Coyote makes no bones about it: He doesn’t care for the baseball stylings of Mr. Nick Punto. This will look ridiculous if Punto is on a hot streak right now, but we’ll take our chances. Here are his words:

While we normally look back on the Batista, Castro and White decisions of 2006 the worst in the recent history of the Twins, I argue that a worse mistake was made this year. The fact that Terry Ryan, Ron Gardenhire and the Twins front office thought that Nick Punto could hold down the job at third base is embarrassing, and when you look at the numbers, it is hard to argue the decision. No one questioned if he would bring power to the plate or be a major run producer, so the only way the team could have thought he would contribute is with batting average and “table setting.” Here is what he has done in the past 4 seasons.

2003 - .217
2004 - .253
2005 - .239
2006 - .290

Nick Punto was a utility backup for Philadelphia in 2003 and with Minnesota in 2004, only taking 90+ AB’s each season. In 2005, for some reason, the Twins put him in the starting lineup — where he would accumlate over 860 ABs from in 2005 and 2006 combined. I can see the argument that 2006 could have been Nick’s breakout season. He was 28, held down a position (3B) for almost the whole season and was a clutch player at times, hitting .290; however, that season needs to be broken down more.

April - .231
May - .318 (only 44 AB’s)
June - .278
July - .374
August - .274
September - .252

Punto began his fall back to reality in August. If the Twins used 200 at bats to judge a career .255 hitter with over 1,000 at bats, that is simply bad judgment. The argument for Nick Punto is his defense. While I do agree that Punto is an above-average defender, I do not believe it is a very good strategic decision to choose defense over offense (see Doug Mientkiewicz). I will not argue that he makes some spectacular plays, but I also believe that he sensationalizes plays at time. I have never seen a player on the ground as much as Punto or a player who launches himself into the dugout or stands when it is not necessary as much he does. On top of these stats, he simply looks lost out there during each at bat. A player of his type should be trying to hit sharp ground balls and use his speed. He usually hits fly balls. He continues to seem to look at good pitches go by him (especially with 2 strikes) and swing at bad pitches.

Discussion: Compare this to the Twins or other local sports mistakes and how it ranks. A few ideas:

*Joe Mays’ long-term contract
*Tony Batista and Rondell White
*Michael Cuddyer at third base

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