RISP and offensive woes
Last season the Twins hot a major league best 305 with runners in scoring position. We discussed this many times in this space. Was it sustainable? Was it luck? Some argued that it could be repeated, while many argued that it could not. You always regress to the mean, so there was a lot of room to fall from that 305 mark. The Twins are proving that this year. Through 20 games they are hitting 265 with runners in scoring position. In the Twins last two loses (Sunday and Monday) the team was 1-18 w/RISP. That is unbelievably bad. When I saw the 265 number, I though that was too high. It seems as if we are hitting much worse than that. As an entire team we aren’t doing so hot at the plate. Our right handed batters in particular. While I think we will eventually bring that average w/RISP up, I don’t think we will hit nearly as well as we did in 2008. Can you imagine if Morneau and Kubel didn’t start the year so hot? We would probably be sitting at 5-16 instead 10-11. Yes, the math is right.
Now, you can say “but we are doing all of this without Joe Mauer, we just need to tread water”. Do you really think inserting Mauer into the lineup will make Cuddyer not be terrible? I for one do not. I think it will help, but when Mauer is sitting on the bench (after doing something awesome, no doubt), Cuddyer will probably still be prone to strike out. This brings me to my next point: Cuddyer isn’t good enough to be an everyday player. He simply doesn’t have the track record that people claim he does. That throw he made to the plate yesterday had a better chance of hitting me in the face, than getting the runner out (no seriously, I was sitting first row behind the plate, no big deal). I think it is better for the team to get our young outfielders (Young, Gomez) at bats than it is to stroke Cuddyer’s ego by letting him play everyday.
Next point: Who goes down when Mauer comes back? Conventional wisdom says Morales. But with the way Gardy has been using Gomez, I say send him down. I mean he has been nothing more than a defensive replacement for the past week or so. He should have been in the minors most of last year. The arguments for sending Gomez down are a lot stronger than sending Morales down. While I don’t advocate carrying three catchers, Morales has been hitting lately, and if Mauer needs to be eased back into the lineup it will be nice to have him for those first few weeks.
When Crain comes back I think the best idea is to try to get Morillo through waivers. He would be a nice project, but isn’t worth a major league roster spot at this point. Yes, 97 MPH fastballs are cool, but not when they have your recently back from the DL catcher running all over the place trying to keep runners from advancing.
Does anyone else think that the shift Maddon used last night turned out to be a bad idea? I’ve never like those shifts, because I think having five infielders creates a “too many cooks in the kitchen” problem. Especially when you put a backup right fielder in charge of helping turn a DP. I guess hindsight is always 20-20.
Also, if we win tonight (knock on wood) we will be 11-11 without Mauer. I believe that was the collective firegardy.com goal. Even 10-12 isn’t terrible without our best player.
So feel free to leave your hopeless defense-of-Cuddyer arguments in the comments section. Or suggestions as to how Gardy and co. should handle the roster in the next few weeks.
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I don’t think Gomez should go down, I think he should play more often. And also play better. That’d help.
I think Redmond should discover that getting groined by Morillo actually injured him and that he therefore has to go on the DL for a while. It’d let Mauer come back and play with Morales, until Morales starts to cool off and we can send him down to work on his defense (and throws back to the mound, which have been subpar so far).
I think Morillo should get a couple more appearances to see what he’s doing before Crain comes back; three appearances isn’t enough to evaluate him, I think.
I have also noticed that Morales has had trouble throwing the ball back to the pitcher. Annoying.
If Gardy is dead set on Gomez not playing, he should go down. He should be playing everday somewhere. I think it will help scott baker having Gomez and Span in the outfield, but if Gardy is insistent on letting Cuddyer play everyday, there isn’t much we can do about it. Except kill Gardenhire…..
Yeah, if Gardy’s not going to play Gomez, the best thing for him is to go down.
Another possibility is to send Delmon down. He doesn’t appear to have made any improvements, and looks more lost at the plate and in the field (and on the bases — what the hell is he doing “stealing” third with two outs?) than ever. Maybe some time with the Cliburns could do him some good.
Does Young have options left? For some reason I thought he didn’t.
You’re right, he doesn’t. Never mind then.
Perhaps when Mauer comes back Cuddyer will feel somewhat ashamed and turn it around.
Time to think optimistically. Cuddyer is tied for lead in walks. That’s about it.
Can Gomez play right field and share duties with Cuddyer?
Having Gomez play right field is a waste of his greatest strength. Its like having Jose Reyes play second base, or driving a ferrari and never taking it out of first gear.
True. That said, yes, he COULD do it.
It would be a better plan to have Delmon play RF, since it would highlight his greatest strength (his arm), have Gomez in CF to highlight his strength (range), and Span in LF to take away a gap (just like he does in RF) and minimize his weakness (his arm isn’t that strong, which is a problem in RF).
Gardy hasn’t gone with this formation because he thinks Cuddyer is THE STARTER and will be on this team much longer than Span or Young will. But if I know anything about which number is bigger than the other number, Cuddyer is like 7 years older than Young and Span. He had better not be on the team longer.
he also makes about 10 times as much. so that means he should be playing everyday, right?
I think that’s what it means.
Ok, it’s settled. Delmon in RF.
Shouldn’t we have a lineup that maximizes our potential to win games?
That’s supposed to be the manager’s job.
But Cuddyer can’t be “the clubhouse leader” if he and his 65 OPS+ can’t “lead” by example!
I honestly think that Cuddyer will never get back to his 06 (or even 07) levels. So why are we playing him? This has always been one of Gardy’s biggest flaws: giving guys playing time for things they have done in the past. This is also a big problem with most twins fans: liking a guy too much for things they have done in the past.
I’ve always been of the belief that you shouldn’t cheer for individual players, but for the team. I don’t care who Gardy puts on the field as long as we win, and currently it doesn’t look like he is giving us the best chance of winning by putting Cuddyer out there day in and day out.
Loyalty has value, but only to a point. Cross a certain line, and instead of demonstrating to the other players that “Gardy has your back,” you run the risk of demonstrating “If you convince Gardy to like you, you can get a big contract and lots of playing time no matter HOW badly you perform.”
You REALLY don’t want young players seeing examples like that.
It’s well past time that Gardy realizes that he’s crossed that line and that he needs to bench Cuddyer and let more talented players give it a shot.
That’s supposed to be the manager’s job.
We are clearly in the wrong line of work.
Maybe when Cuddyer reaches 150 plate appearances, Gardy will come to his senses.
Biggest issue is the following players are not exactly knocking it around much to start the season: Cuddyer, Crede, Young, Gomez and Casilla (from the right side of the plate), all are RH batters and all are struggling… Right now, I’d rather have as many LH bats in the lineup vs a LHP than the opposite… and that includes Kubel AND Buscher vs LHP (but really, how much worse could it be than watching Cuddyer fan 3 times a game?)
Morales is hitting .375 or something ridiculous, so to expect improvement from Mauer at the catcher position when he returns might be asking a bit much as Morales has made up for it, at least offensively… Mauer could provide a bit more pop, or extra base hits, but overall, I dont think offensively much will change (just the fact that Mauer can sustain it all year, where as Morales will probably fade in time)… Of course I’m ignoring what Mauer will contribute to defensively.
I do agree that Morales should stay up, which will no doubt either land Redmond on the DL (allowing them to keep Morillo for a while longer) or sending either Gomez down or waiving Morillo… honestly I think they’ll wave Morillo and hope he clears and then put him in AAA.
But again, if we can pull one out tonight, we’ll be 11-11 after 1 month of baseball… I’ll take that for April 2009!
I do agree Cuddyer should ride the bench for a while so he can pull his head out… I would actually prefer to let Kubel start in RF and have Young DH vs Lefties and Buscher DH vs Righties… Span in LF and Gomez start playing everyday again in CF, while batting 9th (someone needs to tell him to settle down), I know it’s exciting to play in the majors at age 22, but really, let’s focus here.
Span LF, Gomez CF, Kubel RF Young DH
Infield stays as is, except I think I’d start to use Harris more vs LHP at 2B, give Casilla some time to sit as well…
Those things all sound good, especially sitting Casilla vs LHP and keeping Cuddyer on the bench until he gets straightened out.
I agree with you guys- I hope whatever lineup Gardy uses tonight includes Harris. I missed the Boston/Cleveland games (vacation in Phoenix!), but Harris at second and some bench time for Casilla sounds good.
Lucky last-minute victory last night, but it’s a shame Liriano didn’t get the win.
Kazmir is starting for the Rays tonight. He is a LHP, so I should think we will see Harris, as he is the only bright spot among our RH batters so far. (am I missing someone?) Should be interesting to see what Gardy does.
No, you’re not missing anyone. The right handed batters on our team have pretty much all sucked this year. (Except for Morales from the right side, but he’s a switch hitter so he doesn’t really count, I guess.)
I see some hope in that, actually. We’ve managed to stay close to .500 when only 2-3 of our players are hitting, they’re all left handed, we don’t have Mauer, and we have 5 guys batting under .250 with no power and there’s close to no way any of them do that for the whole season.
Once these guys start to pick it up, we should be able to win some more comfortable games. We’re sure as hell not going to win 30% of our wins by walkoff.
‘We’re sure as hell not going to win 30% of our wins by walkoff.’
That made me grin. I suppose you don’t think we will continue to win 100% of our 1 run games either, huh?
Pessimist.