How does this make you feel, Minnesota?

Here, we thought it was Nick Punto dragging down the Twins, but after this seasons collapse, it might be that the Twins were slowing down Nick Punto.

(photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

The Key to Nick Punto

It may be frustrating to see Nick Punto in the World Series for Twins fans. How could a player that caused such consternation for Twins fans be 3 games away from winning a World Series? Why isn't he ruining the Cardinals like he ruined the Twins?
Well, part of the reason is that, in small doses, he isn't a disaster. Tony LaRussa is a famous micromanager, and Punto is often inserted as a defensive replacement. In St. Louis, he has played defensively in 60 games... and started in barely half of them. In Minnesota, he was supposed to be the regular third baseman, if you'll recall, last year and was eventually a regular starter at second. The same could be said for Punto earlier in his career. He was foisted into starting roles all too often. With the Cardinals he is not a key component, truly a utility player.
This is where Punto is an asset. In small doses, he can  be a spark at the plate and an asset in the field. He is a good as a utility player, such as he is in St. Louis. As an every day player, like he was often called upon to be, he is nothing less than a catastrophe. The fact that he was so scorned in Minnesota says more about the Twins organization than it does about Punto himself. (and the fact that he would be an improvement on the 2011 team is a depressing reminder of how bad the organization is this year)

Nick Punto, sliding into St. Louis

I will be gracious in the departure of Nick Punto. He was a good clubhouse presence. He had a good work ethic. He was a good guy to have in the Twin Cities community. 

If I had one gripe about Punto, it's that he did a LOT of stupid stuff, from diving into first, having a bad approach at the plate, making bad reads on ground balls (so he would have to dive for them) and would somehow get applauded for it. 

Well, he's doing it in Saint Louis. Welcome, Matt Tolbert, to the new role of Twins scapegoat, following in the legacy of Denny Hocking and Punto.

The Punto effect

Some enterprising coworkers and I were crunching the numbers today. For those who are wondering, when Nick Punto starts a game, the Twins record is 38-34, a winning percentage of .528. When he is not in the lineup, the Twins are 32-17, a winning percentage of .653.  Punto back on the DL may just have saved the season.
Just sayin'

The legend of the Knoblauch

Back in 1991, the Twins had a young rookie 2nd baseman that looked a little like Joe Pantoliano from The Fugitive (though the movie would come out a couple years later). He eventually won the Rookie of the Year award while helping guide the Twins to the World Series in 1991. That youngster, of course, was Chuck Knoblauch.
Eventually, he became discontented in Minnesota and was traded in the offseason before the 1998 season to the New York Yankees. To this day, the trade is impacting his former team, no matter what angry battery throwers may want to think. Let's follow the family tree from the Knobby trade.
DANIEL MOTA - Eh, nothing.
CRISTIAN GUZMAN - He was eventually a decent top of the order spark of energy that helped the Twins with their early 2000s turnaround. Eventually went to Washington via free agency.
ERIC MILTON - Milton threw a no no for the Twins and was eventually traded to the Phillies for pitchers Carlos Silva, Bobby Korecky and infielder Nick Punto. Silva was a decent enough #2 in the rotation for a while, as Milton had been, and Bobby Korecky even had a few good appearances as a reliever before being selected by the Diamondbacks on waivers. Punto, for better or worse, is still on the team as the starting 3b.
BRIAN BUCHANAN - This is perhaps the most curious inclusion. He wasn't terribly effective with the Twins, and was eventually traded to give more PT to Michael Cuddyer and Dustan Mohr. They acquired a young shortstop from the Padres named Jason Bartlett. After beginning to emerge with the Twins, Bartlett was eventually packaged with Matt Garza and Eduardo Morlan and sent to the Rays for Jason Pridie (now with the Mets), Brendan Harris, still doing yeoman's work as a utility infielder and Delmon Young, a former number one pick and one of the better right handed bats the Twins have.
So, the remaining legacy of Chuck Knoblauch is Nick Punto, Brendan Harris and Delmon Young. Not bad 12 years later. (By the way, Delmon Young was 5 years old when Knobby made his debut)

Fun with computer algorithms

I was appalled today to see Nick Punto in the 2 hole with Orlando Hudson on the bench. Sure, the Twins scored 6 runs, so my point doesn't carry as much weight, but generally speaking, you want one of the best hitters on the team in that spot, to either advance the lead off man, or set the table for the big bats behind him. Nick Punto is not a good hitter, despite the two hits he had today.
Baseballmusings has an algorithm that takes the OBP and SLG of a player and compiles the most effective lineup, based on that lineup over the course of a season. I went with the longer statistical model (the other had Justin Morneau leading off). Here is the lineup it came up with, based on the post game stats:
Span
Morneau
Young
Mauer
Cuddyer
Punto (?!)\
Harris
Ramos
Casilla.

The interesting thing is, for the most part, that players are about where they should be. The two most notable changes are Delmon Young moving up and Nick Punto moving down. Perhaps this is what Ron G should have considered? But wow... Punto 6th?

Nick Punto Day

Apparently, Twins bloggers are bored with the off-season. Today has been unofficially declared
Nick Punto Day.

There are debates as to why 2/12 was designated as this day, but some are speculating that it has something to do with his batting average. This is nonsense. He's never batted .212 in his career. In the horrific 2007 season, he batted .210, not .212. I think Wednesday would've been a much better choice, but no one asked me. (And they should. Everyone should ask me!)

It's odd that Punto has inspired such a dichotomy of emotions in Twins Territory. There are those that love him for his scrappy and sometimes inane play, and there are those that hate him passionately. For example, Nick Punto has a tendency to dive into first base, head-first, on close plays. He knows it’s wrong. He tells kids not to imitate him. Yet, he cannot stop himself from doing it. (At best, he claims it can cause chaos to confuse an umpire. At worst, other plays have imitated it.) Those who hate Nick Punto point out the fact that since you can over-run first base, diving/sliding only slows down a player, making it more likely that they’re out. Thus, he may be causing himself to get out more often by diving. Those who love Nick Punto are just amused by the effort and reckless abandonment of his own body that the play causes.

Those that love Nick Punto call out to his great defense. Those that hate him, say that he’s overrated based on his scrappiness. No one really defends his hitting, but those that love him say his glove makes up for it. Those that hate him, say that no amount of defense can make up for his horrendously poor offense.

Those that love Nick Punto, love him with great devotion. Those that hate Nick Punto, hate him with passion. But we can all come together and celebrate Nick Punto Day: by diving head first into things, and making sure we do our work aggressively and get ourselves a little dirty.

Happy Nick Punto Day!

Don't blame Punto

I often go out of my way to berate Nick Punto because he is bad at baseball, but somehow he always ends up on the roster with a prominent role on the team. As much as I want to rain scorn on him and point and say that this is why the Twins lost, I am not going to go down that path. In the postseason, as always seems to be the case, Punto was one of the hardest working players on the field, and in a short series, that can often be the difference between a win and a loss. In fact, he was one of the best hitters the Twins had for the series. He wouldn't have had his third base gaffe if he hadn't hit a lead off double.
That should go more to the point of where blame should fall. Just as Punto contributed little to the success of the team over the course of the season, he contributed little to their downfall. If the Twins were to succeed, it should have come from the same sources the success came from during the season: Solid hitting from the middle of the order, servicable starting pitching and a revitalized bullpen. They were outpitched and outhit and outcoached in the post season. It's time to look ahead to the offseason, and enjoy the fact that the regular season was as thrilling as it was.
(By the way, for the first time since he's been here, I noticed Delmon Young's body language, demonstrating that he was upset by what was going on the field. Among the complaints surrounding him has been his dispassionate attitude towards the game, so that's nice)

Let's solve some problems

In case you haven't noticed, one of my biggest problems with the Twins is Nick Punto. He is overrated in the field and a liability at the plate. The other problem with the Twins is the pitching staff, notably, the bullpen. They are simply awful to watch and completely untrustworthy against stronger opponents.
I have devised a plan that addresses each of these problems. Move Punto to the bullpen! You get to keep his positive clubhouse influence and fan friendly personality on the team while taking him and his awful bat out of the lineup. Also, he can't possibly be worse than the rest of the bullpen! Win-Win! Go Twins!

All too fleeting

Finally, Nick Punto will be wearing another uniform!

Unfortunately, he'll be back in a Twins uni in April. Super duper frowny face.

My problem with Nick Punto

The other day, I had a post in which I ran down the list of free agents I thought were a good idea. In addition, I had some other opinions on who not to sign, particularly Nick Punto. Beth asked the astute question "What's wrong with Nick Punto -- as long as he's signed up for his best position, utility player". I'm happy to address this on two different levels.
My problem with Nick Punto is, essentially, that he is a showboat hustler. Sure, he's an excellent fielder and quick on the basepaths, but he continually does stupid, infuriating things, like diving into first, bunting when it's unnecessary and making infield plays harder than they need to be. It sets a bad precedent for other, younger players on the team, particularly when Ron Gardenhire rewards him with more playing time. And thats the other problem on the team as it stands. Gardy seems to favor playing light hitting good fielding players over excellent hitting mediocre fielding players, sometimes to the detriment of the team.
However, there is some benefit to this tendency. The Twins system has a propensity for developing excellent utility players. Matt Tolbert appears to be next in line, and assuming the team is able to net a third baseman, both Alexi Casilla and Brendan Harris will be able to cycle in and out of the lineup. Simply put, Punto (or any other middle infielder) would be an expensive luxury. The money can be better spent.
And that is my problem with Nick Punto.

This bugs me

OK, so maybe a little pun there. But this post from Bugs and Cranks irritates me, partly because I respectfully disagree with part of it, but also because it's mostly accurate. In discussing Nick Punto, the author Landon Evanson, describes Punto as "invaluable", and further alleges that when Alexi Casilla back from injury, a move of Punto to short will make the team better defensively.
The assertion that Punto is invaluable is purely subjective. In one line of thought, the spark he brings as a bat off the bench or on the basepaths had roused the team from slumps many times. Just look at the favorable numbers he put up early in the season. On the other end of the spectrum, his drain offensively during regular playing time (such as his .204 average in the past 4 weeks since becoming the every day 2b) is excruciating. I fall under the "Nick Punto is excruciating" category, but again, it's a subjective measure, so I can't fault Mr. Evanson for his points there. I do disagree with the idea that the Twins will improve defensively if Punto plays every day at short when Casilla returns. The player that has played short with Casilla out has been Adam Everett, widely regarded as one of the best defensive shortstops in the game. Over the last few years, when given regular playing time have acquitted themselves comparably at the plate, so that's no excuse either. If the Twins are looking to optimize the defense, they would be best served by having Everett play short and Casilla at second. If they are looking to maximize what little offense they can, they would play Brenden Harris at short with Brian Buscher at third. Punto would be relegated to his optimal position, Triple A utility player.
I do agree with the assertion that Nick Punto is Twins Baseball. He plays fundamentally sound baseball, he hustles and he equates luck with skill. He slides into first one time and is safe, and suddenly, it's the best idea in the world. The Twins are hitting almost .40 better with runners in scoring position and attribute that to being 'clutch', somehow better in stressful situations than usual, and not that there is a shift in the infield, Carlos Gomez isn't trying to bunt or that they are simply lucky.
Watching the Twins bullpen flounder against the hapless Mariners tells me that the Twins need to figure out how to score runs in bunches and rely on things like tangible skill and not playing Nick Punto Baseball.