Evening Injury Updates
Okay everyone, here’s a little injury update from Joe C.
First the good news:
Twins General Manager Bill Smith said the team is confident Scott Baker (right shoulder stiffness) will return from the 15-day disabled list after missing one or two starts.So there’s not much to worry about on this front. I still don’t know if Baker’s injury was “real” but it sure doesn’t sound serious. Of course … let’s not believe them until Baker’s actually on the mound for the MLB club.As for Justin Morneau (sore back): “I’ve been told he should be fine for Opening Day,” Manager Ron Gardenhire said.
Delmon Young (sore right shoulder) will be back in the lineup Friday, Gardenhire added.
Second, the funny news:
Nick Punto left today’s game after he fell onto the baseball, back-side first, trying to chase a fourth-inning pop up.So Punto fell down and landed on his ass, with the baseball underneath it. Man I wish I could have seen that. Stupid not-all-spring-training-games-being-on-MLB.TV. Oh well. At least he’s not hurt.“The wind was blowing, the sun was out – it wasn’t the prettiest play I’ve ever seen Punto make,” Gardenhire said. “But they told me he’ll be fine.”
And finally, something to angry up the blood:
This looks like a down year for the Twins. If they win, it’s because they’ve got four or five starters who keep them in most games and because they’ve got one of the best players in the majors behind the plate. Sure, Baker is eligible to pitch on April 12. But will he? And when he does, will he be 100 percent? And what if another starter goes down? Baker may be the first but he almost certainly won’t be the last.If there were any mainstream optimism about the Twins, Neyer could try to look like a contrarian smart guy by saying stuff like this. As it is, he’s yet another guy toeing the company line regarding the Twins and how they suck*. I don’t think it’s all that reasonable to be this pessimistic about the Twins’ chances, especially given that the AL Central is pretty even this season and the Twins always seem to find a way to pull ahead when it’s close.As for Mauer, nobody seems to know how to fix him. And again, when he’s back, how good will he be?
The Twins are always operating on the margins because, with the notable exceptions of Mauer and Justin Morneau, they don’t have any excellent non-pitchers (unless you count Denard Span, and I don’t yet). Take away one of them and replace Baker with R.A. Dickey – and yeah, I love the knuckleballer, but c’mon — and you’re looking at a .500 team. At best.
* Oh, and did you know that ESPN and Baseball Prospectus have a new information and opinion (and money) sharing deal going on? I wonder how that’s going to effect the anti-Twins rhetoric coming out of ESPN. Actually … I don’t wonder at all.
But, again, just passing along what others are saying about the Twins. As you may have noticed, none of it has been good yet this offseason.
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Well,
I have them win the division this year with 90 games. (but heck, I am not one of those trolls -Neyer included- who publicize opinions without watching a single Twins’ game)
This year I gave up my 4 year old subscription to BP, because they are full of it. Nate Silver and his PECOTA thing can pick presidential elections but they are worthless as far as the Twins (or any other young team) go…
Rejoice: Pavano is the number 3 starter for the Indians. Enough said?
Did anyone see the article in espn the magazine, and also online, that the Tigers are going to become something like 20 runs better due to adding Adam Everett? Did we get any such hype last year?
I saw that piece of crap. There are a lot of problems with that logic, the least of it being that they are discounting the other 8 positions on the field and Everett’s batting runs compared to Rentaria
I believe everyone said, before last season, that Everett was a great defensive shortstop and we’d be a better team with him. And it was especially good since Bartlett is a terrible, useless non-prospect who’s too old to pay attention to.
Of course, as Bartlett’s fame grew (after all, he got to play against the only two major league teams in the league 19 times each last year), everyone basically fell in love with him.
By the time Everett had become a complete failure, everyone admitted after the fact that they’d known all along that he sucked and Bill Smith is an idiot.
In short, kind of. We got some hype, but people were pretty quick to change their minds when it looked like things weren’t working out for us.
Still, I’d rather have a healthy Everett at SS than Punto. But that’s me.
A healthy, younger Everett … maybe. Having seen Everett, I think Punto is the better player.
Better bat, switch hitter, more defensively versatile, can actually make the throw from SS to 1B.
Granted, I haven’t seen a healthy Everett play. So it’s tough to make that call. (Thus demonstrating how difficult a scout’s job is.)
ok. You’ve seen a busted beat up Everett last season. Who contributed to more wins: Punto or Everett?
In 2008, Punto had a WARP of 2.8 and 2.4 Win Values. In 2008, Everett had a WARP of 0.4 and 0.2 Win Values. That’s a significant difference.
In 2007, they were roughly even in Win Values (Punto 0.7 vs Everett 0.9), but Everett had the advantage in WARP (0.6 vs -1.7).
In 2006, Punto had 3.1 Win Values vs 2.4 for Everett. BP was a big Everett fan in 2006, calling it 4.2 vs Punto’s 1.5 … could be they’re calculating the positional differences differently.
In their careers (since 2002), Everett has 10.4 Win Values vs Punto’s 7.3; bear in mind that Punto didn’t even get significant playing time until 2005, whereas Everett was a regular the whole time. One more Good Punto Season and they’re roughly even, probably.