How’s this look for Opening Day?

Span, lf; Casilla, 2b; Mauer, c; Morneau, 1b; Young, rf; Kubel, dh; Crede, 3b; Punto or Harris, ss; Gomez, cf. (Baker, p)

I like that Gardy is talking about starting the season with 11 pitchers, because that would make my April 6-at-the-Dome bench: Cuddyer, Buscher, Redmond, Harris/Punto, Tolbert/Macri.

There may not be much drama right now about the roster, save for the unsettled bullpen, but I like the battle for the outfield starting spot between Cuddyer and Young, with Gomez understanding that Young-Span-Cuddyer looks pretty good if he isn’t careful.

And I want to see a Harris v. Punto battle at shortstop. Smack on Punto all you want, but his revised zone rating among shortstops who played at least 500 innings at the position was the highest in the American League. Harris was near the bottom, although I guess he can always tell the grandkids that he was better than little David Eckstein. Harris, though, can make me happy with the way he swings a bat and doesn’t dive into first base.

The choice is about using your options and riding what’s working, which puts a bit more pressure on the manager.

(Folks, I posted this as a comment below, but there are so many interesting comments that folks could miss it. I hope it helps explain my position on the batting order: On the fifth spot in the order issue, keep in mind that, for all of his power, Crede’s career offensive numbers are .257 BA/.306 OBP/.447 slugging. His career best OBP is .323. Delmon’s career numbers are .292/.326/.413, with .290/.336/.405 in ‘08 and the potential for more upside.  This isn’t to diminish Crede. It’s a good move. But keep it real in terms of where he goes in the lineup.)

And if the Twins are going to be able to make a deal for reliever Juan Cruz, which looks to be an interesting challenge….

Let’s just start the season now.

This entry was posted on Saturday, February 21st, 2009 at 9:22 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.