Its been a rough week for the Minnesota Twins. Besides dropping four of their last four games, despite being in nearly all of those games, they've been hit with injuries to Luis Castillo and have been mired in a major hitting slump. Last night I mentioned that the Twins hitters not named Mauer had hit only .146 over the past two games. Tonight was more of the same. While the Twins did hit .250 last night (8-32) the majority of those hits (3) came off the bat of one player, only this time it was Jason Kubel, Mauer did however have his obligatory hit, a double.
While the bats were once again were held nearly silent by a vastly over-matched pitcher, there are reasons for hope. Or at least fewer reasons to be fighting mad as I was last night. For one, Twins hitters did a better job of taking pitches, if only marginally so, drawing 3.75 pitches per at-bat versus the 3.36 P/AB that they had taken over the previous two games. Further, the Twins only had one bone-head baserunning mistake, with Torii Hunter being thrown out by a good five feet trying to take second with two outs in the 2nd. Think he doesn't know its a contract year?
Even though Johan 'El Presidente' Santana had a relatively rough night, going only seven innings and allowing four runs, he did what every good pitcher is supposed to do, he kept his team in the game. The only problem of course is that the offense has done nothing to win those games. Last year when the Twins went on their incredible streak, the offense, and the 'piranhas' in particular were getting on base, moving runners, and generally not striking out and hitting harmless pop flys to middle infielders which has generally been the case thus far this season. And while we're certainly not so far into the season that things are out of hand (we have a winning record after all) there is cause for concern. To how we might solve that concern I have few ideas. The Twins have never been a club to go out and make a big trade for a proven veteran hitter, and General Manager Terry Ryan has repeatedly stated that he won't trade any of the Twins young arms to acquire hitters. And so far he is resisting bringing them up to the majors too soon, a move which I fully support. So the truth is Twins fans may simply have to ride this season out with what we have. Of course, there is always the chance that this could change. The Twins hit a bunch of balls hard last night that didn't find holes (at least until about the fifth inning when the bats went to sleep entirely). But something must be done about Nick Punto. If Gardenhire is insistent on playing him, as he appears to be, shouldn't he at least be demoted in the order where less will be asked of him and he wont kill so many innings...?
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To underscore the futility of the offense, one of the things that surprised me about Jason Bartlett is that he's only had 11 plate appearances with runners in scoring position, and most (7) of those came with 2 outs. In 16 games, that's not a lot of chances to drive in runs at the bottom of the order. His 0-3 last night notwithstanding, since he's starting to come around, would we be better off with him hitting higher up to set the table for Mauer, Cuddyer, Morneau, and Hunter? It's so depressing to come to the bottom of the order with 1 or 2 outs and know that our only hope is to somehow string together 3 or 4 singles to score a run.
I couldn't agree more. And at the top of the order, where guys are hitting doubles like they're going out of style, theres no one on base to drive in because Punto is killing innings. Brilliant!
Also, I'd let Casilla steal just about every time he gets on. There really is no reason to put on the breaks with that kid. Sure he's not the best at reading pitchers, but how better to learn than to run.
I'll agree about letting Casilla lose. If they have him up, better let him learn. As for the need for four straight singles, well thats just the problem with the "piranhas." Ever since they coined the term, I was annoyed becuase it was some cute catchphrase to cover up the reality that the Twins have in their lineup a good majority of them four to five hitters who couldn't hit the ball out of the ballpark better than me.
And yes, Hunter is definitely doing some stat-padding out there. He wants 50 doubles this year!
Nick,
That's why I don't use that descriptor for the top/bottom of the order (that and the fact that Ozzie Guillen is an arrogant blowhard who I will not take any inspiration from).
Also, I realize that you proposed this lineup switch last week (Apr.20, "Sweet Seattle Sweep") when Casilla first started getting playing time. Credit where credit's due, it just took me a while to see the light.
Well, I want to see more Kubel and such, but I also want to be realistic. Apparently, I was right in a bad way, as Casilla was moved to the ninth spot so Jason Tyner could hit leadoff. Ugh. Terrible.
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