Who is Alexi Casilla?

Casilla hits a walk-off single in the Twins' play-in game against Detroit in 2009

Acquired from the Angels for left-handed reliever J.C. Romero after the 2005 season, Casilla has spent his career with the Twins bouncing between starter and utility man.  Rated on the cusp of the top 20 Twins prospects at the time of his acquisition, Casilla put together a very strong year between High Single-A and Double-A and even received a September call-up to the big league club.  He started exactly one game, though, and had a total of six plate appearances over the entire month.  His success in the minors was enough for John Sickels to call him "a future Luis Castillo" and to bump him up to #9 among Twins prospects before the 2007 season.  The comparison seemed apt, as Casilla was a high-average, little-power second baseman who had just stolen 50 bases in his most recent minor league season--not to mention the similar last name.

Casilla arrived with the Twins very early in the 2007 season, but struggled to the tune of a .506 OPS over 45 plate appearances before being sent back to AAA at the end of April.  His numbers at that level were less than spectacular, but good enough to convince the Twins that starting second baseman Luis Castillo was expendable.  At the trade deadline he was dealt to the Mets and Casilla replaced him as the Twins' everyday second baseman.  The transition was not smooth, however, as Casilla played only very marginally better than he had in his April stint with Minnesota and found himself coming off the bench for a good portion of September.

This was just the beginning of the frustrations that the Twins organization and fans alike would feel with Casilla.  Seemingly gifted with plenty of talent, Casilla didn't always seem to be in the game.  Defensively he had the ability but mental mistakes doomed him time after time.  He found his way into Ron Gardenhire's doghouse many times over the next few seasons but continued to get chances because the Twins lacked any better options.

And at points he did take advantage of his opportunities, but never long enough to truly gain the trust of Gardenhire and the Twins organization.  Called up in mid-May of the 2008 season, for instance, Casilla went on a hot streak that saw him sustain a .327 batting average and .835 OPS in 180 plate appearances through July 1st.  Although that hot start made his end-of-season numbers look halfway decent, the rest of the season was a struggle, including a hand injury that forced him out of action for close to a month.

Just as he had gotten fans' hopes up that he would live up to his talent, Casilla cobbled together a dismal season along the lines of 2007.  He made two different trips to AAA but found himself on the roster at the end of the season.  That afforded him the opportunity to play in the Twins' play-in game with Detroit.  He did not start, for obvious reasons, but did pinch run for Brendan Harris in the tenth inning.  Only for that reason was he batting in the twelfth inning of a tie game with runners on first and second.  Casilla came up with his crowning achievement as a Twin, a walk-off single to left field that scored Carlos Gomez and won the 2009 AL Central title for Minnesota.  As his own personal reward, that hit lifted his batting average over the Mendoza Line for the season, sparing him the ignominy of a sub-.200 average.

The next two seasons saw improved hitting from Casilla, and his defense continues to pass the eye test.  As long as he can avoid the mental lapses that plagued him early in his career and hit decently, as opposed to abysmally, Casilla has a chance to produce some solid seasons in a Twins uniform.

The Year in Review

2009 was a historic season for the Twins. They closed out their 28-year stay in the Metrodome; Joe Mauer had one of the greatest seasons ever for a catcher; and the Twins completed an unprecedented comeback to win the AL Central. They climbed into a tie for first place on October 3rd for the first time since May 14th, and when they won the tiebreaker game it was the first time they'd been alone atop the division since they were 3-2 on April 10th. Although, perhaps there is some precedent, as the Twins also extended the Tigers' division title drought with a late-season comeback in 2006, which now sits at 22 years.

Also, an interesting note: the Twins' longest win streak of the season until mid-September was 4 games. After September 12th, they had 3 separate winning streaks of 5 or more games.


Record: 87-76
Best record at any point (games above .500): 87-76
Worst record at any point (games below .500): 56-62
Days in first (and biggest lead): 7 (1 GA)
Days in last (and furthest out of first): 0 (7 GB)
Longest win streak: 6 games
Longest losing streak: 6 games
Runs scored/runs against: 817/765
Most runs scored/most runs allowed: 20/16
Shutouts/times shut out: 7/4
Extra inning games: 14
Longest game: 16 innings


Hitter of the Year: Joe Mauer
Pitcher of the Year: Joe Nathan

Bizarro World Hitter of the Year: Alexi Casilla
Bizarro World Pitcher of the Year: Francisco Liriano

I'm not going to write anything about those guys here because that'll be covered when I break down each player's individual season.

Week of 8/24 to 8/30

Hot

1. Denard Span: 9-22, 2 R, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 4 BB:3 K, 1 SB, .409/.500/.591

1. Jose Mijares: 1-0, 8.2 IP, 3 H, 1 BB, 8 K, 1.04/0.46

2. Brian Duensing: 2-0, 13 IP, 10 H, 3 BB, 11 K, 2.08/1.00

Cold

1. Jeff Manship: 0-0, 4.1 IP, 8 H, 1 BB, 2 K, 8.31/2.08
2. Matt Guerrier: 1 SV, 5.1 IP, 8 H, 2 BB, 3 K, 3.38/1.88

1. Joe Mauer: 5-25, 2 R, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 0 BB:3 K, .200/.200/.200
2. Orlando Cabrera: 2-18, 0 R, 0 HR, 1 RBI, 3 BB:1 K, 2 SB, .111/.238./.111
3. Justin Morneau: 3-22, 3 R, 1 HR, 2 RBI, 3 BB:5 K, .136/.240/.364

Defensive Plays of the Week

3- Denard Span makes a running catch in foul ground in the fifth inning of a one-run game and ends up crashing into the bullpen and Jesse Crain in particular.

2- Alexi Casilla makes an excellent play for the second time in the same game, again diving to his right and getting the ball to Orlando Cabrera at second base for the force-out. This time it came with the bases loaded and two outs, thus saving one run at the very least.

1- This was the first Casilla's two amazing plays, and in this case amazing doesn't really fit the bill. Casilla flips it directly from his glove to Cabrera to get the out after Nick Blackburn deflected it.

Oddball play of the week: The play itself is not so unusual, if not for the person who achieved it. Mike Redmond stroked a ball into the left-centerfield gap and managed to make it all the way to third for his first triple in six years. Redmond turned to the dugout, where everyone was laughing uproariously, and screamed, "That's what I'm talking about!" [5:30 mark of condensed game]

Returning to average

That's where the Twins are right now, sitting at .500 for the first time since August 1st. Fortunately for them, in the AL Central that's good enough to be just 3.5 or 4.5 (damn late West Coast games) games back of Detroit. They've also moved into a tie with the White Sox, who've lost three in a row, putting them in second place for the first time since July 29th.

The Armando Gabino experiment, however, certainly was not the catalyst for the Twins' fifth straight victory. He gave up five hits and three walks in only 2 2/3 innings, culminating in four runs, and in addition made an error on a pick-off throw. With Minnesota's willingness to shuffle guys between AAA and the bigs, I'd be very surprised if Gabino got another start.

He was lifted in the third with the bases loaded for Philip Humber, which is usually not a recipe for a win. And Humber didn't do anything to change that, as he allowed 5 baserunners while getting just three outs, including two bases loaded walks.

But Bobby Keppel restored some hope by striking out Melvin Mora when he inherited a bases-loaded jam in the 4th inning. That gave the offense a chance to make their way back, and yet again it was Alexi Casilla providing the spark (more on him in a second). Delmon Young also came up big with a four-hit game that included a walk-off single in the ninth inning. Former Twin Brian Bass was also very helpful, as he allowed all 5 Twins he faced in the sixth inning to reach base, of whom 3 scored to knot the game at six apiece.

Casilla is now hitting .209/.291/.271, which is downright awful; in fact, it's almost an exact copy of Nick Punto's 2007 season. But of late, Casilla has been excellent. He's hitting .417/.450/.583 since August 8th, and he's made several highlight reel defensive plays. Perhaps it's Orlando Cabrera's influence or perhaps it's just a hot streak, but either way it's nice to have someone in each of the nine lineup spots again. And while we obviously can't expect him to hit over .400 the rest of the way, we can hope that he puts up an OPS around .7o0 or .750 the rest of the year, which would make second base respectable again and really help the Twins playoff push.

Week of 8/17 to 8/23

Hot

1. Joe Mauer: 11-28, 6 R, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 6 BB:2 K, 1 SB, .393/.500/.750
2. Michael Cuddyer: 11-31, 6 R, 3 HR, 5 RBI, 1 BB:5 K, .355/.375/.774
3. Denard Span: 12-30, 5 R, 0 HR, 6 RBI, 3 BB:3 K, .400/.471/.567

1. Scott Baker: 2-0, 14.1 IP, 11 H, 2 BB, 11 K, 2.51/0.91
2. Jose Mijares: 0-0, 9 IP, 6 H, 2 BB, 7 K, 0.00/0.89


Cold

1. Jason Kubel: 5-24, 2 R, 0 HR, 3 RBI, 1 BB:6 K, .208/.240/.250
2. Joe Crede: 3-18, 3 R, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 2 BB:0 K, .167/.250/.222

1. Anthony Swarzak: 0-2, 9.1 IP, 16 H, 3 BB, 6 K, 10.61/2.04
2. Jeff Manship: 0-0, 5.1 IP, 8 H, 2 BB, 2 K, 5.06/1.88



--Defensive plays of the week--
(Click on the pictures for a larger image)

#3- Delmon Young makes a sliding catch to end a shaky inning by Matt Guerrier and keep the Twins within reach. They wouldn't make up the ground, though, and wound up losing anyways.

#2- Joe Crede makes a diving stab towards the third base line and fires a strong throw over to Brendan Harris. It sails a little high, but Harris is able to come down on the bag in plenty of time for the out. [Inexplicably, this isn't a 'highlight' on MLB.com, so I linked to the condensed game instead; it's at the 6:50 mark in the video.]


#1- Alexi Casilla makes one of his two awesome plays in the weekend series against the Royals. With two runners in scoring position and two outs, Casilla goes all-out to nab a Billy Butler grounder and save at least one run.


Oddball play of the week- Philip Humber, in a desperate attempt to get an out on a weakly hit grounder, tosses the ball to third base without looking. Unfortunately, the base and Omar Vizquel are the only things in the vicinity as Joe Crede had charged to field it himself. Vizquel scores easily as the ball rolls into foul territory. [Also no individual video, at 1:00 mark of recap.]

The Second Base Experiment

I was browsing through my daily baseball websites when I saw an article on Fangraphs regarding the Kansas City Royals' trade for Yuniesky Betancourt. The main point of that article was to point out what a bad player Betancourt is (he "doesn't hit for power, walk, take coaching well, field, or keep himself in shape"). But what struck me was the first line: "The Royals desperately needed a shortstop. Their collective group was batting a cool .208/.234/.281 [now at .210/.242/.275] with awful defense..."

The thing about that is, that's actually almost equivalent to what Twins second basemen have done in 2009. As bad as those Royal shortstops have been, Twins second basemen have combined to hit .191/.271/.243, resulting in the worst OPS (.514) at any position for any team in the big leagues. Royals shortstops narrowly beat them out at .518, although the Twins second basemen are ahead of them in wOBA (.243 to .236). No other team's position has an OPS lower than .570 or a wOBA lower than .256.

So on the hitting side, I think it's clear that these two groups have been the worst in the league. For the Royals, the culprits have been: Willie Bloomquist (126 PA, .729 OPS, .330 wOBA), Mike Aviles (123, .473, .212), Tony Pena (53, .118, .118), Luis Hernandez (48, .355, .167), and Alberto Callaspo (5, .650, .320); for the Twins: Matt Tolbert (140, .504, .237), Alexi Casilla (121, .467, .221), Nick Punto (66, .686, .336), and Brendan Harris (47, .437, .187). Yes, as surprising as it may be, Harris' time at second was actually the most abysmal.

(As a side note, check out Tony Pena's offensive (in both senses) stats over the past two years and tell me he's not one of the worst hitters ever.)

The Royals SS have combined for 15 walks and 72 strikeouts, a ratio only Delmon Young wouldn't be embarrased by. Meanwhile, the Twins 2B have accumulated just 12 extra-base hits in 374 plate appearances. All of it adds up to some pretty awful performances.

How about that "awful defense" from the Royals shortstops? That should put the Twins over the top, right? Fangraphs doesn't have UZR totals for teams, so we'll have to consider individual performances, which of course causes problems with small samples. Bloomquist (-14.0 UZR/150 this season) is a bad defensive shortstop for his career, but that number is most likely a little exaggerated. Aviles (-8.0) has probably not been nearly that bad, as he rated at 31.6 UZR/150 over almost 750 innings last season. Hernandez (1.7) doesn't have many innings in his career, so I'll just assume that's fairly accurate. Pena's number (-15.4) is almost certainly way off, as before this year he'd logged just short of 2000 innings at shortstop and sported a 14.6 UZR/150.

The Twins defense at second, meanwhile, has been legitimately awful this year. Punto's (13.0) been the bright spot and his career numbers there are good, so it may be a good estimate. Harris (-20.5) and Casilla (-20.1) have been awful this year, and are bad second basemen for their careers, meaning those aren't necessarily too far off. Tolbert (-11.1) has limited innings for his career, so you have to take his value for what it is, and that's not good.

Between their horrible defense and humiliating offense, Twins second basemen have laid claim to being the worst position in the big leagues to this point. Swapping Tolbert for Casilla probably won't solve that problem, as Casilla's been part of it to this point, but I definitely would rather have him than Tolbert.


[Fangraphs also had a good read on Twins prospect Rene Tosoni]

Alexi Casilla's Defense

The Twins got it handed to them on Wednesday against the Indians, as they lost 10-1. But one question was lodged in my head after the game--is Alexi Casilla's defense good? There were a number of plays that had me questioning this, and I'll start by going through them.

-->In the second inning, Casilla ranged to his right to get a slow grounder that hit second base. He picked it cleanly, but didn't throw it as he had no chance to get the runner at first. Was it impressive that he got the ball in the first place, or could someone else have actually gotten an out (on this one I'm pretty confident the answer to that is no)?

-->The next inning, a pop fly was lifted into shallow right field and Casilla managed to run it down, only to have it bounce out of his glove. Again, was it impressive that he even got there? And should it have been an easy catch once he got there, or was it a difficult catch because of the angle and speed he was running at?

-->Then in the fourth inning, with two outs and two on, Casilla made a diving attempt on a ball that rolled by him on the first base side; he came up just short. Would another second basemen have been able to make it, or was it just too far away?

-->That was followed by a remarkably similar play in the fifth inning, except that he got to this one. He stood up and made the easy throw for the out.

-->Later, in the eighth inning with a man on first, Casilla made another diving attempt on a groundball, this time to his right. The ball went under his arm essentially and he was charged with an error. Did he even have to dive, and should that have been an easy play?

-->And the last one occurred in the ninth. Like the play in the fourth and fifth frames, Casilla dove to his left to get the ball, but this time he knocked it down and couldn't control it. It stayed nearby, but he didn't have a chance to throw out the runner at first.


As for my original question, about whether or not his defense is good, his UZR/150 at second base is -8.1 this year (221.1 innings) and -4.0 for his career (1,489 innings). Last year, though, he was almost average with a -0.8 UZR/150 over 833.2 innings.

But basically, I just want other people's thoughts on whether or not he should have made those plays, and whether or not other second basemen would have been able to make the plays.

Liriano finally wins

It took six starts, but Francisco Liriano picked up his first victory of the season yesterday against the Detroit Tigers. He improved his control problems, as he threw 68 of 103 pitches for strikes (66.02 %) and tallied 9 strikeouts to go with that. And had Gardy not left him in for the eighth, his final line would have looked fairly nasty.

Denard Span (4 hits) and Michael Cuddyer (triple, 3 RBIs) led the offense, while Carlos Gomez also added a double in his lone plate appearance. I feel like mentioning every good at-bat Gomez has because I like him so much and am rooting so much for him to do well, and it has been such a struggle for him to this point.

Alexi Casilla's struggles, though, are an entirely different animal. Casilla had a single today, but his OPS is now all the way down to a season-low of .430. It's been almost a month of this putrid offense now, so I think it's time Casilla finds a pretty permanent place on the bench if, as many seem to believe, there are no other options in Rochester. Otherwise, that may be the best place for him. Just so you can have a visual: since April 10th when Casilla went 3-5 with a triple and had an OPS of .757, he has 6 total hits, 1 being a double, in 58 at-bats. That means he's hit .103/.185/.121 for the past four weeks. Nick Punto would be embarrassed by that even if it were August of 2007.

To go back to Liriano's control issue, though--it's no mystery that his control has suffered since his return from Tommy John surgery. It was most evident at the beginning of the 2008 season when he walked 13 batters in his first three starts (10 1/3 innings) and threw just 53.08 % of his pitches for strikes. But his control is still lacking now when it's compared to his All-Star season in 2006.

In 2006, he threw 66.67 % of his pitches for strikes and 66.43% after taking over a rotation spot on May 19th. Then, after the aforementioned horrid start to 2008, Liriano ended up throwing 61.08 % of his pitches for strikes over the course of the season. And this year he has thrown only a slightly better percentage for strikes-- 61.62 %. As one of many adjustments he has had to make since returning from the injury, I think improving this percentage (as he did today) will help him greatly in moving toward his absurdly dominant level of 2006.

April in Review

Be sure to scroll down and check out the monthly Minor League summary too!

April 2009 was a month without Joe Mauer, a month in which the pitching struggled to find its way, and a month in which the Twins wholly outperformed their Pythagorean win-loss record. But most importantly, it was the start of a new baseball season! Without further ado, let's run down the statistics from the month.

Record: 11-11
Best record at any point (games above .500): 3-2
Worst record at any point (games below .500): 4-7
Days in first (and biggest lead): 3 (0.5 games)
Days in last (and furthest out of first): 0 (2.5 games)
Longest win streak: 3
Longest losing streak: 3
Runs scored/runs against: 93/116
Most runs scored/most runs allowed: 12/12
Shutouts/times shut out: 0/2
Extra inning games: 1
Longest game: 11 innings


Hitter of the month: Jason Kubel (76 AB, 11 R, 4 HR, 16 RBI, 0 SB, .303)
It was a toss-up between Morneau and Kubel, with Denard Span an easy third. But I decided to reward Kubel because his April showed a bigger improvement over his career performance than Morneau's April, and he is typically a slow starter. Over the last two years, Kubel has hit .261/.288/.348 and .229/.250/.365 through the month of April, compared to his overall line for those two years of .272/.335/.461. Clearly, I don't think he's going to have a similar improvement the rest of the year as compared to his first month, but hopefully he'll be able to finish the year with much better stats because he didn't have a slow start holding him down.

Three more up
Justin Morneau (88 AB, 16 R, 5 HR, 18 RBI, 0 SB, .318)
Denard Span (81 AB, 10 R, 1 HR, 12 RBI, 5 SB, .321)
Brendan Harris (40 AB, 7 R, 1 HR, 3 RBI, 0 SB, .350)

Bizarro World hitter of the month: Alexi Casilla (69 AB, 6 R, 0 HR, 2 RBI, 2 SB, .174)
With Carlos Gomez, Delmon Young, and Michael Cuddyer's struggles (among others), you wouldn't have thought this decision would have been so easy... but it was. Casilla has been so much worse than any of them, it's just plain shocking. Casilla's OPS thus far is .447. That's almost a full 100 points lower than Gomez's, who has the second-lowest OPS on the team. That's also well over 100 points worse than Kubel's (or Morneau's) slugging percentage! Out of 198 qualified batters, he ranks 193rd in average, 194th in OBP SLG, and 197th in OPS. Now you know why it was an easy decision.


Pitcher of the month: Glen Perkins (29 IP, 2.48, 1.00, 6 BB, 16 K)
While all of the other, more-heralded starters struggled, Perkins put up three consecutive 8-inning outings before getting knocked around a little in his fourth (and most recent) start. All in all, though, Perkins finished the month with the lowest ERA of any of the starters by a full run and a half, and only Jose Mijares and his 3 scoreless innings had a lower ERA among the relievers. He also maintained a WHIP of 1.00 and allowed zero home runs. What is most telling about the pitching this month is that, despite their poor starts, Slowey and Blackburn were both able to rebound and get listed below.

Three more up
Nick Blackburn (31.1 IP, 4.02, 1.37, 7 BB, 12 K)
Joe Nathan (7 IP, 2.57, 1.00, 2 BB, 7 K)
Kevin Slowey (26.1 IP, 4.44, 1.44, 2 BB, 19 K)

Bizarro World pitcher of the month: Scott Baker (14.2 IP, 9.82, 1.70, 4 BB, 12 K)
Baker missed his first start due to an injury, but his return was not as sweet as a Twins fan would have hoped for. He gave up seven home runs total and six runs in each of his two starts, and not coincidentally did not make it out of the fifth inning in either. His last start was decent and most likely indicates those horrible times are behind him, though it wasn't enough to keep him from this unfortunate honor.

The Struggles of a Second Baseman

After injuries decimated the Twins' infield early in the 2008 season, Alexi Casilla got an undeserved call-up from Rochester, where he was hitting just .257/.344/.316 at the time. Though age could be named as a factor for his poor performance, the fact was that he had also proven himself unable to hit AAA pitching over the last two seasons. Luckily for Casilla, the Twins had so many injuries that they had to call him up as a last resort anyways, and luckily for the Twins, Casilla proved at first to be the answer at second base. He hit .313/.351/.424 through his first 62 games (273 PA), which would have ranked him in the top half of second basemen for OPS despite hitting in the AL's most pitcher friendly park of 2008. Unfortunately, he injured his finger on July 28th and went on the DL the next day under the assumption that he would miss the rest of the season. Surprisingly, though, Casilla returned to the lineup less than a month later, but hit only .225/.299/.289 over the final month and a half of the season. For someone with his track record, those numbers should not have been surprising, especially after rushing back from a finger injury that could have been affecting his performance. Nonetheless, it was pretty discouraging and disappointing after his impressive play from May to July. The one part of Casilla's play that remained notable was his plate discipline, as he maintained a 15:20 BB:K ratio even after coming back from his injury. In his minor league career, Casilla had always shown a good eye, so the continuation of this skill into the major leagues was good to see.

Thus far, 2009 has been an absolute disaster for Casilla. He ranks in the bottom 10 in MLB for basically every important statistic: OBP, SLG, OPS, wOBA, and value runs. Even his normally good BB:K ratio has suffered, with 2 walks and 9 strikeouts so far this season. He doesn't seem to be making good contact so far this season either, with a meager 10.2 LD% and a league-worst 50 IFFB%. This is most likely partially the result of his 58% jump in O-Swing% and 25% jump overall Swing%, which indicate that he's being much less selective at the plate. These greater number of swings have also come with a lower contact rate, down from 91% to 83% this year. Take his anemic offense in combination with his at best average defense (-0.3 UZR in 2008, -1.2 so far in 2009), and you have a pretty valueless player who has been worth -$2.4 million in 2009. Combined with his poor finish to the 2009 season and his minor league track record, these numbers show a disturbing trend, as it seems that the Casilla of late 2008 and 2009 is more likely the true player than the one who played so well from May to July last year. If that is the case, then clearly the Twins can not continue with Casilla at 2nd base, and fortunately they already have a better option in Brendan Harris. Harris has proven to be a near league average hitter with a career .325 wOBA, which is higher than even Casilla's supposed great season last year. Though his defense at second base has been sub-par, it's not nearly bad enough for Casilla to be playing over him.

In the end, Casilla should not be playing every day for the time being. I'm not sure if he has any options left, but if he does AAA is a good place for him. He never really deserved the call-up in the first place, and is showing why right now. Otherwise, a bench spot as a pinch runner and occasional starter at second and short is where he should be, with Harris getting the bulk of the starts at 2nd base. Casilla is still only 24 years old, so he has plenty of time to improve, but right now the Twins need to put the player who gives them the best opportunity to win on the field.

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...

7 At Bats

It took Alexi Casilla 7 at bats to hit his first home run this year.

Delmon Young: 167 and counting.
Mike Lamb: 123 and counting.

Now isn't that embarassing...

Tigers Shutout Twins

In a reversal of roles, the Tigers dominated the Twins on Tuesday night in the process of winning 8-0, the fourteenth time this year they have not scored a run over the course of a ballgame. The Twins didn't really do anything well in this game, with the possible exception of turning three double plays (although that really is negated by the fact that they grounded into three double plays themselves). Michael Cuddyer and Garrett Jones notched two hits apiece, and Jones had his first career stolen base. Matt Garza had a poor performance, and Julio DePaula was no better in relief. Of course, Juan Rincon was able to pitch 2/3 of an inning without allowing any runners to get on base.


It looks as if Joe Mauer will play just one more game this year, possibly two. Gardenhire has said he will definitely catch for Johan Santana in tomorrow's game, but that may be it. After a season where he has been hindered by a myriad of injuries, and now may need surgery for a possible hernia, the time off is well-deserved. With the Twins out of the playoff picture long ago, this is a good move which will hopefully aid in getting (and keeping) Mauer healthy for next year. In addition, I found Aaron Gleeman's article regarding Mauer very interesting, especially the last paragraph, where Gleeman compares him to Derek Jeter. I have always thought Derek Jeter is incredibly overrated, and I found the evidence he presents to be very enticing.


Alexi Casilla went 0-3 in today's game, bringing his average on the year down to .228. In the month of September, he has batted just .222/.222/.250. He has not drawn a walk since August 26th and he has not gotten an extra base hit since September 1st. In his last six games, he is 1-20 (.050) with five strikeouts. Why do I bring up these statistics? While I do think he should playing right now, with thoughts of October erased long ago, I don't know if Casilla is ready to be the everyday second baseman in 2008. When the Twins traded Luis Castillo, Casilla was supposed to replace him relatively seamlessly; but that has not happened. Although he has been a threat to steal once on base, the rest of his numbers are not good. I think the Twins should be gunning for at least a division title next year, which puts Casilla in an odd position. While it seems he needs time to develop, the Twins do not (or at least should not) have time for that next year. But at the same time, there is no easy answer to who else there is to play second base. This is one of many things the organization will have to take a long, hard look at in the offseason.


As I finished this entry, the Yankees fell 7-6 in the tenth inning to the Devil Rays, meaning the Tigers have not yet been eliminated from playoff contention. The Twins now get another crack at doing just that tomorrow!