Notes, quotes and comment

Eduardo Nunez got his
10th double of the season
Friday night and is now
hitting .306.

Eduardo Nunez has now started four straight games at shortstop. The Twins have won three of those games, which should not be inferred as cause-and-effect.

Nunez long ago convinced almost everybody that he lacks the skills to play shortstop in the major leagues. I presume that Paul Molitor's sudden reliance on him speaks to the continuing offensive struggles of Eduardo Escobar.

And I further expect that soon enough Nunez will play his way off the shortstop job. At which point the Twins will either bring back Danny Santana or give Jorge Polanco a trial.

Nunez has his uses as a reserve player. Molitor has been adept at finding at-bats that play to his perceived strength of hitting velocity. I doubt Nunez is going to emerge as a regular at any position, much less one as defensively demanding as shortstop.

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The Twins released Jordan Schafer, which shouldn't be a surprise. As I said earlier this week, the Twins have too many outfielders with more worthy demands for playing time.

Schafer did a good job for the Twins last year, but even this his .707 OPS merely made him a league average hitter, and it was vastly out of step with his previous major league record. He was miscast at the start of this season as the primary center fielder. That he was hampered by injury didn't help matters.

His release opens a spot on the 40-man roster, which will presumably be filled in a few weeks by Ervin Santana.

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The Twins announced Friday that they have signed 20 of their 40 draft picks. Three of their picks in the first 10 rounds are still unsigned, but that's not alarming. Yet.