Boy, oh boy. The Twins are hot.

So I hate to be the downer during a nice, little season that we're having, but I'm going to do it. This has to be said. I apologize in advance.

One of the reasons for the Twins not being in first place is their collectively atrocious outfield play. For some reason, Carlos Gomez and Delmon Young are having trouble judging balls. That makes for exciting baseball, but it's scary as heck. Big media in the Twin Cities has pointed out that the Twins are not playing the stellar defense for which they've become known. I blame it on the outfield. Here's my numbers analysis:

- The Twins have committed 57 errors.

- Their .983 fielding percentage is 12th in the American League and 19th in the majors. 

- Young and Gomez share the team lead in errors with six apiece. Only two outfielders, Justin Upton of the Arizona Diamondbacks (nine) and his brother B.J. Upton of the Tampa Bay Rays (seven), have more errors than our guys. No team has two outfielders who have combined for so many errors as our two. Whew! That's bad. 

- Michael Cuddyer has only one error, plus he has five double plays. His range could be better, but what an arm! He's not really part of the issue right now.

- Jason Kubel and Denard Span have each made two errors, despite the limited amount of playing time they've played in the outfield.

- Neither Craig Monroe nor Nick Punto has made an error in extremely limited play in the outfield.

- That's 17 errors for the Twins' outfield alone. 

- Collectively, this is the worst-fielding outfield in the pros. Other bad outfields include: Tampa Bay, Detroit, and Cincinnati, 14 errors; Texas and Washington, 13; Arizona and the Chicago Cubs, 12; the Chicago White Sox and St. Louis, 11; and Seattle and Philadelphia, 10. The best-fielding outfields this year are: Atlanta, two; Baltimore, three; the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and Boston, four; Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Toronto, five; and Kansas City, six.

- The Twins outfield used to be exceptional, causing this year's increase in errors to magnify in the eyes of the beholder. Cuddyer led the 2007 team with four errors, Kubel and Torii Hunter each made two errors, and Lew Ford, Garrett Jones, and Jason Tyner added one apiece.

- The 2007 total of 11 errors was amazing. The Twins have kept their outfield errors that low two other times in the past decade. Rightly or not, Twins fans have come to expect very low numbers in their team's errors column. Previous years' totals include: 11 in 2007; 17 in 2006; 17 in 2005; 14 in 2004; 23 in 2003; 11 in 2002; 21 in 2001; 11 in 2000; 21 in 1999; and 20 in 1998. That gives them a 10-year average of 16.6 errors a season.

Didn't these new players say during spring training that they were taking notes from Cuddyer? Before he left, wasn't Gold Glover Hunter teaching Span how to play the
field? Didn't I hear some prediction like Gomez was going to be as "bang bang" in the field as Hunter? Then why is a converted infielder the best-fielding outfielder
on this team? Seriously!

The 2008 Twins outfield has already met its quota for errors this year. It's not fair to expect them to stop cold turkey, but it's fair to say this: If the Twins want to improve, the outfielders need to pay attention, settle down, and keep the ball in front of them (or catch it) more often than they have so far this season.

If the Twins continue to hit and pitch well, along with improving their fielding, they can win this division.