OK, so I could be writing this in the aftermath of a Delmon-goes-deep high. But when you go through the reasons why the Twins are the hottest team in baseball — you can’t listen to any national baseball broadcast for more than a couple of minutes without hearing about the local guys — I think it’s right to credit some of the choices that have been made. After all, there’s been plenty of Monday morning grumpiness at times this season.

The Twins are playing at an 89-win pace right now, which beats anything that was talked about a couple of months back, or even a few weeks back.

Here are some good choices that have been made:

The Twins didn’t goof around with Joe Mauer’s place in the batting order. This team just doesn’t have a No. 3 hitter who would make more sense, except for Morneau — and then who would you bat clean-up? The big break that’s been caught, of course, has been Alexi Casilla’s readiness to fill the No. 2 spot and second base as he’s done. That Casilla has a .360 on-base percentage and 30 RBI couldn’t have been anticipated. When a player appears to mature about five years between seasons, it’s a tribute to the combination of whatever message was delivered and the way he received it.

Speaking of infielders, Gardy and Bill Smith and their staffs made a subtle decision that hasn’t been talked about much. As frustrating as Brendan Harris was at second base, they kept in mind that Harris was mainly used at shortstop last season, where he had limited range but steady hands. Even though Casilla’s best position is thought to be shortstop, the Twins moved Harris to short and installed Casilla at second. Not only has it proven to be the best of the combinations used so far this season, but Casilla’s athleticism at second base has covered for some of the off-target throws from Brian Buscher at third. In addition to having trouble with the pivot, Harris simply didn’t get to some throws that Casilla has managed to handle. Buscher is much improved at third base, but his arm still makes me nervous.

As long as we’re talking about Harris, I think we’re romanticizing the guy who played shortstop last season. People who say they want Jason Bartlett back aren’t looking at his offensive numbers, which include an on-base percentage 42 points lower than last season’s and a slugging percentage 11 points (.282 to .271) higher than the atrocious number that Nick Punto turned in last year. It’s a flawed statistic, but Harris’ chances per nine innings are well above the league average at shortstop this season. At second base, he was well below the norm.

Speaking of Punto, I saw two things in Saturday’s loss that disturbed me. The first was the bat-flipping fit he threw at the plate when he struck out in the first inning. A team that’s won 10 in a row can survive a strikeout by someone who isn’t expected to hit much – especially in the first inning, for gosh sake. More disturbing, though, was the delayed steal that Milwaukee catcher Jason Kendall pulled off which, according to Ron Coomer’s analysis, came because Kendall saw that Punto had his head down and wasn’t paying attention between pitches. Any coincidence that it happened in the inning after Punto grounded into a double play? Taking batting problems into the field is an ugly thing.

During spring training there were bloggers and others who muttered about the disproportionate amount of attention Denard Span was getting in Florida. Hadn’t proven anything, they said. Wouldn’t amount to anything, they said. Well, he’s joining the team for the second time because of another Cuddyer injury and I think the consensus is that he’s the right choice. It might even give Gardy the confidence to give Gomez a day off.

Speaking of Gomez, there were people who were saying (with a stright face), that Jason Pridie should start the season in center field, that the Twins should sign Corey Patterson (who was available all spring) or that they should have gone after Mike Cameron over the winter. That seems like years ago, huh? And when the team has won 11 out of 12, I can deal with a leadoff batter who has a .295 OBP and more strikeouts than Morneau and Mauer combined — as long as I don’t see similar numbers at this time next season. Steps forward, steps back will be the story of his rookie saeason, and we shouldn’t be surprised.

After his first few starts, when the rotation was still in flux, there were people who wanted Kevin Slowey returned to Rochester. I wrote about a conversation I had with Bill Smith, who said that going back and dominating at Triple-A would prove nothing and he was sure that, unlike some other pitchers, Slowey’s best shot at improvement would come from staying in the rotation. Three earned runs, 21 runners and 30 strikeouts in his last 29 innings says Smith was right.

other people are here too

This entry was posted on Monday, June 30th, 2008 at 8:20 am 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.