Given the state of the Twins’ roster, the outcome of this weekend’s series was pretty much what should have been expected before the first pitch was thrown — 1 out of 3 against the best team in the American League right now. Good news for the home team, I guess, was that the Twins didn’t get blown out in the games they lost. Bad news was that, with the addition of Joe Mauer to the disabled list, the makeshift lineup becomes even makeshiftier.

The “bench” in the finale was Josh Rabe and Nick Punto, both of whom ended up in the game. Mauer was available only in a dire emergency and the Michael Cuddyer back tumble continues its toll. That the current regular lineup will include only two players who’ve hit a home run is amazing. Try to find another one like it in the majors.

And there’s only one guy currently in the lineup, Jason Kubel, who doesn’t have a home run and can logically be expected to hit more than a lucky one now and again. Calling up Chris Heintz (52 home runs in 1,000 minor-league games going into this season) adds another ZHG (”Zero Homer Guy,” pronounced ZIG-gy) to the roster.

A comparison: The Tigers and Cleveland have three Ziggys on their rosters, the Twins have 11. I know those teams have a few players with only one home run, but the sum total of the Twins’ Ziggyness is that they are next to last in the majors in home runs and middle of the pack in on-base percentage, which means the Piranhas have not been compensating for the homer shortage in superhuman fashion. (But you all knew that without me having to cite statistics, right?)

So this isn’t a suggestion made of panic: But it’s time for the Twins to take stock of this shortcoming and deal one of their young arms for a solid bat. Given the lack of an everyday DH, the Twins could bring in someone who uses a rock, a sock or a Glock for a glove and install him in that role. It would be easier to preach patience if a young position player or two had the potential to help out on that front, but it doesn’t look like there are offensive answers in Rochester or New Britain in the same way there are potential pitching answers in the minors. Rest assured, I’m not writing anything the front-office decision-makers haven’t already been thinking about.

Even when the Twins get back to something resembling full strength, there are going to be some gaps when it comes to power (or even extra-base) production. Castillo, Punto, Tyner and Bartlett are confirmed Ziggys. Mauer and Kubel should have double-digit numbers, but that’s not even a guarantee. The Twins have an all-Ziggy bench right now. Just like solid starting pitchers need a strong back-end staff to get their team through a full game, the Piranhas need to be complemented by power threats so the Twins don’t need to string together stacks of singles and walks to create runs as often as has been the case.

(I got through this entire post without keyboarding THIS word. To read about THAT, click here… Or here.)

 

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This entry was posted on Sunday, May 6th, 2007 at 10:35 pm and is filed under Thoughts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.