Minnesota Twins: Offensive Juggernaut
This weekend has allowed the opportunity to catch up on college basketball, like Brian Butch's ghastly injury for Wisconsin against Ohio State today, and hockey, where the Wild handled the Edmonton Oilers easily. Of course, with all the snow, I thought about skiing. Briefly.
I needed to find my happy place, eventually, after realizing we were dealing with about 10 inches of snow. My happy place this winter has been the Twins offense. Naturally, I find this terribly confusing, as nobody has been optimistic about the Twins bats since around 1994. Hopefully, a good offensive season doesn't lead to another strike.
The foundation of any good lineup is a series of mashers in the middle, and the Twins finally have some. Michael Cuddyer, while not the ideal clean up hitter, did his part last year, driving in over 100 RBI. Of course, he really only is hitting cleanup to break up the two big lefties, batting champ Joe Mauer and MVP Justin Morneau. In a perfect world, we bat Mauer-Cuddyer-Morneau 2-3-4, but the world is not perfect.
The Twins, however, are blessed by a glut of dink and dunk, top of the order type players, from Luis Castillo, who, when healthy is an ideal lead off man to Nick Punto, who, while he doesn't make as much contact as desired serves well in the two spot. Jason Bartlett, who generally bats near the end of the order, as it seems he is more comfortable there, is more powerful, but is emerging as a better contact hitter.
Where is gets a little muddled is from the 6-7-8 spots. Torii Hunter is reliable, if not fantastic. When he's on, he's a great clutch hitter and a demon on the basepaths. His .270 average is great, now that Twins fans don't expect him to be our top power hitter. Rondell White will slip into 7th, probably, playing in left field. As frightening as this is, he's a more healthy option than Jason Kubel, who will likely be confined to the designated hitter role while he hones his plate presence.
There are a couple of guys off the bench who will see a lot of time, especially in left. Jason Tyner and Lew Ford are both overstated players who have had one good season and ingratiated themselves to management, but it's my belief they will be a drain on the lineup if they get any sort of regular playing time. The thing is, however, there are 9 guys that can play and play hard every game, meaning they (and new infielder Jeff Cirillo) will be relegated to sub duty when necessary.
I needed to find my happy place, eventually, after realizing we were dealing with about 10 inches of snow. My happy place this winter has been the Twins offense. Naturally, I find this terribly confusing, as nobody has been optimistic about the Twins bats since around 1994. Hopefully, a good offensive season doesn't lead to another strike.
The foundation of any good lineup is a series of mashers in the middle, and the Twins finally have some. Michael Cuddyer, while not the ideal clean up hitter, did his part last year, driving in over 100 RBI. Of course, he really only is hitting cleanup to break up the two big lefties, batting champ Joe Mauer and MVP Justin Morneau. In a perfect world, we bat Mauer-Cuddyer-Morneau 2-3-4, but the world is not perfect.
The Twins, however, are blessed by a glut of dink and dunk, top of the order type players, from Luis Castillo, who, when healthy is an ideal lead off man to Nick Punto, who, while he doesn't make as much contact as desired serves well in the two spot. Jason Bartlett, who generally bats near the end of the order, as it seems he is more comfortable there, is more powerful, but is emerging as a better contact hitter.
Where is gets a little muddled is from the 6-7-8 spots. Torii Hunter is reliable, if not fantastic. When he's on, he's a great clutch hitter and a demon on the basepaths. His .270 average is great, now that Twins fans don't expect him to be our top power hitter. Rondell White will slip into 7th, probably, playing in left field. As frightening as this is, he's a more healthy option than Jason Kubel, who will likely be confined to the designated hitter role while he hones his plate presence.
There are a couple of guys off the bench who will see a lot of time, especially in left. Jason Tyner and Lew Ford are both overstated players who have had one good season and ingratiated themselves to management, but it's my belief they will be a drain on the lineup if they get any sort of regular playing time. The thing is, however, there are 9 guys that can play and play hard every game, meaning they (and new infielder Jeff Cirillo) will be relegated to sub duty when necessary.
posted by Ryan | 5:10 PM
1 Comments:
Isn't it kinda nice not to be really worried about offense?
Isn't it a little scary that we're worried about pitching?
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