What we didn’t see: One day after yanking Alexi Casilla when he failed to hustle out a bunt in the first inning, the Twins’ second baseman made three more mistakes in an embarrassing 9-0 loss to Detroit.

What we did see: Second baseman Alexi Casilla “rewarded” Manager Ron Gardenhire for giving him another chance with mental and physical errors in a humiliating 9-0 loss at Detroit.

What we seem to be seeing: The Twins tried to treat second baseman Alexi Casilla like a major leaguer. Now, Casilla may be destined to be a minor-leaguer.

Quickly repeating what I wrote yesterday, I think Gardy was right in not yanking Casilla in the first inning on Monday’s game. That would have been managing for show.

But taking a guy whose batting .167 and has become a defensive liability and sending him to Rochester would be the substantial and correct move at this point. The Twins would be better served with Matt Tolbert on the roster and Brendan Harris getting more time at second base despite the fact that it’s his third best position.

Pinning Tuesday’s loss solely on Casilla’s mess-ups would be stupid, of course. The corner outfielders were dive bombing fly balls, Nick Blackburn was absolutely Humberesque and the batters swung balsa wood. As La Velle pointed out in his game story, the Twins have lost eight games by five runs or more in the first month of the season.

That means either the Twins stink or they’re not battling their tails off — and it isn’t the former. There’s lots of season left to make things right.

(Note to Nick Punto: The web gems in the field aren’t going to be worth it when if you keep flailing like Tony Batista at the plate. Hit .250 and slap the ball and there are no complaints; hit .205 and hit 205-foot fly balls and there are.)

***

(11 a.m. update: The Twins sent down Casilla and called up Tolbert.)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, May 6th, 2009 at 8:40 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.