Pic of the Week

The thrill of victory: San Francisco's Marco Scutaro and
Sergio Romo celebrate their World Series title.

Marco Scutaro — or, if you're TBS' Craig Sager, Scooter-roo — had a 2012 that is a testimony to the randomness of baseball.

He opened the season with Colorado, where he played 95 games and had 415 plate appearances, in which he hit .271/.324/.361— which, in the context of Coors Field, is underwhelming at best. His OPS+, which computes his production in the context of the league average and home field, had him a 27 percent below average as a hitter as a Rockie.

On July 27 he was traded to San Francisco. And there — in a much more difficult environment for a hitter — Scutaro hit .362/.385/.473 the rest of the way (61 games, 268 plate appearances).

His has been an odd career, period; he didn't get his first real shot at playing time until age 28, which is old for a rookie, and he's hit better as he's aged. In four years with Oakland (2004-07) he hit .262; in the five years since, bouncing between Toronto, Boston, Colorado and San Francisco, he's hit .286.

He's a free agent, and he just turned 37 last week. It will be interesting to see what kind of offers he gets.

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This concludes the Pic of the Week Sunday feature for this year; to see them all, click here. Next week I'll resume the Sunday Funnies.

Silly season and poll stuff

Things must be rather boring on the Chicago baseball beat these days. My evidence for that is the latest foray by Phil Rogers, the Chicago Tribune's national baseball writer, into consider-the-source territory.

I'll bypass his centerpiece (the notion that the Cubs and Sox should swap general managers) because picking it apart would be to take it seriously.

Instead, I'll hit on this throwaway nugget in his "whispers" sidebar:

The Red Sox are talking trade with Marco Scutaro, and it's easy to see him going to the Twins for one of their bullpen arms. Scutaro is Nick Punto on figurative steroids. …

Boston signed Marco Scutaro as
a free agent about a year ago; now
they supposedly are shopping him.

I don't know exactly what the Punto-on-steroids comparison is supposed to mean, but never mind. I'm struck instead by the notion that the Twins have excess bullpen arms to swap for Scutaro.

Remember: Jon Rauch, Matt Guerrier, Jesse Crain, Brian Fuentes, Ran Mahay and Randy Flores are all free agents. Maybe it's possible to trade the right to offer arbitration to someone like Rauch, but that's all the Twins actually have of any of the six, the right to offer arbitration.

Scutaro has one year left on his contract, $5 million. He'd probably be a bit cheaper than J.J. Hardy, who's arbitration eligible, but he's about seven years older and, based on 2010 numbers, no upgrade at the plate. I don't see it.

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We had 41 responses to last week's poll question: Should the Twins make it easier to hit home runs in Target Field? Justin Morneau won't like the results.

Thirty-seven (90 percent) said no, four (10 percent) yes.

Thus proving (?) that, while chicks dig the long ball, my blog readers prefer flyball outs.

New poll up.

Infield musical chairs

The Twins struck early in their infield makeover with the J.J. Hardy trade. Now they seem content to sit back and see who's left without a job when free agency settles down.

It's a strategy that may result in a below-market signing — or that may result in a Joe Crede sequel. Or Orlando Cabrera.

The Twins never figured to be in on Marco Scutaro (above), who signed a two-year deal Friday with the Red Sox. He's a Type A with an arbitration offer, which essentially eliminates him in the Twins scheme of things — they're not giving up a first round draft pick for the privilege of paying a 34-year-old $6 million plus to play in their middle infield.

And in that light, it seems odd that the Red Sox made that decision. But they got stuck last year at short when Jed Lowrie got hurt and wound up playing Nick Green for much of the season. They picked up Alex Gonzalez from Cincinnati near the trading deadline, and he at least provided a competent glove, but the Blue Jays grabbed Gonzalez early in the free agent process.

So it amounts to a trade of Scutaro for Gonzalez and two draft picks. If Scutaro plays as he did last season, that's fair to both clubs; if he reverts to his usual form, the Jays have a real chance to win that exchange.

When teams are scrapping for the likes of Gonzalez and Scutaro to play short, it makes the Twins deal for Hardy look pretty good. Rumor has it that Boston pursued Hardy, but the Brewers didn't like the pitchers offered and demanded pitchers the Red Sox were't willing to trade.

Meanwhile, the Twins still have an infield opening. Placido Polanco's gone; Scutaro's gone; Chone Figgins — another guy the Twins weren't going to purse — is apparently all but signed with Seattle. That still leaves most of the infield possibilities mentioned here earlier in the week, with some of the big spenders having filled their holes.

I suspect the Twins' favored target would be Adrian Beltre, the cupless wonder, but there's talk that agent Scott Boras is angling for something like four years at $10 million-plus a year, and the Twins won't (and shouldn't) go there on either length or price. After Beltre's .265/.304/.379 season (complete with ruptured testicle), somebody (agent or player or both) probably needs a reality check.