Twins armed but not dangerous

The Twins entered Tuesday with a 21-48 record — worst in the majors and seven games behind the next-worst American League team (28-41 Oakland). There have been no shortage of stories and opinions about exactly what has gone wrong, along with heaps of discussions of who is to blame.

A fair amount of the finger-pointing has been directed at Twins General Manager Terry Ryan, and he in turn has said he deserves the heat.

But one point I keep coming back to is this one: If Ryan can be given any sort of pass, I believe it rests with the pitching staff. The starting staff entered Tuesday with a 10-34 record and a 5.61 ERA. The Dodgers' Clayton Kershaw won his 11th game of the year Monday night. Even the biggest cynic would have been reaching to foresee the eight pitchers the Twins were counting on the most — their top four starters and top four relievers — struggling to the degree they have:

• Ervin Santana: The Twins could have reasonably expected a 2016 season on par with his 2015 half-season, when he posted a 4.00 ERA and logged 108 innings in 14 decent starts. Instead, his ERA has ballooned to 4.83 to go with a 2-7 record.

• Kyle Gibson: He's been hurt, and when he hasn't been hurt he's posted a 0-5 record with a 6.06 ERA in six starts. The Twins thought he was primed to take a step forward, and he has instead taken a step back from last year's 3.84 ERA in nearly 200 innings.

• Phil Hughes: He's 1-7 with a 5.95 ERA and is out for a long time because of a fracture in his leg. Hughes' velocity has been down, a continuation of a trend from last year. But even if the expectation for this year was closer to his 11-9, 4.40 ERA in 2015 than his very good 2014 numbers (16-10, 3.52), it's been an unexpected downturn.

• Tommy Milone: He was penciled into the back end of the rotation after going 9-5 with a 3.92 ERA with the Twins last year. This year, he struggled early (5.79 ERA) before getting sent to Rochester. He dominated there, much as he did last season, and is now back on the major league roster.

• Kevin Jepsen: The Twins overvalued Jepsen based on two very good months in 2015 (1.61 ERA after being dealt to Minnesota), but even if they were just planning on an average version of Jepsen it hasn't happened. His 5.46 ERA towers over his career mark of 3.76.

• Trevor May: Again, there were high hopes based on his strong work down the stretch in the bullpen in 2015. He started out effective — if wild — in 2016, but a brutal stretch bloated his ERA to 6.08 before he landed on the DL because of back problems.

• Casey Fien: After posting nearly identical decent seasons with the Twins from 2013-15, Fien's ERA bloated to 7.90 in 14 games with the Twins before he was dispatched. The Dodgers grabbed him, and he has a 3.27 ERA in Los Angeles.

All eight pitchers have been injured, ineffective or both — and have performed far below their established track records. You can question Ryan for signing some of those guys and overrating others. But you cannot say their level of performance has been anywhere near even a reasonable expectation.