i was thinking more like batting a guy in the 2 hole who sucks so much at hitting that he is always bunting with a guy on 1st and 0 outs.

sending both runners on 3-2 with 1 out is actually pretty standard. i can entertain the argument that it may have been wrong in that particular situation, but i'm not very confident that it was. it actually might decrease the chances of a double play more than it increases them (especially considering the batter).

I've been wondering what the breaking point is for Gardy when it comes to hitting a middle infielder second. Would I (very scrawny, couldn't hit the ball out of the infield in little league) bat 2nd if I was playing at 2B or SS?

can anyone recall a time this year when the #2 batter wasn't a middle infielder?

From ESPN stats: (they can give team stats based on batting order and such stuff)

BATTING #2

NAME GP AB
Nick Punto 1 3
Orlando Hudson 49 197
Matt Tolbert 7 25
J.J. Hardy 4 16
Trevor Plouffe 1 4
Alexi Casilla 4 2 1
Jim Thome 1 1
Delmon Young 1 1

And I'm guessing the only two MI on this list (Thome and Young) were PH appearances, since it's one game and one AB.

So no, I don't think anyone can recall that (which I know was your point)

----------------
Well, ESPN lists Tolbert as a 3B, but has played 90% of the time at 2B.

With Span getting a day off, and Mauer DHing, 4 straight automatic outs for us today in the lineup.

8.Harris
9.Buterrible
1.Punto LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOL
2.Plouffe

And Cuddy playing CF

Harris/Butera/Plouffe have a combined .198 OBP!!! Not exactly the table setters we need.

Yeah everything today is brutal. Playing possibly the worst possible outfield defensive alignment in MLB when you have the pitcher with the lowest groundball rate in baseball on the mound is apparently not a recipe for success.

So apparently Hudson will play on Tuesday, requiring one of the futility infielders to go back to AAA.

If they send down Valencia, we should stage a ****ing riot outside Target Field. He's the only one who has shown any semblance whatsoever of being able to hit MLB pitching. He has looked solid defensively thus far also.

As far as I'm concerned, let him take over at 3B every day for a while, and Punto can be the 2B/SS/3B fill in guy.

But knowing Gardy, he could hit .500, but if he only has experience playing 1 infield position, he will be replaced by someone who can play all of them but bats .150

i didn't catch the game today but !!!!

I don't know what you've seen in Valencia... he has not looked good imo. Not sure if I've seen him hit a ball hard in his entire stint at MLB and he hacks at everything. I'm guessing Plouffe will be sent back down though when Hudson is back.

thx for losing to the braves.

Does anyone else think Butera could literally be the worst player in MLB history? It would surprise me if anyone so consistently terrible at every level of pro baseball had made it to the show before.

As opposed to Plouffe, Tolbert, and Harris who are crushing the ball all over AMIRITE?

He's batting near .300, which is what is important. Granted, a bunch of his hits were IF hits, but a baserunner is a baserunner.

IIRC, he was outstanding in spring training, and Gardy even said he didn't want to send him down to start the season. I think the Twins feel like he could be the future at 3B for us, so lets let him get some AB there when nobody else seems to be able to produce.

i agree with this...but i also agree with Schwatt that he has the most (short-term) potential of any of the options.

It is probably pretty close between Harris, Plouffe and Valencia. Harris used to be decent, Valencia used to have some power and Plouffe, I would guess, is the best defensively, although I'm not sure of that. Offensively he isn't far behind them either.

I agree Buterra has to be in the running for worst ML player of all time. Like, his OPS is <.400 and I don't think he is really even running bad.

The guy I'd like to see up, other then Slama that is, is Jason Repko. He is a 29yo RH CF who is playing full-time in AAA for the 3rd straight season. Exciting, right?

His career OPS at AAA is .830 which has to be on par/better than any of these awful infielders. He would mean having 2 actual CFs on the roster (he is supposedly great defensively). He would probably even have a place in the vLHP starting lineup, pushing Cuddyer to DH and Kubel to the bench (or even better Cuddyer to 3rd and someone awful to the bench!)

Career MLB IsoP of .145! +22r/150 over tiny 600 inning sample in CF.

Once both Hardy and Hudson are healthy, I agree with Repko. We need another legitimate CF, who can come in as a defensive replacement. He has good speed as well, so he could pinch run for Kubel/Thome, and not be completely inept at the plate if he has to bat.

It was really nice last year with Gomez, having 2 pretty good defensive outfielders in late-game situations. If Hardy and Hudson could just stay healthy, we wouldn't have to have so many backup infielders on the roster.

WTF is the deal with Morales? He's played 28 games now at AAA, not sure how many at catcher, but what are we waiting for? Butera is such a huge leak it's not even funny.

Him and Ramos appear to be splitting C/DH pretty evenly.

I've also been intrigued by Repko when looking at the AAA stats. He looks like one of those undervalued guys who gets written off after a couple unsuccessful stints in the majors (and some injuries).

Went to the game on Sunday, sat in the second row in CF, had a blast besides the lopsided score. Was a bit hungover (brothers bachelor party the night before) but it was nothing that a couple Summit's and a corndog couldnt fix. Spent most of the game walking the concourse, seeing the sights, since the game itself wasnt that compelling. I'm really impressed by the way they put the seats in, there really isnt a bad seat in the entire stadium. Sight-lines are really good. Food was a little disappointing, tbh.

It doesnt rank way up there among my top 5 favorite stadiums or anything but its still pretty good. With the learned helplessness of most Twins fans and their crushed expectations from being in the Dome, I'm not surprised that everyone raves about it.

Not to derail (too much), but I'd be interested what your top 5 are? I am not taking offense to what you said--I'm out of state, so I haven't made it to a game in the new stadium yet, and I know there's a lot of good parks built in the past 10 or so years.

1. Comerica Park
2. Yankee Stadium
3. Wrigley Field
4. Fenway Park
5. Whatever the **** the Royals play in

.

Good win.

Every starter reached base safely at least twice except Mauer and Morneau LOL!

Delmon is on a ****ing tear. Thome is gonna have a tough time getting starts if Kubel keeps swinging well too.

Yeah Target Field is quite a bit nicer than Kauffman. Tbh I like it more than Camden too.

I doubt I'll ever like anywhere as much as Wrigley, but hoping to check out Fenway next summer...

I hate Fenway because the Twins are 0-3 in the games I've been at, and Boston people suck. I love Wrigley, since the Twins are 2-0 in games I've seen there. And they're 4-0 at Target field (hopefully 5-0 after Thursday game which I'll be at).