I was never a big Orlando Cabrera guy, but if you’ve been among those mocking the current batch of middle infielders, then it seems like you have to give the deal a chance. It’s not really fair to be ripping on the front office for not doing anything and then call out, “Oh, no. Not THAT middle infielder!”

Yesterday, I cited the July “offensive” numbers (a/k/a/ the offensive offensive numbers) from the Twins’ current second basemen and shortstops:

Punto .194 BA/.346 OBP/.274 slugging
Harris .189 BA/.221 OBP/.311 slugging
Casilla .146 BA/.314 OBP/.171 slugging

And what about Cabrera in July?

.373/.400/.500. And 16 RBI in 116 plate appearances, compared with 17 RBI in 207 PA from the holey trinity above. Cabrera has batted first or second most of the season and, hitting in the second spot, has a .305 average and .346 on-base percentage in 52 games.

Defensively, Cabrera doesn’t have the range of Punto or Harris and has made more errors per game (.16) than any regular shortstop except for Elvis Andrus of the Rangers. But if the argument is about coming up with a solution for the final two months of the season and you’re willing to sacrifice some defense to eliminate what has felt like a batting order with too many automatic outs, then this is a dice roll worth taking.

On the intangible level, Cabrera should be extra motivated by the fact that he’s playing with a one-year contract that he signed for a below-market $4 million over the winter. (His previous deal was four years and $32 million.) Further, he shares the loathing for the White Sox and manager Ozzie Guillen, who said of Cabrera last year: ‘To me, the problem is Orlando thinks he’s better than what he really is.’

I’m disappointed that the Twins haven’t yet improved their pitching. But even though this deadline has passed, the Twins can pick up a player if he clears waivers. One of the XM voices this afternoon speculated that, because of the current baseball economy,  there could be more waiver action than usual during August because teams may be willing to simply dump some salaries without worrying about getting anything in return. You’re not going to get Roy Halladay that way, of course, but you never know who might be out there as teams drop further from contention.

In other words, the pressure is still on Bill Smith to improve the Twins. Keep expecting more.

This entry was posted on Friday, July 31st, 2009 at 6:27 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.