From today's Twins notes:
Sunday's game marks the fifth straight with Redmond and Joe Mauer in the lineup together, which creates a bit of uneasiness for manager Ron Gardenhire.
"That's why we started with three catchers, so you don't have to worry about that," Gardenhire said.
And later on...
"We'll play it by ear," Gardenhire said. "We talked about getting another player up here with all the guys beat up.
"If Redmond keeps swinging, I'd sure like to get a third catcher up here."
Okay, for the sake of argument, say that it's a really huge problem that the Twins could lose the DH in the middle of a game. (Note: By my count, in the last 2+ seasons, the Twins have had a catcher DH 46 times, and it hasn't ever been an issue.) What's the best solution to this problem?
Here's an idea: how about we get a DH who has better than a career .718 OPS? Mike Redmond's a great backup catcher, but the Twins shouldn't be going out of their way to make him the DH, especially against right-handed pitching. Obviously, there are only so many roster options that they have in the middle of the season, so it's easier to call up a third catcher than it is to acquire a good DH. But that's not really the point: This situation was completely foreseeable, yet the Twins had no good plan in place to address it.
The big problem is DHing Redmond. I'm okay with catching Redmond and DHing Mauer once in a while. But, this DHing Redmond every day is a new kind of torture. Because, the Twins can't pinch hit for him, because then, what if Mauer gets hurt -- who will catch? This is a valid concern.
No, Redmond should (almost) never DH. Yesterday, it should have been Tyner. And hey, what about a bat somewhere? Anyone? Buehler?
No, Redmond should (almost) never DH. Yesterday, it should have been Tyner. And hey, what about a bat somewhere? Anyone? Buehler?
I just can't wait for Rabe to stop getting playing time. His PECOTA forecast calls for -11 VORP in 400 PA, and he's already at -3 VORP in a mere 18 PA. Apparently he's in a hurry to get his full VORP before RonDL comes back.
It's one thing to keep Kubel from starting against Scott Kazmir. Jorge De La Rosa, though? And we had trouble scoring runs? Big surprise there.
Catchers-in-th'-wings update: Korey Feiner (New Britain) logged four BB's yesterday against Conn. Defenders.
His stats as of 4/22:
Player AVG G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI TB BB SO
K Feiner .474 7 19 5 9 2 0 0 3 11 5 5
The obvious solution would seem to be to DH Kubel. I know he hasn't hit a lot yet, but he hasn't been in the lineup more than two or three days in a row. Almost everyone says he'll hit if given a chance, but he's never really been given one. It has to be harder for anyone to do his job when he knows he'll be replaced the first time he's less than perfect. Given the alternatives, I don't understand the reluctance to give him a shot.
The obvious solution would seem to be to DH Kubel. I know he hasn’t hit a lot yet, but he hasn’t been in the lineup more than two or three days in a row.
Yeah. Gardy refuses to hit Kubel against lefties, but no, he really believes Kubel can hit lefties, it's just a big coincidence that he never gets any playing time. Riiiight.
Disputed by Gardy in LEN3's blog: LEN3- "Gardy told me a couple of days ago that he feels that Jason Kubel can hit lefties and will get his shots. But Gardy has used the Tom Kelly approach to not letting the bench get stale and has given Rabe some at-bats against lefties. "
There might be more "hunch playing" than you'd be comfortable with, but the part about keeping the bench scrubs fresh does seem to be a fairly consistent approach going back to Kelly's tenure.
Jacque Jones got 614 pathetic AB against LHP in the four years he was in Minnesota with Gardy in charge. When Kubel starts getting the Jacque Jones treatment, I'll believe that Gardy thinks he should be hitting lefties. How many times did we hear that Jones needed to hit against lefties in order to hit against righties?
Which is to say, if Gardy wants to be consistent, then he'll write Kubel's name in the lineup every day if he thinks Kubel can hit lefties. Kubel doesn't even have enough plate appearances to qualify as a regular for the batting title and such.
Also, it's one thing to "keep the bench fresh," but there's no reason to make an effort to give semi-regular starts to everyone on the roster. Rabe is a 4-A player who's only on the team while Ron-DL is out, yet he's had 5 starts and one appearance as a pinch-hitter in 12 games since 4/10. Why would any manager do that at the expense of a genuine prospect on the team? It's not even like Rabe is being rewarded for a hot streak; he's 2-for-18 with no XBH and no walks (.111/.111/.111).
Pointing to TK is just a dodge. "Oh, you can't question it, because TK did the same thing." Really? TK liked to platoon blue chip prospects with 4-A filler? His idea of "keeping the bench fresh" was to play his 4th or 5th OF every other game?
TK certainly did keep his bench fresh, and he would break rookies in slowly, but not Gardy's way. An example that springs to mind is Knoblauch in 1991. He only got 400-some at bats, with Al Newman getting a fair number of starts at second base. Still, there was no question that Knoblauch was the regular second baseman, and as the season progressed, he played more and more.
And in that case, Newman was a veteran utility infielder. The manager might understandably use that kind of player to help break in a rookie 2B, and otherwise he might keep such a player fresh by moving him around a few positions throughout the season.
Rabe is a 4-A player who’s only on the team while Ron-DL is out...
I agree with all of your points, but I would like to point out that one of the things that irritates me most about this situation is that Rabe isn't even a 4-A player. He's a AAA player. Over the last three years at AAA, he hit .268/.343/.356. League average in the International League is 0.259/0.326/0.390. As a 27-year old corner outfielder with shaky defensive skills, that doesn't even make you a good AAA player.
Rabe is a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency player.
OK. I wanted to give Rabe some benefit of the doubt, that he might become a standard, bad reserve OF in the majors for a few years if given the chance, but I thought his AAA numbers were better than that.
Gardy is just trying to force the return of Corky Heintz
Also, if you look at Redmond's and Kubel's numbers so far, you can't really say that either one has done much better than the other. That is, if you think Redmond has the hot hand, his hand isn't any hotter than Kubel's.
And this from the story ubelmann linked:
Well, that sure worked out great. I'm glad the Twins were happy before making Jeremy de la Rosa look like Johan de la Rosa.
I read in another article that they quite often do not take full-fleged BP on Sundays, so it wasn't quite as out of the oridinary as that sttory made it seem.
Yeah, I think that's pretty standard practice for Sunday afternoon games.
Hunter was parading around the clubhouse chanting, “No BP, no BP.â€
Leadership!
Kind of like Bartlett's leadership in the field....