to surround him that keep their heads in the game ( two mound visits in the same inning with no intention of removing the pitcher , this error happened 2 years in a row because all the coaches didn't have their heads in the game ) , to many blunders by coaching and the twins lack fundamental baseball  ...

The twins can't seem to win  because of coaching  , you need a better plan especially in close games 

[Richie the Rally Goat]

1 hour ago, chpettit19 said:

They didn't have enough pitching to make up for Pineda getting suspended, Gibson getting sick, and Dyson being hurt. Their overall pitching that year was actually really good, but fell apart going into the playoffs due to their lack of depth. They had the 9th best ERA in baseball. 4th most pitching fWAR, allowed the 5th fewest HR/9, were 4th in FIP, and 5th in xFIP.

It's one of the biggest "what if" seasons I can remember for the Twins. What if their pitching was healthy, and not suspended, going into the playoffs? Could've been a different story. 

Note: I'm not saying you weren't just meaning depth when you say "didn't have enough pitching," but I like to point out how good their pitching actually was that year because so many people put that entire season on the 307 HRs, and pretend they had a bottom 10 pitching staff or something. That was a complete team when it was all together. Just wasn't all together going into the playoffs, unfortunately. 

In perusing Fangraphs, NYY was 4th in Pitching War for the ‘19 season, Twins were 14 in FWAR, 19 in FIP, 16 in ERA. The Twins were average pitching, including a all the injuries and what if’s.

[ashbury]

4 hours ago, Riverbrian said:

I read a yelp review on a restaurant once where the reviewer gave a restaurant two stars because they were handed 3 menus when the party of 4 was seated.

One person having to go home hungry is not a good outcome.

The Bomba Squad went home hungry after a handful of games in the postseason.  They should have asked for a menu.

[chpettit19]

51 minutes ago, Richie the Rally Goat said:

In perusing Fangraphs, NYY was 4th in Pitching War for the ‘19 season, Twins were 14 in FWAR, 19 in FIP, 16 in ERA. The Twins were average pitching, including a all the injuries and what if’s.

That data is since 2019, not just 2019. The Dodgers didn't accrue 86 pitching fWAR in 1 season.

Here's 2019: Twins 4, Yankees 10 in pitching WAR. Twins beat them in ERA, FIP, xFIP, HR/9, and BB/9. The Twins had a good pitching staff in 2019.

[D.C Twins]

4 hours ago, RJA said:

Good point on home run record, however I disagree with your historically overrated take.  As for being historically overrated, the 2019 team had the second best winning percentage, .623, in the Twins 60 plus year history, with only the 1965 Twins winning percentage of .630 being better.  In fact, if you add the Senators history to ours, in the 120 year plus history of the franchise, 2019 winning percentage rates the 4th best.  How can a team with the 4th best record in the 120 plus year history of the franchise be historically overrated?

My bad.... I should have clarified that the 'Bomba' part was overrated, not necessarily the team in relation to Twins history. 

Though, even in real time I believe most of us were highly skeptical that our pitching staff was anywhere near good enough for a deep post season run against the elite teams

[Richie the Rally Goat]

1 minute ago, chpettit19 said:

That data is since 2019, not just 2019. The Dodgers didn't accrue 86 pitching fWAR in 1 season.

Here's 2019: Twins 4, Yankees 10

Aha! Thanks!

[Trov]

The issue was we were dealing with a juiced ball that made some guys look better than what they really were.  Some of the younger guys that we were counting on to carry into future years just never carried over.  Specifically, Garver, Sano and Kepler were the main two we kept saying if they just can do what they did in 2019.  

I feel Garver was the biggest issue of the juiced ball.  He blew up out of no where with the 31 HR.  He never came close to that before, and since was not on similar pace over similar PA.  He is the perfect example of needing to have career years to help teams win it all.  We were excited because we still had some young guys, Buck, Polonco, Arraez, Garver, Kepler, Sano, all still getting into primes, with Lewis and our OF group waiting in wings.  Well, huge regression and injuries halted the growth we were hoping for. 

Also, going away from the super ball that was the baseball that year brought guys back to earth in the power numbers, but some had similar approaches that just did not get the same results. 

[Beast]

Yes they’re overrated. 

They still couldn’t compete with the legitimately good baseball teams in the AL when it mattered.  If they played in the AL East or West, they wouldn’t have won as many games.  Probably something like a one and done wild card.  It’s fair to wonder whether they would’ve hit as many home runs - likely not with the better pitching.  They beat the Yankees for the home run title by 1.  Do the math.

The front office once botched the deadline and failed to add anything, which always seems to happen here.  So, who knows what might of been.

Fun team to watch.  Some really awesome games that summer (the Yankees fame in late July….that they still lost).  But, it was in the consolation bracket from the beginning.  They happened to catch lightning in a bottle by assembling the perfect group of fly ball hitters with a juiced ball against some really bad in-division pitching.  No chance in hell of getting by both the Yankees and Astros that year.

[chpettit19]

2 minutes ago, D.C Twins said:

My bad.... I should have clarified that the 'Bomba' part was overrated, not necessarily the team in relation to Twins history. 

Though, even in real time I believe most of us were highly skeptical that our pitching staff was anywhere near good enough for a deep post season run against the elite teams

A healthy (and not suspended) Twins pitching staff in 2019 was top 10 in baseball. Unfortunately, they weren't healthy (or not suspended) in the postseason.

They finished top 10 in just about every pitching stat in baseball in 2019.

[D.C Twins]

2 hours ago, chpettit19 said:

They didn't have enough pitching to make up for Pineda getting suspended, Gibson getting sick, and Dyson being hurt. Their overall pitching that year was actually really good, but fell apart going into the playoffs due to their lack of depth. They had the 9th best ERA in baseball. 4th most pitching fWAR, allowed the 5th fewest HR/9, were 4th in FIP, and 5th in xFIP.

It's one of the biggest "what if" seasons I can remember for the Twins. What if their pitching was healthy, and not suspended, going into the playoffs? Could've been a different story. 

Note: I'm not saying you weren't just meaning depth when you say "didn't have enough pitching," but I like to point out how good their pitching actually was that year because so many people put that entire season on the 307 HRs, and pretend they had a bottom 10 pitching staff or something. That was a complete team when it was all together. Just wasn't all together going into the playoffs, unfortunately. 

We had a good 'regular season' pitching staff but that is different than a good 'playoff' pitching staff.

If Pineda was not suspended, Gibson was healthy and Dyson was not hurt I don't think it would have changed the playoff outcome at all; none of them are 'difference makers' against elite competition. (maybe one game won?)

None of our pitchers that year would strike fear into the hearts of the opposing line up in a must win game. 

 

[chpettit19]

4 minutes ago, D.C Twins said:

We had a good 'regular season' pitching staff but that is different than a good 'playoff' pitching staff.

If Pineda was not suspended, Gibson was healthy and Dyson was not hurt I don't think it would have changed the playoff outcome at all; none of them are 'difference makers' against elite competition. (maybe one game won?)

None of our pitchers that year would strike fear into the hearts of the opposing line up in a must win game. 

 

As opposed to James Paxton, Masahiro Tanaka (and his 4.45 ERA), and Luis Severino who threw 12 regular season innings that year? Cuz those are the games 1, 2, and 3 starters for the Yankees in that series. Not exactly striking fear in any opposing line ups with that trio either.

[Doctor Gast]

We were able to better NYY & everyone else so right there it's hard to minimize that even with the juiced ball. 

In my eyes we had the best rotation in MLB the 1st couple of months of the '19 season, maybe we did. It was great to see each SP getting psyched by each other's performance. Parker & Hildenberger were unbelievable until they were over used & the BP blew up. More were required from their rotation especially RP turned SP Perez & colitis ridden Gibson. They were overburdened, although they stayed off the IL they never recovered. Berrios pitched 200.1 innings, Perez pitched 165.1 & Gibson pitched 160.0. Coming into the play-offs our rotation was totally shot where we had to depend on Dobnak.

IMO our BP blow ups has been the key to our failure in the PS or even to get there for many years. Also one bad thing that came out of the '19 Bomba Squad is that we adapted post "juice ball" era the game plan of only "hit HRs" that's it. And focus on hitting was to hit HRs & forget about the fundamentals.