2009, a lot like….2008?
So the winter meetings are over, and the Twins pretty much did nothing. Except talk about trading one of our youngest, most talented hitters. Not cool, Bill. So here is how I would like to see the lineup for 2009:
- Span, RF
- Casilla, 2B
- Mauer, C
- Morneau, 1B
- Young, LF
- Kubel, DH
- Buscher/Harris, 3B
- Punto, SS (until he gets hurt by memorial day and is replaced)
- Gomez, CF
On another note, I don’t think we should forgive Gardy just because he retracted his “delmon young isn’t going to start next year” statement. I’m pretty sure Bill Smith made him issue that retraction. So it doesn’t count. Managers should never be forgiven for forgetting the players on their team. But that is in the (recent) past, so lets move on.
Anyone else have any thoughts on lineup projections? Do you think Gardy will rotate four outfielders, or pick three and have one come off the bench? Will Span regress to the point where he is either no longer in the majors or isn’t good enough to be a starter and will fill the “Lew Ford roving outfielder” role? Is it baseball season yet?
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The only thing I’m not sold on is the Buscher/Harris platoon. I like both of the players, and I love Harris’ doubles, but Buscher’s throws leaves much to be desired, and neither is a real home run threat. I think Smith is still looking for an upgrade at third- or at least, I hope so.
Spring can’t come fast enough.
I hear Cuddyer is a home run threat when he’s healthy…Cuddyer instead of Buscher/Harris looks like a nice looking line-up card.
I would also like an upgrade, but sounds like the price is too high. Buscher is improving on defense, and Harris is fine. Remember Koskie was terrible on defense when he first came up. And he is Canadian!
As long as Gardy platoons the two correctly, I think it will be fine. It is nowhere near the black hole some people think it is.
If Bill can upgrade at third without giving up much more than Perkins or Blackburn plus a prospect I’m fine. However, it looks like to get anything that is actually an upgrade Slowey will have to be included, which I refuse. Not that its my choice. What is the point of trading Perkins plus a prospect for a player who is really no different than Buscher/Harris? Seems like it would be a net loss.
I’d rather have Cuddyer in the lineup at third also.
Span Mauer Delmon Morneau Cuddyer Kubel Casilla Punto Gomez
I want Mauer at the 2 spot because of his ridiculous OBP. I want Delmon at #3 so he’s in front of Morneau and hopefully gets some better pitches to hit. We’d have power at 3-6 and plenty of speed from 7-1.
Speed in front of Mauer, power behind him. That should be the rule when building the lineup.
Works for me, however as much as I would like to see Cuddyer move to third, I doubt it will happen.
Yeah, Cuddy’s probably not going to move to third, although that lineup looks pretty good. Do you think Gardy is going to split M&M up? I remember reading in the Strib that Justin likes batting right behind Joe because he sees so many pitches. (He’ll see far fewer batting behind Delmon.)
Does anyone think the team has approached Cuddyer asking him if the move to third is an option? For some reason, I don’t.
Good point about Morneau benefiting from being behind Mauer, I hadn’t thought about that.
I don’t think it’s essential to split them up, since they don’t have ridiculous lefty-lefty splits (especially Mauer). But I was thinking of inserting someone between them for two reasons:
1) Mauer is a #2 hitter, not a #3 hitter; at the same time, Morneau is a #4 hitter.
2) Batting between Mauer and Morneau would be extremely beneficial; most of the time there’s a guy on base for you, and a bigtime slugger behind you means you’d get better pitches. It would be a great situation for Delmon, if he could handle it.
And no, I don’t think the team has even approached Cuddyer about moving to third. Which I think is a mistake.
You’re probably right. It would be great if Delmon could watch and learn from Mauer’s at-bats- and he would benefit from hitting in front of MVP, too. I just wouldn’t want Morneau’s hitting to suffer at all. I’m about to get in trouble here, but I’m not sure what the big deal is about Mauer hitting 3rd instead of 2nd. I know that the 3rd hitter should drive in runs (right?), but if Mauer’s getting on base at a good clip via walk or single, doesn’t it just extend that inning even further to allow Morneau to drive in Casilla/Span from second/third? As the Twins are set up, I don’t see the problem with Mauer batting 3rd, because he has the highest probably of getting a hit. I could be very wrong.
I would imagine the reason the team hasn’t asked Cuddy to play third is that they remember how his defense and offense suffered the last time he was at that position. Why downgrade both sides of the coin when they could bring in a legitimate third baseman and keep Cuddy’s arm/bat in the outfield where he belongs? (I’m assuming trade talks are not over yet.)
The logic behind moving Mauer from #3 to #2 is twofold:
1) His OBP is excellent, much better than his SLG. Therefore, based on the player he is, he’s better off batting in front of the power guys, rather than trying to be one of them.
2) He’s the best hitter on the team, and should bat as much as possible. Over the course of the season, he’d get about 50 more ABs in the 2 spot than in the 3 spot. That’s 50 more times Mauer comes to the plate instead of Casilla. I like Casilla, but I’ll take that trade every single time.
Reason #2 is the bigger, more important reason. The closer to the top of the lineup you are, the more you will bat over the course of the season. The best hitter on the team should bat as much as possible. Therefor, Mauer should be moved up, unless we find a high-OBP right handed hitter that can go between Span and Mauer.
Cuddyer’s arm is better than Buscher’s and those Harris doubles turn into homers. We’ve talked about when a player excels in one facet of the game, he usually lags in another. I’m not inclined to think there will be much difference in Buscher/Harris and a potential decline in production with Cuddyer at third. Harris and Cuddyer (2004, 2005) are very comparable hitters (even the doubles). Buscher’s 10 errors in 2008 are similar to Cuddyer’s average errors (11 in two years). I want to think that Cuddyer’s professionalism and age will now help him this time around.
If the Twins aren’t going to add a third baseman, I want them to at least try Cuddyer out at third.
I don’t think it was playing third base that messed with Cuddyer. It was not knowing if/where he was going to play. Some days he was on the lineup card at third, others first, others DH. That throws off him groove. When they finally put him in RF and it was his everyday, he started hitting. Same with his spot in the order, before 2006 he was not only all over the field, but seemingly everywhere in the order. I have no actual evidence to back this up, just going from memory.
sirsean: that logic is sound, but (going from memory as well, with no sources to cite) I recall Mauer not being comfortable in the 2nd spot in ‘07. If you put M&M back-to-back, Mauer ends up hitting third by default. I can see why Gardy fills out the lineup like he does, even if it Mauer isn’t a prototypical #3 hitter.
I think the problem (if you can call it that) is that Mauer is our best 2 hitter and best 3 hitter. Now, we can’t bat him twice (I’m assuming “ghost-runners are against the “rules”), so Casilla is a decent 2 hole hitter so that defaults Mauer to the third spot. If Young develops (like I thought he would last year) we can talk about shuffling the lineup to put someone in between him. (I think I set the record for parentheicals in that post)
If I read just the parentheticals, I think of Garfield.
Gardy: Mike, you’re going to play third base all season.
Cuddyer: All right coach.
Gardy: We’re worried that you’re a little fragile. So, always assume you’re playing third. On days you need a rest, you’ll DH. But only when Kubel needs to ice his knees. There might be days that Kubel plays and you really need a rest. In those cases, you’ll sit next to me in the dugout.
Cuddyer: Where will I bat coach?
Gardy: Probably the fifth or sixth slot depending on my mood. Ask Punto, he has a lot of say around here too.
Cuddyer: Great. I don’t like to be jacked around. I’m a creature of habit.
Gardy: Tell me something I don’t know.
Cuddyer: Can I bring Marian Gaborik to spring training to play some hacky sack?
Gardy: NOOOOOOO! On second thought, sure…just don’t invite Punto.
Conversation killer here.
Twins Inquire On Joaquin Benoit?, see the fifth comment. Any truth to that about Cuddyer refusing to play third?
Call me ignorant of hockey or something, but I don’t get the joke about Marian Gaborik and hackey sack. You can call me ignorant of hackey sack, but I would take it as a compliment.
I don’t get why the Rangers want to trade away pitching- isn’t that what they need?
Also, I bet Cuddyer and the Twins have talked about him playing third and come to the mutual conclusion that it would not help the team. I doubt he decided on his own to come out and publicly refuse to do so.
The comment about Cuddyer “outright refusing” to go back to third has no basis in reality, unless that guy has some insider information that hasn’t been released or reported. I’ve been watching closely all offseason, and the closest it’s come is that Gardy says he’s considered asking Cuddyer about it. Nothing has been confirmed or denied. So, while it’s possible that Cuddyer has refused to play third, we don’t know. We don’t even know if they asked him.
Mauer and Gardy claim that Mauer “feels more comfortable” batting third than second. Of course, any time Gardy says something about somebody feeling comfortable, I presume the stats don’t back it up. So …
Mauer, 2008, batting #2: .375/.389/.500 Mauer, 2008, batting #3: .328/.415/.452
Granted, it’s a small sample size for that #2 batting line. But there’s definitely no evidence that he somehow “can’t” do it, or that feeling less “comfortable” adversely effect him.
Gaborik has missed a significant amount of time this season for the Wild because he suffered an undisclosed “lower body” injury while playing hacky sack with teammates. That ranks right up there with diving into first base in terms of ridiculousness. Ok, one seems unbelievable and the other is stupid.
Bonser to the starting rotation…
I hadn’t heard about that Gaborik business. It’s pretty amusing, and definitely sounds like something you’d hear about Punto and Lew Ford doing.
Wait, Bonser to the starting rotation? Our starting rotation? Why?
Not ours. The Rangers.
It still seems foolhardy. :)
Boof looks a lot better in the Rangers’ rotation than in ours.
Remember that not everyone has pitching like we do.
Is there an echo in here?