Delmon's streak ends

Delmon Young has been bad so far, and there have been calls to give him a day off. Ron Gardenhire continued to resist, saying Delmon "likes to play".
I probably don't need to point out what a lame cop-out that is. I'd like to play LF every day for the Twins, too. That's not a good enough reason to put a guy in the lineup.

It sure smelled a lot like Gardy was afraid of Delmon. The young Young has a history of losing his temper on occasion, and while he's behaved for the most part since joining the Twins, his short and curt interviews suggested that there was still something of a loose cannon sizzling beneath the surface.
But after a really rough couple of weeks, it was clear that Delmon could probably benefit from a day or three to take a step back and watch things, so Gardy sucked it up and wrote out a lineup card that didn't have Delmon's name on it, ending his streak of 217 consecutive games played.
Reporters requested to visit with Young before the game, and he refused. This smelled like trouble. But after the game, Young seemed to be responding the way you'd hope.

"I’ll take a day off any time,” he told the Strib. “I’ve been having days off (playing badly), except my stats keep going down,” he said. “This one, stays even.”

Asked if Tuesday’s inside-the-park play was on his mind when he missed Alex Gordon’s fly ball Wednesday, he said, “I just flat-out missed that ball. The night before doesn’t really bother me after about 30 seconds go by.”

Whether or not Delmon Young is nice to reporters has nothing to do with whether or not he'll ever realize his potential, but the fact that he took his first benching well is definitely a good sign. I know I'm not alone in having sensed recently that Delmon's cranky attitude was starting to become a concern, and that could be a factor in his development as a player.

I feel a little better today about his chances of figuring it out. Maybe he gets it after all.

Turd in the punch bowl

I didn't see any of the Twins 9-8 come from behind win over the Royals. I was in Vermillion playing third base for the Roadrunners, who opened their season with an 11-6 win (I doubled off the wall in my first at-bat of the season - I rule).

I was pretty excited when I heard what happened, and have spent the last 20 minutes or so combing through the box score and reading reaction from other blogs (my favorite is this one, from Royals blogger Rany Jazayerli). I can only imagine what kind of verbal orgasm Dick Bremer had on the air when the Twins put their 9th inning rally together, and I'm glad I didn't hear it.

And I hate, really hate to say it, but all I can see are the negatives. Yes, Craig Monroe and Justin Morneau hit big homers, but that's not a huge surprise. Yes, Brendan Harris and Mike Lamb both had good days at the plate as they continue to push their numbers north, but that shouldn't be a huge shock, either.

I was hoping to see that Delmon Young and Michael Cuddyer had had big games, maybe even homered. I was hoping that Joe Mauer had maybe gone deep.

I wasn't hoping to see that Cuddyer, Young and Mauer were all hitless. I wasn't hoping that Young committed two errors in LF one night after nearly costing the team a game with a misplay in the field. I wasn't hoping that Livan would give up 13 more hits (he's on pace to surrender over 300 on the year).

I couldn't help but notice that Matt Garza threw another gem for the first place Rays Wednesday night. Garza is now 4-1 with a 3.78 ERA.
Young is still, uh, young, but his poor performance thus far is troubling.

I wonder, at this point, if we won't look back at 2008 as the season that:
A - The Twins made one of the worst trades in their history (Garza-Bartlett for Young-Harris)
B - The Twins signed one of their worst contracts in their history (Cuddyer, 3-years, $24 million)
C - Pat Neshek's career ended.
D - Francisco Liriano's comeback failed

Am I being overly negative? Of course. There's still a lot going right with this team. But lately I've had a hard time ignoring how many things are going wrong.

Weird game...

I went to Iron Man last night, so I didn't see much of the Twins game. I picked it up in the 9th, with the Twins trailing 6-5, and quickly surmised that it had been a strange game up until then.
Brendan Harris was at short, Michael Cuddyer had started in center, and soon Bobby Korecky was batting.
In just the couple innings I watched, I came to a few conclusions.
*I'd like to say it's time for Juan Rincon to go, but with Pat Neshek on the DL, and with Rincon under contract for over $2 million, it wouldn't make much sense to cut him. But he just can't be used in any meaningful situations anymore. He's terrible. Just use him in blowouts, and let him walk after the year.
*Luckily, we saw the official arrival of Korecky as soon as Rincon was mercifully given the hook. He worked 1.2 innings, and his big strikeout of Michael Young was damn near a Neshek moment.
Korecky isn't likely to become a dominant reliever, but his track record (3.07 ERA in the minors, with a modest strikeout rate) suggests he could be a decent setup guy.
*Boof Bonser is running out of time to convince us he won't ultimately be better suited for the bullpen (I know he had a decent outing but I think the point remains). He's got a good fastball, a good curve and good control, but with so many other good arms in the minors, it's wouldn't be fair to let Boof keep struggling for a whole 'nother year.
*Cuddyer has really only had one good year. In 2006 he hit .284/.362/.504, but last year he slipped to .276/.356/.433, and this year he's been godawful, hitting .226 after an 0-for-6 effort last night.
Why were they willing to sign this guy to a 3-year, $24 million deal, but when it came to Torii Hunter and Johan Santana (two far better and far more proven commodities) there wasn't enough money (not so much this past year, but before that)? Dare I bring race into it? I think it's worth asking.
*I'll get into it in more detail later, but it appears that Ron Gardenhire is ready to give up on the Mike Lamb/Brendan Harris/Adam Everett infield.
In itself that wouldn't be such a bad thing, as it has indeed been a failure, but when you consider the alternatives available to him, it's downright terrifying to think what the future could hold for the Twins infield.
Stay tuned.

The Struggling Twins Hitters

It's kind of funny to me that the Twins nice little run over the last couple weeks has prompted some to act as though the Twins offense suddenly doesn't suck.
Newsflash: The Twins offense sucks.

There are three Twins right now who are producing: Joe Mauer, Justin Morneau and Craig Monroe.

Mauer is actually having an outstanding season, while Morneau has been pretty solid since a slow start. Monroe is on a hot streak, and it's hard to say how much to expect from him as the season progresses.

Brendan Harris got off to a good start, but a recent slump has knocked his numbers near Punto-ville. Carlos Gomez seems to be getting better every day, and it's impossible to be disappointed with what he's done so far, considering how far from ready he was when the season began. Matt Tolbert's numbers will continue to decline the more he plays. Nick Punto has been non-terrible because he hasn't played very much.

Everyone else has been fairly terrible. A blow-by-blow look at the Twins hitters.

*Mauer
Hitting .331 with a .414 OBP entering Wednesday. If he keeps those numbers at that level, I won't complain if he doesn't hit a homer all year. Well, OK, I will, but a .414 OBP is more valuable than most people seem to realize. The guy doesn't make very many outs.
Through 10 games in May he's hitting .424 with a .548 OBP. Also encouraging is that he's hitting .357 against lefties this year, after struggling with southpaws last year.
The problem with Mauer isn't that he doesn't hit for enough power, it's that Ron Gardenhire insists on batting him 3rd. He should be leading off, but even the 2-hole would make more sense.
How's this for a stat: When leading off an inning, Mauer is hitting .450/.560/.650.

*Morneau
Also heating up (.341 in May before Wednesday), he's on pace to fall short of 30 homers, but looks a lot better than the guy that limped to the finish line last year. He's hitting .250 with decent power against lefties, but has only a .265 OBP. That means he can hit lefties when he's not chasing their bad pitches. If Morneau can improve his patience, he can boost his numbers from Fred McGriff territory to Jason Giambi territory (the version from a few years ago).

*Harris
Loved him early, but he's slumped badly of late. He has some pop, but, oddly, has been horrible against lefties (.200/.294/.200). He's hitting .156 in May, and is hitting .129 with RISP. He has been better against power pitchers (.261) than finesse pitchers (.204), which probably explains why he's struggling against lefties. He's hit pretty consistently in the past, so I'm going to keep my fingers crossed that he's just in a slump (you'll hear that again a few more times).

*Adam Everett
He has sucked, but we knew he would. Still, he needs to get his average to at least .240, even if his OBP and SLG numbers are poor. The glove has been pretty good since he came off the DL.

*Mike Lamb
The new whipping boy amongst Twins fans, Lamb has yet to homer, he's shown very little patience, and he appears to be pressing. He's been a little better of late, but it's starting to get far enough into the season that you have to stop calling it a slump and wonder if the guy just isn't going to get it done.
The Twins signed Lamb planning to give him his first shot at an everyday job, but it looks like there's a reason the Astros and Rangers never gave him 500 ABs.
Lamb has been halfway decent against lefties throughout his career, but this year he's 1-for-17. Against righties he's at .267, and more impressively, he's hitting a whopping .435/.407/.609 with RISP.
He's posted a .250 BABIP (average on balls in play), suggesting he's been a little unlucky, too.
Lamb signed a two-year contract, and the Twins top 3B prospects are all a few years away, so the smart play would be to keep playing him, at least against righties, and hope he breaks out of it. The numbers suggest he will.

*Tolbert
I keep waiting for him to fall on his face, and he hasn't, although his numbers have steadily declined since a fast start (he's already down to .274/.312/.356). Tolbert is not an option to be a starter at any position right now, and probably not ever. But he looks capable of carving out a Reboulet-like career as a useful utility guy.
Having said that, he should get plenty of starts at 3B against lefties until Lamb shows he can hit southpaws. Tolbert has hit .320/.346/.400 against lefties this year.

*Punto
It was obvious last year that Punto lost all of his confidence as his nightmare season continued to get worse. But he's been decent this year, hitting .265. Hopefully that's boosted his confidence a little bit. Fans continue to blame Punto for nearly everything that goes wrong with the Twins, but he's done nothing to hurt them this year (though he hasn't really done anything to help them, either).

*Gomez
He's no longer trying to bunt every time up, and it turns out he's a decent hitter (.275). He has a .360 BABIP, so cutting down on the strikeouts would help. He isn't nearly patient enough to bat leadoff, and I'm starting to wonder if, when he gets older, he'll be a guy who can hit in the 2 or 3 hole (which would allow Mauer to bat leadoff). He's been terrible in the OF (he already has more errors than Torii Hunter ever had in a season), but has 16 steals and 3 homers. He'll only get better, so, as mentioned earlier, it's hard to complain. Before the year, I would've put the odds of him posting an OPS above the league average at 1 in 50 (right now his OPS+ is 101).

*Michael Cuddyer
After a sub-par '07, Cuddyer keeps on hitting like a guy who should be batting eighth. Not much power, way too many infield popups. In '06, when Cuddyer had his career year (.284/24 homers/109 RBI) he struck out 130 times. Last year he struck out 107 times, and this year he's struck out 11 times in 80 ABs.
If he's made a conscious effort to make more contact, it's made him less effective.

*Delmon Young
So far, a huge disappointment. To be fair, Torii Hunter was hitting .220 in Double-A when he was Young's age, so it's about five years too early to even think about giving up on the guy.
But his poor start is disappointing nonetheless.
A .299 slugging percentage? .299???? Punto currently has a .347 slugging percentage.
Young's average and OBP have been slowly but steadily climbing of late, but he has to start elevating on some balls. He hits the ball on the ground even more than Mauer. He ranks last in the league in isolated power, and is hitting just .200 against lefties (let's face it, no one on the Twins can hit lefties).
Young has defended himself by saying that he always gets off to slow starts, including last year. True, he was hitting in the .220's at this time a year ago, but had already hit 4 of his 13 homers by now.
Young may end up being a true test of the Twins coaching staff, which is often accused of being unable to develop hitters. They absolutely have to get this guy hitting.

*Monroe
He's revived his life-support career with a recent hot streak. He's supposed to be the righthanded half of a platoon with Jason Kubel, but he's hitting .148 against lefties, and all four of his homers are off righties. That has obviously made Gardy's job more difficult.
One thing we do know is that Monroe's bat speed is still in question. He's hitting .050 against power pitchers, .441 against finesse pitchers (those numbers are consistent with his career splits).

*Kubel
Just when he finally got his chance, he went cold. He's probably getting close to make-or-break time, especially with Monroe hitting well.
But after an 0-for-15 slump, he hit a pinch-homer Tuesday and doubled twice Wednesday.
He has been hitting balls hard, even during his slump, as evidenced by his .242 BABIP (before Wednesday). My guess is Monroe will start to cool off, and Kubel's line drives will start to fall in.

Summary: Way too many Twins hitter are underachieving. But Cuddyer, Kubel, Lamb, Harris and Young all seem capable, if not likely, to make considerable improvements as the year progresses. It's just too bad they're taking so long to get going, because the pitching has overachieved. They could have a 5 or 6 game lead if some of these guys would hit like they're supposed to.

I Really Hate the Red Sox (Fans)

As long as I've been going to Twins games, the only opposing team that ever brought a lot of fans to the Metrodome was the New York Yankees. It was something I had gotten used to.
Then this weekend I was in Minny for the Twins/Red Sox series, and was exposed to an impressive display of douchebaggery (fun fact - my computer's spell checker did not object to the word 'douchebaggery'. Apparently that's a word).

The Dome was crawling with Red Sox fans. Dumb ones.
People that weren't on this bandwagon before 2004. People who have never heard of Wade Boggs, let alone Carl Yastrzemski. People who were there simply to be seen, wearing their cute scruffy, frat-boy style Red Sox hats and their Irish green T-shirts. None of them wear the navy blue replica caps, they all wear the tight-fitting gray ones with the stockings on the back (see picture of douches), because for these people, being a Sox fan is a fad, and these hats are the primary part of it.
This team obviously has a very real and loyal fan-base, but none of them were at the Dome this weekend.

All of which made the Twins victories on Friday and Sunday pretty enjoyable.
I was there for a bachelor party, and when it became apparent that we weren't going to win Saturday, we kicked the drinking into high gear so we'd forget what happened - it worked.
I talked our crew into staying to the end Friday, as I correctly predicted that Jonathan Papelboner would blow the save. When he did, we were not above yelling at 11-year old Sox fans to "Get the fuck out of our dome!" Yeah, we're not very mature. But we won. On Friday anyway.

Some notes on the weekend, as the Twins finish the 4-game series today.
*I have a hunch the Twins, in the long run, won't miss Pat Neshek as much as some people think. The Twins system is loaded with pitching talent, and they can't all be starters. Neshek's injury will give someone else an opportunity. Relievers are fairly easy to find.
With his funky delivery, I have always had my doubts about how long Neshek's career will last.
Maybe he'll come back 100%, and I hope he does. But if he doesn't, I wouldn't be surprised, or terribly worried.

*Nick Punto going on the DL, on the other hand, will really hurt the Twins. Just kidding.
I'm sure Ron Gardenhire is losing sleep wondering how he can be expected to put together lineups without Punto's .322 career slugging percentage, but not having him for 15 days will mean more at-bats for the exceedingly impressive Matt Tolbert, and it will also give Alexi Casilla a chance to come back up and hopefully regain some confidence. Casilla was so bad last year that he'd fallen almost off the prospect radar, but the Twins' organizational dearth of shortstops (the Twins have declared Casilla a shortstop now, suggesting they might consider Harris a candidate for a long-term contract), means he's still got a chance to get out of the doghouse and once again become a significant part of the team's future plans.

*Craig Monroe was so bad last year that he almost ended up out of baseball. He said it was just a bad year, many speculated that he was finished. GM Bill Smith took a gamble that Monroe was right and would bounce back, and he has. Credit to Monroe and Billy-boy ($3.8 million is still too much, though).

*I was almost positive that Mike Lamb was going to get the game-winning hit against Papelbon Friday. He was just so due that I knew it would happen. Lamb's average is up to .238, and while he still hasn't shown much pop, I remain convinced he will be in the .270-15 homer range by years end.

*I know Juan Rincon has been terrible numbers-wise for the last couple years, but the guy seems to have no luck at all. It seems like he's given up more hits on seeing eye grounders than anyone on the staff. Of course, back when he was good he just struck everybody out.

*Very impressive start from Glen Perkins (although it's kind of pathetic that he gave up a 450-footer to Coco Crisp). The next time you find yourself bitching about the Twins, consider this: The Twins have at least 10 pitching prospects, maybe more, who would be the No. 1 pitching prospect in another organization.

Credit where credit is due

I don't do this often, but I have to give Ron Gardenhire some credit here.
A few weeks ago, Carlos Gomez was, statistically, if not competitively, the worst player in the major leagues. The batting average barely over .200, the OBP right around there as well, with strikeouts, bad at-bats and bad plays in the field wiping out his occasional flashes of brilliance, which were largely limited to stealing second in the few instances he was able to reach base.

The StarTrib's Joe Christensen noted that Gomez was "dangerously overmatched", and suggested that a trip back to the minors might be best.
I wasn't quite ready to send him back to Triple-A, but suggested that another week of terrible play would be enough to do the trick, writing:
"It's still early, but you have to wonder if eventually Gomez would be better served to go back to Triple-A (where he's played a total of 36 games in his entire life) for awhile."

Gardenhire no doubt saw what the rest of us were seeing, but showed the kind of perspective and patience that has served him well throughout his managerial career (yes, I can admit it, there are some things Gardy does well).
He didn't overreact to a bad week and send Gomez to the minors, but he also didn't stubbornly pretend that the kid wasn't struggling. He decided to just give Gomez a day off.
He homered in his first at-bat of the next game, and since then is hitting .430 (13-for-30), which of course, was capped off by him becoming the first Twin to hit for the cycle since Kirby Puckett 22 years ago.
Gardy has done right by this kid so far, and that's encouraging.

Gomez is still very far from a finished product. He still has a poor on-base percentage, and still doesn't seem to know how to field ground balls/line drives in the outfield.
But it's pretty clear that he's got a chance to be awfully good.

Goin' Good

The Twins 16-14 record isn't all that impressive by itself. But they're in first place by 1.5 games, and more importantly, they're 12-6 in the division.

Just how important is that? Last year, the Twins were a more than respectable 51-39 against teams outside the AL Central. But against divisional opponents they were a miserable 28-44. That cost them a chance to compete for the postseason.
If the Twins can continue to hold their own against Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago and yes, Kansas City, they just might be able to stay in this thing.

A big reason for that is the pitching. It is still, five weeks into the season, outperforming expectations. Boof Bonser's start on Sunday can't be overstated. Shaking off a six-run first inning that was as much due to bad luck as anything, to put up 5 zeros, is veteran/ace type stuff, and another sign that Boof and Scott Baker could form a solid tandem at the top of the rotation.

In the bullpen, Brian Bass has pitched very well of late, while Matt Guerrier and Jesse Crain seem to be shaping up. Dennys Reyes is back to his '06 form, and Joe Nathan is Joe Nathan. It's still too early to be worried about Pat Neshek's minor struggles.

Other positives:
*Craig Monroe looks like he's shaken off his terrible 2007 season, and just might end up being a productive player this year (even if he is overpaid at $3.8 million).
*Joe Mauer is getting on base a lot.
*Carlos Gomez has been much better since the Twins started giving him a day off here and there.
*Justin Morneau is hitting like a cleanup hitter should.
*Adam Everett appears to be back to his old self in the field.
*Matt Tolbert has been a steady bench guy.

But, to quote Winston Wolf, Let's not start (expletive) each other's (expletive) yet.
This is still a flawed team.
Baker is going to the DL, and I'm still waiting for Nick Blackburn to start taking some lumps when the league catches up to him. Livan Hernandez has been hit hard in his last few starts, even the one Friday night when he only gave up a run. Glen Perkins is apparently going to be called up to replace Baker, and you never know what you'll get there (he does have a 2.97 ERA in Rochester). Kevin Slowey is back in the rotation after a month on the DL, which sounds like a recipe for some long balls.

Jason Kubel is getting to play every day, and while he's driving some extra base hits here and there, he's getting on base at a putrid rate.
Delmon Young and Mike Lamb have been no better at the plate than Nick Punto.

Of course, maybe that's reason for optimism, rather than pessimism. If Kubel was hitting .300, if and if Young and Lamb were both slugging over .450, the Twins would be looking even better. There's still a chance those things will happen eventually, so perhaps we have not yet hit the high-water mark.