The Twins opening day lineup
1. LF Span
2. 2b Casilla
3. RF Cuddyer
4. 1b Morneau
5. DH Kubel
6. 3b Crede
7. CF Gomez
8. C Redmond
9. SS Punto
Ron Gardenhire can put together a line up card, can't he? He was a little bit hamstrung by the Joe Mauer injury, of course. This wouldn't be a Ryan Henning post about the Twins if there weren't a few gripes.
A) Nick Punto is still on the roster.
B) Carlos Gomez is a starter, and worse, is the bat behind Joe Crede. Will Crede ever be pitched to? Not likely.
C) Having a guy bat 3rd whose career high batting average is .284 while disparaging Delmon ".290" Young for not being as productive offensively as they would have liked and keeping him on the bench. But it's OK, because Cuddy will likely sprain his toe webbing or something and miss the next four months.
How would I have filled out the card? I'm glad you asked.
1. RF Span
2. SS Harris
3. LF Young
4. 1b Morneau
5. 3b Crede
6. DH Kubel
7. C Redmond
8. 2b Casilla
9. CF Gomez
Or, conversely, you could put Span in center and put Cuddyer in right. I wouldn't have a problem with that. I do have a problem with benching the best pure hitter on the team because he's not a good fielder. Also, Brendan Harris is breaking out this year. Go Twins.
Labels: Minnesota Twins
posted by Ryan | 5:23 PM
2 Comments:
Densively, I still like Punto better than Harris.
And considering I love Brendan Harris, it's saying a lot to say I wasn't at all bothered by Punto being in the line-up.
The Young thing totally surprised me. Based on spring training, I would've said that Span needed to be on the bench, but since he's the only lead-off hitter, there's not much we can do.
I agree.... Punto is denser than Harris.
There are a couple of issues I have with Punto being in the lineup. A) I think we over paid to keep him by 2 million a year, particularly when we have Harris, his offensive superior (granted, his defensive inferior) and Matt Tolbert, his equal at all levels, save for age.
Second, I can't fathom why we continue to put ourselves at such a drastic offensive disadvantage. Last night's game was such a clear indication of why this is such a poor strategy. IT doesn't matter if we can snag all the grounders. It's more likely that teams give up runs on home runs or liners to the gap than with bleeders through the infield. You NEED to be able to score 4 runs or so a game more than you need to be able to prevent 1 or 2.
Longest comment ever.
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