Jamie Hoffmann, Jason Repko and the "ideal" backup outfielder

The NUN -- that's "New Ulm Native" -- Jamie Hoffmann had just four days in The Show before being shipped back to Triple A. One pinch-hit appearance, one start in left field, 0-for-4. Called up on April 11, optioned back out on the 15th.

Like Jamie Hoffmann,
Jason Repko came up
though the Dodgers
farm system.

I suspect one reason his career isn't getting much traction is that he hits right-handed. And when one ponders the makeup of most major league benches, that's a bit of a drawback.

Every team has, or at least needs, a fourth or fifth outfielder capable of filling in at center field for a few days. That player, as a rule, will be fast but not a particularly powerful hitter. (Someone like Willie Mays would be the ideal fourth outfielder, but nobody has three outfielders good enough to force a Mays to the bench.)

The Twins' fourth outfielder, strictly speaking, is Jason Kubel, but he's not a CF candidate. Jason Repko is the backup CF, and he's right-handed, which makes him an exception to the general rule. Lefties and switch-hitters get the edge in this competition because most pitchers are right-handed and, when dealing with marginal talents, the platoon advantage matters. Repko fits the need because the Twins regular lineup is so left-handed.

Hoffmann, in contrast, is blocked by Tony Gwynn Jr., who can't hit like daddy did (few do) but is a very good defensive outfielder and hits left-handed. Last spring, as a Rule V player with the Yankees, Hoffmann lost out to a pair of veterans in Randy Winn (left-handed) and Marcus Thames (right-handed), but the job of second center fielder was filled by Brett Gardner (left-handed), the regular left fielder.

The game has a bias for left-handed players. Hoffmann, so far, has been handicapped by being a righty.

The Hoffmann watch and other notes

Jamie Hoffmann was
with the Yankees during
spring training in 2010
as a rule V pick but
was returned to the
Dodgers.

The NUN – New Ulm  native Jamie Hoffmann – is back in the majors, having been brought up on Monday by the Los Angeles Dodgers.

The outfielder was last in the majors in 2009. He didn't play Tuesday. The LA roster is crammed with outfielders (six on the 25-man roster), so there's hardly a guarantee of playing time, or even that he'll stick.

He had 20 at-bats during spring training with the Dodgers, hitting .350/.409/450.

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A sour development for the Twins in their minor league system: Alex Wimmers, last year's first round pick, a pitcher who was expected to rise quickly through the system in part because of his outstanding command, had a disastrous first outing for High A Fort Myers.

Six batters, six walks, three wild pitches. He threw just four strikes in 28 pitches and hit the backstop on the fly with that many.

He's been put on the disabled list with "flu-like symptoms," but even if he really does have a virus, he appears to have a more serious malady, known in some circles as "Steve Blass disease." Few pitchers recover.

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I ridiculed the Royals front office a few weeks ago for discarding Dusty Hughes, and nothing that happened Tuesday night suggests I was wrong.

Hughes threw a shutout inning Tuesday against his old team and collected his first "W" in a TC cap.  The Royals, who are carrying just one lefty reliever, could have used another against the heavily left-handed Twins.

But just as Hughes is no better than the No. 2 southpaw in the Minnesota pen (and might be the No. 3 lefty), he'd be below Tim Collins in the K.C. depth chart.

Collins is an interesting pitcher — listed at 5-foot-7 but probably considerably shorter than that, he has a mid-90s fastball and an impressive curve. He's racked up silly strikeout rates in the minors — more than 13 K/9 over four minor league seasons, and doing the same so far in the majors — but been traded twice.

Evaluators have a hard time getting past the diminutive stature and judging him strictly on the talent. But he's a good one.

Local minor league notes

Jamie Hoffmann: Spring
training with the Yankees,
Triple A for the Dodgers

The NUN — New Ulm Native Jamie Hoffmann — never got back to the majors this season. The outfielder spent the year at Albuquerque, the Dodgers Triple A affiliate, where he hit .310/.369/431. Those numbers look better than they are, as Albuquerque's a great place to hit.

Tough year for the NUN. I thought he had a real shot to make the Yankees roster as a reserve outfielder after they arranged a Rule 5 draft-and-trade for him. But he wound up back with the Dodgers and never cracked their 40-man roster.
He's 26 now, and his window of opportunity may be closing.

Mark Dolenc, an outfielder out of MSU, spent the season in Double A New Britain for the Twins. New Britain had a terrible season, and Dolenc's numbers fell off from his High A stats of the year before. It is a tough place to hit, but almost nobody looks good on a 44-98 team.

Left-handed pitcher Clint Dempster, former MoonDog, signed with the Twins this summer as their 16th round pick. He pitched seven-plus innings at Elizabethton (Rookie ball) and 40 innings at Beloit (Low-A). His BB/K ratio in Beloit — 20 walks, 32 strikeouts — suggest that he has command issues to work on.

Alex Burgos, another MoonDogs lefty, spent his first professional season with the Tigers complex league team. Eleven innings at that level, even dominant innings — and the numbers are good — is pretty meaningless.

Twins sign Wimmers and local minor league notes

The deadline isn't particularly close, but Alex Wimmers signed Friday and is to report to Fort Myers to pitch for the Miracle, the Twins High-A team.

The right-hander out of Ohio State is viewed as a prototypical Twins pitcher — a strike-throwing machine, albeit with better stuff than a Nick Blackburn. (The better stuff is why he went 21st overall.)

According to Baseball America, the Twins have now signed their first 10 picks.

* The Twins' 16th-rounder, former MoonDog Clint Dempster, threw six shutout innings the other day Beloit (Low-A). The lefty is 2-2 for the Snappers with 4.00 era — and 14 walks in 18 innings.

I'm going to guess that fastball command is a priority for him.

* Mark Dolenc, a former MSU standout, is hitting .259/.305/.350 for New Britain, the Twins Double A affiliate. The Twins have a number of well-regarded outfield prospects there, including Ben Revere and Joe Benson, but Dolenc's getting plenty of playing time.

*The NUN, New Ulm Native Jamie Hoffmann, has spent the season at Albuquerque, the Dodgers' Triple A affiliate, and has a deceptively good .318/.377/.435 line. (It's a notoriously good place to hit.) He remains off the 40-man roster.

Jamie Hoffmann back with Dodgers

New Ulm native Jamie Hoffmann has been returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers by the New York Yankees.

There are rumors that the Yanks still hope to work out a trade with the Dodgers to get Hoffmann as a minor leaguer, but their leverage, such as it was, is gone. He's not now a member of the Yankee organization.

So much for my notion that he might be an option for the Twins once the Yankees realized he wasn't going to stick on their 25-man roster.

Incidentally, the photo MLB.com used in the above link is the same one that shows a left-handed throwing outfielder. I'm not the only one who got stung on that pic.

Name that Twin, Part 1

The Associated Press this week supplied us with mug shots of pretty much everybody in the Twins training camp — 40-man roster, manager, coaches, non-roster guys. I spent some time this morning downloading, re-sizing in a Web-friendly format and organizing them, on the basis that if the Twins call up Anthony Slama, it will be handy to have an image to post with an explanation of what the hay he's doing here.

There are a lot of faces in that pile you haven't seen. There are faces in that pile you'll never see. Camp is loaded with extra catchers, because somebody's got to catch all those bullpen sessions, and the Twins aren't about to beat Joe Mauer's knees into submission in March.

So to get some use out of today's work, I herewith begin the "Name that Twin" contest. Each day I'll post the mug of an obscure player (or coach), and y'all can guess his identity in the comments. I'll name him the next day and post the next one. I'll do this until either (a) I get tired of doing it, (b) I run out of faces I don't recognize or (c) it becomes obvious that nobody else cares.

Winner gets free access to Baseball Outsider. Second place gets 50 percent off.

First photo is above.

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Before I head off for what figures to be a difficult work shift, a few quick comments:

* The Washington Nationals today released old fave Eddie Guardado. I have to admit, for just a moment the notion of Everyday Eddie succeeding his successor as Twins closer crossed my mind. But that train left the station long ago.

* Jim Souhan is rapidly approaching Sid Hartman status — as in, any time spent reading him is lost forever. I'm not going to link to Souhan's latest moronity, but I will say I wish he'd been in one of my fantasy leagues over the years. Trade Mauer for a relief pitcher!

* A commenter on the Jamie Hoffmann post below points out that the player in the photo throws with his left arm, and Hoffmann is right-handed. D-oh! I should have noticed that myself.

AP identified the player in the image as Hoffmann, and I went with it. I have no idea who is shown, and I have trashed the image from my library. My apologies.

The Hoffmann watch

The NUN — New Ulm native Jamie Hoffmann — started Sunday's exhibition game against the Twins. He went 0-for-3, but he did attract the attention, at least briefly, of the AP photographer. (See photo at the right.)

The Rule 5 draftee is now 1-for-10 this spring, and his name is not part of the buzz about the Yankees' open outfield jobs.

They know they have Curtis Granderson in center and Nick Swisher in right.

They still have Brett Gardner, a speedy left-handed hitter who was their fourth outfielder last season.

And major league veterans Randy Winn and Marcus Thames are in camp.

Somebody's going to play left field, somebody's going to be the fourth outfielder. The Yankees may even keep a fifth outfielder.

But there doesn't seem, at least for public consumption, much credence given to the notion that one of them will be Hoffmann.

Notes, quotes and comments

One reason the Mark Rosen notion — that the Twins and Joe Mauer have the framework of a deal in place awaiting the final details — made sense was the possibility that the two sides were working on a schedule of deferred payments.

That theory was shot down Monday by Jim Pohlad:

We try to stay away from deferred compensation. There's a ton of real-life examples of that kind of thinking. It's either going to be somebody else's problem, or we'll worry about it later. Eventually, you've got to worry about it and then, at that point, it affects your current operation. So it's really not a good thing. In the end you've got to pay the money no matter what. You may as well try to do it when the player is playing for you.

Another indication that the Pohlads are in it for the long haul. Many of the deferred comp cases came from owners who intended to sell the team before they started paying out big bucks to players no longer active.

I think the Pohlads are right to stay away from deferred comp. But it does raise the question: If Rosen's report was accurate, what would be delaying the deal?

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When is a retired number not retired? Usually it's when the player himself returns to uniform. If Rod Carew, for example, had taken the Twins batting coach position a few years ago when it was open, he'd be wearing his retired No. 29.

In the case of the Chicago White Sox, however, it's more open. On Monday the Sox announced that Omar Vizquel would wear No. 11 — officially retired in honor of Luis Aparicio, the Hall of Fame shortstop. (With, I should add, Aparicio's blessing.)

Vizquel has worn No. 13 through his career, but that's Ozzie Guillen's number, and the manager was keeping it.

---

The Yankees inked veteran OF Marcus Thames to a contract Monday, adding to a crowded field of candidates for the left field job.

Given the Yankees affection for veterans, the general expectation is that Thames and Randy Winn will platoon in left. Then there's Brett Gardner, who is faster than the other two — and the NUN, New Ulm Native Jamie Hoffmann, the forgotten outfielder on the champs' roster.

It gets increasingly difficult to see how the Yankees can carry that many outfielders.

Meanwhile, I keep looking at the Twins roster and seeing a need for a reserve outfielder who can play defense ... and wondering if there's a fit there for Hoffmann.

Notes and comments

Francisco Liriano is blowing people away in the Dominican Winter League, and on Thursday he pitched five scoreless innings (striking out 10) to clinch the playoff title for Leones del Escogido. The game was streamed live online by EPSN, and bloggers who watched (I didn't; I was working) were impressed.

Ron Gardenhire may not have been blowing smoke earlier this winter after all.

---

The Yankees signed veteran outfielder Randy Winn to a contract this week, and the big buzz was about how this closes the door on Johnny Damon's return to the Bronx.

Being the parochial guy I am, I'm more interested in how this affects the NUN — New Ulm Native Jamie Hoffmann, who was, at least a few weeks ago, supposedly very much in the Yankees outfield plans.

Curtis Granderson and Nick Swisher are locks. Then there's Winn, a 35-year-old swtich hitter coming off a poor season in San Francisco; Brett Gardner, a speedy left-handed hitter who was on the Yankees roster last season; and Hoffmann.

Can the Yankees carry all three? I doubt it.

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Glen Perkins is chafing still over the Twins' decision late last season to option him to the minors. My view after reading the piece is unchanged: Pitchers with 5.89 ERAs in almost 100 innings tend to lose their jobs.

More PT for Hoffmann?

Everybody else's view of this week's Javier Vazquez (photo)-Melky Cabrera trade between the Yankees and Braves focuses on the Yankees pitching and the Braves lineup. Leave it to me to be parochial and focus on the Southern Minnesota angle.

Specifically, this deal appears to open the door to a significant role for New Ulm native Jamie Hoffmann.

Here are the key aspects:

1. The Yankees' current starting outfield —based on 2009 plate appearances — includes Nick Swisher, Curtis Granderson and Brett Gardner — a switch hitter and two lefty bats.
2. Granderson's career platoon splits: .292/.367/.528 vs. RHP, .210/.270/.344 vs. LHP.
3. Gardner's career platoon splits: .260/.328/.361 vs. RHP, .241/.310/.316 vs. LHP.
4. Hoffmann is a right-handed hitter.
5. GM Brian Cashman said in announcing the Vazquez trade that the team was not going after further big-money players.

Take all that at face value, and the NUN — that's New Ulm native — figures to have at least a shot at a significant platoon role.

Do I take it at face value? Not really. The Yankees had supposedly set a payroll target for 2010 under $190 million; they are now above $200 million with just 16 players under contract, two of whom are unlikely to make the 25-man active roster. I believe that they have figures in mind for the name LFs in free agency — Johnny Damon, Matt Holliday, Jason Bay — and are just waiting for one of the three to drop into their laps.

But as matters stand, this trade looks like a nice Christmas present for Hoffmann.

Jamie Hoffmann's Yankees gig (with addition)

Jamie Hoffmann is not your typical Rule 5 pick. But then the New York Yankees aren't exactly the kind of team that uses Rule 5 a lot.

A few paragraphs of definition: Jamie Hoffmann is a 25-year-old outfielder, born and raised in New Ulm, who reached the majors last season for 14 games with the Dodgers and split the rest of the year between the Dodgers' Triple A and Double A affiliates.

Rule 5 is intended to keep clubs from burying talent in the minors. It applies to players with more than four years in pro ball who aren't on the parent club's 40-man roster. Any other team can draft such players for a nominal $50,000. The catch is that they have to keep the drafted player on their 25-man (active) roster all season.

In effect, the Los Angeles Dodgers, in removing Hoffmann from their 40-man roster last September, said he wasn't one of their 40 best players; the Yankees, in trading for the first pick in Thursday's Rule 5 draft and using it to select Hoffmann, are saying they expect him to be one of the 25 best.

Generally, Rule 5 picks are fliers taken by bad teams looking to expand their talent base. It's how the Twins got Johan Santana out of the Houston Astros organization back in December 1999. Its easier for weak teams to carry a talented but too-raw player; the 2000 Twins were going to lose 90 games no matter who they had on their pitching staff. Santana had an ERA of 6.49 that year. That pick paid off in the long run, but it didn't help immediately.

That's not a tradeoff the Yankees are interested in. They want wins now. And they think Hoffmann can help as a reserve outfielder.

ESPN's Buster Olney tweeted this Thursday: The Yanks intend to head into spring training assuming they'll keep Rule 5 pick Hoffmann on the roster.

OK, consider this: The Yankees now have Nick Swisher in right, Curtis Granderson in center, and (at the moment) Melky Cabrera in left, although it seems almost inevitable that Johnny Damon will re-sign with the Bombers once they've jammed his lack of leverage down his throat. When/if that happens, their outfield reserves will be some combo of Cabrera, Brett Gardner and Hoffmann.

There's probably only room for two of them on the 25-man roster. I would expect Gardner to be the odd man out.

Addition: This link contains an intriguing detail of how it was that Hoffmann made through waivers when removed from the Dodgers' 40-man roster Sept. 1.

Hoffmann a Yankee

New Ulm native Jamie Hoffmann was taken by the New York Yankees as the first selection in the Rule Five draft Thursday morning.

He either sticks with the major league team all season or is offered back to the Dodgers for half the nominal (by baseball standards) Rule Five price.

Hoffmann's minor league stats here. His major league stats — few as they are — are here.

Quotes, notes and comments

"I would challenge [Gardenhire] to sit down and watch the replays. Because he was wrong. ... I'm going to invite him to my umpire school. If he wants to learn what a balk is, he can come down in January to umpire school and we'll teach him."
— umpire Hunter Wendelstedt after Friday's game

“If he’ll agree to take the classes again, I’ll go with him.”
—Ron Gardenhire, the next day

Comment: AP in the past two weeks has moved at least three photos of young Wendelstedt ejecting players or managers (the one above is from last Sunday, when he ejected Baltimore catcher Greg Zaun). I suspect that indicates a problem.

In the first link, Wendelstedt claims he and the rest of his crew spent an hour reviewing replays and got every call right with the possible exception of a fan interference they didn't call and didn't have a replay of. If so, they were watching the wrong game.

* Carl Pavano's Twins debut couldn't have gone much better. And yet: I keep seeing him described as a "sinkerballer," but he had more air outs (nine) than ground outs (seven). Comerica's a good park in which to throw fly balls, but I don't know that that's what he was trying to do Saturday.

Regardless, it was startling to see a Twins starter throwing strikes and working fast. We haven't seen a lot of that recently.

*NUN update: New Ulm native Jamie Hoffmann remains in Triple A for the Dodgers; the outfielder, who had a brief stint with the big club during Manny Ramirez' suspension, is hitting .282/.373/.463 for Albuquerque, which isn't very good for that hitter-happy environment.

* A New York columnist thinks Johan Santana would be happier if he were still with the Twins. Maybe ... but I don't see anything here that says Santana thinks that.

* Jose Mauer is back in the lead in the batting title race, four points ahead of Ichiro Suzuki. More impressive — and this is a sabermetric stat you may not be familiar with — he is far ahead of everybody else in the AL in RC/27. That's runs created per 27 outs, or how many runs a lineup made up of nine Joe Mauers would score in an average game. Mauer is at 9.94 RC/27; the next best in the AL is Kevin Youkilis of Boston at 8.68. (Mauer does trail Albert Pujols, 10.28.)

The Twins have three of the top eight in the AL (Justin Morneau is fifth, 7.86; Jason Kubel is eighth, 7.46). The surprise guy in the AL top 10 — Jason Bartlett, fourth at 8.17.

* Poll results: We had 18 votes on "who's now the strongest team in the AL Central?" The Tigers seem to have you convinced: 13 (72 percent) picked Detroit, four the Twins (22 percent), one the White Sox (5 percent).

New poll up.

Notes, quotes and comments

A war of words over the "indefinite" benching of Magglio Ordonez by the Detroit Tigers:

From Scott Boras, Ordonez' agent: "Give me the compelling reasons for benching Magglio. You bench Magglio, and you're gonna have a problem — a real problem justifying that to me."

From Jim Leyland, the Tigers' manager: "It is total bull-(beep) for Scott Boras to say I blind-sided Magglio. This is just another grand-stand move in the newspapers by Boras." And: "Scott Boras would be better off if he left this between me and Magglio."

Part of what's at stake here: Ordonez is some 215 plate appearances (or 67 starts) shy of triggering an automatic extension of his contract at $18 million for next season.

Considering the dull market for old corner outfielders last winter, Mags and Boras don't want to hit the free agency market this offseason. Considering that their attendance is down about 10,000 fans per game, the Tigers don't want to see that extension kick in.

Also at stake: The Tigers (leading the Twins by 3 games at this writing) want and need more than a .343 slugging percentage from their right fielder.

* New Ulm native Jamie Hoffmann was sent back to Triple A last week by the Dodgers. He had a few good moments, but his major league stay figured to end once their injured or suspended outfielders started to return, and his .182 batting average didn't compel Joe Torre and Co. to find a spot for him.

He'll get another shot someday.

* The results from last week's poll: 20 respondents, of whom one (5 percent) said Joe Mauer would finish the season hitting between .300 and .330; four (20 percent) said .331-.350; nine (45 percent) said .351 to .375; two (10 percent) said .376-.399; and four (20 percent) and .400 or better.

The new poll might make more sense after Monday's print column comes out.

* The Twins' decision to waive Craig Breslow and go with Sean Henn as the LOOGY looked OK for a while, but it has taken a sudden turn for the worse.

In his last two outings (Wednesday and Saturday) Henn has faced seven hitters, five of who reached base and two of whom homered. Five earned runs in two-thirds of an inning, and Henn's ERA is now an unsightly 7.36, up from 3.48 coming into the home stand.

Breslow, meanwhile, has had an ERA of 2.31 since joining Oakland.

Coming in Monday's print column: Some possible bullpen trade targets for the Twins.

Swarzak, the roster shuffle and other things

The hook to the game stories from the Twins' Saturday's 2-0 win over the Cubs: Anthony Swarzak throws seven shutout innings, gets shipped to minors. Which is both accurate and easy to write, and paints Twins management as a little dimwitted, which isn't accurate.

Swarzak made five starts while filling in for Glen Perkins. Two were quite good, two were lousy and one was mediocre — in terms of runs allowed. The stat line — 2-2, 3.90, 10 walks and 18 strikeouts — is quite acceptable, especially for a fifth starter. In terms of process, not so much.

Zero in for a moment on a sequence of hitters Saturday. Swarzak dispatched the first hitter of the third inning (Ryan Theriot) on three called strikes. Then he fell behind Aaron Miles 2-0; Miles singled on the 2-1 pitch. Rich Harden, the Cubs pitcher, was up to sacrifice, but Swarzak threw two balls to open the at-bat before Harden bunted the 2-0 pitch. Then he fell behind Alfonso Soriano 2-0; Soriano tapped the 3-1 pitch to short to end the inning. Swarzak went 3-1 on Mike Fontenot to lead off the third; Fontenot also grounded to short.

At that point, I wouldn't have given a dime for Swarzak's chances of getting through the fifth inning. And Cub manager Lou Piniella was probably regretting that he hadn't had Harden take a strike before bunting.

To be fair, Swarzak's ball-strike ratio for the day was pretty good — 63 strikes, 37 balls, and first pitch strikes to 16 of the 26 men he faced. But I suspect the Cubs lack of plate discipline had something to do with it.

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The Twins are now in the odd situation of having two catchers on the bench (Mike Redmond and Jose Morales) and no outfielders.

The Twins play this afternoon in Wrigley. They have Monday off, and Perkins is supposedly to start Tuesday. So Morales, called up to take Swarzak's place on the roster, might be there just for one game.

Much depends on the health of Denard Span and/or Michael Cuddyer. If either is to go on the DL, Perkins can be activated to fill the roster spot. If not, Morales goes back to the Red Wings.

The Twins have just one outfielder in the minors on their 40-man roster. That's Jason Pridie, who is not having a good season so far for the Red Wings (.280 OBP, .333 SLG). Rather than call him up, the Twins will apparently use either Nick Punto or Matt Tolbert in the outfield if need be.

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The results of the 3300-game-winner poll: 15 votes. Maddux was the choice of 9 respondents (60%). Clemens and Johnson got two votes each (13%) and Glavine one (6%). I'm surprised Glavine got that much support. A great pitcher, but ... the others were clearly better.

Next poll up.

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The Hoffmann watch: NUN Jamie Hoffmann had one pinch-hitting appearance last week and made an out. He's now at .182 with the Dodgers.

300-win lefties and other old themes

The Monday print column was a collection of trivia about the six left-handed pitchers with 300 wins.

It was, at one point, going to be an attempt to rank Randy Johnson and Tom Glavine, but ESPN.com's Rob Neyer, Jayson Stark and Jim Caple did it better than I was going to (and at greater length). My only quibble with their work is that Tom Glavine (above) didn't get a mention. If they can consider the likes of Carl Hubbell, Whitey Ford, Eddie Plank and Sandy Koufax — if only to dismiss them — they should have cited Glavine.

Glavine is Warren Spahn writ small — a consistent winner who had a fastball more noted for its command than its velocity and the ability to change speeds. They even spent the bulk of their careers with the same franchise. There's no way I'd argue that Glavine was superior to Spahn — 305 wins is impressive, but still 58 behind Spahn — but still.

* The Twins offense in day games after Sunday's LOB festival: 72 runs in 19 games, 3.79 runs per game.

* NUN Jamie Hoffmann had a hit last week. That's the good news. The bad news is he went 1-for-10, mostly as a pinch hitter, and his batting average is .190.

The Hoffmann watch

NUN Jamie Hoffmann's playing time pretty much evaporated in the past week, with one at-bat since May 25.

Here's his game log. 

It's not too surprising that he's not getting a lot of PT. The Dodgers have Matt Kemp (career .296 hitter) in center and Andre Ethier (career .294 hitter) in right, and Hoffmann isn't likely to dislodge either of them. Juan Pierre got first crack at left field duty after Manny Ramirez got caught by the doping police, and he's merely hitting .384.  We all know he's not that good — nobody is, including Joe Mauer — but Joe Torre is not about to stop riding that hot hand.

But Pierre's 0-for-7 the last two days, so maybe ... 

Notes from a weekend

* NUN Jamie Hoffmann got a start Sunday and did something with it — a homer for his first major league hit, a double and four RBIs.

He also reportedly popped teammate Orlando Hudson in the head with his elbow.

And while I'm on the topic — when I posted upon his call-up last week that Baseball America didn't think highly enough of him to put him in the prospect book, I was wrong. I had the 2008 edition in front of me at the time. The 2009 edition ranks him as the Dodgers' 22nd prospect: 

Hoffmann can play all three outfield positions — center field capably ... (he) remains one of the Dodgers' best defensive outfielders. Mostly a gap hitter, he has some power but has an open stance and sometimes loses his timing in his swing. ... If he learns to hit lefthanders with more authority — he has just 21 extra-base hits and three homers off lefthanders the last four full seasons— he could hit enough to be a regular. 

That kind of reverse platoon split over a period of years  is exceedingly rare. Sure enough, his homer came off a righthander (Matt Palmer) but the double came of a lefty (Darren Oliver.)

* I caught a bit of the Cubs-Padres game Sunday afternoon, just enough to see a questionable decision by Cubs manager Lou Piniella. 

Bottom of the sixth inning, scoreless game. The Padres have one out and men on second and third and Josh Wilson, backup infielder hitting under .2oo, up with the pitcher, Chris Young, to follow. Sweet Lou has Wilson walked intentionally, apparently with the notion of setting up the double play, to bring up Chris Young — hitting, according to WGN, .294 at the time. Young promptly smacks a two-run single with his second hit of the game.

Just to make matters worse, David Eckstein followed with a suicide squeeze bunt that Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly threw to the backstop in a misbegotten attempt on Wilson. 

Piniella isn't near the top of managers at issuing intentional walks, according to Baseball Info Systems, but he's had seasons in which the IBB has frequently made matters worse for him. If he walks the No. 8 hitter frequently, it ought to.

* Sunday's Mauer HBP was an odd one — not because the ump changed the call (I know of at least two World Series games that turned on a ump reversing a HBP call) but because the ump apparently didn't change the call immediately upon seeing the evidence. 

Hoffmann's debut

Not that I intend to provide a blow-by-blow account of Jamie Hoffmann's career, but the New Ulm native made his major league debut Friday night with a pinch-hitting appearance against the Angels.

Hoffmann, facing Justin Speier, flew out to right field in the sixth inning pinch hitting for pitcher Ramon Troncoso.

"New Ulm native". It used to be a standing joke among the sports guys at The Free Press that as far as we were concerned, Terry Steinbach's full name, to be used on first reference in stories, was "New Ulm native Terry Steinbach." Sometimes in conversation we would refer to Steinbach as "the NUN."  

May Hoffmann have a successful enough career that we can transfer the nickname to him. NUN Jamie Hoffmann.