Hello, Goodbye

===>In addition to releasing Livan Hernandez, the Twins have done the same with Craig Monroe! At this point, I am really shocked--in a good way. I never thought they'd get rid of one, let alone both, of them. They are certainly both good moves (with Hernandez's being necessary), but I am just so thrilled that the Twins actually made them. Randy Ruiz has replaced Craig Monroe on the roster, and made his Major League debut last night at the age of 30. He started at DH and went 1-3 with a run scored. Hopefully, he can provide some semblance of a right-handed power bat at DH. I really think he has a chance to be very helpful to the team, at least until Michael Cuddyer comes back.

===>I am into full mockery mode with Adam Everett. I've started making comments like "it's hard to score with only eight hitters in your lineup" and "Oh, it looks like Everett went up to bat, and the ump told him not waste everyone's time and called him out". I thought he might show some resurgence after having all that time off, but his bat appears to be as horrible as ever. Granted, I can't watch the games, so I can't judge his fielding, but if he continues to be this bad on offense, there's no caliber of defense to make up for it. I mean, I really was rooting for him on Thursday, when he was 0-4 and came up with 2 outs and the bases loaded... but he proceeded to ground out. At some point, a guy has had all his chances.

===>As it turns out, it looks like there is a chance, albeit very small, that Alexi Casilla will not miss the rest of the season. We'll know for sure in about a week, but that would certainly be a huge boost for the Twins. They really need to get somebody else if he is out for the season, because a lineup that includes Everett, Nick Punto, and Brendan Harris will be really pushing the Twins' luck to make the playoffs. Well, really just one that includes Everett. I'd be willing to give Alejandro Machado a chance if Everett doesn't have a sudden turnaround; or, if they're okay with Harris at short and Punto at second with really no other middle infielders, they could bring Matt Macri back up. Maybe they'd get rid of Mike Lamb and do both? I would still be betting heavily against it happening, despite the Twins' recent transactions.

===>For the record, Machado is a career .294/.364/.360 minor league hitter and is now 26 years old. He had five at bats a few years ago with the Red Sox, collecting one hit. In his Triple-A career (2005, 2006, and 2008), he's batted .300/.359/.379, .260/.356/.346, and .338/.346/.525 with 85 walks and 104 strikeouts. This year's stats have been accumulated in just 80 at bats, his first at bats since 2006 due to an injury that cost him all of 2007.

===>I do not understand the White Sox trading for Ken Griffey Jr. I'd say more about, but firejoemorgan.com wrote all that can be said about it. Be sure to read their analysis of the trade, as it's one of their best posts I've read, and their stuff is usually very funny.

Casilla on the DL

Suddenly this has a huge impact. Now Brendan Harris, Nick Punto, and Brian Buscher will seemingly be playing everyday, with Adam Everett periodically filling in for one (particularly for Buscher against lefties). Yes, that Adam Everett. He's finally back after spending the last two months on the DL and subsequently rehabbing his injury. Immediately after being outrighted to the minors, the Twins changed course and he was added to the Major League roster due to Alexi Casilla's finger injury. I don't know about you, but I look at the lineup now and see a huge void. It appears Nick Punto will hit second and I don't like that at all. I think the best thing to do would be to move Joe Mauer back to the number two spot, but I can't see Gardy doing that at this point.

And why not move Harris back to second base and put Punto at shortstop? Gardy has indicated Harris will play short and Punto second, which doesn't make much sense. Punto is a very superior defender so shouldn't he be at the more demanding position? Everyone agrees Harris is very stretched at shortstop. Is his inability to execute the double play from second base so bad that he should play short of Punto? I guess Gardy thinks so...

Everett Heads to DL

Apparently Adam Everett did not spend enough time resting his shoulder on his last trip to the DL. Perhaps he played too much pick-up basketball. Or perhaps he took up tennis for that short period of time. But whatever the case, he's back on the DL, making it three Twins' middle infielders occupying a space there. With Nick Punto and Matt Tolbert already out, the Twins' choices at middle infield are becoming quite sparse. Alexi Casilla and Howie Clark have already been called up, and now Matt Macri will also be joining the big league club. I like him a lot better than Clark because he's still at least a fringe prospect (he'll turn 26 on May 29th). Again, though, his defense has been far from good, leaving the Twins with a very frustrating infield. With a combination of Mike Lamb, Macri, Casilla, Clark, and Harris at second, third, and short, the infield will certainly continue to be underwhelming defensively.

Perhaps not just defensively either. Would anyone ever have thought that we'd be pining for Nick Punto's offensive contributions from last year?

Nick Punto's 2007 OPS: .562
Adam Everett in 2008: .559
Mike Lamb in 2008: .518

The Twins move to Detroit for a three-game series this weekend. Tonight's game will pit Kevin Slowey, who's still searching for his first win, against Armando Galaragga.

Injury Notes

Yesterday's game was a good one, with the Twins picking up a 3-0 victory over the Indians. Justin Morneau hit his fifth home run in the first inning and Carlos Gomez added an RBI single in the second, which was all the Twins would need. Joe Nathan continued his flawless start to the year in order to notch his sixth save.

A few injury updates, though, that need attention:

It appears that Kevin Slowey will be ready to come off the disabled list soon, which begs the question of who should be taken out of the rotation. Clearly, Francisco Liriano has been the worst pitcher, but do the Twins want him to continue making Major League starts in order to aid his comeback from Tommy John surgery? Nick Blackburn may be the choice, but he is certainly making it hard with the way he is pitching. After yesterday's 7.2 shutout innings, he lowered his ERA to 2.49. He also got his first Major League win; he did all this despite striking out only one Indian. It will be interesting to see what the Twins do.

Michael Cuddyer could be ready to rejoin the Twins on Friday. When Cuddyer comes back, I think the obvious choice is to send Denard Span right back where he came from. I don't have any problem with him, and I've been rooting for him to do well, but he hasn't performed. Therefore, when there's rumors that Gomez might be sent down instead, it's a little puzzling. If Gomez really begins to struggle, I would much rather see Jason Pridie than Denard Span getting regular starts in center.

And Adam Everett was put on the DL with a shoulder injury, opening a spot on the roster. The Twins used it to call up Brian Buscher, who will start today at third base and will be hitting sixth. Everett's injury gives Gardenhire the perfect opportunity to start getting Nick Punto in the lineup all the time, as he is today, unless Matt Tolbert continues playing lights-out baseball.

Speaking of the lineup today, it looks very different. Joe Mauer is getting a day off, as Mike Redmond takes over catching duties for the day. Morneau is resting from the field, starting at DH, with Mike Lamb moving over to play first. Add in Buscher, who's playing his first game of the year, and Punto, who hasn't played much this year, and the lineup looks drastically different.

Oh, what could have been.

I was reminded of this feeling all too rudely yesterday, after the Twins gave away two 5-run leads in losing to the Tigers, 11-9. After twenty-four consecutive innings without scoring, the Tigers suddenly realized that they did in fact have a good offense. They scored four runs in the sixth, one in the seventh, and six more in the eighth to complete their comeback. Matt Guerrier and Pat Neshek bore the brunt of the runs, with Nick Blackburn having three charged to his name too. The Tigers' victory also allowed Blackburn's first win to elude him again.

The offense had a good night, evident in the fact that they put nine runs on the board. They took advantage of multiple costly errors by the Tigers, but Adam Everett made his own very costly error in the eighth (Isn't that what he's supposed to be good at? Because he certainly isn't hitting). Joe Mauer continued his hitless streak (0-14), despite getting on base via the walk three times. And the aforementioned Everett did actually pick up two hits in the game, one being a double. It was his first multi-hit game of the year and his first extra base hit.

That about does it for yesterday; there's plenty more I could say but it can be best summed up as a game that got away from the Twins. Hopefully they'll send the Tigers back to their reeling ways today.

Statistical Predictions

Well, guesses really. But doesn't it sound a lot more official when I call them predictions? Or maybe I should call them projections. Yeah, that really sounds official. So these will be my statistical projections for the Twins players in 2008. You'll probably disagree with some, perhaps all, but I'll have fun looking back in October to see just how dumb I was those six months ago. Without further ado...

Joe Mauer: .307/.394/.482, 18 HR, 89 RBI, 11 SB
Justin Morneau: .288/.360/.553, 36 HR, 122 RBI, 1 SB
Brendan Harris: .272/.349/.406, 11 HR, 68 RBI, 13 SB
Adam Everett: .250/.331/.369, 6 HR, 49 RBI, 6 SB
Mike Lamb: .266/.340/.418, 16 HR, 75 RBI, 2 SB
Michael Cuddyer: .281/.351/.441, 21 HR, 83 RBI, 7 SB
Carlos Gomez: .248/.317/.379, 12 HR, 67 RBI, 25 SB
Delmon Young: .295/.332/.509, 27 HR, 103 RBI, 10 SB
Jason Kubel: .314/.382/.534, 26 HR, 98 RBI, 3 SB

In reality, I thought of these as I typed them, and it took me no more than fifteen minutes. So, there was no research done, not much thought put into it, just gut feelings. And I'm sure that I have a huge bias because of my Twins fandom, but what's wrong with being optimistic?

As a side note, I may do projections for pitchers but it's a lot more up in the air, and I don't want to embarrass myself too much.

Positional Comparisons

There's no doubt it was a tumultuous offseason for Minnesota. Franchise players came and went, and when the dust settled what we had was a team that looked drastically different than the one the Twins had in 2007. But is it better or worse? I thought I'd take a look at the Twins [projected] roster and compare it to last year. Where did the Twins improve? And where did they lose out?

Catcher:
2007- Joe Mauer
2008- Joe Mauer
Well, there was no change here. Hopefully Mauer can bounce back from a relatively disappointing year and produce closer to his 2006 campaign, so I anticipate this position being a little better than last year.

First Base:
2007- Justin Morneau
2008- Justin Morneau
Again, the same player, but now with a new contract. Will Morneau, like Mauer, be able to return to his 2006 form? Will his new financial security have any effect on his play? Either way, I definitely think that he should improve over last year.

Second Base:
2007- Luis Castillo/Nick Punto/Alexi Casilla
2008- Brendan Harris
Harris is undoubtedly better offensively than the Twins' second basemen last year. Even with modest numbers he'll dwarf Punto's and Casilla's stats from 2007; as long as he's not the worst hitter in the league, this position will be better off. That being said, his defense is more questionable, but I think the significant offensive improvement will prove to be more important.

Third Base:
2007- Nick Punto/Luis Rodriguez/Brian Buscher
2008-Mike Lamb
A similar situation to second base, in which Lamb will in all likelihood be an improvement offensively, but potentially a liability defensively. Compared to the third basemen as a whole, Lamb will also be better than what the Twins had in 2008. It would be a little closer if we considered him versus just Buscher, rather than against Nick Putrid. Whoops, I meant Punto.

Shortstop:
2007- Jason Bartlett
2008- Adam Everett
After the blockbuster trade with the Rays, the Twins were left with a void at shortshop, which they shortly filled by signing ex-Astro Adam Everett. A defensive specialist, he is well below average offensively. That being said, his career OPS of .656 is comparable to the production the Twins got last year (Bartlett's stats were dragged down by Casilla's and Punto's time at shortstop). Hopefully, Everett hits around his career averages, which would allow us to overlook his offense for his defense.

Left Field:
2007- Jason Tyner/Jason Kubel/Rondell White
2008- Delmon Young
The biggest part of the aforementioned trade will take over left field duties for the Twins. This should no doubt be an improvement over last year. Even if Young repeats his performance from last year, he would be better than the combination that was trotted out there last year. White was abysmal again, Tyner was predictably underwhelming, and Kubel didn't play there enough to make the left field stats look good. Hopefully, however, Young will hit markedly better than last year.

Center Field:
2007- Torii Hunter
2008- Carlos Gomez/Jason Pridie/Denard Span??
This is the first position where there isn't a clear-cut frontrunner for the starting job in 2008. New acquisitions Gomez and Pridie, along with former first-round pick Denard Span, all have a chance to start on opening day. I don't know how likely Span is to start, as his minor league record doesn't indicate he's ready, but it seems like Gardenhire is high on him. No matter who it is, we can expect a significant downgrade from 2007. Even though there was basically a consensus that Hunter couldn't be re-signed, there should also be a consensus that none of these guys will come close to matching his production.

Right Field:
2007- Michael Cuddyer
2008- Michael Cuddyer
Only the third of the eight positions that will have the same starter as 2008. Cuddyer had a down year after a great 2006, and was given a new multi-year contract this off-season. Along with Mauer, Morneau, Young, and Kubel, he should combine to make a somewhat formidable middle of the lineup that will help make up for the likes of Adam Everett and probably Nick Punto, who Gardenhire will surely find a way to fit in the lineup.

Designated Hitter:
2007- Jason Tyner/Rondell White/Jason Kubel/myriad of others
2008- Jason Kubel
It's about time Jason Kubel gets a regular starting position, and there doesn't seem to be anyone in the way of him this time. Gardenhire has been known to do stranger things that start Craig Monroe at DH, though (for instance, starting Jason Tyner at DH). Kubel should be much better than what was used as an excuse for a DH last year, and I think he will make significant strides toward becoming a very good player.

Well, that wraps up my positional outlook for 2008. More season preview things to come over the next week and a half, including a divisional preview, statistical predictions (which will admittedly be essentially arbitrary guesses, but will certainly be interesting to look back on at the end of the year), and a comparison between the 2007 and 2008 pitchers.

Adam Everett Signed

UPDATE 12/13 6:42 PM: The deal is worth $2.8 million, the same amount that Everett made last season, plus 200K in incentives.

According to Ken Rosenthal, the Twins have signed SS Adam Everett to a 1 year deal. This comes 1 day after the Astros non-tendered the defensive specialist after acquiring Miguel Tejada from the Orioles. The offseason started great with the acquisition of Delmon Young, but with the Craig Monroe and now Everett signings, I'm not sure where this team is headed. Right now, I don't see the point in signing Everett, with Alexi Casilla, Nick Punto, and Brendan Harris already available to play middle infield positions. Everett is considered by many the best defensive shortstop in baseball, but his career offensive numbers, including a .299 career OBP, are absolutely putrid. Another no-hit, all-defense player is not exactly what the Twins needed. At this point, I'm not really sure what direction the Twins are headed, but I'm getting worried that they're going to try to compete this year and then lose Johan Santana for just draft picks. There's plenty of offseason left, though, so I'll try to be optimistic until I see the entire offseason plan.

UPDATE 12/14 3:25 AM: I didn't feel like making a whole new entry about this, but I just wanted to say that I've been following the Mitchell Report, and I plan to post my opinion on it after I read the whole thing. I'm not even going to try to read until finals are over and winter break start, though, so it will probably be up at the end of next week.