out-sox-ing the sox
There is no reason Jason Kubel should sit ever again. Hitting that second homer off of a lefty should secure him a spot in the lineup tonight against White Sox lefthander Mark Buehrle, if not it probably means gardy will still be drunk when he makes the lineup card. I think he pretty much has to go with the same lineup tonight, Mauer and Morneau kill lefties, so you can’t sit them (and they are our two best hitters so you never should sit them based on “the percentages”), Kubel should play, he is our third best hitter (as sirsean asked me rhetorically in a text message last night “do david ortiz and ryan howard sit against lefties?”), and you can’t possibly sit Span after what he has done both offensively and defensively lately. Cuddyer just hasn’t done much to earn a spot in the lineup, and going forward each game is more important than the last so we can’t afford to have one guy in the lineup who is “getting his timing bacK”.
Lets hope Blackburn feeds off the energy of the crowd, and the momentum of the last two good outings by starters. Thoughts on the lineup for tonight? or the game in general?
UPDATE: I just read over on Joe C’s blog post from last night that Cuddyer will indeed play tonight. I’m assuming that he will DH, so looks like Gardy ignored the first sentence of this post. Thats a bummer, dude.
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Yeah, Gardenhire had already made the decision that Cuddyer would DH against Buehrle. I really think Kubel needs to keep starting every game — 20 HR, and showing an improvement in his power against lefties, and he still can’t earn the trust of Gardenhire?
Cuddyer has shown nothing this year (or last) but the ability to sustain freak injuries. The fact that he’s right handed is not nearly as important as the fact that Kubel is currently the better hitter, is healthy, AND has the hot bat.
I like Cuddyer, but he should be on the bench tonight. And tomorrow night. And in every game we need to win.
From the Souhan article:
Twins manager Ron Gardenhire played Kubel instead of Michael Cuddyer because he said he thinks Kubel has earned the right to be the main DH, and because he said Kubel, despite being 2-for-21 lifetime against Vazquez going in, has taken good at-bats against him. Cuddyer is 12-for-35 lifetime against Vazquez.
So Kubel’s the main DH except in instances where he has never faced a pitcher. I checked on Yahoo, but it appears Kubel has never batted against Buehrle. Cuddyer is batting .167 against him this season, but is hitting .304 with 2 HRs against him all-time. There’s our answer. For Gardy, past history is more important than the hot bat. Well, Gardy is 1-1 with his gut…
Maybe he will have changed his mind after Kubel’s performance last night. It looks like he made that comment to reporters before the game started. Who knows.
Same sentiment from A Fan’s View:
**Gardy did the right thing by ignoring the past-performance charts of Vazquez vs. Kubel and Cuddyer, when he went with Kubel even though Cuddyer had much better career numbers against Chicago starter. Kubel is obviously an improved hitter and none of Cuddyer’s numbers were put up after a three-month layoff. It’ll be interesting to see if Gardy revisits the idea of starting Cuddyer tonight against Mark Buerhle, the Chicago lefty.
Buerhle has actually been tougher on righties this season: .267 average against/.313 on-base percentage/.403 slugging against righties as opposed to .309/.341/.486 against lefties. Kubel is .286/.340/.506 vs. righties; .240/.333/.385 against lefties.
Ahh, delving into Gardy’s mind…what to do, what to do…
It’s interesting the Buerhle is worse against lefties this year — I wonder what are the odds Gardy knows or cares about that.
Kubel at DH, Cuddyer to cheer