 |
| Rene Tosoni: A home run on Tuesday, four strikeouts on Wednesday. He's hitting .171 in 35 at-bats. |
A while back, in a post about the stalled career of New Ulm native Jamie Hoffmann, I outlined the traditional model of the fourth or fifth outfielder — left-handed (or switch-hitter) with the speed to play center field but lacking the bat to play regularly.
Rene Tosoni, who has been getting semi-regular playing time while Delmon Young is on the disabled list, does not exactly fill those requirements. Left-handed, yes. Center fielder, not so much. The prospect books suggest he could play there, but off what little we've seen during this brief trial, he's as much a center fielder as Michael Cuddyer is.
He looks like a 'tweener to me — not enough defense to play center regularly, not enough bat for an outfield corner. I suspect he's about 40 or 30 years late, that his tools would have been a better fit with the platoon-oriented managers of the '70s and '80s.
But in a future Twins outfield that could feature multiple regulars with center-field speed — Denard Span, Ben Revere, Joe Benson, Aaron Hicks — Tosoni might fit a bench role. On the current team, he doesn't offer anything the Young-Cuddyer-Jason Kubel troika is missing.
Which makes him a likely demotion if Young is indeed activated before today's game. Revere should stick because he can play center and goes back to Rochester when Jason Repko is ready.
Rene Tosoni, who has been getting semi-regular playing time while Delmon Young is on the disabled list, does not exactly fill those requirements. Left-handed, yes. Center fielder, not so much. The prospect books suggest he could play there, but off what little we've seen during this brief trial, he's as much a center fielder as Michael Cuddyer is.
He looks like a 'tweener to me — not enough defense to play center regularly, not enough bat for an outfield corner. I suspect he's about 40 or 30 years late, that his tools would have been a better fit with the platoon-oriented managers of the '70s and '80s.
But in a future Twins outfield that could feature multiple regulars with center-field speed — Denard Span, Ben Revere, Joe Benson, Aaron Hicks — Tosoni might fit a bench role. On the current team, he doesn't offer anything the Young-Cuddyer-Jason Kubel troika is missing.
Which makes him a likely demotion if Young is indeed activated before today's game. Revere should stick because he can play center and goes back to Rochester when Jason Repko is ready.
No comments:
Post a Comment