Punto's minors line: 265/362/339, 387:333 K:BB in 2516 PA
Machado's line:   288/364/355, 399:340 in 3276 PA.

thing one: yep, they sure look similar. thing two: 3200+ minor league PA for Machado?? holy cr@p! what were they thinking and why the hell did they not offer him back to Washington? the dude is gonna be 26 next season. his odds of being able to contribute over/above what Punto gives are damned low.

I felt that if he could at least mash LHP, that he'd find himself a spot on this baseball team and would play vs. LHP.

However, my guess is that his lack of athletic ability caught up with him, and he's closer to coaching baseball than continuing to play it.

Career numbers:

.332/.389/.436 -- Redmond vs. LHP
.332/.421/.519 -- Mauer vs. RHP

.272/.328/.331 -- Redmond vs. RHP
.274/.339/.327 -- Mauer vs. LHP

So by not being intelligent about which days to sit Mauer/Redmond, Gardy not only shoots the team in the foot for one game, but both games.

2007 vs RH: 317 23:41 (292)
2007 vs LH: 324 25:15 (151)

career v. RH: 342 97:158 (1178)
career v. LH: 320 83:49 (549)

Yah, I'm with ubes. Stop this foolish "mauer always sits on the getaway day" approach and instead platoon him more conscientiously against the tougher lefties. And maybe move him up to 2nd or down to 6th in the order when he does play against a lefty starter.

But far more important, in my view, is for Smith to acquire another right-handed bat with some pop to better balance the lineup (and provide some above replacement level performance at DH).

As it stands, we can count on the Twins sitting Mauer in the day game after a night game - regardless of the handedness of the opposing pitchers in each contest. I've yet to see Mauer sit in the night game before a day game; it's always the opposite.

.263/.326/.429 -- Kubel, 2007
.311/.398/.520 -- Phelps, 2007
.273/.343/.478 -- Phelps, career

.244/.295/.376 -- Twins, LF, 2007
.263/.339/.373 -- Twins, DH, 2007

The Twins took Machado, who might be a decent backup middle infielder when he's healthy, but to me, this team needed a Matt LeCroy clone more than it needed a Nick Punto clone.

Against LHP, Mauer has 2 career HR, both coming in 2006. If you take away those 2 HR, his ISO vs. LHP in 2006 would have been .061, and his career ISO vs. LHP to this point is .053.

So last year, Mauer's success against LHP, compared to his career numbers, boils down to some singles falling in for hits, a handful fewer strikeouts, and two home runs. Mauer was better last year against LHP, but not in any sort of meaningful way.

It's really, really difficult to draw conclusions from 200 PA. Mauer's likely going to struggle against lefties from here on out, but I don't see that as a huge problem. He's a catcher, the Twins have a natural platoon partner for him, and on top of that he's had trouble staying healthy. So just give him full days off against LHP, especially tough LHP, unless another team has lefties going in back-to-back games. You'd still get Mauer catching 120-130 games over the course of the year, and you'd be maximizing his ratewise performance over those games.

My theory is that he simply plays in too many games. Over the past two years he has played in 97% (300/310) of the games the Twins have played. For a guy that isn't blessed with outstanding natural athleticism, that has to take a toll on your body over the course of a year. Part of me wonders what would happen if the Twins sat Morneau for an extra 10-15 games a year. Would the potential increased production when playing in 140 games but only fill-in first baseman production the other 22 games be more than what is being produced now from 1B? If we had a manager that knew how to manage splits well, I would venture yes. However, with Gardy, I don't know if it would be worthwhile.

I just think the reason why he's "struggled" this year in terms of hitting LHP, and hitting for a higher average in general, is the fact that he's been a bit unlucky this year compared to last in terms of his BABIP...and that he's struggled vs. LHP in 2007 compared to how well he fared against them in 2006.

One guy that's absolutely regressed vs. LHP in 2007 compared to last is Joe Mauer. That .654 OPS he's sporting versus LHP is rather Tyner-esque.

what he said.

Jim Thome's career split
BABIP vs LH: 312
BABIP vs RH: 331

If Morneau were to have Thome's career BABIP splits, he'd be a first-ballot HOFer. Thome has struck out in 22 pct of his PA vs RH, 29 pct of his PA vs LH. Morny, in contrast, has K'd in only 15 pct of his PA vs RH, 17 pct of his PA vs LH.

If you're going to be worried at his splits, be worried about his career splits. Overall in his career he's been a lot worse against LHP, but his OPS vs. LHP is still 100 points better than Jacque Jones' OPS against lefties. Over his career, Jim Thome has done against LHP essentially what Morneau has done so far in his career. Lefty hitters in general also generally have a larger platoon split, so it is kind of the nature of the beast. Hopefully with Morneau entering his prime, his numbers will approach Thome's against RHP, though that's certainly no guarantee.

I don't see any good reason why he can't be a 300/360/520 player on a consistent basis at the major-league level, as they say.

He's hitting .232/.284/.426 versus them this year. While that's not a bad SLG, it's definitely a regression based on what he did in 2006 with his .315/.345/.559. Oddly enough, according to ESPN.com, he posted the same SLG vs. LHP in 2006 as he did vs. RHP in 2006.

While Morneau may not be a career .320 hitter, I do think he's got the ability to hit around .300 on a yearly basis.

His IsoP is still there, and his BB rate is up...I think Morneau is going to be OK.