Do the Twins Really Have Baseball’s 2nd-Best Lineup?

We will no soon - I do not predict - just anticipate

All you have to then think about where the pitching is rated. Great pitching shuts down good lineups.

Buxton and Sano look back on track as of today, so...

No, we have baseball's no 1 lineup.

I will say that it's interesting that the projections have Rosario as 5th best hitter, but many expect he will deservedly hit in the 8th spot. Due to the difficulty in projecting Arraez and Garver. But also, do the projections not like Polanco?

it's not far fetched, with the addition of Donaldson and assuming they stay healthy, to argue they are the #1 lineup in the MLB. I thought it was interesting to learn the other day that mlb.com ranks the Twins bullpen as the #5 overall in the league! What's not to like about that!

The quality of the pitching staffs of KC, Detroit and Chicago in a smaller sample size will make the biggest difference in The Who is number 2 debate.

It's a really really good collection of hitters. I'm not sure how to structure it, but I really wonder about the effect of a lineup with no real holes in it. Because that's one the areas where the Twins are really excelling right now: there's no breaks in there. There are no easy outs and there are a ton of players who can do real damage if you make a mistake (Donaldson, Cruz, Kepler, Garver, Sano, and Rosario are all guys who could hit 30 dingers in a regular season. I mean, wow.).

The worst hitter in the lineup is...Buxton? Last year he was nicely above league average with a 114 OPS+. Rosario? You can get him chasing, but he's also a guy who can hit anything and drilled 32 hrs last year.

There aren't all that many teams who don't have at least one guy as a regular who hits below league average. Yankees did last year, so did the Houston Bucket Thumpers. When you have zero holes in the lineup, and you have a guy who can challenge for a batting title, multiple guys who could run for the hr title...yeah, this is one of the best lineups in baseball. 

What makes the lineup interesting is how balanced they are.  From top to bottom each can hit for some level of power, save a couple.  We do not know how the ball will be different this year, but the hard hit rates are still high for many players.  Runners should be on base a lot and hitters should get pitches to hit.  

Previous articles suggest that even with a less juiced ball the Twins hitters should still fare well overall because of hard hit rates.  

I was surprisingly pleased to see them in 2nd place because they are so under rated by the pundits. But IMO they are #1

What makes the lineup interesting is how balanced they are.  From top to bottom each can hit for some level of power, save a couple.  

Agreed. That article ranked the Dodgers the best lineup in MLB. They added Betts this off season. With players like Bellinger, Pederson, Muncy, Seager & Turner there's a lot of talent, and Smith is emerging as a catcher with some pop.

They didn't see great numbers yet from 2B Lux in LA, but he sure tore it up in AAA last year (.392/.478/.719 in 232 PA).  We'll see if Taylor continues developing in the outfield. Pollock is projected as the DH, which ain't too scary.

The Twins will need to play at the top of their game to put up better numbers than that blend of veteran and developing talent.

If we make it deep into the playoffs, it would be sweet to beat them in the world series with two pitchers who played in LA last year, Hill & Maeda.