Too many outfielders: A good problem for the Twins

Denard Span has created a nice problem for the Minnesota Twins. He’s played so well since last being called up to the majors that when Michael Cuddyer get's off the disabled list the Twins will have some tough decisions to make on who get’s to play in the outfield.

Span has easily been one of the biggest reasons for the teams recent success. He’s been an on base machine and has really been taking good at bats now at the top of the line up. Additionally he’s played spectacular defense taking away plenty of hits and saving some big runs. Watching a game with Detroit announcers a few weeks back they raved on and on about how much ground the Twins cover in the outfield between Span and Carlos Gomez. On one ball hit to the gap they actually declared it a double and then Span ended up catching it. Needless to say only a fool would send him back down to the minors and it’s becoming very apparent that he needs to be in the starting lineup.

The problem is that the lineup could really use another good right-handed bat with some pop and Cuddyer fits that bill nicely when he’s healthy. He’ll definitely be starting again which means somebody is out of a starting job. Some have suggested that Delmon Young should be the odd man out but he has actually been hitting well now despite a rough start to the season and like Cuddyer provides a right handed bat that can drive the ball. The more realistic option that has been discussed would be demoting Gomez in center field. He’s struggled big time lately and could use more work in the minors. The issue is that he’s arguably can have the biggest impact on the team if he works through his offensive slump and as stated above having him and Sapn in the outfield means not much hits the ground. Of course the other option is to use Cuddyer at DH but there’s not much time for him there as Jason Kubel and Craig Monroe are already splitting time there.

Some people have also suggested that the Twins try to trade one of their outfielders but I don’t see that as likely. All of the them are young and don’t have much of a track record so I doubt they’d get much back. Cuddyer is the exception but having been injured most of the year he’s not going anywhere either. The truth is I think they are better off with all of them anyway.

So what’s my solution? It’s actually pretty simple. Shift Cuddyer back to third base for the rest of the season. Contrary to popular opinion he never was quite that bad over there when they played him there previously and I can’t imagine he’ll be any worse defensively then Mike Lamb. This would solve a lot of problems as it would give the Twins an upgrade offensively at third with a canon of an arm and in my opinion fields the best possible lineup. Cuddyer probably prefers to play right field but he seems like a team player who would do what’s necessary for the betterment of team. Of course injuries happen and if someone get’s hurt then he’s ready to step in. It’s not like Brian Buscher has done that bad of job at third but somebody has to go to the bench. It’s definitely a good problem to have and with all these guys being so young sure makes the future exciting to think about.

A Game to Remember

I don’t get to go to many Twins games but Friday night my mother-in-law got my wife and me tickets to watch the Minnesota Twins host the Boston Redsox at the Metrodome and what a game it turned out to be. It was special to us since we are expecting our first child so this was technically our baby’s first Twins’ game. I think it’s safe to say our baby is a Twins fan and a good luck charm. At first things looked pretty good for the Twins as they got out to an early lead. Boof Bonser couldn’t hold it though and ended up giving the lead back. He didn’t pitch as bad as his line of 6 runs in 4 plus innings would indicated but in the end it just wasn’t good enough. It seemed like there were plenty of little things (like batter reaching on a strikeout that Joe Mauer couldn’t find) that prolonged innings for him so that was too bad. Good teams like Boston usually take advantage of things like that and they did.

“Oh well,” I figured. At least it had been an exciting game. Plus we had decent seats down the first base line except for the incredible number of people who don’t understand the idea of only leaving or returning to their seats between innings. One gal in front of us apologized at least 4 or 5 times for having to stand up to let people by her during the game. It really wasn’t her fault of course but was nice of her to say. Things did get exciting in our area as the t-shirt the mascot shoots into the stands between innings landed just out of my reach a row behind me. Then I had an even better shot at catching a foul ball a couple innings later. Matt Tolbert lined one our way and I stood up and reached out both hands to pull it in. Instead of the ball I got the person’s hand who was sitting in front of me. He had stuck his hand up at the last minute otherwise I would have had a nice souvenir for our baby’s first game.

Once the seventh inning stretch came we decided to go get some food before they closed up the vending stands and we ended up walking around the concourse all the way to centerfield. We figured we might as well watch the last couple of innings from out there so spread out in what seemed to be our own personal section which was really kind of nice. Then came the bottom of the ninth with the Twins still down by a run. Delmon Young led off the inning. He had nearly scored to tie the game a few innings prior only to get thrown out at the plate on a close play. Once again he got on base with a sharp single to center. Next up was Matt Tolbert. I knew we weren’t going to get ball from him where we were sitting now but still felt a little uneasy when I saw him lay down a sacrifice bunt. He did it well but next up was Adam Evertt who even with a couple of nice hits early seemed unlikely to get a hit off of Redsox closer Jonathan Papelbon. Sure enough he popped out almost immediately leaving the fate of the game in the hands of the exciting yet young Carlos Gomez. Young stole third meaning all we needed was a base hit to tie the game up and Gomez took some tough pitches that early this year he would have swung at and ended up walking. Then he stole second putting us into position to win the game on a base hit. Mike Lamb came to the plate and looked overmatched on the first two pitches. My wife was unfamiliar with Lamb since he’s a new player on the team and asked if he was good. My look told her otherwise but after fowling off a couple of pitches he dumped a 1-2 pitch down the left field line for a walk of base hit. The dome went pretty crazy for a couple of minute and we gave each other a big high five and hug as the Twins celebrated on the field.

This was easily the most memorable Twins game I’ve seen in person and one I won’t be forgetting anytime soon. It was interesting to me that the come back and even most of the earlier runs came from the bats of the new Twins’ players. Tonight as Minnesota fans made some memories with the new Twins’ players we made some of our own with our newest addition. Definitely will make for some good memories to tell our child down the road who I’m sure will be a Twins’ fan as well.

Twins loose but there's plenty to be excited about

The Twins lost the game and the four game series with the Angels this afternoon but there really was plenty to be excited about.

• Joe Mauer was swinging the bat pretty good...so good that they gave him an intentional walk in the ninth when he represented the tying run.
• Matt Tolbert looked really good in his pinch hit at bat in the ninth taking so tough pitches and fowling others off.
• Jason Kubel crushed the ball into the upperdeck for the Twin's first homerun of the year.
• Many of the Twins hitters including Cuddyer, Lamb and Young were hitting the ball hard but right at people.
• Best of all the pitching looked pretty solid today as Slowey was off to a pretty good start (hopefully his injury isn't serious), Bass pitch a few good innings before running out of gas and the rest of the pen looked good too.

Of course I'd feel better if the Twins had won the game but this season has to be looked at as a growing experience and in that regard things are looking pretty good. In fact as good as our pitching has looked so far it's quite possible that the team might be closer to making some noise then all those experts think. To early to know yet so we'll just have to keep watching.

First Impressions of our 2008 Minnesota Twins

Got to see the first part of the Twins preseason game against New York Yankees yesterday. Of course it's just one meaningless game but it was my first chance to see some of our new players and overall my first impressions were mixed.

Delmon Young really impressed me. Not only did he show some strength on a home run to center field but he also was taking some pitches and using the whole field (in particular he a hard single to the opposite field in his last at bat). If first impressions hold true then he's going to be our MVP this year.

On the other hand Carlos Gomez did absolutely nothing to impress me or make me think that he's ready for the big leagues. He did take a couple pitches in his first at bat and laid down a nice looking bunt but after that he didn't seem very disciplined nor at the plate. What really disturbed me about him though was how he looked on defense. To me it looked like he misplayed a couple balls hit to center and then he had not one but two horrendous throws to home plate that made memories of Jacque Jones not seem so bad. Of course it's just one game but based on my first impression he's going to be starting at triple A this year which might be best.

My impressions of Brendan Harris were more of a mixed bag. The most exciting thing to see for me is that he looked very comfortable at the plate and had some good at bats working the count and putting some good swings on the ball. Defensively he looked below average, not charging a ground ball and missing one that looked to have gone off or just beneath his glove. Those things can be improved on though so if he continues swinging the bat well, he should be our starting second baseman with Nick Punto replacing him defensive reasons at the end of the game.

Kevin Slowey got the start and didn't do half bad. He was aggressive with his pitches throwing strikes early in the count but he did leave some balls up. Overall I think he showed that he can be a very good fifth starter if they need him but he's not going to blow anyone away.

A couple other nice things to see were watching Alexi Casilla make a strong throw from deep in the whole at short and watching Garrett Jones absolutely smash a pitch that was left up and out over the plate for a long home run. That's exactly what you're suppose to do to a pitch like that and being that he's got a good chance of being a bench player this year, it was good to see. Overall it's just fun to be able to watch baseball again. I'll paste all my notes in here now so you can see my thoughts on the individual at bats.


My Twins game notes from March 5, 2008:
#) denotes at bat

Defense Notes:
First Inning
P Kevin Slowey
1) Looks to be attacking the strike zone.
2) Leave a pitch up and it gets lined to center
3) Still seams to be up in the zone…finally gets a pitch down and gets a weak grounder to Second ,,, Harris seams a bit timid in fielding as he doesn’t charge the ball
4) Keeping the ball down better…Fools Arod on a great breaking pitch off the plate. Almost got him on good looking pitch inside (ump doesn’t give it to him)
5) Nice strikeout of Giambi

Second Inning
6) Still attacking the strike zone. Gets a pop fly to left
7) Left a pitch up that is lined to center…Gomez misjudges it and looks a bit foolish
8) Leaves another pitch up that gets smashed to the center field wall…Gomez looks timid again to me …maybe he wasn’t sure where the wall was
9) Nice strikeout
10) hard smash up the middle…Harris makes a nice effort but comes up short on a dive
11) Walk
12) Lined to center…Gomez throws to the plate and makes a terrible throw to the plate that’s about 12 feet wide of Joe Mauer
13) Arod strikes out

Third Inning
P Julio Depaula
1) First pitch single to left
2) Throwing some nice looking pitches…pop fly to right
3) Ground ball up the middle…Gomez is way of the mark again on a throw to the plate but it is cut off and they get an out on hitter going to second
4) Nice looking strikeout

Forth Inning
P Randy Keasler
1) Strikeout
2) Ground out to second
3) Ground ball that goes under Harris’ glove…was moving to his right but I think he should have had it
4) Pop fly to center

Fifth Inning
5) Fly ball to center
6) Grounder deep in the hole to short…Casila makes nice strong throw and gets him out…nice pick by Morneau
7) Grounder to first

Offesive Notes:
CF Carlos Gomez
1) Nice bunt…good to see him take a few pitches
2) Chopper to short
3) Skies first pitch to short center

2B Brendan Harris
1) Looks like a patient hitter taking a few tough pitches….does a nice job hitting a single on a pitch up in the zone.
2) Showing patience again going 3-0…grounds to second
3) Takes the first pitch again….chopper up the middle for force out

C Joe Mauer
1) Still patient as ever up there waiting for his pitch…picked the wrong pitch to swing at as he got on top of a curveball grounding into a DP.
2) Chops ball to first
3) Loops a ball into the gap for a double

1B Justin Morneau
1) Takes a few pitches that look like balls but get called strikes…Works count full and flies out to center
2) Holds up on tough breaking pitch…ends up walking
3) Lines out to center…Mauer gets gunned down easily trying to advance to third

LF Delmon Young
1) Nice looking swing…definitely shows some power with a tall homerun to center
2) Takes a few pitches…lines a one hopper to third
3) Smashes a single to the opposite field. Nice swing

3B Brian Buscher
1) Works the count and then lines a bullet to the first baseman’s glove.
2) Line drive over first baseman’s head
3) [Matt Marcri] pinch hits and strikes out

DH Jon Knott
1) Grounds out to third
2) Misses a fastball that’s left up and over the plate…fouls of some pitches then gets wrung up

RF Garrett Jones
1) tapper to the pitcher
2) hits a fastball left up and out over the plate way out of the park…that’s what you’re spouse to do with that pitch

SS Matt Tolbert
1) Strikeout
2) First pitch hits his foot…look like it was probably intentional?