The most telling example of a team's maturity is the quality of its at-bats.
The Twins put on a clinic on Friday night.
They wore down Sonny Gray, one of baseball's best pitchers, until he loaded the bases on two walks and a single, and hung a slider that Trevor Plouffe smashed for a grand slam in the Twins' 5-0 victory.
Miguel Sano took another remarkable at-bat, taking pitches that most players - rookie or veterans - fish for, before drawing a walk.
Just as Danny Santana's quality at-bat and single might have been the key to the Twins' seven-run ninth-inning rally the previous Friday against Detroit, Sano's at-bat set up Plouffe's slam.
In the minors, Sano was known for cockiness, for trash-talk, even for getting benched for a game in Class A by his friend Doug Mientkiewicz for failing to run out a ground ball. Eddie Rosario was known as a difficult personality in the low minors.
Some players are better in the big leagues than in the minors. They're more motivated, more invested, like the smart kid who loses interest in easy classes and aces the hard ones.
Sano has looked like the Twins' most polished hitter since he arrived, and he hasn't even started driving the ball. His premier skills are hitting the ball a long way and throwing with extreme velocity. The kid hasn't even started showing off yet.
