Outfield misadventures

Oswaldo Arcia brings his home run home Wednesday
night at Milwaukee. What he gained with his bat he
gave away with his glove defensively.

Long-time readers of this corner of cyberspace know that I believe that the quickest way to improve a bad pitching staff is to improve the outfield defense.

An outfield with both Oswaldo Arcia and Miguel Sano, I believe, is too heavy a burden for the Twins pitching staff to carry.

I recognize the tradeoff involved. Teams need to score some runs, and corner outfielders are expected to produce at the plate. That, at least, Arcia has done in his limited playing time. Sano, not so much.

On Tuesday it was Sano whiffing on a catchable ball for an error and misplaying a catchable ball at the wall for a "double" that had Ervin Santana gesturing in frustration. On Wednesday it was Arcia failing to cut off a single for an error and allowing a fly ball to land on the warning track for another "double."

Somebody has to catch the ball in the outfield and keep the pitchers in the game. The Twins can probably live with one butcher in an outfield corner. They cannot contend with two of them.