splittin' it up

Last month I looked at a few players who had turned it around and started hitting a lot better than their overall statistics showed.  I say this because some of it even surprised me.  I'll try not to cut things up to a ridiculous point but I'll just point out a few things here and there.

Delmon Young

Overall, I think many of us feel that Delmon Young has been a disappointment overall.  He strikes out too much, he misplays balls in the field and he doesn't have the much hyped power we were all expecting to get from the former #1 overall pick.  Finally after much pleading from the fans and some bad defensive miscues Delmon Young was given a day off.  Since then he's gotten his first homerun as a Twin and has been hitting much better overall.  I won't even touch the defensive side since that's been hashed and rehashed on this site lately.

Since May 30th

44 PA   .302/.295/.488  0BB 9 K /  5 2B / 0 3B / 1 HR

The only troubling spot is that he hasn't gotten a single walk and has 9 K's in that same period of time.  During the rest of May he actually had 11BB's and 13 K's in 108 PA.  So while he has been hitting for a lot more power since his day off (.488 slg compared to .328 before that point) his discipline has gone to disappeared again.  Overall there's been some progress and I have to hope he can begin to combine the power improvement he's shown lately and the plate discipline he showed in May to get closer to meeting our expectations in the 2nd half of the year.

Jason Kubel

This is another guy who overall has disappointed this season.  He started out strong then faltered.  I've heard a lot of talk about him needing to prove himself in the second half by stepping it up.  Well, believe it or not but he's done a pretty good job of proving himself ever since he got his little break then hit a pinch hit homer against the Blue Jays on May 13th. 

Since May 13th

85 PA   .278/.388/.486/.874  13BB 13K / 4 2B / 1 3B / 3 HR 

So after starting off the year forgetting how to draw a walk he's performed a 180 over the past month in that department.   He had struck out 24 times and walked only 3 times during his first 122 PA.  I also have to note that these #'s do not include last nights game where he had 3 hits with one being his 8th homer of the year. 

Micheal Cuddyer

I look at Cuddy and wasn't sure where a good date to look at how he's done since would be.  I was looking for a possible "turning point" for Cuddyer if you will.  I saw that on May 21st Cuddy capped off what had been a horrible 2 for 31 slump with an 0 for 4 game.  Since then Cuddy has hit a lot better and closer to what we would expect from him.

Since May 21st

85 PA   .295/.353/.423/.776  6BB  16K/ 2 2B / 1 3B / 2 HR

So while not hitting for the power we'd like to see from him he's at least much closer to his career average while actually hitting for average and OBP better than his career #'s show.  In my mind Cuddyer is a roleplayer for the Twins, a better than average role player but still a role player.  I don't expect 2006 from him.  I do expect better than he's been this year so far and if he can keep up a similar hitting line to what he's done the past 85 PA's then I'll be mostly satisfied with his production.

These are the main guys I wanted to mention and point out that while their season lines are far from what we want, they may have turned a corner.  That or they're just on a bit of a hot streak, that's for them to prove and us to find out as the season progresses. 

Loose Cannon 1 and 2

Gomez has been better than most of us would have expected his first year and now is in the middle of a 12 game hitting streak, however only has 2 games where he has more than 1 hit in that streak and those games he got only 2 hits.  His strikeout rate climbed in May from 24% to 26% and has gone down so far in June to 15%.  No significant trending so far in that category.  Same with walks for him he went from 2% in April to 5% in May to 4% so far in June.  Nothing great, hopefully he can improve both of those statistics as the year goes on.

How about Alexi Casilla huh?  He's in middle of his own 12 game hit streak where hes' hit .367/.415/.510/.925.  Overall he's hitting .330/.378/.489/.867 on the year with 8 XBH's and he doesn't strike out as much as the other young guys on the club.  I know it's a small sample size but that's this whole post.  Has Casilla really turned a corner or is he just getting lucky?  I look at how terrible his minor league stats were this year and the only conclusion I can come to is that he was disappointed to not make the team out of ST.  When he got up here he raised his game to the level he's playing at now.  I can't see him sustaining it but at least he's showing us a glimpse of what he's capable of.  If nothing else he's making me feel a lot better about the future of the Twins middle infield. 

Disclaimer:  I do realize these are small sample sizes and that is a valid point on everything written above.  However I also believe in guys we've seen proof before that it could be guys just finally getting in the groove (Kubel, Cuddy).  While the younger unproven guys have to keep it up or even improve more to really make us feel good.  Despite a bad losing streak last week their are good things to talk about still.  If you haven't already I recommend you take a look at Seth's last two article "If I was GM" and his "Slowey/Baker" comparison .  I will unabashedly say that I'm big on Slowey so go read a good article about him for all you haters out there.