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The Dreaded Gleeman Cover Curse

Right after Aaron profiled Buscher, he lands on the DL with an infected leg.

Brian Buscher’s right leg infection worsened on Wednesday, so he’s been sent to the Twin Cities to be hospitalized. He’ll be hooked up to an i.v. so he can get medicine in him to attack the infection.

I'm no doctor, but that doesn't sound good. I seem to remember Alex Rios having a bunch of trouble in a similar incident, so hopefully Buscher pulls through soon without losing much strength.

In Buscher's place, we get Tommy Watkins. Don't tell Torii Hunter, but Watkins isn't really a prospect. I can't give you as much as I'd like in the way of stats, since no one gave Watkins a statistical projection for this year.

Watkins progressed sssssslllllllooooowwwwwwlllllllyyyyyy through the Twins' minor league system. Despite progressing so slowly, his career minor league line is roughly .249/.331/.336. Since moving to AAA, he's actually been not awful as far as hitting for power, but even his line of roughly .272/.349/.396 this year in Rochester suggests that maybe he'll be the next Nick Punto (.315/.353/.396 in the IL in 2003.)

Another thing that looks bad to me is that the last time Watkins hit decently was his first year in AA. He regressed after that, which could have been the league "figuring him out," but who knows. Maybe Watkins took a step forward this year and can be a legit AAAA player, but I kind of suspect that he won't even turn out to be a solid backup.

This entry was posted by ubelmann on Wednesday, August 8th, 2007 at 5:56 pm and is filed under Guest Writers, MLB, Minnesota Twins, ubelmann. It is one of 821 entries by the author. We are no longer accepting Letters to the Editor on this post.

7 LTEs so far

  • SBG
    August 8th, 2007 at 6:04 pm

    Yep. This organization is almost completely devoid of everyday player talent... and think of it. They haven't traded away any prospects! Yes, they've got some quality guys in Mauer, Hunter, Morneau and Cuddyer that came through the organization, but wow, nothing left.

    • Moss
      August 8th, 2007 at 10:58 pm

      Sadly, they may have to trade away Santana to be viable beyond next year. They almost certainly have to trade away Nathan.

  • davidwatts
    August 8th, 2007 at 6:14 pm

    I’m no doctor, but that doesn’t sound good. I seem to remember Alex Rios having a bunch of trouble in a similar incident, so hopefully Buscher pulls through soon without losing much strength.

    you're right, they sound similar. From LEN III blog concerning Buscher the other day

    Brian Buscher is out of the lineup with an infected leg. He fouled a ball off of it in Cleveland and was diagnosed as having a bruise at the time. But now it looks like a little alien is trying to escape out of this leg. He may need to have it drained…

    from last year, here is how MLB.com described Rios

    That made it clear that Rios would not be heading with Toronto on its upcoming seven-game road trip, which begins in Texas on Monday. After Saturday's game, the right fielder -- whose leg became infected after he fouled a pitch off his shin, above his ankle, on Tuesday -- was placed on the 15-day disabled list, retroactive to Wednesday.

    Rios, who is hitting .330 with 15 home runs and 53 RBIs in 72 games, was admitted to the hospital on Thursday after the area of his leg bruised by the foul ball became infected. The 25-year-old outfielder has been treated with antibiotics, and the wound was drained on Friday.

    source: http://toronto.bluejays.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20060701&content_id=1532847&vkey=news_tor&fext=.jsp&c_id=tor

  • Dread Pirate Will Young
    August 8th, 2007 at 6:49 pm

    I saw Watkins play in the minors and Mandelaro didn't do his defense justice. It's actually much worse than implied. Of course, he's a nice guy and a helluva bunter (I would hope), so he might be Dick's new mascot.

  • Banjo
    August 8th, 2007 at 6:57 pm

    Odds on the Hunter/Mandelero flap over Watkins being mentioned by either Dick 'n Bert or Gordo and Morris...

  • E-6
    August 8th, 2007 at 7:07 pm

    re: The Dreaded Gleeman Cover Curse

    This might explain Jessica Alba's career arc...