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Startribune.com sports coordinator Howard Sinker used to cover the Twins and now shares season tickets with friends in Section 219 of Target Field. He blogs about baseball from the perspective of a long-time fan who loves the game, doesn’t always believe the hype and likes hearing what others think.
Messy night in Texas
Posted by: Howard Sinker under Twins offense, Twins transactions Updated: August 24, 2010 - 9:58 AM
All teams have games like this. The good teams overwrite them with 7-2 homestands, splits in Tampa Bay and domination of weaker teams.
That doesn't make it any easier to watch stuff like the misplay on Josh Hamilton's first-inning ground ball that led to two runs or the terrible throw by J.J. Hardy that led to Texas' third run.
And Denard Span's play in center field is a reminder that the Twins need to answer some hard questions about their outfield in 2011 and beyond as it pertains to tradeoffs between offense and defense, and the best cast of characters to label as regulars.
(Short version, questions style: If Span is a better corner outfielder and a better hitter than he's shown this year, who becomes trade bait? Or are the Twins willing to commit to a second-tier defensive outfield in exchange for extra offense? And what about Span, anyway? Is his "typical" year going to resemble his 2009 production or his 2010 output or someplace in between? And who would you trade? And for what? That's a lot to chew on -- for another time.)
With Span, keep in mind that we're comparing him to extraordinary talents Torii Hunter and Kirby Puckett, although Puckett's play was enhanced by the fact that he played deeper than most center fielders -- cheating a bit on some of his most memorable plays.) Also, the one skill that gave people hope about Carlos Gomez, who has reverted to offensive offensive form in Milwaukee, was the extraordinary range he brought to center field. (And much of that was made less relevant by his scattershot arm.)
Torii also had the advantage for several years of corner outfielders who covered a lot of ground -- even if Jacque Jones, Shannon Stewart and some of the others had below-average arms.
Span in center field is bound to lose those comparisons.
Given that the Twins lead the division by 4 1/2 games with 37 left in the regular season, it's valid to talk about this issue as a down-the-road offensive vs. defensive tradeoff, with all kinds of mitigating factors thrown in about contracts, trade value and perceived needs for the future.
Right now, the Twins simply need to take advantage of pitchers like Rich Harden and the Angels guy who started against them Saturday at Target Field. (Yes, I know his name was Trevor Bell, but only because I'm supposed to.)
People have been making a lot of comparisons between the Twins' and White Sox' remaining schedules. And while the Sox have the Yankees and Red Sox to contend with (10 games total), they also have three against Baltimore starting tonight and three against Cleveland next week. The Twins have three more with Texas and a weekend in Seattle, where bad things have tended to happen.
The point is that it's OK to think a bit about the future.
But nothing is certain about 2010, except that it won't take too many more performances like Monday's to make the title chase more competitive than it needs to be.
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