Amid the offensive outburst by the Twins batters, mostly Mauer, Cuddyer, and Morneau, one batter has been left in the dust though his performance of late has been more than satisfactory.  This batter plays third base with a glove of gold and steps into the batters box with a big stick and even larger confidence.  His name?: Joe Crede.

In the past 7 days, Crede has been an offensive machine, posting numbers like:

3 HR, 6 RBI, 1 BB, 2 SO, 1 2B, 3 RS, .318 AVG, .360 OBP, .773 SLG, 1.133 OPS in 22 at bats.

Crede has been getting a lot of discouraging remarks made about him and I have seen many "Free Brian Buscher" statements made when Crede is in the lineup.  I would like to compare Buscher (Butcher) to Crede.

Buscher:

I am a fan of Buscher, dont get me wrong, its just that I like Joe Crede more.  Buscher through 23 games, is batting .186 (about .060 points below Crede).  Buscher has hit one homer and has 7 RBI; he also has struck out 15 times while walking 11 times.  In the last 7 days, Buscher has gone 1-13 with 2 walks and 4 strikeouts.  Buscher so far this season:  .186 BA, .319 OBP, .305 SLG, 2 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 7 RBI, 5 RS, .625 OPS.  On the other side of the ball, Buscher has performed as usual.  Yesterday, we had the joy of witnessing Buscher at third base contributing to the Twins lose.  Three hit balls went by Buscher, who has the lateral movement of a mailbox post.  We all know that at least two of the balls are played by Crede and turned into outs.  The other one, which was a liner by Buscher with the bases loaded, would probably have been knocked down by Crede (maybe gloved) and would have been only a single as opposed to the double that actually occurred.  Thus, if we had Crede in at third base, we would have won the game probably due to his defensive whiz.  If Crede plays that game, the final score would have been around 5-3 (Twins) instead of 6-5 (Red Sox).  However, Crede was hurt and it appears that he won't play again in this game and instead we get the little more agile Brendan Harris at third tonight.

Crede:

This season, Crede has not been able to get his average up very high, at least over the .250 mark.  However, Crede has been hitting the ball very hard but just at the wrong people.  To date, Crede has hit 12 liners that have been caught and turned into outs.  If those liners sneak fall in, Crede would have a batting average of .336!  However, they were caught and we must live with his .240 BA.  However, despite his rather low BA, Crede does feature some nice stats:  .240 BA, .304 OBP, .488 SLG, .792 OPS, 7 2B, 8 HR, 21 RBI, 17 RS, 20 SO, 11 BB in 34 games.  With his recent resurgence with the stick, Crede may finally get over the .250 mark and be able to hit consistently from there on.  However, though his offensive numbers are nice, where Crede's true value is is in his defense.  Crede has saved many runs from scoring with his plays in the field so far this season, and though not many have hit the highlight reels, he still is regarded as one of the best 3B.  Crede is third (tied with Mike Lowell) to Longoria and Figgins in Range Factor.  Crede has committed only one error (throwing error) so far this season and has a .989 FPCT.

Its nice to finally have a gold-glove third baseman with a good bat having seen the days of Tony Batista, Mike Lamb, Nick Punto, Michael Cuddyer, Luis Rodriguez, etc.  The last Twin that both hit and fielded successfully was Corey Koskie, who has now retired.  Aside from Kevin Kouzmanoff, Crede is the best fielding 3B in the Major Leagues.  Put that in Brian Buscher's cap and wear it!

*NOTE*:

Crede's Projections from this point on:

149 Games, 548 AB, 75 RS, 131 H, 31 2B, 0 3B, 35 HR, 92 RBI, 48 BB, 88 SO, .240 AVG, .304 OBP, .488 SLG, .792 OPS

This is of course if Crede can manage to stay healthy all season.  I think anybody, no matter if they like Buscher or Punto, would like these stats coming from Crede and the "not so hot in recent years" hot corner.