Notes, quotes and comment

Clete Thomas' slash
line with the Twins
in 2012: .143/.172/
.286, with 16 strikeouts
in 29 plate appearances.

The Twins will fill the 25-man roster spot they opened after Sunday's game with Clete Thomas, an outfielder who got some time with the Twins last year after the Tigers waived him. To make room on the 40 for Thomas, they designated Tyler Robertson for assignment.

I'm not impressed with this move. Remember, it is my belief that everything the Twins do should have 2014 (or even further out) as the primary concern. Thomas is 29 and nothing more than a marginal player. There is no long-term purpose to giving him playing time. The only immediate benefit to giving him PT would be from sitting Aaron Hicks against righties, and that would be counterproductive to the long term goals.

Thomas has had a very productive April and May for Rochester (.296/.385/.576), but there's nothing in his track record that says he's that good.

Not that the possibility of losing Robertson concerns me very much. He's left-handed and breathing, a combination that gives him a chance. He's also a LOOGY (Left-handed One Out GuY) who isn't consistent with his breaking ball, a combination that wrecks chances.

Tyler Robertson
opened the season
with the Twins but
was sent out after
two appearances.

He had a 3.05 ERA in Rochester, which looks OK, but he walked 16 men in 20.2 innings, which is definitely not OK.

The Twins now have 10 days to dispose of Robertson's contract. Somebody may claim him on waivers — he is, after all, left-handed and breathing — but I wouldn't be surprised if he clears waivers and remains in the Twins system.

---

Joe Mauer returned to the No. 2 spot in the batting order during the series with Seattle, and Ron Gardenhire indicated that he'll stay there because he gets more RBI chances as the No. 2 hitter.

Right decision, wrong reason.

Consider the three guys hitting in front of Mauer on Sunday: Hicks (on-base percentage .246); Pedro Florimon (.331, which is much better than I expected); and Eduardo Escobar (.274). Drop Mauer to the third hole, and the three hitters are probably going to be Florimon, Escobar and either Hicks or Brian Dozier (.276).

Not a lot of RBI opportunities either way.

No, the gain from hitting Mauer second is more plate appearances for Mauer, Josh Willingham, etc. as the middle of the lineup moves up, and fewer plate appearances for one of the outmakers.

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Reports Sunday evening had two prominent collegiate pitching prospects in this week's draft field testing positive for a banned stimulant. One of them is Jonathan Gray, the Oklahoma right-hander generally seen as one of the top two prospects in the field; the other, Aaron Blair of Marshall, is No. 41 in Baseball America's draft list, which would put him high in the second round.

BA doesn't expect the test results to affect either man's draft status.

Previewing the 2010 lineup

J.J. Hardy (right) isn't the ideal No. 2 hitter. His career OBP is .323, and he has stolen all of five bases in 571 major league games.

But that's probably where he's going to hit for the Twins.

A reasonable projected lineup:

1) Denard Span, CF
2) J.J. Hardy, SS
3) Joe Mauer, C
4) Justin Morneau, 1B
5) Jason Kubel, DH
6) Michael Cuddyer, RF
7) Delmon Young LF
8) ?????, 3B or 2B
9) Nick Punto, 2B or 3B

Bill Smith, the Twins general manager, apparently said something during Friday's conference call about the Hardy-Gomez trade that suggested Joe Crede is a possibility for 2010 after all. I suppose there's a price tag at which it's worth it to go that route again.

In which case you can plug Crede into the eighth slot. And then Hardy has to hit second, as Young and Crede are even less qualified for the job than he is, and there's no way to justify moving Punto to a maximum plate appearance slot.

If not Crede, then who? Danny Valencia? Matt Tolbert? Brendan Harris? Alexi Casilla? They shouldn't hit second either.

If Hardy hits as he did in 2007-08, his thump will more than make up for his lack of walks. if he hits as he did last season, it's a problem.

---

Comments on the trade from around the blogosphere:

Rob Neyer: ... Between the money they won't be spending on (Mike) Cameron and the money they won't be spending on Hardy, the Brewers have gained a fair degree of payroll flexibility, which is the lifeblood of every financially challenged general manager.

And of course you have to love this deal for the Twins, who got a player they really wanted (for good reason) in exchange for a guy they didn't really want at all.

Seth Strohs: I LOVE it! What (a) great move! In essence, the Twins solved two problems with one move. First, it solves the SS situation for the next two years. ... the Twins will not bring back Orlando Cabrera, which is a huge positive, offensively and defensively. ... Secondly, the OF situation is set.

Aaron Gleeman (via Circling the Bases): Some trades just make sense and this is one of them.

How can this be?

Here's a tangent I didn't follow for Monday's print column:

Denard Span (left) isn't the best leadoff hitter in baseball — there's Ichiro, and Derek Jeter, and Chone Figgins, each of whom have slightly better stats this season than Span, plus longer track records — but he's in the discussion.

And yet the Twins are just seventh in the American League in runs scored by their No. 1 hitter (79).

I find this inexplicable. Span's on-base percentage is .383, which is 15th best in the league; he has, behind him, Joe Mauer and Justin Morneau. He should be among the league leaders in runs scored. He's only tied for 23rd.

Mauer, who missed an entire month, has scored more runs. Michael Cuddyer, with an OPB 41 points lower than Span's, who generally has the unproductive likes of Joe Crede and Delmon Young behind him, has scored the same amount of runs as Span.

The Twins lead the league in runs scored by their No. 3 hitter (generally Mauer or Morneau; each of them has scored 39 runs from the three-hole); they're third in runs scored by the No. 4 and 5 hitters (Morneau, Jason Kubel and Cuddyer).

But the sixth hitters — mostly Cuddyer and Crede — have just 54 runs, 11th in the 14-team league. That makes sense; Crede has a low OBP, and there's not much at the tail end of the lineup to drive him in when he does reach base.

But then they're second in runs scored by the No. 7 hitter, and explain that one. Their No. 5 hitters have scored 65 runs, the No. 6 hitters 54, and No. 7 hitters 62. It's split up so many ways ... Young has 16, Carlos Gomez 11, Crede 11. Then you have a handful from the likes of Brendan Harris, Cuddyer, Brian Buscher, Mike Redmond, yada yada yada. And you have to wonder — who's driving in these guys? Nick Punto?

No surprise here — the Twins are also near the bottom in runs scored by the No. 2 and No. 9 hitters. Alexi Casilla and Nick Punto bear that responsibility. Mauer has 29 runs out of the No. 2 hole; that's 43 percent of the runs the Twins have gotten from that lineup spot.

Alexi Casilla, Take 3

... third try this year, at least. More like five for his career.

This is a crucial move for the Twins,and for Casilla.

They've divvied up the middle infield four ways this season — Nick Punto, Brendan Harris, Casilla and Matt Tolbert. None of them are complete players — and none of them have taken a job and made it his.

Casilla, athletically, is the least limited of the four. But he has a penchant for screwups, which is why he has twice been demoted. But if there is anybody on hand capable of cementing a middle infield position, it's him. But at some point, one has to figure he's not capable of holding his focus long enough to do so.

The Star Tribune story on the move takes note of Casilla's .340 batting average in Rochester and the .191 batting average of the Twins No.2 hitters other than Joe Mauer.

The No.2 problem is easily solved: Make Mauer the No. 2 hitter, slide Morneau up to third, etc. I went through this once before: The kind of lineup Ron Gardenhire obviously prefers — like Sunday's — has these four hitters in front of Mauer:

8) outfielder (Carlos Gomez)
9) middle infielder (Punto)
1) Denard Span
2) middle infielder (Harris)

Make Mauer the No.2 hitter, and it becomes

7) Harris
8) Gomez
9) Punto
1) Span

Same guys, just more at-bats over the course of time for Mauer & Morneau, since they'd be one spot higher each, and a lot fewer AB for the middle infielder.

Casilla's stats for the season, majors and minors, here.