Saturday Morning Breakfast & Baseball: Nick Punto, Delmon Young, Jesse Crain, Nick Blackburn
by Jesse on May 1, 2010 7:59 AM EDT
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- Nick Punto has been evaluated, and will re-join the Twins today in Cleveland. Welcome back, LNP.
- As a result, thus endeth the first Major League stint for Luke Hughes. He's been optioned back to Rochester, finishing his week with the Twins with two hits in seven plate appearances, including his first Major League home run. We'll see him again.
- Delmon Young picked up two walks in last night's game, giving him seven in just the month of April. He only struck out eight times. We've already discussed the new philosophy at the plate by many members of the team this season, and Delmon is one of the main catalysts. His seventh walk in 2009 didn't come until July 19th; in June of last season he didn't walk once. The hits didn't fall this month, but this is definitely an encouraging trend.
- Jesse Crain looked good last night. Crainwrecktified? I actually like that one. Crainomoly is really good, too.
- Orlando Hudson has come on, hitting .394/.444/.424 over his last seven games. He's been incredibly important at the top of the lineup with Denard Span struggling.
- Nick Blackburn has been placed on the Family Medical Emergency List. Jeff Manship has been called up, and he'll make the start for the Twins today with Brian Duensing available in case Manship goes short. Hopefully everything is alright for Nick.
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Delmon
Well, he’s walking but he ain’t hitting: .222 .292 .381
He’s always been cold in April, maybe an 80 OPS+ in April is a sign of a step forward.
Career April splits: .250 .289 .353
April 2009 .241 .276 .315
April 2008 .265 .306 .314
BABIP of .228
Delmon has gotten a bit unlucky on balls in play. IHis babip is 228 with a career babip 335. If you adjust his line to his career BABIP, he’d be roughly 340/410/500. K% and BB% stabilize very quickly and he’s improved both significantly so I’m hopeful that this is his breakout year.
by Jon Kammerer on May 1, 2010 10:49 AM EDT up reply actions
Leading indicators are nice, but I'm anxious for results
They’ve always projected better things from him. I don’t want to get excited because he’s grounding out instead of striking out.
Don’t get me wrong, I want to be encouraged, but you have to twist a lot of numbers to get worked up about a corner OF with an OPS+ of 82.
that's fair, but i feel like he's been really unlucky with his line drives.
watching him, i feel like he could easily have had 6-8 more xbhs with better luck. BABIP corroborates. he’s going to go nuts pretty soon.
As others have said, he's been really unlucky
I can think of about six hits that should have fallen in the KC series at home. Instead they were caught, some being great catches (Podsednik). And I remember two that I thought would have gone over the fence, but they just died near the bullpen instead.
Baseball reminds us of all that once was good, and that could be again.-Terence Mann/James Earl Jones in FoD
Span
He is struggling. But he is tied for 4th in the AL with 17 walks and 8th in the AL with 6 stolen bases. So the start season has not been a total disaster.
Last year had Gomez to spell him and he could play a less demanding OF position and maybe that helped him focus more at the plate. I think he needs a day or two off. But I really don’t want Cuddy playing CF.
More Span
Span’s performance has been somewhat of an anomaly.
His walk rate has never been higher and his strikeout rate has never been lower. His BABIP is .244 compared to a career mark of .338. You could say he is getting unlucky. However, his line drive rate is well down from previous years at just 11.7% compared to his career average of 20.4%. This is an area of concern, but he is still making contact and drawing walks.
Free agents
Kudos to Bill Smith. His free agent acquisitions have been terrific. Hudson is everything we expected and Thome has a 165 OPS+. Thome should be DH more often. Pavano has also been solid.
hardy's been fab at ss too.
i dont really care if he hits.
He'll hit better than he has so far
and that defense is niiice.
by ckb on May 1, 2010 2:31 PM EDT up reply actions
I wonder if this will spark promotions
Bromberg to AAA? Gibson to AA?
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
On second thought
It’s probably a one-game thing. Blackburn will return early next week and Manship will go back to Roch. Meantime, Nieto will piece it together.
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
Whoaa
Let’s wait until June for minor league promotions. Anyone can have a hot month. You’d like to see a pitcher throw 2x to a team before you conclude it is more than just adjustments.
You're probably right
But Bromberg is not a flash in the pan. He’s led his league in Ks three years in a row..
"You're thinking too much. Just have fun." -- Bennie "The Jet" Rodriguez in Sandlot
You're wrong.
Crainomoly is much better than Crainwrecktified.
Crain + anomaly =
Crainomaly! Or Crain doing something completely unexpected.
Crainwrecktified?
I have no idea what that is or what it could possibly mean.
Crain•wreck•ti•fy [crān'rektǝ,fī]
verb (-fies, -fied) [trans]
1 Jesse Crain get (something) right : correct : Jesse Crainwrecktified the inning by getting the batters out without allowing any runs.
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
"Positive happines come whit sucess if you no have that is all bs" -Ozzie Guillen
by less cowbell, more 'neau on May 1, 2010 1:48 PM EDT up reply actions
Crainstorm? Crainiac?
"Don't take life for granted, because tomorrow isn't promised to any one of us." -Kirby Puckett
"Positive happines come whit sucess if you no have that is all bs" -Ozzie Guillen
by less cowbell, more 'neau on May 1, 2010 1:51 PM EDT reply actions
The OMG stat so far
Delmon Young: 7 BB, 8 K
This is a guy whose career walk to strikeout ratio is less than 1 walk to every 4 strikeouts. In small sample size, this is a huge improvement in pitch recognition.
Hustle too!
Serious wheels for Delmon getting the out tonight, too bad it was for nought. Did he get a hustle transfusion from Punto?
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