After Justin Morneau went down on July 7, the Minnesota Twins immediately dropped four of five games. They were 1½ games back in the AL Central on that date and were struggling against the Chicago White Sox and Detroit Tigers.

More than a month later, things have changed. The Twins have surged of late — even taking it to the White Sox in a head-to-head series — and now have an 83 percent chance of making the playoffs.

How will the “dog days” play out for the Twins? Let’s take a look.

Scoring runs consistently without Morneau had seemed nearly impossible just two months ago. The Canadian first baseman has put up 5.2 WAR in just 81 games in 2010 thanks to a fantastic .447 wOBA, the best of any hitter in baseball. Without Morneau in the lineup, a big issue was protection: Wouldn’t the other hitters falter if pitchers knew the first baseman wasn’t there?

Actually, the biggest contributor to the Twins’ lineup in Morneau’s absence has been the guy who most thought would suffer greatest: Joe Mauer. The catcher, who got off to a slow start relative to his 2009 MVP season, hit .344/.392/.570 (batting average/on-base percentage/slugging percentage) in July, good for a .411 wOBA. He didn’t let up in August and has even outperformed his July pace; he’s hitting .422/.530/.594 for the month, numbers that make even his 2009 campaign look mundane in comparison. Although he doesn’t have the same protection, he’s hitting for more power than when Morneau was intimidating the pitcher from the on-deck circle. Mauer’s success in the Morneau’s absence should further dent the idea of lineup protection. Many studies have shown the phenomenon does not exist, and the anecdotal evidence here suggests the same.

We can’t overlook the production of Jim Thome, either. The slugger ravaged the AL Central while with the Indians early in his career and the White Sox as recently as last season, and he has been flat-out incredible for the Twins as of late. The designated hitter is batting a Ruthian .333/.426/.769 (.490 wOBA) in August with a homer/fly-ball rate of 40 percent.

Also picking up the slack is shortstop J.J. Hardy. Coming into 2010, Hardy really could have used a bounce-back season. After putting up WARs of 4.4 and 4.9, respectively, in 2007 and 2008, Hardy struggled with a measly 1.4 WAR in 2009 and was promptly traded from the Brewers to the Twins. After starting this season looking no different than last year, Hardy has finally turned it up during the past two months. The shortstop hit .351/.377/.486 in 21 July games and for August has a respectable .321 wOBA.

Orlando Hudson has been another major part of the team’s offensive success during the past month. Although he hit a rather pedestrian .276/.353/.368 in July, the smooth-handed switch-hitter has hit .298/.382/.532 in August.

Although some may look to give outfielder Delmon Young the lion’s share of the credit for the Twins’ offensive success, even mentioning him as a possible MVP candidate, the reality is that he hasn’t been all that great since Morneau went down and the Twins’ offense took off. His .319/.345/.500 line isn’t bad, but he hasn’t been the one driving this offense forward. For example, rookie third baseman Danny Valencia has been just about as productive. Don’t buy into the Young-for-MVP hype; it’s been a total team effort, with several other players taking a more prominent role in the second-half surge.

Minnesota’s offensive performance also serves as a reminder not to overstate the importance of any one player; no one had played better in the first half than the Twins’ first baseman, yet removing him from the lineup has not affected them in the slightest. You’ll hear frequent clichés about one player carrying a team down the stretch, but nobody can do much on his own, and no team will have its season decided by the influence of just one man.

While Rookie of the Year is usually a humble award relative to the MVP and Cy Young, the race for this year’s title may be just as exciting as those for the other major awards around baseball. Mike Fitzpatrick recently called the rise of 2010’s young crop of big league players a “Rookie Revolution,” but do the numbers match the hype? Indeed they do.

Compared to past seasons, MLB has seen an upshot in production from first-year players that is relatively unprecedented. First-year batters have amassed 9.0 wins above replacement thus far this season, and if they attain as many plate appearances as they’ve averaged since 2002, are on pace for 35 WAR for the season, which would beat the 2008 record of 27.6 by a significant margin. If rookie pitchers reach their same inning pitched total as last year, they’ll put up 37 WAR, tops since 2002.

While you’ve no doubt heard about the two big names in this class, it’s not just Stephen Strasburg and Jason Heyward making waves. Detroit’s Brennan Boesch is slugging an absurd .617 on the season, best among all rookies in baseball. His teammate, Austin Jackson, is hitting .308 with ten stolen bases in eleven tries and playing quality defense in center field. Third baseman David Freese of the Cardinals and first baseman Gaby Sanchez of the Marlins may be older rookies, but their numbers are not very amateurish. Freese is hitting .306/.370/.425 and Sanchez has an .819 OPS. Mets first baseman Ike Davis has impressed New York with his glove, but his eight homers have also helped an offense that has needed power. Like Davis, Rangers first baseman Justin Smoak hails from the 2008 draft class, and like Ike has hit eight dingers on the year. Cubs shortstop Starlin Castro has been solid in his forty games in Chicago, hitting .266 with very good defense.

Rookie pitchers are even threatening their bat-wielding counterparts on the mound. Besides Strasburg, Reds starting pitcher Mike Leake was the first player since Xavier Nady to go directly to the major leagues from college, but his 3.02 ERA and 4.06 Neftali Feliz of the Rangers has lit up radar guns around baseball with his 100 MPH fastball, but his 2.90 FIP and 2.87 ERA are just as exciting.

Incredibly, all of the players listed have a bunch of competition on the way. The Giants recently called up star catcher Buster Posey, who has hit .303 in twenty games so far, and the Indians called up catcher Carlos Santana, who has serious power behind the plate. The Pirates called up third baseman Pedro Alvarez, the second overall pick of the 2008 draft. Marlins outfielder Mike Stanton was on pace for sixty homers in the minors this year, and the nineteen-year-old hit a grand slam for his first big league homer in Miami after being called up last week.

While we don’t know if this is the best year for rookies of all time, it certainly is on pace to be the greatest in recent memory. Luckily for us, we don’t just get one year of these guys either. Baseball will be blessed with these players for a long time.