In reviewing the Twins through two months, I used Expected Fielding Independent Pitching (xFIP) and a comparison to last season's numbers to show that the starting rotation hadn't pitched as badly as their ugly ERAs suggested, citing Scott Baker and Francisco Liriano as the prime examples. Sure enough the rotation turned things around in June, going 13-7 with a 3.61 ERA and 124-to-45 strikeout-to-walk ratio in 169.1 innings spread over 27 starts after coming into the month with a collective 4.95 ERA.

Baker went 4-0 with a 3.20 ERA in six starts and Liriano went 2-1 with a 3.77 ERA in five starts, and the group as a whole saw its luck even out after a rough April and May. On the other hand, after evaluating the bullpen's performance through two months my take was that it "is going to need reinforcements to avoid remaining a clear weakness." Instead the Twins' bullpen combined for a 2.53 ERA and 65-to-26 strikeout-to-walk ratio over 67.1 innings in June.

With the rotation predictably getting on track and the bullpen trio of Joe Nathan, Matt Guerrier, and R.A. Dickey combining to allow just two runs in 31.2 innings the Twins went 15-12 in June after going 11-11 in April and 14-16 in May. And that success came despite the offense crashing back down to earth by averaging just 4.1 runs per game in June after scoring 6.5 runs per game in May. Here's a look at the individual xFIPs through three months:

STARTERS             IP     xFIP        RELIEVERS            IP     xFIP
Scott Baker        92.0     4.18        Joe Nathan         31.0     2.50
Kevin Slowey       87.2     4.35        Matt Guerrier      35.1     4.39
Fran Liriano       89.2     4.57        R.A. Dickey        44.0     4.44
Glen Perkins       67.0     4.81        Luis Ayala         32.1     4.79
Nick Blackburn    107.1     4.98        Jose Mijares       23.0     5.22
Anthony Swarzak    27.2     5.02        Sean Henn          11.1     5.33
                                        Jesse Crain        17.2     5.41

As was the case a month ago everyone in the rotation is basically in the 4.15-5.00 range, with the main difference being that their ERAs now more closely resemble their xFIPs. Blackburn is the outlier, as his 3.10 ERA varies wildly from a 4.98 xFIP. Part of that comes from leading the team with seven unearned runs allowed while the rest of the staff has combined for nine, but xFIP also knows that someone with just 45 strikeouts in 107.1 innings and a ground-ball rate of 46 percent can't sustain a 3.10 ERA.

Similarly, the bullpen's June success should be tempered somewhat by the relievers' mediocre overall xFIPs. Nathan has been his usual amazing self and has thankfully gotten more action of late, but when the primary setup men have xFIPs of 4.39, 4.44, and 5.22 it doesn't bode particularly well for the second half. I'm confident that the rotation has righted the ship and certainly Guerrier, Dickey, and Jose Mijares have looked at times like a playoff-caliber trio, but ultimately the Twins still need one more quality arm.

While the pitching staff was thriving in June the offense ranked just 10th in the 14-team league in runs, declining by 40 percent from the lineup's otherworldly May performance. Joe Mauer's out-of-nowhere power display more or less ceased, as he managed just three homers over 109 at-bats, but he batted .353/.403/.490 to basically match his career mark of .323/.404/.475. In other words he stopped being some sort of cross between Babe Ruth and Barry Bonds to just resume being an MVP-caliber catcher.

Justin Morneau also dropped off considerably in June, but was still plenty productive at .255/.342/.459, and Jason Kubel kept rolling at .291/.371/.628 with eight homers. Michael Cuddyer was also solid at .278/.333/.481, but no other hitter managed even a .725 OPS as Joe Crede struggled, Delmon Young and Carlos Gomez continued to flail away, and Denard Span hit just .208 while missing half the month with an inner-ear infection.

An amazing May sandwiched between a poor April and June adds up to ranking ninth in the AL in runs per game overall. All of which is disappointing given some of the big individual performances, but not really surprising given that they've had a sub par offense in all but one of Ron Gardenhire's seasons as manager. Here's a look at Runs Above Replacement, which calculates how many runs someone was worth both offensively and defensively compared to a replacement-level player at the same position:

                      RAR                              RAR
Joe Mauer            38.1        Nick Punto           -3.1
Justin Morneau       25.9        Matt Tolbert         -5.6
Joe Crede            20.7        Alexi Casilla       -10.8
Denard Span          15.5        Delmon Young        -15.2
Michael Cuddyer      13.3
Jason Kubel          12.1
Brendan Harris        9.3
Jose Morales          7.4
Mike Redmond          1.2
Carlos Gomez          0.3
Brian Buscher         0.1

Despite missing all of April with a back injury Mauer ranked as the second-most valuable player in the league through three months, checking in at 38.1 runs better than a replacement-level catcher in his 54 games. Morneau and Crede also ranked 17th and 27th among AL players respectively, but got there in much different ways. Morneau was the league's fourth-best hitter, producing 22 runs above average at the plate. Crede was the AL's second-best fielder, producing 11 runs above average with his glove.

Mauer, Morneau, Crede, and Span also ranked 1-2-3-4 in that order through the end of May, so there's no real change at the top, but Kubel and Brendan Harris moved up considerably in June to essentially give the Twins seven solidly productive spots in the lineup. Unfortunately a lineup has nine places, and second base and the third outfield spot continue to drag the Twins down in a huge way. The fivesome of Gomez, Young, Nick Punto, Matt Tolbert, and Alexi Casilla were 34.4 runs below replacement level.

Or put another way, those five guys have basically canceled out Mauer's amazing season. Of that group only Gomez rates above replacement level, and just barely, because his glove in center field remains very good and his measly .229/.283/.331 line at the plate is made somewhat more palatable by the fact that center fielders as a whole have a lower OPS than any position but catchers and shortstops. Young, on the other hand, is awful defensively and has hit worse than Gomez at a high-offense position.

In fact, at 15.2 runs below replacement level Young has been the single worst all-around player in the entire American League. Of course, that was also the case last month. He's batted .256/.281/.318 at a position where the average guy hits .270/.343/.442, putting him 22 percent below average offensively in addition to Ultimate Zone Rating pegging him as 9.3 runs below average on defense. And the amazing thing is that Young has done all that damage in just 185 plate appearances spread over 50 games.

Casilla ranks as the third-worst player in the AL despite spending a big chunk of the year at Triple-A, which is what happens when you hit .180/.242/.225 with poor defense. Tolbert hasn't been any better, hitting .185/.274/.235 with similarly poor UZR numbers as Twins second basemen combine to provide worse production than any other position in baseball. June was the Twins' best month and the pitching staff made strides, but adding a capable second baseman and a reliever would still have a big impact.

David Brauer of MinnPost reports that Twins beat reporter Phil Miller has been laid off by the St. Paul Pioneer Press. In addition to being one hell of a nice guy Miller did a fantastic job covering the team, so this is terrible news for Twins fans. Kelsie Smith moves up to become the primary beat writer and will do a nice job, but the newspaper's Twins coverage can't help but suffer without Miller. This really stinks, on a personal level and as a fan who likes as much good content about the team as possible. Ugh.

Last year the Twins tied the all-time MLB record for bunt hits in a season with 68, while no other team managed even 40. Carlos Gomez led baseball with 30, which would have ranked sixth among teams, and Alexi Casilla was second in the AL with 16 despite playing only 98 games. Along with Gomez and Casilla combining for 46 bunt hits, Nick Punto chipped in seven, Joe Mauer, Denard Span, and Matt Tolbert had four apiece, and nearly five percent of the Twins' total hits came via bunt.

This season has been a much different story, as the Twins rank just sixth in bunt hits and are on pace to finish with fewer than half as many as they had last year. Much of the decrease in bunt hits comes from Gomez being relegated to the bench for 32 of 77 games after starting 143 times last season and Casilla playing his way back to Triple-A, because they obviously can't rack up bunt hits from the dugout or Rochester. With that said, bunting less often even when they're in the lineup has also been a factor.

Gomez laid down a bunt in 11 percent of his plate appearances last year, reaching safely 45.5 percent of the time to become just the fifth player since 1959 to bunt for at least 30 hits in a season. This year Gomez has bunted in just six percent of his plate appearances while reaching safely 27.3 percent of the time. In other words, he's bunted about half as often and done so about half as successfully. Much has been made of Gomez's decline at the plate, but bunting accounts for nearly the entire change.

Gomez is hitting just .225 with a .358 slugging percentage on non-bunts this year, which while terrible is no worse than last season when he hit .233 with a .348 slugging percentage on non-bunts. In terms of actual hitting he hasn't changed at all, but the difference is that bunts accounted for over 20 percent of his hits last year and Gomez batted .455 when he laid one down. This year bunts have accounted for just eight percent of Gomez's hits and he's batted just .273 when he lays one down.

Twins fans have heard all about Gomez's supposed potential offensively since the team acquired him as the centerpiece of last offseason's Johan Santana trade, but through over 900 plate appearances in the majors he's hit .227 with a .337 slugging percentage when not bunting. Those are putrid numbers and cast serious doubt on Gomez's ability to develop into an impact hitter, but the good news is that he remains one of the game's fastest players and is a career .433 hitter when dropping a bunt down.

Because of his great glove in center field Gomez will always have value regardless of how poorly he's doing at the plate, but given his success bunting and how horrible he's been when swinging away it makes no sense for him to be laying one down half as often this year. Joe Vavra and company surely have him focusing on putting together better at-bats and taking the ball the other way, which have the potential to make him a competent hitter, but in the meantime his only real weapon has gone missing.

Casilla bunted almost as often as Gomez last year, laying one down in nine percent of his trips to the plate, and was nearly as successful by reaching safely on 43 percent of his attempts. In addition to the bunting Casilla was also more successful than Gomez on non-bunts, hitting .265 with a .368 slugging percentage. Those non-bunt numbers still weren't good, but they're positively Mauer-esque compared to Casilla hitting .162 with a .210 slugging percentage on non-bunts this season.

As a team the Twins have gone from bunting once every 36 plate appearances and reaching safely 40 percent of the time in 2008 to bunting once every 51 plate appearances and reaching safely 28 percent of the time this year. That might not seem like a huge difference and certainly the lineup's dramatically increased power is a much more important change overall, but when it comes to the light-hitting speed guys like Gomez, Casilla, Tolbert, and Punto all struggling the lack of bunts is definitely curious.