While the Twins entered the Spring with few new addition, they still have some pretty notable questions to answer in terms of who’s on the field for opening day. The most talked about issue is in the outfield, but the left side of the infield is a bit questionable as well, not to mention the recent complication of Mr. Mauer’s health.
Let’s start with the outfield, where I believe the answer is the easiest. The question in most people’s mind is whether to leave out Cuddyer or Young. Looking at it in that light makes it obvious to me — Young has to be out there most days. He has way more upside and right now is probably at least as good. Both of them have shaky defense, but good arms. So they should probably spend most of their outfield time in the slightly smaller (in the Dome at least) rightfield. Delmon is 23 and there’s every reason to think he’ll be better this year. Cuddyer is 30 and there’s no reason to think he’ll repeat his 2006 numbers — 2007 numbers perhaps since he’s healthy, but even that seems like a stretch. Span was the best in the bunch last year by most regards, but may see a little bit of a regression if he’s not careful. Gomez has fully proven himself defensively, now we just need to see some better at-bats, but he’s young, I’d like to believe that’s coming. So my answer then is Young in right, Gomez in center, and Span in left. With Cuddyer occassionally subbing in right and people shifting as necessary.
The majority of Cuddyer’s work should be at DH. I think platooning him and Kubel would be a pretty good solution. Kubel struggles a bit against lefties, and Cuddyer is a bit better against them, so put them together and we actually have a somewhat legitimate DH. Either one of them can play the outfield from time to time if necessary (preferably not with a flyball pitcher on the mound though).
So then, left side of the infield? The Twins big offseason acquisition was Joe Crede. This gives them a bit more of a presence at thirdbase, but I’m not sure it does more than that. When he’s doing well, Crede has a bit of power and a nice glove, but is never going to hit for average or be an OBP machine. Not the worst thing in the world since most of the rest of the Twins have no power, but can kind of hit for average. I find it fairly unlikely that Crede has a great year though. I’d expect something average, around the neighborhood of .250/.300/.450. If he’s not able to do that for us, I think the Twins need to be very open to options like Buscher and Harris. I don’t think a platoon of the two of them would be so bad — nothing to get excited about, but the way I see it, neither is Crede.
Then of course there’s the always fearsome Nick Punto. The best thing about the Crede signing is that it meant our only free agent signing wasn’t Punto. That would have made for a pathetic offseason. And by the way, we definitely overpaid for the guy. Two years and $8 million for a guy who barely hit above .200 the last time we trusted him as a starter? Seems a bit silly in this economy. Punto is a solid defender and either sorta hits for average or hits for nothing at all. We’ll see which it is this year. If he struggles, early the Twins need to be open to taking away his starting job too. Harris can technically play short, as can some of our minor leaguers waiting in the wings. Gardy, don’t be afraid to use them.
Mauer won’t be starting the season, and the question everyone is asking is when he’ll be back. I’m being blindly optimistic that it will be soon. Until the Redmond is the natural choice, and actually should do a fine job for us. The concern with him is obviously the fact that he’s a soon-to-be 38 year old catcher who has never played 90 games in a season. Jose Morales is the most likely candidate to help out Redmond, and he’s not a terrible option, but I think everyone will feel more comfortable when Mauer is back.
My proposed lineup then is this:
- Denard Span, LF
- Alexi Casilla, 2B
- Jason Kubel, DH
- Justin Morneau, 1B
- Delmon Young, RF
- Joe Crede, 3B
- Nick Punto, SS
- Mike Redmond, C
- Carlos Gomez, CF
I’m not exactly set on that, I considered switching Kubel and Delmon, but ended up going with this since Gardy seems to prefer Kubel hitting third in Mauer’s absence. Also, I support quite a bit of variability with this — putting Cuddyer in at DH or in RF, putting in Buscher or Harris, giving Morales a try, etc. I think the Twins have the flexibility to do that as well as some positions that lack obvious superiority, which to me means they should give different people a chance and let others rest.
I’m really looking forward to this season, it should be an interesting one for the Twins and for all of baseball really. I should be making somewhat more regular posts as the season will be starting again soon. Keep coming back.
