We write this with the knowledge that hindsight is 20/20, that different circumstances led to where we are now and that scoring runs hasn't been the Twins' problem this season.

We will even acknowledge that some of the moves the Twins made with players we are about to describe were for the right reasons — building back up a depleted minor league pitching prospect roster.

All that said, my goodness, would you look at all the former Twins, most of them on offense, who are having big years.

Three of the top eight hitters in the NL, in terms of batting average, are ex-Twins (Justin Morneau, Ben Revere and Denard Span), while Carlos Gomez is No. 25. If batting average isn't your thing, Morneau (fifth) and Gomez (17th) are up there in OPS.

That doesn't even get into Michael Cuddyer, last year's NL batting champ, who is hitting .333 and has homered in his last three games but doesn't qualify on any leaderboards because injuries have limited his at bats this season.

On the pitching side, Vance Worley is 8-4 with a 2.93 ERA after throwing eight shutout innings Sunday for the Pirates. Francisco Liriano's win total has regressed this season with the Pirates, but his 3.45 ERA in 151 innings would look mighty fine for the Twins.

Span and Revere were traded for pitching prospects, moves that made sense for a team going nowhere. Cuddyer left as a free agent, while Morneau was traded away. Both needed fresh starts. Worley was a disaster here, while Liriano was an enigma.

Still, it's hard to look at what those players are producing now and not wonder 1) what that would have looked like on the 2014 Twins and/or 2) why some of those players weren't as productive here as they have been elsewhere.

With pitchers, we can say the league switch makes some difference, but that's also a little overblown. League average ERA in the NL this season is 3.67; in the AL, it's 3.85. We're pretty sure the Twins would take what Worley and Liriano have given the Pirates, even with a couple tenths of a run added on.