Gotta be the shoes

Danny Valencia and Billy Butler in
presumably friendlier times.

You may have heard about this already: Danny Valencia, former Twin, and Oakland teammate Billy Butler got into a fight in the clubhouse last week. Butler got the worst of it; he missed two games over the weekend and now has gone on the concussion disabled list.

As reported by Susan Slusser in the San Francisco Chronicle, the altercation originated when a representative of an equipment maker asked Valencia about a pair of off-brand spikes in his locker. Valencia assured the rep that he doesn't wear those in games, whereupon Butler interjected himself into the conversation to say that Valencia was lying and Company X should drop his endorsement deal.

There are three things here, at least one of which is probably no surprise:

• Danny Valencia is willing to lie to get or keep an endorsement deal worth several thousand dollars.
• Billy Butler is willing to go out of his way to get in the way of that deal.
• Somebody thinks Danny Valencia's choice of game spikes is worth several thousand dollars to the maker of those spikes.

.The third is the one that puzzles me.

Ex-Twins watch: Danny Valencia for Liam Hendriks

Interesting deal Monday between the Kansas City Royals and Toronto Blue Jays, two teams that have at times led their divisions but have fallen to second place. Well, interesting to Twins fans, at least. It's unlikely to change the standings in any meaningful way.

The Royals shipped third baseman Danny Valencia to the Blue Jays in exchange for catcher Erik Kratz and pitcher Liam Hendriks.

Despite my title for this post, the trade's not really Valencia for Hendriks. It's Valencia for Kratz with Hendriks as a throw-in. But to a Twins fan, Kratz is an unknown, and Valencia and Hendriks are a couple of guys we once held hopes for.

Valencia it a fairly empty .282 for Kansas City. The Royals picked him up during offseason presumably as a platoon option with Mike Moustakas, a high draft pick who has disappointed. Moustakas has been even worse than Valencia, but Ned Yost is apparently as allergic to platoons as Ron Gardenhire, so the platoon notion never went anywhere. The Jays have a bunch of corner infielders on the DL (Brett Lawrie, Edwin Encarnacion, Adam Lind), so they can find at-bats for Valencia, at least until these superior players return.

The Royals wanted Kratz as an upgrade on their backup catcher; Brett Hayes has hit .135 in very limited at-bats behind Salvador Perez. Kratz has at least flashed some power in the majors, which is more than Hayes offers. He's an upgrade, but not a significant one.

And Hendriks? Well, we're fairly familiar with this from the Aussie: The Jays gave him three big league starts, in which he worked a total of 13.1 innings and compiled a 6.08 ERA. In Triple A, Hendriks is 8-1, 2.33.

I really don't know why he dominates in the high minors and is so inept in the majors. He'll be for the Royals what he was for the Jays -- rotation depth in Triple A.

Notes, quotes and comment

Danny Valencia is hitting over .300
so far for Kansas City, but most of
his playing time has come against
left-handers.

Important if true: Mike Berardino, the Pioneer Press beat writer who is also a Baseball America alumnus, says BA's mock draft 3.0 will project the Twins taking Tyler Kolek with the fifth overall pick June 5.

That would be the first mock draft to diverge from the Nick Gordon-to-the-Twins scenario, and an indication that BA's reporting suggests that scouting directors are truly leery of the health risks posed by truly high-velocity high schoolers. Kolek is regarded as the hardest-throwing prep pitcher of the draft era, which opened in 1965 with a guy named Nolan Ryan in the field.

No prep right-hander has ever gone 1-1, and if Kolek doesn't I don't know what it will take for it to happen.

---

Former Twins third baseman Danny Valencia, on his third organization since washing out in Minnesota, figures to get regular playing time in Kansas City. The Royals shipped stalled prospect Mike Moustakas back to Triple A Thursday.

Valencia has put up a slash line of .308/.362/.423 with K.C., but that's not only in limited at-bats, it's come mostly against lefties. Right-handers have always turned off his faucet. Valencia would be a more useful player if platooning were common, but it ain't the seventies.

The Royals entered the season with playoff ambitions. Moustakas' failure dampens those ambitions. Valencia as a full-time player will dampen them further.

---

It took the Dodgers a couple of days, but they released ear-chomping catcher Miguel Olivo on Thursday evening.

Perhaps there were procedural issues behind the delay, but canning Olivo had to happen. I expected it to come much sooner than it did.

I note that the original stories all cited Scott Boras, the high-powered agent whose client list includes the chompee (Alex Guerrero), as the source for the information about the chomping. I wonder if Boras went public quickly because he knew the Dodgers hoped to downplay the incident rather than lose a piece of catching depth.

---

A big ouch: Prince Fielder figures to have spinal fusion surgery in his neck. If so, he will miss the remainder of the season.

I don't know enough about such things to guess at how much it will affect his play in future years. Fielder has seven years and more than $160 million left on his contract, which Texas inherited from Detroit; the Tigers will pay part of that, but on the whole Dave Drombowski, the Detroit GM, is looking really bright in moving Fielder off his payroll last winter.

The irrepressible Nick Punto

It begins to look as if Nick Punto, not Danny Valencia,
is the ex-Twin Bobby Valentine trusts at third base.

The Twins early this month traded Danny Valencia to Boston in a waiver deal. The Red Sox, with rookie Will Middlebrooks installed at third base, sent Valencia to Triple A Pawtucket.

He didn't stay there long. Middlebrooks broke his wrist, and Valencia was recalled. He made his Red Sox debut on Aug. 11 as a substitute. He started on Aug. 12; the 13th was an off day; he started again on the 14th.

And since then, almost nothing; indeed, Valencia made just one more appearance before being sent back to Pawtucket on Tuesday. Four games, nine plate appearances, one hit.

Know who's been playing third base for the Red Sox for the past week as they desperately try to resuscitate their playoff hopes? Nick Punto.

Yes indeed, the king of the headfirst slide, the longtime bane of the Twins Internet community, started four of the five games since the 14th (through Monday; he wasn't in the lineup Tuesday evening).

Will this last? I don't know, but I still find this intriguing.

Ron Gardenhire, Tony LaRussa, now Bobby Valentine. Three managers of some repute and accomplishment, and each, with a season in the balance, has at least once stuck Punto in his infield. Gardenhire, of course, did so at three different positions; LaRussa relied on Punto at second base during St. Louis' surprising run to the World Series title last October; and now Valentine seems intent on using the veteran at the hot corner.

Danny departs, Nishi returns

Danny Valencia:
Major league averages
went from .311 to
.246 to .198.

Just before game time Sunday Minnesota traded Danny Valencia to Boston for minor league outfielder Jeremias Pineda. During the game the Twins announced that Tsuyoshi Nishioka was being recalled from Triple A to fill Valencia's spot on the 25-man roster.

Start with the new guy. Pineda, a switch-hitter, has a .421 batting average in the Gulf Coast League this year. That's good. The bad news is, he's old for the entry-level league at 21. I'll regard him as a marginal prospect until he does something at higher levels. Hitting .400 gives him the opportunity to move up.

It's not a shocker that the Twins moved Valencia. After an impressive rookie season in 2010, he regressed in 2011 and was awful this season. Trevor Plouffe has clearly moved ahead of him at third base, and Miguel Sano is on his way sooner or later. Valencia doesn't figure in the Twins' long-term or short-term plans, so they used him to buy a Pineda lottery ticket.

I'm not sure why Boston put in a claim on Valencia. He doesn't figure be a threat to Will Middlebrooks' job, and he lacks the kind of statistical markers that appeal to the usually stat-savvy Red Sox. Perhaps they just felt the need to plug a hole at their Triple-A affiliate, to which they immediately assigned Valencia.

Tsuyoshi Nishoka
hit .245/.309/.301
in Rochester this year,

Valencia was back in the majors for the past week-plus filling in for the injured Plouffe, even though he hadn't done much in Triple A to warrant his return. There's not much in his minor league stats to suggest Nishioka has merited a return either.

Which makes me wonder if this is a one-last-look thing. The Twins having been paying Nishioka $3 million to play in Rochester, and they are on the hook for another year of that salary. If Nishioka doesn't give Ron Gardenhire reason to want to keep him around (or another team reason to want to assume his contract), the logical options are to either release him or work out some sort of buyout to send him back to Japan.

The Twins aren't going to cost themselves a playoff berth by taking a fresh look at Nishioka now. As a prelude to eating the rest of his contract and moving on, it makes sense.

Trading Valencia opened a spot on the 40-man roster. We'll see what if anything the Twins do with that vacancy. They do have two starting pitchers, Carl Pavano and P.J. Walters, currently on the 60-day DL and thus not on the 40, beginning rehab assignments. Reactiving either will require spots on the 40.

The disabled list stall

Danny Valencia:
He's baaack.

It happens with almost comic predictability:

A Twins player suffers an apparently minor injury. He is deemed "day-to-day," and one day bleeds into another without him playing until, after a week or so, he finally goes on the disabled list.

It happened again over the past week with Trevor Plouffe and his bruised thumb. All through the road trip Plouffe was said to be a day or two away. Not today, maybe tomorrow -- and tomorrow never came.

On Friday, Plouffe was deemed ready. He was in the lineup. Then he took batting practice, and suddenly he was out of the lineup and (finally) onto the disabled list.

So predictable. One of my tweeps asked the day Plouffe was hurt how long it would take the Twins to put him on the DL. My guess was 10 days. It turned out to be six.

This is one of the many questions surrounding the Twins medical staff, at least for those of us on the outside. Are the diagnoses and recovery times being bungled by the trainers and doctors? Are the players simply lying about their condition? Is management deliberately holding back on putting players on the disabled list to save a few bucks? (Players on the DL are paid; the players called up to fill their roster spot have to get at least the major league minimum, which is more than they're paid to play in Triple A.)

It might be any, all or none of those things. I don't know. What I do know is that this kind of fiasco happens far too often. It's one aspect of the organization that really needs to be tightened up. The Twins are carrying 13 pitchers, and having one of the "active" position players unable to contribute really limits the manager's bench options.

In the Plouffe case, I suspect some wishful thinking was involved. The obvious player to take his roster spot was Danny Valencia, and there's no reason visible in the stats to believe he's earned a return to the majors. I don't think the Twins really want Valencia back on the big club. As it turned out, they couldn't avoid it.

Imagining the Twins outfield without Span

Denard Span is hitting .280/.344/.384 this year.

The metaphorical dam holding back the anticipated flood of pre-deadline trades appeared to break Monday afternoon. None, however, involved the Twins.

One of the names often bandied about -- last summer and this -- as trade bait is that of Denard Span, the Minnesota center fielder and leadoff hitter. I'm not going to argue that he should or shouldn't be traded -- the answer to that depends on who the Twins get in such a trade.

No, my thinking is along these lines: If Span is traded, and if the Twins don't get an outfielder who clearly should be playing as part of the deal (they probably wouldn't), what would the Twins outfield look like the rest of the way?

It's easy and obvious enough to say that Josh Willingham would remain in left field and that Ben Revere would shift over to center (and move into the leadoff spot as well). Right field is the question.

Option A: Chris Parmelee. He's spent most of his sporadic major league time at first base, but he's played almost as much right field in the minors as first.

As the roster is currently constructed, there's no real use for him; Justin Morneau/Joe Mauer/Ryan Doumit are splitting first base, DH and catcher, and Revere has taken over right field. But Parmelee has hit in Triple A (.302/.446/.510), and it makes sense to find some PT for him in the majors.


Drawback: Parmelee's not going to help the pitching staff much in right. Like Willingham, he'll have to hit to justify his lineup spot. 


Option B: Darin Mastroianni. The opposite of Parmelee: A right-handed hitter who is a good defensive outfielder, very fast, not a lot of power.


If Ron Gardenhire were so inclined, a Mastroianni-Parmelee platoon might make some sense. (It would also, as somebody -- I think Kirsten Brown -- said on Twitter a while back, sound like an Olive Garden entree.)


Drawback: Mastroianni is probably better suited to the fourth outfielder role than a regular's job.


Option C: Move Trevor Plouffe to right, with (most likely) Danny Valencia getting a fresh shot at third base.


Drawback: Valencia hasn't really earned a return. He entered Monday hitting .249/.287/.399 for Rochester.


Option D: Somebody now playing at Double A: Joe Benson, Oswaldo Arcia, Rene Tosoni.


Drawbacks: If Valencia hasn't earned a return, that goes double for Benson and Tosoni.  Arcia's been in New Britain about a month, and I can't see the Twins pushing him up two levels so quickly. If the Twins do go for one of these guys, however, I'd like to be Arcia.

Dumping a failing player is only half the battle

Jason Marquis has
walked 11 and
struck out 10 this year.

The middle third of May is when the Twins in years past axed the likes of Sidney Ponson and Ramon Ortiz. It's when when they dumped the left side of their infield in '06.

The Twins made some significant changes in roster and roles already this week — Brian Dozier, Danny Valencia, Francisco Liriano. After the travesty that was Thursday's performance, one has to expect more changes.

Jason Marquis was billed when he signed as a guy who threw strikes — a description that did not match his statistical record, and has been flatly contradicted by his 2012 performance. As Aaron Gleeman noted on Twitter Thursday, Marquis has thrown strikes at the same rate this year as Francisco Liriano.

As wild as Liriano, but without Liriano's stuff — that's not a workable combo for a major league pitcher.

Liriano lost his starting job. Marquis ought to lose his.

The problem is: With whom do you replace him?

The same question hovers over the Valencia demotion. He wasn't getting the job done. But it's a sound principle to know what Plan B is when Plan A is jettisoned. If there is a clear plan for third base now, I don't see it.

Playing Trevor Plouffe there is ... well, it's an engraved invitation to low comedy like the pop-up "base hit" Thursday. Catcher Ryan Doumit never saw it. Marquis ran in and was in position to catch it, and then he backed off. It appeared, from Marquis' actions, that Plouffe called him off. But Plouffe wasn't anywhere near the ball when it dropped.

The handling of Plouffe this year has been baffling. He's supposed to be an outfielder, on the theory that reducing his defensive responsibilities will give his bat a chance to shine. But he's spent the first month-plus subbing in around the infield, and he's hitting under .160. The theory isn't getting a true test.


I'm dubious about Plouffe to begin with, but if the organization seriously believes there's a player there, they have to stop whipsawing him.

Shake it up

Wednesday's game followed an all-too-familiar pattern for the Twins: The starting pitcher (in this case Carl Pavano) gave up multiple runs early, the bullpen did a decent job (one run allowed in five innings), the hitters got some men on base but failed to fully capitalize on the opportunities, and the Twins lost.

Ibid.

P.J. Walters inherits
Francisco Liriano's
slot in the starting
rotation.

What came after the game wasn't the same old, same old. Some significant moves were made — both in terms of roster and roles. Let's sort through the carnage:

Pitching: Francisco Liriano to the bullpen, P.J. Walters brought up to start on Saturday, Matt Maloney designated for assignment.

The attempt to reset Liriano by skipping a start didn't work, and so the next step is taken.

Liriano figures to get low-leverage innings — long relief and mop-up chores. Which is basically what Maloney was doing. Maloney's minor league stats intrigued me from the day the Twins claimed him on waivers from Cincinnati, but he didn't pitch anywhere near well enough to keep his job, much less find an expanded role.

Walters is a right-hander who has gotten 51 major league innings, mostly with St. Louis, and was signed as a minor-league free agent with more of an eye on improving the Rochester staff than the major league staff. He's done pretty well in Rochester (3-1, 2.70), so he got the call. I'm not sure he's any better than Anthony Swarzak.

Darin Mastroianni
got into one game
for the Blue Jays
in 2011, going 0-for-3.

Position players: Danny Valencia optioned to Rochester, Darin Mastroianni called up.

Valencia was 0-for-May. His slugging percentage had fallen below .300. And his defense at third is still nothing to hang his hat on.

Mastroianni is yet another fourth-outfielder type — runs well enough to play center, throws well enough to play right, doesn't have enough thump to be a regular.  He was hitting .365 in Rochester with 10 steals. He's played a little at second base, but I doubt he's proficient at it.

One of the beat writers said on Twitter that Alexi Casilla, Jamey Carroll and Trevor Plouffe would split time at third base. I think it's more likely that Carroll will play second and Casilla will get the bulk of the time at third. In a sense, this replicates the 2006 infield configuration after the Twins axed Juan Castro and Tony Batista: Luis Castillo at second, Nick Punto at third and the rookie Jason Bartlett at short.

Mastroianni may platoon with Erik Komatsu in right field, at least until Justin Morneau returns from the disabled list and forces Ryan Doumit out of regular DH duties.

If Valencia's job wasn't safe, Plouffe's can't be either.

Notes, quotes and comment

My all-time favorite Brandon Inge photo,
illustrating the virtue of a baggy jersey.

Brandon Inge is 34. The Tigers released him Thursday. His slash line this season (20 AB) is .100/.100/.300. He hit .197 last season. He can't hit any more, possibly because of the big metaphoric fork stuck in him. He's done.

And multiple sources say that the Twins are interested in signing him,apparently with the notion of demoting Danny Valencia and going to a platoon of Inge and Sean Burroughs.

It's a silly idea. If valid, it is also a damning indication how far Valencia has sunk in the esteem of the Twins decision makers.

---

Delmon Young and the Detroit Tigers arrived in New York on Thursday evening and the former Twins outfielder wasted little time in, well, getting wasted.

And arrested. And charged.

He's not, obviously, the Twins problem anymore. I am, however, curious if the Twins ever saw any indication of a drinking problem during his time with them.

---

The Washington Nationals announced Friday that Bryce Harper, age 19, will make his major league debut Saturday. Harper hasn't been tearing it up in Triple A, so this is a bit of a surprise. It's been a while since a teenager played in the majors; Harper will be two years younger than any other player in the majors.

I don't expect him to stick all season, because financially it makes more sense for the Nats to hold back his service time. It's cheaper to let him develop in the minors, and as I noted, he hasn't been knocking the door down.

---

Yankees general manager Brian Cashman on the season-ending surgery for trade acquistion Michael Pineda:

Our fans are right to be upset about this. I'm devastated by it. I just hope everyone understands that every move I make is to improve this club, not hurt it.

The Twins "fun bunch"

John Shipley, beat writer for the Pioneer Press, was on ESPN 1500 Wednesday night talking about covering the Twins at the end of their misbegotten 2011 season. I listened to some of it on a static-ridden car radio while waiting in a parking lot for my wife.

Trevor Plouffe  

It shouldn't be any surprise to hear that September was a miserable month to be around that team. A lot of grumpy people taking too many losses and itching for the season to end.

What I found interesting was Shipley's description of what he called "the fun bunch" -- a collection of young players who didn't appear to be taking the job seriously. He named, specifically, Trevor Plouffe, Danny Valencia and Drew Butera, and said that the team took steps to split them up in the clubhouse (I assume by shifting lockers.)

Chris Parmelee was emphatically not part of the fun bunch. He saw September as a chance to make an impression, and he took advantage. As a serious fan watching the games, I was impressed by the consistent quality of Parmelee's at-bats; Shipley was impressed by his demeanor.

There was an incident, fairly early in the season, in which it was reported that a "veteran" had loudly and profanely told off "a young player" who was pleased with himself  during a losing streak. While it was never specified who was who, my assumption was/is that the veteran was Justin Morneau or Michael Cuddyer and the youngster was Valencia or Plouffe.

Whoever was involved, Shipley's description of September suggests the lesson didn't take.

I'm unsure how much weight to put on this. None of the three players Shipley named had a good season, but is that the result of a "who cares" approach, or is the attitude an attempt to cope with failure and maintain the emotional "even keel"  that Tom Kelly talked about so much? I don't know.

But if (a) a player isn't doing the job as well as expected and (b) the people in charge perceive him as being flippant about it, then (c) that doesn't bode well for the player's future.

Most disappointing Twins

Joe Mauer's lost season was, at least in the eyes of USA Today,
not as disappointing as the seasons of Pedro Alvarez,
Jason Hayward or Brian Matusz. Really.

USA Today on Thursday printed a list of the 10 most disappointing players of the 2011 season. (The link is to a slideshow.) Incredibly, none of the paper's 10 are Twins, and I therefore regard the list as fatally flawed. None of the 10 had good seasons, none lived up to expectations, but ... I'm much closer to being a Joe Mauer apologist than critic, but he has to be one of the top two or three disappointments in all of MLB.

The Twins 2011 season -- only seven games to go -- has been so dismal that one can make a Top 10 disappointments list for the team that would stack up pretty well to the USA Today list.

10) Danny Valencia: Lower in every percentage from last season, and a brutal season in the field by the defensive metrics. He leads the team in RBIs, but WAR (Wins Above Replacement) says he's easily replaceable.

9) Denard Span: Was the team's best player until his concussion. Since then, he's either been out of action or completely ineffective -- so ineffective that he now has the lowest batting average, on-base percentage and slugging percentage of his career.

8) Brian Duensing: 5-1, 2.73 as a starter in 2009; 7-2, 3.05 as a starter in 2010; 9-13, 5.29 this year.

As difficult a season as Matt Capps
has had, he's not nearly the most
disappointing Twin of 2011.

7) Matt Capps: Didn't thrive in the closers role, and his strikeout rate dropped sharply this year.

6) Justin Morneau: He's not ranked higher because nobody was really sure what to expect from him in his return from 2010's concussion. As we wind up 2011, nobody can be sure what to expect from him in his return from 2011's concussiion.

5) Kevin Slowey: As a starter, he was always flawed by a lack of durability, but he was still generally effective. Shifting him to the bullpen this spring didn't work, and the failure brought on an avalanche of other problems. He's been in the rotation in September, and that isn't going well either.

4) Delmon Young: The Tigers apparently are delighted with Young, but he followed last season's 21 homers, 112 RBIs and .294 batting average with 4, 32 and .266 before the Twins dumped him -- and a lower slugging percentage than Alexi Casilla.

3) Tsuyoshi Nishioka: Even discounting his stellar 2010 season in Japan, it seemed reasonable to expect him to provide league-average play at second base. He broke a leg in the first week of the season, played shaky defense at both second and short, and didn't hit at all.

Far too many walks for Francisco
Liriano this season to maintain
2010's success.

2) Francisco Liriano: Yes, he had a no-hitter. He also went from 14-9, 3.63 to 9-9, 4.77 -- which understates how poorly he pitched.

1) Joe Mauer: Career lows in virtually every category, excluding his 2003 rookie season -- and even then he had better slash stats. His absence behind the plate, I believe, played some unmeasurable part in the decay of the pitching staff.

Knocking on the cellar door

Poetry in motion: Danny Valencia and Tsuyoshi Nishioka
turn this soft grounder into an infield single — and allow
a runner to score from second base.

Decades ago, one of my buddies was in a play. I don't remember the name or the plot. All I remember was one of Ron's lines, which he delivered with gusto: "Down in the cellar with the rest of the rats!"

Which, it becomes increasingly clear, is the Twins ultimate destination this season. Monday night's sloppy loss reduced the tragic number to 12. It also left Minnesota a mere half-game behind the Kansas City Royals in their desperate battle for last place in baseball's worst division.

When Dick Bremer is repeatedly conceding that the Twins won't win the division — and he seemed to alert the audience to this fact Monday night with the frequency of CNN flashing "breaking news" on two-day-old stories — things have gotten so bad that even the professional optimists of the hometeam broadcast booths can't ignore it.

Monday morning's post cited some sophisticated defensive numbers that put a spotlight on Danny Valencia's shortcomings defensively. Joe Christensen gets specific on what he's doing wrong, particularly on plays to his glove side.

Note there the dissonance between the player and the manager. The manager is focused on the runs the Twins gave away Monday; the third baseman is focused on the runs the Twins hitters didn't create.

When everything is broken, it's not easy to identify what to fix first. The weekend announcement that the Twins will add three days to spring training — not for games, but for defensive drills — suggested that the first priority is going to be defense. Gardenhire's postgame talk about the defensive flaws suggests the same.

Pity this crew chief

If Hunter Wendlestadt is umping, there's a real
good chance that Ron Gardenhire's getting ejected.

Hunter Wendelstadt and Ron Gardenhire are like fire and nitroglycerin. Bob Davidson— who, I just discovered, grew up in Duluth, which doesn't speak well for Duluth — is probably the worst umpire in the majors. Brian Knight is in his first year as a full time ump.

That is three-fourths of the crew at Target Field for this series. This is probably the kind of umpiring crew one should expect when two of the worst records in baseball meet in late August.  It's not particularly good, and it's pretty confrontational, particularly when the Twins are involved.

Wendelstadt had the plate Monday night, and the odds are pretty good when Wendelstadt has that many calls to make that Gardy's going to be ejected. Gardy was (eighth inning); so was Danny Valencia in the same at-bat. I could tell from my seat more than 300 feet from home plate halfway through the at-bat that Valencia was (a) not going to get a call from Wendelstadt and (b) there was a pretty good chance that somebody was leaving the game. (Note: It's seldom the umpire.)

One thing that I took note of: When Valencia was ejected, Gardenhire (of course) popped out of the dugout, and crew chief Jerry Layne came in from second base. Layne had to know this was coming — there's no way for Wendelstadt and Gardenhire to get through a four-game series peacefully — and I'm sure he wanted to defuse the situation quickly if possible. (It's also possible that there are such conflicting reports coming back to the commissioner's office on the Wendelstadt-Gardenhire confrontations that they now want Layne to witness.)

Meanwhile, Davidson was down a third base feeling neglected. Expect "Balkin' Bob" to take action at somepoint to make sure we all know he's around. Valencia and Gardenhire were the first ejections of this series. They will not be the last.

Musings on blog hits

Do not underestimate the power of the Gleeman.

Earlier this week I put up a post about a play on which Delmon Young displayed a decided lack of hustle. It drew no comments, and the blog got hits at its usual rate.

On Thursday, Aaron Gleeman linked to that post. And the hits went through the roof almost immediately — three times the normal rate.

(I check my stats with a frequency that belies the advice I give anyone silly enough to ask me for advice about their blogs: Don't worry about hits. Write and post things that you like. If it's good, it will find an audience, or an audience will find it. And if the audience doesn't flock to it, at least you like it. In truth, I believe that -- but I sure know if my audience is finding me.)

Things settled back into a more normal range Thursday evening, but the Young post had already become this blog's third most visited post, with every likelihood of becoming the second most visited.

The photo they all
want to see.

But it has no chance of catching the leader. That belongs to a post from last June, shortly after Danny Valencia was called up. Titled "Contemplating Danny Valencia," it took a skeptical view of the rookie third baseman's minor league record.

And it contained a photo, the team mugshot taken during spring training.

That photo is the draw. Image searches on Yahoo and Google are bringing multiple visitors to that post every day. In almost any given week, "Contemplating Danny Valencia" is my most visited post. It had 43 visitors in the past week, and that's fairly typical.

There are either a lot of people contemplating Valencia's face, or, perhaps, a few obsessives contemplating it repeatedly.

I guess this is proof that I do, in fact, follow my own advice. If I were just looking for more hits, I'd post more Valencia photos. I have yet to post his 2011 mug;  I'm waiting for a post good enough to want it seen thousands of times.

Contemplating Danny Valencia

I've not been too high on Danny Valencia. Entering the season he was an old prospect with middling power numbers and little control of the strike zone, reputed to play mediocre defense and to grouse a lot.

And now ... well, after 14 hits in his last four games, he's hitting an even .400. It's just 90 at-bats, 98 plate appearances, but his OPB is .449 and his slugging percentage is .511.

Nobody can seriously believe that he's really a .400 hitter; I suspect that if he played every day the rest of the way he'd hit under .300, but that is at least in the realm of possibility.

The most impressive piece of his stat line to me is his walk-strikeout ratio: eight walks, 11 strikeouts. That matches his walk total in Triple A last season (282 pate appearances).

If he's really capable of a BB/K rate close to 1:1, he's a bona fide major league hitter, even if not a slugger. But he has no track record of that in the minors.

This I know: He's playing for a manager given to sticking with the hot hand regardless of the underlying skills, and he's hot. And with two infield regulars on the disabled list, somebody's got to play.

He's going to get plenty of opportunity to find his true level.

The third base hole

Danny Valencia wears No. 19 on his back, which is oddly appropriate. He happens to be the 19th man to start at least once at third base for the Twins since Corey Koskie's departure after the 2004 season.

He's played all of six games, 22 official at-bats — not anywhere near enough to put any weight on the stats. But so far, he hasn't given the appearance of being the guy to end the revolving door at the position.

Yes, he's hitting .318. He's also slugging .318 — all seven hits have been singles. He's had one walk and six strikeouts. And he wasn't racking up the extra base hits in Triple A either.

The infield remains a sore spot right now, with Orlando Hudson on the disabled list and J.J. Hardy, while not on the DL, a candidate to join him. The current alignment — Matt Tolbert at second, Valencia at third and Nick Punto at short, with slumping Brendan Harris in reserve — is pretty punchless.

Get Hardy and Hudson healthy, and the Twins can readily carry a defense-oriented third baseman. Both Tolbert and Punto have had stretches of everyday play in which they contributed solid on-base percentages. (And they've had stretches in which they haven't.)

What will be interesting to see is who falls off the roster when Hudson and Hardy return to the lineup. Valencia would seem a likely candidate to return to the minors, with Tolbert sliding into the deep-reserve role played initially by the now-injured Alexi Casilla and the Punto-Harris combo returning to play third.

Or perhaps the decision makers have tired of watching Punto (.219) and Harris (.162) fail at the plate. Perhaps Tolbert goes back to Rochester and Valencia gets a longer look at third, with Punto and Harris as the bench guys.

I'd prefer Punto or even Tolbert at third. But my vote doesn't count.

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For the record, here are the 19 men (in alphabetical order) who've started at least one game at third base for the Twins since 2004:

Tony Batista, Brian Buscher, Alexi Casilla, Juan Castro, Jeff Cirillo, Howie Clark, Joe Crede, Michael Cuddyer, Brendan Harris, Luke Hughes, Mike Lamb, Matt Macri, Nick Punto, Luis Rodriguez, Terry Tiffee, Matt Tolbert, Danny Valencia, Tommy Watkins and Glenn Williams.

Dire straits in the Twins infield

That was quite the infield Ron Gardenhire started Saturday in Oakland:

• First base, Brendan Harris — slash stats entering play .163/.250/.228.
• Second base, Matt Tolbert (pictured) — .154/.154/.154
• Third base, Danny Valencia — .250/.250/.250
• Shortstop, Nick Punto — .202/.283/.260

Granting that Tolbert and Valencia had combined for just 21 major league plate appearances entering the game, it's a pretty grim state of affairs when Nick Punto is the slugger of the infield.

Behind such a makeshift alignment: Injuries, absences and weariness.

• Orlando Hudson, who the Twins had expected/hoped would be ready to return to the lineup in Oakland, isn't; I rather expect him to go on the disabled list Tuesday when Michael Cuddyer returns from the bereavement list.
• Justin Morneau needed a day off, and came a pinch-hitting appearance short of actually getting one.
• J.J. Hardy, who is just 5 for 38 since returning from the disabled list, was scratched with a sore wrist but wound up pinch-running for Morneau and scored the winning run.
• And Cuddyer, who has started games at first and second this season, is gone for his father-in-law's funeral.

That strange asemblage worked. Tolbert drove home the winning run. The infield played cleanly, with Harris making a savvy play to turn an off-target throw from Punto into a tag out. Valencia and Punto each had a single and a walk.

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The winning rally featured an odd managerial decision: With the score tied, the bases empty and one out in the top of the ninth and Brad Ziegler pitching for Oakland, Morneau pinch-hit for Harris. Ziegler is a submarine righty vulnerable to left-handed hitters, and Morneau has been on a tear.

Oakland manager Bob Geren defied the convention that says you don't put the winning run on. He had Ziegler issue an intentional walk. Hardy ran for Morneau. Then Punto walked, putting runners on first and second. Denard Span grounded into a force play, moving Hardy to third, and Tolbert singled.

Counting Morneau, Ziegler had to face four straight left-handed hitters, two of them with the go-ahead run in scoring position; he got one of them out.

Late night: Mariners 4, Twins 1

Box score here. Game story here.

One run per game just doesn't work well in 21st century baseball. And that's the starvation diet the Twins lineup has served up to the pitching staff the past three games.

Not that Carl Pavano was all that wonderful Thursday. He had his habitual problem holding runners on base. Ichiro Suzuki (above) swiped three bases by himself. Seattle stole five bases in the first three innings.

And King Felix reigned over the Twins hitters, striking out four men in the eighth inning (Joe Mauer reached on a third strike that eluded catcher Rob Johnson).

Danny Valencia picked up his first major league hit. The plan for him is to return to Triple A when Michael Cuddyer returns from his bereavement leave on Tuesday.

Jesse Crain had another shutout inning. He has made eight appearances since May 18, allowing one run and four hits in eight innings with one walk and seven strikeouts.

Contemplating Danny Valencia

With Michael Cuddyer gone for the rest of the road trip — he's on bereavement leave after the death of his father-in-law — the Twins filled his roster spot not with an outfielder but with a third baseman, Danny Valencia (pictured).

Valencia has been called the Twins third baseman of the future, but he's 25, is not a notable defensive player and hasn't hit a homer yet this season in Triple A. His future isn't all that promising.

Still, it's a pretty good bet that he'll start every game that he's up for.

A few other thoughts:

• Who's the fourth outfielder? Nick Punto? Matt Tolbert? Ugh. This team is even more vulnerable now to an outfield injury or ejection.
• One reason to call up Valencia rather than an outfielder: There are no minor league outfielders on the 40-man roster. The Twins aren't going to waive somebody else to bring an outfielder up for four games.
• Another reason: As unimpressive as Valencia's minor league numbers appear on closer examination, with Cuddyer out for the next four games, the Twins badly need some right-handed thump, especially against Oakland. Today's game is against a right-handed starter (Felix Hernandez); no real problem with having Jim Thome DH with an outfield of Delmon Young-Denard-Span-Jason Kubel. Oakland, however, has a lot of lefties in its rotation, and two of them (Dallas Braden and Gio Gonzalez) are scheduled to face the Twins this weekend. Neither Thome nor Kubel hit southpaws all that well. Cuddyer will be missed in those games.
• Unlike Trevor Plouffe, who got a brief stretch in the lineup in J.J. Hardy's stead, Valencia plays a position at which the Twins cannot be satisfied with what they've gotten so far. If he hits, might he displace Punto and Brendan Harris? (If he does, Tolbert loses his spot again when Cuddyer returns next week.)