Where Would the Twins be Without Sano and Santana?

Dozier

Combined, Santana and Sano a WAR (wins above replacement) of 2.7 and 2.1, respectively, which are remarkably high numbers if one projects those numbers over an entire season. IF Sano and Santana could achieve that sort of sustainable production over the balance of 2017, they would be responsible for nearly 20 more victories than their peers.

Where would the Twins be without them? Probably not in first place in the AL Central.

The more intriguing question will be "who will step up" and take their turn if and when Santana and/or Sano regress to the mean?

Will Max Kepler get hot again in July, and hit another 10 to 15 home runs? Will Steven Gonsalves join Jose Berrios as a young phenom? Will Glen Perkins or Phil Hughes come back from the dead to bolster the front end of the bullpen or the back end of the rotation?

Or, maybe none of the above..? The fun thing is that we all get to wait, watch and see "how it all plays out."

Combined, Santana and Sano own a WAR (wins above replacement) of 2.7 and 2.1, respectively, which are remarkably high numbers if one projects those numbers over an entire season.

IF Sano and Santana could achieve that sort of sustainable prpoduction over the balance of 2017, they would be responsible for nearly 20 more victories than their peers. Where would the Twins be without them? Probably not in first place in the AL Central.

The more intriguing question may be "who will step up" and take their turn if and when Santana and/or Sano regress to the mean?

Will Max Kepler get hot again in July, and hit another 10 to 15 home runs? Will Steven Gonsalves join Jose Berrios as a young phenom? Will Glen Perkins or Phil Hughes come back from the dead to bolster the front end of the bullpen or the back end of the rotation? Or, maybe none of the above? The fun thing is that we all get to wait, watch, and see "how it all plays out."

To create a perspective for this we would have to go through all the teams and remove their top hitter and top pitchers and see what the results would be.  Take out a Bumgarter or Kershaw or a Mike Trout and what happens to their teams?  In other words; this article does point out the importance of an ACE and a Quality hitter, but what would the standings be if everyteam had their top two removed?  That would be the judgment of the supporting casts. 

It's a great point, but somewhat moot as mentioned above, you take the top couple of performers off most any team and you change the dynamic appreciably...usually.

And, as stated previously, it's more a question of who else emerges. With 9 man lineups and 5 day rotations, as well as normal hot and cold spells, baseball is a unique sport. Rosario, Buxton, Kepler, Polanco, Vargas, Berrios and Mejia are still so very young and developing that their ceilings are still a ways off. Mauer is starting to click along with Dozier. So yeah, its more about improvement than any regression from two pkayers, IMO.

Where would we be without Kintzler?    Pretty sure by this point  last year we had already lost at least 6 games where we had the lead going in to the 9th inning.   This year... none.    To me his Wins Above Last Year is 6.   

You are so right! There's four guys in the bullpen that don't need to be there. The catching call and defense has improved, but it is a black hole in a lineup that sees okay production from a highly paid first baseman, what we expect from the guy at second, a promising but not-to-productive shortstop who is no better or worse than his backups, an outfield that isn't tearing up the league in anyway. The designated hitter has been a modest surprise and may keep Park out of the picture for awhile longer. The rotation has been the surprise, even with a couple coming back to earth (Santiago and Hughes). And we still do need sa fifth starter.

Combine the fact that the lineup is all over the place, the team doesn't play well at home, there is no bench, and there is little or no releif on the hitting front in the minors...we can only think that the rest of the American League has evened out.

Kansas City.